"Lance? Lance! Hello?" Terra's gloved hand started waving in front of her companion's face. Lance snapped out from a trance-like state with a start. "You're acting like a complete zombie!"
"S-sorry," Lance gave a small yawn, "Guess I didn't sleep well last night…"
"I'll say," agreed Terra. She noted his frazzled appearance. "What happened, did you see a ghost or something?"
Lance laughed nervously. If Terra's attempt to lighten the mood hadn't cut so close to the bone, it would have been funny.
"Boo-yah! New course record!"
The shout of triumph brought Lance back to his surroundings. He and Terra were currently situated outside at the base of the tower along with the current residents. As Cyborg's exclamation indicated, they were all present in front of a high tech obstacle course. The mechanized teen had just finished running a full lap.
As exciting as all of this was, Lance had not been paying much attention due to his fatigue. Even the bright sunny weather did little to invigorate him. He would simply keep drifting back and forth between the real world and dreamland as the sun's pleasantly warm rays continued to beat down on him…
"All right, who's up next?" cut in a monotone voice.
Lance involuntarily gave a small yelp and went completely rigid in his posture at the sound of the voice. Its owner had been the very thing that, after his mishap, had sent Lance running until he found his room, where he had spent an unknown portion of the night clutching his pillow like a life preserver while rocking back and forth in terror.
"Looks like we have a volunteer." Raven smirked from behind the control panel operating the course's various systems. Someone appeared to have learned his lesson. Lance almost seemed half in mind to say something but one look from the empath sent him scurrying to the starting line.
"He entered your room, didn't he?"
Raven looked over her shoulder to see Robin giving her a half amused look. She merely gave her leader a content glance before resetting the training program for the obstacle course.
Lance was nervously preparing himself at the starting line, deciding how he should tackle this. He could hardly remember anything from when Cyborg ran the course. If only his brain had gotten more rest. Let's see, there was no water on the course that ruled one form out. The small grey amphibian was obviously not suited for covering long distances, that ruled out another. Maybe if he flew or ran at an astonishing speed he could…
"You have until the count of three!" rang out Raven's voice. Lance's back stiffened, those had been some of her exact words from last night's mishap! That sent his fingers flying across his watch's dial. The count of three, that didn't give him much time, this called for speed! This called for the blue saurian form. That would work, he would really be able to show his worth! At a speed that would have made even Wally West proud, Lance pressed his hand down on the watch's face and was enveloped in a green light.
"And here I—" Lance was about to take off at what he thought was going to be a blinding speed. It was when he placed a foot forward that he saw that he was standing on a pair of molten feet. "Oh great!" Lance groaned to himself. His first chance to really impress the Titans and the watch was refusing to cooperate, transforming him into a tall humanoid that was composed of molten rock. "Gagh! Don't lose it Lance," he said under his breath while gritting his silicon teeth, "Just work with it!"
With that he took a few long strides, ignited his volcanic fists, placed a pair of open palms towards the ground, and then began performing the impossible.
"Dude, he's flying!"
Beastboy's exclamation lifted Lance's spirits. Yes, he was flying, soaring! Well, technically he was using flames to propel himself off the ground, but what difference did that make? He was going to get through this! Lance's glowing face slackened a little upon narrowly avoiding a steel column that erupted from the ground. He mentally sighed to himself, of course things weren't going to be this easy, they rarely were. Shifting his body around and making a few changes here and there, Lance was able to continue his flight riding a stream of fire like a surfboard. He was then able to maneuver his way around additional projecting columns more easily than before.
"Wow!"
"Glorious!"
The cheers continued to bolster Lance's morale. Even the laser cannons that popped up from compartments hidden in various rocks and the guillotine like gates up ahead seemed like minor obstacles at the moment. Ha! He had faced much worse during his days as a man on the run. There had been times when he had been forced to dodge fire from an entire platoon of mechanical hunters. If the current exhilaration Lance was experiencing had been enough to completely eliminate his fatigue, he might have called bypassing the two obstacles plain exercise.
The finish line was becoming ever closer it was practically over. But wait, wasn't there still one last obstacle? His exhausted mind vaguely remembered something…
As if to help refresh his memory, projectile launchers revealed themselves from even more hidden compartments located in the rocks. Lance confidently reignited his fists, finishing this course was going to be a piece of cake—
A loud beeping noise began filling the air. "WHAT?" Lance looked down at the hourglass in disbelief as it continued to flash red. How could the watch be timing out on him this quickly? He was still in midair riding on a transport that was over 1000 degrees Fahrenheit and explosives were about to be sent his way! Well, there was one possible way out of this, but it was not going to be easy. Lance had to suppress a gulp. "Please let me live…" he said to himself mortified. In a moment of terror, Lance allowed the flames that he had gathered to explode around him to form a fiery shield around himself while launching himself off from his flaming transport. The shield succeeded in protecting him from the explosives as they were fired against him. However, Lance was once again subject to the law of gravity as his shield dissipated in a great burst. He came down like a rock, creating a large dent in the ground and then hurtled forward head over heels. In mid-tumble he reverted back to his human form in a flash of red light. Without his rocky exterior, Lance quickly found himself getting beaten and battered against the hard ground. Then as soon as the pain began, it stopped. Lance tentatively opened an eye to see, that he had landed on his feet. He fully opened both of his eyes to see, much to his surprise, that he had successfully tumbled across the finish line. Lance looked around to see six faces looking at him in astonishment.
Breathing heavily from his recent escapade, Lance began to take it all in. He had finished the course and was still in one piece. Lance then decided to break the silence. "Heh, that wasn't so bad—"
The moment he uttered the last syllable, Lance felt something practically explode against his head, fiery pain, and then nothing.
XXX
After what seemed to be a few seconds later, Lance woke up to an array of lights swirling before his eyes. It was all very nauseating and the fact that his head felt like it had been split in two did not make Lance feel any more comfortable.
"Hey, you're awake."
Lance's eyes finally adjusted to see Terra and Beastboy on the side of a bed that he had been laid on. "Gwah?" Everything seemed to be spinning in front of Lance's eyes as he tried getting a better view of everything around him.
"Don't try getting up!" Terra said urgently.
"Yeah, you took a pretty big hit out there!" Even the green jokester was wearing a solemn expression.
"I-I did?" Lance suddenly realized that his head had been tightly bound in bandages.
"See," Beastboy began, "What happened was…"
"Wow!"
"Glorious!"
From the sidelines both Terra and the Titans had seen Lance changing his form of transportation to better maneuver himself around the course obstacles.
"Wish I could do that!" commented an excited Beastboy.
"You already can fly, genius," Raven reminded the shape shifter in her usual wry manner. She returned to her duty at the control panel. The newbie who was currently running the course was not going finish things this easily, there was still one obstacle left. After a punch of a few buttons, the projectile launchers revealed themselves from their hidden compartments along the course. In a few seconds, Lance would be faced with a barrage of explosive disks…
A loud blaring noise suddenly began filling the air.
"Shut the whole thing off, NOW!" Terra had heard that sound too many times to not know what it meant.
"It's too late!" exclaimed Robin in alarm. Everyone turned to the course in dread as the launchers opened fire. Lance then enveloped himself in the fiery cocoon that protected him from the explosives, which resulted in an explosion of flames.
"WHOA!"
The force from the explosion had sent a good deal of the flames in the direction of the sidelines as well as pieces of equipment that had been sent flying. Raven cast a dome of dark energy around the group just as Lance reverted back into a human amidst his full speed tumble. The shield repelled the fire and sent the debris flying sky high. One particular broken piece of equipment went astray and came hurtling down onto the finish line just as Lance miraculously landed on his feet…
"Huh…" Lance sank back into his bed only to wince in pain. As more of his senses came back into working order, he realized that even more bandages were covering his arms, legs, and torso. What was more, his usual attire was severely torn in several places and coated in dirt. His little stumble on the obstacle course had obviously left him a little worse for wear. Seeing as he was off his feet for the moment, Lance decided to look at the room around him. From the looks of things, he had been transported to some sort of medical bay. At Lance's bedside were monitors and pieces of hi-tech equipment that he couldn't even recognize. "So," Lance tried making conversation to pass the time, "Did I miss anything?"
The sound of an automatic door swishing open brought the attention of the room's occupants to the doorway. Lance's throat tightened in terror as an indigo-cloaked sorceress entered the room. "You're awake now," Raven said matter of factually, "Good." Terra and Beastboy moved aside as Raven moved to Lance's bedside. She placed a pale hand on the side of Lance's head as another began glowing icy blue. "Relax," Raven felt her patient tense, "I'm just here to see how well you're doing…It was pretty bad, you were lucky that I got to you when I did."
Lance couldn't believe his ears. Raven had saved him? Actually, this was a good sign. In sustaining a few injuries, Lance had managed to get off of Raven's bad side by appealing to her more virtuous sentiments. Maybe if he did stay, he could make things work with all of the tower residents. Yeah, that sounded nice. Lance began feeling quite peaceful at this thought…that or whatever spell Raven was using on him was acting like a sedative. Also, it had been a big day and there was the fact that he had hardly gotten any sleep the night before. Lance's eyelids were beginning to feel so heavy…
A sudden jolt caused Lance to fully waken. He opened his eyes to see that Raven had stopped her ministrations all together and seemed to be a foot away from where she had originally been. "What is it?" Lance asked cautiously. Raven almost seemed to be in a daze of some sort.
"N-nothing," she replied in an unusually uncertain voice, "I'm just finished here, that's all. You still need some rest, but you should be fine." With that, Raven quickly walked out of the room, a mystified expression covering her face. She did not slow down in her pace as she reached the hallways. These newcomers were beginning to become more of an issue, particularly Lance. The fact that he had even accidently entered had been enough to rile her up, but now even that seemed minor. When she had finished with both re-examining Lance's head injury and providing more treatment, something had happened. Just as she had been pulling away from the bedside, her hand had brushed Lance's watch. Raven had felt something upon touching it, something eerie, something unpleasant, something that might be dangerous…
XXX
"T-Terra you can't!" whimpered Beastboy.
"Watch me," Terra said with a smirk. Beastboy let out a shriek of horror as the geomancer destroyed him with one motion of her finger.
"That's the fifth time in a row you've beaten me," exclaimed Beastboy. He looked upon a large screen in astonishment at the digital wreckage of what had once been his vehicle. It was late in the morning and the two teens were passing the time by playing video games in the living room. Terra and Beastboy turned their attention away from the big screen upon hearing approaching footsteps.
"Hey, you're up!" cheered Terra.
Lance had just entered the room. "They said I could start getting out again," he said whilst stretching. It had been a little over a week, but a combination of science and magic had been able to get Lance on his feet again. Sure, he still had a few of his bandages on, but it was still better than being cooped up in the medical bay.
"You up for a round? We could use another player," Beastboy offered Lance a seat on the couch.
"Thanks, but I'm still not allowed to stare at anything," Lance placed a hand against the side of his head as he headed towards the kitchen, "I was just here to get some water." During his stay in the medical bay, a certain Tamaranean had decided to go through the trouble of providing him her planet's equivalent of chicken noodle soup. According to the rest of the team, the dish had been shown to actually help human patients on the road to recovery, and Starfire had offered the food so graciously…As a result, Lance had to force a number of helpings down his throat no matter how many things he saw growing or even swimming in the food's contents. Needless to say, the whole experience had left an awkward taste in Lance's mouth and an odd sensation in his stomach. Hopefully, it wasn't something that a little glass of water couldn't fix.
Lance plucked an empty glass from a cupboard as he eagerly twisted the handle to a sink faucet, only to have nothing come out. Frowning, Lance tried twisting the faucet handle again, only to then feel some amount of pressure building up in the faucet. Lance gave the handle one final twist to finally get a result, except it wasn't water. "Ew," said Lance in spite of himself as a red goopy substance poured out of the faucet. He quickly turned the faucet off and opted to try his luck elsewhere. Then, without warning, a tremendous fountain of the red substance erupted from the sink's drain. "AH!"
Beastboy and Terra both turned from the big screen at Lance's alarmed shout. "Lance?" began Beastboy, "Is everything—WHOA!" The putrid substance had now spread across much of the kitchen floor. Wait, now the substance was coming together, as if it had a mind of its own. Lance took a few steps backwards as the substance formed into large bulky creature with multiple green eyes.