Perspective is Ki (Young Justice/DBZ, Male OC)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Gravity Chamber, Aiden's Warehouse, 1:32 PM.
October 20th, 2010.

Aiden panted under the pressure of fifteen times gravity as he repeated the same movements over and over—unsurprisingly, a week had done absolutely nothing to temper his anger, and when he remembered that today would have been the date of his next appointment with Emil, it had only gotten worse.

Nobody had contacted him with anything of substance about Morrow, and Enkidu had remained completely unreachable by phone or text. He dreaded the thought that it was probably already too late to save her.

He wasn't unaware of the changes his body had undergone—he'd never been this prone to anger before all of this; he'd had a tight leash on it, used it sparingly as a weapon when it would be most effective. Becoming a Sayian had brought with it a much closer connection with his emotions, and there were times where he thought he'd almost drown in them.

Anger, frustration, and an element of condescension were things that came most easily to him in this body, but until recently, he'd managed to keep his slowly fraying leash tightly wrapped around them. He wasn't out of control, and he had more than enough self-discipline to avoid something as stupid as going on a rampage.

The constant rush of emotions was just wearing him down, grinding away his patience bit by bit, and leaving him exhausted emotionally. He had no intention of letting it remain this way; he would grow used to it in time; he'd learn methods to cope with the intensity and methods to live with it.

Roshi's technique had become vastly easier to hold the more often he practiced it, and the long spans of time he spent holding the technique had reduced his Ki wastage exponentially. He'd even figured out a way to hold it steady at about a quarter of its maximum output for hours at a time. It still drained him over time, and he'd need to drop it to recuperate, but it was tangible progress.

He'd had no luck ascending, but he hadn't expected it to be so simple, even with that knot of distinctive texture along his back—it wasn't something he could just switch on. Concentrating large amounts of Ki into such a small area wasn't exactly a simple task either, but he was getting better at it.

He was slowly approaching the maximum gravity level of the room as well, which apparently topped out at twenty times earth's gravity. He'd have to commission Tracy to locate and supply more batteries for the power source, so he could up the level.

Aiden could feel his strength increasing, his maximum pool of Ki rising every day as he spent more and more of it training—the progress was addictive.

He pushed himself to his feet with a great deal of effort, and slowly moved towards the door, shutting it down along the way, before letting Roshi's technique drop back to its passive quarter-power state.

His phone was sitting on the bench where he left it, only this time it was filled with notifications for several missed calls, all from the same familiar number. Aiden picked it up in one hand, unlocking it while downing most of his bottled water. Pressing it to his eye as he finished the bottle and capping it off with some difficulty before they answered.

"Aiden," Conner said blandly.

"Sorry I missed your calls; I was training," Aiden said simply, "You alright? Sound pretty down if I'm being honest."

"It has been a rough week." Conner admitted, "Can we talk?"

Aiden cracked his neck and checked his Ki; he still had more than enough for a spar or two. He doubted that Conner had been in the loop for the entire 'Knock Aiden out for testing' ploy, but he had a few things he wanted to talk to him about as well.

"Yeah, feel like a spar?" Aiden offered, "I definitely need to beat someone up right now—may as well be an invulnerable Kryptonian."

"Same spot as usual, in half an hour," Conner said challengingly, sounding more energetic already.