Hey there, everyone! I am SuperHeroTimeFan and I am back with another new chapter of my best story yet, Path of the Padawan! I know that I recently closed my A New Destiny: Omnibus: Tales of the Team story, but I need to focus on other stories right now, and this one seems to be the most popular by far. Thank you, The Christian Jedi, Logan GC, JacklyinKarst, YellowFlash67, Scourge from BloodClan, Darkest Nightmare's Dread, Flaming Dragon, Sonarkiller27, shin obin, Robin Rani, Falcongal, Swimmer555, All4TheSnow, Moreanswers24, JediSpiritMonk, trickster3696, Jenn, pootisman343, Princess9903, Hylianodst, Ahsokanerd, Crashingthroughthesnow, link01742, chalant4eva, honorableninja, witchsoul531, Useless Whispers, Crystal-Rose-Lover, Ahsokalo, KrautYank, Ocnarf, and all of the Guests for reviewing, favoriting, and doing all you can to make my story as great as possible. I honestly don't know what I could have done without you people. Now, allow me to answer everyone's questions before I start my next chapter. For the Guest user who asked this, I regret to say that Anakin will not be joining the Team. Since that's all, I'll move onto my special chapter for Path of the Padawan! Please review, rate, and as always, please be sure to enjoy!
Chapter 37: Three Times The Charm
Blüdhaven June 5th 1525 hours EST
It had been over a month since Ahsoka Tano went up against the Terror Titans and saved Raven and Jinx. The two magicians were now living in Blüdhaven, along with Taiga, who was also on the run from the ORDER after realizing that he was meant to be a weapon for them due to his successful transfer of Midi-Chlorian genes and blood, making himself the closest result to a perfect Jedi. Now, the three were in hiding and were living together to stay off the radar until the time was right.
While Jinx was looking through a spellbook and Taiga was doing a check on his lightsabers, Raven was in her room, looking into her mirror and meditating on her thoughts. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos, Azarath Metrion Zinthos." She kept repeating to herself. Although she and Jinx had succeeded in fooling the ORDER, something seemed off ever since Ahsoka used her full powers upon believing that the two were dead. What went wrong at that moment? She asked herself. Coming out of the realm of her psyche, also known as Nevermore, she turned to the living room hallway and started to enter.
As Raven walked down to the living room of their apartment, she started to think about Taiga. He might have been new and entered their home after she and Jinx took refuge, there was still something about him that she just couldn't get off of the tip of her tongue. Should I really trust this guy? She thought to herself. Jinx soon took notice of her friend, walking over to her soon after. "What's wrong here, Rae?" she asked. Raven gasped as she just took notice of her friend and sighed. "I was thinking about Taiga, that's all." She stated. All Jinx could do was sigh as she looked to Taiga as well. "Come to think of it, he hasn't really been that open to us since he arrived." The pink-haired sorceress stated.
As Taiga was busy brandishing his lightsabers, he couldn't help but notice the fact that both of the girls were watching him. He turned to their direction, but Jinx just turned away and looked at her nails as Raven just did nothing but watch. Do they trust me or something? Taiga asked himself. Shrugging it off, which was very difficult due to Raven being the only one eyeing him, he went back to what he was doing and turned his back on the girls.
As soon as Taiga turned away, Jinx turned back and sighed in relief. "I can't imagine what he'd do to us if he knew that we were watching over him." Jinx stated. Raven said nothing as she only felt guilt for not turning away. "I think I hurt his feelings." The blue-haired girl said to her friend. Jinx gasped in surprise as the two looked to Danny. "It's best just to walk away from this one, Rachel." Jinx remarked. Rachel Roth sadly nodded as the two looked to Taiga one more time before walking away.
While Jinx and Raven were in the hallway, a voice started to enter Raven's head. "You're not just gonna let yourself feel this much pain and walk away from Taiga without an apology or something, are ya?" the voice said. Raven gasped and looked around, eventually seeing a yellow cloud appear on her shoulder. Her eyes widened with surprise when she saw herself, only with a yellow robe in contrast to her blue one, as well as glasses and a book in her hands. "My smart self." Raven said to herself. Just then, a scoff filled the air, causing both Ravens to look around.
"Don't listen to that brat!" a voice said, eventually revealing itself in a cloud of green smoke. There, on the right side of Raven's shoulder, was another clone of herself, only clad in a green cloak. She had a smirk on her face as she made a teasing look towards the smart side of Raven. "She's trying to lead you down the path of honor." She retorted before pointing a thumb to her chest. "I'll lead you down the path of awesome!" she exaggerated, pulling down her fist and wiping it across thin air.
The smart side of Raven scoffed and rolled her eyes as she stepped back and crossed her arms in disgust. "Oh, come off it!" she retorted, causing the real Raven to turn her head to the side and watch in confusion. "You come off it!" the green, brave side of Raven spat back, causing Raven to turn her head once again, now being the victim of the argument.
"You!" the smart one remarked.
"You!" the brave side of Raven countered.
"YOUUU!" the smart side of Raven spat.
"You infinity!" brave Raven finally countered, causing the yellow one to growl lowly.
Jinx suddenly turned back as she heard Raven start to talk to herself, the pink-haired wizard lifting an eyebrow in confusion.
"Listen up, Big Rae–" Brave Raven started out, but Raven stopped and shook her head in disarray. "Wait, just wait a minute, girls! How and why are you even here?!" she demanded. Soon, the wise Raven and the brave Raven nodded with understanding as the wise side decided to take the chance to explain things. "Remember the last time you entered Nevermore, and meditated for quite a long time?" she asked. Raven nodded at this as the yellow, smart side of Raven decided to continue on with the story. "You came there for some advice, and since you were in Nevermore for such a short time, we decided to come into the real world and follow you in order to help." Smart concluded, gaining a nod from Raven herself.
Brave just scoffed and went back to what she was saying as if nothing had happened. "Listen up, Big Rae, I've got three reasons why you should just listen to me and walk away from all of this." She stated, crossing her arms as she did so while the intelligent Raven placed her hands on her hips impatiently and skeptically as the real Raven looked to her brave self and narrowed her eyes on her tilted head. "Number 1: Look at that girl!" Brave exclaimed, pointing a finger to Smart. Both Raven and Smart's eyes widened with surprise as Brave continued her reasoning rant. "She carries that stack of papers in between those two piles of wood!" she remarked. Smart growled and held up her book. "We've been through this. It's the Bible, and you know it!" Smart spat back. Brave scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Right. That's the Bible, and those are two extra eyes." She quipped, pointing to the yellow-clad Raven's glasses. This made Smart even more upset than before as she gestured to her eyes in frustration. "Glasses!" she corrected Brave once again.
Brave then got down from Raven's shoulder and started to look around. "Reason Number 2: Look what I can do!" she bragged, performing a one-finger stand while laughing. Both Raven and her smart side looked to the green-cloaked Raven and narrowed their eyes at her, the real Raven in confusion. "Um, what does that have to do with anything?" she asked. Smart just shook her head and looked at Brave with an impressed look on her face. "No, no, she has a point there." She reasoned.
Jinx continued to watch in confusion as Raven began to look to the floor and to her left shoulder. She could have sworn that she heard Rachel speak to both of them. "Listen, girls, just listen. You're sort of confusing me, so, uh, begone... or, uh, you know, however I get rid of you people." She exclaimed. With that, the two nodded and started to fade away. "That'll work." They both told Raven as they disappeared into smoke. Soon, the two girls were out of Raven's sight, leaving her alone with Jinx to wander through her thoughts.
Raven soon got up from her kneeling position and rubbed her head in much confusion. "Those two sure helped a lot." She sarcastically mused. Jinx just raised an eyebrow at Rachel and walked towards her. "What was that about?" the pink-haired magician asked. Raven turned around and sighed. "Nothing, I was just talking to myself." Rachel stated. Jinx, not understanding what was going on, just nodded in slight understanding and patted her on the shoulder. Raven smiled and looked to Jinx with a confident look on her face. "How about we go back and talk with Taiga, get to know him better?" she suggested. Jinx just shrugged at this and nodded. "Let's go, then." Jinx said. Raven nodded back and the two girls started to walk back to Taiga.
Meanwhile, while the two magicians were talking with one another, Taiga was setting up something in the gym. I hope I know what I'm doing here. Danny thought to himself. He had already set up a series of mechanical rotating, steel sharp-edged posts, several traps set under the ground, laser defense blasters, metallic guillotines, disc launchers hidden within the walls and an electrified floor, all ready for the necessary training for them to take on the ORDER. Satisfied with what he had accomplished, Taiga brushed his hands together and started to make his way towards the door.
Before Taiga could open the door, he heard a knocking coming from outside. Danny raised an eyebrow in confusion, wondering who it could be. Deciding to find out, he opened the door and was surprised to see Raven and Jinx standing outside. Raven was just looking to the side, trying to decide on what to say. Danny looked to her and smiled. "Hey there, Rachel." He said. Raven smiled at this and turned to Taiga while pulling back a bit of her bangs. Jinx, noticing the awkward moment going on, cleared her throat, getting the two back to reality. "We just wanted to check up on you, to see how you're adjusting to home here." Jinx explained. Danny nodded at this and smiled. "Yeah, I'm fitting in here great." Taiga replied. Raven smiled and slightly blushed at this. "So, what are you up to here?" the azure-haired magician asked.
Taiga smiled and started to redirect the girls over towards his training course. "I made this whole obstacle course so that we can be prepared to take on the ORDER when the time comes." The Japanese boy explained. Raven's mouth was wide open as an 'O' as she looked around. "This is incredible!" she exclaimed. Taiga chuckled and nodded as he started to gesture over to the course. "The course is simple: all you have to do is take down the dummies I placed on the turntable, avoid all of the blades placed on the posts, dodge all of the discs, and reach the electric floor for battle against one another." Taiga explained. Both Raven and Jinx awed in amazement as they viewed the course for themselves. They knew that Taiga was specially trained and experienced in combat, but this was a whole new level for them. Finally, after a moment of silence, Raven cleared her throat and turned to Taiga. "Where do we start?" she asked. Taiga smirked at this and started to jump over towards the end of the course with both magicians watching him with awe.
Taiga soon stood on top of the pillar towering over the whole training course. He looked down to the two girls and nodded. "From here, I will oversee how you two get through my course." He yelled down. Raven and Jinx both nodded as they both turned towards the direction of the training course. Jinx started to straighten up her hair while Raven began removing her cloak, revealing her black leotard underneath. For a minute, the blue-haired could have sworn that she saw Taiga blushing a bit before he turned away, causing Raven to shrug and look to the dangerous course.
Danny blushed at the sight of Raven, but soon turned away the minute she turned to him. I think she likes me. He thought to himself happily. However, realizing what was going on at the moment, Taiga turned back around and aimed a pistol into the air. "When I shoot, you two start the course!" Danny yelled down. Both Raven and Jinx, now in kneeling positions, looked up and nodded affirmatively. Taiga looked to his stopwatch, and when sixteen seconds had passed, he shot the pistol into the air, letting the bullet out and giving Raven and Jinx the signal to start.
Raven and Jinx both heard the gunshot and started off towards the course. Raven started to take the higher level while Jinx stood to the ground obstacles. Multiple lasers started to shoot at Raven, but she ran along the tightrope and evaded every one of the blasts. When she got up close enough to one of the cannons and blasted at her, Raven created a black energy shield and sent back a series of her own blasts through her fingers. She then met a series of robots and ran from them on the tightrope, blasting at those who got close enough to attack and shielding herself from those who just blasted her from a distance away. Finally, she jumped into the air and spread her arms out. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" she yelled out, destroying each of the robots. Smirking in delight, Raven flew over towards Taiga. Taiga looked down with interest and soon turned his attention towards Jinx.
Jinx, on the other hand, like Raven, was doing very exceptional on the training course. She leapt over all of the bladed posts until she made her way onto the turntable. There, she fought each of the training dummies, knocking each of them down until she found herself on top of a pillar, where four robots started to close in on her. Jinx grinned and looked around at her surroundings, trying to find a way to take them down. She then saw four turrets, respectively located behind each robot. She shot some pink energy blasts at each of them, knocking them down onto the robots and crushing them immediately. She then jumped over all of them until she came across a narrow hallway filled with turrets on each side of the wall. Thinking cleverly, she cartwheeled through the hall, causing the turrets to shoot at each other until she backflipped through the last one, causing all of the turrets to be destroyed. She stood at the end of the course, posing in her acrobatic stance before leaping to the top where Taiga was.
Once both Raven and Jinx reached the top of the training course, Taiga stood ready to fight. Both magicians flipped into the air and landed on the catwalk, looking to Taiga with victorious looks on their faces and advancing towards him. Taiga smirked as he stood over them, looking over the two. "Now, you shall fight me." He remarked, throwing the mages two lightsaber hilts. Raven and Jinx caught them, activating the blades immediately, Raven with a blue blade and Jinx with a purple one respectively. Taiga smiled and activated his Chrome Claws, all ten blades activated on mental command.
Raven and Jinx both stood in ready fighting stances as Taiga stepped back and scratched his blades together. After a while had passed and the pendulum swung behind him, Taiga leapt into the air and slashed down at them, only for Jinx to step back and avoid a lower sweep to the legs while Rachel jumped over the sweep. Taiga then twirled into the air and attempted to strike at them at the same time, but both mages twirled into the air, clashing with his blades while he spun around. Raven struck first with her blade meeting Taiga's as he scratched his blades along the ground. Soon, Jinx jumped from her place and the three engaged in a blade lock.
Soon, Taiga found himself being forced out onto the electric floor, with Raven in pursuit, parrying off attack after attack and landing as many strikes as she could on him. Taiga just dodged every attack, but didn't get the chance to dodge one of Raven's right swings. He blocked the attack with his left blade before throwing her off while still keeping her in his blade lock. He attempted to strike again, but the blue-haired magician just jumped on top of a crate while Jinx came in, head-butting Taiga into the electric floor. Taiga saw this coming and Force-Pulled the two girls towards him, much to their surprise.
Taiga landed onto the electric floor, which lit up as soon as he landed. Raven and Jinx landed on both sides of him, Jinx attacking first. She thrust her blade into the ground, giving Danny the chance to strike at him, but the pink-haired magician just conjured a magic shield to block the attack while Raven attacked the Japanese Jedi. Taiga saw this coming as well and blocked his attack, and kicked her away soon after, followed by Jinx reverse-gripping her lightsaber and attempting to strike from behind, but she was soon disarmed of her blade and was sent to the ground. Taiga smirked and looked down to her, preparing to strike down at her while she was unarmed.
Just then, Raven jumped in and blocked the attack, pushing Taiga away and grabbing Jinx's lightsaber. The azure-haired magician soon started to dual-wield and send Taiga back, causing him to go on the defense. Their blades met high, but Taiga was able to send her back soon after, causing her to drop Jinx's blade and continue fighting, using the one she had left.
Raven struck high with her blue blade, but Taiga crossed his blades to block the mage's, shortly breaking off and sending a jab to Raven after. Luckily for her, Raven dodged and prepared to perform a lower upper slash, but Taiga was able to predict this as well and throw her off. Raven stumbled towards Taiga, but quickly regained herself in time to slash towards Taiga while he was still turned around. Taiga sensed this and quickly placed one of his Chrome Claws behind his back, blocking the blade and sweeping aside to attack again.
Jinx looked to the battle and grunted. "I can't believe I missed out on so much already!" she exclaimed to herself. Looking to where her fallen lightsaber was, the pink-haired magician started to move towards it, slowly picking it up and standing up to get back into the battle.
Back in the battle, Raven continued to dodge every one of Taiga's attacks. What can I do to get around this guy? She asked herself mentally. Just then, two voices came into her head, both sounding just like hers. "I suggest you read his mind to find out what move he's gonna pull off next." One of the voices said. Raven raised an eyebrow as she soon saw Intelligent Raven standing in front of her. To her surprise, Taiga stepped through her as if the Emoticlone were just an illusion. "Great, it's you again." Raven mused sarcastically. Smart just shrugged and nodded. "You know that we can help in any way we can, even if you don't need it." She replied. Raven bit her tongue and continued to have her psychic conversation with the Emoticlone. "No offense here, Smart, but I need Brave right now." She stated honestly. Smart nodded and soon faded away, with the green-clad Raven standing in her place.
"I suggest that you hit him hard and you hit him strong!" Brave enthusiastically remarked. Raven just sighed and rolled her eyes. "Never mind, let's call someone different." She said, causing the Green Raven to disappear and another Raven, only clad in red, appeared in front of her. "You should just let out that demon within you and go all homicidal on him!" she darkly remarked. Raven shivered at the sight of this different side of herself. "Rage, I didn't ask for your opinion!" she spat before making her disappear, making a grey-robed and slightly sadder version of Raven appear. "Don't do anything you're gonna regret." She scolded somberly. Raven sighed and stopped attacking as she got to a higher ground. "Gloom, I know how you feel about this, but this is just training. There's no need to worry." She stated. Gloom nodded slightly before disappearing.
After conversing with all of her Emoticlones, Raven finally gave up and leapt back to the ground to attack Taiga again. Taiga stood back and scoffed, in which Raven sent a smirk towards him. Jinx soon reactivated her lightsaber and stood next to her blue-haired friend. "Don't take Taiga lightly." Raven warned, Jinx scoffed and looked to her lightsaber with interest in the battle. "Noted." She dully stated. With that, the two ran off to take on Taiga together.
Taiga looked to the two and reactivated his Chrome Claw Lightsabers. The three began to clash once again, with Raven and Jinx gaining the upper hand this time. Jinx clashed with Taiga's left blade, in which he blocked, but didn't see that Raven came in to perform a low slash to his lower chestplate. Danny smirked and sent a nod of approval, in which the two mages smirked and continued to attack again. Both Raven and Jinx now performed moves in tandem, striking one fatal blow after another to Taiga. Danny was now impressed by their work, but was now feeling tired of being pushed around by their attacks. The three clashed their blades all at once, locking lightsabers for about a minute. After that long time, all of them broke off and took a step back from each other.
Danny looked to Raven and Jinx with positive expressions, satisfied with their work. "You both did good." He stated. Jinx just smiled at this statement while Raven just blushed. Taiga took notice of this and smiled as he walked over towards the azure-headed mage. Raven gasped and tried to look away, but she just couldn't resist but look at Taiga's smiling face. "The two of you were absolutely exceptional." He complimented. Jinx smiled while Raven, once again, blushed. Taiga smiled and cupper her chin in his hand, getting him to look at her face. "You especially." Danny added on. Raven smiled and started to clear her throat. "I'd have to say, with the three of us, we make a pretty good team, and when we join Ahsoka's Team, the ORDER won't know what's coming to them." Raven stated. Jinx chuckled in agreement while Taiga started to mess up Rachel's hair. "I say, you're damn right." He replied back.
After a while of silence, Raven started to look Danny into the eyes. "How about, when this is all over, when we don't have to hide anymore, we could go see a movie?" she asked nervously. Jinx looked to her chakra-headed friend with amusement as she crossed her arms and smirked. "I think I know what's coming next." She teased. Taiga smiled and nodded. "It's a date." He replied. Raven gave her largest smile to Taiga, now knowing that this would be the start of a great friendship.
Author's Note: Well, everyone, I hope that you liked this new chapter I wrote up. I am sorry again for the delay, but I am getting busier and busier by the day, and it's rare that I am able to get to my stories, but rest assured, I will get this story done, even if it means risking everything dear to me.
By the way, since I have been able to get this far in my story, and that there are so much more stories of the Team to come, I will be giving you, the reviewers and the authors, a chance to request a chapter for me to write in this story. You can get a chance to have your idea appear on my story, just as long as it takes place in the 2011 timeline of my Path of the Padawan story, and that it is a K – T-rated idea, nothing above Rated M, I need to keep this story clean. Please submit your ideas in either review or Private Message, and I will decide on which idea to have and not to have. You must be able to put your full mind into your ideas, and the idea must focus on what the story is about: trust and friendship. There can be no main character deaths in your idea, as well as no ideas that would end the story too early like someone from the Expanded Universe coming to Earth-16, but aside from that, let your imagination run wild and have plenty of fun! I hope to see what you all have to present. Ten lucky ideas will be chosen, and those ten will be given details on what will come to happen later on in Path of the Padawan.
Please be sure to review and rate, as well as try to Private Message me if you can. I am always keen to hear from you, after all. For now, this is SuperHeroTimeFan signing off. Have a great remainder of the summer, and I wish you all a great start to the school year!