Unsuspected Heroes
An alternate look at the Prophecies Universe
Ker rubbed his temples as he looked across the table at his friend, who was currently involved with the process of devouring a rather large lunch…one even bigger than Ker's. It was a school mystery how the two of them could eat so much, yet remain so slim. In Faris's case, Ker's friends knew the answer, but they had been unable to say exactly why Ker had such an active metabolism as well. His wasn't nearly as abnormal as Faris's, though, leaving them to chalk it up to Ker's other well-known abnormality: he didn't get cold. Neither did he get hot, even in what most would consider fairly extreme temperatures for the region. Granted, Jump City had a mostly temperate climate, but he didn't even show the slightest shiver or sweat according to temperature that anyone had ever observed, even during blizzards or heat waves.
But it wasn't a thing that was discussed all that often. So, Selais had some metahuman blood in him. Big deal. It wasn't as if he had gotten any useful power out of it. Despite his training in martial arts by his father, he seemed to have no inclination to take Robin's path, and that was that. One didn't mess with him or his friends and didn't expect his clothing style to change the whole year long. That was about it.
Faris was another matter. He didn't show any metahuman tendencies, instead appearing to be just a normal, if near supernaturally handsome teenage boy with a large appetite. Ker knew better. Some medical experiments had been performed on the raven-haired boy, and had left him with a greater need for sustenance than normal. Not even Faris knew the nature of the experiments, but Sarah had once stumbled onto a prophecy that seemed awfully accurate to Faris.
The Roma boy didn't try to understand Sarah's explanations of why Faris was the subject of that prophecy, but it had told them that Faris had been experimented on. Typically, Faris had overreacted, considering himself a freak. Ker didn't see what was so wrong about being a test subject for what he suspected was a boosted immune system. After all, Faris had not once been sick in all the time they had known each other, not even to the extent of a cold. It would also explain how despite a rather promiscuous period in Faris's life, the boy had never gotten an STD, in defiance of the odds.
But Faris's abnormality was a large part of why he was so wary of Rachel. Ker didn't share Faris's paranoia of civilian metahumans, and even would go so far as to say that his friend was being a bit of a hypocrite. After all, he just wanted to live a normal life, so why should he investigate a possible meta? They could easily have the same wish. As far as Ker was concerned, the last teleporter they had dealt with was an isolated incident, as painful as some of the fallout was from that incident. A pang shot through his chest as he remembered what had been lost to that airhead's love of gossip and ease of acquiring it.
Still, all being said and done, he just had a monumental amount of trouble linking Rachel's personality and that French girl's. She sure as hell wasn't looking for GOSSIP.
Raven watched Ker from across the lunch room. The boy seemed like he wanted to start an argument with his friend, but was holding his tongue. The Azarathian picked at her salad, then looked over to Sarah. "Uh, Sarah?"
The blonde returned her new friend's look, pizza in hand. "Yeah?"
Raven looked back at Ker and Faris. "I was just wondering…you seem to be good friends with Ker…so why don't you sit with him at lunch?"
Sarah sighed, and put down her pizza. "Well, Rachel, outside of the fact that I don't want rumors going around that I'm his girlfriend, I just have a hard time around Faris." She grimaced. "It's a bit complicated…because Faris is my friend, too."
'Rachel' looked at Sarah with a look of bewilderment that was not at all feigned. She opened her mouth, as if to say something, the shut it. She definitely got the feeling that this was a subject she should stay far away from for quite a while…at least if she wanted to keep Sarah as a friend.
Though that's not likely to be a factor in the long run, she thought bitterly. I really don't like to think of the emotional pain I'm going to cause before this is over. And I was so mad at Terra…
"Hey, Ker."
The Japanese-speaking trumpet section leader looked up to see his partner in crime done with his lunch and staring at him seriously. "What, Faris?" he asked wearily, not wanting to go into another discussion of why a teleporting meta would be dangerous. "I've got lunch to eat." That was true. Ker hadn't taken a bite in the time that he had been brooding.
Faris's question was blunt. "You've got a crush on the new girl, don't you?"
Ker nearly spat his drink out all over Faris's face. "NANDA?" he asked disbelievingly in his first tongue, never mind that Faris didn't even approach fluency in it. The raven-haired boy knew that word, which might be coequally translated as 'what the hell?'. "Fates above, man…where'd you get that notion?"
"My knowledge of your mannerisms," said Faris flatly. "Looks to me like you've got a crush on her and are wondering how she feels about you."
Ker blinked twice. "I thought I felt her staring at me while I was aiding Japanese, but I really hadn't considered my feelings on the matter. Hontou."
Faris nodded. "Right. Well, let me speed things up. How's she look to you?"
"Cute…"
"Check one. She seems like fun to be around, right?"
"Yeah…I guess so."
"Check two. What's your gut feeling? Or your read of her soul, whatever."
"I…ohhhhhh." Ker banged his head against the table. "I guess I do have a crush. Chikushou."
Faris gave a grin and pointed over Ker's shoulder. "Buck up, man. She's good at hiding her intentions from the mouths of most, but she's getting desperate in her limited time here, and wants to at least get in a month or so with you before she goes back home…wait…Jane doesn't take Japanese…you weren't talking about…" He spun around in his seat and stared wide-eyed at Raven's disguised self, turning back to Ker with a vehement oath. "El khara dah? Kus, man, what are you thinking?" he whispered harshly. "That ahbe is a threat!"
Ker sighed and stood. "Guess I'm just not thinking at all." Walking over to the trash cans, he dumped what was still a mostly-untouched lunch and walked out of the cafeteria as a pair of violet eyes followed his movements.
"Look…do you need me to jam my foot in under yours to show you exactly how high off the ground your heels should be?" sighed Ker.
Rachel's face fell a bit. "Maybe…I thought this was high enough."
Ker stepped in front of her and shook his head as he watched the rest of the section go through maneuvers under Faris's commands. "Look, I'm probably going to sound like a bastard, but do your calves hurt to stand like that?"
Still trying to keep her balance on the balls of her feet, Raven shook her head slightly. "No…not quite."
Ker gave an interesting expression that was half smirk, half grimace. "Well, it should." He went up on the balls of his feet. "Here, take a look. It doesn't hurt me, because I've been doing this and training in another thing that stresses those muscles for a long time, but do you see how high up I am?" He took a few steps, the top of his head keeping perfectly level. "That's what you need to get to, eventually, anyway. The really important part though, is the smoothness of the motion. Bobbing up and down kills your sound and is really visible to the judges. It's not so bad sound-wise for you, because you play the flute, but the visibility is still really high, considering the hats and the metal bar that should be perpendicular to your body." He gave her a telling look.
Raven winced and raised the flute to level with the ground again. "Sorry…"
He shook his head with a smile. "Don't be. These are the normal first-timer mistakes. I'm just doing my best to break you of them as quickly as possible. First one builds the stance, then they learn the kata, neh?.
Raven's eyes widened a bit, which she then artificially inflated to stay in her 'Rachel' character. So he does practice martial arts… "Kata? You mean, like in martial arts?"
His cheeks went pink and he scratched the back of his head. "Yeah…I'm a practitioner."
Playing the attracted girl for all she was worth, Raven pressed forward with her questioning. "Really? What style?"
"Oh, my dad insisted that I learn Touki no Fenikkusu-ryu," answered Ker with a dismissive shrug.
'Rachel' gave a small frown. "I've never heard of that style." She stored the name in her memory for a consult with Robin.
"It is a fairly obscure style. Now…RACHEL, TEN-HUT!" He rapped out the commands fast enough that Raven nearly didn't snap to attention in time. "Well, on with your brainwashing…nice trick to get me talking about martial arts to catch a break." He had an amused look on his face.
"I was actually interested," said Raven, somewhat sheepishly, and found to some extent that she meant it. Azar curse it…
The boy gave her a smile, and a fairly warm one, that had her wondering exactly where this conversation was going to go. Suddenly, it morphed into one of slightly devious amusement. "Good to hear, but there's no talking at attention, remember?"
Raven winced again.
"So how was school, pumpkin?" asked the disguised Cyborg with a badly-suppressed 'butter-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth' grin.
"Fine, dad…" said Raven, until she closed the door. "…you do realize I can telekinetically disassemble you if you push it too far, right?"
Cyborg smirked. "Oh, the Raven I know is far too soft to do something like that…now get that black stuff away from my wrist. I need that to drive. And if the Cyborg stops driving, we might hit something at high speed, and that's bad things all around."
"Since when did you start talking in the third person?" asked Raven in what was more of a 'Rachel'-like tone of wry amusement.
"The Cyborg has been experimenting with it on and off for most of the day. Personally, I think it's a bit of a hassle, but what about you?" Cyborg glanced at her both in jest and in surprise at the way her alter ego seemed to be infecting her.
"Well, it's annoying."
"The Cyborg might just have to keep it up, then."
Raven sighed.
"So," asked Robin, as he sat, staring at the screen of his personal computer, "You said you had some questions for me, Raven?" Robin's eyemask narrowed as he read about a number of recent threats from military labs. A flight-capable exoskeleton, a shipment of easily modifiable SAMs meant for shoulder firing…and a suit capable of storing a large arsenal of weapons in compressed space, or something like that.
"Just one, really," replied Raven, as she stepped into the room, her hero costume on and chakra stone showing, though she didn't bother to return her hair to normal. "Have you ever heard of a martial arts style named Touki no Fenikkusu-ryu?"
Robin froze. "Where did you hear that name, Raven?"
"Well, Ker…my suspect? He says that he's been trained in it…why?"
Robin blinked, though his eye mask could not transmit the action to Raven's eyes. "Raven…Touki no Fenikkusu-ryu might just be the BEST martial art ever codified. It's a real 'master and apprentice only' kind of style. This Ker guy…" Robin looked down at his boots, then up at Raven. "…well, he's probably a better martial artist than me."
Raven had another unaccustomed, yet quickly becoming familiar, moment of dumbfoundedness. "What should I do? 'Rachel' has a crush on him…and I think he might be starting to return the attention." She looked off to the side, blood tingeing her cheeks pink.
Robin sighed. "Well, this probably going to be all the harder then…I want you to get to know him as best as you can…and see if he could be Titans material. I know that he might have no interest in working with us, and I still want you to find out who our band avenger is…but letting a person of that fighting ability just slip through our fingers would be almost criminal. I'm sorry, Raven…if he does want to join up, you two are going to have to sit down for a long talk."
Raven gave her best noncommittal shrug. "I'm going to have that talk no matter how this goes." The half-demon left the room, frown on her face. "Though now I wonder if I'll survive it…or even if I deserve to," she whispered.
A/N: Been a while, yes it has, but it is here anyway. Enjoy and review if you would.