Touch Of The Past

Chapter 25

"Ilch."

"What?"

"Just... Ilch."

I'd come to the training room like Robin said to, where Tucker was laying on the ground in some kind of twist, Robin standing over him.

It'd only been a couple days since I "joined", but Robin used those days to integrate me into life here.

"What's ilch?" he asks.

"An expression of ughhh," responds Tucker, unraveling from his position.

"I didn't say you could stop," Robin snarks, putting a hand on his hip.

"You didn't say I couldn't."

"Then I'm telling you now."

"I'm telling you-"

"Will both of you shut up?" shouts Artemis from the other side of the training room, where she and Jazz are doing... something... on a bunch of bars.

"ILCH!" They both screech. Tucker and Robin look at each other, then shrug.

"A hundred pushups," Robin says to break the silence.

"Are you kidding me? Maybe no."

Robin just shrugs and pulls Tucker's ever-present PDA from his bag. He turns it on and puts the brightness all the way up. "The longer you take, the more battery you lose."

Tucker gives him the most petrifying glare. "I'm going to do these hundred pushups and use my amazing new muscles to kill you."

Robin just laughs. "87%!"

He gets on the ground and pushes one, two, three.

I wonder if anyone is ever going to notice me.

Tucker gets to thirty before stopping for a break, to which Robin taunts, "82..."

He goes again.

"Hey," Robin calls over to Artemis and Jazz, who are doing pull ups now. "Do you know if Danny's coming? He was supposed to be here like ten minutes ago. Hey, I didn't say stop. 80%!"

"Um, right here," I say, waving a hand.

Robin twirls around before smirking. "Um, invisible."

I glance at my hand. It's there... Oh, guess I would be able to see myself, huh. I switch into visibility. "Sorry."

He waves it off. "Let's just get this party started. What'd'ya want to do?"

I shrug. "I um, have super strength. I can fly. Don't think I need pushups or laps."

Robin holds up a finger and turns back to Tucker, who'd paused again. "36%!"

"That's not true!" he cries.

He glances at the screen. "Oh, right, my bad. 63!"

Tucker groans and does some more, starting to pant.

Robin turns back to me. "So you want to do some power training?"

I shrug. "I guess so, sure."

He withdraws a remote from his belt and clicks a button. Then he points to a screen that had turned on. "Want to start with speed? Fly the track." I now see the track on the ceiling marked by a bunch of rings. I ask about them. "They measure speed. Might want to take off the cape. They tend to get caught."

I grin and unclasp it, tossing it over a bench.

"ONE HUNDRED!" shouts Tucker, collapsing on the ground. "How's my baby?"