Start of Training

Cole carefully made his way to the hidden room. "We really need a better name for it" he thought as he took a few steps out. It was still extremely off putting to just step onto air like that.

Besides the queasy nature of the act, Cole was feeling pretty good. A nice hot shower helped with that, but his body felt great. He slept well and a stomach full of food that wasn't bargain bin was also helping him out. And he felt fulfilled from the work yesterday.

"Maybe there's something to this life." he thought as he opened the hidden door.

The sound of chain rattling and the sway of a heavy punching bag caught his attention the moment he entered. The figure in front of it all but demanded it. Raven had swapped out of her casual wear for something more fitting, both for the activity and form. Rather tight work out pants that ended just below the knee. A sports bra covered her chest but seemed to be fighting an almost losing battle. She kept the gloves and boots though. Both garments black against her grey skin. The hero already had a light level of sweat worked up as she delivered a few more strikes to the bag before giving a spinning kick that sent it recoiling.

"..., fuck that's hot." Cole thought as he fought to keep his poker face. If he wasn't careful, his jaw would just impact the floor.

Raven in her lingerie was enticing. Her casual clothes were tempting. The work clothes were elegant and alluring. Even her PJs last night were really cute.

The hero in her workout clothes, mid combat move was..., something that was going to get mentally filed away for a LONG time. The right level of looks, imposing, and confidence..., kinda reminded him of Penny when he first met her. A sort of strong imposing figure that could do whatever she wanted.

"COUGH, Right you said you trained before but..., it's another thing to see it in action." the Boxer spoke up as he finally found his tongue was able to work again. He slowly walked over to the training room side of the chamber to join Raven.

"Hmm. Ah. Yes. It's been a bit since I've been **** into hand to hand so shaking the rust off." Raven said when she noted his presence. She turned to face him as she summoned a towel to start wiping down. "You've read the comics. I'm usually magic support or artillery so working up a sweat over just this level isn't surprising."

"I did but like, not for... what 8 years or so? Longer." Cole replied as he shifted his posture to be a little more relaxed.

"Hmm." Raven muttered as he looked him over. Gone was his own casual clothes, instead opting to wear work out. A dark green tracksuit top and pants, with the same sneakers as before. His hands were tapped up though so he expected to throw a couple punches it seemed. Robin had done the same thing a few times in training. Raven couldn't stand feeling hot from working out herself so she had dressed light. Cole however, she wondered if he'd be okay.

"So... how are we doing this?" Cole said as he started to stretch his limbs out.

"Honestly I just want to see what you're capable of. Both physically and magically. Hmm." She cupped her chin with a hand, her eyes narrowing, "Is that power of yours magic? I suppose we can start with that. If you would," she gestured for him to get started, "Just summon your shadow and we'll go from there."

Cole nodded and started to focus. It should be simple, just picture a shadow double next to him. The feeling that washed over him was still weird though as he watched his shadow stretch out on the floor till it seemed to 'snap' away from his feet before standing up. Standing was a poor choice to describe it, flowing worked better; as the darkness simply seemed to just rise from ground till it was about as tall as Cole was. It seemed to flex a bit, forming a pair of arms and it's dark trunk splitting into two legs. It was a rough outline but it was some sort of humanoid shape.

"Interesting. How does it feel when you used this power?" Raven asked as she gestured with hand while her eyes turned white. The mage's own energies engulfed the shadow, but didn't seem to harm or interfere at all with it. Still it was a strange tingling feeling to Cole.

"Well when I summoned it, felt like I had something.... flow from me? If that makes sense. Like I could feel energy or heat just being sapped away." He offered, a hand going to his stomach. He was glad for the filling breakfast as he was pretty sure he'd be burning a lot of energy today, "Though now it feels like..., not sure. You know that feeling you get while getting an X ray? Feels like that only I'm standing behind the person getting it." he gave a light shiver as he explained it.

"That makes a bit of sense given that I'm scanning it." Raven replied as she walked around the shape, "If you don't mind could you try other shapes?" she asked turning back to Cole.

Cole simply nodded with a light shrug. He thought about it for a few seconds before raising his first up into a fighting pose, his shadow copying the stance. Raven was about to ask why when parts of the shadow double seem to fade and thin while it's fists thickened and grew. Before long the double had two rather large blocky objects as hands. The whole mass of the shape had lessened though. Raven simply nodded at this as she turned back to Cole.

"Boxing gloves?"

"That was the attempted idea at least." Cole answered with a light sigh, "The shadow's kinda indistinct so I don't know if I can get it to reflect the shape in a one to one fashion but I think that can do some damage if it hit something. In fact..., if you don't mind." Raven simply moved away as Cole commanded the Shadow to move towards the punching bag. Cole gave a few jabs with his Shadow copying the motion.

The bag shifted backwards as the blows landed, the blows slowly increasing in strength as Cole's did. They came faster as Cole's pace increased, and when Cole started to move around the bag, so did the shadow. Eventually, Cole dropped back and fired off a fast uppercut as strong as he currently could. The Shadow followed and slammed it's fist into the bag, sending it flying backwards as far as it could go. The boxer stepped back as he gripped his hand open and closed a few times, with the Shadow following the motion.

"Hmm, did you feel anything on impact?" Raven asked as she moved closer to the Shadow figure again. She floated upward a bit only to land and bent low to get a better look of where the mass for the hands had came from, most of it from the back and legs.

"Could kinda feel it. Not like I was punching it but.., I dunno." Cole said as he looked at her, "Hard to put into words when you don't have a frame of reference. Any time the Shadow hit the bag felt like my knuckles were vibrating just a bit. Like an... echo of the hit if that makes sense." he rubbed the back of his hand wondering if there was any lasting damage if he kept this up. "Sort of like putting a hand on a washing machine mid run. Or one of those massage chairs."

“Interesting.” Came the response as Raven walked over to him, "Currently it seems to mimicking your strength, though focusing it like you've done here seems to have increased it's effect. This could be rather powerful in the right hands."

“Is it? You seem stronger than me. I mean you always were going to be..” Cole babbled in trying to cover his words only for Raven to give him a look. “Shutting up.” He weakly said.

“Cole I do know what you meant. You’re easy to read.” Raven said as she walked back to the shadow, running a glowing hand through his materialized shadow. The feed back still felt weird to him. "Can you feel this?"

"A little..," he said holding out his hand and giving it a little shake, "Kinda feels like wind on my body."

“Hmm, let me try something. Though Cole, brace your self and try not to think about feeling anything." Raven said as she took a step back.

Before Cole could question it, she brought her arm back and coated it in her own dark energy, slammed it forward. He barely got his arms up in a guard which of course caused his shadow to block. He could hear the impact of the blow and felt it in his bones. But his arms didn't ache like he thought they would have if he took the hit himself.

"Little warning next time Rea." Cole said as he shook his arms. They didn't ache but it still felt weird to do.

"I'm assuming you didn't feel it that time. Either your braced it yourself or you did on reflex." Raven said as she poked and prodded the Shadow a bit more. "You seem able to shut off feed back as well. With practice that should become second nature." Cole just rolled his eyes as she checked his double out a bit more. She got tired of it soon enough though and backed off, dispelling her own powers.

"It's magic based, so you have to fuel it with your own internal energy. I can't say if it's linked to your physical stamina or some other pool you now have, so I suggest you don't push it. Otherwise you're tire yourself out too much." Raven explained turning to face him once more. Her face was in thought as her arms hung by her waists. "If I had to say, your ability is less flexible, more defined than my own.”

“Okay… hows that work?” Cole asked, as he scratched the top of his head.

“How to really put it?” Raven cupped her chin before looking into his eyes, “My own Shadow Energy tends to be used in less defined ways. As I said before, I tend to empower objects with a bit of my essence when I throw them, create walls of protection or even send out waves of energy that crush or break.” She held up a hand as a small bubble of her shadow powers formed before reshaping into a curved wave of motion that Cole could tell just by looking at it could probably remove a hand. She dismissed it with a wave of her hand as she folded her arms.

“You can’t do that. Instead, you seem to have more creative and defined abilities. You could make a double like you have now. Or a sword or blade made out of it. An actual shield and lance or even a drill. Objects clearly defined in their use.” She halted her words in thought, looking off to the side for just a bit before continuing, "Though you probably could make said a bubble shield. But making flames or energy waves is beyond you."

“So… I’m kinda like a Shadow Green Lantern?” Cole asked with a grin. He recalled that hero's ability let him basically make anything he wanted off his Willpower alone. Well that and a ring.

“Short version, yes. However your power seems based around how much Shadow you have to work with, and how condensed you make it. A massive building sized sword is out of your standard ability, but even then, a humans sized blade with that amount of shadow would still be stronger.” Raven lectured with a wag of her finger, making him snap back to attention, "If I'm right you can absorb shadows in the area around you for a time for more power but it's dependent on how much there is." She let out a small laugh, and her mouth turned upward just a bit.

"Ironic, your powers are shadows but you need the light to make them really shine. Hmm. I suppose that fits with the idea of the Moon though. You'd be strongest on a Full Moon where it's reflecting as much light as possible."

That did make a level of sense to Cole. Bright light made for hard shadows that were more defined that more faded lights, and in low light they'd be fuzzy. "Wonder if I can get like some sort of high powered flashlight as a way of boosting it." He thought. Raven seemed to pick up on what just crossed his mind though and shook her head before he said a word.

"I'd be careful around bright lights in the first place. While they would make shadows easier to collect, I'm somewhat certain the brighter the light, the harder it is for you to use your power. Or at least you'd burn more energy doing so." she gave a slight shrug as she raised her ups with her shoulders, "Mind you this is all guess work. Perhaps you can get used to them enough that it wouldn't be a problem. Powers tend to grow and change with use or people become more prone in how to manage them."

“Moving on, I also wouldn’t let it stray from you too much.” Raven said, her tone reverting back to a more stern nature, her powers generating shadows around her. "My own range is rather far myself but I'm not using as much of..., myself to power it." Her shadows drifted over to the city map and landed on far distant parts of the city. As if to show her complete range.

“You seem more tied to your powers, so it's range is more personal." Raven explained, as some of her shadows coalesced int a shape resembling a building. Though an extremely blocky one. "This might be your range. I’m not sure what happens to you if your shadow goes too far out your range or if it dies. You can probably have it go for a run to the fridge but again, you might improve with time."

"Got it..., wait dies?" Cole had to sputter the question. Technically shadows are just what happens when an object blocks the path of light, how could something like that 'die' and more importantly, if it could kill a shadow, why not just kill him?

“Yes though perhaps '****' is the wrong term. Dissipated might be better. If I'm correct, bright light shone on it over time could cause it to disperse. At that time, I would think you're be knocked out or felt so out of energy you couldn't act anyway." Raven explained as she turned away from him. She simply walked over to one of the tables and picked up her drink. All this talking after the light warm up was making her thirsty.

"Again this is all..., guess work. I've never seen magic like this before. Similar yes but it operates in different ways. When we get to my world, perhaps some of the other magic based heroes can clear things up."

"Right." Cole nodded. He could only trust what she told him. A day ago he wouldn't have believed in magic or anything but the last day was, eye opening to say the least. "Guess that all makes sense..., so what is next?"

Raven looked him up and down in thought. She'd done the scan like she wanted of his powers but perhaps a more in depth test could show something. That or seeing what he could do physically. Cole had been undefeated but Boxing was still a sport, governed by rules and conduct. In an actual street fight or hero work, how skilled would he be?

So that was the question she faced.