Experiment 616-2

Experiment 616-2

"Alright, Joey," Raven said to the creature beside her.  "Your power is extremely strong, but also very dangerous.  Do you understand?"

Joey nodded.  "Ee."

"This means that - if you don't want to accidentally hurt a lot of people, you need to practice control."  Raven smiled.  "Now, I have the same power as you, and I've found meditation to be one of the best ways to control my power.  So, I'm going to teach you to meditate, alright?"

"Okay, Mama," Joey said happily.

Raven flushed.  She didn't know why it made her so happy that Joey thought of her as Mama.  The only thing they had in common was their power drew from the same source.  However, this led her to take him in, and coddle him to a certain extent.  Although she'd meant to only allow Joey to sleep curled up to her that first night, because he was shivering so badly, she quickly discovered she didn't have it in her to enforce that, and found his little fluffy body curled up in her arms to be quite comforting.  Smiling, she got herself into a lotus position.  "Alright, Joey, position yourself like this.  Can you do that?"

"Ee."  Joey crossed his legs easily, then looked up at her.  "What now?"

Raven held her hands out, middle finger touching thumb in her usual meditation position.  "Now do this."

Joey mimiced with his foremost hands.  Then he looked down.  "Mama, what about dese?"  He waved his middle arms a bit.

Raven thought.  "Hmm...put them palm together in front of your chest."

Joey did so.  "Like des, Mama?"

Raven nodded.  Then she glanced at Joey's wings.  THeir normal at rest position was ill conducive to meditation, flopping around all over.  "Hmm...touch your horn tips with your wingclaws."

Joey nodded, mantling his wings until the clawtips touched the tips of his horns.  His eyes were closed as he focused on maintaning this position.

Smiling, Raven found herself overcome with an impish notion.  Reaching forward, she poked Joey lightly in his fuzzy belly with her index finger.

Joey yelped and tumbled back head over paws.  Raven giggled, and Joey looked up at her, totally confused.

"I'm sorry," Raven said, feeling contrite.  "You had it just right.  You were just too cute, and I couldn't resist."  At Joey's smile, Raven gestured.  "Okay, assume the position again."  Joey covered his tummy with his middle arms.  Raven laughed.  "I promise I won't poke you this time."

Smiling, Joey got back into position as Raven continued to instruct him.  "Now, when you meditate, it's best to have a chant, something you can focus on as you let your mind clear."

Joey nodded.  "Miga naga quista...Miga naga Quista..."

Raven stopped him.  "Profanity's a bad idea to use for focusing demonic energy under control."  At Joey's surprised expression, Raven smirked.  "I don't need to speak that language to recognize that a little kid likes curse words."  Joey giggled.  "Now," Raven continued, "my chant has to do with where I was trained, in Azarath.  Until you find one that has more meaning for you, you can use mine."  Joey nodded.  Taking a deep breath, Raven closed her eyes.  "Azarath Metrion Zinthos...Azarath Metrion Zinthos..."

As she chanted, she heard Joey's somewhat squeaky voice join her.  "Azarath Metrion Zinthos...Azarath Metrion Zinthos..."

They stayed like that, going into a deep meditative state, for some hours.  Then the tower alarm went off.  Raven dashed off, and Joey scrambled to keep up.

In the main room, Robin began his breifing, explaining the mission.  Once everyone was briefed, they started to go.  When he noticed Joey trying to follow, he turned to him.  "You stay here," Robin told Joey.  "We can't keep our eyes open for you while we're working."

Joey hung his head, not noticing the glower Raven directed at Robin.  He felt Raven kneel down beside him.  "It's okay, Joey.  I know you want to help...just not this time.  You don't have enough control yet."  She hugged him tight.  "Maybe next time."  As they all left, Joey heard Raven comment to Robin, "We'll talk later," in a very hard voice.

Joey glanced around at the empty tower.  He'd only been living here for a few days, but he'd managed to explore most of the place already.  His first day had been spent in the main room, where Mama, the green boy, and the alien had made much of him, and then in Mama's room.  He had explored both rooms fully.  The next day he had explored nearly the entire rest of the tower, crawling all over investigating with Mama following along behind, watching him.  He'd enjoyed the time in the alien's room, playing with her worm child.  The human's room had been rather dull...until he'd attempted to investigate the drawers, and the human had come in to yell.  That had been fun.  The machine's room had given Joey bad vibes, and the scents didn't agree with him.  He enjoyed his time in the green boy's room, even if Mama did insist on a bath after romping in the scent piles.  The rest of the tower had shown no signs of life, and had bored Joey into insensibility...except for the empty room.

That was how Jeoy thought of it.  It was a room that had once held life, but no longer did.  At the point of discovery, the green boy had been walking with Mama, watching Joey's explorations.  But when Joey had entered the empty room, the visual stimuli was nothing compared to the mix of emotions he'd felt from Mama and the green boy when he opened the door.  The green boy gave off sadness, remembered heartbreak, and a kening regret.  Mama had given off sadness, rage, and compassion for the green boy.  Joey concluded that the reason this room was empty of life was because it was full of memories, and he longed for the day he would be strong enough to delve into the memories of the place, and understand why it affected Mama and the green boy so much more than the others.

Returning to the present, Joey wandered to the kitchen.  He knew he was not supposed to raid the fridge.  That was Mama's rule: Good Little Boy's Wait to be Fed.  Joey strived to be a good boy, since that made Mama happy, and Joey loved Mama, and wanted her to be happy.  Glancing up, he saw the ultimate temptation: the treat jar.  Mama had brought this back with her from the Other Place, where Joey had awakened and discovered that Mama was his Mama.  It was filled with tasty tidbits, and he got them for being an especially good boy.  This was Temptation.  Mama had said that - as her good boy - she knew she could trust him not to raid the treat jar when her back was turned, so she knew she didn't have to hide it from him or try to put it beyond his reach.  Mama had also said she'd be very dissapointed in him if she learned she couldn't trust him in this regard.  Joey squirmed.  The treats called him...but Mama trusted him.

He still remembered his first awakening: the flames in his mind, the flames that consumed those around him.  His attack on his maker, the red man in his mind.  The doubled vision, the pain in his head.  The blood of innocents of several worlds, spilled by his hands...

Joey shook himself off, breaking free of the memory.  "No.  Joey not bad no more, Mama say so.  Joey good.  Joey good boy for Mama."  Mama had shown him how the red man he remembered sought to gain entry to his mind through his darker emotions.  If he got too angry, or too scared, or too depressed...the red man would strike through the emotion, and funnel power into him, turning him into a monster.  Joey was learning to control his emotions, how to feel them without being consumed by them.  That was the reason for meditation.

Suddenly, he heard someone moving about in the tower.  Curious, he went to investigate.  He saw a fat young man giggling to himself as he worked on some sort of device.  "The Titans will never know what hit them!" the man said, his back to Joey.

Joey felt his temper begin to boil.  The Titans was Mama and her friends.  This man wanted to hurt Mama!  Joey's vision began to double as his rage started to boil over.

Shaking himself, Joey struggled to retain control.  "Azarath Metrion Zinthos..." he muttered under his breath, over and over.  His vision returned to normal, and he knew he'd regained control.  However, the man had heard his muttering.

"Who's there?  Show yourself!  You stand no chance against Control Freak, the Teen Titans number one nemesis!"  The man waved some sort of device, a weapon of some sort.

Realizing he had to act quickly, Joey touched the wall behind him in the shadows...and dashed.  Control Freak turned to follow him with the weapon as he ran around the room, kicking the wall before running across to another.  Joey was able to stay just ahead of the crosshairs as he kicked three more walls before dashing into the open space by the main door, muttering.

"I have you now!" Control Freak shouted, and pressed a button on his weapon.  A beam of energy fired...

...and ricocheted off an energy wall in front of him, causing him to duck.  Joey sat back, grinning, as the pentagram he had crafted to contain this threat to Mama and her friends fully activated.  Sealing him in AND blocking off sound.  The fat man pounded on the energy barrier, obviously shouting something, but nothing could be heard.

Grinning, Joey caught his breath, then turned to watch the door, waiting for Mama and the others to return.  He didn't have long to wait.  Before too long, the door opened and the masked human stepped through, leading everyone else.  They all stopped and stared at the trapped fat man.

Joey pointed at his prisoner.  "He say, Titans not know hit.  That mean bad guy, right?  Joey did good?"

The human was attempting to close his mouth, as his jaw had dropped pretty far at Joey's statement and questions.  The alien was clearly holding back the urge to scoop Joey up, squealing in joy.  The green boy and the machine were laughing hysterically, although Joey wasn't sure what they were laughing at.

Mama came forward and picked Joey up.  "You did very good, Joey.  I'd say youve earned yourself a treat."  At that point, the fat man began pounding the barrier again while shouting, pressing buttons on his weapon.  Nothing happened, and nothing was heard.  Mama looked at Joey with an eyebrow quirked up quizically.

Joey grinned.  "Bad guy have annoying voice, so Joey block sound."

Mama chuckled.  "Make that two treats."

Joey chortled happily, curling into Mama's embrace.  As Mama carried Joey up towards the kitchen, he heard the human say, "Alright Raven, I guess he can start regular training to come with on missions."

"Good," Mama said flatly, as Joey smiled.