Terra
Sorry all- but my oh-so-clever muse had me stymied with the martial arts portion of this chapter, as I have no formal martial arts training myself; I had to do some research… (Oh that dreaded word for those still in school…)
But- Here it is folks! The Long awaited Terra chapter! As in the series, there WILL be another (couple?) episode(s) with Terra in it (them). That will be when the REAL magic happens… =D
Please, I really want to know what you think… My Muse has been truly, very flickle lately; my thanks for the kind reviews from Taeniaea, x-moon-surfer-x, Xireana Everdark Cross, jesswolf22, Shunsgirlfriend, and Kage Hasu. Also a big shout-out to Riddlestyx- It's because of people such as yourself that makes me as a writer (do gooder =P) want to do a better job of entertaining with our small tales of intrigue and humor.
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'"What? Haven't you guys ever seen a superhero before?"'
'"I'm Robin, we're the-"'
'"Teen Titans! Rock on. It's cool to meet you guys! I'm Terra, and you're- Cyborg, Raven, Star-Fire, and-"'
'"Boy Beast! Uh-er! I mean Bast Boob- Ee-auh- NO!"' Beast Boy flustered.
'"Beast Boy?"' Terra asked looking calmly at him smiling slightly. Beast Boy freaked out squeaking and turned into a turtle, instantly shoving himself inside his shell spinning in the air with the speed of his transformation. '"Dude- He's hilarious!"' Terra said laughing, smiling not unkindly.
'"Hilarious? Me? Really?"' Beast Boy asked transforming partially and coming out of his shell. Literally. Terra winked at him and that was all she wrote for the green skinned boy. He finished his transformation into his usual green self, his eyes were filled with shooting stars. He had instantly and he'd swear, almost precisely with semi-pinpoint accuracy, that he'd fallen in love. The little hearts around his head were proof of it.
'"Curiosity abounds!"' Star-Fire exclaimed. '"Please- where do you come from, how did you get here, what is your favorite color and do you wish to be my friend?"' Star-Fire asked all in one breath invading Terra's personal bubble as she bent backwards to keep it from popping.
'"Um…. Earth, walked, red, and- Sure…?"' Terra asked looking at Star-Fire warily.
Star-Fire leaped higher in the air as she'd been hovering and then tackled Terra squeezing her extremely tightly around the middle.
'"A-yurk! How's it goin'?"' Terra asked gritting her teeth keeping a smile on her face, surprised at the force of exuberance Star-Fire exerted.
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The next morning after breakfast, that Kikyo still didn't show up for, a fact that had Raven slightly concerned. Kikyo didn't show up for dinner last night either.
Cyborg had just finished his run of the course. And looked down at his arm to see the blinking display. It read 02:17.
'"Boo-yah!"' Cyborg exclaimed, pumping his fist across his chest. '"New course record! Ha-ha!"'
'"Well, yeah…" Raven said bringing him back down to earth. "You're the first one to do the course…" Cyborg sulked glaring back not-belligerently at Raven.
'"Okay Terra!"' Robin said leaning over the console to look down at Star-Fire, Terra and Beast Boy. '"Ready to show us what you can do?"'
'"I just hope you're ready to see it…" Terra said murmuring to herself.
'"You can do it…"' Beast Boy said encouragingly to her; putting a hand to her shoulder. '" 'sides, it's just practice. It doesn't matter if you mess up… Not that you're gonna mess up, but I'm just sayin' that even if you really blow it- shutting up now." Beast Boy said digging his hole deeper before digging himself hand holds at the look Terra sent him.
'"Count down initiated!"' Robin declared as the clock on the console slowly counted down from ten.
Terra tuned out the encouraging shouts of the Teen Titans below the console as she shook her appendages out. '"Don't lose control. Don't lose control. Don't lose control…"' She powered up as the clock hit zero. The yellow glow signaling the intense control of her concentration surrounding her fists.
As lasers shot up from three points in front of her, she forced the earth to do her bidding. In this case forming a tower beneath her feet raising her thirty feet into the air. When the lasers destroyed the middle of the tower she crashed the rocks into them.
When she was past the cloud of dust, she freaked slightly when she saw two large metal fists raise up out of the ground and she slid partially off the boulder she was flying around the obstacle course.
The rock hit another of the fists that popped up from the ground just as her mental hold on the boulder slipped and the rock spun so that she was at the lower-rear of the boulder, and the boulder crashed to the ground in several pieces, and Terra fell but before she could hit the ground she used her power to summon another boulder to her aid.
She landed on it and quickly clambered onto a better spot before breathing a scant breath of relief before freaking as she headed for the outlying 'mini-mountains' of the course. She frantically used her will power and physical strength to turn the boulder.
'"Whoo-hoo!"' Cyborg cheered.
'"Glorious!"'
'"Yeah! You the man Terra!-Uh- you're the- Way to Go!"' Beast Boy stuttered in his cheering not wanting to sound crude.
The boulder spun haphazardly with Terra hanging on for practically dear life before heading toward several 'hurdles' toward the end of the course.
At the last possible second a tower of earth shattered through the first and collided with Terra's boulder before Terra leapt onto the moving tower that was bursting through the barricade of hurdles.
'"We're gonna need a new obstacle course."' Raven told Robin un-necessarily leaning against a convenient boulder behind the console. He could see the damage that was occurring. But he tended to the controls opening a trench in the middle of the course. The tower of earth collapsed suddenly sending Terra hurdling toward the trench.
But again in the nick of time, Terra summoned a boulder to her as she flipped to land feet first, but caught the boulder oddly, and ended up doing a loop-de-loop; flipping end over end to land on top the boulder before sliding off as it tipped.
As she fell, two small rocks flew to her to lend her aid at her unconscious summoning. She was able to grasp them firmly, one in each hand, and was able to fly above the trench just enough to force herself forward and upward to land on yet another boulder.
Robin looked at Terra gauging her, before adjusting a dial on the console. As he did so, four disk projectors popped from their hiding places and shot several disks at Terra, who adjusted her boulder so that the base took the brunt of the disk explosions.
From her precarious position, she summoned a slew of smaller rocks and used them to destroy the disk projectors. She let the boulder crash to the ground and slid to a stop almost ungracefully before ending in the gymnasts pose.
BB Star-Fire and Cyborg all cheered for her after they picked their jaws from the ground
'"Yow!"' Beast Boy declared leaping forward. '"You Rock!"'
'"Magnificent success!"' Star-Fire declared flying toward the both of them.
Cyborg was viewing her time, which read: 01:55 in blinking blue.
'"Looks like we have a new course record…"' Raven said observing the time.
'"I must have softened it up for her…"' Cyborg blustered.
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Kikyo was in the Basement training. She'd spent a good part of yesterday arranging with Shippo (threatening to tell his kids all the things he did when he was young) to help her with setting up a training regime. She'd ended up spending the night at his home just outside Gotham, before she came back early this morning. She had just finished creating the last shadow clone and was stretching, when Robin called her on the communicator, asking her location. She stood and said that she was in the basement setting a few things up; soon the Teen Titans finally arrived, with someone she had yet to meet.
"Kikyo- you do know that we have a training center higher in tower… and an obstacle course outside, right?" Robin asked as they walked down the stairs to see what she'd been doing; and meet her for the first time.
"Used to have an obstacle course outside…" Cyborg said lightly, "I have to build a new one after our power house friend here kicked it's butt!"
Kikyo grinned, "Maybe one that's fit for you guys, but I am sorely out of shape… you have no idea how much I was put through the final time I trained with my adoptive brother…"
She turned to the girl that came downstairs with the team and introduced herself. "I'm Kikyo, Miko to civilians…" She stated introducing herself to the young blonde haired girl around fifteen. Who was she to judge; because of some time loop/temporal paradox/ time switcheroo/ string theory thing, she was sixteen- though mentally she was at least twenty.
"Name's Terra…" The girl said with an answering grin. "Where you from?"
"Japan-" Kikyo said with a grin of her own. "Been called Miko since I was fifteen…" She said thinking back to when she first landed in the Feudal Era.
"Why is there a waterfall falling from nothing and ending in nothing?" BB asked the group in general.
"It's to help with my training, and meditating…" Kikyo said, turning to answer him.
"Uh-huh and how does that work?" Raven asked. "Seems to me that it would disrupt your concentration…" Raven asked stepping closer to Miko's side with a look that said: 'You will be showing me this later… right?'
Kikyo merely smiled at her in accord.
"I was wondering where all the pans for the frying of food went…" Star-Fire stated as she viewed the pans hanging from several of the supporting beams in a various ways…
"And what's with the moving shadows?" Cyborg queried
"They're to help me train. They're shadow clones, made specifically to push me beyond any normal human means."
She demonstrated by leaping into the air and spinning her leg in a clockwise motion three times was about to land before she hooked her left leg around the neck of the shadow clone and using her hair-tie, whipped another before using her right leg and putting it around the back of the clone and pulling it to the ground, but not before landing three powerful punches on yet another shadow-clone. She was kicked in the chest, and stumbled only to kick off a clone that made to grab her and pin her arms. She then flipped and landed on one leg in the crane stance, before letting a serious array of kicks and jabs at her shadow-clones before hooking her arms around its arms and jackknifed into the previous shadow clone and landed lightly on the balls of her booted feet.
She jumped in the air and spun almost horizontal to the ground before landing on one foot and kicking out. Using that move she was able to gain momentum and power to her kick. Then she jumped back to avoid one kick, grabbed its leg , and using it as leverage was able to kick both feet into its chin.
From there she landed lightly on the ground before sending short straight yet very powerful kicks at another shadow-clone's chest and pelvis. The clone jerked back with each kick, before Kikyo forced herself into the air with a powerful leap and spinning twice, kicked the flat of her foot to her opponents jaw with a crack.
"Whoa- how long have you been doing this?"
"Today? I started warming up when you arrived…"
"Are you even pushing yourself?" Robin said referring to a light spar she and Beast Boy had had earlier in the week. He had caught the tail end of the fight, when Kikyo had leapt into the air aiming a flying kick at BB, flipped at the last possible second, slid under his legs, scissoring them out from under him, before grabbing his arm and twisting it behind his back…
Though, as he came to think about it, there seemed to be a part of the move missing…
"It's more maintenance than anything else." Kikyo admitted. "But as long as I keep it up, I won't have my older brother checking in on me to make sure I'm not slacking… even now I'm not sure…" She said trailing off to grimace and wincing almost painfully at how much she'd slacked these weeks.
Out of the back of her uniform, she pulled out a large fan…
In a series of moves, that are frankly to complicated for this author to even describe- but will try, she was able to leap into the air and knock away three of the swords that the shadow-clones suddenly made appear.
"Why is she fighting with a fan?" Cyborg asked Robin.
"This is no ordinary fan…" She said as she landed and headed toward the Teen Titans. The shadow clones were in a holding neutral stance. "This is a Tessen (see a/n end of chap) …. It was the fourth weapon that I was trained with…. I was trained in Kyudo… also known as archery… then I was trained in the weapon combination of sword and whip and then I was trained in the art of the war fan… a tessen has many uses… Most fortunately I have had no need to sincerely defend myself with them…"
She then initiated a traditional dance with the tessen, awing her teammates… It was one of the simpler dances that she'd been taught. And so it was over within minutes.
"How long did you say your training was?" came a question from Terra. There was a warble in the question, which made her take the question seriously.
"At times, interminable…" Kikyo said with a wry grin. "But the actual time frame was, I believe, somewhere around a year and a half to get me up to master status."
"A-Uh- wow…" Terra stuttered. "Crazy weird way of training you have here…" She stated, looking at Kikyo's own personal 'stylized' training 'course'.
"You should have seen how I trained with my adoptive brother…" Kikyo said with her mask reflecting her enjoyment of the conversation. "This is adequate, but it works…" Miko said with a grin and a shrug.
"Yeah- but the obstacle course doesn't anymore…" Robin said. "I haven't seen you really fight yet Miko…" He said stepping toward the center of the room.
As he did so, Star-Fire looked around. Somehow the basement of the T-Tower wasn't nearly as scary as it was normally… Even with the lights on.
Could it be, that Miko Kikyo had used some of her innate and yet still unknown powers to dispel some of the unsavory shadows that caused Star-Fire to- as Beast Boy would say: Freak Out?
"How do you want to do this then?" Kikyo asked him.
"How long and harsh was your training?" He asked with a smirk. He was impressed with the amount of training 'equipment' that she had, but the question was: Could she, and did she, use it; and how often did she train with her 'equipment'?
And although there were members of the Teen Titans that did have an idea on how long she'd trained, she never specified how long. In by interesting facts, Human days lasted the maximum of 24 hours… A Demon's day lasted 45. And her actual training was around three human years, not counting the time she spent training, after training with Sesshoumaru.
"Every day… A third of the time was spent training at the compound, a third of the time was spent in the desert and a third of the time was spent in the jungle… If I were anyone else? I'd say that my master was a Demon about my training-" Kikyo said glancing at Raven and sharing a subtle look. "And what you would like Robin, is that I did all my training without the use of my powers."
"Alright then, no powers… Show me what you got." Robin said stepping forward. Almost positive that he could take her, even if she had been trained by her adoptive brother, he had been trained by Batman and various other Martial Arts Masters.
"Tatakai!" She declared, allowing Robin to ready himself, drawing his retractable quarterstaff. "Kaishi!"
She then jumped straight into the fight, no need to study her opponent (she wasn't exactly looking to kill) by flipping over Robin's head, skidding to his left while his back was still turned and whacking him across the middle with her tessen. As he spun she forced her back into his chest locking his staff and arms between the two of them, leaving her arms free. He tried to quickly back away, but an elbow to the head made him see stars, before she spun to her left around him, coming to a slightly kneeling stance behind him and hitting him on the back of his knees, consecutively hitting his right elbow sending him in a careening circle before she flipped over his head again and very quickly advanced hitting him and his staff when he was able to block in swipes of her tessen.
She flipped over Robin's head and somersaulted in the air six times, never giving him a place to hit before landing on the ground in a crouch, her back facing him. He grit his teeth and charged her and as he neared, she spun in a counter-clockwise motion and hit him across the breadth of his chest with her tessen sending him to the ground gasping for air.
The gasping didn't last long however, and Robin quickly pulled himself together, noting that his quarterstaff wasn't aiding him like he had hoped, he retracted it and brought up his fists.
"Let's go then… No more kid stuff." He said glaring fiercely at Kikyo. "And after this you're going to start teaching me some of these moves…"
"Then be schooled Robin…" Kikyo said as Robin charged recklessly.
She quickly snapped out kicks always advancing, spin-kicks, slash-kicks, straight kicks. All hit the mark, and even though Kikyo was holding back all but twenty percent of her strength, Robin still had a bloody nose and a split lip that he'd cut on one of his teeth. He spit the blood pooling in his mouth to the ground and aimed a punch at Kikyo which she quickly guarded; but that was what he wanted, as she leapt back then straight up and aimed her trajectory to kick at Robin's head to finish the impromptu match he bent backwards nearly double and then aimed a punch at her leg intended to give her a Charlie horse and limit her fighting ability. What he didn't count on however, was Kikyo grabbing his hand and spinning herself around using his fist as a fulcrum and finally kicking him with both feet. Her body unbalanced him and he went crashing to the floor.
"Tatakai ryou, Robin…" Miko said bowing slightly, ending the sparring match 'demonstration'. Now the Teen Titans and their new guest knew that demonstration actually meant that some where in the exhibition there was a hidden demon.
"Whoa…" Raven said
"You said it…" Beast Boy said staring wide-eyed at his cousin.
"She is even above the training that my people have received on the various moons…" Star-Fire trailed off. "She could beat my sister…"
"Talk about a one-woman-army…" Cyborg said making note not to piss off Miko in the future.
"That was amazing!" Terra said grinning, at Kikyo from her position on the sidelines. She was in awe of the way that Kikyo held herself and her powers… if only she could do that, then she wouldn't- She cut that thought off and shook her head trying to shake it out of her head. There was NO way that she could get to that point without giving away that she had very little control over her powers and that was the last thing Terra wanted. Luckily no one saw the quick frantic shaking of her head as they were all staring at Robin and Kikyo/Miko.
"How are you feeling?" Miko asked Robin.
"Like I got the snot kicked out of me… I'm going to be sore for weeks…"
"Maybe not for weeks…" Miko said, as Raven approached them, willing to aid her team leader. "I got this Raven…" Miko said and she pressed her pink glowing hands to Robin's shoulders and he winced slightly, arching his head back in sudden pain before it was all gone. The forming bruises, the split lip, even that paper-cut from earlier where BB's paper-airplane skimmed his arm, when Star-Fire threw it with great velocity back at BB… It was the first paper fighter-jet airplane ever made, and it had been the last Raven's powers had seen to that when it jetted past BB and was heading for the window.
"Attack me…" was all Miko said, standing to her full unimpressive height of 155 centimeters. Robin nodded and stood, pulling out his quarterstaff yet again.
Without pause, Robin made to strike Miko with his quarterstaff, but she spun grabbing one end of the staff with her left hand and spun till the main part of the staff was braced across her back and then she pushed her right arm out to grab even more of the staff….
"How did you- it's like your making me move the way you want me to…"
"Here's how it works…" Miko said stepping back from her holding position. "You know about some people being able to read minds, and how most are able to read their opponent's next move? I took advantage of yours; I knew you would attempt to strike me by how your hands were gripping your staff." She then proceeded to explain how that particular move progressed.
"You led with a right-handed thrust and half-way though, you shifted your weight to your left foot pivoting on your right, using that I was able to slide under the start of your left-handed thrust and grab your staff. From there, I spun my body bracing my lower back against your staff, anchoring your staff causing you to lose your main weapon. Now the next thing I would do, would be to use my torso as a pivot point and pull the staff from your grip and use it to flip your body to the left, and incidentally breaking your humorous and radius in your right arm…"
She then proceeded to show Robin how to block that particular attack, and insisted that he start learning to guard his body at all times. Showing no weaknesses.
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Kikyo followed the Teen Titans and Terra up to the multi-purpose room to grab a soda, when their warning system went off, causing their beacons to light up: Beast Boy's belt, Cyborg's eye, Robin's belt, the bauble on Raven's cloak, the bauble's on Star-Fire's gloves, and even the charms on the ends of Miko/Kikyo's braids.
'"Okay, why is everybody blinking?"' Terra demanded.
On the view screen that served as a TV, window, and apparently a Titan warning system complete with communications, showed a challenge from none other than someone Kikyo was getting to know very well… Slade.
'"Slade. He's back!"' Robin said with severe distrust and dislike bordering on hatred covering his voice.
'"Slade?"' Terra asked.
"'Bad guy… Way bad…"' Beast Boy said leaning over to confide in Terra.
With several taps on the keyboard, Robin was able to ascertain his position on the city map. '"Got a fix on his location. Titans! Move Out!"' Robin declared and as a team, they ran for the door, Miko was going to be riding with Robin this time, to give Terra a place in the T-Car.
Halfway to where Slade was located however, Robin gave Miko a change in plans. There was a disturbance near the waterfront and he wanted it checked out. Since Miko had made an appearance as an official member of the team, and he wanted to see how well Terra did under pressure, he told her to check it out and report back once the team was all together.
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Miko met the rest of the Titans at the Tower after she'd scoped the situation out. As it was they were all grouped in the multi-purpose room; and it appeared that Terra was about to leave.
'"Don't even think about it…"' Cyborg said as Miko came up behind him.
"Terra going to leave?" Miko asked Raven quietly.
Raven just looked at Miko a small smile was apparent in her eyes.
'"Okay- what's going on?"'
'"Well-"' Raven started.
'"We talked it over and-"' Cyborg continued.
"'We wish for you to stay here… With us!"' Star-Fire finished giggling and bouncing up and down slightly.
'"We think you'd make a great addition to our team…"' Robin said; a smile gracing his normally semi-stoic face.
'"So- Wanna be a Titan?"' Beast Boy asked as Robin handed over a Titan communicator.
'"Me? Really?"' Terra asked hopefully.
"It would be nice to even up the guys…" Miko said with a slight grin, "And there'll be times when I can't help the team as much as I'd like- I have things to do and 'people' (She enunciated the word) to see…"
'"Of course-"' Robin continued. '"You'll need more training. I know you have trouble controlling your powers and we can help-"
Miko watched as the communicator hit the ground.
'"You told him?"' Terra demanded of Beast Boy.
'"I didn't!"' Beast Boy said putting his hands up in the 'I mean it- really!', and 'I kinda surrender' pose. Terra's face was betrayed and angry.
'"You promised! You lied to me! You lied!"' Terra shouted as she ran from the Tower.
'"Terra! No!"' Beast Boy shouted, chasing after her, desperately wanting to explain that Robin was trained by the greatest Detective/vigilante, and was naturally observant. '"Wait!"'
Robin and Miko caught up to Beast Boy outside.
'"I just figured it out…"' Robin said apologetically. '"I didn't know it was a secret."' His head lowered in apology, to look down at his friend.
'"She didn't even say good-bye…"' Beast Boy said sadly as he picked up a small rock and skipped it across the water of the harbor.
"I know you don't want to hear this BB…" Kikyo said speaking up for the first time since she and Robin approached Beast Boy. "But there's something other than the loss of a dear friend and almost teammate to worry about."
Beast Boy looked to his cousin and took a breath. She was serious and he'd learned from the Doom Patrol, that there were times when compartmentalizing his emotions was necessary. "Like what?"
"Like the fact that I checked out another disturbance while you and the rest of the team were going up against Slade's minions…" Beast Boy stood up and concentrated on what Kikyo was saying. "I ended up at Rush City's JLU Tower… It was trashed… There were several blood types in small pools, and I found Lt. Carmine dead on the fifth level…" By now the rest of the Teen Titans had joined them on the rocks around the shore. "The communication had been hacked, and several data banks were stolen, including the one that used the JLU's power signatures to identify members…"
"What else?" Beast Boy asked, needing the outlet.
To Be Continued!
(A/N: "Tessen were folding fans with outer spokes made of heavy plates of iron which were designed to look like normal, harmless folding fans or solid clubs shaped to look like a closed fan. Samurai could take these to places where swords or other overt weapons were not allowed, and some swordsmanship schools included training in the use of the tessen as a weapon. The tessen was also used for fending off arrows and darts, as a throwing weapon, and as an aid in swimming.")
(A/N: There is no such DC character as Lt. Carmine, and there is no such 'Rush City' for the Teen Titans or the JLU… (I think so at least.))
As always.
Review. Please…
JoWashington