12179/Sometimes bombs explode, sometimes they squeak

Sometimes bombs explode, sometimes they squeak
Date of Scene:	27 July 2022
Location:	The Danger Room - Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Kaida Connolly, Kian, Caitlin Fairchild, Freddy Freeman

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Kaida Connolly has posed:
Kian and Kaida have actually been going about this whole Titans thing for a while now and often end up in situations that neither is perfectly suited for. However, in an odd sort of way, their strengths compliment each other. An example being that Kian can fly and Kaida cannot. Kaida has a propensity for enacting terrible (and often humiliating) violence upon her enemies and Kian does not. So, they have started practicing together. As such, today the 'Practice' room is projecting a group of targets that are not something Kaida could easily get to. The large flying lizards resemble dragons only around wolf sized and are racing about a small cityscape smashing things to pieces.

Even as they break windows and rip off fire escapes, Kaida sits on Kian's shoulder and grins, "What do ya think?" She asks with a grin, "Perfect practice targets!"

Kian has posed:
    Kian can't help but laugh.  He's not wearing the translator for now, so his accent is back, although it's noticeably less intense than it once was.  "I think when you visit my world, you will be the terror of the treetops.  No /rut/ will dare tangle wit' you more than once.  I don' think they will give you any trouble anyway.  They're pretty frien'ly."
    He watches the lizards, getting a sense for their speed and maneuverability, and mentally calculating how they stack up against him.  "Well, targets anyway.  I don' think anything iss really perfec'.  Hang on tight--" and there is a strap around his shoulder for her to hang on to, "--an' let's go!"
    And with that he bolts into the air... probably attracting the attention of one or two of the nearer dragonets.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
The door slides open and admits Caitlin Fairchild and newcomer Freddy Freeman. After the minor debacles in the Main Room, it was decided that it wouldn't be the worst idea to bring Freddy in for a little training time. Caitlin's in a t-shirt that manages to be oversized even on her, and a pair of baggy athletic shorts and worn-out old sneakers. She looks over to Kian and Kaida on the other side of the room and lifts a hand in a wave before establishing an invisible boundary between their section and the area she and Freddy will use.

"This isn't meant to be a stress test or anything," she promises Freddy, and pulls a scrunchie off her wrist to tie her hair back in a ponytail. "We're just trying to get a sense of where you're at compared to, like, Miss Marvel and the others." She tiptoes carefully around the whole 'secret identity' thing, because, well-- Caitlin screws that up a lot. "Go ahead and get limbered up, and I'll run a basic simulator program." She nods at a circle on the ground that is glowing a soft, ready blue, and gestures for Freddy to step into it.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
Freddy got yet another opportunity for a tour of Titans Tower. And this time he is determined NOT to accidentally mutter Shaz...eh, almost!...the S-word so that hopefully he won't embarrass himself again in front of one of the foremost groups of young heroes in the country. He walks in with Caitlin, step-thump-step-thump-step-thump. His hair is a gods-awful mess, his clothes hang off his thin frame, and he has to support himself in his standing position with the aid of a metal crutch that clasps at his left elbow. But he sure doesn't seem to care about *any* of that as he watches these two heroes who are already at work defy gravity as they prepare for real-world emergencies with a broad, enthusiastic smile on his face and a look of wonder in his eyes.

Caitlin's instructions pull him out of his brief reverie. "Huh?" he says to her. "OH RIGHT. Yeah, hey I screwed the pooch! I screwed the big old pooch. I didn't think you guys would even let me back in the building." His beaming smile never fades, not even a tiny bit. "This right here?" he says, gesturing with his free hand toward the circle. He hobbles into it with a glint of excitement in his eyes.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
"Perfect!" She grabs on to the strap casually as she holds on to his shoulder with her toes pretty well. She's grinning wide as they tak off, looking around as she flies upward and it isn't the first time she's flown up with someone else. She glances down as indeed, a couple of the little dragons flick away from a wall with a small leap, spread their wings and race after the pair.

"As I see it!" She calls out from her tiny perch, "You being able to get me up into the air could be useful against targets like this or even on the ground." She reaches with one hand to pull her sword while holding on with the other. There's a tiny roar from one of the two creatures giving chase even as the others break more items. She looks to Kian as they fly up.

"Anyway! Now is as good a time as any!" And she simply leaps free of his shoulder and spins in the air. One dragon continues after Kian as the other prepares to chomp Kaida right out of the air but she instead drives her blade right into its nose and causes it to screech out in panic and pain as she spins on that point and drives a small foot right between its eyes.

Kian has posed:
    Kian wheels about and, perhaps unexpectedly, just unloads on the pursuing dragon with the force of a lightning bolt -- thankfully, without the accompanying deafening clap, just a thick purple-white arc of electricity from him to the creature, snarling and snapping and crackling.
    Someone seems to have had a change of heart about the way he uses his powers.
    He pauses briefly in midair, hovering effortlessly, and waves to the new arrivals.  "/Kie/, Cait!  /Kie/... do we haf a new teammate?  I--/kya/!!"
    Gotta not get distracted there, birdman.  One of the dragons passed a bit too close, and Kian immediately gives chase with a casual flick of his wings.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin stands in the corner and removes her tee-shirt and the gym shorts. Her 'summertime' heroing attire is a green halter top that leaves a few inches of midriff exposed and a pair of close-fitting shorts that falls to mid-thigh. She kicks her shoes off too, since they're not likely to do anything but get damaged in the training simulator.

"Oh right, that's-- yeah. Hang on. MARVIN, open up the skylight," she bids the Titan's house AI. Overhead the panels part to admit an uninterrupted beam of clear blue sky overhead.

"Kian, eyes on the drones!" she calls over to the bird. "You can come over and say hello after you clear the encounter."

She moves around to Freddy's line of sight and gives him a quizzical look. "I'm sure you get asked this al the time, but the, um, Sha--" she coughs. "The *thing* you guys say, does it come in at, like, a perfect vertical? Or can you aim at the horizon or something?"

Freddy Freeman has posed:
"Whoa!" Freddy exclaims as the roof parts. He looks upward with a broad smile and wide eyes. "This place is hella cool!" he blurts out, cheeks flushing. He averts his gaze down back to Caitlin. "Well, it comes straight down, but there doesn't have to be an opening to the sky. It will appear in a room." He wrinkles his nose, looking a touch embarrassed, most likely remembering last evening's...um...debacle are we calling it? "It just makes a lot of light and noise, and, um, kind of creates a bit of force and wind." He grins a sheepish, apologetic grin to Caitlin. "I'm afraid the gods don't like their powers to be very subtle."

Kaida Connolly has posed:
"That's weird!" Kaida calls out as she grips on to one of the ears of the dragon creature she is riding. She looks over as the other falls down to the ground and looks up to Kian. Who was she calling out about weirdness, it isn't clear but she did say it right after Freddy mentioned the gods not liking their powers to be subtle. Either way, she slams her blade into the fake creature's nose and pulls to the right hard causing it to vere that way.

"Kian! When did you start frying things?" She asks of him even as another creature comes in to try to save its friend (or maybe its programming just has it hungry) and Kaida whips her blade around, cutting a nasty cut right into the back of the dragon she is on's neck before leaping at the other. This one thinks it gets a bite but soon realizes that within its mouth is a mouse standing on its tongue and through the top of its snout? A sword sticking out like some kind of unicorn horn.

Kian has posed:
    "When they started tryin' to fry my frien's!" Kian calls back, herding the dragon he's chasing with small explosions to its left and right... and then just above it, to force it downward into one of its compatriots.  Two for the price of one.
    He has the presence of mind to use his T-Com rather than stopping to address Cait.  "Yis, I know, I'm still learnin'!  Things on my worl' don't try to eat me, I haf many years of assumptions I still need to get over!"  It's said with a chuckle, at least.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin winces for a moment at Freddy's 'hella' but makes no comment otherwise. "You've been here for two years, the clock on the 'I'm new'-gimmies has run out," Caitlin tells Kian with a grin, using it to disguise her expression.

"I've turned up the dampners in here, so go ahead and light it off," Caitlin tells Freddy. "Maybe if we get some readings on it we can get a better sense on when and how you can use it. This room's been blown up like, half a dozen times in the last year, so don't stress if there's some damage done. It happens a lot."

Freddy Freeman has posed:
Freddy looks up at the flying Kian and his mouse warrior friend Kaida, then back to Caitlin. "They know that it's going to be suddenly very..." He peers back up at the two engaged in their furious practice battle. Yeah, they're cool. I mean, they're TITANS, for the gods' sake.

Freddy draws in a deep breath and exhales. "Look, despite my screw-ups yesterday, I take the mandate of the immortal elders very solemnly. I never use this power lightly. But for practice and training, well that's important and so I will call upon the immortals here."

The scrawny, crutch-wielding, disabled teenager looks up at the sky through the opening. He glances sidelong at Caitlin. And despite the solemnity of what he does, he can't help but quirk a grin on one side of his mouth. If you're going to wield the very power of the gods, why not enjoy it? While looking at Caitlin with bright, glittering eyes he says, "Shazam!" His voice is not amplified per se, but somehow it permeates every corner of the room as he mutters the mystical name. Thunder sounds sharply as a lightning bolt appears from nowhere and strikes Freddy, resulting in a brilliant flash of light. When the light fades, Freddy is gone, replaced by a six-foot-tall man who looks like he might be in his mid-twenties, wearing the uniform of Pantheon.

"Hey," Pantheon says, lifting one hand briefly in a wave to Caitlin.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
Looking at the situation, Kaida spins around once and causes the thing to flail around her before she lets it spit her out. She flies through the air and catches herself on a nearby wall as the creature flails toward the ground below. She looks up in the direction of Kian and his foes just as another is coming at her. Of course, then Freddy calls out.

"Whoa!" Kaida says as she looks in his direction and she blinks, "That was cool." She considers that a moment even as another creature whips around the corner she is at and tries to chomp her. It chomps down on her shield instead. It's held vertically in its mouth as it chomps before she twists casually upward so she is holding her hand on it easily and then drives her sword into its nose. She uses that as a spring off point, letting it have the shield as she pulls the amazingly sharp sword straight up.

The blade slices clean through and Kaida takes a breath before shaking her head and riding the dragon down toward the edge of her battle and calls out and upward.

"Kian! Wrap it up! I've killed my three! I wanna meet the new guy!"

Kian has posed:
    "That's Eart' rules an' I'm not from Eart'!" Kian shoots back.  It sounds like he's grinning -- and that's a good thing for more than one reason.
    For one thing, it means he's actually comfortable in the Da--*Practice* Room, which he hasn't always been.
    And he's also no longer moping over Terry's absence, and has figured out a way for life to go on, even if it's not the same as before.  And--
    "/c'Rhys'yw/!!"  Titan or not, and even though he's summoned a few lightning bolts himself, it's still quite an attention-arresting noise.  But, Kaida's voice cuts through his surprise and brings him back to the task at hand.  "I've already got three!  It's not my fault if you're slow!"  But there is a seventh, and it gets the wrong end of another bolt of electricity as Kian dives to collect Kaida.
    It's a two-handed catch, and he places Kaida on his shoulder so she can grab hold of the strap again as he banks sharply towards Cait and, and, and... and the new guy.  Alighting delicately behind Cait, he remarks to Freddy, or at least to the man standing where Freddy had been, "You didn't look like that a few minutes ago... but I think I'm gettin' use' to that happenin'."     He's with Beast Boy and Vorpal.  He *better* be used to people changing shapes by now.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin's somewhat prepared, with her arms crossed over her stomach and her weight over her front foot with the other braced behind her. She flinches just a little at the shock but manages to keep her eyes open as light and fury crashes around Freddy. When it resolves into Patheon, she lifts her hand up and wiggles her fingers in greeting. "Hi back," she bids him.

"Kaida, Kian, this is Freddy," she tells the two Titans, and gestures at the newcomer. "Freddy, Kaida and Kian. They joined up with us a couple years back. Freddy's from the same family as Shazam and Mary Marvel," she explains to the duo. "He came by to see what we're about and maybe get some training."

Freddy Freeman has posed:
Those who have spent time around Shazamily members may be accustomed to the oddity of people with the physical form that is older than their mental/emotional state. And so it it with Pantheon, who stands six feet tall with a solid, muscular build, and appears to be around 25-26. But he nervously runs one hand back through his hair and his cheeks flush a bit. HE'S BEING INTRODUCED TO FRICKIN' TITANS! And this comic book and superhero nerd is geeking out hard right now.

"It's so good t'meet you guys. Wow. I mean, the Danger Room of Titans Tower and ACTUAL Titans training for battle. Oh man, my brothers and sisters aren't EVEN gonna believe this one."

Leaning forward, Pantheon wipes his palms down along the pant legs of his form-fitting uniform, then stands straight again. "So yeah, I'm Freddy. Well, when I'm looking like this I go by Pantheon."

Kaida Connolly has posed:
"I mean, training. Yeah." Kaida passively gestures at the area they just left which is now fading away and returning to being just a blank space.

"They were hardly a proper threat but I had to make sure Kian could handle them." She nods and hten quickly leaps from Kian's shoulder and grins back at him briefly before she's beside Freddy and looking him over with a hmm and tapping her foot and then zipping to his other side to look at another angle. She considers and then nods.

"I mean, certainly impressive. Definitely looks the type." She considers and then idly tilts her head to the side, "Strange." She doesn't elaborate before shrugging and rushing away to try to leap to Cait's shoulder and take a seat if she isn't stopped. High places and all that.

Kian has posed:
    Kian shakes his head.  "I don't know what iss wrong wit' the names you already haf, but Eart' iss weird."  But, he's grinning.  Kaida and Cait have both heard this before, and now it's just a running gag, not an actual complaint.
    He bows slightly, wings spreading.  "/Kie/, Panteon--"  Well, that's what you get when he's not wearing the translator.  "--it iss good to meet you.  Haf you joined us, or are you still decidin' if we are safe to be aroun'?"
    This is so very much no longer the frightened, unsure birdman of two years past.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin's phone starts beeping and she checks the screen. "Oh crabapples-- my muffins! Stupid--" she grrrs at her phone and mashes the 'cancel' button, grabbing her things hastily and heading for the door. "I'm so sorry, I have to see if I can salvage these muffins," she apologizes to the others. "Kian, why don't you show Freddy the ropes? Give him an idea of what support types look for in a tank," she suggests. She hops awkwardly into her loose shorts and runs out the door while still tugging her t-shirt into place.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
Pantheon knows from long experience -- his actual experiences combined with his inherited experiences -- that size is often no indicator of stature and power. The universe, as they say, is a big place. So as Kaida approaches him and inspects him, he gives her a warrior's nod of respect. "Strange?" he says as one corner of his mouth tics upward. "I'll take being called strange by a Titan as a compliment. I'm at *least* strange, if not worse."

Kian's accent and the word 'Kie' give Pantheon a moment of pause. And despite the relatively mature, age-appearance-appropriate way he spoke to Kaida, the heroic 'mech body' being driven by a teenager hops up once. "OH! Akiar'shak! So dope! I haven't ever heard it spoken aloud before!" Never heard it spoken aloud? Odd, then, that he replies to Kian in Akiar'shak with perfection diction, pronunciation, and syntax. He bows first at the waist. <<Peace to you, as well. I'm honored to meet you and share these words in your language!>>

Finally, as Caitlin makes her exit, Pantheon waves warmly to her. "Bye, Caitlin! Thanks for showing me around! Talk to ya later." The moment she leaves and the door shuts, Pantheon blinks. "Wait, did she say something about muffins?"

Kaida Connolly has posed:
"She cooks!" Kaida only reaches up and rubs at her ears. She frowns a little at the feeling before shrugging and looks over at Freddy with a nod.

"Yep, strange!" She nods her head before looking over at Kian briefly before adding.

"So, where should we go from here?"