Titans Tower, Gotham City, New Jersey
10:35 AM, January 1 2016

As a cruise ship passed North of Gotham City, headed towards Blüdhaven, its passengers briefly caught glimpse of a resort, pristine in appearance. It's white-washed walls were complimented by the literal tons of sand that surrounded them. Reaching heights taller than any of the buildings in the small oasis, was a water slide that looked like a dream to anyone on that boat.

But if they were more observant, they'd realize that all is not as it seems.

Past the image of the resort that was presented along the entire coast of the small island, was a set of hologram generators that cloaked the island and kept unwanted visitors to a minimum. Beyond the generators was a grassy paradise with actual natural beauty.

A network of narrow but comfortable roads led around a mile-wide space that made up the island. And at its heart was the most significant thing within miles: Titans Tower.

The giant T-shaped tower acted as the base of operations for the youthful band of superheroes: The Teen Titans. It provides housing, shelter, training facilities, and plenty of recreational activities.

Looking at it from outside, any architect would have to stop and smile at its elegance. Then they'd cry as they realized how often its internal spaces were destroyed.

As soon as a visitor would start walking inside, he'd catch a glimpse of an armored girl taking a deep breath from a cigarette, then puffing a degree of its poison back into the atmosphere.

After that, he'd open a glass door and see himself inside a bit of a parking garage. Everything from a motorcycle to a battle suit was at rest here.

Then, they'd head straight from across from the front door to an elevator. Stepping inside the elevator, they'd likely see how retro it looked. There was a neon sign dictating everything that they passed as they passed it. From automated kitchens to a war room to everyone's living quarters, they'd see everything they passed.

Then the elevator would come to a stop. The doors would draw open. And the visitor would likely babble like an idiot as he stepped forward into a jungle. But it wasn't really a jungle. It was just one of several training arenas that could alter its contents to meet the current needs of its user and simulate an appropriate exercise.

They'd stop and stare as an escrima stick would launch through the air and slam into the hand of a gunman that had been trying to sneak up behind a teen in a scorpion-esque battle suit.

The visitor would gape as a white-haired youth would flip over a military officer, stomp on the top of his head, and use it as a platform to leap into a tree where he'd watch the battle unfold.

And after gawking for a while, the visitor would see the illusion of a jungle fade away as the youths stopped fighting their imaginary battle and came together to shake hands.

If there were a visitor, that's what they would have seen.

The Laboratory of Dexter McPherson | Megaville, CT

One Year Ago

“All of the adults have vanished.” Dexter McPherson commented matter-of-factly as he sat in front of a large monitor while his fingers danced across the mechanical keyboard.

“…and what do you think we can do about it?”

“I’ve already hacked into several systems to ensure that we don’t have power plants going offline, but this is a problem you can solve.” The red-haired boy looks over to Blossom has his fingers keep moving on the keyboard. “You were a superhero once weren’t you?”

Blossom jumped back in a fit of surprise, “How did you—”

“That isn’t important right now. What is important is how many people are going to embrace anarchy and do as they please—especially in large cities like Megaville, Metropolis, Gotham, Star, Keystone-Central, Hub, New York, Detroit… I can stop anytime. You can’t expect people like Robin to do this on their own, we have to organize.”

The former powerpuff girl looked on at the boy genius as she crossed her arms. Even if she were to use her powers again and help, she was still just one metahuman. It would take a sort of team or group to do that kind of preventive heroism. Did Dexter seemingly think she could be everywhere at once or was as powerful as Superman? She remained silent as she tried to think of ways to be proactive about this approach.

“Don’t worry, I have a plan.”

“What is it?”

Dexter smirked, “I’m glad you asked. I’ve been working on technology that is much like the Justice League’s utilization of zeta-beams, I have a good idea who all we can operating cohesively here—” He paused as a screen went up on the monitor that drew up what looked to be profiles of teenaged heroes ranging from Robin to Katherine Bishop to Speedy; all of these cycled out to faces that Blossom wasn’t entirely familiar with herself.

“These heroes are not organized, and they fit a profile and utility we could use.”

Blossom nodded, “Okay.”

There wasn’t many that Dexter seemed to pull up—only about five or so. Blossom caught the aliases of ‘XJ9’, ‘American Dragon’, ‘Te Xuan Ze’, ‘Atomic Betty’, and ‘The Phantom’. If this was to be a team she guessed it was one she would work with to put her shoes back on.

“…alright. Beam ‘em up, scotty.”

---

Present Day

The seven of them had named the group “Infinity” after the technology Dexter had used to summon them—IWT (infinity wave technology). The boy genius did not intend to release it publically and viewed it as a personal utility for the group of superheroes. Not to mention the developing technology was fairly ‘alpha’ and there could be a lot of work to be done on it as the limitations of infinity-waves were generally unknown to him.

Upon this first day of January, Dexter McPherson sat at his computer as he often did waiting to see anomalies come to life in the marked locations his heroic friends were from (Tremorton, Orchid Bay, Moosejaw Heights, and Amity Park) and for the first time in a while felt he was doing something—he hadn’t built a robot in years, Mandark had vanished without a trace, and well… Dee Dee had gone off to East Asia to find herself. He admitted it was amusing reflecting back on it as it took him this long to realize that he liked all of what moved away from him.

Switching out to a bunch of reports of prospective heroes that could be in trouble and Megaville’s own problems he began to wonder—what was next for Infinity Incorporated?

Iron Fist couldn't suppress a slight grin as the Titans finished their mock battle and the jungle environment began fading from view. He'd been up in what was a very high tree during the exercise, sitting calmly cross-legged while apparently meditating on vast and unknowable enigmas of the universe as was typically his habit. Of course, he'd actually been watching the entire scenario play out with a whole lot more interest and attention than it seemed should be possible. It was, after all, at least his nominal responsibility to supervise and train the Teen Titans as a whole. He really rather enjoyed the job considering that other than his work with the Justice League, anything that wasn't almost lone wolf style work minus one often over-enthusiastic Luke Cage, was a breath of fresh air. A part of him wished that the League and the Titans would call the job something other than 'Den Mother' given the silly and boy scout-ish tone that particular title had, but he supposed such little annoyances were but dust motes in an infinite cosmos of more important things.

Besides, Danny sort of liked the odd sense of family that came with the title. Family was something he hadn't had in a long time.

So, wiping the smile off of his face and schooling his emotions, The Immortal Iron Fist dropped lightly from the vanishing tree branch to the floor of the training arena while seeming to unfold from the lotus position he'd been in with not a trace of stiffness. Long hours of meditation on the icy peaks that housed K'un-L'un did wonders for even the idea of creaky joints. He approached the youths as they shook hands in such as way that even with enhanced senses, his arrival might be hard to notice. He vaguely wondered who the first to spot him would be, or if maybe some of the Titans would think their mysterious teacher had appeared out of thin air. Despite himself he couldn't help enjoying little games like these.

Naturally he broke his silence when he judged he was close enough.

"So, who here thinks they have nothing left to learn?"

Sometimes Tim wondering if it was worth leaving the SHIELD institute. Sometimes he wondered if it would have been a better idea to finish his training there in a safe and controlled environment. Maybe he would even be a member of the Young Avengers if he stayed! However, today he did not wonder such things. Today Tim remember why he had left. The freedom. The action. The ability to punch the hell out of virtual gunmen in an imaginary forest. Today was really one of those days that made Tim proud to be a Teen Titan.

The sound of an arrow whizzing past him snapped Tim back into reality. Scuttling up onto a tree branch, Scorpion just managed to glimpse the slowly fading pixels of his would be attacker. Maybe now wasn't the best time to be having such a deep and distracting train of thought. Scanning the surroundings, Scorpion spotted his next target. Moving quickly, the teenage superhero leaped into the air, firing what seemed to be a glob of green-yellow ooze from the tip of his mechanical tail. The ooze splattered the virtual gunman's face but before he could react he exploded into grey-black pixel's as Tim's foot implanted with his head. Landing in a heap of fading pixels, Scorpion swung to the left, his tail following suit and slicing another gunman in half, pixels flying everywhere.

The sound of a gun reloading caught his attention. Looking up, Scorpion watched as a gunman took aim, his sights on the teen with the tail! However before the trigger could be shown, a small golden disk flew down from above, exploding as it made contact with the man's body.

"Little warning next time Rico, eh" Scorpion chuckled nervously as the smoke from the explosion died down. The young clone removed his helmet slowly as the jungle around him faded away, leaving a large bare room. With his helmet under one arm, Scorpion raised his hand to shake it with his snowy haired saviour, before jerking his head suddenly to his left when a familiar voice met his ear. The so called Den-Mother who had been sat up in a tree for the past hour had finally made an appearance. What really confused Tim was how Iron Fist had managed to approach them so quietly.

"So, who here thinks they have nothing left to learn?"

Tim smiled awkwardly. "er... can you teach us that?" He asked nervously, referring to the Den mother's surprise arrival.

Deeply inhaling the last remnant of her double-wide methanol cigarette, Rose tossed the butt to the asphalt ground beneath her, stomping out what little embers were left with her orange boot until it was nothing but torn up bits of brown paper. With a final exhale, the grey smoke escaped from both her mouth and nostrils in a steady stream, evaporating quickly into the air. She closed her blue eyes for just a moment, taking in the serene sounds around her of absolute quiet; one of her more favorite sounds. Though when her blue eyes slid back open once more, she began to head inside the Titans Tower, pushing through the glass doors and walking at a rather slow pace through the parking garage.

She stopped for a moment to take a brief look over the equipment, spotting Nightwings motorcycle right off the bat. Rose didn’t have any modes of transportation herself at the moment, as she was always keen on roof-hopping, but maybe thinking about getting her own set of wheels wouldn’t be too bad of an idea…

With a bit of a sigh, Rose continued on, taking the elevator up to the main lobby room of the tower. When the doors slid open, she casually stepped out and headed over to her favorite couch and plopped herself down onto it, propping her orange boots up on the coffee table in front of her and laid her head back.

“There’s nothing to do!” She groaned out loud, uncaring if anyone was around to hear her or not. Things had been rather slow as of late, and since her father Slade had left the city for a week or so for one of his own missions, she was sorely missing a good sparring session. Perhaps if Dick or Roy were around, she could convince one of them to entertain her for the time being…

She peeled off her split colored mask and set it on the couch beside her, letting her long blonde hair fall out and pool around her, running her fingers through her hair a few times to get out the slight kinks that her mask may have caused.

Hell, if she didn’t find something to do soon she might just do something stupid and go out on her own, looking for trouble.

Morton Papp Cemetery | Star City, CA

“Everything that I’ve done has been to do right by you, I’m still trying to find out what exactly you’d want me to do here—work with the Society like you did… or just keep going without knowing what tomorrow throws me. I know now though that obsessing over one assassin wasn’t right, and I guess that’s why I traveled for a while—trying to find out who I was and what I really stood for. I guess what I’m trying to say … is I’m sorry, I’m sorry for wasting all those years fixated on Black Spider.”

It was seven thirty-six in the morning on the pacific coast and Roy Harper was staring down with a frown expressed firmly on his face. The grave of his father— Roy Harper, Sr—the famous hero known as Red Arrow brought him back to misery and for the last few years he was trying to face it, especially when Dick told him to move past his rage as it didn’t have a point. He could never combat Dick in an argument, he’d just throw allegories, logical fallacies, and objectivity at him and the Batman-trained superhero just made him get back in line; back in shape.

“He’s proud, y’know.”

The voice of Oliver Queen drew from the shadow of a tree. Roy wasn’t surprised that Ollie had been on him since he entered Star City and he wasn’t sure he was ready to approach him again, but he wasn’t given much of a choice.

“Green Arrow.”

“Don’t be like that—”

“We’re in public, remember?” Roy cut him off as he turned to face the emerald archer.

“We should talk, I know things are… complicated, but I’d like to get back to square one.”

Roy sighed—that was easier said than done and he had a responsibility to the Titans at the moment, especially with the new members being eyed at by Iron Fist like the first had been by Red Tornado. But he got it—he understood and admittedly he wasn’t mad at Ollie anymore; he was just doing what he thought was the best at the time and it turned out that Roy going behind Ollie’s back to get information out of Robin was the kick in the pants he really needed. Perhaps they could work together again? Roy didn’t know—he was late to observe some training.

“Later, I have to get back to Gotham. But… yeah, we do need to talk or chase down a supervillain… or something.”

“I’ll hold you to it.”

Roy nodded with a smirk as he moved out as he headed to the nearest receiver of zeta-beams. He stepped in and it was like clockwork…

---

Titans Headquarters | Gotham City, NJ

“Receiving: B02 – Arsenal.” The tower's artificial intelligence chimed.

Roy Harper stepped out into the command center. Yeah, he was definitely late for whatever training Iron Fist had scheduled.

TALON

Beneath the Alan Wayne Trust Building, in the sanctuary of the


Torches light the dark chamber, providing just enough light to see by, but not enough to see much else. Thomas Marsh, the youngest member of the Talons, kneels before 12 thrones. Fear does not resonate within him, rather intense loyalty. Thomas keeps his head lowered, bowed in respect. The arm bearing the gauntlet of the owl supports his kneeling frame while the right is draped over his knee.

Stepping out of the shadows come the 12 ruling members of the Court of Owls, their faces hidden by the white masks. The first to address Thomas was a man, speaking from the center of the half circle. Though his face was hidden, he was tall, and had blond hair. His frame was lean, almost skeletal were it not for the wiry muscles hanging from his slender body.

"Thomas Marsh, our youngest Talon, we, the Court, have called you here for a reason." The man spoke, his voice carrying an absolute note of authority. From his tone, it was clear that although there were 12 leading members, he was the one in command. "You have heard, no doubt, of the band of teenaged vigilantes known as the Teen Titans. They are based on an isle just off the coast of Gotham. The Court charges you with infiltrating their team and protecting our interests. To that end, we authorize you to speak FOR the Court in limited circumstances. Be wary of Nightwing, however. The Court has dealt with Richard Grayson before, and he may not trust you at first."

The man finished speaking and it was a full 5 seconds before Thomas looked up. By that time. They were already gone. Rising from his position on the ground, Thomas pulled the cowl of the Talon over his head, disappearing into the inky shadows of the dark.

—--------------------------

It was later when he reached the island, coming upon the T-shaped tower hidden beneath the holographic generators. Talon had mulled over the Court's warning against Richard Grayson, and had decided to tackle him first. Slipping into the tower via the maintenance shaft, he skulked around for hours until he found an armored girl in the Lobby. It was here that he stepped out of the maintenance section, and into the light. "Do not be alarmed, my lady, but there is someone here I seek."

This time Danny didn't bother hiding a trace of a grin, his mind flashing back to the mentors of his childhood who had played similar tricks on him. It was a shame this training room didn't have the added bonus of snow-covered ground to leave his students baffled over why there were no discernible footprints in the snow to show that he'd arrived or departed in the first place, but he wasn't sure he was quite that good and in any case he was sure what he'd done already was sufficient to get his students minds' going. Well, those of them that hadn't trained extensively with Batman.

"Ah, that's a good question Scorpion, and the art of Stealth is an excellent next lesson to learn, especially for more delicate operations. The key is Oneness, with both your environment and those you want to avoid. Now-"

“Receiving: B02 – Arsenal.”

Iron fist put two fingers to his ear as the Tower alerted him to Roy's arrival, grinning even more in spite of himself. He was sure Roy had a good reason for being late and didn't really intend to give him a hard time over it, but there was still work to be done. Pressing slightly on his head, he broadcast himself so that he hoped Roy would hear.

"Good timing Arsenal, I was just about to run through a stealth scenario and I could use a hand in the training room. I'd think an archer would be more than capable of spotting anything I miss, if you aren't too busy to or wouldn't rather take a shot at it a along with them."

Titans Headquarters | Gotham City, NJ

Roy rose his two front fingers to the communication device in his ear as Iron Fist’s voice became clear. "Good timing Arsenal, I was just about to run through a stealth scenario and I could use a hand in the training room. I'd think an archer would be more than capable of spotting anything I miss, if you aren't too busy to or wouldn't rather take a shot at it a along with them."

They could use an archer. The thought left Roy with a smirk as he moved forward, checking some of the camera feeds before he responded—the camera to the garage was out again—without Cyborg available to them this was a constant problem and he noted to himself that he would need to talk to Dick about recruiting a tech hero or at least until Cyborg was back from his sabbatical. It was weird being in Titans Tower without the bulk of the founding members—Raven was working with Nightshade and Zatanna to prevent something terrible that she didn't want to involve us with, Starfire had to return to her homeworld due to a pressing matter of which M’gann was helping along, Kara was off helping Donna with some sort of soul searching, Wally was focusing on college, and Beast Boy was more or less working with the Doom Patrol at the given moment. Roy missed them.

“Yeah, I’ll be right down.”

At least the New Titans were keeping things going in the absence of his friends…

Tony Masters walked the streets of Gotham. He was heading to the concealed Titan's Tower for his recruitment. Anything that pays was good really, and this one came with free accomodation so thats always good. He turned and took a shortcut through an alley before hearing an obvious playback noise being turned on. 'Help! My Leg!' The bad actor on the voice recorder called out. Tony shook his head before continuing along the alley, a little fight never hurt anybody. Well it did but thats not the point. Soon enough a pipe swung out from behind a large dumpster at Tony. Something switched in Tony's brain and he dodged out of the way just like that of DareDevil would. He swung his leg around and tripped up the attacker before swinging his feet upwards and backwards to hit the attacker behind him. He felt his feet touch the wall and he pushed off of it and into the last attacker in front of him, slamming him into the wall. He got to his feet and adjusted his tie before continuing on to the tower.

Soon enough he was off a ferry and onto the secluded island. He changed into his taskmaster outfit before he continued on, couldnt let them see who he was if he wasn't accepted. He had met with the titans a few times before, but he never took off his mask. He made his way to the tower before entering. No one was around so he called out
"Some Service please?!"

Within his pressurized sensory deprivation chamber, Tempest meditated. With every possible stimulus that could assault his razor-sharp senses gone, he was in a perfect state of mind to reflect inward. Clear, calm, cool thoughts rolled through him like a tranquil pond. Most chambers similar to his had one float in shallow water, but this one was modified to submerge him completely. Clean, hot water ran in through his nostrils, across his gills and out of his mouth. However, as he had reached his center and was about to enter a deeper trance, something unsettled him. A strange presence had entered the tower, and he had the feeling that this would not lead to good things for the Teen Titans.

Pressing the released, Tempest climbed out of the chamber, using his hydrokinetic power to dry himself and avoid leaving puddles on the nice, clean floor of his room. He stretched his limbs as he made his way down toward the lobby, the source of where he felt the disturbance. He quickly found it; a man equipped like an assassin that had happened upon Rose. Apparently he was looking for someone? He wasn't likely to get very far using these tactics. Still, Rose was in all likelihood more than enough to take this guy, and if not, Tempest was close at hand. As it happened, there was another intruder that required dealing with.

Tempest made his way down to the tower's main entrance. This one had just decided to waltz in through the front door like he owned the place, and started shouting for attention. This was... Taskmaster? He had been around here before. Apparently he had been meaning for some time to join the team, and this was likely what he had come about this time.

To avoid a potential hassle, Tempest decided not to assume anything as he made himself known. "Yes, yes, that's enough shouting. People live here, you know. Now, to what do I owe this... surprise visit, Taskmaster?"

London, England

Uncle Ginny’s Toy Store

“So is this what being a normal adult is like…. really… slow… and… boring…”

The young gingered hair kid stood leaning against the counter of the shop’s cashier stand. Glancing around the store that usually saw plenty of visitors. As one of London’s most highly rated stores would of course. However today things seemed rather… not moving at the moment. He held up his head with a hand, tapping his cheek with an index finger as he glanced over at a nearby wall mounted clock. As the second hand finally ticked away to finally time for him to clock out. He went straight over, neatly putting the apron he wore onto its hook, clocking out, and wishing Mr. Aster the store owner a good night.

As Peter strolled along the slightly chilly London street, pulling the thick coat further over himself as he shivered. He glanced around as he continued to his home. He always told himself never to think of his former home. But when things were so cold and bleary it was impossible to think back to Neverland. How the weather and temperature was always perfect. Course that just made him a little homesick again. Pining for something that was long gone and probably forgotten by now. He couldn’t help but wonder if Tiger Lily and the indian tribe were still there, if the pirates or even Captain Hook was. Peter laughed to himself, a bit loudly garnering weird looks from nearby people passing by. Captain Hook… if Peter was struggling a bit to keep a low profile in this place, he couldn’t even imagine what that crooked pirate would be going through.

As Peter got back to his small apartment, Cranking up the heat on the temperature gauge as he came in. Peter shook off the rest of the cold, placing his coat and some of his other things away. The apartment, even as his had it for some years now, was still rather sparse. Peter just never knew what to get for it. Sure he had seen the televisions, and the video games that others spoke of. Peter never really got either of those conceptually. TV just seemed strange in how people would rather watch something than go live it, or like video games play it on a fake virtual thing, then go out and just play it. Unless it was one of those games with the guns… but Peter despised those games in their mere concept anyways.

As Peter changed out of his work clothes, he changed into a green suit he had made a year ago. Putting on some thermal layers underneath for the cold trip. Finally Peter Pan pulled out a leather sheath from behind his bed. Gripping the handle of the sword and pulling out a fine cutlass sword. Eying down the middle of its seriously sharp blade as he held the bottom up with a wrist. Peter Pan’s combat lived around a weapon like this. With how timeless Neverland was, the nice but strange man named Iron Fist told him once he had experience under his belt with a sword most masters three times his age did. The wonderful ego stroking aside, Peter slid the sword back into the sheath. Strapping it on around his waist as he turned the lights out on his apartment. Going to open the window as he crawled out to the ledge. Closing the window behind him as with a smile a mile wide Peter leapt out, flying through the skies with grace and beauty. After a while Peter never really worried about people seeing him do this. As his realized most of the time the people down below would never look up, just stare down in the streets, never once seeing the stars or sky above them.

Must be a real pity to be like that.

As Rose tossed and turned on the couch restlessly, trying to find a comfortable position or just trying to do something to keep her from going absolutely insane, a peculiar noise reached her ears. Stopping, she honed in on the sound, gathering that someone was coming this way...and it was someone she didn't know. Quickly, she pulled her mask back on and sat against the arm of the couch, one leg propped up on the couch and the other dangling lazily. She had grabbed for her swords which were attached to her back and held on in her hand across her lap, the other in her opposite hand back behind the couch and behind her head. Not exactly a defensive position, but then again with Ravager you always had to expect the unexpected. Finally, the perpetrator entered the lobby and Rose felt a small smirk play across her lips.

"Do not be alarmed, my lady, but there is someone here I seek."

Unmoving, Ravager gave him a lazy-sounding chuckle. Though somewhat pretty cool looking in Rose's opinion, the owl costume just made her want to smile. Though it did it's purpose in concealing his identity, and if it had been anyone else but her; intimidating. She had no idea where to even begin on how to start profiling him, which was a bit new to her as her father always had her thinking that way as of late. There was no way this new guy was a new Titan, someone would have told her about it, therefore, he was an intruder...fair game. That much she was sure of.

"What a coincidence..." Ravager said looking down at her blade in her lap. "...Because I've been waiting for you."

And with a blink of an eye, Ravager was off of the couch, swords drawn and running straight towards the intruder with somewhat of a war-cry coming from the female.
The armored female was running towards him, swords drawn. Her war-cry was ear piercing, but he paid it no heed. Drawing two of the five daggers strapped across his chest, he crisscrossed his arms and each blade met each sword. From his stance, Talon knew she'd see he had training. Lethal training.

Likewise, from her ferocity, Talon deduced that she had similar training, although from a different mentor. Talon shifted his weight suddenly, and slipped her swords aside.

"You have training, I see." he said, the voice distorter in his mask activating.
Sparks flew as their steel clashed, and as he pushed her off of him she took a step back to further analyze her opponent. She really needed to talk to Dick about their security system. The voice coming from the owl came as a bit of a surprise to her, but she kept face. It was practically rule number one in both her father's and Nightwings training...never let your opponent know what you're thinking.

"As have you." Rose countered, side-stepping to the right a few paces, keeping her eyes glued on him.

You should really be careful what you wish for Rose

"You will leave here one way or another, whether by your own accord in the next ten seconds, or in a bunch of tiny pieces..." She threatened.
Like a caged tiger, he began to circle the girl, taking in her features. Although her face was hidden beneath a half-mask, he could clearly see her blond hair flowing down her back. Her skin was cream-colored, as if she intentionally avoided sunlight. Her armor was bright orange intermixed with black. Her grimace revealed white teeth laced with a hint of yellow; from smoking most likely.

Talon took all of this in with a detached remoteness, continuing his orbit around her, searching for a plan of attack. She seemed tense. Was now the time to strike? Talon thought back to his training under William Cobb, Nightwing's grandfather, and knew from personal experience of the lactic acids breaking down muscle strength that she wouldn't last long against him relying on the twin swords. They each weighed, to his eye, several pounds. Combined with the exertion of fighting him, Talon gave her 3 minutes before fatigue set in; she'd look to end this quickly.

As he came to her left side, he threw a knife at her feet. His goal wasn't to harm her, rather, tire her out in order to reason with her. "Calm down. I am not here to kill you."
With cat-like tread, Rose jumped back nimbly from the knife that stuck into the floor, earning him a scowled expression that could hardly be defined under her mask. She knew that he would under-estimate her, it wasn't every day that someone was trained by both Deathstroke and Nightwing, she had no intentions of tiring out, not to mention the single syringe of adrenaline she kept on her at all times; unnoticeable of course to the naked eye, as she kept it in her bra under her costume. Though as much as her body itched for the amplified feeling of adrenaline, now was not the time.

"I really don't care what your here for." She said and relaxed her left arm, sheathing the one sword back behind her back and gripped onto the one sword with both hands. "You've just stumbled into the wrong slumber party." Again she rushed him, sword held high looking as if she might try to cut his head clean off but then at the last second she threw herself to the floor, sliding on her knees on the slick tile a good four feet before jumping up again and drove a kick to the back of his knees.

Talon sighed when she rushed at him, cringing when she kicked at his knees. Forcing himself through the pain, Talon centered himself.
Think, Thomas, use your head; the body will follow.

He turned rapidly, violently. Her reflexes were obviously honed and honed well. Using the knife in his right hand, he made a pass at her off hand, aiming for the back of her glove. Not even waiting to see if the gash was made, he slipped his boot in-between her legs, slipping his arm around her neck, the blade inches from her carotid artery. "Like I said, calm down."

A hiss of pain and anger escaped her lips as she felt a hot pain searing at her left hand. She didn't pause to even look though as Owl boy was on her once again, locking her in a choke-hold and suddenly a blade was pressed to her throat.

"Careful there big boy, you might start to excite me." She said keeping her voice calm. With a quick twist of her body, and an elbow jamming into his ribcage, she did somewhat of a backwards somersault over the man’s back, forcing distance between them by kicking with her boot at the near end, sending him flying forward onto his stomach and her backward onto her ass, crashing into a bookshelf which in turn toppled over.

A quick pre-image flashed into her mind even before the bookshelf even started to fall, and she rolled out of the way just as the shelf crashed down. Panting a bit, she took a knee, grabbing her second sword and stared down her opponent.

The heavy bookcase fell with a dull thud, alerting others; gauging the footfalls he heard, less than a minute. The girl was on one knee, staring him down. She was relentless, he had to do something unexpected. With that, he ripped off the owl-mask, showing his short, dark brown hair and green eyes set against a square jaw.

"My name is Thomas."

He sheathed the knives, and strode over, offering her a hand up.

It hadn't taken Amy long to get used to the layout of Titans Tower. She'd only been part of the team a few weeks at least, but already she'd mapped out the building in her head. It was just like one of the dungeons from her games, really... Well, only without any random encounters, or boss battles, or treasure...

Okay, so maybe it wasn't like a dungeon, but still. The point was that since she knew her way around, it didn't take her long to sneak off to the rec room whilst everyone else seemed to be preoccupied with other things. She was glad this room existed, really; as it turned out, when they weren't out doing superheroics it was pretty boring around here, and it seemed like it was going to be another quiet day. So instead of doing something dull like watching the others do training exercises, she instead decided to spend the whole day playing videogames. She was almost at the final boss of Last Legend XIV, after all!

Unfortunately, just as she had powered up the Playtendo, she heard what sounded like a struggle outside. Heading for the door, her fingers touched the amethyst that hung around her neck, the jewel glowing bright purple as she began her transfor-

"...Oh hey, it stopped." Just as suddenly as it had started, it seemed like the fight ouside had reached its conclusion, and by the sounds of it there was no real cause for alarm anymore. "So I guess I don't need to leave..." Slumping down on a beanbag, Amy grabbed the controller. Sure, she was probably skipping out on training exercises or something, but she had more important matters to attend to. Like finally defeating that smug prettyboy and his twelve additional forms.

Iron Fist was still smiling as he pondered what sort of scenario to set up. It should be something to properly test the Titans stealth skills while being flexible enough to adapt to anything they tried to do or for that matter failed to do. Not to mention he wanted to have a little bit of fun with them first off and make the training memorable for those involved so it didn't come off as too harsh while not fading from anyone's memory any time soon. Eventually he decided on an amalgamation of some of his own experiences would best convey why the necessary skills were so necessary. He moved up to the observation deck and punched in the scenario he had in mind before announcing it over an intercom.

"Let's see. I think you'll all like this one. A little something from my personal file: The Castle of Nightingales."

With that the room began to fade away, replaced by a soaring series of pagodas dappled by soft moonlight. There were even crickets chirping in the background and the soft dripping of water from somewhere, in fact there was very little to indicate anything other than a peaceful night. directly behind Iron Fist a sliding screen door lay open with a vast hallway leading to a set of stairs that in turn lead to another hallway. Occasionally a guard in the sort of clothes that suggested a kabuki stagehand or stereotypical ninja would patrol set routes before turning around again. Interestingly their faces were completely covered, leaving no room even for eye slits. No torches or lighting illuminated the interior either.

"Welcome to the Castle of Nightingales, Titans. Your objective in this scenario is to sneak through this fortification and meet with the informant held captive at the very top of this its' tower. The guards inside are actually blind, but don't let that fool you, they're all highly trained professional killers who are more capable without their eyes than many warriors are with them. Moreover, if you fail to take them out quietly and attract the attention of too many, there's a dangerous surprise waiting for everyone. Work together and remember: the key is to think and move as one with both your environment and your enemies."

It wasn't actually that simple of course. The truth was that the floor was boobytrapped so that if anyone stepped on it carelessly or in the wrong way it would send up a sound like nightingales singing, which attracted the attention of the blind guardsmen. the guardsmen themselves were also actually androids underneath their masked faces and were more resilient to damage than they seemed though in this case he'd set it so a proper stealth attack would take them down easily. That said, he hadn't known those things going in, and the stakes were a lot lower for the teens in his care than they had been for him. As for the surprise, well, it was supposed to be more of a "game over" occurrence, but he was looking forward to seeing how they handled it.

Above the Atlantic-250 miles off the Eastern Seaboard
January 1, 2016

The nearly deafening sound of the entire planet's troubled mass flooded Kon-El's ears all at once. Before he had learned to control his powers this noise would have drove him mad, now it seemed to calm him. High above the clouds surrounded by a sea of white and feeling the sun's rays beaming down on him helped remind Kon of all the things that he stood for. For an instance he thought about his days back at LexCorp, he thought then that he was doing the right thing too.


A particular commotion brought his to Spain. It seemed like a fire had caused a disturbance in one of the poorer districts of Madrid but the fire department was already on scene and had put the blaze out. Kon then turned his attention to Gotham and Metropolis, while he wasn't concerned about the two cites being defended, it was more about watching a good show. It was odd, he thought, a few years ago he was created to combat Kal-El on Luthor's behalf now he was his mentor.

A commotion in Titan's Tower brought his attention back to his New Jersey isle. As his vision zoomed in on the T shaped building he watched the Titan Ravager battle an unknown owl-masked assassin. Without a second thought Kon began barreling towards the tower at speeds that would me an F-15 seem like a snail. Within seconds he was walking through the doors of the Tower just in time for the assassin to remove his mask and announce himself as Thomas. A quick movement brought the super-teen behind the assassin putting him in ironclad full nelson,

"Nice to meet ya' Thomas. You've seemed to walk into the wrong party."

_____Ricochet

Training Room Simulation: Castle of The Nightingales, Titans Tower
10:40 PM, January 1 2016

Johnny scratched an itch on his scalp as he shrugged his shoulders. The acrobatic youth loved ninjas, but he wasn't sure how he felt about this in particular. So he pinched the two inward-facing tips of his jacket and tugged them, overall tightening the leather around his torso. He quietly swaggered over to the other trainees about to run the course. He was somewhat familiar with Tim Parker. Though they weren't the absolute best of friends, they did have a smooth-working relationship.

So, before any of them actually set foot on the bottom floor of the asian towers, he tapped Scorpion's shoulder and whispered a suggestion in his ear, hoping that the ninja, or the guards he assumed to be ninja, would not overhear him.

"If I throw a disk in the air, full of an anesthetic, could you blast at it and force it to detonate when it's in the vicinity of the guards?"

Then, he stepped back and peeled off one of the golden-colored steel disks he'd mentioned, from the outer sleeve of his leather jacket. He then held it between his middle and index fingers and waved it right in front of Tim's face, where he was convinced that he could take a good look.

Titans Headquarters | Gotham City, NJ

The thought of joining the New Titans in a training session was a thought to came to Roy as he moved through the Tower toward the virtual simulator—now Roy wasn’t above the concept, after all he and Dick trained often enough to keep their skill sharpened but there was something that was missing with the newer members for him. Though, a sense of pride in his skill was apparent for sure—he had traveled to places they hadn’t and he had fought some of the nastiest villains before he even founded this team with Nightwing a year ago.

But Iron Fist needed a second pair of eyes, and he’d give him to them.

As a battle ensued between Talon and Ravager, Arsenal found himself joining Iron Fist on deck. “Okay, you rang?” Roy said as he approached.

“Sorry about the lateness, I had to check up on something—but I’m here now.”

Iron Fist made a vague, noncommittal gesture as Roy apologized to him. "What matters the course of a river, whether it is long and winding, short and straight, rough or smooth, so long as it arrives at the sea?" It was the sort of sensible-yet-nonsensical saying that Danny's masters had said to him when he had expressed concerns or questions of his own, and now that he found himself in a teacher role he felt somewhat obligated to pass them on to others. Besides, it got the general message across that he didn't mind Roy's lateness at all.

"If you like there might still be time to join them on the exercise, they might even do better with someone experienced to lead them, aside from a hard-light construct of Nightwing, anyways. But I think it might do them just as much good for you to observe them, get to know their strengths and weaknesses, figure out what it is they still lack. After all, I can train them, teach them, maybe even make them heroes, but I can't make them Titans."

He may have been the League's current pick to chaperon the team but he hadn't been on it originally like Arsenal and Nightwing had, after all. Even more importantly, except in certain cases he probably wouldn't take to the field with them on missions so it was imperative that at least one of the group's leaders worked with them in some capacity during their training hours, and from here Roy would be able to see the big picture of all their actions, or so Danny hoped.

Titans Headquarters | Gotham City, NJ

"What matters the course of a river, whether it is long and winding, short and straight, rough or smooth, so long as it arrives at the sea?"

Roy kept his smirk as Iron Fist’s comment drove him almost to mock it but he knew that would be funny only to himself and he didn’t have time for bits about jesters or clowns. Crossing his arms he looked onward as Iron Fist did and nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

This was when another comment came from the live-in mentor.

"If you like there might still be time to join them on the exercise, they might even do better with someone experienced to lead them, aside from a hard-light construct of Nightwing, anyways. But I think it might do them just as much good for you to observe them, get to know their strengths and weaknesses, figure out what it is they still lack. After all, I can train them, teach them, maybe even make them heroes, but I can't make them Titans."

“Don’t underestimate your usefulness, we need you right now—but I see your point. However, I’m not sure what I could teach them—I haven’t exactly been the one who can explain things or leads from example. You are looking at the wrong founder of the Titans for that.”