The Titan Trials

Chapter 3: Trial and Error

I wake up the next day with a cold, refreshing splash of water in the face, courtesy of your friendly neighbourhood earth/waterbender. "Wakey wakey, Kristin! Trials start today!" I shoot up into a sitting position and open my eyes wide as Jing Ti flies into the parallel wall. "Owww...." She mutters to herself. "How do you expect me to compete in the trials with such an injury from flying into a wall??" She exclaims.

"It's your own fault you were standing over me like that while splashing that cold water in my face." I tell her matter-of-factly. I rub my eyes and get out of bed. I reach for my contacts which are now non-existent to my pocket. "Where's my contacts?" I panic.

"Oh, these?" Jing Ti holds up a container that should have contact lenses in them.

"Give 'em back, Jing Ti. I'm virtually blind without them!" I hiss at her.

"Well, I could keep them, and say we're even, but I'm not that kind of person, so here ya go!" Jing Ti tossed the container at me. I fumble with it and nearly drop it. I open the container to a horrific sight. "Damn it! Why are they dry?" I spit, glowering at Jing Ti. "Did you have anything to do with this?"

"Needed to get the water to wake you up from someplace." She shrugs. I glower at her some more. "Look! I can just sneak over to the Aquacultural area and get some more! Heheh."

"Nice try. But contacts need saline fluid." I explain to her and she gives me a weird look. "The water needs to be sterile. I'll just see if Cyborg or Nightwing have some before the Trials start. No big deal."

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Jing Ti and I head down to the Trial area 20 minutes early to get some saline fluid. When we arrive, the girls of the team are there, but the men are not.

"Well, don't you two look bright and bushy-tailed!" Starfire greets us. Raven nods at our presence. "Morning, Starfire!" Jing Ti greets singsong like.

"Good morning, Jing Ti!" Starfire smiles. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah!" Jing Ti nods. "I'm ready to begin the trials."

"Ahem!" I cough. "Involuntary blind one, over here?"

"Oh yeah. Sorry, Kristin." Jing Ti apologizes.

"Do you two know where I can get some saline fluid? I forgot to grab some when I left and someone decided to use the small amount I had left for wakey wakey water." I ask.

"I can get Nightwing to pick some up on his way here." Raven tells me, and I breathe a sigh of relief.

"Can you not see well?" Starfire asks me wonderingly.

I hold up my hand to my nose with my thumb and pinky out. "I can only see about 6 inches in front of my face before it gets blurry without them." I explain.

"Oh. You know, they have a surgery place in Metropolis that can fix that." Starfire tells me.

"I'm sure. Thanks for the advice." I nod as I go back to trying to squint out my surroundings.

"Oh, wow. Looks like the girls got out before us." A male voice can be heard behind the four of us. I turn around to look at the stranger. From what little I can see, he is 6 foot 2, appears seventeen years old and is wearing a black kimono with a katana sheathed to his side. The only thought to go through my head was: Soul Reaper.

"Don't worry so much about it." Another male voice is heard. "Petty, quarrelsome thoughts like that won't get you anywhere." A four foot tall white and blue anthro-hedgehog comes out behind him. He reminded me of someone else from his universe. A translator device is worn on both of the boys.

"You know, where I come from, usually a friendly 'hello' is a sufficient greeting, Soul Reaper." I spit to the kimono wearer. I don't like his attitude.

"Please excuse him." The hedgehog steps in front of him, "For the past twelve hours I've learned that he has no manners. My name is Alexander Koronaae. The Soul Reaper behind me is Shiroto Ranegetsu. He is of the sixth seat rank of his squad eleven."

I cringe slightly. If the Titans didn't know of the generally violent nature of Squad eleven, they would find out soon enough.

"I'm Jing Ti!" she introduces herself. "I can bend water and earth!"

"You can bend earth and water? Well I have to say bending earth is a feat, but water? Anyone can bend water, kid." Shiroto tells her.

"I think she means she can control earth and water. Like you said you can control fire..." Alexander mentions to him. Shiroto waves his hand in dismissal. Then, he turns his attention to me. "And what's your name? What's your power? Are you called Squinty the Blind One? Hahahaha!" Shiroto laughs with himself.

"No, but nice joke. I've been called worse." I growl at him. "My name is Kristin Opportune."

"And what's your power?"

"I'm not exactly sure."

Before Shiroto can make any more snide comments, Nightwing and Cyborg appear, fashionably late. "Sorry, guys." Nightwing apologizes for the delay. "Had to take a quick stop at the convenience kiosk." He tosses the saline fluid to me. "Here you go, Kristin." I nod a thank you as I put the drops into my contacts and put the contacts into my eyes. Jing Ti and Alexander watch in awe as the colour of my eyes go from sky to sapphire blue. Coloured contacts, baby.

"Well now that that's out of the way..." Nightwing says. "I'd like to welcome you to the Titan Trials! First, we'll begin by the candidates introducing themselves."

"Is that really necessary...?" Raven objects.

"Yes! Let us do the icebreakers!" Starfire smiles.

"We should get to know who we picked, Raven." Cyborg nods.

"Well, if you don't mind, then I'll go first." Shiroto clears his throat. Everyone walks away from him. "HEY!" He shouts. "Where you all going?"

"We're going over to the lounge to sit while we do the icebreakers." Nightwing tells him. "By the way your acting, seems like we could be here a while."

"What are, icebreakers?" Jing Ti asks me.

"You'll figure it out." I tell her as we sit down. Shiroto waltzes over to where we sit. "Alright, well if you are all gonna sit, then I'll stand to tell my story." He grins. We all look up expectantly at him as prepares to begin, excluding Raven and myself, who have picked up on his brash behaviour. We prepare to endure the long lecture ahead.