Chapter 9: Training Time (1)

Nova spent the next few days getting settled into the watch tower completely. The room he ended up selecting was next to Superboy's, a choice that had been forced onto him by Megan who though it would be a good idea for both Superboy and Nova to become better friends since they had been through similar experiences. Something the Superboy had venomously denied, since as far as he was concerned he and Nova may have been found under similar circumstances, but their situations were completely different. 

Nova honestly couldn't be bothered to figure out what the differences were since he didn't really care. As far as he was concerned, Megan had told him it was a good decision to befriend Superboy and that's what he would do. Even if he wasn't one hundred percent sure as to how he would go about doing that. 

"Are you paying attention Nova? This is the last time I'm going to go over this with you so you better be paying attention."

The sound of Rogin's annoyed voice managed to pull Nova's wondering mind back into focus as he honed once more onto the cellphone in his hand. It had taken him a while to figure out how to use the dang thing even with the assistance of Robin. There were just so many things that one could do with it that it had overwhelmed him at first and it had taken him a few days just to get the hang of the multitude of apps that where available. 

Of course once he figured out how to access the internet and the amount of information at his fingertips practically exploded, his poor mind had practically collapsed at the thought of having to remember it all. Thankfully, Robin had been able to calm him down by explaining that he didn't actually need to memorize anything and just needed to take the information he needed and ignore the rest.

"Yeah I'm following, sorry got a little distracted for a second. You said not to post anything until you give me the all clear?"

"Exactly, I'm setting up several social media accounts for you but given how little you know about current events, pop culture, or really anything to do with modern affairs, while you can use social media to quickly get a basic understanding of those things I don't want you posting stuff that could possibly lead to a security leak, or worse; getting yourself canceled."

Robin grinned a bit at his little joke and Nova smiled along with him. He'd found that it was easy to fit in amongst the group by simply mirroring their actions. Simply pick someone and use their reactions as a guide. It had worked surprisingly well, so long as the person he chose to mirror was adequate. He'd tried mirroring Superboy once and it ended with him getting an ear full from Megan once they had retired for another telepathic therapy session. 

"No problem Robin, I'll just use them to study and stuff I guess." 

Nova took the phone from robin and scrolled through the profile that had been created for him. It was pretty blank missing both a profile picture, and other such things, but it was enough for him to interact with the many posts on the sight.

"Just don't get hooked on that stuff. Anyone can post anything online and while most people won't purposefully share misinformation, there are some people who do. Never fully trust anything without doing you research first. If you're having trouble deciding whether something is truthful or not, make sure to find one of us to help you. Alright?"

Nova nodded as he scrolled down on the sight, new and interesting post being loaded every few seconds. Robin shook his head at how easily distracted Nova was and wondered if what he was about to do was really a wise decisions. He hesitated for a moment before deciding to follow through with his plan regardless. 

"Anyway Nova, now that the phones been dealt with. Do you want to hang with us guys for the day? We've been slacking off a bit due to the lockdown we've been on but we're planning to do some light sparring today." 

Nova looked up from his phone with interest as he looked at Robin. 

"Are you sure it's okay for me to go? Megan said that she wasn't sure if you guys were comfortable with me hanging around while you trained and I don't want to be a bother…"

"No worries about that buddy," Robin patted Nova on the shoulder as he continued. "It was more like we weren't sure if it was a good idea for you to be exerting yourself given that you were still recovering. But this is a good way for you to bond with the other guys. So what do you say?"

"Of course I'm in! When do you guys start?" 

Nova agreed readily after thinking about it for a moment. While he did indeed want to 'become friends' with the other like Megan and Jon requested, the main reason he agreed was because with Megan gone for the day, he wasn't pretty bored. 

Since the others where offering to include him in something then why not?

A short while later Nova found himself in the rec room with Dick, Wally, Kaldur'ahm, and Conner. The group where housing around a bit but overall they seemed pretty relaxed. They were all wearing loose fitting training gear, with Robin still sporting a utility belt and Wally still wearing his goggles. 

"Alright guys, Lets get this sparring session going. Who wants to go first?" Kaldur'ahm, who had been tapping away at the holographic projection that controlled the Rec room finally turned to the group of boy after having finalized with his preparations.

No sooner had his words left his mouth did the floor of the rec room sudden begin glowing. A phenomenon that startled Nova, but from how the others didn't react was something that was common for them. In the center of the rec room a red circle about ten meters in diameter sudden appeared, the ring in which the spars would be taking place.

"I still owe Dick from our last sparing match so we're up first. Unless you're too scared of letting the new guy see you get floored?" Wally zipped to the center of the red circle as he taunted Robin, who simply scoffed.

"If you think this time is going to be different from the last then you are gravely mistaken."

Robin leisurely strolled over to the opposite side of the circle from Wally taking a defensive stance in preparation for the duel.

Once he was certain that both boys where ready, Aqualad pushed a button that cause five circles to appear over the pair. 

"Alright you guys know the rules, it's a best three out of five. No attacks to the eyes or groin or you immediately lose that round. This is a simple spar so lets try not to break any bones alright." 

Both Wally and Dick nodded to show that they had heard him and Aqualad simply pressed another button on the holographic console before him, causing the inside of the red circle to glow green. 

No sooner had he done that did Wally flicker and disappear before appearing before Dick, his fist already extended and aimed at Dick's side. Surprisingly Dick didn't seem to concerned about the sudden attack and simply lowered his elbow so that his hand brushed against the side of Wally's extending hand. That slight movement cause Wally's fist to graze past Dick's side without causing any damage.

It did however leave Wally open for a quick barrage of fists that connected with his shoulder, side and arm, all before he could to regain his balance. He quickly aimed to retreat from Dick's personal space, a mistake on his part since Dick immediately stuck out his foot managing to clip the side of Wally's leg and causing him to stumble back. Another quick punch to the chest was all that it took for Wally to tumble to the ground and end up flat on his back. 

As soon as he touched down, the green circle immediately flashed an angry red and a loud buzzer sounded out. In one of the circled above the sparring ring a picture of a bat now appeared with the words victory flashing over the head of Robin.

"What was that about letting the new guy seeing me floored again? Guess you might want to take you own advice in that regard." Robin grinned as he held out an arm towards Wally.

"Lucky break. Take it while you can causse you'll be suffering shortly." Wally grasped Robins outstretched arm and pulled himself to his feet. After a quick brush of both boys where once again standing on opposite sides of the circle once more.

Aqualad once again pressed a button on the holographic screen and the circle flashed green once more. 

Same as last time Wally immediately seemed to flicker and disappear from sight, but this time he didn't immediately go on the offensive. Instead he choose to circle around Robin searching for an opening to exploit. For his part Robin didn't seem to bothered by Wally's display and instead pulled on his utility belt. When he raised his hand he held several small disk that he immediately threw towards the circling Wally. 

Sadly though, maybe because of the wind from Wally's running, or because of poor aim, the circular disk missed and landed short of Wally's running path. 

"Gotta aim better than that boy wonder!" Wally's voice was distorted due to his increased speed, but everyone could still hear the taunts that he threw at Robin. 

"Who said I was aiming for you?" Robin smiled and pulled out two small metal cylinders that he flicked. The small pieces of metal instantly expanded into two solid looking batons. That he waved around. With batons in hand Robin once more reached for his utility belt, but this time instead of pulling out a gadget he pressed a button that was expertly concealed. No sooner had he did so, did the circular disk that had been scattered around the sparring field immediately come to life.

Each of them suddenly lite up before shortly after projecting small electric fields. The bright electric blue arcs of currents pushing out from the center of the circular disks and into their immediately surroundings. 

Not surprisingly, Wally who hadn't expected things to develop in such a direction was immediately shocked by one of the disk, causing his legs to seize up and for him to end up skidding across the floor. Dazed he went to stand up, but stopped short once he realized that Robin stood over him with his baton pointed at his head.

Once more the circle flashed an angry red and he buzzer sounded again, signaling the end of the fight. Once more anther marker was added for Dick who placed his batons back onto his utility belt.

"That's two wins for me, are you going to just let me run away with the win or do you plan to put up a fight anytime soon?"

"That's cheating? You're using all sorts of Gadgets and stuff, that's got to be against the rules or something! That win shouldn't count!"

Wally sprang to his feet, pointing an accusatory finger at Dick while shouting to Aqualad. Unfortunately Aqualad didn't agree with him and allowed the win to stand.

"Wally, telling Dick to not use his gadget is the same as telling you not to use your speed, or telling Superboy not to use his super strength. The point of the spars is to get accustomed to our partners fighting style and to also be exposed to different types of combat. We aren't always going to be up against someone who is a good match up for us but we still need to be able to deal with that. So stop being a sore loser."

Wally grumbled and mumbled a few things under his breath, but in the end he still got in position. Not surprising, Dick managed to clinch another win with relative ease, mostly because Wally's legs were still suffering from the after effects of having a powerful electrical current forced through his legs. He didn't complain about the lost, but he still promised to get back at Dick sometime soon.

A promise that would be fulfilled a short while later when he and Dick were paired up once more.