It's been a few days since the team left and Hal came in to train me. At the current moment, I am sitting down in the middle of a storm of complex slinky-like constructs that wind together, half of which are my shadows and the other half was formed by green energy.
"Not bad, but you're still a bit shaky on the movement!" His voice called from across the room.
I grunted, still deep in concentration. I was worried. Apparently, Batman had sent them to a place called Bialya and it was ruled by an enemy of the League so they had to maintain radio silence, which meant that I was out in the dark until they got home. They hadn't been away this long before so it was slightly unnerving how silent the Cave was when they're gone for so long.
My constructs shattered, and Hal flew himself over to my side of the room and sat down next to me.
"You're worried about your team aren't you?" Did I mention that Hal seems to have this uncanny ability to read me like a book without the special benefit of telekinesis? Like wow, it's actually starting to get annoying.
"You're right. Again." He laughed lightly about my slight irritation with his all-knowingness. "They've never been gone for so long… For a huge cave like this, it never really seemed empty before a few days ago. It was always filled with noise from the static coming from the television at almost all times of the day to Wally and Artemis arguing. The empty space was always filled until now, especially since Red left yesterday."
Hal smiled and put a hand on my shoulder. "You see, kid? Here you were, just wasting your time away with worry. But now, you are that much stronger for it. You can do things you couldn't before, and once they get back you might actually be able to go out with them. Now come on, let's get some combat training in."
I smiled. Besides the fact that it was extremely cheesy the way he said it, what he actually said was true. My constructs were not so simple anymore; my sword actually looked like real blades with intricate designs, I could make more complicated constructs that were not just simple shapes, like guns and clones of me, and I realized that the outfit given to me by the old man could change at my command. I currently had it on what I liked to call hero mode, which is basically a mask like Hal's and a black leotard similar to what he had, except where the Lantern Corps insignia was there was a 'C' that looks kinda like a crescent moon. It was pretty cool to say the least.
He got into his fighting stance, arms raised like a pro boxer, while mine were a bit looser. He charged and I immediately ducked underneath his first blow, and then went for the uppercut. He stepped back just in time but my foot behind his caught him off guard. He managed to save himself from tripping, but that didn't give him enough time to block the fist that approached his chest. That and the fact that he was off-balance would have been a point for me, but I got careless; he grabbed me at the final moment and used the momentum to flip our positions, so I hit the ground. Since training began, I have learned to be more focused, but every now and then I still make mistakes. It's a pain, but there is a lot to learn, and it's much better than wasting my time away doing nothing.
"Not bad, but you need to learn to never take your eyes of your enemy, especially when he's wearing a mask and you don't know if he's unconscious or not. Trust me, that exact thing has happened to me on more than one occasion so it's important to know." He extended a hand to help me up and I took it, but I am not lying when I tell you I almost fell as the Zeta tube started up. It called them all, so everyone was okay! Superjerk's survival withstanding today turned out to be an excellent day.
"We're back! Woah, nice costume Cal!" M'gann flew over and nearly squeezed the air out of me. She let go to see Hal standing off to the side. "And who are-?"
"I'm one of the Green Lanterns, the more experienced, sophisticated, and generally more fun to be around-"
I cut him off. "He's my mentor."
She nodded with a smile that made me smile too, before his Royal Jerkwad came over. "Surprised to see you actually knowing someone, considering you aren't exactly the most connected here."
I glared at him as I countered with, "At least I wasn't abandoned by the person who was supposed to mentor me. The fact that someone volunteered to train me and not you makes me that much better than you, huh?"
"You are really asking for it, you know that?" I grinned at his challenge. At this point, the rest of the group's chatter was cut off as they stared between us.
"We've got time before Batman Zeta's in. Why don't we settle this now?" I taunted, wanting no more than to show everyone how I could actually fight at their level now.
"We just got back, we shouldn't be fighting after such a long mission." M'gann tried to step between us, but judging by the small sound she made, something told me Hal stopped her from doing so. It was almost as if he were giving me the thumbs-up and I was glad for it.
We broke apart only to make sure we could have running starts as everyone made a wide circle around us. "Don't get too angry when you're on the floor, okay?" And then he charged.
I let him get up close and personal to attempt to hit me. Superboy was strong, but in terms of punching speed, he was slower than most so I just dropped into my shadow and popped out of his. I tapped him on the shoulder, and as he turned around swinging, I grabbed his arm and used the momentum to try and swing him to the ground and end it quick but he managed to roll for a bit and then jump at me. This time I decided to show off my ability to make new constructs, so instead of dodging I used his shadow to make a fist rise up from underneath him. I laughed as he flew backward from the force.
"While you were doing whatever it was in Bialya, you sure got sloppy." I purposely lowered my guard to taunt him, but it was over. He landed on his back and everyone rushed over to him because heavens forbid the half-Kryptonian gets hurt for once in his life. Hal looked at me with concern, but I couldn't care less about anyone's pity. I left, hearing M'gann call for me as I trudged to my room.
It's odd, but I honestly got nothing from it. Watching him on the ground just made the bitterness intensify towards him, even more bitterness was going towards his direction because I knew people would not come crowding around me like that. I sunk into my bed and fell asleep, or tried to. The knocking at my door disturbed my attempts at just sleeping it off. I opened the door to find M'gann of all people standing there.
"Don't you have a Superjerk to look after?" I spat out, the rage still surrounding me like an aura.
"He'll be fine. I'm… more worried about you anyway." She looked up at me with concern in her eyes. I was tired of pity!
"I'm fine. It's him that needs to chill out."
"You both seemed pretty angry back there. Come on, talk to me." She nudged my shoulder, bringing a slight smile to my face.
"Fine, but I am only speaking over ice cream that I was promised almost a week ago."
She laughed as she flew toward the Zeta tubes, and I was hot on her heels. I might not be Kid Flash, but I ran just fast enough to let her win. Gotta make her smile, right? Besides, it's the little things that count.
"So should we go get some cartons, or actually go to an ice cream parlor? I haven't been to one of those, but television makes it seem like a lot of fun!" She had landed, and she was bouncing on her feet like a little girl who was overly excited. I will admit, it was pretty adorable.
"I've honestly never been to one either. Maybe we should go to an ice cream parlor? And get burgers, and pizza, and those little things that are like hot dogs, but they have that battery stuff on the outside!" The Team was given a little spending money here and there, and the first little installment was more than I had ever handled in my life: 50 whole dollars. I had saved mine, hadn't spent a dime until I planned on it today.
"You've never had any of that?" She asked quizzically, and I could tell she thought all humans ate this stuff on a daily basis.
"Not all people have the fortune for luxuries", I said somewhat bitterly as I put in the coordinates for my hometown. "But enough of my sob story, let's go! Daylight's a wasting!"
She laughed as I pulled her into the Zeta tube and was surprised to actually hear my designation for the first time.
"Recognized, Caligon. B Zero Zero."
A/N: Wow, a single review every chapter! I am so fortunate! And now we finally got Connor out of the way so get ready for the actual OC ship to sail.