Chapter Nine
"Robin! You have gotten more of the biomass?" Starfire asked as Nightwing walked in the front of Titans Tower. Nightwing nodded.
"I'm Nightwing. He's Robin, now." He corrected. "And yes. And I took care of the rat problem that Jump City had at the same time. You'd be amazed. One rat is only a little bit of Biomass, but fifteen million rats is more than enough to last for weeks if I'm careful." Nightwing said cheerfully.
"That's usin' your head!" Beast Boy said cheerfully. Even being a changeling as he was, he never liked rats. They were creepy and they carried all kinds of disease. He had been practicing turning into multiple animals, and had managed to morph himself into up to ten rats or up to fifty biting or stinging insects. But he hadn't managed more than that yet. He wasn't sure if it just was beyond his power to do so, or if he just needed more practice.
Nightwing went up to his room, and brought back down a number of thick books and handed one out to each of the Titans.
"Okay, Cyborg… Or Victor if you prefer… Starfire… Beast Boy… Raven… Terra… Red Hood… Robin… These are the manuals detailing your abilities. They include all the physics behind them and simple explanations of said physics so that everyone can get it." Nightwing said, thinking of Beast Boy.
"These are awfully thick volumes. Couldn't you have went for a bit more brevity?" Damian asked. Nightwing shrugged.
"I could have. But I wanted to add as much detail about your abilities as I could. I'm sure you're smart enough to figure it out, Damian." Nightwing said. "No need to raise your hand, Beast Boy, but go ahead." Nightwing said, pointing at Beast Boy.
"I've only been able to transform into up to ten rats or fifty insects. Is it possible to turn into more, or is that my limit?" Beast Boy asked. Nightwing thought for a moment.
"There's no reason that you shouldn't be able to. Try making multiple copies of yourself first. Think of it this way, the more mass something has, the fewer copies you'll be able to make. I suspect that at your size and body shape in addition to the mass I added, you weigh about 200 pounds. Am I right?"
"Yeah, that's about right." Beast Boy said uncertainly.
"Good, then if you assume that an average rat weighs about half a pound at most, you could easily turn into up to 400 rats, 800 if you make quarter pound rats. If you assume that the largest wasp weighs ½ ounce at most, you could easily become 6,400 wasps. You simply haven't reached that level of efficiency yet. Don't worry. With practice, you will. Just be careful.
"You do have regeneration, so you can stretch your powers a bit beyond their limit and simply heal yourself. But repeatedly abusing that ability can have long term repercussions. Do you understand?"
"Yes." Beast Boy said, a little nervous now.
"Good. But you needn't worry. Because you still have room to grow, and because you can still gain more muscle mass, you can still get heavier.
"And the heavier you get, the more creatures you can turn into. And remember, all of you, I planted a small source of self-replenishing biomass inside of you, so your physical and mental powers will still keep growing. Your supernatural conditions will become greater as you continue to train them. That's detailed in the book as well. Now, Raven… You have an expanded pool of magical energy, and the ability to use more spells.
"I know that dragon taught you some magic, and you've always known some on your own. The more you learn, the more powerful your magic pool will become. You have Magic Lordship. You have to train it up, though. I've done a bit of research on magic, though my knowledge of it isn't as great as yours most likely.
"Cyborg… Your battery is more powerful now, so you'll have to rediscover the limits of your energy… Terra… I don't really know enough about your power, but I've done some research on the origins of it, and hacked into your family's computer systems… The scientists did extensive research on them. We'll need to test the limits of their power and your control over them now that they've been so drastically enhanced.
"Damian… You already had some control over Ki to begin with. I simply enhanced that and based several other abilities, namely your Tactile Telekinesis off of it. Be careful… If you exhaust your Ki too much you could die… Red Hood… It's mostly your suit that has the powers right now. If you prove that you're not going to betray us, I'll enhance your personal powers.
"Starfire… You have a more complete control over plasma… You'll need to experiment a bit on what that can entail… And get creative at using it. Cool? That book details all of your suit's abilities." Nightwing said. The Titans nodded, and went back about their business. Nightwing closed his eyes and reached out to see if he could find any hidden cameras in the tower. Finally, he found microscopic sensors that had been monitoring them.
He read their data, and found that they had been there for almost a month, and that they did indeed belong to Slade. Nightwing reached out and drew them in with electromagnetic waves, shorting them out and feeling as they fell to the floor, dead. He then began to absorb them, since they were all biomechanical. It didn't give him much more biomass than would fit in the space of a penny. But it was more that he didn't want them on the floor on the chance that they could reactivate.
Nightwing headed down to the basement, saying that he needed to modify the training grounds to account for their new and growing abilities. Once he got down there, he programmed biological opponents having all manner of powers and many different combinations of powers, from powers similar to Superman, who had near Absolute physical abilities and minor long range abilities to opponents more like Batman, who had no "superpowers" so to speak, but an amazing ability to outsmart opponents.
He also made copies of opponents more akin to the Joker, who again had no immense superpowers, but whose evil, and unpredictability in combat made them a major threat. He made super beings similar to all those that he and Batman fought together, as well as those he had fought against with the Titans, and mixed and matched powers until he had thousands of possible enemies with every mix of superpowers imaginable.
After hours of modifying the room itself as well to account for every possible environment, including fog, crumbling stone and otherwise unstable ground or ground that would give way under them to city building tops to the middle of nowhere where there was nowhere to hide and no buildings to run maneuvers off of. Most of the situations Nightwing incorporated, the team had encountered on more than one occasion.
However, he had it set to randomly select a combination of terrain, weather conditions and intensity. So it could be in the city in thick fog as easily as it could be unsteady mountainside in gale force wind. A hero didn't necessarily get to choose the conditions in which they fought, but they had to get good at fighting in all conditions, both individually and as a team. Nightwing immediately set to testing it out. He had made the course able to regenerate itself so that it would never be damaged for long.
"Training program! Select random setting against random opponent! Activate!" Nightwing shouted. The machine responded in the affirmative, producing Superman. Nightwing faced off against him, producing a sword made of ultradense biomass, striking hard at Superman, who blocked, but was forced back slightly by Nightwing's powerful attack, immediately jumping back and punching Superman in the face, sending him flying.
Superman pulled to a stop in midair, using his heat vision, which Nightwing evaded, and sent a biomass boomerang at Superman, which hit, and exploded on impact, sending him off course again. He didn't crash, but he did seem to take a little bit of damage. Nightwing blocked the next attack. Superman threw a giant boulder at Nightwing, which he blocked, seeing it break in half on his forearm and fly in opposite directions.
Nightwing then jumped and grabbed Superman, throwing him to the ground, crushing the stone beneath him. As this happened, a thick fog rolled in, obscuring both their vision. Nightwing looked around for a moment before taking a deep, steadying breath and focusing his aura detection and enhanced senses around him, extending them outward, dodging Superman's heatvision next, then moving in the direction the attack had come from, and missing Superman by a hair's breadth.
In the next moment, he found Superman punching him in the chest, breaking five of his ribs, and sending him to the ground, crushing more of the room beneath the impact. Nightwing gasped, standing up and waiting for the injury to heal. As he waited, he merely dodged, and blocked attacks, finally finding it easy to breathe again, and going on the attack once more. This time, he took out his Idiosyncratically linked Escrima Sticks, throwing one and having it close in on Superman.
When it hit, it made a powerful telekinetic burst that blew Superman off center and staggered him while Nightwing struck him a heavy blow, taking the Escrima Stick in his hand as it returned, striking Superman in the head and ordering it to create a heavily bleeding wound, and make an even more powerful explosion, sending them both flying. Nightwing corrected himself and landed on his feet, but Superman fell and didn't get up.
It had been a good battle. Nightwing made notes of the areas in which he could improve the battle simulator. Already, he felt he was becoming better at controlling his powers. Of course, in this case, the battle wasn't real so to speak. In a real fight in the real Jump City, there would be much more at stake and he would have to be much more careful.
"Training Program! Select random setting against random opponent!" Nightwing commanded. The computer started whirring, and Nightwing sighed, facing off against the next opponent.
"Well… Speak of the Devil…" Dick said to himself as Trigon rose out of a pit of magma. There were a few tiny islands scattered around the room, but for the most part, there was little to no solid ground. Nightwing leapt into action, summoning his Escrima Sticks and throwing one at Trigon, watching as it twirled around and struck him.
Bleed, Vicious, Impact, Vampiric Nightwing commanded mentally.
He watched with satisfaction as Trigon roared in rage as he felt actual pain from the attack and the Escrima Sticks continued to twirl around in the air, striking him over and over again as Nightwing made an attack of his own, throwing an exploding birdarang at the demon, smirking as it made a huge blast upon hitting Trigon in the face, and hearing the roar from Raven's erstwhile father.
Nightwing dodged the next three attacks from Trigon, who seemed to be patiently waiting for him to tire. Too bad that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. He met the next attack, grabbing his Escrima Sticks out of the air and blocking Trigon's strike, ordering it to make a telekinetic burst at the exact moment of meeting. Trigon was blasted back and grimaced, seeming more inclined to stay back, now, and bide his time.
Nightwing ordered the computer to cease the program, satisfied with the progress he had made with the training program. He could level it up as high as he needed to in order to suit their needs. He noted a few minor glitches, and modify the levels program. He needed to have the powers of the enemies able to be modified at will. "Power up" or "Power down" were simple commands that could make their training easier or harder.
As he went back up the stairs, he stopped, and made a note to make the room larger. If he could figure it out, he could make the room bigger on the inside than on the outside. Maybe Raven could help him do it. She did have magical powers, after all. As he went back into the common room, he sat down, relaxing. He used telekinesis to pull a soda over to him, drinking it quickly, and sighing.
"Hey, Robin! How's the training program!" Terra asked. Nightwing looked at her.
"Nightwing."
"Right… Nightwing… How's the training program going?"
"Great. I made it able to create any of the villains that we've ever faced, including a 'final boss' if you will. Trigon can be generated, as well as Superman, Slade, or… Well, any of the villains we've captured." Nightwing said excitedly. Beast Boy scratched his head.
"We've never fought Superman!" Beast Boy said. Nightwing rolled his eyes.
"But he did when he worked with Father. He was Father's first sidekick, before Tim Drake, even before Jason Todd. He's fought most of the villains that Father has fought, including the Joker and Harley Quinn." Damian said calmly, not looking over at the other Titans. Starfire looked confused.
"Please, who is the Harley Quinn and Joker?" Nightwing answered that one.
"They're two of the most terrifying villains I've ever faced. The Joker's every plot was horror incarnate. Nothing your sister could ever do would be half as terrifying as what Joker did on a daily basis. There was a time back before Barbara Gordon quit being Batgirl. She was young, still. The Joker shot her in the stomach, paralyzing her from the waist down. He then kidnapped her father and forced him to go through a carnival ride where he was shown pictures of Barbara naked and being tortured.
"Jim Gordon nearly lost his mind that night. Barbara is still in a wheelchair, but she helps Batman in other ways, namely as an information gatherer and hacker. She calls herself Oracle now. That was only one of the Joker's plots. He wanted Batman to kill him, to prove to himself and to everyone else that Batman is just as foul and rotten as the Joker is.
"And Harley Quinn is Joker's dedicated sidekick. She used to be a psychiatrist in training. She was doing her thesis on the incurably criminally insane, and believed that she could cure the Joker. So she worked with him for months, but found herself being drawn in by his madness, she found herself falling in love with the Joker. And now, she may be misguided, her case may be a tragedy.
"But she's as mad as the Joker, and to date, despite all the abuse, whether physical, psychological or emotional abuse that he piles on her, over and over again, she refuses, or perhaps she's unable to see his evil, unable to break away from her 'Puddin'". She can't break out of the abusive relationship she's stuck in. Batman has tried to help her, get her committed to Arkham, and sometimes she goes straight for a little while, but she always ends back up in Joker's clutches.
"I still can't quite figure out how Batman didn't lose his mind from fighting the Joker so many times." Nightwing said. Damian laughed, standing up and smirking at Dick.
"Really? You have no clue? It's because father is already out of his mind. He's a great fighter, the best I've ever seen… He would be a match for Grandfather any day. But his mind was broken long before he ever met the Joker.
"Who else but a madman would dress up like a giant bat and run around the city beating criminals to a pulp?" Damian asked, sneering. Nightwing rolled his eyes, not bothering to respond to that.
"I need us to go down and test the training room as a team. Also, Raven… Could you take a look at the room and see if you have any ways to make it larger?"
