Gods' Playground
04 – Settling In
Tim explained how to work the elevator, along with what floor the bedrooms were on. "There's food in the fridge—for a change—so help yourself," he said, stepping off the elevator and into the main living room. "We've got a spare room upstairs, at the end of the hall."
"Ok."
Tim was spared further awkwardness when alarms sounded across the tower. 'Saved by the bell,' he thought idly, glancing at where their guest had sat down on the Titans' couch. "Look, we have to go. I have no idea when we'll be back. Stay on this floor, or the floor above, where the living quarters are. Understand?"
Kate nodded from her place on the couch. "I won't go anywhere," she promised. For some reason, something about the way he addressed her was beginning to irritate her. 'I'm not completely helpless, you know.'
Giving the girl one last glance, Tim ran to the elevator and made his way to the garage. Gar and Tara were the only ones still in the Tower—that he knew of, anyway—and they had probably flown ahead. Raven and Noel had left to catch a movie somewhere only a few minutes ago, Victor was out fine-tuning the T-Car, and he had no idea where Nigel and Rob were but they were supposed to be on patrol. Hopping onto his motorcycle, he took off into Jump City, following the signal from the bike's built in communicator/tracking system.
Kate quickly grew bored after Tim left. Yawning, she made her way into the kitchen and looked through the refrigerator. 'Let's see... meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, bread—sandwich!' she grinned, quickly throwing together her impromptu dinner. Soon after eating, she yawned and made her way to the elevator, pressing the button Tim had pointed out which would lead to the floor above this one. "Why am I so tired lately?" she asked of no one in particular.
The elevator opened a moment later and Kate stepped out. Looking around, she found herself in the top part of the 'T', as evidenced by the hall that stretched to either side. Glancing left and right, she wondered briefly which end her new room was on. "This would be a great time for you to help," she muttered, casting a quick glance towards her wrists. Her request was answered when a familiar tug there began guiding her to her left.
A short walk found her in front of a door at the left end of the hallway. "This is it?" she asked quietly. Her answer came in the form of her possessed arm jerking itself up and onto the door knob. Twisting the knob and pushing the door open, she stepped into the room and found the light switch. Looking around, she took in her new place of residence. Compared to her lodgings at Jason Blood's manor, the room Tim had given her was downright bare. It contained only a low bed, a bookshelf half-full of a random assortment of reading material, a small desk with a laptop computer, and a desk chair. The room's most attention-grabbing feature was its floor-to-ceiling windows which looked out across the bay that separated Titan Tower from the rest of Jump City.
An insistent tug at her wrist directed her towards the bed but Kate planted her feet and held her ground. "No—I have to wash," she pointed out. The tugging changed directions, pulling her back out into the hallway and towards a nearby washroom. Clearly, it was feeling impatient. After a thorough shower, she stepped back out and made her way back to the guest room where she would be staying. She took a flying leap from the door and landed somewhere near the middle of the bed, then made her way under the covers. Kate was asleep before she had time to remember that she'd forgotten to close the door, but that didn't matter—it closed on its own soon after the girl fell into slumber.
Kate awoke to that familiar, irritating tug. Opening her eyes, she glared at... a girl, sitting on the edge of her bed, smiling at her. "Who are you?" Kate asked.
The girl said nothing but stood and motioned for Kate to follow. Shrugging, Kate stood as well. Halfway across the room, the girl pointed back towards the bed, drawing her attention to where... Kate was still sleeping soundly. "Huh?"
The smaller girl, upon closer inspection, looked to be a shorter, younger version of Kate herself—though this odd girl had Kate's old long hair (not a speck of green in sight) and a pair of softly glowing crests alight in the center of her forehead. Little-Kate took hold of her older twin's wrist and the two disappeared, only to reappear on the roof of Titan Tower. Finally, the little girl spoke. "Hi."
Kate was confused...but then again, when wasn't she recently? "Um, hello? I'm Kate, who are you?"
The child smiled. "I know who you are, and I suppose you can call me Medley."
"I'm still asleep. This is a dream, isn't it?"
"Very perceptive. This is the only way I can talk to you as I am now—at least for any extended period of time."
"Who are you?" Kate asked again.
Walking over to the edge of the tower, Medley took a seat, letting her legs swing over the edge. "Even if you remember nothing else, you should know the answer to that."
"You're the one who has been helping me? You led me here. Are you what's inside me?"
"Yup!" Medley confirmed. "I've been helping you since the beginning—but I can't do that for very much longer. I've just about lost the last of my ability to influence and interact with the world around you, you see."
"Why?"
Frowning slightly, Medley looked out over the city...and beyond. "I'm very tired—I would very much like to rest, soon, but there are things you have to know before I can. You have to grow up Kate—learn the ways of the world and prepare yourself."
"For what?" Kate asked, taking a seat beside the other girl.
"I can't tell you that—you are not yet mature enough. But I can tell you some of it... There are those that desire power Kate and as you are now, you would be an easy target for such attempts. You have to grow stronger—in mind, body, and spirit. That is why I am going to teach you about the world while I still can. You won't actually remember any of this—not clearly, anyway—but the knowledge will be there."
Kate sighed, thinking back over the past weeks. "Will I remember who I was?"
"No," Medley shook her head. "I'm sorry. You were deadKate. Nearly all that made up the Kate Rivers of the past was lost. You're welcome to learn who you were—I encourage it, actually—but that doesn't make you who you are. Do you understand?" Katie didn't need to know that the old Kate, as part of their pact, had asked to start completely over—in essence, end her old life and start a new one—at least not yet. Though for the life of her, Medley didn't know why her vessel had chosen to do so. Perhaps it was simply the fact that the girl was weary of living life...
"Not really. Jason said I needed to face my past, though."
Medley nodded. "Yes, you do. Now, enough worrying about that—you'll deal with it soon enough, most likely. Come on, there's something I want to show you."
"Where?" Kate asked, standing.
"There," Medley pointed towards the city. Taking Kate's hand, she shifted her awareness across the city, taking the other girl with her.
"Why do they fight?" Medley asked some time later as she and Kate watched the Titans doing battle far below.
"I don't know," Kate shrugged. "Why do they?"
"They live in a conflicting society that abhors violence, yet at the same time praises and encourages it—along with many, many other things. That same society spawns the things they fight against—murderers, rapists, psychotics and the like. In essence, they must become like those they fight against to defeat them. Looking at it from that perspective, they are no better than what they fight—so why do they?"
Kate was silent for several long moments before speaking again. "Maybe they don't see it like that? Maybe they do it simply because they believe it is right."
"What makes using violence against another living thing 'right'? What justifies that kind of response?"
"It's like you said—they have to become at least a little like those they fight against because it's the only way. They do it to protect those around them. Words can't solve every problem—some people just won't listen, I guess."
"Yes, protect the many by harming the few that threaten them."
Kate shook her head. "No, that doesn't sound right. They're good people..."
"Good people don't revel in acts of senseless violence and destruction."
"Then it doesn't make any sense! I don't see what point you're trying to make!"
Sighing, Medley gave up on her attempt to let Kate figure it out on her own for the moment. "Sometimes good people have to do bad things in order to make sure that bad people don't do worse things. Understand?" Well, that wasn't entirely accurate. Medley knew the Titans and those like them didn't take pleasure from hurting others, but the simplest answer would do for the moment and could be built upon later.
"Somewhat."
"It's like this... The Titans and those of their ilk will fight their hardest to ensure that others with gifts like theirs don't abuse the power given to them. Even in the worst of situations, they try not to take life if they can avoid it. Even if they are up against someone who has murdered hundreds of people, they will still try to defeat that person without killing them so that he or she can be brought to justice in the eyes of their peers instead of simply taking revenge for the lives lost by taking the life of the murderer."
"What's revenge?"
Medley sniffed disdainfully. "It's the mortals' way of coping with the wrongs done to them. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth... if everyone practiced it, they would wipe themselves out in a matter of years simply because everyone would be blind and unable to chew."
"But they aren't like that," Kate pointed out. The battle below was winding down.
"Exactly. They're different. It is what separates them from those they fight against—the ability to rise above their baser impulses and do what is right, not what they desire. But even so, they're only mortal—they can't and don't rise above those urges all the time."
"So what makes them different from everyone else is that they do the right thing?"
"They do what is right when no one else can or will."
"What is the right thing?"
"The wrong thing, 'evil,' is when a person takes joy in hurting others, or takes malicious advantage of those around them, believes themselves above everyone, or takes the life of another. Those are just some of the evils of gods, mortals, and otherwise. I suppose then that the right thing would be to respect the life around you, strive to protect it, and aid those in need."
"Killing is bad, then?"
Medley nodded. "Yes—very bad. But sometimes it is necessary. You see, not every life can be preserved. Sometimes, it is beyond mortal means to redeem one who has wandered too far down the wrong path, and that person has to be removed for the sake of protecting those around them. Basically, by mortal standards, it is almost justifiable to take the life of an individual who possesses too much strength, will, or sheer hatred for life to be to be cured or even contained—sometimes even death isn't enough to hold something like that. There are times when something that strong has to be completely and utterly erased..."
Below, flashing lights indicated that the police had moved in to take over with the containment of Plasmus, though Kate didn't know that was who the Titans had been fighting this whole time. "When is it ok to take life?"
"It is never 'ok', but it is forgivable when it becomes a last resort for protecting innocents and those you care for. There will come a time when you will have to make that decision for yourself, and it won't be easy. Well, that is to say that dealing with the consequences will be harder than the actual deed itself."
"I don't want to."
"You won't be given a choice."
"What if I run away?"
"Then the lives of those lost to whatever you fled from rest on your shoulders, because you had the ability to do something about it yet refused to act. I know it sounds hard, but that's just the way it is. It's the life these people lead; the life you must lead if you—we—are to survive."
Kate sighed. This was too much for one night. "Can we go back to bed now? My head hurts and I don't want to think about it any more."
Smiling, Medley nodded. "Sure. But it won't be that easy to escape thinking about such things in the future—you must face them eventually. It is part of becoming an adult."
"Who said I wanted to be one of those?"
"You don't have a say in the matter."
Morning rolled around all too soon for our little walking enigma—though thankfully it didn't involve being woken by a pair of bracelets smacking her in the forehead. No, this time it was the sun that woke her as its rays clawed their way forcibly past her closed eyelids and proceeded to river dance all over her optic nerves. Kate groaned and rolled over, pulling her pillow over her head. Unfortunately though, it seemed the fates were against her getting that extra five minutes of sleep. The sound of a knock at her door made its way past the pillow covering her head.
"Kate, are you awake?" someone called from the other side of the door, Tim by the sound of the voice.
Pulling the pillow off her head, Kate glared towards the door. "No. Go away! Katie's trying to sleep," she grumbled, closing her eyes again, her habit of referring to herself in the third person rearing its head again...though considering the fact that she currently housed two separate minds under one body, maybe it wasn't so much third person.
The door opened and Tim poked his head in—years of living with two girls (then three, and now four it seemed) had taught him to proceed with caution at this point in the morning as one never knew when they were up and wandering around in something relatively indecent, and some of them had a tendency to throw random heavy objects (or bolts of energy/telekinesis) in the general direction of anyone who dared invade the sanctity of their morning rituals. Seeing that she was sufficiently under the covers, Tim opened the door the rest of the way. "There's breakfast in the kitchen and I'd like to get started with your training as soon as possible. Also, I'll need to run a couple of tests on your powers before we begin."
Kate groaned and threw the pillow in the general direction of the door. "Why won't anyone ever let me sleep in?"
Deftly catching the projectile, Tim grinned. "You've got five minutes to get down to the living room, or I'll send BB in with a bucket of ice water," he warned jokingly, tossing the pillow back far more accurately and closing the door before she could toss it back, after pulling it from around her face of course.
Four minutes later Kate stumbled out of the elevator, through the Titans' living room, and into the kitchen where the majority of the team was gathered. Her shirt was on inside out, her hair was a mess, and she'd left her shoes and socks back in her room. Glancing around, she noted the items on the kitchen counter and table: a couple of bottles of things she couldn't identify, a box labeled 'L-u-c-k-y C-h-a-r-m-s' (this didn't tell her anything about its contents, so she moved on), a similar box labeled 'C-h-e-e-r-i-o-s' (which again told her nothing), some toasted pieces of bread, and a stick of yellow stuff. Some of the Titans had cups of black stuff (or brown)—probably from that pot of the same on the counter—and Starfire had what looked to be a bowl of brightly colored shapes submersed in a light brown liquid.
"Breakfast?" she asked of Tim, taking a seat at the table in lieu of rummaging through the cabinets in search of something edible that she recognized. Jason had always cooked for her so she hadn't a clue as to how she should make her own.
Tim made to stand up, but Noel beat him to it by snaking out the Shimmer and snagging a bowl from a cabinet, a spoon, and the box marked 'Cheerios.' Setting them down in front of the girl, he took a sip from his own cup. "Eat these, they're good for you. Still can't read well?"
Kate shook her head. "I can tell it says 'che-ear-e-oss' but the little round things on the front didn't look like food."
Across the table, Gar blinked. "Dude," he mumbled, grinning. It looked as though he had another sucker to try his tofu recipes on.
"If Gar asks you to try tofu-anything, say no," Nigel warned.
"Hey! It's good! Don't dis the tofu, man."
Tim coughed to get their attention. It seemed he had been right in assuming that one of them would slip sooner or later. "Well, we might as well get the introductions out of the way—again—since, as Nigel just proved, most of the team is prone to slipping every now and then, and erasing your memory of the event every time it happens will be a hassle... You already know who I am."
Nigel grinned, looking sheepish. "Sorry Tim," he mumbled before turning his attention to the new girl. "You may call me Nigel Hastings, as my real name is nearly impossible to pronounce in your tongue."
"Garfield Logan, but don't call me 'Garfield'! You can call me Gar."
"Tara Markov."
"Kory Anders," Kory said after quickly swallowing a mouthful of marshmallows and chocolate milk.
Taking his eyes off the bowl of Lucky Charm marshmallows (it seemed Kory had picked out every last one of them again, damnit), Rob grinned. "Rob Candide."
"Victor Stone," Vic tossed out before turning his giant mug up and draining its contents and standing to get a refill.
Having fetched some more orange juice from the refrigerator for himself, Noel offered the carton to Kate. After a second of the girl's expectant stare, he rolled his eyes. "Look, just because the others are sometimes prone to slipups," at this he glanced between Nigel and Gar, "doesn't mean I'm willing to trust you with my name simply on the basis of wanting to get it out of the way early. You're going to have to earn it."
Having taken the proffered carton and poured herself a glass—she'd grown quite attached to this stuff while staying with Jason, and eating dry Cheerios had made her insanely thirsty—she shrugged at No...er, Savior's explanation. Besides, no one else felt really bothered by it. "So you all have two names?"
Victor nodded. "Yeah—well, everyone except Rae, anyway—the one we were given by our parents and the one we chose as an alias to use when we're in battle. We don't want the bad guys to show up at our relatives' homes..." Noel might have disagreed—probably about the fact that his father was one of the 'bad guys,' but he forced that thought down and kept silent about it.
"Oh. When do I get one?"
Victor, Gar, and Rob traded a grin. Luckily for Kate, Tim stopped them before they could attempt to give her one in some backwards game of World's Worst. "You'll have to think up one for yourself—I really don't think you want them helping," he grinned, pointing at the three in question.
Sticking his fork into his tofu, Gar flicked some of it in Tim's direction. "Well since we can't do that, what about twenty questions?"
"But we don't have the lasso."
"I don't think it matters, Fearless."
After a quick argument, the group decided on how the questions were going to be distributed. Tim would get three questions since he had seniority, Victor, Raven, and Savior would get three as well, and everyone else would get two. By toss up, Gar got to go first.
"Ok, let's see. What's the most embarrassing thing you remember?"
Thinking back, Kate grinned. "I woke up in my underwear in the snow one morning outside of Jason Blood's home. He says I sleep-walk."
"...Ooook. Are you willing to try tofu?"
"What's tofu?"
Gar pointed to his plate, sliding it across the table towards her. Kate sniffed it once before wrinkling her nose. "Nunuh." Looking wounded, Gar pulled his plate back. It was Tara's turn.
"What's your favorite food, so far?"
"I'd have to say that it's pizza."
"Vanilla or rocky road?"
Kate raised an eyebrow. Neither of those made sense. "Huh?"
Victor grinned. "Ha! Sorry Tara, my turn. Ok, who's funnier—me or BB?"
"Beast Boy," Kate answered, glancing between the two.
Gar jumped up from the table and promptly began dancing. "Go Beast Boy, it's your birthday, go BB..."
"What? Why?" Victor yelled, then groaned. "No Tim, that doesn't count man!"
Tim grinned. "Sorry Vic, but both of them count."
"Beast Boy is more hyperactive and enthusiastic, from what I've seen. Your humor is good, but his is just funnier," she answered, looking around the table to see who would go next.
"Would you prefer a room facing the sun in the morning or in the evening?" asked Kory.
"Evening! Please tell me I can have one facing it in the evening. I want to sleep in."
"Will you break the fourth wall as often as our friend Robert?"
Kate shook her head. "I don't think I know how."
"You'll learn," Noel grinned. It was his turn now, but there was one problem that the others seemed to have overlooked: what do you ask a girl who doesn't remember anything earlier than a few weeks ago? "What would you do if you woke up tomorrow morning and remembered everything before you came to in the morgue?"
"I don't know," Kate shrugged. "I don't think I can though."
Noel was tempted to ask what she meant, but knew that her answer would be vague at best. "If you did remember and it conflicted with who you are now, which way would you choose to be?"
"I like who I am now... It's all I know. But I don't know how I would react."
"Ok. I'll pass my third question to Raven."
"I will ask both of my questions now," Nigel stated, drawing the girl's attention. "Who do you believe has the coolest costume and what do you want yours to look like?"
Looking around the table and scrutinizing those there carefully, Kate answered. "Tim has the best, with you and Savior tied for second place. Victor doesn't have a costume, Gar's lacks much detail, Tara's and Rob's look like normal clothes, and neither Kory's nor Raven's appeal to me—except for the cloak thingie. Tim's looks like it's had the most thought put into it. And I get a nifty costume too?"
"I'll see what I can do," Tim agreed before asking his first question. "Raven can ask her questions later, so it's my turn. If I ordered you to stay here and someone on patrol called in for backup and no one else could respond for some reason, would you disobey my orders and go?"
"Hey wait! How come I don't get questions?" Rob asked, glaring at Tim.
Tim shrugged. "You didn't disagree at the time. Kate...?"
Frowning, Kate thought about it for a moment. "If they asked for help and I was the only one who could, then yes."
Tim nodded—this was probably the best answer he could hope for, given the conditions of his question. "Ok. If you were forced to choose between saving a team-mate or an innocent bystander, which would it be?"
"I don't know—both if I could. That question leaves too many possibilities open."
Finally, it had come down to the last question—the one that seemed to go to all the new recruits and would pretty much decide whether they would be officially indoctrinated into the team or not. "How do you like your eggs?"
Kate raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "I don't have a preference. I've had omelets, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, poached eggs, and uh... sunny-side-up eggs. They're all good, but I don't really prefer one above the others."
Tim looked around the table at the rest of those gathered. "All opposed?" he asked. No one raised their hand. He had a feeling Raven would have been opposed, but the group would have outvoted her.
Though he didn't raise his hand, Savior spoke. "I abstain."
Tim nodded, that would still make it one opposed eight for and one abstain. "Ok. Congratulations, you're an honorary Teen Titan. Welcome aboard."
"I am?" she asked, looking around the table and getting nods. "Sweet! What's that mean?"
Half of the table sweat-dropped. "It means you can officially be on the team when you've given yourself a pseudonym, have an outfit, get some practice in, and show us you're worth keeping around," Savior answered.
Kate grinned. "When do I start practicing?"
"Right after some tests."
"Entry KR-01 by Timothy Drake—Robin. This entry contains preliminary results of the tests on our newest... 'guest,' Kate Rivers, alias..." Tim paused the entry, regarding the girl several feet away who was currently attempting to lift a steel bar with what looked to have close to two-hundred and fifty pounds worth of weight on it—she was struggling, but it was moving. Suddenly, she dropped the bar and the weights came crashing down to the floor, narrowly missing her feet.
"I don't think I can lift that," she mumbled, turning to regard Tim. "Sorry about the noise."
"It's not a problem. Have you decided what you want to call yourself—I need an alias to put on my reports."
"Um," Kate frowned, scanning her mind for something that would work. She was about to tell Tim that she hadn't the faintest idea what to call herself when something half-remembered from a dream poked its head above the surface-water of Kate's thoughts. "Medley." She didn't know why, but it felt right—like she'd had the name all her life.
Tim raised an eyebrow, thinking it over. "That works," he agreed, turning his recorder back on. "Kate Rivers, alias 'Medley'. Subject is 19 years of age and approximately 5'2", weighing 109 pounds. When we first encountered Kate, it was during a battle with a sludge monster that falls under Gauntlet's definition of a 'Mortimer'. Apparently, Savior dislocated her shoulder in an attempt to save her life and she lost consciousness. Later in the battle, Scalpel relocated the shoulder and I assume the pain was enough to cause her to regain most of her senses. Scalpel's report of his observation of the events states that a pair of orange symbols appeared on her forehead before she disappeared—probably teleported—only to reappear in the air in front of Mortimer. Three massive wings—for lack of a better word—in the same shape and color as the crests on her forehead appeared in the air behind her and she completely eradicated Mortimer with one shot from the weapon formed by them. Apparently, this was more than her body could handle and she collapsed, falling to the street. Being the closest, Gauntlet attempted to catch her with his power and missed, but still managed to catch her by hand.
"Upon Scalpel's insistence, she was brought into Titan Tower so he could watch over her until she recovered. After trying to draw blood a reaction occurred which caused the sample to rupture and I quarantined the Tower after discovering that the cause of the problem was a deadly virus. After several hours of research, we managed to figure out that the virus works by attaching to red blood cells to feed on the oxygen they carry and then multiply, and a byproduct of this is that the plasma between blood cells solidifies into a crystalline state. Oddly enough though, Kate's version of the virus seems to have mutated so that it requires light to be present for the reaction to occur—otherwise, it's completely inactive. Further tests conducted at Star Labs concluded that the virus dies after six hours if injected into another host."
Tim paused, watching now as Kate paced the room—up one wall, along the ceiling, and down another. It seemed she was attempting to test how long she could use her fluke ability. "After a call to Jason Blood made by Raven, he took Kate back to his manor to teach her how to use her power at will. Apparently, he succeeded. Based on what he learned, we now know that the abilities Kate uses are random each time she decides to channel one. So far, besides the wings, she has used teleportation, energy manipulation, gravity manipulation—which somehow got stuck and is now always on but don't ask me how though—and some ability that recharged her energy stores. The fluke gravity manipulation ability allows her to walk up walls, along ceilings (as she's currently doing now), designate a target with enough mass as a gravity center and "fall" towards it emulating short flight, and alter her field to move as if in a zero-gravity environment. We don't yet know the limit of this ability.
"Besides the fluke power, Kate possesses four silver bracelets—a pair to each wrist—two of which can transform into a sword (though I suspect that the other pair can act as a secondary weapon or some other tool) and allow her to read and speak dead languages. On a side note: Kate's medical records list her as deceased. I think this has a lot to do with her amnesia, not to mention the abilities she is using. She can speak, but when she first came to us she could neither read nor write. I think she's at a first-grade reading level at the moment, thanks to Jason Blood's tutelage. Also, I would like to mention that her records also list her as being a meta-human before she died—an empath similar to Raven, though nowhere near as powerful. Blood says she gets headaches around crowds, so we're going to have to be mindful of that if we ever take her into the city.
"Back to the random abilities—she knows how to use them, but at the moment her body does not possess the kind of endurance or energy reserves to fuel most of them for a prolonged period of time. In comparison: Starfire's body works similarly to Superman in that she can convert solar energy into energy her body can use for her strength, flight, and starbolts. Kate, on the other hand, doesn't have this alternate power source, so her body must supply the energy needed to fuel her abilities—similar to Terra or the Flashes. If she somehow tapped into something similar to the Speed Force as she was dying, this might be explainable... but I'm at a complete loss as to what that could be. We need to figure out what happened in those last hours before she died. Until then, until we can send her and one of the team to Metropolis to check around, we're going to train her as per Blood's request. More data will be added to this as it comes."
Putting down the small recording device he had been dictating into, Tim gathered up a bag full of sparring gear and motioned Kate to follow him into the next room. He threw the bag into a corner and led her onto a mat in the center of the room where he then began to outline her workout and practice schedule for the foreseeable future. "Since Blood pretty much gave me free reign to train you as I see fit, this is how it's going to be: I expect you to be up by 6:00 every morning—" He silenced her with a glare that would have done his mentor proud when she made to whine. "You will be here no later than 6:30 and will spend at least an hour doing stretches, sit-ups, crunches, push-ups, pull-ups, squats and whatever else I can think of. You'll start out doing twenty of each of these and add ten each week until you get to one-hundred, then you're free to tack on as many more as you like."
Tim grinned—he was enjoying being the one to set one of these mildly insane regimens for a change. The other Titans had set up their own workout schedules and after years of working under Batman's scrutinizing gaze, he felt he was being pretty lenient. Thankfully, this wouldn't hamper his schedule any since he was having her practice at the same time. "After your warm up, you will then practice basic unarmed self-defense. Since I usually practice early in the mornings anyway, I'll be here to direct and teach you martial arts. After unarmed practice, you can either use the treadmill or go outside and run laps around the tower for half an hour and then you run the obstacle course. You've got a sword, right? After your jog, on Mondays and Wednesdays you'll practice using it against me, on Tuesdays and Thursdays against Nigel since he is also familiar with bladed weapons."
Pausing a moment to make sure she'd caught all of that, Tim continued. "Once you're finished with that, you'll go over recordings and recreations of past battles with Savior, Cy, or Raven to learn basic battle strategy. After that, you're pretty much free to do whatever you want for the rest of the day, but if you feel up to it you should attempt to repeat the stretches and unarmed practice with a punching bag in the evenings. Oh, and you'll be sparring against one of us drawn from a lot on Fridays, so you won't know who it is until you're actually there. I'll put you on the roster to start going out on patrol with the rest of the team at the end of the month, depending on how much you've improved. As you've probably noticed, there isn't a strict dietary regimen that we have to follow but you should probably watch what you eat. Until I know for sure exactly how your powers work, it would be best if you tried to stay away from too much junk food and sweets—though that will be harder than it sounds with all of the crap we've got in the fridge. Got all that?"
Kate nodded. "Uh-huh. It sounds like a lot."
"It's not really, not compared to what Batman put me through. So are you ready?"
"Yeah."
Tim sat down and directed Kate how to do leg stretches. "One last thing: no using your abilities during these workouts."
A little over two hours later, as Tim had to spend time showing Kate how to do each exercise properly so as to keep from hurting herself, Tim announced that they were done with the initial warm-up and made his way over to the bag he'd thrown into a corner when they walked in. He brought it back to the mat and opened it, tossing several white objects at his student: foot, hand, head, and shin guards—sparring gear. Pulling out his own set of red gear, he quickly donned them while showing Kate how to put hers on. When they were finished, they stood and Tim began instructing her in martial arts.
"No, no—stand more like this, with your hands here and here," he said, attempting to correct a poor stance a few moments later. He had opted to teach her one of the simpler forms of martial arts for the time being—Tae Kwon Do, since it was probably the easiest to pick up, but no less devastating to an opponent—though with many suggestions and personal preferences Batman had given and instilled into Tim's own style of fighting. It wasn't one of the fancier styles, but it was by far one of the simplest to learn and many others could be built off of some of the same general stances and moves.
"Try to always stay moving—shift around, move around your target, stay on the balls of your feet and not flatfooted, and try not to lean your head and upper body forward or back when getting ready to throw a kick or a punch. That's called 'telegraphing' and gives me a pretty good idea of what you're going to do next." Checking her movements over once more, Tim noted that she had taken it all in correctly, though something seemed off. A little more observation on his part showed that Kate was unconsciously tapping into her fluke ability, and this wouldn't do. It meant that she wasn't fully aware of herself and could be caught off guard easily. Timing his next move carefully, Tim quickly lashed out with a roundhouse to her side which sent her flying sideways halfway across the room until she realized what she was doing and let go... which resulted in a sort of half-cartwheel side flip that landed her on her side.
Kate stood and dusted herself off before resuming her place in the ring with Tim. "I was bouncing?"
Tim nodded. "Yeah. You need to learn to keep very precise control over your abilities. I'll see about having you train with Raven or Kory, depending on whose power matches yours the closest. I doubt that it works similar to Tara's, but we can't rule anyone out at this point. We'll conduct a few more tests this afternoon. Until then..."
Kate rolled her eyes. "I know, I know. You get to beat me up 'cause Jason Blood told you to. At least you don't rhyme while you do it."
"Hey, I'm not beating you up. 'Beating you up' would be doing to you what Savior asked for when he first joined. He made me beat him nearly to death before Kory forced us to stop."
Kate winced. "Ouch."
"Yeah," Tim grinned. "He's always been a bit of a glutton for punishment. Now, come at me. I'll only be blocking so you can get a feel for attacking."
Nodding, Kate launched into a series of punches and kicks, making sure to keep what Tim had said in mind and trying not to attack too predictably. Every last one of them was soundly blocked, despite her best efforts to the contrary. After several moments of this, Kate stopped. "This is kind of fun."
Seeing her guard had dropped, Tim promptly threw a side-kick towards her midsection. He was only mildly surprised when her hand intercepted his foot inches from impacting with her stomach. "That's good. Let's try it the other way around. I'll attack, you block." So saying, he took a half-step in and threw a quick set of reverse and straight punches to her solar-plexus, which knocked the air from her lungs and forced her to stumble back. After giving her time to catch her breath, he continued throwing intermittent attacks at the girl, though he was only going at about half speed. Having her block a good half of these and take the rest of them without complaint was rather impressive for her first outing—even if he was taking it easy on her.
After their short sparring match, Tim put away the gear and the pair exited the room. After stopping to pick up her socks and shoes, Tim explained that Kate could start jogging and practicing with her sword the next day. At the moment though, he wanted to test her fluke power a bit more, and so the two of them met up with Kory before heading outside. Once outside, Tim explained what he had in mind. "You've only used that ability indoors, right?" he asked, and seeing her nod he continued. "Ok, so you haven't gotten a chance to see what its limits are. I want you to jump as high as you can. If you fall, Kory will be there to catch you."
Kory waved, smiling. "Do not fear, friend Kate. I shall strive not to drop you."
Taking a deep breath, Kate sighed. "Gee, that's very reassuring. Well, let's get this over with then," she mumbled before turning her eyes towards the top of the Tower and opening herself to the fluke ability as much as she dared. Her initial takeoff proved to be far faster than she had expected and she was quickly propelled nearly a quarter of the height of the Tower. A glance towards the ground proved her undoing though as her hold over her own gravity slipped, and she quickly reversed directions. Her resulting scream, before Kory caught her, drew the attention of half the team to the large windows that looked out over the island.
Once her feet were back on the ground Kate glared at Tim. "Please tell me we're not doing that again."
"One more," Tim answered, grin plastered firmly in place.
To say his next test was a bit ridiculous would have been an understatement. "You want me to what!"
"Sprint the length of the tower and jump as far as you can towards the bay."
Kate groaned, but turned and marched to the other end of the Tower. "If I get wet I'm blaming you!" she yelled, taking off into a run before launching herself off the edge of the tower. Again, Kory didn't miss. No, this time, Kate's hand slipped from hers as it was quite sweaty. Kate made a noise akin to a squawk before it was cut off by a resounding splash upon impact.
"Dude, that water's got to be like fifty below," Gar commented later in the evening as the group had gathered in the Titans' living room.
Tim shrugged; earning one more in a series of glares thrown at him by the disgruntled girl currently huddled in a blanket on the floor in front of their couch. "I will get you back for that," she muttered around chattering teeth, pulling the electric blanket tighter.
Trading a look with Vic and Gar, Rob grinned. "So, should we..."
"You are not going to attempt the ritual of hazing, are you?" Kory asked, glancing between her teammates.
"What's hazing?"
This drew grins from all present, save for Kory and Kate, as she'd been the one to ask. "I thought Tim had already started," Victor commented, throwing a glance at Tim.
"I'd say she passed the leap of faith, though she wasn't blindfolded at the time so I don't think it counts. And we've done twenty questions already..."
Raven looked almost eager as she withdrew a blindfold from nowhere. Today was starting to look up after all. Of course, they'd planned all of this the previous night upon returning home from their battle with Plasmus. Somehow, he had escaped yet again and then had attempted to eat and/or destroy various parts of downtown. It had broken down into several smaller portions of itself as soon as the Titans showed up and then scattered. Needless to say, finding all the pieces and herding them all together had been a real pain. Upon returning, it had been Tim of all people that broached the subject of using their newest guest as an extra set of eyes. Blood had requested they train her, but he never said how—which left it up to Tim to figure that out. His line of reasoning had been that as long as she was staying there, they might as well make use of her, and the whole trial-by-fire thing was a pretty proven process. After a real group vote, it had been decided that until she had a good grasp on how to control her abilities and wasn't a danger to herself or to the public, they would integrate her as a temporary member of the team—and then when that time came, if she wanted to stay, they would revise their vote. So they'd spent a couple of hours planning yet another hazing routine...
It seemed that the leap of faith didn't count after all, as Kate soon found herself blindfolded and who-knows-where though she had a feeling it was in one of the upper floors of the tower. "Why am I blindfolded again?"
Noel answered for her. "You're going to take a couple of steps forward and fall and one of us, by random drawing from the hat, will catch you. The point is to prove that you have such trust in us that you would place your life in our hands without question."
Kate took a step forward. "Whatever you saaaAY" ...She was closer to the edge than she'd thought.
Raven teleported herself into Kate's path and prepared to catch the girl before she got all the way down the tower. Halfway down, she made her catch and flew back up to the open window Kate had stepped out of. She set the girl down on her feet... only to have her knees buckle and almost fall back out. It seemed Kate had fainted.
She came to after having a glass of water thrown into her face and spluttered, attempting to stand. "That was fun. What next?" The blindfold was put back on and she was led back down into the living room, though she didn't know it. "Guys, where are you taking me?"
"We're here," Raven announced, also having drawn the lot to be the leader in this part of the hazing. It seemed luck was with her today...or maybe just a hint of magic. After her teammates had lined up, she grinned and waited. It wouldn't be long...
"Uh... what are we doing?"
That was it. "A test."
At this range, Kate could feel the mischief flowing off of the team in waves. Needless to say, it frightened her just a tad bit. "What do you call this test?"
"The Unblinking Eye."
That didn't sound so bad. "Oh, ok. What do I do?"
Raven smirked. "Just walk forward," she answered, giving Kate a shove in the right direction. Nine solid WHACK!s later, Kate stood at the other end of the line, hands furiously trying to rub away the stinging on her bottom.
"Oww. Please tell me that's all I had to do." Poor, naïve Katie.
"Certainly. We have another test: Crossing the Desert," Raven answered again from behind Kate, as she had followed the girl so that she would again be the first one to get in her shot.
"What do I have to do now?" She found out when Raven turned her around and shoved her in the other direction. By now, Kate's bum was quite tender. The third time was it for Kate though. As Raven turned her around for the fourth run through ("The Paddling of the Swollen Ass with Paddles") she furrowed her brow. "Please teleport, please teleport, please teleport," she muttered under her breath, opening herself to her power. Raven shoved her in as the knowledge of how to use her newest temporary ability sped across her consciousness. It wasn't teleporting, as she'd hoped, but it would do just as well.
Raven pulled back her paddle and let it fly, throwing a good bit of her strength behind it this time... only to have it fly through Kate and hit Rob in the face (as opposed to the crotch, since she'd swung at an upward angle). Rob didn't have time to put up a shield and was knocked to the floor, where he clutched his broken nose and moaned in agony. "I think I'm done," Kate grinned, pulling off the blindfold. Unfortunately, she'd made two fatal mistakes: first, she'd let her guard down, and secondly, she had let go of her newest ability and was now back to normal. Tim's paddle sent her running through to the tune of more thwacks and yelps of pain.
"Golth thwing oth dithmay," Rob managed to get out as Raven knelt to fix his nose.
"What was that?"
"Get Sthar ta do da golth thwing."
"'Get Star to do the golf swing?'" Raven asked, finishing up on his nose.
Rob nodded. "Yeth! I mean yes!"
"Do you want to be the one standing on the other side of her when Star swings if she phases again?"
"Uhh... no."
Shifting from foot to foot while using her fluke power to attempt to keep weight off of her legs and thus her now-red-again ass, Kate grinned. "Is that all for today?"
"No, there's still one more test," Tim answered.
Kate winced. "Does it involve hitting my rear with paddles?"
"Nope."
"I'm almost afraid to ask what this one is..."
Trading a glance, Gar, Vic, and Rob answered in tandem. "Overindulgence!"
Kate would soon wish it only involved the paddles. She'd looked confused when they led her into the kitchen where close to forty bottles of soy sauce sat in wait. "What am I supposed to do now?"
"Drink them aaaall!" Gar laughed, thrusting a pair of bottles into either of Kate's hands.
"This is the last test?" she asked, glancing between all the faces. After receiving nods all around, Kate shrugged. "Bottoms up."
"Go girl, go!" Vic chanted as she downed the first two. By the twentieth bottle, Kate was looking a bit green. By number thirty-two, her hands didn't want to take orders any more and managed to knock over a couple of bottles. Five bottles later...
Kate belched, letting the last bottle slip from her hand. "Am I done?" she croaked. Getting an affirmative, she nodded. "Good. Katie's gonna go puke now," she announced before making a mad dash (read as "drunken waddle") to the nearest trash can where she proceeded to empty the contents of her stomach.
"This makes me so proud," Rob grinned. Among the new Titans, only he had been able to complete this part of the hazing ritual... at the cost of a severe case of diarrhea. The sound of more retching filled the room.
After Kate finished purging her stomach and had washed her mouth out, Raven took her by the elbow and led her aside. Tara followed at her wave. It was their turn to ask perverted questions, damn it! Hey, even Raven could be swayed by the forces of mischief every once in a while. And though they didn't have Wonder Woman's lasso, having Kate mostly inebriated would be almost as useful. Making sure she had the girl's attention, Raven started in with her four questions. "I didn't get to ask questions this morning so I'm asking them now. First question: why did you go along with all of that?"
Kate gave up attempting to focus and just stood limply. "I dunno. Cause you wanted me to and I thought I should try to fit in as long as I'm darkening your chamber door."
Raven blinked and then continued. "Tim told me you gave yourself a name. Where did you come up with 'Medley'?
"Something I heard in a dream."
Seeing that Tara was getting impatient, Raven sighed. "Fine. I'll ask. Who is the most sexually appealing male member of our team?"
"No, no, no! It's 'which of the guys do you think would be the most fun for a good romp in bed!'" Tara corrected, loudly.
Nigel poked his head into the hallway, taking stock of the situation. "More questions?"
Tara grinned. "Yes, it's our turn. Now go away! And cover those big ears!" Watching Nigel retreat to a safe distance, she poked Kate. "Now, answer the question."
"What was the question? I forgot." Raven repeated her question and Kate nodded. She completely understood. "...What's 'sexually'?" Or not.
Tara resisted the urge to facefault. "You uh, you do know what sex is, right?"
Kate nodded, and then shook her head. "Nunuh."
Both Raven and Tara traded a look. There wasn't a chance in hell they were giving her 'the talk'. "Maybe we should get one of the guys..." Tara suggested.
Raven shook her head. "Are you insane! Can you imagine what would happen if Rob were to find out? Or Gar, or Victor..."
"It'd be like Hiroshima all over again if Savior ever found out?"
"EXACTLY! And who do you think he would blame?"
Tara shrugged. "It's not like he'd say anything. We both know he's whipped." Noel's head ducked into the hallway and he glanced between the three girls suspiciously. Tara waved. "Uh, hi."
"Why do I get the feeling you're talking about me behind my back?"
"Because you're paranoid?" Tara mumbled once he'd left before turning back to Raven and Kate. "So what do we do?"
Raven gave the matter some thought for a moment before a wicked gleam lit her eyes. "First, we finish here. Later, we find a video camera and apprise Robin or Savior of the situation. And then... blackmail."
"Since when are you this... devious?"
Raven shrugged. Since she was down to one question and Kate didn't seem to grasp certain key concepts surrounding more adult (and thus embarrassing) activities and such, she'd have to ask something else. Oh well. "What do you think you bring to the table as a potential new member for our team and do you think you can prove yourself and earn our trust?" Ok, so that was more like two questions, but she doubted anyone would care.
"I don't know. An extra set of hands? And I thought this whole thing was about doing just that."
"No, it's more like proving you trust us."
"Oh. Then I'll work at it. Can I please go sit down now? The room is moving and I'm having trouble telling which way is up."
The Titans had dispersed by the time Raven and Tara finished their interrogation. Vic, Gar, Nigel, and Rob were playing a racing game on the PlayCubeX (or whatever they decided to call it for the day), Kory had made off to her room with a large stack of anime dvds (Card Captor Sakura, by the look of it), Noel was reading while watching the foursome wage digital war, and Tim was uploading data to Oracle. After making sure Kate wasn't going to lose her sauce all over the carpet (again), Tara made her way into the kitchen to make a light snack while Raven decided to join Noel with a book of her own.
Glancing around, Kate stumbled over to the couch and sat down in front of it, leaning her head back onto the seat. The sound of several crashes and victory music signaled the end of the current race. Trading a quick glance between themselves, Rob gave up his controller and handed it over to Kate. "Here, try your luck with this."
Glancing dazedly between the controller and the screen, Kate selected a white and gold racer and the next race was begun. Her fingers still didn't want to obey the commands her brain sent to them though and her vision was mildly blurry. The errant fingers tottered across the buttons in some pattern only apparent to themselves.
A few moments later... "It was a fluke. Rematch!" Victor called, resetting the game from where it appeared Kate had somehow won, with Nigel coming in a close second. Victor and Gar's racers were scrap metal somewhere along the track. Beside and below him, Kate was sprawled along the floor, looking at the screen from the side. The controller slipped from her hand and her eyes slid closed. Onscreen, Kate's racer once more blew away everyone else's.
"Uh, Vic?"
"What Rob? We're a little busy."
"She's asleep man. I think you're racing the autopilot."
"...No way."
Rob grinned, picking up the dropped controller and resetting Kate's racer. After a moment of investigation, it was proved that Kate had somehow keyed in a cheat code that would turn on the game's hardest AI racer—a code that was only rumored about in the gaming world. "Think we should call this in?"
"What, that we got a new recruit drunk and she somehow punched in a developers' cheat that isn't officially documented? They'd laugh and then tell the reporters and we'd get in trouble," Gar pointed out. "And then Savior would yell at us for giving the media something else to talk about."
"So what should we do about her?" Victor asked, toeing Kate's prone form. She rolled onto her stomach and proceeded to drool on the carpet.
Nigel grinned. "We can leave her there. She looks comfortable."
The boys didn't notice the figure of a little girl nearly identical to Kate materialize on the end of the couch—of course, not very many would have. Seeing that she'd drawn Raven's attention, Medley waved. Raven squinted and went back to her book after obviously deciding that she'd been imagining things. Glancing down at her charge, Medley sighed. She would have to wait for Kate's body to flush the alcohol out of its system naturally before she could communicate with her again—great. She'd spent a good deal of energy bringing the girl back from the dead and here these morons were trying to kill off what few brain cells were back in use in Kate's head at the moment. Oh well, at least it gave her more time to observe the people that had taken Kate in. Finding something entertaining enough to hold her attention was a challenging task for a being over ten-thousand years old (which probably explains Pangloss's attitude...), and these video games looked worth at least five minutes of her time.
Once more, Kate was awoken rudely—this time by someone shaking her shoulder. Groaning, she rolled over onto her back and regarded Tim. Opening her eyes proved to be a mistake though as they felt like someone had stuck a hot poker into them. Shutting them tightly, Kate rolled back over—another mistake, as a blinding headache made its presence known. "Ugh," she moaned, sitting up and taking the glass of water Tim was offering. "Where's Nigel, I think I'm dying. Get him to put me out of my misery, please."
Grinning, Tim offered her a couple of small pills. "You aren't dying—you're hung over. That's what happens when you consume too much alcohol. Swallow these, they'll take the edge off of the headache."
Kate downed the proffered pills along with the rest of the water. "What alcohol? I thought you made me drink soy sauce?"
"Yeah," Tim nodded, grinning. "It's a tradition we started after Star drank a dozen of those and started feeling tipsy. We found out that soy sauce contains a small amount of alcohol... forty bottles of soy sauce is similar to going out and getting smashingly drunk. Since we weren't of legal drinking age at the time, we started using that for our overindulgence phase of the hazing. You aren't old enough to drink yet, so we couldn't just offer you booze."
Kate put her hand to her head and attempted to massage away the pain behind her eyes. "Why did you wake me up?"
"It's six. You're supposed to be in the gym in half an hour."
"...You're kidding me."
"Nope. Now get up and get ready. If you're late, I'll double everything."
Flopping back onto the floor (and narrowly missing a puddle of leftover drool), Kate groaned. "I don't think I like having you as my superior."
Tim shrugged, going into the kitchen. "Tough luck."
And so began Kate's stay at Titan Tower as a fledgling member of the team. But things could only get better from here, right? ...Right?
Author's Note: Yes, I realize it's been done before, but I decided to go with it anyway. It gave me a chance to have a little fun at my creation's expense and to introduce her other half, as it were. Next chapter, expect something a little more...uh... Wait, why am I giving you hints about the next chapter anyway? Want to find out, then you'll just have to stick around and read it when it comes out. I apologize to those of you reading this for the wait between the last chapter and this one. Things came up. My job is a serious distraction from my writing and I didn't want to post this one until I had a good start on part five. I hope it was worth the wait. The next chapter should make up for the lack of originality and the poor schedule keeping, I hope.