I'm back! Sorry for the wait, but as promised, another chapter will be up as soon as I can.
We arrive at a small intersection in the middle of the city. Beast Boy reverts to human form as Starfire and I drop the other two boys. Once our hands are free, we shoot starbolts and sharp pellets of water at a large, robotic dog. Starfire jumps down in front of the woman and her child that were in peril, and I leap down so that I am beside her.
"We're shutting you down, Johnny--" Robin begins as he lands in the middle of us. I train my eyes on Johnny Rancid as I spot him rather than looking at the black haired leader or any of the other Titans that I can hear landing on the ground.
"And your little dog, too," Raven finishes, somewhere to my right.
"Anybody got a gigantic rolled-up newspaper?" Beast Boy jokes, only to be met with silence. By now, every civilian has fled the scene, and it's just us and the villain at hand.
"Wrex, sic 'em!" Johnny Rancid shouts, and the robotic dog leaps into action.
"Titans! Go!" Robin shouts, but we've already split and Wrex is forced to change course. He charges at Cyborg and Starfire, but Raven jumps in front of them and pulls cars in the way, which Wrex pummels through before throwing the trio in separate directions.
Wrex pivots and finds Robin, who has two hand-held staffs: one in each hand. The Boy Wonder leaps into the air and with several grunts, continuously whacks Wrex. After a while, he stops, and the robotic dog lies unmoving. Robin takes a step closer and is instantly punished for it as he is, like the others, sent flying.
Johnny Rancid immediately starts laughing as I move behind him. "Smooth move, Bird-Boy!" he calls out. "My dog is kicking your--"
I cut him off by warming up the inside of my hand and catching Rancid in a headlock, before using the earth below me to boost him in the air. From there, Cyborg blasts his sonic cannon, and Rancid crumples under a mountain of debris.
I grin at Rancid and open my mouth to speak, but a shadow looms over me and I front tuck out of the way. I don't have enough time to look back but can hear Wrex land on the ground where I had stood before growling.
When I look around, I see Cyborg holding Wrex by the chain. I pull rocks around my forearms and hands and grab onto the chain, helping the mechanic teen out.
"Starfire! Raven!" he grunts from behind me. "Let him have it!" As he says this, Wrex becomes airborne, whipping Cyborg and I around and running in all sorts of directions.
"Whoooooaaaaa!" Cyborg yells. "Down, boy! Heel! HEEL!!" I release one hand and pull the wind back on Wrex, and he stops quickly.
"On my world, such a pet would merely be considered playful," Starfire says from above us.
I hear Raven's magic ignite. "Then let's play."
Raven cuts the chain in front of us, releasing Cyborg and I, and Wrex starts to move. The half-demon pulls a lamp post from next to her. "Fetch," she says, and when she flicks the lamp post away, the robotic dog follows obediently.
The second the lamp post's in the dog's mouth, Starfire, Cyborg and I all blast it, Wrex's remains stopping at my feet.
"Ember! Where's Johnny?" Robin says as he runs to catch up.
I look around, my senses focusing on the green teen running up to us. "I was helping Cyborg. Ask Beast Boy."
We all turn around and glance at the shapeshifter expectantly, but he only points at Robin. "Um... I thought you had him?" We all let out a long groan and Beast Boy lets out a sorry smile at us as we walk past him.
~~~
We all crowd in the lift and as it elevates us, Robin begins his debrief. "Okay, team. Johnny Rancid's still on the loose," he says as the lift begins to open. "I'll check the scanners while-- huh?"
I look up and my eyes bug out of my head at what I see. "What... the...?" The entire room is trashed. There is not a spare spot on the floor where there is not a broken vase, or a spillage, or a cloud of dust. Bite marks line the couch, and the coffee table is completely gone. The dining table is tipped over, and even the walls around us have been damaged.
"Oh, dude!" Beast Boy exclaims.
"Looks like we'll be getting a new... everything," I state, as I make my way to the kitchen, Starfire and Robin behind me.
"There was a party and we were not invited?" Starfire questions, walking past me and looking inside one of the cupboards.
"A party? More like a tornado," Robin says as he walks over to the furthest part of the room, disgust lined on his face.
"A tornado with teeth," Raven adds, looking at the couch in dismay.
"Yo!" Cyborg exclaims, lifting his gaming platform into the air. "Who's been chewing on my GameStation?"
I walk over to the Boy Wonder as he pulls a sticky piece of pizza from the computer's desktop. "Ember and I will track down Rancid," he says, turning to me. "You guys track down... whatever did this."
They all nod, but I take a step closer to them anyway. "You sure you guys don't need all hands on deck here?" I ask.
"Four's enough," Cyborg replies. "Go get Rancid."
Before I can nod, Robin pulls me through the room and back to the lift where we started this maze.
~~~
I fly directly above Robin, who sits on his R-Cycle as we look through the town. Soon, we arrive at the place which we fought, now wrapped up in police tape with signs indicating detours everywhere.
"We should check the security footage from that place over there," I say, pointing at a building to my right.
"This one?" Robin questions, pointing to the same building, one of the most damaged in the vicinity. "I can't see you."
"Right." We approach the police tape, and I land on the floor as Robin parks his motorcycle.
"You wanna do the talking?" Robin asks, gesturing for me to proceed before him. I scan his expression before curtly nodding and turning to the police man. Unlike the others around him, he is very young, no older than twenty-five. Despite this, I still feel uncomfortable about the steep age gap.
"Hi," I say. "My name is Ember, I'm a Teen Titan. Can Robin and I pass? We're looking for Johnny Rancid."
He cuts my rambling off before I can continue, something I presume is good. "Can I see some form of identification?" he asks, in a higher pitched voice that matches
I glance at Robin incredulously, before turning back to the officer. "We're two teenagers in ridiculous superhero--"
"They can pass, Mike," an older officer whom I immediately recognise says. He tips his hat off to us before turning back to his paperwork, and Mike awkwardly shuffles to the side as we pass, smiling at me weakly.
"Next time, you talk," I mutter to Robin, who nods.
"You didn't have to--" he begins, cutting himself off as we reach the building.
"The camera's over there," I note, nudging Robin before pointing up. "No visible damage."
"Visible damage everywhere else," Robin says, and I grin at him.
"No doy, Bird Boy."
Robin smiles back at me, despite the nickname, before turning back to the matter at hand. "We'll have to get Cyborg to hack into the system, see if it still works."
"Rancid's not smart enough to wipe the camera's footage, right?" I ask, taking a step backward as if to survey the situation.
"Even if he is, I don't think he had enough time," comes the Boy Wonder's reply. He flicks open his communicator and I feel for my temporary one, still not replaced. "Cyborg! Have you found anything?"
"Just checked every room in the Tower. Up to round two," Cyborg tells us, and I shuffle closer to be able to see.
"Wait. Every room?" I ask.
"Yes. Why?"
"Including my room?" My eyes narrow at the screen, and Cyborg must see this because his expression changes slightly.
"Well, Raven did yours," Cyborg admits, "... but yes."
"Great," I mutter, before, "please don't, next time."
"Noted," Cyborg says. "There was nothing in it, by the way."
"As expected. I assume you've found nothing?"
"Mhmm."
"Cyborg," Robin cuts in. "I need you to check the security footage on our location. I'll send it to you."
"So no luck with Rancid, huh?" Cyborg asks, voice grave. I shake my head. "Right. Well, keep me posted. I'll get Raven to keep searching while I check the camera."
The communicator flicks off and Robin turns to me, a coy smile playing on his face. "What are you hiding in your room?" he asks me.
I scoff, looking him in the mask. "Nothing..." I begin, before cheekily mumbling, "that you need to know of."
I turn on my heels and walk towards the police officers to find their notes on the scene and its surroundings, leaving Robin with what I just said.
~~~
After a rather uneventful day of attempting to locate Johnny Rancid and talking with Robin, my communicator buzzes. I flinch before opening it. "Hello?"
"Ember," Cyborg says. "Are you with Robin?"
I look next to me, where Robin stands, less than a metre away. "Yes. Have you found something?"
"I think I have." Cyborg's screen turns to that of the computer's, and I beckon Robin over. "It's not the footage you sent me, but a store nearby shows Rancid in the background, headed towards the mountains."
Robin takes the communicator from me. "Good job, Cyborg," he says. "Any luck with the Tower?"
"Nope. Bit hard when there's only two of us searching."
I glance up at the mountains and swear I see movement, but when the wind pulls me as well, I am convinced it's natural and turn back. "Do you need me to come back?" I ask.
"No. You're needed with Robin."
"Alright," I say. "Let me know if you change your mind."
"And let us know if you find anything else," Robin adds. "Bye." The screen flickers off again and I'm met with static.
"Well, that was good," I say softly, turning to the Boy Wonder.
"Yeah," he says. He seems somewhat out of it, thinking about something else. "It is."
I narrow my eyes, walking closer to him. "You okay?"
Robin jumps at our closed distance. "Yes. Yeah. I'm good."
"Right," I reply, unconvinced. "Let me know if it's something I can help with."
The Boy Wonder looks me up and down, as if judging if I'd be helpful or not. "Will do," he says after a moment's hesitation, and I sense something more behind his tone that I can't quite place, something that adds to my uneasy feeling.
I turn away and hover in the air. "We should head back," I say, eyeing the setting sun. "It's getting dark. We'll look for him again tomorrow."
"Good plan," Robin says. He jumps on the R-Cycle--I hadn't even noticed that we'd walked back to where we'd started--and puts on the helmet. He beckons for me to hop on behind him, but I shake my head.
"No thanks. It's too dark to ride, and I don't even have a helmet." I flick the engine on with my finger, before moving up in the air.
Robin begins to take off his helmet. "Here," he says. "You--"
"No. Then you don't have one. Plus, I can fly. I'll meet you back there." Before I can even register what's happening, I've moved so that I'm back on the ground.
Robin hops off the R-Cycle, takes his helmet off, and walks towards me. "You sure?" he asks quietly.
It takes every bone in my body not to act on our distance, which has more than halved from before. As the Boy Wonder talks, I can feel his breath fanning on my face.
"I should go," I blurt, so that I don't do anything stupid in the heat of the moment.
I think I notice Robin's face visibly drop, but I discard the thought and convince myself that I'm not thinking straight. "Sure. Let the others know that I'm coming."
"I will. See you there."
As I fly away, I can't help but think of what could have happened. I stop my thoughts by telling myself that it would provide another weakness and place the team in harm's way.
~~~
I lie on the kitchen bench, the only place in the room that is remotely clean. My eyes focus on a spot on the roof, my mind in traffic hour.
I hear the faint ding of the elevator but don't register it until a voice calls out to me int he darkness. "Ember."
I sit up slowly, rubbing my eyes. "Can't... see..." I mumble, lifting my body up and down to the ground.
Robin walks over to me and my breath hitches. "That's okay. Where are you?" I don't answer. Somehow, Robin finds me, but not before he bumps into me. "Sorry."
"S'okay," I mumble. "Not your fault." I let out a long yawn.
"Tired?" Robin asks, and I nod. "Ember?"
"Hmm?"
"Are you tired?"
I realise then that he didn't see me nod in the darkness. "Mmm," I say, in a tone that voices my answer.
"Alright. Let's get you to bed." Robin reaches out for my hand and I'm too tired to do anything except let him take it. I feel fatigue begin to settle in and I begin to walk back to the kitchen bench, before trying desperately to push myself onto it.
I close my eyes and use all of my powers to propel my body onto the kitchen bench, and I don't get the chance to thank Robin before I lose consciousness.
~~~
I wake up from my sleep only to be blinded by the light. I push my doona away from my body with my feet and groggily sit on the mattress, my fingers grabbing at the fitted sheet. My mind replays the events of yesterday, stopping when I fall asleep on the kitchen bench. Someone moved me here. I have no trouble guessing who.
I jump in the shower, but just as I turn the water on, I hear a very un-manly scream. I turn the water off and throw on my dirty clothes before running out of the room as a second scream follows.
"Cyborg!" Robin shouts from the storage room, and I leap over the staircase and down to the bottom of the room to see Cyborg sitting on a box, trapped in place by a large, mutant creature.
The creature holds Cyborg's foot in its mouth, and swallows with one giant gulp. "Aw, man!" Cyborg pouts before hopping over to us in anger. "Gimme my foot so I can kick your butt!" He tries to shoot his sonic cannon at the creature but slips at the last second, instead destroying the roof and sending a pile of debris on the mutant, angering it and causing it to attack.
Beast Boy swoops Cyborg out of the way in pterodactyl form, but the creature quickly shoots the pair down with a blast of a sticky pink substance that disgusts me beyond belief.
Robin jumps on top of the creature and tries to use its antennae to ride it, but is quickly shaken off. I lift it into the air, but its weight catches me off guard and I am forced to drop it quickly.
"Azarath Metrion--" Raven sends boxes towards the creature, who is blissfully unaware of the impending attack.
"No! Stop!" Starfire calls, stepping in front of the creature. Raven is forced to drop the attack, and I help her freeze the boxes. "Do not harm Silkie! He is my bumgorf!"
"Silkie?" I ask. "That thing has a name?"
"What's a bumgorf?" Raven asks.
"That's Silkie?" Beast Boy says, looking on in anger. "Dude! What have you been feeding him?" In response, Silkie lets out a large burp, and Starfrie giggles awkwardly.
"You know that thing too?!" I shout, rounding on Beast Boy.
"Well... I..." Beast Boy gives me the same smile he does whenever he's guilty of something, and Silkie lets out another burp.
~~~
"Truth," Starfire says, whilst cuddling her new pet. "Silkie is a mutant monster created by the evil Killer Moth. But that does not make him a bad mutant monster!" As she says this, Silkie jumps up and she is dragged away.
"He attacked Cyborg," Raven argues.
"He ate my best leg!" Cyborg complains from the couch whilst screwing on
"And I am sure he is very sorry for that," Starfire says from the kitchen as Silkie eats up the appliances.
"Hey!" Robin exclaims.
"It sure as hell doesn't look like it," I state.
Robin turns his head, and I think he's glaring at me before I realise that I'm standing next to Beast Boy. "What? I'm not the one who fed him radioactive space berries!" the shapeshifter voices.
Silkie attempts to eat Robin's cape, but the Boy Wonder pulls it out without a scratch. After Silkie licks his face and then moves on to me, Robin turns to the alien princess. "I'm sorry, Starfire, but he has to go," he tells her.
~~~
We travel to the same area in town that Robin and I were looking through two days before, near the mountains. Johnny Rancid stands on top of a pile of rubble, cackling madly.
"Trust me, Johnny," Robin says. "This won't seem funny when you're paying for it in jail."
"You're the one who's gonna pay, Bird-Boy!" Rancid shoots back. "You losers trashed my dog... so I went out and got me a monster!"
"Silkie?" Starfire questions. I look at her curiously but am brought back to the fight when the ground shakes. A robotic dinosaur appears behind Rancid, and he grins at us as he holds the chain out.
"Say hello to Wrexzilla!" Rancid says. "Destroy!"
The dinosaur advances, but before it can get remotely close to us, it, along with Johnny Rancid, is eaten by an approaching creature that takes to the air.
"Silkie!" Starfire calls out.
"His name is Larva M-Three-Nineteen," a familiar husky voice calls out from on top of Silkie. "And he belongs to me... Killer Moth!" Killer Moth cracks a fire whip on Silkie and moves towards us.
We all scramble except for Starfire, who stays, gazing longingly at her old pet. "Starfire!" Robin calls out, but before he can move, I hold him in place. Using my other hand, I pull Starfire towards me, the gushing wind pulling Silkie the tiniest bit to the left--enough to break the windows in the surrounding buildings.
"I must say, you took excellent care of M-Three-Nineteen," Killer Moth notes from the sky. "What have you been feeding him?"
"He is called Silkie!" Starfire retorts angrily
"I created him, I tracked him down, I'll call him whatever I please!" the villain states. "And as for food, I guess I'll just have to feed him you!" He cracks the whip once more and Silkie flies down towards us, spewing giant balls of the sticky pink substance from before.
"Silkie, no!" Starfire exclaims.
Silkie takes to the air but is met with Beast Boy and Cyborg, and I fly up to join them. "You liked my leg?" Cyborg says. "Well, chew on this!" He fires his sonic cannon at the creature, but all four shots are dodged.
Beast Boy and Cyborg do a loop around the air so that they are facing Killer Moth and Silkie again, but they barely have any time before a pink ball is shot in their direction. I pull up a giant pillar from the road that blocks the hit, and I pull it down as they fly away.
The villain and his creature continue to fly through the streets, but Raven pins Silkie to a building using a bus from the road.
"Fly, you worthless maggot, fly!" Killer Moth demands angrily, whipping Silkie.
"Starfire! Now!" Raven calls out. When Starfire hesitates, I ready a collection of small flames that I hurl at Silkie, and Starfire rushes to the creature, patting out the fires. Killer Moth waves his crackling whip, and I find out the hard way that it is electricity, not fire, that the whip is made of.
I feel every cell in my body surrender to the control of the whip, and let out a blood curdling scream. "EMBER!" I hear someone call, but I'm encased in the pink goo and fall to the ground. Beast Boy catches me in pterodactyl form mere centimetres from the ground, and transforms to human form in order to get me out.
"Are you okay?" he asks. "I heard Robin call your name and you were all red and sparkly, and..."
I nod timidly, my mind flashing back to Slade. "I'll be fine," I try to convince myself and Beast Boy, and although the green Titan nods and runs away, I'm left feeling not so sure.
Luckily for me, Beast Boy has freed my head and my index finger on my left hand, and I manage to pull a small flame out of me. I ignore the stabbing pain in my head and slowly melt the substance away, and just as I free myself and make my way to the others, a large explosion occurs and the substance begins to rain from the sky.
"I got eaten," Johnny Rancid mumbles.
"So nasty," Raven states.
"Sweet! My leg!" Cyborg calls out, holding his missing limb up like a trophy.
I open my mouth to say something but Robin nudges me and points to Starfire, sitting gloomily in the substance. Suddenly, a grunt echoes through the street and Starfire looks up.
"Silkie? Silkie?" She jumps in the goo and comes out with the creature in her arms. "Silkie! Oh, hello, my little bumgorf!"
"He wasn't mutating, he was just... malting," Beast Boy notes as Starfire dances around with Silkie in her arms.
"Fascinating," Raven says. "Can we go home now? I need a shower in the worst way."
Starfire walks up to Robin and I and bats her eyes innocently. After sharing a look with me, I nod, and Robin holds his hands up in resignation. "All right. He can stay."
"Yay!"
"But no more size-enhancing food," I cut in, unable to stop the smile from emerging on my face at seeing someone I care about so happy.
"But... I do not know what else to feed him," Starfire states. Silkie jumps out of Starfire's hands and hops over to the goo, before beginning to eat it.
"Ewww!" all of us excluding Starfire say, shuddering. Starfire smiles and jumps down to Silkie's level. After examining the goo on her finger, she licks it, before letting out a delighted sound and going back for more.
"Ewww!" the five of us repeat.
"Oh, it tastes just like zorka berries!" Starfire exclaims, and her and Silkie begin to scavenge the mountain for more food. "Mmmm!"
"Shouldn't we maybe try to stop her?" Robin asks, turning to Raven and I.
"That stuff's gotta get cleaned up somehow," the cloaked girl points out. With that, we walk away, leaving Starfire and her new pet to clean the city.
Next chapter should be up tomorrow, but I'll keep you all posted if anything changes. Hope you're all having a lovely day, and Happy Easter for last week!