Emergence 2.1

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MOUNT JUSTICE

July 20, 1:16 EDT

"Alright," Zeke began, a slight frown on his face.

Bright light shined around him, the circular platform he stood on illuminating him from below as he shifted his position into a pose. One hand was held out in from of his chest, palm facing outward and fingers splayed, while the other was held close to his chest, tightened into a fist. As hazel eyes narrowed on the figure in front of him, the thirteen-year old slowly nodded his head.

"Hit me."

Not even giving the other boy so much as a nod to acknowledge his words, Superboy took a few steps forward, crossing four meters in half as many seconds with a lazy stride, and swung.

> -102

>

> 48 Damage Negated

With the sound of a window shattering into a hundred pieces, Zeke's shield exploded inwards as Superboy's slow-moving palm plowed through it without pause. The creator of the shield stumbled back, hands flying up to guard his head as that same open palm came to a stop directly in front of his face. Quickly realizing what he was doing, Zeke caught himself a moment later and dropped his hands back down to his sides, the young teen shooting Superboy a slightly nervous grin as blue motes of mana blew around the both of them, the sparkles of light fading away to nothing in mere seconds.

> Mana Shield Lvl Up!

> 5→6

"Heh, wow… that was a good one. Thanks, Supey." Zeke couldn't help but shake his hands out as he spoke, unable to stand still with the slightly numb feeling he could feel making its way up his arms. While there was no pain from using his Mana Shield to block a hit, the side effect did make itself known. Every single time his mana was drained to near nothing, the same sensation made itself known in the most annoying way, drawing Zeke's attention to it.

Although, considering that the two of them had been at this for a while, the feeling was not one he was unfamiliar with at this point.

"It's fine." Pulling back his fist, Superboy folded his arms and stared down at Zeke with his usual disgruntled expression, a single eyebrow raised as if asking a question.

"Oh, yeah… that," The last word left Zeke's mouth with a slight gulp, a hint of nervousness audible as he nodded his head and continued with, "Yeah, we still gotta do it."

"I'm ready." Superboy nodded, unfolding his arms before he took several small steps away from Zeke, leaving about a few feet of distance between the two of them as the smaller boy remained in the center of the circle. "Are you?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." Zeke didn't bother muttering the words, instead choosing to say them in his regular tone of voice. After all, with Superboy's hearing, there was effectively no difference. Zeke shook his head, frowning slightly as he prepared himself for what would likely be another painful lesson. "Alright, then."

The shorter boy tightened his hands into fists, holding them down at his sides as he stared back at Superboy. Letting out a sharp breath of air, he nodded at Superboy with a determined expression on his face. "Hit me."

The clone's movement was just as slow as before, moving at little more than four miles an hour as he stepped forward again. To Zeke, he might as well have been barreling forward like a professional football player. As he neared the smaller boy, Superboy raised his arm and swung it forward.

His closed fist met Zeke's unguarded chest with a casualness that belied the force behind it, superhuman knuckles brushing up against smart fabric with little more than a tap. Regardless, it might as well not have even mattered as the shorter boy let out a wheezing gasp of air, eyes widening yet again as Superboy's strike knocked him off his feet for the fifth time today.

> -245

> -2

> + 1 VIT

> Resistance: Blunt Force Lvl Up!

> 17→18

From his prone position on the ground, Zeke let out another pained groan as he stared up at the odd metal protrusion that hung from the cave ceiling. "Cheese… and rice, that still hurts," he mumbled to himself, eyes half open. Part of him could swear that he could feel something moving around inside him, possibly a rib knocked loose by Superboy's monster of a punch, but the more rational part of him knew that if that was true, he'd be in a great deal more pain than he currently was. Health, please?

> Health: 215/460

Oh, that's just terrifying.

With another grunt, the boy pulled himself up into a sitting position and cast a glance up at Superboy, the boy in the black shirt just looking back down at him with an imperceptible expression. "Yeah, we need to really work on your control, man," Zeke shook his head slowly, pulling himself to his feet. Taking in another wheezing breath, he bent over at the waist, resting both hands on his thighs. "Seriously," he said with a cough, "even the weakest hits from you are like that… yeesh."

This had been the tenth time they had tried this same stunt in in the last few hours. Superboy was trying his hardest to minimize his strength when it came to striking objects, simply to get better control, while Zeke tried to train his defenses, both active and passive. In addition to yesterday's workout (+3 STR, + 1 SPD, + 2 Mana Bolt, + 1 Power Sprint, + 2 Power Strike), some serious progress had been made today… painful, painful progress, but progress nonetheless (+4 VIT, +4 Mana Shield, + 4 Resistance: Blunt Force).

As the bearer of one hundred percent of all that pain, Zeke had already gone over the stupidity of starting with Superboy as a training partner. Even now as he gasped for breath, his chest still aching from Superboy's punch, he couldn't help but regret that he hadn't asked M'gann to join him instead. I might as well have jumped out into traffic, honestly. Getting hit by a truck would probably hurt less, anyway.

There was silence for a few seconds as Zeke continued to wheeze, his health slowly trickling back up, before Superboy took an audible breath of his own and asked, "Are you... okay?"

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Zeke glanced up to see the dour expression of the newly named Conner Kent staring back down at him, looking not even the slightest bit concerned for his condition. The sheer contrast was too much for Zeke to take and he could only respond to the grunted question from Superboy with a muffled snort.

Catching his breath after a few moments of wheezing laughter, Zeke stood up to his full height which… wasn't all that much, really, especially when compared to Superboy. Rolling his shoulders, he shook his head at Superboy, a smile still on his face. "I mean, I'm okay now, but like two days ago, I'm pretty sure a hit like that would have killed me like… I dunno, twice over."

"Oh…" Superboy raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah," Zeke laughed again, wheezing slightly as he tried to catch his breath. "Conner, I don't know if you know this but you hit super hard."

A small smile popped up on Superboy's face at his words, exactly as Zeke expected, the smaller boy's own smile widening just a little more at the sight of it.

Despite how taciturn the clone may have seemed most of the time, it really didn't take much to get Conner to smile, really. As long as you knew what buttons to push, it was really pretty easy, all things considered. Bringing up just how much he looked like Superman often lightened his mood slightly, much the same as how talking about how cool his shirt was. Often, all Zeke would need to do was slip the word 'super' in a sentence when speaking to him and the clone would brighten.

Either way, the smile from Superboy was enough for him to claim it as a win. After all, feeding the Boy of Steel a compliment every now and again to make the half-Kryptonian like him more wasn't gonna hurt anyone.

"I mean, you're doing a lot better at pulling your punches but dude, that arm is still a lethal weapon," Zeke continued, only partially joking as he rubbed his chest. The expression on the clone's face grew somewhat, the half-smile evolving into a proud smirk as he clenched his fists confidently.

Conner shot him an appreciative glance, folding his arms over his chest. "Thanks. I'll work on it."

"No problem, big guy." Zeke gave himself an internal high-five as he beamed up at a still-smiling Conner, the smaller boy clapping his hands together as he began to move. "Anyway, while my ribs are busy healing up, we might as well get something to eat."

Superboy apparently didn't see anything odd with that statement, simply nodding at Zeke as they both stepped off the platform at the same time, the lights on the raised circle dimming to black as they walked away. "Yeah, sure."

There was silence for a few seconds as the two of them walked towards the hallway that lead to the kitchen, Zeke still rubbing his bruised chest. "So… what are you hungry for?"

Conner shrugged, smirk returning to the usual slight frown that he seemed to wear most of the time. "Whatever's there, I guess." The taller boy sped up his footsteps slightly, stepping into the bright light of the kitchen area just as M'gann turned around from where she stood, currently mixing a bowl of something with flour and eggs surrounding her on the counter.

Zeke smiled at the scent hitting him from where M'gann stood. Cookies? Yes!

"Hello, Superb… Oops! I mean… Hello, Conner," M'gann's smile seemed to brighten as she left her baking preparations behind and floated over to Superboy, her cheeks doing that odd blushing thing that they had done the night before when Conner had told everyone his new name. All Zeke could think was that it had been weird before, seeing green skin go pink around the cheeks for no reason, and it was still pretty odd a day later.

Why does her skin go pink anyway? It should go purple, right? 'Cause she's green? The boy tilted his head to the right, one hand under his chin as he stared at the girl. Or is she actually a White Martian? Wait, don't Martians only turn white when they go evil? Cause she went White in that evil Titans future, didn't she? Or was that a clone that went evil?

Zeke's eyes narrowed for a moment, a slight frown forming on the young boy's face before he shook his head and stepped forward from behind Superboy. Forget it, I'm just confusing myself.

M'gann's head turned to face Zeke a moment later, face still lit up. "Hello to you too, Zeke!"

She clapped her hands together and stepped forward, only to pause a moment later. The green girl glanced down at Zeke's body for a moment as the boy walked closer to her on his path towards the fridge, her bright smile shifting to mild confusion as she looked him over. "Umm, why are you still wearing your costume?"

"I dunno…" Zeke shrugged, opening the fridge. As he pulled out a carton of juice and last-night's leftovers, he placed both on the kitchen island and stared back at the Martian with a click of his tongue. "It's good for training, I guess."

Once again, in lieu of more casual clothing, Zeke had on nothing but his blue-and-white jumpsuit, fingerless gloves and a pair of matching sneakers.

Part of the reason for wearing his S.T.A.R. Labs created jumpsuit was for the sheer comfort the outfit provided while training, the entire thing designed to fit his body and with materials elastic enough to grow with him. Another reason was that he had enough of these jumpsuits to wear for every day of the week for about half a month and he had already grown used to wearing them. The final, and mostimportant, reason was that he really didn't feel like washing any of his clothes and the S.T.A.R. jumpsuit was both stain resistant and 'stank' resistant, meaning he could wear one for over a week before anyone noticed anything.

Not that he would, of course. He was lazy, not gross.

"Oh, okay!" Miss Martian seemed to accept his response, turning back to shoot Superboy another glance as the clone leaned against the counter, arms folded. Huh, Zeke thought to himself again, didn't he say he was hungry or something? Guess he's fine, then.

Pouring himself a glass of artificially-flavored apple drink, Zeke raised an eyebrow at how Megan's eyes never seemed to stray far from Conner's shirt, her gaze focused on the boy's torso for some reason. An odd thought niggled at the back of his head, and on a whim, he decided to give it voice. "Hey, M'gann?"

"Huh?" As if caught off guard, the green girl jumped slightly before turning back to face Zeke, her odd blush still present "Uh, yes, Zeke?"

Raising his glass, Zeke took a sip of his juice and asked, "How come you didn't ask Superboy about his costume? I mean, he wears the shield like every single day."

"Oh… uh, I mean, I…" Miss Martian's blush seemed to stick out even more, Zeke raising an eyebrow in confusion as the girl seemed to hedge even more. What's up with her?

Miss Martian would likely have kept going on with her stammering if Superboy hadn't stepped forward, moving away from the counter with his arms still folded. "This isn't my costume."

Zeke blinked, shooting Conner an odd look as he raised his arms up in a gesture that displayed his confusion rather well. "What? This," the smaller boy gestured to the entirety of Superboy with a flourish, "isn't your costume?"

Superboy shook his head, so subtly that he might as well not have done it at all. "No."

"...Okay." Zeke let out a sigh, raising a single eyebrow as he stared back at Conner. "What do you call what you're wearing right now?"

Superboy's reply was as confident as it was succinct. "Clothes. My clothes."

Opening his mouth for a moment, Zeke found himself shutting it again with a sharp click and shook his head. "...I don't know what I expected."

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