Training

Bruce kept his word and trained the six teenagers. For the next six months, he put them through training hell. They suffered until they nearly broke physically, mentally, and spiritually.

During the first week, Bruce introduced them to a round-robin training style.

"We're going to conduct training by stations. There are seven stations. For each station, you will have twenty minutes. The stations are as follows:

Station 1. Combat, you will fight Alfred. Don't worry, he's only exerting 5% of his strength. 

Station 2. Explosives Quiz, you will explain how to neutralize a random selection of explosive devices.

Station 3. Power exploration involves a series of exercises meant to help you explore your powers.

Station 4. Deductive reasoning, test and expand your knowledge on best practices for finding clues and solving problems.

Station 5. Psychology for interrogations, you will use your developing skills in psychology to interrogate criminals. Learn all you can, you'll be using the information you get for your practical.

Station 6. Geography. You will learn the geography of New York and expand from there. 

Station 7. I'll have a private conversation with each of you. We will analyze your progress, analyze difficulties, and find ways to overcome your weaknesses. 

The seven youths split up and each went to a station. After the first month of training, they no longer complained about the difficulty. They knew it wouldn't help to complain. It often led to their sessions getting tougher. 

Ned complained the most at first, but after he kept getting everyone in trouble, they took care of him. Out of all of them, Ned changed the most, his body transformed from a round ball to a brick. 

Harry's facial expression mirrored Bruce's. He may not have meant it, but out of all of them, he took after Bruce the most. Tactically, he was brilliant. He often found solutions to situations some of the kids thought were impossible. He was also the most intimidating. 

The least intimidating of the group were Peter, Ned, and Gwen. Although Peter wasn't intimidating he was a natural leader. The other six gravitated toward him. 

MJ was similar to Harry, she easily mastered intimidation, mysteriousness, and brutal combat tendencies. Her deductive reasoning skills were probably the best. 

Mary Jane fought from a distance. She liked using the new web shooters Peter designed, the bo staff, batarrangs, and throwing smoke bombs. 

Miles was probably the sneakiest of the teens. This was mostly due to necessity. He was the smallest and weakest due to his age, so he made up for it by mastering Batman's ninja skills. 

Two months into the training, they realized that each of them possessed special powers that were unique from the others. It was hard to understand some of the powers. 

They spent a lot of time that month trying to figure out what their powers were. By month three, they understood what their powers were but not how to use them the best. This was Bruce's department. 

He carefully tested their powers finding the lower and upper extremes of the abilities. 

Ned's brickish body made sense, he could expand his height and increase the thickness of his muscles and the density of his skin. He was by far the strongest. Without the proper equipment to test his strength, Bruce estimated he was several times stronger than Peter. 

Gwen had the weirdest powers so far. She had retractable stingers on the back of her wrists and the ability to stretch, she wanted to call herself Rubber Maid, but Bruce wouldn't let her. 

The fourth Month represented more than half their training was done. They changed a great deal. The youthful chattiness and naivete were largely gone or suppressed. They began their field training this month. They were split into four teams, two people per team. The odd one out got either Bruce or Alfred. 

This month, they went out twice a week. They rotated partners to get a feel for working with different people. Bruce picked mysterious crimes. They worked the crime like detectives, gathered evidence, and once they located the perps, made a plan for taking them down. 

They weren't fighting simple street thugs anymore. Most of the time, there was at least one super-powered criminal among human thugs. Some of the teens were better at fighting, others were better at detecting, but they all learned how to work with others. Teamwork was emphasized this month. 

In month five, the teens finally received their code names. Peter was Spiderman, Mary Jane was Spider-Bat Woman, MJ was Phantom Lady due to her shadow powers, and Harry called himself the Goblin after discovering his father's plans to call himself the Green Goblin. Ned chose Goliath Spider, he was the meat shield/powerhouse of the group. Miles called himself Spider Shock. Finally, Gwen called herself the White Widow. 

The final month of training was weapons month. Bruce designed combat suits for everyone, and now they were able to practice fighting using them. To carry out effective duals, Bruce brought in guest "instructors." They included Rhino, the Abomination, Taskmaster, Sabertooth, John Aman (The Prince of Orphans), Steel Serpent, Ogun, Stick, Mister X, Batroc, Bullseye, Crossbones, Black Tarantula, and Lady Deathstrike.

Some of these fighters were paid instructors. They trained away from the Batcave at specially designed training courses. 

Others were caught by Batman and forced to fight the kids. Sometimes students would face the fighters one-on-one. Other times, they would fight in teams from as few as two to the full roster. 

Even against human opponents, with their powers and weapons, the teens lost time after time. This last month wasn't meant to be one where they had easy wins. It was mostly a month of hard losses. 

Bruce wanted them to understand their limitations and the benefits of teamwork. After the final month, the teens couldn't believe their transformation. Bruce knew how to train people, that was their conclusion. 

It was announced that they would have one week to rest and recover, and then they would face their Graduation Ceremony. According to Bruce, there would be no diplomas, only hard-hitting pain.