Waking up the next morning
reenergized by Earth and sleep, you stretch. Getting out of the bed in the medical
wing, a mirror catches your attention. You walk over to it and peer at your
reflection. A scrawny brown-haired girl of 15 looks back with blazing green
eyes that flicker when she stares and spikey bangs that curved nicely around
her face. You snap out of your trance. You’ve never seen your reflection
before, and you never realized what you really looked like. Next to the mirror
is a brush and a pile of clothing with a note on top. You pick up the note that
reads:
Trayce-
Here’s a replacement for your
clothing until you get a uniform.
You put the note down and look
down at yourself. Your sky-blue jeans and black midriff are dirty, matted, and
torn in countless places. Your boots seem untouched, as always. You smile at
the thought. You had made your black and silver boots and gloves with your own
two hands and they had outlasted everything for years. Taking off the torn
clothing and pulling on what the Titans had given you, you decide to keep your
old gloves and belt, equipped with a boomerang and bola. You brush the knots
from your dark hair and pull it into the usual ponytail. You splash water on
your face. You look again at yourself in the mirror. This time, your clothes
are a black midriff with a trench coat trail at the back that goes down to your
ankles and navy blue jeans. Your reflection’s face is clearer from the water
and your hair cleaner. You turn back and look at the clock on the wall. Only
7:00. You always were an early bird. Stepping outside, the halls are quiet. You
walk down the hall and come to what looks like a gym. In one corner is a
punching bag, the others with stacks of weights. You go in and set on the
punching bag. A rhythm of kicks takes over as you work at the punching bag. You
stop after a while and look at the clock again. It’s only been 30 minutes.
A cool morning breeze lifts the
air on the roof. The trail of your shirt billowing out behind you and your
hands in your pockets, you take it all in. The sea, the city and the horizon.
It feels like an eternity before you even blink. You decide to go back inside.
The other Titans are finally up. As you walk in heads turn. Starfire: “Good
morning, friend!!!” You: “Hey, Star.” Robin stays silent. BB: “Who wants
waffles?” Cyborg: “I’m making them this time!!!” BB: “No way!!!” The bickering
starts again as Beast Boy and Cyborg are battling it out over whose turn it
was. Raven: “Actually guys, I think it IS Beast Boy’s turn.” Cyborg grunts in
defeat. You: “So, today you guys said you wanted to put my powers to the test,
huh?” Robin: “Yep. And it won’t be easy.....” He gives you a sly grin. You: “I
love challenges.” You say as you sit down next to him on the couch. You look
back at Starfire. She’s smiling, but you can see something in her eyes. Was it-
jealousy?
After breakfast, you head up to
the training room. Cyborg points to one corner. Cyborg: “That is your first
test.” What he’s pointing to looks like a tower of solid steel. Cyborg: “Let me
show you how it’s done.” He walks under it and grabs a metal bar on the bottom
of it. On the side, Terra presses a button. On top, a robotic arm drops a huge
bar of metal on the weight. It adds one, two, three, four more of those bars
before Cyborg stops. Cyborg: “Your turn. Hold it until it gets too heavy for
you and we’ll count the number of metal bars you can hold with the weight. That
will determine your strength ratio.” You walk underneath the enormous weight
and take the bar in your hands. “I bet she gets to 1 bar.” You can hear Beast
Boy snicker to Cyborg. You: “Just go!” Cyborg pushes the button to start. You
can feel the shock vibrating the weight in your hands, but it feels unusually
light. Several minutes later, one last bar is added on. Beast Boy looks
thoroughly embarrassed at what he had said. A strand of hair falls in your
face. You try to blow it away, but it stays put. Shifting your left hand to the
middle of the bar, you use your right hand to put it back in place. The Titans’
jaws drop as you stay standing with only one hand supporting the enormous weight.
Cyborg pushes the button again as you get out from under the metal. BB: “So how
much was that? 500 or 1000 pounds?” Cyborg: “Try 15 tons.” Beast Boy looks at
the floor.
Moving on outside again, you go
out for the obstacle course. Robin: “Ok, this time we aren’t going to time you.
We just need to see how efficiently you can get through the course. You’ll be
racing Starfire.” You position yourselves at the starting line. “GO!!!” You
charge forward as Starfire takes to the sky. Coming to the first obstacle
of a line of poles, you spring up and
land neatly at the top of one. Floating over the poles are flying drones. You
run forward on balanced feet, kicking and punching your way through. You
finally come to the end of the poles to see Starfire far ahead of you.
Concentrating hard, you can feel the familiar bronze-scarlet wings unfurl from
your back as you take to the skies as well, quickly gaining on Starfire. Coming
up are more lasers, but this time you have something else in mind. As the
lasers fire, you can see several of the feathers on your wings glow red. You
flap your wings, the glowing feathers streaming out like darts at the lasers.
They are destroyed on impact as you keep going by. The final obstacle is fast
approaching- A large robot- like thing that strongly resembles Plasmus. You
clench your fists as you feel a staff form in one hand. You spin it
effortlessly in your hand as you retract your wings and hit the ground running.
Sprinting up to the robotic Plasmus, you swing hard at the head. Flipping backward, the staff glows red and
the takes the shape of a katana. Another forms in your hand as you feel it turn
into a live-fire blade.
Leaping up to the robotic Plasmus,
you slash in a series of carefully but swiftly executed blows. When you land,
the robot falls to pieces, then explodes. On the sidelines, Terra, Beast Boy
and Robin are standing there, absolutely dumbfounded. Starfire catches up,
finally. Back inside you have decided to take a break. Raven: “After the tests
done so far, I can so far determine that Trayce’s powers are triggered by
emotion and its intensity. Learning to use them should be pretty simple.” You:
“Ok, makes sense. But that doesn’t really explain how I can make matter out of
energy.” Raven: “It’s probably an elemental thing. A weapon for whatever the
brawl calls for.” You shrug. The next test is to challenge your combat skills.
Robin has agreed to spar with you for this one. Raven: “Ok, you just keep
fighting for a few minutes and we’ll let you know when to stop.” You select
your katana blades for this test, and Robin takes a bowstaff. One bow later and
you’ve already engaged into heavy combat using all of your best martial arts
moves. Robin: “Not bad. You’re better than you let on.” You dodge another
swing. You: “I try to be modest.” You swing another blow at Robin. He barely
dodges surprised at the speed of your swing. Robin: “This could be a while....”
You: “We’ll see about that.....” You back flip at the wall and land your feet
neatly on the wall. Gathering all your strength, you push off the wall. When
you get close enough, you bring your body into a flip and slash at Robin’s
bowstaff.
Trayce lands behind Robin. The
bowstaff in his hands suddenly falls into pieces. The katana strikes had been
so fast he had never even seen them. Robin: “This can’t be good.....” Trayce:
“I’ll make it fair then.” The katana in her hands disappear as she strikes a
fighting stance. She gestures a challenge. He takes it as Trayce spins for a
spinning back kick. Robin catches her foot easily.
Your foot in Robin’s hand, you
make the move you had so carefully planned out. You flip back, your leg bending
with the rest of your body and turn, throwing Robin over you and sliding across
the floor. You: “It took me 3 years to master THAT one...” Robin: “Not
bad.....” You hold out a hand. Robin takes it and you pull him to his feet.
Raven calls time. Raven: “I think that’s enough testing for one day.” Suddenly,
the alarm rings throughout the Tower. “TROUBLE!!!”
Someone downtown is wrecking havoc
on
The thunder ball comes careening
at you, but the blow never comes. You open your eyes to see Robin as he steps
in front of you, taking the blast himself. Despite Robin’s selfless act, the
force still throws you back. You raise your head to see Jesse approaching Robin
with a bolt of lightning in her hand.
Kneeling down in front of the
injured and barely conscious Titans leader, Jesse holds Robin’s head up in the
‘V’ of her fingers. Jesse: “Good thing you’re such a cutie. Otherwise this
lightning bolt would have ended it right here.” She stands up. “But orders are
orders...” She raises her hand to throw the lightning bolt, but is pulled back
by someone.
One arm wrapped tightly around
Jesse’s neck, you’re barely managing to keep her from hitting Robin with the
lightning bolt. You can feel Jesse trying to pry your arm away, gasping for
breath. When she realizes she won’t be able to get you off physically she sends
a charge up and shocks you with all that she’s got. The shock courses through
your body, but still you hold on. Jesse sinks to her knees. Finally, she falls
to the ground, unconscious. You let go. The shock was paralyzing, but the
Earthen healing effects are already working. You turn back to Robin. He’s still
conscious, but barely. You help him to his feet, one of his arms draped over
your shoulder to hold him up. You: “You ok?” Robin: “I am now.” You turn to the
others. Starfire walks up to you.
{You hold him. I know you want
to.}
{You can talk to me through my
mind?}
{I’m a telepathic.}
Starfire takes Robin in her arms
as you walk back to the T-Car. You: “I’ll be able to heal Robin when we get
back to the Tower.” Back at the Tower: In the infirmary, Robin is lying on one
of the beds, his hand in yours. It’s a lengthy process, but you’re still taking
the time to transfer the Earth’s healing effects to Robin. Finally, you finish
and Robin is sleeping. The transferring done, the others head off to bed except
for Starfire. Starfire: “Why is Robin not waking up?” You: “It’s a minor side
effect of the healing process. Robin will be fine in the morning. Although, it
would be a good idea to keep him in here in case he didn’t fully heal. That was
a hard blast he took and if he hasn’t healed fully it wouldn’t be good.”
Starfire: “Ok. Good Night.” You: “Good night, Star.” The door shuts behind her.
You look back to Robin, sound asleep. *Crazy move, Robin. Why did you do that?*
You think to yourself. Oh well. Another day has yet to come before you can find
out. You eventually let sleep take you.