Ch. 7 Testing and Nightmares
Jinx woke with a start, bolting upright. She breathed in and out shakily, aware of the sweat covering her face. The nightmare was the same as all the ones before, the screams, the laugh, and the blood. She curled up and bit her lip, 'They're safe she told herself, everyone's here safe and sound.' She looked at the clock which read five am. Wally would be getting up soon, and they could start testing out his powers. Beast didn't want to give him a road test yet, not until they had some idea of what he could do.
Jinx swung her legs out of bed and walked to her closet. Wordlessly she stretched her arms out and using magic pulled off her purple night gown before getting dressed in her normal superhero outfit. Grabbing her brush and her basket of shower supplies she left her room to one of the many bathrooms throughout the tower. Cyborg stated he'd eventually give them their own bathrooms for showering purposes, but redoing the rooms took a long time even for him. Heck it was one of the reasons he and Beast had recruited Control Freak to help work on equipment. Jinx was still confused how they'd convinced that bad guy to switch sides.
She locked the door before tossing her clothes down and jumping into the warm water. 'Focus,' she thought to herself as she scrubbed. She could still feel the blood from the dream spraying her face. The dream had gotten worse since Starfire had returned with startling news that the league had taken in a murderer and refused to hand them over to the Titans or announce to the Russian government that they had her. They didn't care that one of the Titans had been murdered. The league was despicable, from not allowing them access to their previous team members to start, everything else was just added problems the titans had to deal with.
She let out a breath and opened her eyes, allowing the water to fall on her face. It was an old technique she'd used back at the hive, she'd focus on just what she was feeling and hearing at that moment. It was always easier with her eyes open. Time on the streets would do that to you.
Wally woke up at five am suddenly. He couldn't tell what had woken him up, but he did know there was no way he could get back to sleep. The day before had been crazy, and dinner even crazier. While he'd been there the alarm had gone off twice, and each time a team of heroes had been sent out to deal with the threat, but even dealing with the threats hadn't calmed everyone down for dinner. The twins had argued with Starfire over her making a dish from her planet, and how their tacos were a much better way to welcome a member. Aquitius had loudly groaned about how the twins had included fish tacos, only to get ribbed by Roy for being a 'water-sissy'. Beast and Raven were probably the calmest out of all the people there. Raven had quietly eaten her food after taking grabbing Beast's glass and giving it a sniff.
Wally couldn't understand how a team so dysfunctional could function as well as it seemed too, either the villains were ridiculously easy, or there was some sort of funky thing going on here. The twins had no parents, that much was certain. Cyborg shared that he hadn't finished high school but was now working with some tech business to get a degree, Beast drank when he got a chance, Raven was cold to anyone but her 'kids', Melvin, Teether, and Timmy who threw tantrums a lot. Starfire was from another planet and overly happy. It seemed to Wally that he and Jinx were the most normal of all the ones there.
He grabbed the clothes that the Titans had loaned him, a simple tee shirt and jeans they kept around for when they had to rescue people and get them changed into something decent, and headed for the bathroom that was right next to his door. Apparently he shared the bathroom with Roy, but the archer didn't seem to be up yet. Wally took advantage of the shower, which was instantly the perfect temperature. The voice in his head had steered during the night before he'd begun to dream. It was obvious that this was no longer some sort of prank, but he wondered, why didn't he know about this hero group? Not knowing about one or two small town heroes was one thing, but a whole organization? Something here was fishy.
Breakfast was an on your own affair. Wally had served himself a bowl of cereal so as to not appear rude and use the groups stove. Jinx had showed up two minutes after him and promptly made two frozen waffles which she piled high with berries and whipped cream. "How can you manage to eat that and stay thin?" Wally asked as he saw her sit down.
Jinx turned and shot him a glare, "It's not polite to ask a lady questions like that," she told him before she put a bite into her mouth. Wally shrank back. He'd heard that tone before from Artemis but it seemed scarier, and more practiced coming from Jinx. "It's the amount of energy I use," Jinx began to say startling Wally, "Casting magic takes a lot of energy, if you don't have enough in reserve you'll kill yourself attempting too much. So I eat more and exercise to keep my body in the best shape possible so I can store more fluid energy," She looked over at Wally who was staring at her in surprise. "Chapter 15, Enchanter's limitations: Why are Items needed anyway?" Jinx reiterated, "You should really read more of the book. I can't be explaining everything to you."
Wally ate a few more bites of cereal. His stomach wanted more food, but it'd have to wait until later, he couldn't risk them figuring out who he was. He'd asked about the Justice league last night only to get frosty stares from a majority of the Titans. "You might want to eat more," he heard Jinx telling him now, "I'm not sure how much energy you'll need as we move through the testing, but items need fuel just as much as enchanters," she told him.
"I'll be fine," he told her. She stared at him, an eyebrow raised as his stomach gurgled.
"Trust me on this, you'll want to eat more," She told him as she went back to her waffles. He sighed before getting up and grabbing another bowl full of cereal. It was simple carbs, it wouldn't hold up as well as say a protein bar or some bacon, but he figured he might as well eat more when he was told to.
The gym was completely cleared of equipment, a fat redhaired man sitting at the control panel that Cyborg had used yesterday. Beast sat beside him looking bored as the man fiddled with the machine setting up to run manuelly. He had a video game controler sitting on it and was talking to Beast in an excited, quick tone before Beast held up his hand, "Just as long as the test runs as it should I don't care what you do," he glanced at the controler again, "Dude, that's not my good controler is it?"
The redhaired man shook his head, "Nope, just bought a set off ebay, figured it would make things easier when we switched to manuel mode," he told him with an eye roll, "I wouldn't use our controlers for something like that."
"You two ready or are you going to nerd talk the whole time?" Jinx called up one hand on her hip.
"Pipe down," Beast snapped, "Its to damn early for your attitude. Hell, I shouldn't even be up," he grumbled leaning back against the chair.
"Its seven am, not that early," Jinx scoffed obviously not amused with her leaders definition of early.
Beast let out a growl, "You watch it, or I'll have you run laps," he told her as the red haired man gave him a thumbs up.
"All set to go," he told Beast holding the controller loosely in his hands.
"Right, so" Beast looked at Wally expectantly, "Lets get this over with, what powers does being an item give you?"
Jinx moved in front of him while he tried to come up with something to say, "We don't know. That's part of the test," she told Beast in annoyed tone.
"Well hurry up and find out then we don't have all day," he responded.
Jinx pulled the two dice out of her pockets that had shown up when they had exploded part of the kitchen in the twins' resturant. It was the first time Wally had seen them up close, One had a sword, sheild, and a staff on one side, the other three symbols that he wasn't sure what they meant. the symbols were red on a green background and seemed to be made of spiky lines.
Jinx tossed them to the floor where they rolled a small distance before stopping on one symbol and the sword. In a flash of green light Wally found himself once again holding the two-handed blade and heavy armor. The swords vines pricked into his arm and the sword seemed to hum with a weird familiartity, its red blade reflecting his face back at him.
"Armor and a sword? Really?" he scoffed before nodding at the man next to him who Wally still didn't know the name of, "Let's see what he can do Control Freak." Wally adjusted his stance trying to get used to the weight of the sword, though at least now he knew the name of the guy actually running the test.
Control Freak nodded and pressed a few buttons on the consol before picking up his controler. Two holes in the wall opened and two flying discs flew out shooting lazors in Wally's direction. Wally tried to run and get to a better location to find that the armor fought against him, it was heavier than anything else he had ever worn and with the sword he knew even if he wanted too he couldn't access his super speed. The sword hummed stronger pushing his hands to the left forcing one of the lazors to be deflected into the wall.
Wally stopped finding that the sword seemed to sense danger moving his body so as to intercept the lazors and deflect them around the room. It pulled at him as the armor weighed him down giving him a feeling of protection. He moved towards the flying discs which began to zoom and move around him preventing him from blocking all the beams with the sword. He felt the lazors hitting his armor causing bruises beneath it, though the worst of the damage was avodided. One of the discs moved close rapidly firing at his face.
He swung up with the sword causing the disc to veer away from his face but the sword was too slow to hit the disc as it swerved past. The sword continued its arc though and it took all of Wally's strength to pull it back and turn it towards the other disc which attemped to get a close range shot. The disc attempted to move back before the sickening crunch and shreik of cold metal being cut through ran out Wally's sword cutting the flying disc in two.
The second disc whrried and moved behind Wally speeding up as it came in closer and closer range as Wally's sword hit the floor. He turned to the right sharply the blade moving back into the air cutting through it faster than when he had begun. The disc what hit by the flat part of the sword and sent flying into a wall, a small boom as it crashed.
Another flash of green and Wally felt himself go back to normal, his clothes feeling light as feathers after the heavy armor. "Not bad," he heard Beast say as he rubbed his chin, "A little more mucsle would be needed but you could at least take a hit, is that all you can do though? That one form doesn't seem like it would be useful in closed quarters."
Jinx picked up the dice and called up, "There are probably more, with the verbosigni and pictures responding to different forms, if you give me a while I might be able to decode them since verbosigni take on different shapes as they become more specific."
Beast closed his eyes and seemed to think for a moment. "Can you roll the dice again then? We'll run another test then we have to get out Starfire has training in a half-hour."
Jinx nodded dropping the dice again onto the ground. Another flash of green and Wally found himself in another flash of green light. He glanced down to find that his outfit had changed to a tight green robe like he had seen robin use when he was practicing martial arts. In his hand was a large staff that was carved with red roses that was as tall as he was. It seemed to to hum like the sword did in his previous form. He lifted it and felt it swing so that it rested in both of his hands. "A stick? I go from a bad ass two handed sword, to a stick?"
"A very girly stick at that," Beast laughed. "Let's see what it can do," he grinned as Control Freak sent out a cyborg bot against him.
Wally groaned, he hated fighting the first one. It rushed at him with and arm raised. Wally barely able to move in the long robe raised him the staff blocking the robots punch with a loud clang. He moved the stick back and forth responding to its hums, blocking punches, kicks, even a random headbutt. The staff vibrated very strongly pulling at his hands. He stepped back and spun it finding that it reacted to his very touch, moving around the machine and striking it on the small of its back.
The machine spun around and grabbed the staff and tried to pull it from Wally's hand. He could feel the stick vibrate its defiance and he pushed forward knocking the robot down. It got up and rushed him again. Wally side stepped and swiped at the robots head hitting it with another loud clang. The robot stuck its arm out in an attempt to knock him back, but Wally swung the stick with just enough speed to cause the arm to be twisted out of the way spinning him around.
The robot elbowed him with its other arm, swinging around its waist sending Wally flying. The robe made it difficult for him to get up as the robot rushed for him. It brought its arms up and moved them down to crush him. He raised his staff taking the brunt of the force in the middle of it. The robot lifted his arms up and slammed them down again attempting to tire Wally out. 'Enough is enough,' he thought as the staff vibrated in his hands itching to move. He felt the robe now humming with energy, and he pushed off the robot, scooting him across the floor and back into a standing position. He jumped feeling the energy now course through his body, as he brought the staff down onto the robots head, powering it off.
"Well, at least you can hold your own in that get up," Beast called down with a nod. "Hit the showers. It'll take more tests to modify your training routine to work on all your forms."
