Once again, dignity and calmness must raise

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Oh that felt good. Anyway, here's the first of this week's chapters, filled with drama, comedy, suspense, action, and probably any other genres you can think of.

Chap. 14

Proving Grounds

Once everyone had gotten into the car, (with Lisa sitting up front, away from everyone else) Cyborg drove off in the direction of Titans Tower. Upon reaching the pier, he drove the car onto a long ferry, emblazoned with the old Titans logo. "So that's how it worked?" Martin asked. "Well, how did you think we got from the isle to the mainland every day?" Cy asked as he drove the car onto the ferry. "Good thing that I kept it hidden by the Tower." "But if it was hidden, who sent it here?" Bart asked. "The glory of remote controls." Cy said as he pressed a button on a device by his window. The gate behind them shut automatically, and the boat began to take them to the Tower.

A few minutes later, the ferry reached the island and unlocked the gate to deliver its cargo. Cyborg drove the car up onto the land just as Terra and Sara came up to greet them. "Hey guys, how was your day?" Sara asked as they exited the car. "Eh the usual. Tests, essays, boring lectures. You know." Bart replied. "Actually our day was far more interesting." Rivers said. "Our first class was English and that included further work on…" "God do you ever shut up!" Lisa yelled as she stomped past her brother. "What's with her?" Terra asked. "She got kicked off the softball team. Anyway, we started working on chap. 12 of Huck Finn…"

Rivers continued his excruciatingly detailed description of his day as the group walked up the island, heading for the Tower. But instead of going inside it, Terra and Sara lead the group to the east of it, heading for what seemed like a large empty space on that quadrant of the island. "Um, is there a reason we're here?" Bart asked, as he looked around the seemingly empty space. "Yeah, and I think I know what it is." Cyborg said, as he looked to the right and saw the control desk on top of the large rock formation. "Good thinking Cy." Brett yelled over from the panel, where he and Eddie stood. In a burst of shadowfire, the bat vanished and in another burst, reappeared next to the group. "Glad to you see guys." The bat said, with real meaning behind the words. But his only response was a few indifferent stares and one very cold one. Sighing he said, "Well, I see that this is going to be a fun day. Look, I'm sorry for what I did yesterday. That kind of exercise requires some trust and I know I haven't really done a lot to earn that from you guys yet. But if you'll give me a chance, I promise that I'll do everything I can to start earning it and stop demanding it. Deal?" The bat looked at the group, a look of total openness on his face. One by one, they slowly gave a nod, even Lisa, angry as she was. But Katie just looked away. Brett nodded his thanks for the others, though the fact she had turned away lessened most of the good feeling their acceptance had given him.

"So what are we doing today?" Lisa asked. "I hope you're gonna give us something to beat the crap out of." "Uh, not just yet." The bat replied. "First I thought I'd put Martin through his rounds, since we didn't really get to that yesterday." "Great, now what am I supposed to do out here?" Martin asked back. "Watch and you'll find out." Brett replied. Turning back to face Eddie on the control platform, he gave the thumbs-up sign. Ed nodded in response and began to twist the dials on the panel. Suddenly the ground began to shake around the group. As they watched in amazement, things began to shoot out of the ground; barricades, weapons, fall-away platforms that opened and closed in the ground. Finally, everything came to the surface and the shaking stopped. "What the heck is that?" Martin asked, looking at the training ground the empty space had erupted into. "This is the Titans obstacle course." Cyborg answered. "We used for outdoor training. Was a lot of fun, as I recall." "I think you and I have different definitions of fun then." Martin said. "Well, that might change once you run it a few times." Sara said. "Wait, I'm gonna do what now?" Martin asked urgently. "Why do you think we brought it up?" Brett asked. "You're gonna run through; it'll be a great test of your powers." "Wait Dad, can't you, um, run through it first or something?" "No son, this is your test. Now I'm gonna go and see what I can do in the Tower, so you're on your own. But I'm sure you'll do fine." With that, Cy turned in the direction of the Tower and began to walk. Martin started to say something, then gave up and turned back to the course, albeit with a look of unhappiness on his face.

"So what do I have to do?" he asked glumly. "Just run through the course. Nothing too hard." Brett said, as he motioned for Eddie to activate the course. With the push of a button, it came alive, with guns primed and all traps working. "Don't worry, everything is on stun." The bat said. "Gee thanks." Martin muttered, as he switched to steel and leapt across the line into the course. Without a word, he began to run across he track, as the weapons began to fire on him. But the steel teen simply dodged most of the blasts, and the few that hit him did little damage. He smashed his way through the barricades with ease, like a human battering ram. The others watched on impressed, except for one, who was noticing something wrong with the course's progression.

"Wait something's wrong." Lisa said, as she watched the course continue. "Look at those rocks, they're getting totaled. If the rays are set on stun, they shouldn't be doing that much damage." Indeed, the landscape was becoming charred and blasted, from weapons supposedly too weak to do such damage. "She's right, they must be stuck on a higher setting." Terra said, as she looked over the destruction on the course that Martin was still trying to run through. "But that's impossible. It says right here that they're set on stun." Eddie said, as the Elementals began to crowd over the panel. "Wait a minute, what's this?" Sara said, as she pointed to a folded piece of metal on the circuitry covering. It seemed to be lightly sparking from inside the device. "Oh that can't be good." She said, as she leaned forward to get a better look. But that proved a mistake, as whatever was wrong with the machine finally reached it's zenith, as the circuitry exploded in a wave of sparks. Sara threw her cloak in front of her eyes, shielding herself from the sparks, as the others quickly pulled away. "But this doesn't make sense. It worked fine in the test run." Eddie swore, as he tried to regain some control over the device. "Yeah, but a test run uses less power then a full run. The circuitry must be too old to properly handle it." Brett said as he looked out onto the course to see what would happen.

Sadly, it was what he feared, as all of the weapons within the course suddenly swiveled around and turned their focus onto Martin. The steel teen suddenly found himself on the receiving end of a huge stream of energy blasts. They impacted against his body, causing little actual damage, but pushing him further and further away from the goal. Worse still, it was obvious that the impact was weakening the boy by the expression on his face. At the rate he was being attacked, Brett figured that he'd be forced to drop his steel shielding in about five minutes. Luckily, the bat was quick to both thought and action. "Terra, Katie, Rivers, come with me. The rest of you stay here and try to shut off the course. It's time I teach you a very important lesson; how to rescue a teammate from imminent danger."

With that, Brett leapt down from the panel and began to run through the course. Of course, the second he did this all the guns turned onto him. But he was prepared for that as well. As they watched him run towards the energy blast, the shadowfire suddenly washed over him, and when it faded, the armored form of the Nightstalker was suddenly having the energy deflect off his impervious armor. "Wow." Was all Rivers could say as he watched the near-mindless trek of the Shadow Knight. "You get used to it." Terra said, as she used her powers to pull up a large rock from the ground for them to ride over the course on. "Hop on!" she yelled, as she did just that. Rivers and Katie looked at each other a moment, then followed suit, as Terra steered the rock over the course. "I don't suppose this thing has seatbelts or something?" Katie yelled over the gunfire. "Naw, just crevices to hold on to." Was the reply. "Great." She muttered, as the rock began its descent into the firefight.

Meanwhile, Nightstalker was weaving his way through the obstacles and gunfire with seeming ease. Of course, years of skill and practice did help. But regardless of how he did it, the bat quickly made his way over to Martin, who was beginning to falter underneath the constant impact of the weaponry. Despite his best efforts, the steel teen fell to his knees, and seemed about to pass out. But just at that moment seemed upon him, Nightstalker finally reached him. Drawing his sword, the bat became a whirling dervish, his blade practically invisible as it moved this way and that, deflecting the attacks away. "Great… course.." Martin sputtered out. "It's malfunctioning. Don't worry, we'll get you out." The bat said, without missing a single beat. "I'm… totally…. Comforted." The boy spat out. As the rock landed besides them, Terra and the others leapt off. "Hang on, I'll get you out of here." The young earth-mover yelled, as she attempted to make another rock-sled. But as the second one began to lift out of the earth, the weaponry turned on it and blew it to pieces. "There's too much fire! We need to cut some of 'em down!" Nightstalker yelled. "Rivers, try to shoot 'em! Terra, Katie, try to make some kind of shield!"

Despite their uneasiness towards 'Stalker, the two trainees quickly fell into action. River's hands ignited and began to blast the guns. A few of his shots were deflected but some of the weapons began to explode, one-by-one. Meanwhile, Terra and Katie's eyes glowed as their combined powers created a huge shield of earth around the group. Terra held the earth up, while Katie kept it together against the impact of the gunfire. "Good job. See what you can do with Martin." Nightstalker said, as he finally stopped shielding the boy and moved to help Rivers with the cannons. But he had barely deflected two shots, when the guns suddenly deactivated, and retracted into their holsters. "Well, that was convenient." Rivers said, as he lowered his starbolts. "They must have shut the course down." 'Stalker said, as the armor became shadowfire again, and vanished. Behind them, the sound of the earth-shield lowering could be heard, as the girls let out an audible sigh of relief. "Are all the exercises today like this?" Terra asked. "I hope not, or else we're gonna have some serious clean-up to do at some point." Brett said, as he turned back to face them.

But the second he turned, a look of absolute horror crossed the bat's face. Without a word, he suddenly leapt up, over the girls' heads and onto the rock formation behind them. He clung to it for a second, and then suddenly, something blasted him off. He was blown back over the ground, skipped a couple times, and then came to a halt. "Brett!" Terra yelled, as she ran to her fallen uncle. Rivers quickly looked up, and saw the small cannon sticking out of the formation. Without a word, he blasted it, then ran over to Katie and helped her get Martin up. As the three teens got to their feet, they saw Brett coming back, leaning on Terra's shoulder. His shirt had scorched wide open, and a gaping chest wound was clearly visible. But as they watched, the wound slowly began to close itself. "You guys ok?" the bat asked, in a voice clearly in pain from his efforts. "Y-Yeah, but what about you?" Martin asked his usual attitude gone in sight of this wound. "I've had worse." The bat replied. "Come on, let's go back to the Tower. I think more then a few of us can use the med-lab." With Terra's help, the bat continued to walk past them. But then Katie grabbed his arm, stopping him in his tracks. As the bat turned to face her, the girl said, "You could've just warned us. Why did you do that?" He was silent for a moment, then said, "I felt like I had something to prove." With that, he turned and continued to limp back to the Tower. But they just watched him silently, wondering just what sort of being he was.