A New World

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Disclaimer:
Titans = Not Mine. (therefore…)
Titan-Derived Income = Not Possible. (again, therefore…)
Sue For Copyright Infringement = Not True.

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Chapter Three: Ocean

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Most places in the rapidly-forming Titans' Tower were filled recently with the sounds of construction. Crews from S.T.A.R. Labs and private contractors were in and out constantly, from dawn until well after dark each day, and Victor Stone had a yeoman's job of coordinating all of it, Starfire's able help notwithstanding. Today, though, Robin had decided that they should all take a break and give their brand-spankin'-new Training Area #1 a try.

"Okay …" He looked around at the other four teens, tapping a foot while thinking. "Let's try this: Cyborg and Beast Boy will take offense and the rest of us will take defense."

Raising an objection, Raven said, "If all you want is defense, I think I can manage that on my own."

"… What do you mean?"

A dome of black energy sprang into being around them. "I have a reasonably good idea of how much power Cyborg can generate. My shield can handle several times that much." Giving a very slight one-shouldered shrug as the dome vanished, she added, "Simple defense isn't an issue."

"But what about my attacks?" asked Beast Boy.

She sent him an arched brow. "… Seriously?"

He slunk away a few steps, pouting.

"Fine," snapped Robin. "Starfire, you take offense. Cyborg and Beast Boy will be on defense. Raven and I will observe the first round, and we'll critique the results."

Starfire, obviously very nervous, eyed the waves lapping the shore some twenty-five or thirty meters away. "Is this not a … an odd place … for a training facility?"

Robin's confusion was apparent. "Odd? No, I don't think so. Why?"

"Then … is it perhaps that the training is to keep us … alert? For an attack from multiple directions?"

"… I'm not following you."

Gesturing with a slim hand, she encompassed the nearby shore. "The ocean."

The other three Titans had approached by this time. Beast Boy asked, "What about the ocean?"

Seeing their plain misunderstanding, she frowned and admitted, "Perhaps this is another Earthly difference, yes?"

Everyone's puzzlement prompted her to continue, "It is the ocean. My home does not have such copious amounts of liquid."

"Oh. Right. Well, yeah, you said that before."

"I have been to another world that was largely covered in water. The native people there also referred to it as 'Earth', but in their language it was pronounced 'Pohl'. Less than ten percent of the surface was above the level of the sea."

"Whoa!" said Beast Boy, "that's a lot of water!"

"Yes. And it posed much danger and the people who lived on the land did the staying very far away from it most of the time." Gesturing again at the water, she said, "Are there no large and inimical creatures in your ocean?"

Robin scratched the back of his head. "Uh … I guess that would depend on what you mean by 'inimical'."

"And 'large'," added Beast Boy. "There are some dangerous creatures some places in the ocean, sure, but not so much around here."

Cyborg asked, "Haven't you seen the beach over by the waterfront? The arcade pier?"

"I … I have not been away from the Tower since we moved into it several days ago. I was only out in Jump City that first night I arrived, and I …" She then blushed (very prettily, Robin thought) as she recalled some of those incidents. "I, ah, did not see this 'pier of the arcade'. Wait …" Thinking furiously for a minute, she asked, "Arcade. Is the arcade a place of amusement?"

"Oh, yeah! They got a few rides, one of 'em a slammin' coaster, an' a water park besides the beach, an' at least a hundred games an' …"

"Skiing!"

He stopped with a blank look. "Um … no, I don't think they have …"

"It is another word that Robin gave me! Skiing is to be performed on the water! This is true, is it not?"

"Oh. Yeah, water-skiing. They do that out in the bay."

"Now I believe I understand." Tapping a finger against her lips for a moment, she followed that up with, "Diving. Swimming. SCUBA gear. Wet suit. All of these things have to do with humans entering the water, correct?"

"You bet!" Chuckling ruefully, he glanced down at his metallic form. "Not that I can do that anymore. I sink like a rock."

"But you are sure that there are no … oh, the word of Pohl is veleg't … there does not seem to be a direct translation. Inimical creatures of the sea?"

"Sea monsters?" prompted Victor.

"Kraken?" suggested Robin.

"Hagfish?" piped Beast Boy. When the others looked at him, he said, "What? It's the nastiest thing in the water! You ever get that slime on you, you'll know what I mean!"

"But," countered Starfire, "is not the Kraken a beast of myth?"

"Well, yeah. I was just trying to come up with something that could stand in for the … velet?"

"Veleg't. It is a creature, very common on Pohl, that lies in wait in shallow water and snatches land beings if they get too close. I … I was a witness to … such an event."

The others all got a chill. Robin cleared his throat and said, "So you got a look at it?"

"I saw only the … leg? tentacle? Appendage. It was thin and nearly transparent. I learned later that the beast is almost totally invisible when in the water. The veleg't is … perhaps twenty meters long, but it can stretch about that much longer. It is quite flexible. But the … appendage of attack has a very sharp barb at the end, and may be employed so quickly that the avoiding of the strike cannot be accomplished under normal conditions. I happened to be … standing beside and … talking with …" She swallowed a couple of times. "It impaled the Pohlian and pulled her into the water in less than a second." She glanced again at the ocean, rubbing her arm nervously.

Robin and Cyborg exchanged a quick look. Beast Boy appeared to be getting a little queasy. Raven … was Raven.

"I was … very startled … and flew up out of its range as quickly as I could. Then I … flew back to our ship in orbit, and … I did not go down to Pohl anymore."

"Starfire," said Robin, stepping up next to her, "I'm sorry you had to see that happen. And I'm not going to say that there aren't beasts in the ocean that are dangerous, but I'm sure there aren't any like that! Sharks are probably the most dangerous thing you'll run into, and even they don't usually attack humans."

"So … the diving and the swimming … these are normal activities that the normal human would undertake?"

"Sure!"

Beast Boy interjected, "Hey, why don't we go over to the beach? Then she could see for herself!"

Nodding in agreement, Robin answered, "That's a fine idea. We'll all go."

"You four can go," said Raven in that gravelly monotone. "I don't 'do' the beach." And she melted into a puddle of blackness and vanished.

"… Okay, fine, the four of us can go.

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"Starfire? You're sure you don't need a rebreather? Not even a snorkel?"

"Tamaranians can … hold the breath? We can operate without air for a very long time, which is the way we do the traveling between stars. We keep the oxygen in our tissues, and combine it with solar energy and … um, I believe this may be very different from the way it is done in humans." She shook her head decisively, declining the equipment that Robin held. "But though I thank you for the offer, I will not need a separate air supply for the very brief time we will be in the water."

She still seemed wary of the idea, even after watching all the beach-goers cavorting in the surf, her previous experience with the Pohlian creature having obviously made a lasting impression.

Several questions about standard beach-worthy attire popped up next. The various bikinis in sight easily made it onto her Approved List, but then she was distressed because she didn't own one. Beast Boy was quick to point out that there were a few retail establishments clustered around the pier that doubtless carried such articles, and she flew off to investigate his claims. This left the three boys at loose ends for a double-handful of minutes, but when she came back they all decided it was worth the wait. The pale-yellow-and-black-striped lacy string confection served only to accentuate the positive where her curves were concerned, and Robin worked a finger around his collar in an attempt to cool off. Beast Boy morphed into a wolf and gave a long howl, startling Starfire.

"Why did you do that? Have I done the wrong thing with this bikini suit of swimming?"

"Oh, heck, no!" he answered, once he'd resumed his human form. "Star, you look great! You look like a model!"

"… A model of what?"

"Don't worry about it, little lady," put in Victor, "he just means you're tight." Seeing her confusion at the slang term, he amended, "He means it looks good on you. And it does."

That pulled a bright smile onto her face. Twirling deftly toward Robin, she asked, "Do you also think the bikini suit of swimming looks acceptable?"

He cleared his throat, then had to deal with a short fit of coughing, but finally managed to squeak out, "Yeah. Looks … good. Really."

"Glorious!" Then she sized up the boys. "You will need also the suit of swimming. But not, I think, a bikini."

"I brought mine," explained Robin, holding up a bundle of cloth in one fist.

"I don't need one," said Beast Boy. When they all gave him a look, he held up his hands and shrugged. "I'll just morph into a dolphin. No big."

And shortly they were wading into the surf.

"It's cold!"

"Yeah," Robin agreed. "It's the Pacific Ocean. Except in high summer, the water's pretty cool. Don't worry, you get used to it." He affixed his breathing unit and dove forward into the clear water. Hesitantly, and with a couple of false starts, Starfire followed him, giving out a tiny scream when Beast Boy, in the form of a cormorant, sliced into the waves just ahead of her. But then she blew a wisp of hair out of her face, steeled her resolve, and went under.

It took a moment to get her bearings, but she found that she could see reasonably well … well enough to spot Robin waving at her. Flying was, if anything, even easier under water, and she soon grew accustomed to the additional buoyancy. Robin swam rapidly out away from land. With growing confidence, she followed.

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"Amazing! That is what it is! Glorious and amazing! Beautiful and glorious and amazing and … and … and amazing!"

The boys looked on in amusement (and several bystanders looked on in awe) as she turned rapid circles in the air. Cyborg took a long pull on his chocolate-cinnamon milkshake and said, "So I guess you liked it okay."

"It is … it is almost as wonderful as the setting of sun! No, wait … it is … different. But just as wonderful!" She hugged herself and zipped around their table. "When may we do the swimming again?"

"Well, you know," remarked Robin, "we do live on an island."

The realization made her eyes sparkle. "We do. Yes! We do! And it is permissible to do this in those waters?"

"Absolutely."

Beast Boy volunteered, "I'll tag along if you don't mind. I need to learn who's who down there, too."

"A great idea," observed Robin, nodding in approval. "As long as we don't have something else that really needs your attention, if you want to swim every day, I have no objection."

She flew down and grabbed him in a bone-bending hug, streaking back up into the clear sky and whirling him around. "Yes! This is most gladsome news! A glorious day, is it not?"

He would have agreed with her, had he been able to breathe.

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A/N:

Any of you who have spent any time at all in the ocean may know what Star means when she gets all ecstatic about swimming there. If you haven't spent any time in the ocean … well, what are you waiting for?

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Concolor