Chapter 31

??? ?????? ?? ??? ????? PoV

What is the meaning of life?

This is a question that has bothered countless as they tried to find meaning. Whether it be for themselves, or the universe in general. It has stumped the foolish, and even the greatest of minds.

But I believe I know the answer.

It was deceptively simple, but then again perhaps not every question needs a complicated solution. Sometimes things are the way they are not because of any sort of deeper reasoning. It’s because that’s just how it is.

The only complicated part was the one asking the question in the first place.

What was the meaning of life?

Why, it was to produce offspring of course.

I must admit that I hadn’t always been of this mindset. Long ago I had simply believed that life was simply a selfish thing. Only to grow stronger as an individual as much as possible.

But it didn’t take too long for me to hit a road block in gathering power. The true limitations of my being. Try as I might, I could only become so great.

So, I accepted this limitation for what it was, and settled down. Having children later on. It had been a small thing at first, but there wasn’t quite anything like watching your own son grow before your very eyes.

He had started from but a small thing, unable to even be compared to my size. But with time he doubled his size, and then tripled. It was fascinating to watch my child grow. It was awe inducing to know that I had a hand in creating him, and that he was capable of changing so much.

I enjoyed it so much, that I did it again. Having another child, and watching this one grow as well. Once more the process repeated itself, but by the end of it I was starting to notice that my first child had stopped growing. Only reaching to three fourths of my height before stopping.

That had been his limitation.

It wasn’t anything to feel bad about nor a cause for derision. I hadn’t created them with the purpose of surpassing me, nor to become a copy. I had created them for the sole reason of creation itself.

After siring a few children, something amazing began to happen. My children…began to have children of their own. Siring their own offspring in a similar, but different way than I had.

It was so interesting. So utterly unexpected and yet beautiful in its simplicity.

And then those children had children. And then those children as well, and so on and so forth.

It was a beautiful process to watch, but then I had realized something as I had more and more children. They were expanding outwards, outside of my view and reach. Which meant no longer could I leisurely continue to watch them go through life.

I had never had a problem that had affected me on this level before. Striking me to my core. Even when I hit my limitations I hadn’t even been troubled by so much as a fraction of what I felt in this moment.

Spurred on by my desire to watch over the blood of my line, I desired even more power…

Power to break this limitation that had been set upon me.

*~o~*

Law PoV

After breakfast, I started to suit up into my costume. The Titans had decided to start sparring with each other in addition to our teamwork exercises in the outside training area. Everyone seemed to go along with the suggestion pretty easily, and on paper it didn’t seem very strange at all.

But of course, this suggestion happened after the Blackfire incident, while I had been hospitalized for a bit. Connecting the dots there, it didn’t take much time for me to understand why exactly they wanted to test each other’s fighting skills.

It was a pretty fucking stupid idea.

Not the whole sparring thing, that’s fine. It’s the message underneath that was a mistake. Fighting and sparring with other Titans after the Blackfire incident shows a sort of underlying mistrust within the group. That there was a need to see how the other Titans fight, in case something similar ever happens.

Obviously, this was a bad idea as it could potentially foster mistrust between the Titans. Not only that, but it actively makes the situation worse. It may just be my personal opinion, but had we all been a bit more coordinated and fighting as a team instead of as individuals, we could have probably been able to subdue Blackfire much better.

But the truth of the matter was while we had been a team for a few months, it hadn’t been long enough for us to have truly gotten used to team tactics and dynamics. And adding these sparring sessions actively took time out of the team building exercises.

Ah well. There wasn’t much I could really do but complain internally. As I had missed the discussion on this topic, I didn’t really have a say in it. Hell, I didn’t even know who originally came up with the idea. Though I think I could at least narrow down the list.

We got our sparring partner at random. Some sort of randomizer list that Cyborg created with just a thought. Guess that was just a perk of being half robot. Which is how I found myself sparring against the Boy Wonder himself.

Most of the others were sparring as well, though a few seem to have taken a break. Or perhaps they just didn’t take the sparring session very seriously? Not that it was any of my business really.

So, while Robin started to warm up, I began to ask him questions. Questions that had actually been on my mind for a bit concerning Gotham news. At first I thought they had simply been wrong or something, but as time progressed, I started to have a suspicion about how ‘Robin’ was somehow still popping up.

I put off asking him earlier for two reasons. The first being that they could have just been mistaken. Making it something that didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. The second being that it could potentially put Robin in a sour mood. As a second Robin could indicate a sort of…personal problem.

The reason this problem no longer mattered was because I was actively counting on the second reason. As Robin being angry would throw him off his game. Making it all the easier for me to take him down.

“Hey Robin. Do you know anything about the new Robin in Gotham?”

Robin continued to stretch his arms as he looked at me. His eyes widening in response to my question before nodding. Not seeming bothered in the slightest by the question.

Mmm. Unfortunate.

“Yeah. Which one?”

I…what?

“Which one?”

He paused at that, before grimacing. Waving it off before nodding back to me.

“Sorry, I was counting myself there for a second. Why are you bringing him up?”

Suspicious. I wouldn’t have thought much about it if it wasn’t for the fact that he grimaced before saying that. Which made me believed that he wasn’t in fact counting himself.

But what the hell did that mean?

A third fucking Robin? Doubtful. I’m not sure what Batman’s…preferences were, but I don’t think they were little boys. At least, Robin hasn’t given me those vibes.

“Just was surprised there was one. You and him get along?”

He smirked at that before standing up. Popping his neck left and right as he approached me.

“Yeah, we get along just fine. Why, were you hoping we weren’t?”

Ah. He saw straight through me. I guess I was being a bit heavy handed…even still, this was a first. Perhaps he was starting to catch on to my tricks?

It didn’t take long after that for us to begin sparring.

Robin was much, much better than me. On such a level that it would be charitable to say I was even comparable. Even still, there were still things that helped me not be completely on the back foot.

We weren’t allowed to use weapons. Which of course meant Robin’s little gadgets and staff. But it also meant no chemical attacks from me. However, this didn’t mean that I couldn’t use my power at all.

Once again, there were a variety of chemicals that could help out with fighting. On top of that, there was the permanent SHVA effect that made my body harder and sturdier than it had any right to be. It also gave me a small strength boost, but it wasn’t anything big. At least, it wasn’t big compared to the Titans.

These things gave me something to work with in order to fight Robin. However, they weren’t the only advantages I had up my sleeve…

Robin traded a few well practiced blows with me. Something that seemed to come so easy to him, as if he practiced it all his life. And the blow behind his punch wasn’t to be underestimated.

But…I’ve had a lot worse.

Instead of simply defending and countering Robin’s attacks, I acknowledged that he was the faster and better trained of us two. But we weren’t built the same, and I planned to exploit that.

Robin was lightly surprised when I simply allowed him to punch my chest, in order to deliver a front kick. He blocked it with his arms at the last second, causing him to simply be pushed back instead of actually getting kicked in the chest. He smiled at the attack before walking back in order to continue the spar.

This time Robin was much more aggressive. Changing his attacks in order to apply more pressure to me, and quickly evading my attacks before immediately going back on the attack.

It was a very strenuous strategy. One that all but promised that he couldn’t keep it up with time. However, he didn’t really need to if he was able to knock me down in that time. And considering I was sporting several bruises, it was a strategy that would probably work.

If I didn’t change things up.

Robin’s knee hit me in the side, and I played along. Falling back a bit in a believable way, that saw Robin immediately attempt to capitalize on it. He didn’t expect the handful of sand that went into his eyes until it was too late.

He attempted to immediately retreat due to not being able to see, but I already predicted he would do that. I immediately charged forward, slamming my shoulder into Robin’s stomach before pushing sharply upwards. Lifting his legs off the ground before falling back down and crashing into the ground.

Considering Robin had the air knocked out of him and wasn’t fighting back at this point, I simply got up again. There was no use in pressing my advantage in a spar. We’ll just count that as a round win for me-

“Woah, what the hell!?”

Kid Flash was quickly on the scene, putting himself between me and Robin, as if trying to protect him. He was also giving me a pretty displeased look.

“…Something wrong?”

“Yeah! You’re doing some dirty shit in a spar!”

‘Dirty shit’? Was he an idiot? Considering Robin was still able to look out of both eyes, I was pretty sure I was playing fair. What, using the environment to my advantage was playing dirty?

What a stupid thing to say…

Before I could say anything, Robin stood up behind Kid Flash. A hand still on his chest as his other one was on Kid Flash’s shoulder. A very small trace of blood coming out of Robin’s mouth. Might have bit his cheek or something on the way down. Doesn’t look like anything serious.

“It’s fine KF.”

Robin then gave me a smirk before getting back into a fighting stance.

“I’m going to win anyway.”

Oh? I didn’t realize Robin was the type to get excited by fights. Despite his talent, it always seemed like…

Hmm…no, that was wrong. He wasn’t excited by fighting…ah. He was competitive. I see. Yes, that did make a good amount of sense.

Once again Robin and me came head-to-head. While I’d like to explain how I outsmarted and beat Robin with a trick that had been passed down to me from an ancient martial artist on his death bed, it wasn’t the truth.

What happened was Robin stepped it up another notch, and really put me through the wringer. Leaving me in a slightly better state than Galatea’s sparring bag in the gym. I got a few hits on him, but they weren’t anything comparable to the shoulder tackle.

Robin ended it with kicking my leg out, forcing me to a knee before socking me across the face. My nose taking the brunt of the damage, causing it to start bleed.

So, we called the spar there.

Despite Kid Flash’s worrisome looks, there wasn’t really any bad blood between me and Robin. I didn’t take the bloody nose to heart, nor did he care much about my tactics. At least, not to the level of Kid Flash.

Perhaps he would be more peeved had he lost. Either way, he seemed to be in a decent mood. He also helped get some tissues to help stuff up my nose, which I was thankful for.

It also put us out of the spars for the day. Me due to my injury and him due to being drained.

“You know, you’ve got some talent in martial arts.”

Hmm? Ah, this again? Did Black Canary put him up to this or something?

“And what makes you say that?”

“No hesitation.”

…what?

“Sorry?”

I commented to Robin, who looked at me with a thoughtful look on his face.

“Most fighters have a brief pause before every strike. The better the fighter, the less of a pause there is. But you don’t hesitate when you fight. It’s something that Batman told me about once. He said it’s a mark of a good…martial artist.”

…Robin paused before adding the martial artist part, leaving me thinking that wasn’t an ‘exact’ quote. Still, I had enough tact to know to not comment on it.

“Ah, thanks, I guess. By the way…remember our talk about the Justice League?”

Robin raised an eyebrow at the subject change.

“…Yeah?”

“So, what’s the situation on that?”

Robin gave me an incredulous look.

“But…you…”

He sighed before throwing his hands up.

“Alright, I’ll talk to them about it again.”

Again? So, they said something about it before?

After that conversation, we mostly just watched the other Titans end their spars before getting either tired or bored and stopping. Leaving everyone to retreat from outside of the tower and back inside.

My nose had also cleared up pretty quickly after the fact. Leaving me to take out the tissue pretty quickly and tossing it into the…trash…

It was with a small amount of worry that I double checked the blood that was on the tissue. Yet no matter how much I checked, it didn’t seem to change. The blood that was on the tissue…was pink.