Chapter Five
"Yeah… One large pizza with cheese, one with half pepperoni, half sausage and peppers…"
"And one large pizza with M&Ms, bubblegum, strawberry ice cream and anchovies!" Starfire said cheerfully. The rest of the Titans cringed at the thought of that.
"I'm afraid we don't have those toppings… I can give you a pizza with everything on it." The waitress said helplessly. Starfire's eyes lit up.
"Yes! That would be marvelous! Including extra of 'the cheese!'" She said excitedly.
"Of course, ma'am." The waitress said, and headed back in, placing the order, and returning about twenty minutes later with their pizzas. The rest of the Titans immediately dug into their pizzas, eating more than they had ever eaten before. Perhaps Robin's modifications on them had caused unexpected effects on their physiology?
Or maybe their ability to work harder now has caused a greater appetite. They'd have to ask Robin about it. If anyone knew, it would be him.
"No doubt you're wondering why you're all so hungry. Well, side effect, really of your newly enhanced abilities. You need more biomass in you to stabilize your abilities.
"It shouldn't last any longer than a week, but until then, you'll need to eat enough to satisfy your hunger. It was easier for me to add a minor side effect than to make it completely effect-free. It won't last long, though." Robin said. As he said this, a middle aged man walked over to them with a teenage boy who looked a great deal like him.
"Excuse me, Dick…" Came the voice. The Titans looked up, shocked that this man knew Robin by his first name.
"Ah! Bruce Wayne!" Robin shouted, jumping up.
"Ahaha! No need to stand up. I just brought my son here to meet all of you. This is my son, Damian Wayne. He's been trained in martial arts and assassination since shortly after he was born by the League of Shadows, but he has very little experience with people. I was hoping that he would have an easier time adapting to the outside world with a team of people his own age. Perhaps you could take him on as a sixth member?" Bruce asked.
Robin thought for a minute. Bruce's requests were usually demands. Bruce wasn't used to not getting his way, so he was comfortable ordering people around, even those he had no business doing so with.
"Sure… We can take him on. Does he need training?"
"Not in fighting. Individually, he is easily your equal, if not your better in that respect. However, acting in a team setting, he may need some practice with.
"Damian, you're going to be working with the Teen Titans from now on. This is Dick. Most people call him Robin. He was my first Robin. We… Went our separate ways though, and Dick came here to defend Jump City and be the leader of his own team."
"Hmph… I'm supposed to take orders from this hack?" Damian asked. Robin scowled, but said nothing. Perhaps Damian had just never learned when to keep his mouth shut.
"Yes. Robin will be your new leader. One of you may want to think of a new superhero name. It would be confusing having two Robins."
"I've been considering a new name anyway." Dick said, grabbing a seat for Damian to sit on.
"What is this crap?" Damian demanded, indicating the pizza.
"What!? You don't know what pizza is?" Beast Boy asked. Damian shook his head, glaring at Beast Boy.
"It's got dough, sauce, the cheese and your choice of the toppings!" Starfire said excitedly.
"What nutritional value does it possess? What food groups does it include?" Damian asked.
"What? Well… I guess if you were being generous, you could say that it had vegetables, carbohydrates and protein. But that's stretching the truth almost to breaking. Truth is, it has almost no nutritional value. But it tastes good and it's filling." Robin said, handing Damian a slice. The young Robin took it and inspected it, smelling it first, finally taking a bite.
"It's good. Dad, why don't we eat pizza?" Damian asked. Bruce laughed.
"Because there are foods that are much better for you. Do you know how much salt, fat and grease is on the average slice of pizza?"
"No." Damian said, raising an eyebrow.
"Let's just say that if you set a piece of pizza on fire, it would probably burn for quite a while." Bruce replied, seeming amused at the thought. Dick had never really seen Bruce smile.
"Go on, eat as much as you want. We bought plenty for everyone." Dick said. Damian scowled, eating the rest of the pizza, seeming to enjoy it. Bruce smiled again.
"Thank you, Dick. I hope that Damian can learn the humanity that he was never taught in the League of Shadows here." Bruce said. Dick nodded, and Bruce headed off.
"So, who are all of you?" Damian asked expectantly. Robin went first. "I'm Dick. I've always been called Robin, but I guess if you're the new Robin, I'll need to start taking a new name." He said. "I think about it sometimes in my free time. Nightwing seems like a good name."
"Seems a tad pretentious to me." Damian said sarcastically.
"Keep going. There are five of you."
"I'm Raven, well, Rachel Roth…" Raven said in her raspy voice.
"Really? You're the demon's daughter? Dad told me a bit about you. You almost ended the world once." Damian said coolly, as though there was nothing wrong with bringing up such a personal topic.
"I… I prefer not to talk about that if I'm able to avoid it." Raven said. Damian shrugged and moved on.
"And who are you, cutie?" Damian asked, looking at Starfire and winking.
"My name is Starfire. I'm from Tameran." Starfire said, blushing slightly at Damian's flirting.
"So you're an alien? I'm sure I'll learn all about your superpowers later." Damian said. "And you? The green one."
"Garfield Logan, but call me Beast Boy. Never liked my name."
"Okay, Beast Boy…" Damian said almost mockingly. And you? The super muscular guy."
"My name is Cyborg."
"Cyborg? But you're not mechanical." Damian said, raising an eyebrow. Nightwing interrupted.
"I did some modifications on him to turn his external robotic parts inward into an endoskeleton. Now, he's mechanical, but it's all internal. He can pass for human to anyone who doesn't know that he was modified."
"Modified? I've studied your powers, Dick Greyson. You don't have that kind of mechanical expertise."
"I do now. It's a long story. I can go over it later, and prove it to you if you like. But for now, just accept that I have new powers." Dick said, finishing off his piece of pizza and waiting while the rest of the team finished. By the time they were done, all but three pieces were eaten. They left the money on the table, and headed back to the tower.
"Okay, Damian. What would satisfy you? How do you want me to prove that I have biological manipulation abilities?" Dick asked. Damian smirked and moved quickly, taking his sword and slicing Dick's arm off at the elbow. Raven and the other Titans exclaimed angrily as Damian retreated slightly, keeping his sword ready in case Dick responded to the attack. Dick merely laughed, though, and concentrated, growing the arm back.
"Is that satisfactory?" Dick asked. Damian was surprised. He knew that he was fast, but Dick hadn't even attempted to move out of the way. Was his regeneration so impressive that he didn't even need to attempt to dodge attacks?
"The ability to regenerate doesn't add up to Biological Manipulation. Use the biomass inside you to make something, a weapon if you like, or a sculpture. I don't care." Damian commanded. The rest of the Titans were surprised at Damian's audacity at ordering Robin to do anything. Robin had been the undisputed leader of the Titans up to that point. He had, at different times, defeated all the other Titans in combat, whether single combat or all of them against him.
Back when he was Red X, he fought all of them at once, using their weaknesses against them and defeated them. Even Raven, who they all agreed was the most powerful Titan was defeated by Robin. And this new Titan dared to treat Robin like he was a subordinate. Still, a man trained personally by the League of Shadows was not to be underestimated.
"Of course." Dick said, focusing and breathing in and out, slowly and controlled, black biomass coming out of his hand and forming into a blade, the core being made first, extending downward into what would be the tang so that it would be battle ready. After that, he created the handle, creating an intricate ropelike substance wrapped around it, collected at the bottom in the buttcap.
He then created the handguard, then, the biomass seemed to form around the core, various parts forming at different times. From what Cyborg could see, the different parts of the blade were different densities and flexibilities to create a perfect battle ready katana. Slowly, the outside of the katana formed, creating the blood groove on either side, and sharpening it to a razor's edge, making it denser and sharper than any blade Damian had ever used before.
In this way, it was almost impervious to damage from outside sources. As it was, this blade was twenty-five times denser than Osmium and twenty times stronger than steel. The edge was sharp enough to cut a hair in half, were Damian so inclined. Next, he made the scabbard, and created the wrapped rope around it, and handed it to Damian.
"It's a katana denser than Osmium and stronger than steel, sharper than any sword you've ever used… So don't run your hand along the edge. You'll likely get a cut that will be difficult to heal." Dick said. Damian took the sword out and swung it around a few times. It was the perfect length for him, and the perfect curvature for a katana. How had Dick done this? He had known that Dick had trained under Batman for a time, but he didn't know that he had gained this much knowledge from him.
Had Dick… Or Nightwing as he called himself so pretentiously now, given himself the ability with his Biological Manipulation? Had the one who gave him Biological Manipulation given him the knowledge?
"I'm flattered. But you're not my type. Now, one more thing. Absorb something biological." Damian said. The Titans were astounded that Robin was going along with this, but they didn't say anything since he seemed as annoyed by it as they were stunned.
Dick walked over to the trash can and dumped the waste on the floor, showing Damian papers, food and other detritus, and he leaned over, touching it and absorbing it through his hand.
"There. Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I've entertained children long enough."
"Not so fast. Enhance me like you did the rest of them." Damian demanded. Nightwing turned around.
"No. I don't trust you yet. Bruce gave me a note. Would you like me to read it out loud?"
"Sure. Let's see what dear old dad has to say about me." Damian said sarcastically. Dick cleared his throat.
"Dear Dick,
"I can tell that you've become much more powerful. I don't know for sure what power you have now, but you and the entire team have become more powerful than I could have predicted. If you would be so kind as to take care of my son, Damian for a while. He's a bit of a loose cannon right now, but his heart's in the right place, I think. My instincts hardly ever fail me. He's been taught some bad things, like that killing is alright as long as it serves his purpose.
"I would like it if you could try to break him of these habits. Do what you have to do. But right now, he is very much not a team player. I believe that training with you and the rest of the Titans will do him some good on its own. Also, merely being in an environment with young people his own age who are not other assassins will help him acclimate to the outside world. I know we've had our differences in the past, but I trust you, Dick. I'm sure you'll be a good influence on him.
"Please continue to be the good influence that I know you as.
With Respect,
Bruce Wayne"
"He's asked me to train you as a team member. However, he has also told me that you're a killer. I can't take the risk that you'll put someone's life in danger on one of our missions. Until I can be sure that you pose no threat to anyone, I can't enhance you. Do you understand? Is that clear?" Nightwing asked. Damian scowled.
"Crystal, sir." Damian said mockingly. Nightwing along with the rest of the Titans could tell that there would be a lot to work on to really get used to this upstart kid. No matter how talented he was, he was still arrogant and a wiseacre.
"Oh, and if you kill anyone, you're not joining us again on missions." Dick said sternly. Damian opened his mouth to argue, but saw something in the old Robin's eyes, and held his tongue.
"Well… Let's get to training. Back when I was in the League of Shadows, I spent most of the day training. Now, I'm lucky if I get to train for five hours in a day." Damian said. Dick sighed.
"Okay. I've set up a new training ground in the sublevel of the tower. Villains of any description can show up at random, and the room's topography changes randomly as well to simulate multiple different environments." Dick said, heading to the elevator.
When they got to the lowest floor, everyone except Dick and Damian gasped. They had never seen such a huge room, or such intricate machinery. Dick went to the computer, and began tapping away on the keyboard, occasionally speaking an order until the computer confirmed, and Dick left the computer. A screen came down and counted down. 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Go! The screen said. Suddenly, buildings sprung up around the Titans, and Slade rose up from the ground.
"Hello, Titans… It's been a while, hasn't it?" The Slade in front of them asked in his usual smug tone.
"Titans! Go! Dick shouted. The Titans sprang into action. The Slade seemed enhanced beyond even what he was the last time they had fought him, dodging their attacks perfectly and effortlessly, even countering some of their attacks, throwing Starfire into Raven, causing the two to crash to the ground.
"This Slade is much tougher than the original Slade. I've programmed all the villains in this simulation to be more powerful and better than their real counterparts. Slade especially, since we don't know what limits, if any, he has now that he's a Biouser." Dick said. Damian smirked.
"I've fought Slade before, and beaten him… Alone. Hello, Wilson…" Damian said smugly, stepping forward and taking out his sword.
"Hello, Damian. Your arrogance is showing…" Slade said, moving fluidly into combat, flicking his wrist and taking out a set of dual Kerambits, striking at Damian, who barely dodged, blocking his kerambits twice, then twisting out of the way of the third attack, before tripping on the fourth, and gasping as Slade was about to make the killing strike.
"Computer! Abort!" Dick shouted.
Slade suddenly froze, mere centimeters away from Damian's neck.
"Do you see now, why we need to work as a team? He would have killed you had I not stopped him. He is not a mere hologram. Come back here, Damian. Your father told me to break you of your bad habits. I assume that your arrogance is one of those bad habits." Dick said as Damian came back, looking something like a whipped dog.
Dick put his fingers up to Damian's forehead, concentrating and imbuing him with the knowledge of the Titans' maneuvers and battle strategies. Dick didn't trust Damian enough yet to give him more. He didn't even give Damian full knowledge of the maneuvers. Only enough to help Damian ease into life with the Titans. Now, Damian could move along with them and learn more quickly.
The rest of combat training went pretty well, and Damian picked up on the Titans' maneuvers very quickly, showing just how proficient he was, having been trained by the greatest assassins history had to offer. They even defeated Slade as a team. Despite Slade's power getting greater and greater as the training went on, they always defeated him eventually.
