Chap. 18

Field Day

As luck would have it, Terra didn't get placed with the others. Gover decided that she would join up with Group 3, which had lost one of its members due to a football injury. Terra went over without a fuss and began to incorporate herself into the group. She was actually quite outgoing and friendly, so it didn't take her too long to get accumulated. But having never read Huck Finn Terra had to have much of the book explained to her, which hampered the group's progress. Of course, they still did more work then the new Titans, who spent their time trying to figure out why Terra was in their class and what it could possibly mean. They all had different theories but they all agreed that they would have to talk with her afterwards about it.

However, as it happens so many times in life, afterwards came sooner then they expected. "Time's up!" Gover said suddenly, causing each group to place their work down. Looking up at the clock, the teacher said, "Well, since we lost some time to Ms. Markov's welcoming, it looks like there's about five minutes left for you guys to relax." There was a small cheer at that, and the class almost immediately began to talk amongst themselves. Terra however, excused herself from her group and walked over to the others. "Hi guys, how you doing?" she asked, as if she had always gone to this school. "Um, Terr.." "Shh. I'm Tara here." She whispered back. "Fine, Tara. What are you doing here?" Katie whispered. "Getting an education?" "How'd you get in here anyway?" Rivers asked. "Eddie put me in. He had to make up a few documents, but everything worked out." Terra answered. "OK, but why would you want to come here anyway?" Martin asked. At that, Terra laughed and said, "What, I can't want an education?" "Well, no, but I didn't think…" Bart stuttered "What?" "Well, I mean, with who you are, this all seems kinda, well normal."

Terra answered, "And what makes you think that I wouldn't want that?" "I think what Bart is trying to say is that we thought you'd be happy in the Tower and everything." Lisa said. "You know, with everything you have to do and work for…" "What do you mean work for?" Terra said, her eyes narrowing at the words. "Uh, I, uh, I guess I was thinking…" Lisa stuttered, trying to think of what she had said incorrectly and how to fix it. But Terra beat her to the punch. "You were thinking I'd spend all my time in there, trying to 'atone' didn't you?" "Terra, I didn't say that…" "You didn't have to. I'm sick of always hearing about how I screwed up and that I have to make up for it. Maybe I don't want to spend every day of my life doing that ok? Maybe I want to try to do other things with my life. You get to have that choice, is it so wrong that I get to? Is it?" She asked again, as the earth-mover's eyes began to water from the emotions running through her.

Lisa backed off then, not knowing what to say that could make up for what she had done. But while she couldn't, Katie did. Moving over to the girl, Katie put her hand on her shoulder. As Terra turned to face her, Katie said, "Tara, you know that none of us think that of you. We've only seen you as a teacher, and we don't blame you for what you did." "Yeah, I mean, you're spending your time making sure we don't have to make the same choices that you did." Rivers added. "And Lisa wasn't trying to say anything to the contrary. We're just, well, surprised to see you like this." Katie finished. Terra wiped her eyes and said, "I know. But I guess I just worry about that. I don't know what people are gonna think of me when we finally get out of this. I'm so sick of getting blamed, and I don't want them to start hating me again." "Terra, you know they won't think that if you can prove yourself." Katie said. She would have said more, but then the bell rang. As the students around them began to get up and leave, the kids looked at Terra, wondering if she'd be ok. But as if she could read their minds, the girl smiled and waved them off. The new Titans smiled and began to walk off, except for Lisa. She stood there and looking right at Terra asked, "So, are we cool?" "We're cool." The young girl replied. "Don't even think about it. I overreacted. But if you do want to make up for it,…" "Yes?" "Do you know how to get to the bio lab from here?"

The rest of the day progressed with little incident. Terra had no other classes with the kids that day, but met up with them at the end to get back to the Tower. Cyborg was surprised to see Terra in a school setting, but commended her for being able to pick up the pieces of her life so well. Terra thanked him and the group drove off to the Tower. As they drove thought, there was still one question that they had to ask, and as the group got onto the ferry, Martin finally got up enough guts to ask; "Tara Markov?" "Well, yeah that's my name." Terra replied. "You don't think Mom named me Terra right off, did you?" "Well I guess, it's just kinda weird to think of the whole 'secret identity' thing." "Hey you guys are gonna have to do it soon enough." She answered back. "We can't let you go out as yourselves, it'd kill your social lives." At that, Cyborg did ask, "Have you guys put any thought towards names for yourselves?" The kid's response was to look away and mutter answers that all said, "Well, not yet." "Eh, I suppose you still have plenty of time to figure that part out." Cy said, as the ferry docked on the island.

The group quickly began to exit the car, only to find Eddie waiting on the dock. "Hey honey, how was your day?" he asked Terra immediately. "Pretty cool. I got to watch my bio prof. cut open a baby pig." "Sounds like a perfect day." The dog replied, as he began to walk up the embankment with the girl. "Gee, nice to see you too." Martin mumbled as the group followed. "Cut Eddie a break." Cy said back to his son. "He's just trying to make Terra happy and hopefully accepting of him." "What do you mean?" Martin asked back, quietly so as not to be heard by the others. "I talked to Brett about it. Supposedly Terra is still having trouble accepting Eddie as her dad. Hell, she still can't even say the word to him yet. And it isn't helping Eddie much either that he's nervous about the whole thing. So if he wants to pay her a little attention, don't mock it."

Martin nodded back, as the group walked through the entrance of the Tower. However, the second they did, the room was suddenly filled with blazing lights and sirens. "What is going on?" Rivers yelled, holding his ears to block out the sound. "We've been having some technical problems." Eddie yelled back over the noise. Thankfully a few minutes later, the alarms shut off, as Brett and Sara walked down the stairs. "Jesus, you guys still haven't been able to fix that?" Terra asked. "Sadly no." Sara replied. "What is it anyway?" Bart asked. "It's the old alarms that went off whenever something went wrong in the city. But after the first one, we realized that absolutely nothing is happening." Sara explained. Turning to Cy, she said, "They started going off last night. It's totally random, and we can't predict when the next one will go off. Any ideas?" "Might be a conflicted signal from the main receiver." Cy said thoughtfully. "I'll go check it out." "Thanks. You think you can get it fixed today?" Brett asked. "Hey, is there anything I can't fix?" Cy asked. "Good point. Now then, while you do that, the rest of us have some work to do in the training room."

A few minutes later, they stood inside the massive room, ready to begin the day's training. "So what kind of course do we get to run today?" Martin asked, in a voice that said he was too eager to do it. "Actually, today we're gonna try something a bit different." Terra said, who had changed back into her uniform for the exercise. "Brett and I worked it out last night. You guys are going to tag-team." As the kids stood waiting for an explanation, Brett took over. "You see those two barrels over there?" he asked, pointing to the two large steel barrels in the center of the room. Both had a large blinking light in the center. "What you're gonna do is, two of you are going to have to guard those barrels from the other two, who will be trying to destroy the lights. You'll have twenty minutes to try, then we'll switch up the teams and try again. Sound good?" "Yeah, but what is this gonna prove?" Lisa asked. "For one things, it'll teach you how to be able to work with each other, no matter who that other may be. Plus, you'll also learn the extent of your teammates' powers. Knowing that can be the difference between life and death, because teammates can help each other better in battle when they know everything that they are capable of."

"OK, so who's up first?" Lisa asked. "Actually, you are. You'll be working with Bart to try to destroy the lights." "Oh goodie." She muttered, as the over-eager boy moved over to join her and tripped over his own two feet. "Martin, Rivers, you two will be guarding the barrels. Fight hard, but be careful not to hurt each other too badly." "That's comforting." Rivers said, as he and Martin moved into place. "OK, 1, 2,… 3!" Within seconds of hearing that number, Bart leapt at the right barrel, poofing into a tiger in a cloud of black smoke. But just before he reached it, his claws suddenly bit into a steel arm. "Sorry dude." Martin said, as he flipped the tiger back from whence he had came. However, Bart's training had served him well. As he flew backwards, he suddenly transformed into an elephant. Landing with a huge thud, Bart reared up on his hind legs, trumpeting in defiance. But while Rivers and Martin looked unimpressed by the gesture, they failed to see the menace behind it. As Bart fell back to the earth, he suddenly flipped his trunk forward, throwing Lisa, who had been grasping it behind the sight of the elephant, forward at the barrels. "Good! Keep up that teamwork!" Brett yelled, as the girl sped towards the barrels. But then Martin's steel body came between them. It seemed as though Lisa would be crushed, but as she reached the body, she suddenly flipped over, using her hands to push off of Martin's shoulders. Landing behind the steel teenager, she drew her fist back, ready to crush the barrel.

But before she could land the blow, Lisa was suddenly bombarded with starbolts. Though none of them made contact, they forced her to flip away from the barrel, since Rivers was airborne and out of her reach. "Nice targeting, Riv!" Terra yelled. "Stay that exact and they don't stand a chance!" Rivers nodded, but stayed focused on the task at hand. It was a good thing too, because a fly suddenly buzzed past his eyes, blurring his vision. For a second, Rivers thought it was simply a normal bug, but then he remembered what was going on. He quickly tried to find it, but then he was shoved into the most disgusting environment he had ever faced, as slimy tentacles suddenly wrapped around his head. Unable to focus, Rivers sank to the ground, as he attempted to force the squid off his head. "Very creative Bart. But don't hold him too long." Sara warned. The squid responded with a strangely accurate 'thumbs-up' gesture with his tentacles. But that proved a mistake, as Martin grabbed the exposed tendril and used it to pull the squid off his teammate. "Thanks." Rivers gasped out. "Just don't screw up." Martin snapped back. He then turned back to the form of Lisa and threw the squid at her. Bart struck dead on, his slimy body knocking her down. "Looks like we win." Martin said, looking up at the clock, which had almost run out.

Looks however, are deceiving. There was a poof of smoke, and suddenly Lisa was riding a rhino towards the two of them. Martin threw his body in front of the animal, but the creatures' strength and speed knocked him out. But as Martin fell, Rivers took his place, starbolts at the ready. But Bart suddenly veered to the right, and Lisa leapt onto the wall, running its length to reach the barrels.

And no doubt, Lisa and Bart would have hit their target, had not the sudden blaring siren and flashing red lights thrown off their concentration. Lisa lost her focus and slipped on the wall, falling to the ground. Bart was shocked back into human form and ran into Rivers, knocking both of them down. As the two boys attempted to detangle themselves, Brett pulled out his communicator and yelled, "Goddamit Cy, you said you would fix that alarm!" "I did!" he yelled back from the central control room. "Then what the hell is going on?" the bat asked. "I don't know! Just gimme a minute!" Cyborg yelled. A minute later, the lights and sounds finally came to a halt. "Well that's better." Rivers muttered as he finally got back to his feet. "I thought your dad knew how to fix things." Eddie said to Martin. "Usually, but he has blown up a few engines from time to time." Martin answered, as he de-armored. "Terrific." The dog muttered. Ignoring both of them, Brett asked Cy, "What just happened?" "As far as I can tell, nothing. Everything's in working order, I can't explain it." "Wait, everything works?" the bat asked. "Yes, everything." "Hmmm… meet us in the main room in five minutes Cyborg." The bat said. "You've got an idea don't you?" Cy asked back. "I just might." The bat replied, as he shut off the device. "Come on." He said to the others, as he moved off to the exit. "What about the training?" Bart asked. "If I'm right, we're about to get some serious training right now." Brett answered.

A few minutes later, the group gathered back in the main room, where an ominous sight met them. The huge viewscreen, which had deployed only in emergencies, was down and was showing a map of the city, with a blinking dot showing a location. "Looks you did fix the alarm Cy." Sara said. "This is real." "Then let's see what it is." Cyborg said, as he moved over to the keyboards and began to type in commands. The map suddenly began to contract, as the location filled the screen. "It's the jewelry store at 15th street." The bionic Titan said. "Looks like they're under attack." The screen then filled with the images of police forces barricading the entrance and attempting to retake it. But as they began to open fire on the entrance, huge playing cards suddenly unfolded out of thin air, bent forward slightly and threw the bullets back at them. "Three guesses who that is." Brett said, his eyes narrowing. Indeed, a second later, a caped and tuxedoed figure carrying a large sack suddenly appeared and sucked the cards back into his cuffs. Smiling, he suddenly pulled off his top hat and held it out like a weapon, empty end facing the cops. "You guys had some weird enemies." Eddie said, as he watched the strange scene unfold. Before the cops could react, a gigantic, monstrous looking rabbit leapt out of the hat and with a mighty roar, began to attack as the older, but still dangerous form of Mumbo Jumbo laughed at the sight.

"Great, when did he get out?" Sara muttered as the screen shut off. "I don't know, but somebody's better put him back in." Brett said. "All right, so when do we go?" Cyborg asked as he got up. But the bat gave a sad little smile and said, "Cy, this time 'we' does not include you." "But then who… Oh you don't mean…" Cy said, as the kids suddenly remembered what the bat had said about serious training. "Indeed I do." Brett replied. Turning around to face the kids, he asked, "So, who wants to take down their first supervillian?" Since no one responded with an immediate "ME!", Brett said, "Come on guys, we could use some help with this." "But Grampa, we're not ready yet." Katie argued. "And what better place to learn it then in the field?" Brett asked. "Come on, you guys are going to fight Slade and you're telling me you can't even take down a two bit player like Mumbo?" Brett argued. "I thought you were gonna show us how to do that." Martin shot back. "Some things training can't do. Some things you have to experience by yourself." The bat answered. "Look guys, you won't do this alone. We're gonna be with you, and we're more then capable of taking down Mumbo ourselves if things get out of hand. Besides, this way we can see how far along you've come."

As a motivational speech, it kinda did its job, as the looks of reluctance did fade a bit. Bart even smiled a little and asked, "So when do we leave?" "Soon as you guys suit up." Brett replied. "Suit up?" the young boy asked back. "Well you don't think you're going out like that, do you?" Sara asked. "We've been working on some costumes for you guys and I think now's as good a time as any." With that, Eddie suddenly moved over to the sofa and grabbed five bundles of clothes from under the coffee table. Handing out one to each of the kids, he said, "I think you'll like 'em. We tried to make it a good mix of your folk's suits and a little bit of your own likes." "Well, that sounds promising." Lisa said, as she looked over her costume with curiosity. "You can change in the back rooms." Brett said, pointing to the small storage rooms in the walls of the room.

But as the kids left to change, there was still one other issue that had to be dealt with. "I don't care Brett, I'm coming with you." Cy said, once the kids were out of earshot. "Cyborg, I told you, not this time. You haven't done this sort of thing in years. Frankly you'd be as much a hindrance as you think the kids could be" The bat answered. "Bull! I'm not gonna let those kids fight Mumbo alone. I don't care what you think about me." The former Titan shot back. "Cyborg they're not going to be alone." Terra said. "We'll watch out for them. Besides, don't you remember when I started training? I came with you guys on a mission after I did the obstacle course once." "It's not the same." Cyborg said. "No it's better then that. They have close to a month's worth of training, by some of the greatest teachers on Earth." The girl said. "Besides, Mumbo was pretty lame as I recall." Cyborg laughed a bit at that. "Well, I suppose as long as he doesn't turn Marty into a bear." "What?" Terra asked. "Guess we didn't tell you about that one." But before Cyborg could elaborate, the doors behind them opened up, and the new Titans emerged.

Five pairs of eyes widened at the sight of the costumed figures before them. Eddie had promised excellent clothing, and he had not lied. Each costume was a beautiful update on the classic outfits of the Titans. Lisa was dressed in a red and green uniform, similar to Robin's right down to the utility belt. But the gloves reached down to her elbows and were fitted with small, extremely sharp talons at the fingertips. The design on the front was a large phoenix-like bird, wings outstretched and seeming to fly through flames. A black cape, designed to look like the feathers of a bird fluttered down from her back, and a black mask was wrapped around her lower face, outlined by the strands of hair that fell down the sides of her head. River's costume was comprised of purple boots that ran all the way to his knees and jutted upwards at points from there. He wore simple pants and a muscle shirt as well as a vest, all colored purple. His arms were bare, except for the fingerless gloves and metallic wristbands that ran down from his elbows.

As for Katie, hers was almost a double of Raven's costume, with its leotard base, long flowing blue cape, and hood that covered much of her face, except for the long hair that flowed outward. But what made it different was the long boots that ran almost the whole length of her legs, stopping just below her waist, leaving a line of skin in between. A silver belt was wrapped around her waist, and except for blue wristbands, her arms were completely bare. Bart however, had taken very little from his father's image. The young boy was clothed in shorts, regular looking boots, a long black shirt with the image of a multi-headed animal on it, a vest over that, and gray gloves. But Martin certainly took the prize for simplest costume. His was a pair of black pants, yellow boots, yellow wire that ran off from his belt and down his legs, and no shirt. Of course once he was armored, that wouldn't make a difference.

The entire room was silent, as every looked each other over with a mix of curiosity and awe. Finally, Eddie broke the silence; "So, what do you think?" "I-I don't know what to say." Lisa said, her usual attitude gone. "This looks unbelievable." "You got that right." Cyborg said, as he looked over the costumes with a smile on his face. "Hell, I don't we ever looked this good." "How'd you make these anyway?" Bart asked. "They feel like they're made of silk, but it can't be." "Oh, and you know what silk feels like?" Martin asked. "Actually, he's not far off." Sara said. "We used a fabric that comprised of unstable molecules. They adjust themselves to feel as comfortable as possible, and to make the fit perfect." "How'd you get that?" Katie asked. "Same place we got the emitters." Brett answered. "Now then, there's just one more thing to do; you guys need to pick names."

"Huh?" Rivers asked. "Well you can't very well go out there as yourselves. If that was the case, we wouldn't have bothered with the suits." "Well, ok then. How about…. Firestar?" Brett raised an eyebrow and said, "And how long did it take you to think of that? Besides, I think it's taken." "Um, wait, what about Sunblaze?" "I like it." Brett said. "Lise?" "Hawk?" "Taken." "Well, I'm not gonna be something lame like a Robin. What about… Eagle?" "No." "Hey, what about Kestrel?" "Good. Now what about you two?" Brett asked, looking at Bart and Katie. Being eager to get on with this and get to Mumbo, Bart said the first name that popped into his head. "Manimal?" The bat's eyes widened, and he nodded his approval. Silently, Katie cursed out her brother for giving her less time. She racked her brain for a good name, not wanting to be called Blackbird or Crow or something obvious like that. Then finally, she got an idea. "Um how does Owl sound?" "Very nice. Marty, finish us up." "Fine. Metallix." "That's it?" "Yeah." He replied, in a tone that screamed that he wasn't going to change it. "Well all right then. Troops, to the city! TEEN TITANS, GO!" As the kids began to move towards the exits, hearing the old battle cry ring in their ears, Brett turned to the others and whispered, "I always wanted to say that."