Before I put this up, I just want to say one thing, inan utterly dignifed manner...

TWENTY PLUS REVIEWS! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU AGAIN!

OK, now that that's out of the way, I would like to just talk abot the thing with Silkie. I know it creeped a few people out, but it was something I'd envisioned since they brought him in. And as Brett says, he is a bat, and bats eat bugs. And if said bat runs across a large insect, what would he do with it? Besides, I couldn't believe that Silkie would get left in the tower, or that he'd be turned into the family dog or something. So I just decided this was the easiest way to get him gone. That being said, enjoy the new chapter.

Chap. 10

Training Begins

"Huh?" Katie said, completely taken back. "Brett, what are you talking about?" Sara asked. "Everything I've seen from her leads me to believe that Katie has all of Raven's powers. That includes her ability to heal." "But I don't know how, I mean, how do I.." Katie stammered. "That's what you're here for." Brett said, a slightly cold tone coming into his voice. "You guys came for training? Well training starts now. Katie, heal him." But Katie and the others remained still, unable to understand what was being asked. Letting out an exasperated sigh, Brett said, "Look, this isn't a life threatening wound. He's not going to die from it. And if I'm going to train these kids, I need an idea of what level of control they have right now. We had an accident, but that doesn't mean that we can't try to use it to our advantage. And if Katie can't heal him, I will. But that doesn't mean she isn't going to try."

That explanation didn't really win over the adults that well, but hearing of a back up seemed to calm Katie. She moved over to Martin and put her hands over the wound like she had seen Brett do. "Good." The bat said, and motioned for Raven to move over. "Guide her through it. Tell her what you used to do to heal." He explained as Raven sat by her daughter. Nodding, the empath turned to Katie and began to instruct; "Focus all your energy on the wound. Focus on nothing else. Imagine it closing in your mind." Katie nodded, and closed her eyes in concentration. Slowly, the black energy began to cover her hands once again. As her face tightened in concentration, the energy began to move off her hands and cover the wound. As the others watched, the energy flowed into it, and the skin began to close.

"Good Katie, good." Brett said quietly, as he moved closer to watch. The wound continued to close, but Katie's face grew more and more strained as she worked. Sweat started to pour down, but she continued to heal. "Dad, she's getting tired. Maybe you should take over." Raven suggested, seeing how much strain this was taking on her daughter. But Brett shook his head. "She goes until she can't take anymore." He said briskly. But that point was almost at hand. Katie was clenching her teeth trying to hold on, but the strain was too new and intense for her to ride anymore. With a small cry, she broke off and fell back into her mother's arms. Beast Boy moved forward then, as everyone's eyes turned to his daughter. The green one pushed through Katie's sweat-soaked hair and looked at her face. Exhaustion was evident throughout and her eyes seemed to have sunken in, but she was still awake, though out of breath. "Are you ok?" he asked with concern in his voice. "I-I think so." Katie said, as she shakily got up. "I didn't know it would take so much outta me." Raven opened her mouth to speak, but it was Brett who spoke first.

"Well, it may not have done the job, but that was still good for your first try." "You could be a little more sympathetic." Sara said, with sharpness in her voice. "I chose to be truthful." Brett said, as he reached out to the half-healed wound and finished the job. The shadowfire stretched outwards and covered the rest of the wound, healing it within seconds. Martin shivered as the dark flame did its job. "Feel all right?" the bat asked, as he helped Martin to his feet. "Yeah, but why is that thing cold?" Martin asked. "Well, it's technically an evil flame, it's supposed to be cold." Brett answered. "Now then, let's get down to the training room and get started." However, given the fact that Katie was exhausted and Martin had just had a long spike through his leg, the others were less then eager to have their children begin training. "Brett look, I know we said we'd start today." Jinx began. "And we're still going to." The bat said. "Martin's fine, and Katie's going to have to deal with a lot worse then exhaustion in the battle ahead. I don't have time to baby them or you. Now let's get going." With that, Brett turned for the door and left the room. The others remained for a moment, until his voice rang back; "Come on, before the end of the world please."

Despite their anger at Brett's coldness, the others followed him down to the training room. Once there, the bat called the other Elementals and Terra to his side, and had the Titans exit the room, to watch from the control room located in the upper wall of the room. Then, with the children standing side by side, Brett took the point and began to pace silently in front of them, like an army sergeant instructing his troops. They watched him, unsure of what to expect. Finally, he stopped and whirled around to face them. Speaking gruffly he said, "It's time you kids understood how this is going to work. As long as you are in this Tower, and under our tutelage, you are going to do a lot of hard and strenuous work. Your parents are not going to be around to help you." "Um, aren't they right up…" "Did I say you could talk!" Brett snapped back at Bart.

"Until you are ready, we will be your parents. We will be your mother, father, aunt, uncle, first cousins, second cousins, third cousins, and any other title you can think of. In fact, it will be easier if you simply think of us, alone and collectively, as your God. And over the course of your training, your God will ask you to sacrifice everything you have to give for them. You will grow to fear your God, perhaps even to hate them. That is fine. However, your God promises that we will be fair towards you, so long as you manage to follow your training." Brett paused for breath, then continued in a less gruff voice. "Now then, at the end of your training, when it's goal is in sight, your God shall select that member who has proven him or herself to be best suited for the job, to be leader of the team. But until then, your God will be in command of all matters concerning the team."

"Laying it on a little thick, aren't you?" Rivers muttered under his breath. However, he did not mutter quietly enough. "Do you have a problem with your God?" Brett asked, as he came forward and looked the boy in the eye. "All right Rivers, step forward. We need to gauge your abilities and you have just volunteered yourself as the first test subject." Rivers did come up, albeit a bit nervously. "All right then. Terra, release the targets." The young girl nodded, and walked over to a panel on the wall. She pressed a small button, and a small barrel-shaped droid with a bull's eye pattern on its chest dropped from the ceiling. It hovered in the air, right in front of the group. "OK Rivers, this is one of the old targeting droids your Mom used back in the day. I want you to shoot it down, but to do so, you have to hit right in the center of the target." Brett explained.

"All right." the boy said, thinking it a simple task. Raising up his hands, he began to concentrate, trying to draw up the power the same way that he had the night before. His hand began to glow, the energy coming easily. Pointing his hand at the droid, Rivers released it, hitting the droid dead center. It exploded almost instantly. Turning back to the bat, he asked, "Are you gonna ask me to do something hard now?" "Actually, I am." The bat answered. "Now you have to take them down." He said, pointing upwards. Rivers looked up and saw that two more droids had fallen from the ceiling. "There is one difference though." Brett said. "What, that they actually move?" Rivers asked. "Well yes, but there is one other thing." Suddenly, two panels on the sides of both droids fell away, and small but deadly looking guns popped out. "They shoot back." The bat finished, as River's eyes widened in surprise.

With that, the two droids began to attack, blasting energy straight at the boy. To his credit, Rivers did not panic, but rolled forward, out of their range. He quickly got back to his feet and fired off another pair of starbolts. They scored direct hits on the droid's back, but when the smoke cleared, no damage had been done. "They're only vulnerable on that target!" Terra yelled over, as the others watched with anticipation. Rivers continued to press his attack, firing starbolts in an effort to at least push the droids back, if not destroy them. But as he had predicted, these droids did indeed move. They moved through the air with unbelievable speed, avoiding each of the starbolts that Rivers threw and firing their own weapons right back. Rivers finally gave up attacking and began to run, avoiding the attacks as best he could. "Come on Riv, you can do it!" Lisa yelled, trying to give some confidence to her brother. "Blow those things to hell!" Bart echoed back. "You gonna say something?" Martin asked Katie, who was intently watching the fight. "Huh? Oh, uh, go Rivers?" "Brilliant."

The robots continued to press their attack, not giving Rivers a moment's respite. The young boy reached the other end of the room, and began to climb up the pipes that run up the wall. But even that respite was denied him, as the robots destroyed it within instants. As the pipe began to fall the other way, Rivers almost did the only thing anyone could do in that sort of situation. He leapt off the pipe, but he aimed himself at the droids, starbolts ready in each hand. But the droids moved together, effectively blocking River's chance at a good shot. Undaunted, he grabbed onto the droids and launched himself further. But as he moved past the droids, a strange thing began to happen. River's flight through the air began to slow, as though he was moving through water. More and more it slowed, until the boy finally came to halt. But he did not fall; instead he hovered in the air. The droids turned to face him, giving him a clear view of their targets. Caught up in the excitement of the battle, Rivers simply prepared to turn his starbolts on the droids. But then he made a critical error; he looked down.

Seeing how high up he was, as well as the fact he was not falling caused him to lose focus, and the starbolts vanished from his hands. The droids took this as their chance and fired on him. The hits took Rivers directly and he flew back from the impact. He would have hit the wall, if Eddie had not turned his arm into earth, stretched it forth and expanded it, catching the boy in a pile of soft dirt. Slowly he lowered him down, as Terra deactivated the droids, returning them to their sockets in the ceiling. "You ok, man?" Bart asked, as Rivers slowly came to. "I think so." The boy said, as he got up. "Good thing those droids are set for stun." Terra said. While Eddie's arm returned to normal, the others clamored around Rivers both to make sure he was ok and to speak of his endeavors. "How did you do that, Riv?" Martin asked, as Rivers came to his feet. "I didn't even know you could fly." "Neither did I." Rivers replied. "I figured that would happen sooner or later." Sara said. "Star always said that flying was pretty easy for Tammerians." "But then why didn't it happen in the alley that night?" Rivers asked. "Probably because you weren't trying to fly then." Brett explained. "You just wanted to save Katie, so the starbolts came up instead of flight. Part of why I had you do this exercise was to see if we could turn it on." "Yeah, too bad it didn't work all the way." Lisa said from the back. "Actually, Rivers did quite well. He was able to think quickly, and not panic while he was being shot at. That will be quite useful. But I am curious, how did you get such control over the starbolts so quickly?" "Well, after school, I went to this big empty field in the park and practiced. All I really figured out was how to turn it on and off though." But the Elementals nodded in approval. "You have some ambition in you, I see." Eddie said. "Glad to see it. You'll need it for this. Plus it'll work in your favor when we pick a leader."

"I agree, but you'll need more then ambition for what's coming up." Brett said. "You have good command of the starbolts, but you need work with flight. And you need to learn how to use your surroundings. There were about six different ways you could've taken down the droids from the floor that you didn't use. But you are a rookie, so I won't beat you up for it." Rivers accepted the Elementals' rankings and then returned to the group. "All right then, whose next?" Brett asked. "Why not Bart?" Terra asked. "Good idea. I've got a fairly simple exercise for him anyway. Come on up." Sara said.

Bart did so, a smile on his face as he anticipated something easy. "OK Bart, here's the deal." The fox explained. "You are going to fight Eddie." "Huh? I thought this was gonna be easy." Bart complained, not wanting to take on such a good fighter. "Let me finish. Eddie won't be allowed to use any of his powers. It'll be like fighting a normal man. But you won't be allowed to remain in human form. You can take the form of any animal you can think of to take him on. The first one of you to pin the other three times wins. Think you can do it?" Bart nodded, his smile returning at the explanation of the rules. He moved to face Eddie then, who had already relinquished his hammer and cape to Terra. "I'll try to take it easy on you kid.' The dog said, as he assumed a fighting stance. "Please don't." Bart replied cockily, as he poofed into a gorilla.

"They seem to know what they're doing." Jinx said from the control room, as the Titans watched the training go on. "I still don't see why we can't help them ourselves." Beast Boy said from the window, as he watched the fight between Bart and Eddie. His son was doing well in his gorilla form, but Eddie was quickly running him ragged. "Come on, turn into something else." He said aloud, as if his son could hear him. "Honey, he can't hear you." Raven said. "Yeah, but he could if I was down there." He answered. "But no, your dad has to insist on doing this his way." "Because he knows it the best out of all of us." Raven shot back. "Maybe, but does that give him the right to take our children away like this?" Beast Boy snapped back. "I must agree." Starfire said. "Why must we stay out of the way? We know our powers as well as they do, better even." "Because they know how to utilize them." Robin answered. "Raven is right, Brett and Sara have way more experience with this then we do. They are best suited for the job, and if Slade is coming back, the kids have to be trained in the best way possible." "Maybe, but that doesn't mean we have to like it." Cyborg said as he watched. "No it doesn't." Robin agreed.

Eddie darted to the left, dodging the rhino's charge. The huge animal shot past him and embedded its horn in the wall. It pulled frantically, trying to free himself. But the animal simply did not move fast enough. Eddie grabbed a steel beam from the wreckage of the training droid and wedged it into the hole. Taking a few steps back, he ran forward, slamming all his weight into it. The force of the impact pushed the rhino out and straight up onto its back legs. Unable to support himself, Bart fell over onto his back, rhino legs flailing in the air. Eddie walked over and effortlessly placed his foot onto the rhino's chest. "Third time. You win Ed." Sara said.

"Was there ever any doubt?" the dog asked as he stepped off and Bart returned to human form. "I don't get it. How did you beat me?" the boy asked as he got to his feet. "I was a gorilla, a lion, a freaking rhino!" "That's your problem." Terra said. "You went right for the biggest animals. I saw your dad work more then enough to know that sometimes the smallest ones are the ones that win fights." "You need to get more variety in your forms." Brett said, nodding in agreement with Terra. "But so far, I think you guys may be cut out for this. Still, I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself. Now then, who's next?"