Chapter 3: Training Day

The next morning, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire were ready at the obstacle course outside the Tower, dressed in their Robin uniforms. A few minutes later, Robin met them outside.

"Okay, this is how we'll go. First, I'll go through the obstacle course and demonstrate how and when to use the weapons," Robin ordered, "Then you can try. Set the course to the lowest level for now, so that you don't get too dazzled."

Robin ran up to the beginning of the course. Cyborg pushed a few buttons on the computer console on the ledge overlooking the obstacle course, causing the big clock to count down from 10 seconds. When it reached zero Robin sprinted into the obstacles.

A disk launcher, triggered by Robin's stepping across a certain point, popped from the ground and fired Frisbee-shaped projectiles, one at a time, at him. Robin whipped out his bowstaff and batted away each projectile as it came. After demonstrating this for a while he drew an electric disk and lobbed it at the launcher, shorting it out.

As he proceeded down the valley, a few training robots jumped into the course and confronted him. He hurled a bird-a-rang at the first one, letting the bird-a-rang clip off the robot's hand and return to him. The second one was blown up by an explosive disk. The third was shorted out by another electric disk.

A massive chasm opened in the ground, over which a few rocks floated to provide the only path across. Robin jumped off the cliff towards the first one, pulling out a grappling hook as he did and hooking the side of the first rock. The hook retracted automatically, pulling him up to the rock. Robin jumped to the next one, which was nearby, or grapple-hooked to the rocks too far away to jump at.

After the chasm, more disk launchers came up. Robin disabled each with an explosive or electric disk, while ducking projectiles or blocking with his bowstaff. Steel fists began to emerge from the ground and grab for Robin. He jumped and rolled away from all of these. Laser turrets and missile launchers came next, accompanied by more disk launchers. Robin deflected the disks with his bowstaff, jumped away from the missiles, and ducked the lasers. All in all, Robin took only 3 minutes and 12 seconds through the course, and that was because he took his time to show the use of his weapons.

Robin lectured the other Titans: "So if you notice, I usually use the bowstaff on the unguided projectiles which go slowly and which you can see. If you can't see the attacks coming, like you can't with the lasers, dodge. Grappling hook to get across distances that can't be jumped," he showed them the device, "and these different disks. This one," he pulled out a smoke pellet, "produces smoke—usually used only to escape. This other one," he showed them the electric disk, "provides a jolt of electricity. It'll short out any robots or other electric machinery within a small radius. This is an explosive disk, a simple grenade that detonates on contact. The freeze disk produces ice. And," he showed them the bird-a-rang, "this returns to you after you throw it. It'll clip weapons out of an enemy's hands, mainly.

"Now, you try. Cyborg, you first."

Cyborg stood at the beginning end of the course and drew his bowstaff. The big clock counted down from 10 seconds. When it reached zero he charged forward. As he passed a certain point a disk launcher popped out of the earth and fired Frisbee-shaped projectiles, one at a time, at Cyborg. As he ran, Cyborg held his staff in front of him and tried to handle it to deflect the projectiles. He batted off six projectiles, but the seventh struck him in the foot, tripping him.

The launcher stopped and Cyborg got up again, continuing down the obstacle course. A few training robots jumped into the course and confronted him. Cyborg drew a bird-a-rang from his utility belt and threw it at point-blank range. Much to his disappointment the bird-a-rang narrowly missed the robot's body, going just to its right and circling around in a large arc. Cyborg jumped over the robot's punch, only to be caught by the returning bird-a-rang. Beast Boy couldn't help but snicker from his position up at the computer console; fortunately, Cyborg didn't notice.

"Cyborg," Robin called, "the bird-a-rangs return to you, remember!"

After trying four times, Cyborg had learned to catch the returning batarang; the fifth throw he managed to clip the lead robot in the neck. The robot fell over, deactivated. He tried out the other disks, which he managed to throw more accurately, destroying the other two robots. At the next stage of the obstacle course a massive hole opened in the ground. Cyborg used Robin's grappling hook and threw it at the first of several rocks floating over the pit—and missed. The hook flew past to the left of the rock, then reached its full length and fell down due to gravity until it hit the vertical side of the pit, under where Cyborg was standing. As the hook automatically rewound back to the handle, bouncing and scraping up on the rock face, it got caught on a small projection of rock. The force of the rewinding hook dragged at Cyborg unprepared. "AHHH!" he screamed as he was dragged by his hands over the edge before he could stop himself and toppled into the abyss. Fortunately, Cyborg remembered his extendable hand and fired it up at the cliff face. More adept with his own hand (connected to his brain by artificial nerves, so he could manipulate it easily) than with Robin's grappling hook, Cyborg succeeded in grabbing the edge of the cliff and hauling himself back up.

By this time the other Titans were howling with laughter.

"QUIET!" shouted Cyborg, angry and embarrassed. "That's an order!" Raven managed to stop herself quickly, but the others didn't have her self-control.

"Fine," Cyborg growled, "You try it, Beast Boy!"

Beast Boy strode up to the starting point of the obstacle course, trying his best to look confident. He drew his bowstaff and stood ready. Cyborg pushed a button on the console and the same disk launcher popped up. Beast Boy held his bowstaff in front of him, keeping it between himself and the launcher as he ran through the course, but the first disk narrowly missed his staff and caught him full in the chest, knocking him flat on his back. The launcher continued to pelt Beast Boy with more projectiles until Raven reached over and shut it down.

Beast Boy woke up and got to his feet and continued forward. He threw freeze disks one at a time at the robots, which all fell over, encased in ice. Now he got to the gaping pit. He threw out the grappling hook, determined to be more accurate than Cyborg, and succeeded in hooking on to the first rock. Unfortunately, the rope automatically rewound, pulling him off his feet and vaulting him over the first rock and into the abyss. The other Titans laughed at him in turn as he transformed into a sparrow to save himself from falling.

Raven had a better solution for the disk launchers. Instead of using her bowstaff, she simply dodged the projectiles. With the robots, she used the electric disks and destroyed them easily. When she missed with the grappling hook, she quickly caught the hook with her telekinesis and moved it onto the rock, and thus cleared the obstacle that had overcome two other Titans.

"Remember, try not to use your powers!" Robin reminded her.

More disk launchers followed, and she dodged barrages of projectiles while throwing her own explosive and electric disks back at the launchers, shorting some of them out and blowing up others. She tried a bird-a-rang once but found it hard to aim, so she went back to using the disks. Slowly but surely, the launchers and robots fell. Steel fists came from the ground and approached, but she evaded all of them. Laser turrets and missile launchers added to the mix shooting out non-lethal projectiles and beams. Not once did Raven use her bowstaff. In about five minutes she stood at the end of the course. Although she usually took much shorter a time, this was after all her first time using someone else's weapons through it.

It was Starfire's turn. The other three Titans watched her dodge the first disk launcher, just as Raven had, and then dispatch the first few robots with explosive disks. At the chasm obstacle, she correctly hooked the grappling hook to each rock in succession and got over it. At the next set of disk launchers she used the smoke pellets, blinding the control panel to her position and preventing Cyborg from aiming any more projectiles or robots. She had stumbled on an excellent tactic which rarely worked in the real world, and she continued, blinding all the laser guns and steel fists. Cyborg had been negligent in using nonlethal missiles, because they were too slow. Even though they could sense through the smoke, Starfire left them trailing far behind.

"Alright, it looks like we all need a lot of practice with these bird-a-rangs," Robin observed. "And, of course, we haven't really used the bowstaff on a live opponent. That's for tomorrow."

End Chapter.