Disclaimer: Do not own anything except this plot.
A/N: … What is the meaning of life…?
OK, real question, am I still lacking the 'fluff' stuff? If I am, I'd be much obligedif you wereto advise me...
It's been about two days since the arrival of Mister Cain and already Terra notes improvement on her strength, defense, speed and senses. Though he was a great teacher he was brutal and quite eerie at night. He barely slept and his temper was incredibly short. Whenever they trained and David hit Terra, it would hurt badly. Even if the pain was unbearable and it was evident that she was hurt to the daftest of people he would keep telling her to get up.
He said pain built character.
All the good it did so far was hurt her and give her a broken nose. Now she earned herself a patch on her face until it healed. He was sour but it was up to her to improve so he could leave early. Besides she does need the improvement, right?
In the middle of the night, Terra is rudely awoken by a shake and a rough 'wake up'. She grunts and covers her head with a pillow.
"Mm… five more minutes…" She mutters from under the pillow, half-asleep. David Cain crosses his arms and yanks her out of bed. He drops her on her feet and tells her to get dressed.
"Now..." He growls as she drags herself to the washroom to get ready for their daily training. After getting ready, she spots the gray-haired male in fighting position and his eyes fixed on her. She freezes, knowing that a movement of suddenness would cause him to react. He crouched lower as if he was on the prowl and Terra knew talking out of this dangerous situation would only cause broken ribs. "Get ready." He growls at her. She obeys without hesitation. "Now we are going to be training on offense…the first thing in offense is to learn counter attacks… in order to trigger counter attacks, you'll have to read your opponent's attacks before they hit you. You try to hit me." He explains as he loosens up on his position. Terra is startled but doesn't bother to ask questions. She runs to him, pulls her fist back and jabs at him only to have it caught and get her body thrown to the wall.
"Ow…" Terra groans in agony as she rubs her head.
"Get up, Terra." He says with a soft spot in his voice. She woozily gets to her feet and gets back in fighting position. "It was very evident that you were about to punch me so I used common sense and caught it. Keep that in mind next time." He adds. Terra couldn't help but feel as if she knew him from somewhere. His attitude was so familiar that every time he spoke she complied with fright. The blonde didn't like him the slightest. "Try to attack me again." He orders sharply. Terra nods and runs at him. She tries to give him a kick to the side (Ha, get it? Sidekick! Sorry for interrupting, I just had to let you in on that if you didn't catch it. I'll shut up now…). David jumps back, grabs her leg and throws her to the wall again. "Now I'll try to attack you and you have to counter. Once someone tries to punch you, you catch his/her fist and attack. If they kick you do the same. Understood?" Terra nods immediately and straightens up. He nods back and crouches. He pulls back his fist and hurls straight to Terra. Terra, not accustom to learning so quickly, hesitates and stars suddenly appear out of nowhere.
At the same Gotham café she met Speedy at; Terra seats herself with a coffee in one hand and an icepack to the eye with another. A moan escapes her lips once the pain in her eye returns. Then, out of the blue, Speedy seats himself in front of the miserable ex-rock mover. He notices her grief and grins.
"Hey," He says, startling the fourteen year-old girl. Her muscles ease and she answers back with the same greeting in a more monotonous voice. He frowns at her in curiosity and notes the extra injuries she had earned herself in simply two days. "My God, are you alright? It looks like you were run over by elephants." He answers to her wounds, baffled. Terra was very pleased to know the archer cared but he didn't show up at the right time. She was exhausted and in a lot of pain. He leans into her and says, "Here, let me take a look." He removes the pack and he recoils in shock. Terra had earned herself a black eye. "Wow, what happened?" He asks with utter surprise. Terra couldn't answer. If he knew she was training with one of Gotham's biggest assassins he would be disgusted with her and probably even put two and two together and know she was the one who robbed the Wayne Manor. She grins nervously and shrugs.
"Uh… I… went into a… biking accident…?" She lies, chuckling nervously. To her surprise, he buys it.
"Ouch. I hope you get better. Anyway, I just wanted to know why you ran off on me last time we met. If I said anything wrong, I'm sorry and-…"
"You didn't say anything- grunt- wrong… I just remembered I had some business to do at work. Nothing bad happened." She grunts in agony, placing the pack back on her face. Speedy grimaces.
"That looks more than just a biking accident…" Speedy says, placing his hand on hers. Terra blushes at his first move. This was new… "Are you sure you're OK?" She slowly slips her hand out of his grip as if to scratch the back of her neck but she was actually nervous. She quickly changes the topic so they won't dawdle around with a dangerous topic.
"So…um… how was your search for clues?" She notices how Speedy's smile fades. This was actually a good thing that simply meant she did her job well.
"The crook attacked Robin… she took the evidence with her. Hey, I'll let you in on something. He says the robber looked exactly like this girl," He trails off, searching around in his pocket and suddenly stamping a picture of a similar looking blonde onto the table. She looked so happy with a green guy next to her. They were obviously playing videogames since they had controllers in their hands and the girl was winning. That was off topic though. The weird thing was this blonde girl looked exactly like Terra… "She goes by the name of Terra. He also said she died two months ago… kind of spooky, eh?" Speedy chuckled. Terra did not find this funny the slightest. Robin was onto her and a cover as a civilian was starting to sound good. Speedy's grin disappears once he notes the fact that she was focusing on the picture real hard. He's about to interrupt until she beats him to it.
"That green guy next to her," She begins while pointing to the young green teen with a goofy expression on his face. "Who is he?"
"You don't know Beast Boy from the Titans?" Terra perks up to the name and Speedy answers to her expression. "I guess you do."
"That's Beast Boy? I've… only heard stories about him..." Terra lies in a nearly unstable tone. Speedy gives her a slightly funky look but shrugs.
"You're not missing out. He's one of the worst jokers I've ever met." Speedy chuckles to lighten the mood. Terra answers with a small 'oh' and continues to stare hard at the picture. Suddenly a ringing knocks the young blonde out of thought and averts her eyes to her phone. She checks the number and quickly gets up.
"I have to go to work again. Boss is calling me. Later," Terra blurts out in nearly a jumble as she dashes out the doors. Speedy stares on at Terra in disbelief and sighs. He really doesn't understand her; then again, he doesn't even know her name. He then tries to gather the photo of Terra and Beast Boy just to realize that it was gone.
"Huh…? The photo… where did it go…?" Speedy asks himself frantically while looking around, trying to find the picture.
Terra posts the photo on her wall and stares on. She seemed so… happy… how large was the betrayal for her to give all that up? She had a home and friends that were probably a family to her. Terra got an explanation but things were still blurry in certain parts.
It's been five days since she last saw Speedy and stole the picture from right under his nose. Ever since then, she's been trained harder and longer and her improvement has sped up. She's even noticed her strength and speed had increased almost dramatically.
"Terra," A husky voice calls from behind. Terra turns to see David Cain towering above her juvenile form. "You said Marcello called you to steal something new… at the Gotham City Museum, true?" Cain asks in all seriousness. Terra nods and passes him to get dressed in uniform. A long pause rests itself onto the room. Then he starts again, "Do you remember what I've taught you, Terra?"
"Yes," Terra responds tiredly, already at her Cap-toe Oxford shoes. David Cain turns around to see Terra at her gloves and grins.
"You've memorized your tactics for defense, offense and stealth?" David asks while Terra puts on her hat. She nods at him and fetches the sheath for her sword and clips it onto her belt. "The sword techniques I taught you?" Terra nods again as she slides the sharp, long weapon into its sheath. The Markov flies out the window silently and shoots out to Gotham City Museum as the tall male looks on.
At the museum, Terra flies to a window and takes out a glass-cutter. She slowly cuts a large enough circle for her to enter and carefully tips it forward by delicately pushing the bottom of her circle. She grabs the top, jets to the ground, drops the piece of glass and flies back up and into the circle.
'Marcello said I need to go into the Oriental section of the museum and steal the newest ship-in.' Terra whips out a picture of a pitch black face mask with four glowing red eyes and sharp fangs. It looked so much like a demon especially with that devilish joy to its still expression. She puts it back in her pocket and lowers herself onto the ground. Surprisingly, the lasers were visible and she was able to slip through with slight difficulty.
Finally she reaches the mask, which was in a glass hold right in the middle of the Ancient Chinese exhibit. Terra jumps through the red lasers and finally arrives to the glass compartment. She flips out the glasscutter again and swiftly cuts another circle, slightly bigger than her fist, and removes it with the same method as with the other window. She grins at the mask and glances at the cut out glass. An idea pops up; Terra slowly reaches out for the mask and readies herself for a switch. This was going to take a swift movement in order to leave the lasers guarding her goal undisturbed. Suddenly, she jerks the mask back and replaces it with the glass immediately. Terra backs up and waits for an alarm but it's silent. She sighs and turns to see Robin and Speedy in attack mode. Terra freezes with terror.
"Terra," Robin barks, sinking lower into his attack position. Speedy stays completely still with his bow and exploding arrows in place and locked on Terra. His eyes narrow. "Come with us now!" He growls. The blonde thief lowers one hand to her sword and, with her thumb, loosens the sword from its grip in its sheath with the small flick of her finger. "Now," Robin orders dangerously as Terra simply stands in that spot. Terra, knowing that the lasers were no longer a problem anymore, swiftly and abruptlyjets to the side of the room attempting to get around them. Speedy's mental sensors quickly pop into motion and he releases his arrow. Terra also reacts by whipping out the sword and throws a swift strike of her weapon through the arrow successfully. Robin ran after her and, since he was faster, he catches up with her. He raises his bow staff and swings but Terra runs up a wall and jumps over Robin. She grabs him from behind, puts him in a sleeper and flips the sword onto Robin's neck. The boy wonder struggles but once Terra adds more strength into the death grip he decreases his struggling to slight jerks. Speedy freezes and lowers his weapon. Terra grins and throws Robin onto Speedy. Once the two get up and look around she's nowhere in sight. Robin grits his teeth in utter anger but Speedy's comforting hand-on-shoulder technique calms him down.
"We'll get her another time." Speedy says soothingly as they both walk out.
Terra, in one of the dark corners of the ceiling jumps out from her hiding place, up onto the glass case and flies up through the windowpane in the middle of the ceiling. Robin hears a crash of glass and runs back in to see Terra flying off. He snarls furiously.
"Damn it…" Robin hisses under his breath as he watches her get away cleanly for the third time.
"I keep it?" Terra nearly screams, back in her apartment. David Cain watches on as she discusses the stolen mask with Marcello on long distance.
"You heard me, that mask is for you to keep. And besides," Marcello explains roughly. "You need to keep your face covered from now on because you've been recognized by the Titans already."
"So if they already know it's me how come I need to wear this thing?"
"They aren't absolutely positive. If you go without them seeing your actual face up close they can't confront you immediately." Marcello answers slowly, suppressing his anger. Terra doesn't speak for a while and finally agrees. She hangs up and she feels Cain's stare piercing into her. The young Markov turns to him and stares back awkwardly.
"I see you've done well in your last mission; but what about your current mission?" The 6 '2" male asks with concern. Terra's eyes widen. The Gotham Mafia is still a priority and she completely forgot. Terra turns away and looks down at the floor.
"I forgot about it. But I'll get to it." Terra states almost in fear. David nods and flips her mask over to her.
"Then I guess you'll be needing this." The elder says calmly, as Terra sighs and grabs it. She slips it onto her face and ties it on by making a knot at the back of her head with the string provided. She opens the window and jumps out.
In Robin's room, Robin is pacing his room in anxiety, still dawdling on the fact that Terra slipped out of their sights with complete ease bothered him. The fact that she had acquired a weapon was no better. Now she is about twice more dangerous than she used to be. Then there were those new moves. How was she able to run a wall, master stealth, become more flexible, become a dangerous threat and learn how to master a sword all in one week? She obviously didn't teach herself all this. Terra probably earned herself a teacher. It was so obvious. But who was just about anybody's guess. Maybe if he were to find some sort of pattern within her moves he just might be able to recognize it. In order to keep up he needed to keep close to the girl he predicted was Terra and gain more answers instead of questions.
He whips out his communicator and contacts Speedy.
"Robin to Speedy, do you read-…"
"Yeah, yeah, I hear you! What do you want now?" The rough and tired voice spat out.
"Change of plans; keep in touch with the girl you met at the Gotham pizza place and follow her home."
A pause ensures then Speedy's reply comes out abruptly.
"Surely you jest." He answers sarcastically and seriously all at once. Robin scowls at him.
"I don't joke." He snaps while turning off the communicator and throwing it aside while looking out a broken window. Robin was turning desperate.
Review or get shot and stabbed.