The next day dawned bright and clear, and I stood on the shores of the island, basking in the warmth of the sun.

I inhaled deeply, then as I exhaled, I drew my sword from its clamp. I readied myself, hefting the weight of the blade, and 'attacked'. I drove, slashed, parried, and thrust against an invisible enemy.

I spun the blade in every possible way, reacquainting myself with my sword's true uses. I continued this exercise for 10 minutes.

When I stopped, panting slightly, I decided to try something I hadn't done since the Wutai War; I squeezed tightly on the hilt, as my eyes flickered green. Water flowed across the blade, I spun it a few times experimentally, and the water flowed right with the blade.

I resumed my mock battle, now with a sword bearing a water enchantment.

After two minutes of this, my eyes flickered again; the sword froze, encased in an icy shield.

I watched, pleased, as a trail of frozen air followed my sword's every move.

Another two minutes passed, and another flicker of my eyes brought electricity arcing across the blade, leaving its destructive trail everywhere it went.

After two more minutes, I paused, then released yet another enchantment, flames erupted from the blade, dancing around and smoking violently. I worked with a flaming sword for two minutes, and then dispelled the magic.

I looked down at the blade, then out at the eastern ocean, and smiled.

I knew with this enchantment, I would only be able to swing the sword once, so I had to hit something, if I wanted to see the results.

I focused on the power deep inside me, found what I wanted and pressed it into my sword. It began to sparkle, shine, and even began to waver, like super-heated air does.

I turned to face the ocean, lifted the sword above my head, then brought it down; the blade pierced the water, and then struck the ground underneath. With an apocalyptic roar that shook the entire island, pure destructive energy was released. It plowed through the ocean, parting it down to the bottom for a little over a mile.

I exhaled and stood there panting, casting Ultima was hard enough in and of itself, but focusing and containing that much power in my sword was rough.

I suddenly noticed a slight, stunned sound from behind me, "Whoa."

I spun around to see the rest of the Titans gathered on top of some of the rocks by the beach.

"Um," I said scratching the back of my head, "How long have you guys been standing there?"

Robin looked at the sword, the finally settling ocean, and me, "Long enough to see you make you sword do all sorts of bizarre things, and part the ocean."

I grinned sheepishly, reclamping the sword to my back.

Beast Boy finally came out of shock, "Dude, that was awesome, was that more of you magic?"

I shrugged, "yeah, it was."

Robin suddenly stopped looking out at the ocean, and looked straight at me, "Wait, if you can do all that with your sword, why didn't you use it last night?"

I looked at my feet sighing, "If I remembered right, you wanted to capture those men, not kill them, all the offensive magic I have is lethal. In SOLDIER, we were the elites, we didn't have time to waste with prisoners, that was the regular troops problem, we were trained to kill with our weapons, not apprehend. So, I will not draw my sword to fight as long as you want them alive." My voice had a slightly regretful tone to it that, I hoped anyway, was missed by the Titans.

Beast Boy shuddered slightly, I looked over at him questioningly. "Sorry, but I'm still trying to get used to the idea that you, at your age, have already been through a war."

I smirked, "Yeah, well, I'm still trying to get used to the crazy ways of this time period."

Our conversation was abruptly cut off as Robin's communicator started beeping, and he flipped it open, "Yes?"

"Robin, this is Commissioner Rodriguez, we need you down at the station, one of the men you captured last night is talking, a lot. You may want to hear this."

"Alright I'll be right there," he flipped the communicator shut, "Guys, I have to head out to the station, go ahead and go to the pizza parlor like we were planning to, I'll meet you up there as soon as possible."

Robin took off at a full run for the R-cycle, and we all followed at a slower pace, headed for the T-car.

I sat in the back of the T-car, riding along, Beast Boy was on the far side of the backseat, and Starfire had squeezed herself in between us. Raven was sitting shotgun, and naturally, Cyborg was driving.

It was a little cramped in the back seat, this was by no means the fault of my company, both Beast Boy and Starfire are small in frame, so they don't take up much room.

But, the fact that I'm six feet tall really doesn't help me fit in the backseat of a car. I was curled up in a little ball.

My sword obviously was too big to fit in the car, so Cyborg had been forced to strap it to the roof.

I was really missing my motorcycle then, and had decided that I wanted, no HAD to rebuild the thing.

We arrived at the pizza parlor, and Cyborg put the T-car into a controlled slide that sent us into a series of wild doughnuts across the parking lot, only to slide cleanly into a parking spot.

A suddenly squeamish Raven glared at him, "Must you do that?"

Cyborg just smirked. We all piled out of the car, me quite thankfully.

I stood up stretching my legs, then looked up at the tall building in front of us with one resounding question in my mind: 'what the heck is pizza?' I followed them in quietly, then joined them around their usual table on top of the roof, and the great topping debate began.

Beast Boy opened the floor with his usual declaration, "We're getting a Veggie Pizza right?"

"No way man," countered Cyborg, "You cannot deny me my meat!"

"I told you before" complained Beast Boy, "I've been most of those animals!"

And so it went, I drifted off into my thoughts, looking at the cityscape, only half listening.

Starfire had interjected at some point, something to do with mustard mint topping.

I didn't input anything, mainly because I still didn't have a clue what pizza was.

After nearly fifteen minutes of arguing, they settled on two large pizzas, one half veggie, half pepperoni, (at Raven's request…and threat of pain and/or gruesome death).

The other was going to have nearly every topping imaginable, minus something called anchovies.

Cyborg was about to place the order, when he stopped and looked at me, "Wait a minute, you didn't say anything about what you wanted."

I bit my lip and looked at the ground, "Uh, I've never, um, had…pizza, I don't even know what it is."

All four of their jaws dropped open, "You've never had pizza before?" asked Beast Boy.

I shook my head.

"Man are you in for a treat."

Cyborg placed the order, then turned to look back at me, "So, what exactly did you eat back in your time."

I shrugged, "Mostly military rations, ya know, a highly nutritional paste that tastes a lot like glue… But whenever we were on a monster hunt, some of them were good to eat, so we'd cook 'em up and eat 'em."

The Titans all gave me varying looks of shock and disgust.

"Really, Ruby Dragon was my favorite though, it tasted really good."

Beast Boy looked away, "meat…disgusting."

Cyborg looked thoughtful for a moment, "What did ruby dragon taste like?"

"I really wouldn't know how to describe it, I've never actually had anything else quite like it. All I can tell is that I know about 100 different ways to cook it. Cuz you get a LOT of meat from one of 'em."

We stopped talking as the pizza arrived. Everyone grabbed for their choice, my gloved hands went for the 'loaded' pizza that Cy had ordered.

I took a first bite experimentally, then proceeded to eat the rest of the slice happily. I ate slowly, enjoying the taste, until I realized that in the time it took me to eat one slice, Cyborg had eaten three.

I immediately began to eat as fast as I could so that I could actually get my fill. It got to the point that even after everyone had stopped eating; me and Cy ordered another pizza.

At about that time, Robin showed up, and joined us; he pulled up a chair and joined me and Cyborg eating the extra pizza.

When we had finished, Robin began to explain what had happened at the police station. "The ringleader of the men we took down last night leaked out some interesting information. Most of what he said was incoherent babbling, but I picked up something about the Tri-County Theatre. It's a lead I can't just let go, so I told Commissioner Rodriguez that we would send a Titan undercover there to see what we could learn. That only leaves us with the question of who to send; I can't go, I'll be needed to help monitor that situation."

Cyborg looked around at all the Titans, "Man, all of us are too recognizable, we can't do undercover work."

Robin smirked, "All of us except Chris, the media hasn't been able to catch up with him yet, no one knows who he is. Besides, I think he could use a little fieldwork. What do ya say?"

They all looked right at me, and I got this bizarre feeling that I really didn't have a choice anymore, so I agreed.