Scene 47 - Training
Brianna scrolled through the rules and code of conduct on her holographic screen. Apparently, members of the Justice League were discouraged from having fans and signing autographs as they were not celebrities and it did not set a good example to the rest of the superhero community. Ember could live with that, she would be uncomfortable at the thought of having a fan base. The page on how to behave in the presence of reporters was fairly simple and amusing, just let the current leader of the League handle it or if time permits, Catherine Colbert would issue a statement on behalf of all the heroes.
Having read through the rules for a few times, she turned her attention to her list of duties; there was a monthly meeting which everyone had to attend, a duty roster on cleaning up the League's various emergency Zeta tube hideouts and the Watchtower was done in pairs and her assignment to do that with Dr Adam Strange would be scheduled next year.
Duties were a normal affair for her; the Team had it as well for cleaning up the Cave. Her eyes scanned through the section about the Team. It seemed each Leaguer had to be a trainer to the young heroes for a certain skill they were chosen for and she was assigned to flight training. There was a short list of names below and she felt a little awkward in teaching her fellow friends.
The brunette would have to learn to separate the private life from the hero life. Mixing them up proved dangerous the last time round… Ember shook her head to prevent those memories from haunting her again. She'll be a mentor in the Watchtower but out of costume, she would just be Brianna Dian, civilian and psychologist's assistant. Brianna had a training session scheduled for this week and she already had the teaching layout planned… It was going to be an intricate obstacle course that Captain Atom put her through many years ago.
"Just to make things less awkward between all of us, please address me as Ember when we're on missions and during training. At other times, you may call me by name," The pyro said to the trio of teenagers consisting of Wonder Girl, Blue Beetle, and Static. It appeared the Leaguers wanted those who were on the Team for less than a year to be training more frequently than before in order to be on par with their other teammates in terms of skill. Today, they were starting off with flight so Impulse was not on the list and joined the class next door on combat techniques which were instructed by Black Canary.
Brianna then raised her hand up, bringing a holographic screen into view and pressed an icon on the screen which made the transparent walls separating each training room opaque. She did not want any distractions from the other training sessions that were currently on-going. Aqualad kept glancing in her direction from his own session with the senior team members as they practiced various maneuvers and for him to familiarize himself with new movements that were taught during his departure from the Team.
Once the brunette put him out of sight and out of mind, she tapped on the screen again and a few horizontal tubes of varying lengths and positioned at various heights in the room descended into view from the ceiling. "We'll start off with agility. In real life, you'll face vents and shafts of various sizes and you have to learn to twist your body through those tight spaces when you're flying. You might not be able to stop and change direction if the enemy is chasing you. This is a practice course for you to warm up. Then each of you will then go through a test run where the tubes will be placed randomly and you'll have to learn to improvise. Now, who wants to volunteer first for the trial run?"
Wonder Girl eagerly raised her hand and flew up to the first tube proudly. "Follow the numbers that are listed at the top of each tube," Ember said and the blonde flew off rapidly, easily clearing the first few tubes but when she encountered a tube that appeared to stretch on forever, she grew complacent and when she shot out of the tube at the end, she had to hastily brake in mid-air to change her flight path by flying upwards to the next tunnel. That mistake humbled the blonde and she flew a little more slowly. Soon, she was done with the course.
"Good run Cassie, but did you notice where you went wrong?" Brianna asked the young teen and the girl responded, "I was over-confident and misjudged."
Ember added on, "You were impatient too. In fact, you could have taken a few moments to look at the course to see where you would be going instead of going in blind. When you are presented with the opportunity to recon, please do so. Not knowing where you're going should be at the bottom of the list when all other options have been exhausted. All of you will be trained on how to deal with unexpected obstacles later. Blue Beetle, you're up next."
Jaime fared a lot better than Cassie and Brianna suspected that the scarab on his back contributed to his success. She was certain his goggles gave him x-ray vision and that the scarab was able to see through everything and calculate the timings on when he needed to make a turn. Granted, they were part of his powers and she did not say anything about not using them. "Nice one, Jaime. Though it seems you already have an advantage. Virgil?" Ember turned her head towards the new kid and she was impressed that he showed no fear or hesitation as he gamely electro-magnetized his new flying board with his hand and placed it under his feet.
Static then flew off at a slow but steady speed, and while he might have taken his time to navigate the course but he did so seamlessly. "Good job, Virgil. With more practice with your board, you'll be able to fly at a quicker pace. Alright, now you'll practice at your own leisure and later, we'll have a little test."
The rest of the training went by swimmingly and even though Wonder Girl calmed down and took things slowly, she was still rather competitive and went back to her old self for the dexterity test. Virgil flew a little faster and it appeared he was surfing through the air and having fun. Needless to say, Blue Beetle placed first for the test. The teens then moved on to a reaction time training where they had to make it through a set of foam walls that kept opening and closing rapidly so they young heroes would have to time their flight.
It was quite an amusing experience to see Jaime talking down to his scarab that "they couldn't shoot the walls" and surprisingly, Wonder Girl appeared to be trained well in reaction timing so she aced that test. Virgil was still a little unsure and once more, the brunette encouraged him to keep practicing.
Ember decided to limit the flight lessons to two techniques today and they would continue next week, "Great job, everyone. Keep practicing and I'll see you for the next training session."
As she walked out of the room, Robin was already standing outside, leaning against the wall as he looked at his holographic screen projected from his badge and when Wonder Girl spotted him, she flew towards the boy and enveloped him in a hug. A small smile graced Brianna's face at the sight of young love. She also noticed Jaime stopping mid-stride before flying off in the other direction. Virgil just shrugged and zipped away to meet his mentor.
At the same time, the other training room's doors opened to reveal her friends. "Bri! We were planning to go out for dinner, you want to join us?" M'gann flew up to the brunette eagerly with a smile.
"Err…" Ember said uncertainly and Artemis added on, "It's been a while since all of us sat down for a proper meal. C'mon, let's take it as a celebration to you becoming a Leaguer. Our treat."
Another voice chimed in, "Not so fast. We're planning to have a short session where Leaguers and senior team members pair up to see how well we work together in battle." The young adults turned their heads around and saw Black Canary with a few worn out members of the Team walking out from the training room.
The blonde woman then pressed a finger to her ear, "Black Lightning, Manhunter, please report to Training Room A right away."
Everyone headed into Room A and Ember stood beside Black Canary while doing her best to avoid a certain Atlantean's gaze. Soon, the other two men joined them and they were split off into groups randomly using a generator they pulled up from the holo screen.
"Two teams will be pitted against each other. We'll see how long it takes for one team to subdue the members of the other group. Also remember that this is a friendly match so don't get too carried away." Dinah explained during the drawing of names and as fate would have it, Brianna was teamed up with Kaldur'ahm…
The pyro had to be professional though, she made a promise to herself to separate the hero life from her private life and while the jerk did break her heart, he was still a formidable teammate. She still couldn't trust him entirely though.
"I know we've not trained together in a long while but let's do our best." Aqualad said smoothly and Brianna nodded while they watched M'gann and her uncle fight against Artemis and Black Lightning. It was a quite an exciting fight as even though the latter team was outnumbered in terms of powers, Tigress utilized all her weapons and threw her little fire bombs at appropriate intervals, weakening the Martians as Black Lightning discharged electricity but the aliens managed to density shift through the floor and snuck up on the opposing team.
"Time's up. Good work," Black Canary spoke before pulling off her jacket and motioning to Conner to stand beside her.
Brianna and Kaldur stood opposite them and waited. She noted that Aqualad angled his head towards Superboy, indicating that he would take on the half-Kryptonian. Unfortunately, Conner noticed the secret message and he immediately ran straight towards the Atlantean at the end of the countdown while Ember immediately flew up to dodge Black Canary's canary cry. The brunette threw a couple of knives as a distraction before sending a small flame towards the blonde, singeing her hair slightly as Dinah cartwheeled to the side and grabbed Ember's knives which were pinned to the floor.
The pyro's eyes widened as Black Canary flung a knife back at her and she flew to the side, allowing the knife to embed itself harmlessly into a pillar behind her. Another one was sent hurtling towards her and she managed to grab its handle before swinging herself around to throw it back at the blonde. Brianna smiled to herself as she found that the knife ripped the waist of Black Canary's leotard, exposing some skin.
Dinah let loose another cry and the brunette was caught in the last part of the audio onslaught and Brianna groaned out loud, losing a bit of her momentum. "Ember!" Aqualad yelled as he managed to restrain Superboy's arms behind the boy's back.
"Don't get distracted!" Brianna said in return and Conner managed to bring his head and down pull it back up quickly, colliding with Kaldur's face. The brunette immediately flew down to drag the Atlantean out of the way before she got knocked out by another canary cry.
"Ugh…" Ember moaned in discomfort and Dinah walked up to her to give her a hand, "You two were doing well individually but you guys didn't work as a team and got distracted. I would suggest both of you should practice together to get back in gear. Good effort though."
Conner pulled Aqualad up and Kaldur rubbed his bald head gingerly. "That was a nice move," The Atlantean praised his friend and walked towards his teammates.
"I'll treat you to dinner too, as an apology," Kon-El replied in return and Artemis was re-telling the tale, "Both of you were amazing! Especially you, Brianna, fending off Black Canary like that by keeping your distance. It would be awesome to see both of you combine attacks again. I remember that they were spectacular."
The brunette looked at Kaldur briefly before returning her gaze to the archer, "Maybe some other time. I'm a little hungry. Do I get to decide where we're eating since I'm being treated?" Brianna said cheekily as she flew off to the Zeta tube, wanting some space.
M'gann spoke with Artemis telepathically. It was a good attempt in trying to make them talk to each other again…
Tigress sighed. I suppose we can't rush things.
Kaldur could only give a nostalgic smile as he remembered all the trainings they went through in order to achieve their wonderful partnership in the field. He could only hope their next co-operative training session would happen soon. The Atlantean really wanted to be on talking terms with her again…
Author's Note: First chapter post Season 2 and relations between Kaldur and Brianna are still frosty. This chapter takes place about a week after the end of Season 2 in the year 2016.
To mudercrowther: Thanks!
To Molly Grace 16: Yup, hope you'll enjoy it. =)
To Eszra: There's still the Young Justice Legacy game that will be out next month which will cover what happened between Season 1 & 2. Greg Weisman said if the game sells well, maybe there might be more installments of YJ... Maybe.
To piggythelaw: Yeah, poor Artemis. I wish I had enough inspiration to write about Spitfire but I don't. =( Thanks, by the way.