By the time M'gann, Robin, and Cecilia had joined the others in living room, the twelve-year-old's tears had dried and she had a mostly genuine grin on her face. Artemis and Wally were in the middle of an apparently very vehement argument about how to pronounce "syrup," with Green Lantern vainly attempting to quell their bickering. Cecilia, however, was a bit alarmed, "There is more than one way to say a word? How do we know which one is right?"

"We don't," Kaldur replied somewhat wearily as Artemis and Wally, after exchanging brief looks, abruptly ended their conversation. Green Lantern, looking both a little relieved and perplexed at the sudden ceasefire, quickly got to business now that the entire team was present, "I'm filling in for Black Canary as den-mother today. I suggest that we all spend our time wisely and train."

"Um, can't," Wally reminded him, gesturing to his broken arm. Green Lantern frowned, "Then I guess you'll just have to finish your homework."

"I write with this hand. And it's broken."

"I can write for you!" Captain Marvel offered suddenly. He immediately seemed to regret his words, even before Wally shot him a "you are not helping" glare and the others simply gave him startled looks. The older hero appeared shocked over what had come out of his mouth, and he stammered on unintelligently for a few seconds, trying to remedy his slip up. M'gann took pity on him and suggested, "Maybe you could help us train, instead."

"Oh, uh, sure thing," Captain Marvel agreed with a relieved nod. Green Lantern looked around the room decisively, "It's settled, then. I want to see everyone upstairs and training in five minutes. Cecilia, we might as well begin now."

"Yes, sir," Cecilia chanted, obediently following her mentor out of the room without a second glance. When they reached the mission room, the Marine Corp veteran ran her through the usual exercise: stretches, 50 jumping jacks, 50 sit-ups, 50 push-ups, 30 pull-ups, and ten running laps around the room. Granted, she spent the first twelve years of her life as a poor Roman citizen, so she was already (at least in her own mind) stronger than most other girls her age. However, she had also spent almost the past twenty centuries sleeping underground, and until her training had started, she hadn't been exercising properly. Regardless, she was usually able to complete the jumping jacks with only a minor side cramp and struggle through about 35 of the sit-ups before becoming utterly exhausted. Then they would alternate between working on constructing objects of solid-light and continuing the workout.

As much as Green Lantern pushed her, he never gave her than she could take. And at the moment, as she collapsed after a record-breaking 41 sit-ups, she was extremely grateful for that quality. As usual when this breaking point came, Green Lantern helped her to her feet and praised encouragingly, "Good. Now, take a few seconds to breathe. Then we'll pick up where we left off yesterday."

Thankful for the chance to catch her breath, Cecilia took the time to glance at what the others were doing. They had all entered while she was stretching, and now they had broken into pairs for sparring. Kaldur and Connor were fighting a little ways off, in the large circle of light in the center of the room, and Artemis battled Robin not too far to their left. M'gann waited to be rotated in while Captain Marvel watched, calling out tips and advice. Wally lounged on a reclining chair that Captain Marvel had carried up for him, snacking on some popcorn.

"Okay," Green Lantern caught her attention, announcing that her reprieve was over. "Create a small bowl."

This had been the exercise that seemed to work best: her mentor would call out an object, and then she would try to create it. The objects would begin as simple, roundish shapes and become progressively more geometric and complex. Once Green Lantern was satisfied with her creations, they would move back to working out, and then at the end of training they would briefly explore what her powers could do.

But for now, Cecilia closed her eyes and felt the mysterious energy dance around the room. For a moment, she simply let herself enjoy the feeling. After five days of training, she had grown so in tune with this energy that she could sense vague voids in it, like smudges on a mirror. At first, she was confused and worried by the discovery, wondering if the energy was being damaged in any way. But then she had found that the voids only appeared wherever a person, furniture, or other object stood.

"Cecilia, focus."

The twelve-year-old snapped out of her muse and hastily held out her hand, drawing from the energy and molding it into the desired shape. She opened her eyes just to make sure that it was the correct shape, but there was no need. A round bowl, about the appropriate size for holding breakfast cereal, balanced on her hand. Green Lantern looked at it for a moment before moving on, "Shield."

The bowl soon morphed into a handle, from which a large, thick barrier of light soon extended. It was no taller than a table and no wider than a chair, and it was a simple oval in shape. She held it in front of her protectively in an attempt to prove its effectiveness, hoping that it met expectations. He nodded approvingly before calling out, "Sword."

The shield shrunk and thinned into a long plank, and the edges sharpened to dull points. Cecilia gawked at it momentarily. It was a gladius, an incredibly simple but effective type of sword that many Roman soldiers carried. She had intended for it to be - there weren't many other swords that she knew of - but now she regretted her decision. It reminded her of home more than she thought it would.

"Cool," someone - Wally - commented from somewhere else in the room, providing her with a necessary distraction from memories that again begged to be relived. She let the weapon drop to her side and glanced at where the older teenagers had previously been training. Now, everyone was watching her with curious expressions that made her a bit nervous. They usually didn't get to watch her train because of school, and they seemed to be making the most of they're first real opportunity to see what she could do, which made her suddenly a bit self-conscious. What if she messed up?

Either Green Lantern recognized her unease or he didn't like the thought of them cutting their own practice short to watch Cecilia, because he turned and asked pointedly, "Can I help you?"

Kaldur was the first to realize what he wanted, "No, sir. We were just rotating partners."

As the rest of the Team returned to sparring, Green Lantern motioned towards the sword, "You can put that away. We might test how well your solid-light constructs hold up against attacks tomorrow. But for now, I want to see fifty push-ups."

Restraining a groan, Cecilia continued with her workout, managing to complete five decent push-ups before she tired out again. Green Lantern was obviously not pleased with these results but, after pushing her to do fifteen more, allowed her to move on to pull-ups, using his ring to create a bar for her to use. After managing two good ones and ten more that weren't so satisfactory, she was permitted to stop, and they began to focus on what else her powers could do.
They had discovered the other day that she couldn't fly, at least not at the moment. This was a huge disappointment to Cecilia, who wanted nothing less than to be like her mentor, who could fly. But she was sure that there were other things that she could do, like they had discovered yesterday. They had done some light combat practice, and she had developed a few bruises, but experimental contact with her stones had healed them nicely. Green Lantern had theorized something about energy flowing into her cells, but Cecilia was just glad not to be sore.

"I'd like for you to create the largest construct that you can," Green Lantern challenged. Cecilia opened her mouth to say that that wasn't entirely exploring her abilities, but then he added, "With your eyes open."

'Oh,' Cecilia thought, wondering if that was possible. It should be, considering how much trouble she has controlling her abilities whenever she's scared or angry. But at the moment, she was neither. Nonetheless, she made an effort to keep her eyes open, stretched out her hand, and attempted to locate the source of her powers.

For a good minute, she couldn't sense anything, but she had a feeling that the energy was just beyond her reach, as if she could reach it if she just tried a little harder... The energy appeared around her, faint and unfocused at first, but the harder that she concentrated the more prominent it became, until she could form it into a small sphere in her palm and watch as it steadily grew larger under her attentive direction. It glowed a bright white, and Cecilia was absolutely mesmerized as she continued to cultivate it, her mind centered and at peace as she learned.

Then that moment was destroyed as her focus was broken by Wally's awed comment, "Your eyes are glowing!"

"What?" Cecilia questioned in alarm, halting her progress to look at the speedster. Her mentor also gave the loud teenager a glare, but Wally did his best to largely ignore him, "They aren't anymore, but they were glowing, like your solid-light constructs. Sorry if I distracted you."

Cecilia turned to her mentor for explanations, which he gave, "They were probably glowing because you were concentrating. This is nothing to worry about."

The twelve-year-old wasn't so sure, but she did trust him, and so she dismissed her worries in a bout of faith. Then she turned to look at her friends - all of whom were staring at her again, and most of whom seemed to want to say something or another. She glanced back at Green Lantern as he sighed, "Perhaps we should call it quits. I have a feeling that none of us will get much farther today."

A chorus of gratitude answered him as the Team rushed back to the living room with Cecilia and Captain Marvel in tow, eager to talk about her abilities.