Chapter 13

"You guys are seeing this too right?" Wally asked as his eyes remained glued to the two combatants who were flickering across the training field without a care in the world. 

"Obviously dofus, we do have functional eyes after all." Replied Robin as he ensured that the cameras were tracking and recording everything as clearly as possible. There where already several screens that where reviewing several of the previous scenes with programs picking apart different readings that had been taken so far

"Well since you're so smart, how the heck is he doing that?!" Wally said as he pointed to Aqualad and Nova, who had leapt several feet into the air only to slam back down unto the ground with a surprising amount of force in an attempt to land a devastating axe kick unto Aqualad's head, who had managed to role out of the way just in time to avoid the hit entirely.

"I don't know, but if I had to fathom a guess, I'd say it's his meta abilities at work. That's the only logical conclusion to come too, wouldn't you agree?" 

Robin pulled up several holograms that displayed two sets of graphs in different colors for easy interpretation. He brought the holograms closer together until they overlapped with each other, with one graph showing much higher elevated readings than the other

"His strength, speed, and even his reaction time seemed to have been greatly boosted and they're only growing stronger with time." 

"So what, he gets more powerful the longer he fights? Or is his power increase based on the amount of damage he takes, afterall he only started to show this explosive power spike after Aqualad wailed on him."

Asked Wally as he imagined what it feel like to get hit by one of Nova's punches in his enhanced state, winching upon coming to the conclusion that it would not be pleasant by any stretch of the imagination.

"Maybe? Why are you even asking me? It's not like I've had a lot of time to think about this you know. I need time to think and extrapolate data before I can be certai-"

"He's been absorbing Aqualad's hit's."

"…What?"

Both Robin and Wally stopped bickering and looked over to Superboy who was staring at the fight with a dangerous gleam in his eyes and a smirk across his face that neither of them had seen before. 

"His power lets him absorb energy, or at least absorb kinetic energy from what I've seen so far. I asked you guys earlier if it wasn't odd how easily he managed to brush off Aqualad's punches. You guys said that Aqualad was holding back, but I could tell that he wasn't. No matter how hard he hit Nova, some of his punches just weren't connecting like they were supposed to."

Superboy turned to Robin's many screen and quickly flicked through a few of the recordings before pointing out a few of the times that Aqualad had hit Nova with a solid punch or kick, only for Nova to completely ignore the hit.

"Here, here, and here. You can see that Aqualad seems confused as to why his hits aren't having an affect on Nova. From the way his muscles moved you can tell he was going full force, but Nova didn't seem particularly bothered by the hits in the slightest."

Superboy left the console and Robin quickly verified what he was saying using programs embedded in the watch towers computer systems.

"I guess you're right," muttered Robin begrudgingly "but its not just about absorbing energy though. He uses that absorbed energy to enhance his bodies overall parameters. That's why he's getting stronger and faster the longer this goes on. His meta power is the type that gets stronger the longer he fights, though it takes a lot to get the ball rolling."

Robin pulled up a few other screens that showed scenes where Aqualad had managed to deliver a hit or two that seemed to affect Nova like normal, even though there were some he ignored.

"While it's good we figured out what his powers are, it still doesn't explain his uncanny ability to so easily mirror our combat techniques." Interrupted Wally who had also stood behind the console and pulled up some side by side screens that showed images of Nova using certain moves that were a perfect mirror of Robin, or Aqualad, or even his own. 

"He's literally fighting like Super boy right now, and while Super boy doesn't exactly have much in the way of technique when it comes to combat, it's still shocking to see him just pull this sort of stuff out of his back pocket like its nothing. No offense Superboy."

Wally raised his arms and winced a bit as Superboy directed a glare his way, but other than a disgruntled huff, he said nothing.

"Honestly we already figured he was an odd one, but this is beyond just a odd or strange occurrence." Said Robin.

"Stranger than him casually slugging Aqualad around without a care in the world?" Scoffed Wally as he pointed once more the sparring match that had turned into a spectacle of Aqualad scurrying around the ring trying to avoid every other attack the Nova managed to throw his way.

 "Yes Stranger than even that. I'm definitely going to have to send these recording to Batman and the rest of the league. Nova's meta powers might be the bane of most people with physical enhancement powers since he just uses their increased physical strength to power himself up instead, but that doesn't really explain why he was being experimented on in a lab. The best use of his power would be as a combatant. There has to be something that we're missing and its imperative that we figure that out." 

Robin continued to mumble to himself as his fingers quickly flickered across the main console, copying and transferring the files he'd already compiled off to be analyzed even further. 

"Regardless, I'm glad that he's not a weakling. I'll finally be able to let loose a little!" Superboy smiled to himself as his cracked his knuckles in excitement.

Robin and Wally glanced at each other before eyeing Superboy form the corner of their eyes wearily. 

While the Superman clone was deemed to be his own unique existence, it was sometimes a bit concerning how prone to violence he still was, and while the sparring session were indeed supposed to be for the group to bond as a team, it was honestly a pain dealing with Superboy once he got in the mode. 

None of them had the sturdiness needed to tank his hits and while he usually dialed back his strength most of the time, the fact that he often times wasn't able to go all out was definitely causing him to have a lot of bottled up frustration. 

The fact that he usually dealt with his frustrations by hitting something didn't help much since he couldn't really hit any of them without breaking a few bones at the least. So the idea of a metahuman ability that basically made Nova into a human punching bag was definitely something that Superboy viewed in a positive light.

"Hey I don't want to sound like I'm losing my mind, but is Nova…glowing?" Asked Wally incredulously as he narrowed his eyes. 

***

Nova was on cloud nine. 

He didn't know what had over come him in the short period of time since the start of the spar, but it was a feeling that he relished and didn't want to let go of. He felt so much power coursing through his veins that was practically begging to be released, and release it he did. 

Nova leap into the air and pressed on with a round house kick that would have shattered a regular humans bones with ease, but which Aqualad managed to block even though his face grimaced in pain. Obviously he wasn't able to handle the hit as well as he though he would have, as he was pushed to his knees for the first time since the stat of the match.

A sight that ignited a frenzied urge to defeat Aqualad in Nova, who let his instincts guide his actions. In a display of athleticism that he normally wouldn't be able to display, he used Aqualad's crossed arms as a springboard, Nova twisted on his heel and performed a backflip the propelled him up into the air and a few feet away form the kneeling Aqualad. 

While mid flip, he locked eyes with Aqualad who was visibly confused as to why Nova had backed away when he clearly had an advantage, but that look of confusion turned into disbelief when nova extended his arm outward. 

Wally had been correct in is observation that Nova had begun to glow, as the energy that he wasn't able to efficiently utilize had began to build up in his body. Nova of course didn't know what exactly was happening, but he had a feeling that if he didn't get rid of the excess energy quickly, something that he definitely didn't want to happen would unfold. 

So as he pointed his opened hand in Aqualad's direction, and as the streams of glowing energy crawled across his body and coalesced into the palm, all that Nova could do was smile as the bloated feeling that had been plaguing him for the last few minutes eased considerably as a beam of energy was blasted outward in the direction of the kneeling Aqualad.