"I am pleased to see you again, Robin-san!" Lee chirruped happily as he followed the red-clad crimefighter down the dark tunnelway. "We did not know what had become of you when you disappeared from the ward!"

Robin grinned in the darkness. "I had to leave. My boss had a few matters he wanted me to attend to."

"Couldn't he have waited until you were in a more fit condition?"

"No." Robin's answer was very decided. "He's not that kind of boss, and they weren't those kind of matters."

"Ah."

"Speaking of fit conditions, though, how are you doing?" Robin sent a calculating glance over his shoulder. "Green Lantern says you've been breaking out of the infirmary constantly to run jogs around the track and do push-ups."

"Yosh!" Lee's bushy eyebrows shot up in exhilaration. "I must continue to train in whatever circumstances I find myself! My time in the hospital has greatly slowed my training, I must train twice as hard to make up for lost time!" He stopped a moment and reconsidered. "No. I must train THREE times as hard..."

"Forget I asked." Robin gave a little wave of his hand. "I suppose I know already, since I hacked into the medical accounts and everything. They released you, they must figure all those bullet wounds and burns must be pretty well healed. And it doesn't really matter, for what I want you to do."

"Ah... yes. What... exactly did you say that was, again?" Lee glanced around him inquisitively.

"I didn't say." Robin answered dryly.

Lee frowned. "While I am happy to oblige you in whatever manner I can, I nonetheless desire to know what strange task you would wish to set me on." He squinted around the dark tunnel again. "Are we... in a cave?"

"Yup. The League teleporters aren't supposed to reach here, but if you know the right code they'll send you right in."

"Where are we?"

"You just said that yourself. In a cave." They had now exited the tunnel, and Lee was vaguely aware that they were in a very large cavern. This was underlined by Robin's warning, "Watch your step." As far as he could tell, they were walking on the edge of a very deep crevasse. The screeches of bats echoed against the hard granite walls, and far off, the dripping of water could be heard. The only light in the cavern came from a few crowded squares of light, mounted atop a pillar of light at the far end. Toward these Robin went, and Lee followed, increasingly curious.

"It's not really so much a task I have in mind for you." Robin continued, conversationally.

"Oh?" As they neared the squares, Lee realized that they were screens, part of a massive computer that sat atop the cave. "Then what is it?"

Robin paused a while before answering. "More like a trial. Or a favor, depending on your point of view. Anyway," he shrugged as they stopped before the computers, "it's why I brought you here."

"Why did you bring me here, Robin-san?"

"Because I asked him to," answered a gravely voice. The chair before the computers swung round to reveal the gleaming eyes and dark cowl of the Batman. "I wanted to talk to you."

------------------------------------

"Bless you, ma'am."

"Bless... you... ma'am." Sasuke managed through gritted teeth.

"Heart of gold, you have, mister."

"Heart of... gold."

"Would you cut it out!" The man adjoining Sasuke hissed. "Jeez, kid, you'd think you were angry at 'em for giving you some money—blessings on yer house, missus."

"This is degrading." Sasuke muttered, staring at the tin can before him and the assortment of change littering its bottom.

"Yeah? Well I ain't in any position to complain, and from the looks of things, neither is you. Cheer up, kid, people love a cripple like you. You're—thanks, mister—making a killing over there. Heck," the man checked his hat, "I'm not doing so bad, and I'm just working off your popularity. So suck it up." He turned back to the busy street. "Sir, a moment of your time..."

Grimacing, Sasuke stared into his cup. Seven measly dollars. Sixty-seven cents—ninety-two cents, he amended, as a quarter clanged into the cup. He'd counted them three times over the last hour. That was all since lunch time. Blind Pete (The beggar next to him, who was almost certainly not blind) had told him you needed to empty the cup periodically, so people didn't see how much you had. Another twelve dollars and forty-three cents weighed down his pockets.

It was more than enough to get a decent meal. Not quite enough to find a decent place to spend the night. And nowhere near enough to buy a gun.

Or medical care, Sasuke reminded himself as a sudden pain racked through his side. An ambulance had done some preliminary care on his arms and legs while he was unconscious, but without insurance they could not afford to treat him fully. So he was left here, by the side of the road, with a broken arm, broken leg, and a seriously creaking ribcage, to try and beg for food.

It was humiliating. Degrading. Necessary.

Sasuke swallowed his pride and looked upwards. "Ah... may I... Give me... Spare change, please? I need... Spare... change, if you have any."

He'd never had to beg in his life before. Not when he'd wanted attention from his father, not when his whole clan died, not when he'd gone to Orochimaru for power. Everything he'd done, he'd done by himself, without any help from anyone.

But now he had no choice.

"Try to look more pitiful," whispered Blind Pete out of the corner of his mouth. "They go for the pitiful ones."

Sasuke choked back his dignity and begged. "Spare change? I'm... I'm in need of medical care."

-------------------------

With surprising alacrity, Lee leapt backwards, arms already up in combat position. "You! Robin-san, this is most unexpected and un-youthful of you!"

"You may learn to thank me." Robin grinned.

"If you've been working with Robin for so long, you should know that he wouldn't knowingly endanger you." Robin shot Batman a look, half gratitude, half insulted pride at the word 'knowingly.' "You can come to terms with that and calm down, very well, or you can waste your time hopping around the cave."

"You shall not trick me, dark one! What have you done to Robin-san?"

Robin cut in at this point. "Lee, cool it. Batman is my boss."

Lee lifted a confused eyebrow. "Your... what?"

"Boss. Teacher. Sensei. He taught me all those moves I've been using on you. Trust me, he's not going to attack."

"Oh?" Lee tilted his head defensively. "He attacked my comrades and I on the very night we arrived! He harmed Sakura-chan!"

"He's part of the League, isn't he? They..." Robin stopped as he considered that the ninjas still did not entirely trust the League. "He... didn't attack you guys in Gotham?"

"His plane was chasing ours. And he arrested Chouji-san and Sai-san."

"We're wasting time." Batman snapped, standing up. "Yes, I attacked your party upon your arrival here in Gotham. At the time, I thought I was defending my city from invaders, as I imagine you would yours. That being said, I was in error during the confrontation."

Lee's defensive posture softened slightly. "You... apologize, then?"

"I made an error in judgment." Batman grumbled. "I acted hastily and without proper information. It was unfortunate, and I regret it."

Lee's face shone with manly tears as he shot forward and engulfed Batman in a hug. "You apologize! The flames of youthful passion flow strong in you, Batman-san! Surely one with such a noble heart cannot be truly bad! I accept your apology."

Sighing, Batman did his best to ignore the green-clad teenager hugging him, as well as the red-clad teenager snickering on the sidelines. "Good."

"Now, what did you wish to say to me, my youthful friend?" Lee finally let go and regarded the impassive crimefighter hopefully.

"Robin mentioned your sparring bouts." Batman paused to brush himself off. "He thought perhaps I could help you with your training."

Lee's face nearly exploded with radiance at the word 'training.' "You would TEACH me, Batman-san? Or—forgive me..." Lee let out a childish giggle. "...Batman-sensei! You wish to show me your mighty techniques and wonderful style? I will learn everything you have to teach me before we leave, or I will run around Gotham two thousand times! Yosh!"

Batman quirked an eyebrow and glanced at Robin.

Robin nodded. "Yeah, he probably will."

------------------

"What's the point in having a jetpack if I don't even get to steer it?" Naruto grumbled.

"Try to focus." Superman rubbed his eyes. "Do you see any criminal activity taking place?"

"What, from up here? We've gotta be half a mile up! How're we supposed to see anything?"

Superman shrugged his massive shoulders. "The kind of criminal activity I usually deal with tends to be rather visible. Still, you've got a point. I guess you don't exactly have telescopic vision." He glanced over at Naruto, cruising through the air beside him. "Don't you ninjas have any kind of... I don't know... heightened perceptional state?"

"Well... yeah, Sage Mode DOES allow me to be aware of all my surroundings. But it's kinda hard to filter out everything here. Especially since your people don't really have any chakra signatures." Naruto squinted down at the street below. "Takes me forever to work up, too. None of your guys at base better touch my clone."

"He's in a locked room, he'll be fine. Now focus. I'm not sure how your 'heightened perception' works, but if it's anything like my supersight and superhearing, there's probably a way of filtering out the unimportant info."

Arching his eyebrows, Naruto commented. "Jeez. Supersight, superhearing... You have superbreath?"

Superman ever so slightly winced. "That's not important."

"Just saying. It seems like you're overdoing it for some reason."

"Focus." Superman repeated, a trifle more firmly. "Try to let your eyes—mind—skim over the normal happenings, and just pic out the irregularities. Only study unusual things, people running, shouting, breaking windows, that sort of thing. Focus on those and look at them more closely to see if something is wrong. Try to... you have your eyes closed."

"I'm trying to focus." Naruto insisted, eyes still closed. "This is pretty hard, y'know."

Superman shrugged again. "I don't find it too bad. Of course, my mind processes stuff a lot faster than most."

"What, Super-thought?"

"Focus, Naruto." Superman sighed. Suddenly he peered ahead and frowned. "Look over at Washington Bank. What do you see—sense?" He corrected.

Naruto remained silent a moment. "Where's Washington Bank?" He asked hesitantly.

Superman closed his eyes, then tugged a remote from his belt. "It's where I'm sending you now." He answered, tapping out a sequence. "Assess the situation and contain it. I'll be watching. Go!"

"But..." Naruto's protest were cut off as the jetpack roared into life and ripped him away from the Man of Steel. Wind whipped against his face, its sharp edges thwarted by the Sage Mode invincibility, as he shot toward whatever-place-it-was that Superman had sighted.

Naruto had been all for the jetpack at first. A device that let you fly at high speeds? How was that not awesome? Sure, it was necessary for keeping up with Superman on these flight patrols, but the point was it was really, really awesome. Neji had to be green with envy right now.

Except actually, Neji would probably hate this version of jetpack. Because Naruto couldn't control it. He wasn't MEANT to. That was Superman's job. Superman used the remote to send Naruto anywhere that wasn't directly behind him. Naruto supposed it helped them get things off to an early start without having to train through the use of the jetpack, but he also felt pretty sure the League had done it to keep him on a short leash.

Well screw that! As soon as this puppy landed, he was out of the harness and doing things HIS way! He'd done super-heroing before, in Jump City with Robin, he didn't need any more of...

That was about as far as he got before the ground plowed into his feet.

Mr. Terrific, who had designed the jetpack, had warned him about landings and how he was supposed to brace his legs for landing and run with the velocity. To be fair, Naruto had paid better-than-average attention, but to be honest, that wasn't saying an awful lot. Mostly he'd been too psyched about the idea of a jetpack to really care much about how to use it safely. After all, in Sage Mode he was invincible. What could happen?

Apparently, he could plow through half a street of concrete and kick dust and gravel into the air. Sure, invincible, but still doggone annoying. Especially the gravel up his nose.

That could have gone better. He mused as he hauled his way out. So much for an impressive entry... too bad Lee isn't here.

However, entrance didn't actually matter. Performance did. And now that Naruto was on site, he recognized the shady performance right away. Masked men generally did not run out of banks into cars. Or rather, they did, but not for innocent reasons.

Naruto erupted from the ground at lightning speed. "Stop in the name of the law!" He crowed, exulting in the phrase, newly picked from some of Cyborg's cop-buddy movies. "You are all under arrest!"

The crooks, very naturally, did not listen. They saw only a strange blonde kid with weird eyebrows and bright orange clothing. Even if they had seen Naruto's press conference, they would hardly have recognized him through the caked dirt and gravel. The only thing they DID recognize that anyone who could survive a face-plant into gravel must be a meta. Instantly they gunned the engine into life.

The poor car never really stood a chance. Naruto whipped over the pavement at lightning speed and smashed a rasengan into the engine, blowing most of the front half of the car away. With varied shouts of alarm, the crooks abandoned the wreckage, streaking off in different directions.

With a dramatic roll of the eyes, Naruto wove his fingers in a seal. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Six Narutos popped into existence. "Get 'em!" He ordered, waving his clones on. Sage Mode told him exactly where the men had fled.

Sage Mode also told him when half his clones poofed out from bullet wounds.

Naruto groaned and dashed off down a dark alley. He leapt to the wall, ran along with it till he came even with the man, jumped down, and kicked his feet out from under him. Before the man could get up, Naruto was on him, picking him up and dragging him to the nearest light pole. The metal tubing bent easily in his hands, and he wound it expertly around the man.

Again Naruto whipped away, at double the speed. He formed two more clones and sent them to delay one man while he got the other. That wouldn't be enough, though. He needed to do this fast. Shooting straight around the building, he caught the bank robber with strong chop to the jaw, then gave a light tap on the head to knock him out.

The third man was ready when Naruto came, and he managed to sink two shots before he got up to him. They didn't do any harm, of course, but they hurt, and Naruto perhaps was a liiiiitttle too enthusiastic in punching the man across the parking lot into three of his clones. But hey, it was the last guy, so whatever.

Naruto beamed as Superman came floating over the square. "So, whattaya think?" He smirked. "Quick, eh?"

Superman looked around, at the long trench in the pavement, the burst fire hydrant at the end of it, the decapitated car (leaking oil), the bent lamp post, the crook with the concussion, the OTHER one with several cracked ribs and some internal bleeding, and the terrified people standing around watching it all.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Naruto." He said. "Let's talk about control."

The car exploded.

-------------------------------

"You work with me, you follow the rules." Batman, unmasked and in a light robe, stood in a sparring ring, the spandex-clad Lee just across from him. "Rule number one: You give me everything you've got." Glancing Lee over, he frowned and made an impatient gesture. "You're wearing weights. Take them off."

Robin, watching just outside the ring, suppressed a snigger.

Lee looked absolutely torn. "But, Batman-sensei..."

"Take them off! Now!"

With a hopeless shrug, Lee kneeled and unhooked the weights from his legs. Batman raised an eyebrow as he saw them sink into the padding of the ring, but said nothing. Standing to his feet once again, Lee gave a nervous thumbs up. "Ready when you are, Batman-sense..."

Batman, never much one for ceremony, attacked the boy in mid-sentence.

It is hard to give an account of the battle from Batman's point of view. To Robin, who had been looking forward to this for a while, it vaguely resembled a green blur surrounding a shadow-boxing, mysteriously flying, Batman.

He saw Batman charge forward and punch at empty air. A half-second later, Batman flew backwards toward the boundaries of the ring, chest doubled in pain. He avoided a complete fall, but somehow seemed to have difficulty getting up, as he kept falling again, and again, and again. Finally he rocketed upwards in a certain direction, eliciting an 'oof' from the thin air, and rolled backwards into a fighting position, which he managed to hold for all of two-thirds of a second before his head jerked back and carried the rest of the body with it. The mighty Batman crumpled to the floor.

Instantly the green blur materialized to become a very worried Lee standing at his new sensei's side. "Batman-sensei, are you alright? I must apologize profusely if I have harmed you, I occasionally get a little over-eager in my practice rounds..."

Batman coughed up some blood as he struggled upwards, his face swelling with bruises. "You... you..." he wheezed. "Your... kicks... lack strength. You... don't follow... through on them."

"Ah!" Robin nodded amiably from the sidelines. "You noticed that too, did you?"

-------------------

"So... what was your name again, dawg?"

"I am called Sai." The strange pale-faced boy gave Virgil a disturbing grin. "I am pleased to meet you."

"Uh... yeah. Likewise, likewise." Static shook the boy's hand. "My name's Static."

"May I call you Spider-Hair?"

Fortunately the door swung open before Virgil could respond. Green Lantern nodded to them curtly. "Static. Sai." He glanced around, a trifle nervously. "That... friend of yours... Lee. He's not around here, is he?"

Sai's smile widened. "I have not seen him, Lantern-sensei. Why do you ask?"

"No reason." Green Lantern stood up a trifle straighter. "He's been... following me around lately. Not sure why." Coughing, he turned an eye onto the two teenagers. "Right. The two of you will be running sessions with me in the simulation chamber. This way." He jerked his head at the door.

Obediently, the two got up and followed Lantern into the room, which immediately morphed into a sand-filled arena.

"Whoah!" Static whirled around, taking in the whole scene. "That room just... I mean, it wasn't even..." his mind finally accepted the illusion and he grinned at Lantern. "That is some rocking level of awesome!"

"Very powerful genjutsu." Sai nodded amiably. Lantern's glare stopped his hand from reaching the kunai pouch.

Static was still glancing around the arena. "Coliseum, huh? I remember this from Mrs. Donlan's history class. We gonna fight lions?"

"Actually, this is supposed to be the Morporkian proving grounds of Atuinius 5." Lantern smiled at the look on Static's face. "Went there when I was a rookie in the Lanterns. Compulsory. I chose it partly for sentimental reasons, partly because it's a good open field for your first lesson."

"Which is?"

"Visualization." Sighing at the look on Static's face, Lantern amended, "Imagination, then. Improvisation. The ability to create a weapon immediately that fulfills a specific need."

"Tell me, what is this?" Lantern raised his fist, exposing the ring.

Regrettably, Sai went first. "A sign of conjugal union between you and your beloved?"

"It's his Lantern ring." Static threw Sai an odd look, the first of many. "The Guardians gave it to him to defend earth and stuff. You need to have like a buttload of willpower to use one, but it's AWESOME. He's got this bigger lantern thing that he charges it with and..."

"That's good enough, Static." Lantern nodded approvingly. "Yes. My Lantern Ring. Now, what does it do?"

"It changes your eye color to frighten off your enemies?"

Sai had not yet learned to show that he was joking. Static gave him another weird look. "It lets out big laser blasts, dude."

"Both wrong." One more so than the other. "The ring does whatever I want it to. If I want it to make a big dinosaur..." The green light flared into being, "...it makes a dinosaur. If I want to make a spaceship..." The light flared and flickered, "...there's a spaceship. If I want it to make General Eisenhower..." Again it changed. "...there he is."

Sai's eyebrows crept upwards.

"Generally, I do use it for laser blasts." Nodding at Static, Lantern unleashed a salvo of fire against the opposite wall. "But that's simply because they come most readily to mind and are the most useful in battles. The important thing is that a Lantern's ring is limited only by what you can imagine."

"And yellow light."

"And yellow light." Lantern glanced at Static with a hint of surprise. "That's not exactly common knowledge."

Static shrugged, trying not to look smug. "Eh... you been superheroing around the block a few times, you pick up some stuff."

"Mmm. Now, the two of you have abilities rather similar to this. Static, you can mold electricity into whatever form you need. Bat-signals, for example. And Sai, you can..." Lantern tried not to let his disbelief show, "...bring drawings to life."

Static stared at Sai. "Dude, seriously?"

Sai smiled.

"Both of you have, to some extent, learned how to use your powers creatively. However, Static, you lack imagination, and Sai, you lack improvisation. Both speed AND original thinking are important assets with powers like yours."

"So," said Green Lantern, charging up his ring and shielding himself in a great green ball, "For our first lesson, you two will fight me."

--------------------------

"If you could spare... thank you sir, God bless you sir."

Sasuke stared into the cup resignedly, trying to assuage his ego with the glinting coins inside. It was a good haul, with the money inside his coat he might be able to go to a backstreet doctor, work on getting his legs fixed. Maybe save up for a...

Footsteps caught his ear and he glanced up quickly. "Please sir, spare change? I..."

"Get lost, kid." The man kicked at him savagely and swept past.

Something snapped in Sasuke. He was Uchiha Sasuke, avenger! His name was known throughout the five elemental nations, he had held Kages captive, WARS had been fought over him! This sort of abuse could not be tolerated! Growling, he clenched his fist and...

...and did nothing. The man was nearly half-a-block away, and Sasuke's legs were as useless as ever. Perhaps a properly placed coin... but no. What would be the point? It would attract police and attention, and Sasuke wanted neither. Defeated, his shoulders slumped. The posture earned him two nickels and a dollar bill.

"Guys like him can be useful if you play it right." Blind Pete whispered. "People give more if they see you getting rejected."

Sasuke didn't even bother to answer. How could people live like this? Objectively, he knew that similar people existed in Konoha and the Elemental nations, but he'd never really bothered to consider what it might be like. Sure—he glanced down at his cup again—it paid well enough, but... to have to depend on others, to be FORCED to put up with whatever they gave, and even to grovel for them...

More footsteps. Sasuke put the thoughts aside for the moment.

"Pardon me sir..." said he, contriving to catch the gaze of the elderly, bristly mustached man. "Excuse me, I... I... need medical care. Would you... I... give me..." Desperately he coughed up the words, gritting his teeth. "Some spare change?"

The man stopped and studied him for a moment, rubbing his mustache with a gnarled hand. Finally, with a nod, he squatted down to Sasuke's level, and beckoned to him to lean forward. "I tell you what it is." He said. "Big City. Live, work, eh? BUT." He held up a gnarled finger. "Is not city open. Only peoples."

Sasuke blinked. This had not been expected. Part of him wondered what the heck the man was saying, the other part wondered if he'd get any money by listening.

"Only peoples." A sagely nod punctuated the words. "Peoples is peoples. No is buildings. Is Tomatoes, eh?"

Tomatoes. Against his will, Sasuke's stomach rumbled in remembrance.

The man was warming to his subject, building in enthusiasm."Is peoples! Is dancing, is music, is potatoes!"

Sasuke stared at the man.

"So." The man shrugged as he stood. "Peoples is peoples." Again he held up the finger. "Okay?"

Feeling something was expected of him, Sasuke nodded.

The man smiled benevolently. He stood still a moment, a confused look on his face as if trying to remember something, then, snapping his fingers, dug out a grubby wallet and dropped a twenty into Sasuke's cup. Before Sasuke could say anything further, the man disappeared, with a smile, into the crowd.

Sasuke picked up the twenty and glanced at it. It seemed real enough. Would be a good start toward getting a gun again. Toward regaining power. Would be...

Sasuke glanced over at Blind Pete. "Do you know where they sell tomatoes?"

-----------------------

"Those are some very heavy weights you must have," said Batman some half-an-hour later, as Alfred applied ointment to the worst of his bruises

"Yes indeed, Batman-sensei. Whenever I begin to get used to the weight, I add to it to increase the challenge." Lee shuffled about awkwardly. "Batman-sensei, I apologize for being so rough, but you did say to..."

"Yes, yes." Batman waved the apology aside. "I did tell you to give everything you had. If that was not ALL you could do, it was at least close enough to give me an idea of your weakness." Leaning forward, the crimefighter eyed Lee keenly. "How often do you fight without your weights?"

Lee blinked his eyes rapidly in thought. "Gai-sensei does not allow me to remove them unless there a great many precious people in need of protection. Occasionally I train with Gai-sensei with them off, but otherwise I never remove them, even when I sleep."

"When you sleep?" Robin had an odd expression on his face.

"So essentially, you are always wearing them, and you nearly always fight with them on."

"Yes, Batman-sensei."

Batman whispered something to Alfred, who bowed and left. Then, turning to look directly at Lee, he stated: "You need to stop wearing them. They're impeding your progress."

"What!?" Shocked and outraged at the criticism of his beloved training technique, Lee stood bolt upright. "How can you say that? They were designed by the great Gai-sensei himself! They have enabled me to tone my muscle and increase my speed far beyond..."

"I think he's talking more about wearing them all the time." Robin eyed his mentor. "Right."

Batman gave a short nod of approval. "You need to practice at full speed, not just while weighted. It's obvious you're not sure of how to handle the level of speed you gain with them off."

"And what do you mean by that?" asked Lee, torn between indignation and curiosity. He saw Robin, too, glance at the crimefighter in confusion.

"The momentum from your weights," said Batman, as if that explained everything. "It throws you off."

Lee watched as confusion turned to meditation and finally to realization in Robin's face. "Riiiiight." He nodded. "That makes sense." Turning to Lee, he gestured. "Here, let me show you. Give me one of your weights."

Lee handed it over with a shrug, and Robin fastened it around his own leg, wincing as he did so. "Man, these things ARE heavy. You seriously wear these all the time?" Sitting down, he let his weighted leg dangle off the edge of the chair and pointed. "See, this is your leg at rest. Now when you need to move it, there's a lot of weight on that leg, so it takes a lot of force to get it moving." He lifted his leg with difficulty. "But once that weight is moving, the momentum carries it along, so you don't have to sustain that force along the arc. This is doubly true if you're moving it really fast, like in a kick."

Lee nodded, he was beginning to see the problem.

"Instead, what you do, at the point where the leg meets the target, is you pull back." Robin's leg paused in mid-air. "You need to stop the momentum before it completely carries you over and makes you do a somersault."

"Or rips your leg off." Batman commented dryly.

"Or that." Robin agreed. "So that's what happens while you're wearing the weights. Practically what you have to do, in order to fight with them on. And there's lots of advantages. The added momentum gives your kicks more penetrating power, the metal probably makes for a lot stronger hit. The problem, though, comes when you take the weights OFF."

"You can move faster, and you realize that different rules apply." Batman took over from his apprentice. "But old habits die hard. When you have them off, you still push your leg most at the beginning, let it drift in the middle, and start to snap it back just before the hit." Steepling his fingers, Batman gazed thoughtfully over the tips of them. "Your kicks are actually less effective without the weights, you just manage to get in a lot more."

Lee's eyes were large and round. "I see, Batman-sensei." He nodded firmly. "This is a new way of looking at training. I will train three times as hard to make up for it, and if I cannot do that, I will..." he paused as a thought struck him. "But training will not solve this." His eyes began to water as he realized the enormity of the dilemma. "Training is... is the problem."

"The TYPE of training is." Robin corrected. "All we have to do is think of a new one to counteract the problems from your old training. Then you can train three times as hard at that." He grinned over at Batman.

Ignoring his apprentice, Batman turned to Alfred as he returned. "Did you get it?"

"Yes, Master Bruce. Here is the suit you requested." The butler laid a long suit of deep-black spandex on the table.

"Hey!" Robin's eyebrows shot up. "That's the..."

"Yes, Robin. The fibro-armor prototype. Trust me on this." Batman turned to Lee and gestured at the garment. "I want you to try working without the weights for a while and try using this. It's a suit we initially designed as a kind of Kevlar, with the ability to harden in response to sudden motion."

Lee picked up the suit, eyeing it doubtfully. "What will it do?"

"Resist every move you try to make—forward, backward, up, or down." Batman held up a remote. "This allows me to control the rigidity of the suit and the amount of resistance it puts up to your movements. It should have the same effect as the weights, but without the momentum issues we mentioned. This way, I can train you at a more..." he grimaced "...practical pace without worrying about how it will retard your high-speed fighting."

Nodding, Lee glanced over the suit again. Clearly he wanted to begin training immediately, clearly he was elated at this new challenge, and yet, and yet...

"Is something the matter?" asked Robin.

Lee looked up from the black suit. "...Could I perhaps... have a green one?"

----------------------

From her prone position on the operating table, Tenten looked at her arm and frowned. "It's... okay, I guess. I guess I was just thinking it'd look... different. Y'know, like yours."

"You WANT to look like a freakish metal man?" snorted Cyborg, his body glowing dimly in the darkness of the underground workshop. "Get a nose piercing or something. Until then, be thankful for a prosthetic that looks normal."

Tenten shrugged and flexed her new hand, studying it from all angles. The light glanced off it in an odd manner, and the texture was obviously wrong, but otherwise it seemed a perfectly normal hand. Sitting up, she tried it against the flesh of her other hand. She felt the warmth, the pressure, the moisture. Very sensitive. But...

"Can it lift heavy objects?" She asked, swiveling her gaze to Cyborg's partner, the cybernetic Fixit. By Cyborg's recommendation, they'd gone to him for Tenten's new prosthetic. Apparently the near-robot surpassed even Cyborg's mechanical abilities.

The hermit's emotionless gaze did not flicker. "The arm itself is capable of raising up to two tons. I would not, however, recommend that you lift anything past two hundred pounds."

"I'd say more like one hundred." Cyborg frowned. "And even that's iffy."

Tenten glanced from one to the other. "Huh?"

"Basic rule of cybernetic implants." Cyborg explained. "No body is stronger than its weakest member. If we had that arm connected to a metal beam, it could lift two tons. However, since it's attached to your arm, it can't lift any more than your arm can. Trying to do more than your shoulder can bear could result in dislocated joints, broken bones..." Cyborg shrugged. "Stuff like that."

"We installed a nanite web binding the arm to your stump. It extends all the way up your arm to the shoulder." Fixit continued. "It dissipates the weight of the prosthetic itself and ensures that your hand will not simply fall off. However, if undue strain is caused..."

"It'll rip right off. And since we tied it into your nerve endings, that'll be pretty painful," finished Cyborg.

Tenten looked back at her arm glumly. "I see. You can do stuff like that because your whole skeleton is prosthetic, right?"

"That's it." Cyborg nodded. "Even a lot of the parts of me that look human are mechanical. My head's about the only real thing." Seeing Tenten's face, he added, "Trust me, you wouldn't like it. At least not if you plan on getting a boyfriend or anything."

Tenten's face altered rather suddenly. "Okay. So what can I do with this thing?"

Cyborg shrugged and glanced at Fixit. "Most of the stuff you can do with a normal hand. Grip, hold, flex, type, punch—your punches SHOULD be more effective with that arm—feel, stuff like that."

"Can it do the one thing?"

"Huh?" Cyborg cocked his head. "What thing?"

"The... transforming thing. The one your arm did." Tenten gestured impatiently.

"Oh, my sonic cannon. No, there's no sonic cannon in there."

"What?"

"The space and complexity of that model did not leave room for a mass weapon of Cyborg's design," explained Fixit. "It was simply not workable."

Frustration welled up in Tenten. Pointing an accusing finger at the two men, she ranted, "Are you telling me that you gave me a normal hand that doesn't even do ANYTHING that I couldn't already..."

In mid-sentence, her pointing finger split apart. It slid back down across her wrist, followed by fragments of her rapidly-breaking hand as they folded away to reveal a glowing hole in the mouth of her arm.

Cyborg ducked just in time as a stream of laser bursts shot past him to crash into the opposite wall.

There was a momentary silence as some loose machinery in the workshop crashed to the floor.

"It is fortunate," observed Fixit, "that all my weapons are designed to avoid me."

"As I was about to say, there's no sonic cannon in there, but there IS a rapid-fire pinpoint laser assembly." Cyborg replied dryly, standing back up again. "You can alter them to fire all at once so you get a large blast, but then you need to let it cool down."

"There's also a spot for explosive darts," added Fixit helpfully.

Tenten gazed in shock at her dissembled arm. "Whoah..."

"So. Now you know what it does." Cyborg clapped his hands together and moved to the table. "Now let's teach you how to maintain the thing."

----------------------------

"The first rule, as I said, is to give me everything you've got." Batman's words came easily through the flurry of hands and feet that was Lee. "The second..."

A leg shot through the flurry and connected. There was an audible "oof," and Lee tumbled to the floor.

"...then you give me more." Batman's eyes had a gleam in them as he towered above Lee.

Lee wiped his mouth and leapt back up to his feet, grinning from ear-to-ear. "Yosh!"

"Bats, could we maybe ADD to that list of rules?"

Batman did not reply, merely gesturing to Lee. "Again."

"Yosh!" Lee dashed forward. He was clad from head to foot in the tight-fitting black suit (Wayne Enterprises didn't make a whole lot of green prototypes.), and clearly it was giving him some problems. Though Lee tried to conquer the habit, he still hesitated, he still pulled back. There was a new awkwardness to his movements, and even with the edge in speed that Batman had allowed him, he could not land a hit.

Batman, again, was clad in the loose-fitting, white bathrobe and trousers consistently used in sparring bouts. And, of course, the bandages covering bruises from the earlier bout. This time, though, he was barely breathing hard, slipping his attacks in and out of Lee's now-clumsy defense.

"Wh-wha-what... is the... third... rule... Batman-sen...sei?" Lee panted, grinning manically amidst his frantic battle.

"The third rule." With a fluidity of motion, Batman dodged around Lee's punch, brought an elbow down on his neck and a knee into his chest before letting him drop to the floor. "I make the rules."

"Watch out for that last one." Robin advised the gasping Lee. "It's a killer."

"Yo-yosh." Lee choked out.

"Enough for now." Batman strode off the sparring ground. "You're unused to the suit, and while it's hampering you like this there's nothing I can do with you. Train with it—wear it under your usual clothes if you must—and come back once you're back up to speed." Robin grinned at the phrasing, but Batman ignored him. "Also. Once a day, I want you to do free run without the weights and without the suit."

Lee paused as he picked himself up off the ground. "Why, Batman-sensei? Surely wearing my wei—er, my suit at all times doubles my training time?"

"Not for your speed, it doesn't." Batman settled by the computer and began to tap away. "The suit takes care of the momentum issues, but it's still not the same as free running. You need to get used to that." He stopped a moment and frowned at the images filling up the screen. "You should probably have another trainer, too... someone who can match speed like yours."

Lee's grin grew even wider. "ANOTHER sensei!? Who must I train under, Batman-sensei?"

--------------------------

"I did not know you were training under Hawkgirl."

"Who's training?" Sakura grunted. "I'm just blowing off steam."

Hawkgirl raised an amused eyebrow. "Glad to know how important I am to you, kid. Now defend yourself..."

"Sakura-san, the others are becoming uneasy about your absence," persisted Shino, standing well away from the sparring area. On the floor, the two woman, clad in loose-fitting gym gear, were going back and forth with some sticks. They clacked together in loud syncopation, echoing across the room. "Even Kiba asked where you were the other day, and Lee has been searching the halls for you nearly daily."

Ducking a savage swipe from Hawkgirl, Sakura tried to bring her two sticks to bear, but the Thanagarian easily avoided them. "Lee's too nice. He shouldn't be worrying about me."

"Nonetheless, he is. As are we all. I devoted this afternoon to finding you just to make certain you were not imprisoned somewhere."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, kiddo." Hawkgirl grinned again. "Move your feet, girl, keep your balance. Don't you guys have edged weapons? Like katanas or anything?"

Sakura ignored the question. "What about Naruto? What did he say?"

Shrugging, Shino responded, "Between his press conferences and his training with Superman, Naruto-san has been very busy. He has not said anything."

"Mmm."

For a while the air was filled merely with the sharp clacks of the sticks and the occasional grunt of pain. Hawkgirl was clearly holding back, but Sakura was doing surprisingly well. Shino faintly buzzed with irritation. "Well, Sakura-san?"

"Shino, I can't face Naruto right now. I'm not sure I can face any of them."

"Because of the mission to capture Sasuke? We all agreed to that."

"Against our advice, I might add." Hawkgirl sidestepped Sakura's charge and aimed her stick at Sakura's back.

"We all agreed to it, but it was my initiative. My responsibility. I made the plan and I led the team." And I made the mistake. She added silently. Her personal failure to attack Sasuke was her own secret shame, something the others simply would not understand. "They trusted me to lead them and I let them down."

"Mistakes happe—Ow." Hawkgirl grunted as one of Sakura's sticks hit home.

"You cannot let a defeat hold you back in such a manner. Why? Because even a defeated commander knows more than an untested one. You must learn from your defeats, judge how to avoid future mistak..."

A sharp clack and a cry of pain interrupted Shino. Sakura was doubled over in pain, clutching her stomach. "Okay. I give, I give. Enough for now."

"You're getting better, girl." Hawkgirl helped her to her feet. "Go through those forms I showed you, they should give you a feeling for battle balance."

"Thanks." Sakura gave a little bow and walked off the sparring ground, toward Shino. She picked up a towel and dried her face. "Shino, it's not just the defeat." She responded, her voice muffled. "It's... well, a lot of it's Naruto. I should have waited for him and Hinata. It was stupid of me to rush off without them."

"We needed to rescue Question before any harm could be done."

"None of us really cared three straws about Question and you know it." Sakura snapped, pulling away the towel and wrapping it around her neck. "We didn't even know the guy, we were interested in Sasuke. He was just an excuse to leave early, before Naruto got back."

Shino, after a moment's thought, reluctantly inclined his head. "Perhaps... yes."

"But I didn't even have a good reason for that. I mean, there was no reason to leave without Naruto. Oh, maybe I could have said he was too closely involved with Sasuke..." ...As was I... "...but I still should have waited for him." She picked up a water bottle and glugged down about half of it. Shaking her head, she corked it again and stared at it for a moment. "It was... pride." She decided. "I always... I mean, I've always felt overshadowed by Naruto, by Sasuke... I wanted to do something myself."

"But again, Sakura-san, that was a decision we all made. And..." Shino hesitated, "...for largely the same reasons, I would suspect."

"Sounds like your leader tends to do everything himself." Hawkgirl commented, walking up and grabbing her own towel. "So you other ninjas feel like you have to do something to make up for that, hm?"

"That's not the point. The point was, I motivated you all to do it. Me, his teammate, who should know better than anyone how much that battle means to him. I feel like... like I betrayed him." She gazed at the water bottle forlornly. "Again." She slammed it down on the bench.

Hawkgirl sighed and sat down on the bench to towel her hair. "If it makes you feel better," she commented, "I once betrayed my boyfriend, my team, and my world."

"Earth or Thanagar?" Shino raised an eyebrow.

Hawkgirl did not answer. "It was a... war, of sorts. I thought I had my reasons at the time, but..." She shook her head. "Sometimes I still wonder if I did the right thing. I pretty much managed things so that everybody hated me. On both worlds," added she, with a nod to Shino.

"But, when it came down to it, I couldn't just molder in retirement and feel sorry for myself. I couldn't expect anyone to just automatically trust me, either, but I needed to... earn back their trust, I guess." Shrugging, she offered Sakura a smile. "And, in a small way, it worked. My friends—most of them anyway—have all forgiven me and welcomed me back as part of the team. Even the people don't hate me so much anymore. I lied a lot, but..." again she shrugged, "...they still gave me a second chance."

Sighing, Sakura glanced up. "Did you ever lie about loving someone?"

That stopped Hawkgirl for a second. "No." She finally answered. "No, I never lied about that."

"That's a bit different then, isn't it?"

At this point the door swung open. "Haruno-san?" queried Mr. Terrific. "Ah. I was told I could find you here. Aburame-san." He offered Shino a short bow. "The two of you don't seem to be occupied... I was wondering if you could perhaps help me with something?"

-----------------------

The warm, comforting sea of unconsciousness floated about Hinata, free and calm. Hinata was a spot of coldness, a focused thought in a vast singing darkness. Her anger glowed in this peaceful world.

Another thought saw the anger, came closer.

"You summoned me," observed the Spectre, a curious look on his features. "Not many can."

Hinata looked around. "Is that what I'm doing? I just know I needed to talk to you."

"You must want to talk to me very badly, for it to manifest like this. I feel I should warn you that I will not come running everytime you do this. You are an intermediary, not a superior."

"Forget that." Hinata snapped, clearly uncomfortable. She glanced around her again, breathing hard. "You... you hurt Naruto. With me."

"I attempted to bind the Kyuubi and pull its spirit from him," clarified the Spectre. "It did not hurt."

"He didn't want you to."

"He does not know what he wants. Despite himself he craves the Kyuubi's power and is unwilling to give it up, even though he knows its danger. He believes he needs it to save your world." The Spectre snorted. "It is the same folly that kept Rikudo Sennin from fully banishing the Juubi."

Hinata did not comment. "I didn't want you to."

"Yes, you did."

Hinata's eyes grew wide and angry. "How can you say that?! I never..."

"I did not attempt to bind the Kyuubi when I met Naruto at the restaurant, nor when he followed you to the church." The Spectre interrupted her. "I had no interest in doing so. Why, then, did I do so in your body at Gotham?"

"I... I didn't... I would never..."

"Do not lie. Not here. Not to me. You have always accepted Naruto for who he is, demon or no, but you have always secretly wished the demon gone."

Hinata hid her face. "Only because the villagers hate him for it."

"That is not all."

"No..." Hinata's voice was muffled in her coat sleeves. "When I... sometimes I think... I like to fantasize, you know... that... that... he might love me. And then I... I think about... marriage and..." Sighing, she rubbed a hand across her eyes. "But then it stops. Father... the clan would never let me marry a jinchuuriki, whatever he'd done."

The Spectre gave a gentle nod. "I told you, that when in your body, I could do nothing that you yourself would not allow me to. It went farther than that. Your will, your secret will, was in fact influencing my actions. I had no interest in binding Kyuubi, it is not my responsibility. But you did."

Hinata dried her face and looked up, eyes hard. "I will never use your powers again."

"You will have to. I did not give you your abilities for your own convenience, or even that of your teammates. Their role has not ended, and until it has, my powers remain with you. And you WILL need them."

"I won't use them." Hinata repeated. "Not if you're going to try hurting Naruto everytime I do."

"I told you already, that was not my will, but yours. I may as well also tell you that that was not supposed to happen. I am Corrigan, not you. I was to channel through you and act as Corrigan would, only restrained by your principles. Instead, I began to act as you would. You were becoming a true host, something very irregular, as you are neither dead nor vengeful."

Hinata blinked, taken aback. "But that... what does that mean?"

"I am not sure." The Spectre looked thoughtful. "These things are oft hidden from me. I told you once I selected you because your nature was compatible with my mission. Perhaps it may be more compatible than I thought."

"I don't care what it is." Hinata answered. "If it's my wishes influencing that power, than I shouldn't have it. I won't use it. Take it back."

"I will not. You will. You will need them yet, Hyuuga Hinata." And the Spectre drifted into nothingness, leaving Hinata alone.

-------------------

"You mean like a sidekick? I've always wanted my own sidekick!" Practically dancing with glee, Flash rounded on the spandex-clad youth. "Kid, you got any snappy one-liners? A motto or a catchphrase or something?"

"YOSH! Flash-sensei, you are clearly exploding with the fire and passion of youth! It shall be an honor to train under your leadership!"

"That'll work. Add something in there about how awesome I am, why don't ya?" grinned Flash. He turned back to Batman. "Yeah, I can bring him around with me. You sure he can keep up, though?"

"He might not move quite at your rate." Batman conceded. "But he should be able to help out in different ways. In any case, you're the only one that can match him at full speed, so you're really the only one that can train him how to use that."

Flash's face took on a more guarded expression. "Wait a minute. You mean I have to... like... teach this kid?"

"Each one of us seven has to train at least one of the ninjas." Batman fixed the speedster with a glare. "This is the one best suited to you."

"But you're training him already! Besides... I was thinking of taking on that Kid Flash guy for training."

"Then Lee shouldn't be any problem at all, he can train with the two of you. Just keep him with you, show him any tricks or methods you have."

Flash rubbed his chin in a worried manner. "I don't really have any, actually... I just kinda make stuff up as I go along."

"Then show him how to do that. It's just three sessions a week, all you need to do is take him out on patrol and keep an eye on him." Batman tilted his head slightly. "Shouldn't be too much trouble."

"I... guess not," agreed Flash, looking over his shoulder at the green-clad chunin again.

"Good." Batman gave a curt nod. "Report his progress to me periodically." And turning on his heel, the crimefighter stalked away.

Shrugging, Flash faced his new apprentice. "Okay... so. Yeah. Whaddaya want to do first?"

"Flash-sensei! Let us run around the tower thirty thousand times!"

"Ha! I like you already."

------------------------

"I think you enjoy that far too much." The cold voice froze Karin's blood.

Carefully, she withdrew her arm from the creature's mouth, reattached the muzzle and breathing apparatus, and pressed the button to return it to the development capsule. Only then did she turn to face the voice's owner. "It is a by-product of my powers, Luthor-sama." She answered, being careful to keep her eyes down. "An unintended side-effect of techniques employed in my youth."

"Indeed. Nonetheless, it seems you do it a great deal."

"Surely that is immaterial, Luthor-sama."

"Perhaps." Luthor regarded her with faint amusement. "Certainly I cannot complain with the results."

Karin turned with the man to face the window. They stood above a room roughly the size of a gymnasium, filled from wall-to-wall with long lines of tubes. Each clear glass capsule was filled with a murky fluid, in which could be dimly glimpsed an indistinct form. Wires and pipes sprouted from the top of each capsule, feeding in vitals and bringing out statistics. Long robotic arms suspended from the ceiling searched among the tubes for a particular specimen.

"We released Test Subject 46 this morning." Luthor observed calmly. "Set him against three of our standard genetic experiments."

"Yes sir, I saw the reports. Five minutes and thirty-six seconds."

"An impressive record, yes." Luthor nodded. "And it seems he is indeed able to use chakra, or at least the curse blood that you've implanted. If this remains consistent, your mutants may be more powerful and more intelligent than any previous models."

Despite her fear of the man, Karin could not resist a small glow of pride. Work well done was work well done, after all. "The equipment you've given me is a great help. They seem better and more coherent than my best efforts under my old master."

"I should hope so." Luthor remarked sharply. "I should hate to think you were holding any more information back from me."

Karin gave just the tiniest wince. Luthor had not been pleased to learn she'd hidden her knowledge of Sasuke. The implant on her neck throbbed with the memory, and her fingers itched to massage it. "I assure you, Luthor-sama, I have always done my work to my utmost."

"That is a commendable work ethic." Luthor nodded. "For your sake, I hope you are still guided by it. However, there is another matter I should like to discuss with you. These 'techniques' the others use... could your mutants perform them?"

Karin paused to consider this. A great many of the test subjects resembled Juugo more than anything else, but a few others showed promise of being more versatile warriors. "Possibly. The curse seal almost renders that redundant, though, as the enhanced strength and speed are more than enough to ensure combat superiority, and full transformation often enables the subject to shoot pure chakra at opponents."

"What would be required for them to learn jutsus?"

"Training." Karin gnawed her lip. "Or simulations similar to the ones we've been running in their heads. But I'm afraid that's information I don't really have, and neither would Juugo." She thought a moment. "Is the other ninja still uncooperative?"

"He appears to cooperate. I do not trust him, however." Luthor frowned. "So. We will need to acquire information from a new player. How..."

Luthor stopped in mid-sentence. His eyes grew vacant and slightly glassy, and his arms relaxed suddenly to fall by his side. A grin curved his mouth, and he spoke in a voice that was not quite his own.

"FOUND YOU."

---------------------

"Well, what have we found here?" Sasuke glanced up at the rough call. Three burly figures were advancing in the glow of twilight. "Ol' Pete Moneybags? And he's got a friend, well, well!"

"Shit," hissed Pete, leaping away. "Run kid, run!"

Sasuke couldn't run, not with a broken leg. But it didn't really seem to do Pete much good either, as one of the three caught up with him and threw him to the ground. The light was just good enough to see the man kicking Pete as he lay on the ground.

"Well, a new kid." Sasuke twisted to face the speaker, a rather heavyset teenager with a cigarette dangling from his lips. "Tell ya what. Pete knows how this is supposed to work, but since he probably didn't tell ya, we'll go easy on you this time. Here's the deal. 50% of whatever you got in that coat in exchange for making sure nothing goes wrong tomorrow."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "Get lost."

"Tough kid, huh?" The leader kicked out one hob-nailed boot at him.

It was pointless to fight against such odds. Sasuke knew that. But after all the indignity of the day, he felt this final humiliation was the last straw

Sasuke caught the boot with his good arm and twisted, throwing the leader to the pavement. One good pull tugged the boot free and he hurled it at the man's companion, who was just starting to move. Its hob-nailed sole caught the man square in the face and he staggered backwards.

A foot smashed into his back, knocking him face-first onto the pavement His good arm whipped backwards to attack, but someone—probably the second man—caught hold of it and held it down.

"That piece of shit!" He heard the leader say. "That piece of shit nearly sprained my ankle! Get that coat off him, Bernie!" The coat was torn loose, jostling Sasuke's broken arm. He hissed through clenched teeth and tried not to think of tomatoes. "Holy shit, this kid was loaded! Empty the pockets, Greg, we'll split it later, I'm gonna...

A sudden roaring filled the air, and a bright light burst across the pavement, dazzling Sasuke's twilight-darkened eyes. The pressure on his back lifted up suddenly, and he heard distantly the voices: "Oh shit man get out of here can't let anybody see us just leave the coat man leave it!"

And then there was a hand on his shoulder, and he was being pulled upright. "Are you alright?" asked a new voice. Sasuke could make out little of his rescuer, save his glinting bald forehead.

"Blessings on your house." Sasuke said automatically. Something clicked in his memory and he added: "There was an old man... Blind Pete... with me. Could you..."

"Oh yes, straightaway. Er... just stay there a moment."

Sasuke had just the strength to nod as the man hurried away. Gingerly, he examined his arm. It didn't appear to be too badly damaged, but he was going to need a new splint. Looking around, he spotted his coin-laden coat a few feet away. A car was parked at the side of the curb, letting its headlights wash over everything.

"He's alright, just a little banged up," came the man's voice as he returned. Sasuke turned to face him. "Let's get you on your feet."

The headlights now threw their lights directly on the man, and Sasuke gave him a momentary perusal. A simple rough raincoat covered a turtleneck sweater and a pair of jeans, while up above a pair of large round spectacles adorned a wrinkled, friendly face.

"Wh-who are you?" asked Sasuke, as the newcomer and Blind Pete helped him up.

The man gave him a smile. "Oh, my name's Norman. Norman McCay. Come now, let's get you two to a shelter, eh?"