Be a Dragon: A Rose with Thorns (ch.17) (Patreon)

I crouched on my white shield, bracing myself against the sudden turns and force as I spun downward, all to aware that I was being chased by a half down missiles. The white orbs above me fired blindly, hoping to get a lucky shot in while I looked to the side at the robots that clung to the walls. Their arms jerked back from the recoil in a steady rhythm, their shots sailing by me harmlessly as I got used to predicting their trajectories. 

Shifting my weight, I jerked to the side fast enough that my shield nearly took my feet with it as the rest of my body tried to continue with its previous momentum. Even still, I remained standing as I suddenly raced towards one of the hard light robots. Turning off the gravity manipulation aspect of it, I angled my feet up to protect me from any pellets and felt a few slam into the shield as I crossed the distance between us, carried by my momentum. My shield slammed into its body hard enough that I felt it buckle slightly so it impacted against the wall it clung to. 

Before it could react, I threw myself downward so I fell towards the ground. Not a second later, the missiles slammed into the robot, unable to turn away in time. Illusionary flames washed over me for a moment before one of my flames darted down to my feet to become another hover disk. Leveling out and stopping my fall, I created another flame to replace it before I sailed forward. 

Sweat dripped down my forehead, my burnt shirt was soaked so it clung to my body and the only thing louder than the wind rushing by my ears was my heartbeat. My next target fired another silo of missiles as it skated across the walls. I continued straight for it, taking erratic maneuvers to avoid getting shot while I did so because now that I could see the missiles, I had much better aim. 

Though, still far from perfect. As I got used to making the white thorns, my fire rate increased substantially. Between the two of them, they took out the missiles that rang out with deafening explosions. I sailed through the illusionary fire -- Raven had commented on the bad habit but left the topic alone when I pointed out I was immune to heat. Once I emerged from the other side, I merged my two shoulder cannons together to form a much larger one. Picturing the size I wanted, I took aim and fired as I veered off to avoid being shot. 

The large white thorn was about the size of a steel girder. It flew through the air, racing towards the spot where the robot would be and punched through its armor, skewering it. Now there was only one left. 

Taking in a deep breath, I turned my attention to the final one - the boss of the level, so to speak. Its armor was thicker, as were its spider legs to support the weight, but at the joint were turrets. On one shoulder was a square missile launcher that could stuff a dozen missiles, and on the other was some kind of gun that I hadn't seen in action yet. More worryingly, rather than the single-shot weapons of the other robots, it had two miniguns for arms. 

As if sensing that its allies had been destroyed, the unresponsive robot suddenly flared to life. Its weapons swerved to face me as it accelerated, going from perfectly stationary to near a hundred miles per hour in a split second. I fired a few thorns at it, trying to feel out what it could do, only for it to dodge the thorns at the last possible second, turning on a dime to the thorns slammed into the ground harmlessly. 

Then I heard a terrifying ‘buurrr’ sound as its gun arms flared to life. I shifted, placing my hover disk between us to absorb the shots. I instantly regretted it as my legs vibrated so fiercely that I felt my bones shake. Gritting my teeth, I split the white flames that hovered above me back into two before I returned fire blindly as I tried to think of a way to deal with it. 

It was only then that I realized that I had screwed up. I couldn’t see the robot. I shifted my trajectory, trying to get ahead of the pellets, but the robot seemed a lot better at leading its shots. All the while, as I returned fire, I altered my hover disk to become translucent, much like I had with the windshield of my car. I did it just in time to see it fire off a dozen missiles at me. My eyes widened for a split second before they narrowed into slits. 

An image came to mind. A hockey puck -- thick and round. 

With that new image in mind, the type of ammo my flames fired changed. The much wider puck-like ammo gave me better odds to hit something, and with two of them firing at once, I managed to take out a couple of the missiles at the halfway mark. But only a couple. 

Forced to back off, I accelerated as fast as I could make the hover disk go in a single direction, and if it wasn’t for my chakra training, I would have been blown off. But, I managed to both remain standing, and I got a small lead on the pellets it was firing at me. It wasn’t like it was ever going to run out of ammo, so I needed to find a way to deal with the machine. 

“What a pain in the ass,” I cursed underneath my breath, trying to keep track of the small missiles as they raced after me even after the robot had stopped shooting. The worst part of it was that I had other ideas on how to deal with it, except I couldn’t do any of them for two reasons. I didn’t want to give away too much to the Titans, even if they are heroes, giving someone the tools that they would need to take me down felt too self-destructive. Especially when mind control was so common. 

Another reason was I just didn’t know how to make the stuff I wanted to make. An EMP would be absolutely lovely, but how in the hell did I make one? I didn’t know enough about how electricity worked to short-circuit a robot, much less make a device that would do that for me. My other choice was to try to imbue my attacks with some kind of effect -- like my hover disk was imbued with the idea of flight. 

My black flames were far simpler to use, but the white flames could be far more rewarding if I figured out how to best use them. But, I wanted to keep that idea underneath my hat for now. I was willing to bet every penny that I had that the Bats of the Titans were already watching every move that I made. 

“How about this then?” I asked, changing the ammo once again. An image of a Gloo-Gun from Prey to mind. A sticky substance that would expand then harden. It was worth a shot. 

Flipping once to reangle myself, I shot forward towards the robot as I fired at it. Instead of bombarding me with its miniguns, the large cannon on its shoulder worryingly took aim at me. I saw a bright red glow at the business end of the barrel. Having a good guess of what came next, I threw myself to the side, sailing through the air as a bright red beam raced by me. Looking over my shoulder, I saw that it had practically eviscerated a panel that covered the walls. 

I knew it wasn’t real, but my eyes were doing a good job of convincing my brain that it was. And that was enough to convince me that I did not want to take a direct hit from that thing. 

Or did I?

Now that I knew its trump card, I sailed forward as I altered the hover disk once again. The heat from the change turned my pants into shorts and burned away my shoes, but I paid it no mind. The robot readied up another shot at me, but this time I was ready. I shifted so the hover disk was facing the barrel of the gun, revealing a reflective bottom. 

Hoping that I timed it right, I cut off the chakra flow to my feet and let myself drop from the board. I saw the flash of red before it slammed into my hover disk, and that same split second I saw the flash of light shoot right back at the robot. It slammed above it, missing by a fair bit, but that didn't matter. My shoulder flames fired the Gloo like substance and a victorious grin tugged at my lips when the robot was caught in place. 

The next places I hit were its weapons, just in case, I couldn't finish it off. After turning another flame into a hover disk, I caught myself and formed a singular large flame. This one around the size of a hula-hoop and fired off a spike that punched right through the robot. It sparked a bit but instead of exploding in fire, the robot simply vanished into nothing. Just as every trace of their existence faded, the only evidence of the fight at all were my thorns. 

"You did well," Raven said as I floated down to the ground. I looked down at the hover disk beneath my feet for a moment before I altered it, returning it to a flaming disk before I let the flames dissipate. "But, that was the easy mode, she informed, making my attention snapped back to her. Then I saw the slight grin that tugged at her lips. 

Then I also remembered what kind of stuff heroes went through. "I could believe it," I told her. When you had actual gods as enemies, I could easily believe something like this was easy mode. Odds were that the Bats, even though they were completely human, could beat my time because they had way more training. 

Raven looked me over, "We should probably take a break," she decided. "And you need some other clothes." 

She was right on that account. My pants had dangerously too much in common with daisy dukes, an entire sleeve was gone and I felt some crispy bits on my back that had blackened from my shoulder cannons. Still, I was unhurt and it wasn't entirely because of the simulation stopping before I could get hurt. 

"How did I do?" I asked as I looked down at myself. The more I used the white flames, the more apparent it was that things I could feel were the easiest to create. So, with that thought in mind, I summoned up a bit of white flames to recreate my shirt and pants. Raven watched me with some interest as she answered. And it wasn’t entirely because of my magic since I took off my shirt. 

It actually took her a moment to answer, and she only did when I had caught her look and she looked away out of embarrassment. “You did well. You adapted your magic quickly to the stages of the simulation until you found something that worked,” she said, her hand going to pull up her hood, only to pause when she realized she wasn’t wearing it. “The disk you created gives you mobility and the Candlewicks leave your hands free. The base style is promising, but it does need refinement.”

My eyebrow quirked up, “Candlewicks?” I questioned, holding the scraps of one shirt in one hand and a white flame in the other. Stepping away from Raven so she wouldn’t be blasted by the heat, I pictured the long-sleeved shirt that I had been wearing and started to create it. This time, I started slow, beginning at the sleeve and working my way through. And, so far, it looked and felt alright. 

“Not dramatic enough for you, Flames of Doom?” Raven shot back, earning a huff from me as she flashed me a smile. 

“Just dramatic enough,” I agreed and it felt good to actually give a technique a name. I wasn’t chunni enough to start shouting them, though. 

Raven's smile grew a fraction before she grew serious again. "We should take a break, but now that you have a fighting style, we can look into scenarios rather than combat simulations," she said. Her lips thinned a bit as she looked at me, her hands twitching once before she slowly reached out to hold my hand, but she changed her mind at the last second and pretended that she had been going to inspect my freshly crafted white long sleeve. 

It turned out pretty well. It felt like cotton, it could breathe a bit and once I shrugged it on, I found it was a decent fit. And after I turned it into flames for a second, I turned it from a decent fit to a perfect fit. 

"What kind of scenarios?" I asked, knowing where this was going. I tried to distract myself by remaking my pants, but my mind drifted back to that parking lot. It hadn't been that long since it happened, so the memories were too fresh for comfort. 

"Timed ones with a goal," Raven answered vaguely, tiptoeing around the topic. And that confirmed what I suspected. That goal being saving people, while stopping the villain and making sure that they didn't kill anyone else while they stopped them. Which made absolute sense, yet it still somehow caught me off guard that she wanted me to do one of those scenarios. It was dumb of me, because of course that was the end goal, and I knew that and I knew that I should want to do them in a safe environment, but…

I didn't want to. It was stupid and short-sighted, but I did want to ever be in that situation again -- where other people's lives depended on me. I didn't trust myself enough to not fuck it up and because of those fuck ups, people die for them. I didn't want to have that responsibility. But, at the same time, Donna and Raven weren't wrong that just because I didn't want that responsibility, that didn't mean I wouldn't ever be forced into that situation again. 

Learning how to handle those situations was undeniably the smart thing to do. I knew that. It was obvious. But my heart clenched, air refused to enter my lungs as my mind went right back to that moment that a family had died because I hadn't been paying attention. Because I got cocky and assumed everything was going to go my way because everything had been going my way up until that moment. That moment, when I realized that the car was occupied when I landed on it, when a kid wasn't ever going to grow up because of my thoughtless actions, that moment stopped me cold from agreeing to do a simulation. 

Because… agreeing meant that I accepted that I was going to be in that kind of situation again. That I expected it. Why else would I prepare? 

"You don't have to do them now," Raven offered a way out. Pushing this decision further back as if any amount of time was going to help me forget. 

I was avoiding my problems. I knew that. I hated it. I hated it more than words could say, but I looked away from Raven and nodded. "Later," I agreed, hating myself for not bucking up and throwing myself at my trauma until it went away. I felt like an utter coward and so pathetic, but… that moment was going to haunt me until the day that I died. I could pretend that it wouldn't, and I could pretend that I was totally fine, but that moment showed me who I was. 

"Later," I repeated, more to myself than to Raven. Making a promise to myself that I would do the scenario simulations later. Just… not now. "I need to… wrap my head around it," I explained lamely, but Raven nodded, her eyes filled with understanding.

"Take your time,” Raven reassured. “You’re only going to hurt yourself if you push it before you’re ready.” She looked away as I shrugged on my pants and like my shirt, I had to alter them a bit to make them fit. Thankfully, it sounded like she actually meant that and she didn’t expect me to just get over the death of a family I had caused. Though, she did look like she wanted to say more but stopped herself. 

I reached out, grabbing her by the hand, and offered her a lopsided smile. “Thanks. I’ll get there, but I don’t think I’m ready yet,” I admitted as Raven nodded, her fingers intertwined with mine. Feeling the moment, and craving a distraction, I leaned in to kiss her, only for Raven to look away at the last possible second, so I ended up pecking her on the cheek. 

“Cute,” a new female voice commented off to the side, near the door that served as an exit. I pulled back, realizing that Raven had looked over at her before I did the same. She wore a skin-tight black suit with burnt orange trimming around the collar. Her stark white mane of hair was pushed out of her face, revealing supermodel level of good looks that the eyepatch over one eye couldn’t detract from. “Terra said you got a boy-toy, but I guess seeing is believing.”

“Rose,” Raven greeted evenly, a challenge in her tone. “I thought you were in DC?” She asked, her tone frosty. I’m guessing that there wasn’t a whole lot of love between them. Which was kinda disappointing, in a way. Back when this was just a world of comics, I had liked the idea that the Titans were a group of friends. The more I heard and saw, the less that seemed to be the case. 

“Was. I’m back now. Are you going to introduce me to your boy-toy?” Rose asked with a grin sharp enough to cut as she sauntered towards us, moving with an unnatural grace that came with being superhuman. I recognized her as Slade Wilson’s daughter, but Rose was a minor character at best and more often than not she was completely forgotten about by readers and writers alike. 

“I’m Nero,” I introduced myself evenly, wondering what the source of tension between her and Raven. 

Rose's one eyes ran over me, both sizing me up and checking me out judging by her expression and the fact that Raven squeezed my hand possessively. Then she turned her attention to the lingering damage done to the training room. "Well, Nero, I've heard a bit about you," she informed me and a few seconds passed before I realized she was waiting for me to ask what she had heard. 

However, Raven let out a small sigh, "what do you want Rose?" She asked, cutting right to the chase. 

"I was just curious," Rose answered evenly. "I go off for a few weeks and when I come back, the first thing I hear is that you have a 'mega-hot boy-toy' according to Girl Scout that can cook so well that Fire-Crotch Flash is saying that it's the best thing he's ever eaten… while last I heard you were moping about cause the Green Idiot shot you down." 

Her eye flicked over to me, "I was curious just how high you managed to trade up, is all. But I have to say, I'm a little disappointed," she commented, making Raven stiffen while I simply raised an eyebrow. "You're a reality warper and that's the best you can do?" 

"It's his second combat experience," Raven said, her voice flat but there was a warning in her tone. Despite Rose's apparent scorn, I found myself rather liking that Raven got all defensive for me. She didn't need to, but it felt good knowing that she cared enough to. Though, her words did drop the hint that I had underperformed. Which was good. 

"And not to mention the pussyfooting. Look, I get it -- you're a civilian and people got killed. That's just the name of the game. Stop trying to dip your toes into this lifestyle. Either jump in or fuck off," Rose continued callously and I could feel the anger radiating off Raven. I'm guessing that the idea of easing me into heroics wasn't a unanimously agreed upon plan. 

"Rose, you can't force someone-" Raven started but Rose cut her off. 

"You stepped up," Rose interrupted, speaking to me. "And a family died. That shit sucks but we've all been there. You can't save everyone. That's just how it is. Now, unless you have a reason to try to get back up, then stop wasting our time with this. Spend your time fucking and cooking like a good civilian and stay out of our way." 

I blinked, her words hit a little too close to home. She was just telling me to get over it? Just like that? Like it was that fucking easy? 

My lips thinned as my eyes narrowed into a glare. She was provoking me, and so far she had a great deal more success than Neo. "That might mean a bit more coming from someone that wasn't a hired killer," I pointed out, my tone as cold as ice. My remark struck a nerve because her lone blue eye narrowed dangerously. 

Then she let out a huff, "That's fair," she admitted. “But those are fighting words. You sure you’re ready for that?” 

I absolutely wasn’t and I knew that she was manipulating me, but… I didn’t care. I wanted to do exactly what she said -- to just move on from what happened. And now… I had a reason to. It was stupid and weak, but if I back off now, then I would look like a bitch to Rose and in front of Raven. It was a stupid, stupid, stupid reason but it was enough to make me feel like I didn’t have a choice.

“One way to find out,” I responded, my heart hammering at my ribs harder than when I had actually been fighting. Raven squeezed down on my hand, sending a worried look at me. I tried to put as much confidence in my voice as I could, but I guess my sweaty palms gave me away. I nodded at her, trying to show that I wanted to do this and her goading me into it was the excuse I needed to follow through. 

“Good,” Rose said as she strode right by us. “Let’s see how you deal with the situation I just dealt with over in DC,” she said before she pulled out on some controller and pressed down on a button. In response, everything around us changed. The dull gray paneling vanished, the damaged ones were recycled out and replaced by new ones. In a few seconds, I was standing in the middle of a street in downtown DC. 

I blinked a few times, looking around at everything -- from the buildings to the cars parked on the side of the road, to even the bright blue sky hanging above. It looked so realistic that I was almost convinced that I had been teleported. There was even trash in the street. Rose continued walking forward, a heavy-duty looking sniper appeared as she held out her hands and she grabbed it before it fell. 

“Use what you can,” Rose said as she continued down the street. I watched her go, and it was only now that it sunk in what I had just agreed to. 

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Raven asked, squeezing my hand one last time. I nodded as I squeezed back before extracting my hand. I looked down at my bare feet, realizing that I should probably make myself a pair of shoes before I fought Rose Wilson, better known as Ravager. 

“... Yeah, I’m sure,” I said, creating a pair of converses since there was nothing left of my boots, and Raven’s shoes served as a frame of reference. “She’s right. If I keep pushing this back, then I’m never going to go through with it,” I admitted to her. 

It was a problem that I’ve always seemed to have. Put a physical problem that I could do something about, then I jumped on it. But, put something emotional… like my mom dying or my dad going back on drugs, and it was always just so much easier to shove the problem away, keep it at arm’s length, and keeping it there. Then when it did blow up in my face, I had enough emotional distance that it didn't hit me as hard as it should. 

"If you're sure," Raven said before she floated away from me, leaving me alone as I stood in the middle of the street. I looked in the direction that Rose had walked off in for a moment, wary since she had a sniper rifle. Which, now that I thought about it, standing out in the open was probably a bad idea. 

I walked over to an alleyway, wondering what I was supposed to be doing. What had she done in DC? Glancing around, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone and tsked to myself when I saw that the screen was cracked. So that was a dead end. 

I heard explosions echo out in the distance, making my attention snap in the direction of the source. My eyes narrowed into slits and I ruthlessly crushed my first instinct of turning around and heading in the exact opposite direction. A Candlewick became a hover disk as I flew upwards to find Rose, constantly looked down to make sure that I didn't get sniped. Because of that, I couldn't take a moment to marvel that the entirety of DC had been modeled in the training room from the look of it. 

I found the source of the explosion easily enough because of the smoke. Thick pillars of it raised to the sky, a fire raging from a car and a building that burned. Judging by how the car looked like it was hit by an explosion, I was guessing some kind of car bomb that ended up setting the building on fire. Though, that didn’t tell me where Rose was. 

Looking down, I didn’t see any obvious signs of a sniper-

My thoughts were cut off when the image below me changed ever so slightly. The smoke sill billowed upward, the fire still raged, but whereas there was once a previously empty street, all of a sudden it was occupied. People laid on the ground, covering their ears, I heard shouting and screaming and crying. My gaze found the bodies that were laying near the car, unmoving. And the corpse that was burning in the driver's seat. 

Air refused to enter my lungs -- it wasn't real. I knew that, but it looked so real that it was convincing me anyway. I swallowed thickly, trying to tear my eyes away and I only managed it when I saw something race towards me at the edge of my vision. Backing off, I saw that it was a boomerang. My confusion only lasted a moment when the boomerang exploded, fire washing over me and covering me with smoke that lacked heat and smell. 

There was only one person stupid enough to use boomerangs of all things in this universe as a weapon. Captain Boomerang. 

Surging forward, I escaped the cloud of smoke to see another two boomerangs racing towards me, but they also gave away his positioning. I saw him standing on a rooftop, another boomerang in hand from an apparently endless supply, but I also saw that he wasn't alone. A massive twelve-foot green reptilian humanoid creature stood next to him. Killer Croc, I'm guessing. And seeing both of them together hinted that I was dealing with the Suicide Squad. 

Two Candlewicks sparked to life above my shoulders before I started to rain thrones upon them, turning my attention elsewhere to those that were the real danger to me. Namely, Deadshot or whoever else served as the team’s heavy hitter-

"Lethal force has been used," an intercom announced as the sky flashed red, signaling that I had triggered some kind of penalty. Looking down, I saw that my thorns had ripped right through Killer Croc and Captain Boomerang, both of them lying dead on the rooftop with a half dozen thorns puncturing them, turning them into a pincushion. Crimson blood pooling out of them, their eyes staring up unseeing. 

I… 

"That was fast," Rose commented, her voice speaking through the same intercom to not give away her position. 

"I… thought they would dodge, or something," I defended myself weakly. Like the robots had. I hadn't shot at then to kill but to drive them off, and maybe flush out the real threats. 

Rose chuckled like I had said something funny, "A bit of advice? When you shoot anything, don't do it with the expectation that who you're shooting at will be fine." She said, her tone mocking and sarcastic. 

"Nero, you need to adjust your approach. Captain Boomerang is a baseline human and Killer Croc isn't durable enough to shrug off your shots. You aren't fighting the robots anymore," Raven told me, her voice a whisper in my ear. I continued to look down, realizing that I had made the same exact mistake as before. I walked into the fight expecting everything to be fine. 

Captain Boomerang would dodge the thorns because he was a veteran when dealing with these kinds of things. Killer Croc would be fine because of his scales. I expected them to be fine because they had been in similar situations more times than I could count. Except that my thorns had torn through solid steel and the robots moved at speeds that neither of them could hope to match. 

"I… right. You're right," I agreed, feeling like an idiot. I made the same exact mistake. I couldn't just assume things would be fine because DC ran on comic book logic. 

"Or, by all means, come at me with lethal force. Just so long as you don't mind that I do the same," Rose said with a teasing note in her voice. It made it hard to tell if she was being serious or not. 

"I'll pass," I answered, looking away from the bodies. 

"You sure? Because if you think you have a chance at beating me without going all out, then you're in for a nasty surprise. Those god-like powers of yours mean fuck-all if you use them like shit," Rose pointed out. And again, I knew she was provoking me. Challenging my pride and poking my insecurities with a sharp stick. 

I took in a sharp breath, my eyes narrowing as I searched the buildings for Rose. What I wouldn't give for X-Ray vision. "Bet," I bit out, challenging her right back.

"Bet what? You have money and you can make whatever you want when you stop being a moron," Rose shot right back. I heard the smile in her voice when she continued, "Or are you wanting me to be something else? Like my body, maybe? Do you want to fuck my tight pussy? What will Raven say? Oh, unless you're hoping to make it a threesome, or something." 

"Or something," I answered, looking over to try to find Raven but I had no luck. "A favor." After all, having someone like Rose owing me one couldn't be a bad thing. 

"How generic," Rose remarked, sounding unimpressed. "Fine. You take me down and you get a favor. I take you down… hm… I suppose I'll tell you that after I win." 

And that was all the reason that I needed to not lose. Rose reminded me of Neo a little too much, so whatever she was going to ask for was going to be completely unreasonable. 

With that, the simulation restarted. I found myself hovering exactly where I had started the first time, except I was hovering above the buildings. This time, however, the explosion rang out somewhere else. I turned to it, seeing that it happened worryingly close to the White House, I flew over. Now that the stakes were much higher, I was far more cautious in my approach. 

And, when I heard the pops of gunfire, I realized that was a mistake. 

I flew forward, and this time I saw Deadshot first, taking up position on top of a building. A powerful-looking rifle was in his hands as he aimed down the scope. My first instinct was to fire down another thorn, but now I was keenly aware of how lethal they were. Instead, I set my ammo type to the Gloo that I had used on the robot. The heat was going to be a real issue, especially considering what happened to Gizmo. 

But…, at the same time, I should have made sure that I had a go-to nonlethal method before I made that bet with Rose. 

I fired the orbs of Gloo, the blobs of it impacting against Deadshot, hitting his rifle and his leg to keep him still. He screamed as the intense heat from the white flames cooked his flesh, but he was unable to escape it once it hardened. My lips thinned, his screams were gut-wrenching and I knew I would be hearing them in my nightmares. Which made it a good thing that I didn’t sleep. 

Ignoring him for the moment, I turned my attention down to where the car bomb went off at, just in time to see Killer Croc Kool-aid Manning through a brick wall. I fired down at him as well as I searched for the remaining numbers of the Suicide Squad, and Rose. It would help if I knew what exactly was going on here. 

Wasn’t the Suicide Squad a top-secret black ops group? What in the hell were they doing causing a ruckus in DC? Did they go with the car bomb? Or were they defending themselves? And what role did Rose play?

The globs of Gloo slammed into Killer Croc, making him roar in agony as his feet were glued to the concrete. Even still, he took a step forward, ripping the concrete up with each step. A boomerang rushed towards me below, prompting me to soar higher to avoid it as I looked down. Captain Boomerang tossed another three at me in rapid succession, the boomerangs homing in on me. 

It was weird, I reflected as I fired down a glob of Gloo at him and Killer Croc, the globs slamming into them. They screamed in pain, clawing at the globs that pinned them into place. A minute ago, I had just killed them by accident. They were fake, of course, but it was still really weird to see them moving around after I had seen them reduced to pincushions. 

“Hey! Come down here and fight me like a man!” I heard a high pitched voice shout up at me. Harley Quinn shook a fist at me, brandishing a mallet in the other hand. I know it was probably heresy to admit this, but I never saw the appeal for her. She wore a skin-tight black and red suit, one arm and the opposite leg being black and the same for the red, along with tactical knee pads with smiley faces while her hair was done up in pigtails there were dyed blue and red. 

She was capital C levels of Crazy. You had to be if you were in a relationship with the Joker, of all people. 

So, it was because of that I didn’t feel very bad hitting her in the legs with Gloo, and ignoring her pain cries of, “Ouchy!” That was four of them down, and the Suicide Squad usually had about five members, so where was the last one?

Before I could find my answer, I felt something slam into my thigh. Letting out a hiss, I dropped to a knee as I turned to the direction that I got shot from. Unlike with games, there was no telltale glint from the sniper scope, leaving me open before I felt another shot slam into my shoulder. They hurt worse than the pellets from the robots.

Right. How about this then?

I summoned the black flames and I felt my Candlewicks get snuffed out in response, telling me that I couldn’t use both the black and the white flames at the same time. Time would tell if that was a hard limit, or if I just wasn’t good enough to do it yet. I channeled a desire into the flame before I stretched out my hand and dropped the flame. It fell to the ground, hitting the pavement below like a water drop that surged into a tidal wave. 

The black flames spread rapidly, washing over everything as they continued to spread -- covering the road, buildings, people, and cars. In moments, it spread over the block, then moved onto the others. Despite modeling the entire city of DC, there was only so much room in the training room, and before long it was completely covered. 

As the flames spread, I focused, searching for the feeling of the objects that I desired being destroyed. If I wasn’t actively looking for it, I would have missed it. A gun was destroyed far down the street, at what must be the edge of the training room. 

Then I let myself drop to the ground and the flames destroyed the space between me and my target. A small nondescript room that was on fire, Rose stood at the ready, her hands clenched into fists to fight me. But, I wasn't going to let it come to that. Simply because I knew she would kick my ass in a straight-up fight. 

I stepped through the flames behind her, the flames covering me before they began to flow towards my hand. Standing a safe distance behind her, I made the black flames die down a bit. Holding out my hand threateningly, I spoke up, “Unless you feel like getting erased, I think this is my win.”

Rose stiffened when I spoke, slowly turning around to look at me with a lone blue eye. It lingered on the Candlewick of black fire in the palm of my hand, then at the black fire that covered her feet. Any trace of mocking humor was gone from her expression, her lips were thin as she considered her situation. The reason that she hadn’t been destroyed was because I didn’t want her to be. 

“Not bad,” Rose admitted before she moved, ignoring the threat of the flames. In the blink of an eye, she crossed the distance between us. With my chakra enhanced body, I saw her move easily enough, and I had all the time in the world to douse her with black flames and erase her from reality. But I didn’t. I couldn’t. And that’s what she was taking advantage of, I realized a moment too late. 

She was banking on my unwillingness to kill her over a bet, and my inexperience to destroy some aspect of her that would make her stop, doing permanent damage to her. Rose was taking advantage of my decent nature. And that was fucking annoying. 

Almost as annoying as the high knee that nearly flattened my nose. I jerked my head back, but that didn’t matter. Rose was superhuman, enhanced by the same drug that turned Slade Wilson into a man that could go toe-to-toe with the Justice League, depending on how much the author of the comic had wanked him or how big of a stupid ball they gave the Justice League. More than that, she knew how to fight. 

Without even touching the ground, Rose pivoted midair, turning before her other foot lashed out and caught me in the chest. It felt like I got hit by a horse, and I knew I was going to be sporting a boot-shaped bruise as my back slammed into the window. Glass broke and I realized the position that I was in.

I moved through the flames, trying to put some distance between us, but Rose was already on top of me. She pressed her body against mine, holding on, and that made me stop. What would happen to Rose if I teleported away? Odds were that she would teleport with me, but what if she didn’t? Or worse, only the parts that were touching me were teleported? The unknown effects made me hesitate for a fraction of a second, and Rose was used to exploiting that hesitation. 

Before I could do a thing, I found a piece of sharpened glass being pressed against my neck. 

“Another piece of advice? Don’t put yourself in a position that you’re forced to follow through on a threat you have no intention of following through on,” Rose warned, giving me a sharp smile before she reached up and patted me on the cheek. And… that was… fair. Annoying, but fair. 

“Looks like you lose,” Rose informed before she glanced over her shoulder at Raven, who materialized through the floor. “I wonder what I’m going to have your boy-toy do for me?” She asked, and to my surprise, Raven didn’t look phased. Her dark violet eyes flickered to me for a moment, an eyebrow cocked as if to say that she wasn’t very impressed with me at the moment. 

And that was also fair because I wasn't impressed with me either. 

“But,” Rose said, pulling back and dropping the piece of glass. It would be a lie to say that I didn’t think about pulling some cheeky stunt of flipping the tables to pull the rug out from underneath her, but the look in her eye told me that she expected me to do exactly that. And that she had a nasty surprise for me if I tried. Instead, I let the flames die around us, revealing a normal-looking bedroom. “That would be a little rude considering you just popped Raven’s cherry. So, I’ll let you sweat it out a bit.”

With that, Rose tossed me an exaggerated wink, and I couldn’t tell if she was messing with me or not before she turned on her heel and started walking away. I let out a small sigh, running a hand through my hair, annoyed with my loss, but knowing that it was for the best. I knew where I was lacking, and I had managed to sandbag a fair bit. 

“Thanks,” I told Rose, making her linger at the door. “For being the Bad Bitch to push me past what happened.” Because, regardless of what she was, Rose was a hero now. With that in mind, it was easy enough to guess why she kept provoking me, pushing my buttons and challenging me. 

Rose just sent me a smirk. 

“What can I say? It’s in my nature.”