I do not own Young Justice or any of the characters.
Training
Cassius raised an eyebrow as Brion demonstrated the control he'd managed to gain for Halo. Cassius liked Halo. She struggled with speaking sometimes still, though she was much better than when they'd met in Markovia, she had no memory, which he could sympathize with, and she seemed to feel an instinctive need to float around using her powers, which seemed to cause a different color light dependent on the power she used. Purple healed herself and others, with herself being able to be completely revived from death, though she didn't think she could do the same for others, red formed energy barriers that Cassius was pretty sure were stronger than Rocket's barriers started out as, and orange allowed her to fly, as she was now. Brion noticed their presence and stopped, holding his magma-covered let forearm at his side.
"No, no, keep going," Dick said. "Let's see what you can do."
"Is this a test?" Brion demanded.
"This is just us," Dick said, gesturing at himself, Cassius, Cassandra, Rose, Halo, Artemis, Wally, Connor, Carr, and Jeff, "trying to help."
"It's a test for me," Cassius said. "I'm checking your progress. You've improved a lot."
Brion hesitated before nodding, turning and extending his arm again, streams of lava erupting from the ground in one place, then arcing and melting back into it somewhere else, or simply bursting from the ground then dropping back into it, as he'd been doing before. Cassius glanced at Artemis and Wally, who were discussing the situation involving the Justice League's split in hushed whispers off to the side, then at Otto, who had decided he wanted to be a hero to save people from things like what happened to his sister, and as such was learning to fight from Cassius, Cassandra, and Rose in between power control lessons from Cassius.
He turned back to Brion and smirked, setting a hand on the shoulder opposite his magma-covered hand. "Want to test yourself for real?"
"You want to fight?" Brion asked.
"Not a chance," Cassius said. "But I have something else in mind. Let's test your abilities with specific tasks."
"Like what?" Brion asked.
"That rock over there is your target," Cassius said, pointing at the one he meant before stepping back.
"Understood," Brion nodded.
"Now remember, this is a precision test," Dick added. "Hit it, don't obliterate it."
"I know," Brion said.
"And please, be careful of my trees," Carr said.
"Wait, your trees?" Cassius asked. "Isn't this Megan and Connor's place?"
"Nope," Carr said.
Cassius nodded as Brion pulled a couple dozen cherry-red stones to his arm, melting them into magma.
"Easy now," Connor said. "This is about control."
"I know," Brion said, his voice betraying his shortening fuse.
Cassius nodded to Otto, who transformed fully and stepped in front of them all, besides Dick and Connor, who were behind Brion.
"Visualize where you want it to go," Dick said as the magma formed into a clearly-defined gauntlet.
"I know!" Brion snapped, his voice tapering off at the end as he caught himself, turning back to the rock.
Brion made a fist and took a breath before throwing a bit of his gauntlet, only for the ball of magma to fly five feet and plop unimpressively to the ground. He growled in anger and hurled another, then another, each landing closer to Brion than the last. Finally, he shouted in frustration, molten black rock beginning to form over him from the ground up. It formed a body suit first before beginning to melt. Finally, just as the stone was fully magma, Brion shouted in rage, both fists slamming into the ground, sending an eruption of magma into the air ten feet across. Otto hurled a spray of his plasma, blocking most of the magma headed for the trees, though not all, much to Carr's disappointment, before Brion's magma fell away. As he turned to them, Artemis covered Halo's eyes and Wally covered Artemis's. Cassius sighed, shaking his head before tossing Brion a fresh pair of pants.
"Temper, Brion," Cassius said. "Your control was better that time. Your magma actually formed a definite shape this time, but you focused on holding that shape so much you didn't focus enough on your attack. That's good for melee, but it's better to sacrifice shape at range in exchange for hitting the target."
Just then, Halo floated into the air.
"Don't look!" Brion said, turning around ad hurriedly finishing pulling his pants on.
"Don't worry, you are nicely shaped," Halo said. "Your form is...not the part of you that's broken."
"Excuse me!?" Brion snapped.
"Rest, I will test my powers now," Halo said as Otto transformed his upper body back to normal and accepted the pants Cassius offered to him, then walked out of sight to get dressed.
Halo flew over to Jeff and Artemis as Cassius looked to Otto as he returned.
"Otto, want to take a crack at target practice?" Dick asked.
"Otto's further along than Brion, due to having had his powers longer, even if under the influence of a control chip," Cassius said. "This is how he does target practice." He formed a crossbow with three separate strings and tracks, all the strings vertical, and lined up side by side, and Cassandra and Rose quickly loaded him with sticks. "Ready?"
Otto nodded, transforming his right forearm and hand. Cassius fired the three sticks a second apart and at a forty five degree angle from the other. Otto hurled three globs of plasma, hitting all three and burning them all. Cassius nodded, smiling.
"Nice!" Dick grinned.
"Don't worry, Brion," Cassius said. "We'll get you there soon."
Brion shot him a venomous glare and turned away, toward where Artemis was slamming punches and kicks into Halo's barrier. Each strike sent ripples over the shield, and Halo seemed to be struggling to concentrate on maintaining it, losing ground quickly. Finally, she let it drop and jumped back, only to form a circular shield a second later, blocking a punch before switching to her orange aura and flying into the air over a kick. Then, as she landed, her aura turned yellow, and Artemis stopped, blinking.
"Whoa," Artemis said. "Okay, that's new."
"I don't understand," Halo said, staring at her hand, then Artemis. "I cannot seem to make a shield, or fly. What is wrong with me now? Am I broken too?"
"EXCUSE ME! ? !" Brion shouted.
"You're not broken," Cassius said, walking over. "From what you've shown, every color has its own ability, right? So let's see if you can figure out what this one does. Carefully."
Halo nodded and turned around, holding her hands out and focusing. After a moment, a yellow sphere appeared between her outstretched hands before firing, the force hurling her backward violently, only for a mass of goo to catch her, setting her on her feet before Cassius retracted it. Just as he did, the blast crashed into a tree, blasting all of the leaves off, though it didn't seem to burn it any.
"Nice!" Cassius grinned. "Good power. You'll have to get used to the blowback, though."
Halo nodded and glowed violet for a moment before the light faded. "Thank you for catching me."
"You're welcome," Cassius smiled.
"Cassius," Rose said. "Time for my pain pills."
Cassius nodded. "Connor, mind if I use your bathroom to change her bandages?"
"Go ahead," Connor nodded.
Cassius and Rose headed inside, making their way to the bathroom before Rose gingerly pulled her shirt off as Cassius closed the door. When he turned around, he found her topless, one hand reaching across her torso to gently rest over her wound and the other struggling out of the shirt.
"Did you really need to take the shirt off?" Cassius asked.
"Believe it or not, it's actually easier this way," Rose said.
Cassius sighed, nodding, and kissed her before guiding her to sit on the toilet lid before he slowly undid her bandages. Her wound was healing well, thanks in large part to the enchantment on her necklace, but would need a few more days. He sighed, cleaning the wound gently in front and back before beginning to bandage her abdomen again. Once he was finished, he kissed her again, remaining there for a few seconds before standing and helping her to her feet, producing a pill bottle from his body.
"You know, your goo body makes the best storage container," Rose smiled, taking a dose from the bottle and setting it back on his hand, allowing him to reabsorb it again.
"Arms up," Cassius said, lifting her shirt.
"Oh fine," Rose sighed dramatically. "You're no fun."
Cassius rolled his eyes as Rose lifted her arms as much as she could. He hummed thoughtfully, then gently guided them around in front of her before pulling the shirt up them to just below her shoulders before pulling the collar over her head and tugging it down for her, kissing her again. This time, she wrapped her arms around his waist and he smiled, wrapping his around her over her own. After a couple of minutes, someone knocked on the door.
"Hey, you two, I know how long it takes to change bandages," Dick said. "Hurry up in there. This is the only bathroom in the house."
Rose sighed, pulling away and nodding. Cassius turned, opening the door and giving Dick a mock-annoyed look. Dick simply smirked slipped past them as they left. As they got back outside, Connor let them know that Brion had been about to leave, only to agree to stay when Dick offered to help him find his sister. Cassius nodded approvingly and walked over to where Cassandra was teaching Otto martial arts, Brion watching.
"Brion, you're going to spar with me," Cassius said.
"Why?" Brion asked.
"Because when you fought DeLamb, you were just throwing punches as hard as you could an little else, and he mopped up the floor with you," Cassius said. "Whenever we find your sister, you're going to need to know how to fight properly. No matter who has her, they're not going to let her go without a fight."
Brion considered for a moment before nodding. Cassius returned the nod and began to teach him to fight properly, careful to keep from angering him so that he didn't accidentally burn Cassius.
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