Trial by Fire, Baptism by Light

Whatever Starlight was expecting, it wasn't for her and her 'overseer'? manager?, whatever he was to her, to both climb into the elevator and go down to the basement level where they found themselves in a pseudo-warehouse/ car park room.

He couldn't look anymore casual if he had a toothbrush in her mouth, while she was still fully dressed in her costume. She'd considered for a moment about changing into more casual clothes, but ultimately decided that training should be done in her uniform, not to mention, if anyone saw her, at least she'd be identifiable.

"So, Nick, can I call you Nick, I mean I know you told me earlier to call you Nick, it's just that was for the purposes of that meeting, I didn't know if you had a title you'd prefer." Star was blathering, a sure sign of her creeping nerves.

"You can call me Nick, if you prefer that." He said, with all the trouble of a gentle breeze.

"Okay, Nick, where are we going, patrolling, looking for criminals, hunting down some gang members?" Starlight asked, a subtle, but still there grin on her face.

"No, I thought I was clear, we were going to be doing live fire training." He sounded blase, but Starlight got the feeling her questions had irritated him.

"Yeah, but I thought that meant we'd be going out on the streets, finding some bad guys for me to capture as practice, so you could see my skills." Star said, now slightly bewildered, she'd been looking forward to helping people.

"Oh God, you're like a puppy. No, that would probable be the modus opporandi of the people upstairs, but I prefer a much more, shall we say, hands-on approach. Hit me, well more appropriately, try to hit me, however you prefer to fight, blast me with your headlights, knock my block off, you get the picture." Nick said, leaving hi hands at his sides, almost in his pockets, still laid back.

"O...kay." Star said hesitantly, lightly jogging up to Nick and throwing a simple punch, she didn't want to hurt him after all, so she wasn't going to use her powers on him, and she could bench press a car, so she held back quite a substantial amount, she didn't want to accidental kill possibly her only friend so far, strange as he was, and if you could call them friends.

Nick cleanly leaned to the side, avoiding her punch, which didn't bother her, but the smirk on his face did make her think she'd missed something obvious.

"Are you holding back on me Star? I hope that isn't the best you can do, or I worry that you won't have that position on The Seven long. I'm a bit out of practice," He said, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet, "And by no means do I have super-speed but," He suddenly jumped at her, managing to throw himself at her as he threw a basic forward kick, which she humored him by putting out an arm to block.

That thought was roughly wrenched free when his simple kick sent her backwards, not throwing her across the room or anything, but still managed to make her lose her balance as she fell down, momentarily stunned that her manager was in fact, not an unempowered person like Madelyn Stillwell or the President Clyde, she thought his name was, at least it made more sense why Nick was managing the strongest Supe team in the world.

If she was expected Nick to give her a chance to catch her breath, she was sorely mistaken as he kept up the attack, charging at her as he gave another swift kick, this time to her head, although she was more ready this time as she got both arms up to block in time, which helped insomuch as rather than being sent ass over teakettle, she just got her skull smashed into the concrete floor.

Not one to let a little concussion stop her, Star lashed out with a kick, knocking Nick back to at least give herself room to get back on her feet as Nick came back in with a punch to her face, which she dodged, taking the chance to clock him in the head, and sending him hurtling back with a follow-up kick to his chest.

"I know I called you a puppy, but I've been more hurt by my kitten than that. You still don't get it do you Star. Stop holding back, this is a fruitless endeavor, but maybe you need to be shown just how little you think you know." Nick voice echoed in the empty room, as he was back on his feet, charging at her, crouched down to so any of her punches would leave her off balance, so...

Her thoughts screeched to a halt, much like her leg as Nick caught it in an iron grasp, leaving her, somewhat exposed, with one leg raised up, giving him a perfect view of her panties.

Panties that he was getting dangerous close to as his other hand trailed down her leg, softly caressing the toned muscle of her inner thigh. She felt the indignation rising up, first her childhood crush, and now her boss? was everyone at Vought!

Her thoughts were instantly replaced with white hot pain, as she noticed blood dripping from Nick's, wait, why did he have claws for fingers, she was pretty sure he had normal fingers earlier, was this his power, he was a literal monster.

All the same, he released her raised leg, not that it helped much as it much since putting weight on it only seemed to make the pain worse. Regardless, Starlight was a hero, and heroes pushed through the pain, as she felt the familiar rising heat of her powers as a concentrated beam of light smashed into Nick, sending him flying across the room, and into one of the concrete pillars, which splintered and cracked from his impact.

Given the moment of peace, she grit her teeth, firing up her powers again, this time to cauterize the wound, only to see four small cuts on her inner thigh, although when she poked at the, it felt like someone was stabbing her.

"What, did you do?" She grit out as Nick got back to his feet, barely a trickle of blood visible on his face, although she couldn't spot any open wounds.

"Try and beat me, and find out." Nick taunted as he charged at her, an unusual grace to his movements that wasn't there earlier, guess he really was out of practice, not that it would help him as she charged up a third blast of her powers, only for Nick to suddenly burst from the ground and grapple her, his fingers interlocked with her own as he gave a suddenly apologetic smile, before spinning on his heel, and hurling her towards a different column of concrete.

However, it was the familiar glow in his eyes, that made her breath catch, as he threw on hand out, a beam of hardlight crashed into her, sending not just into the column, but through it as she laid there, catching her breath.

Hearing the sounds of footfalls approaching, she glanced at Nick standing over here, not even a scratch on him, she even noticed that his clothes were untouched by either blood nor dust, or even dirt.

"How did you?" She tried to ask, but he seemed to get the idea.

"Photovoltaic cells, they convert light energy into electricity, quite handy for fighting someone with your powers, wouldn't you say?" His smirk was the last straw, Star stopped trying to fight off the encroaching darkness and just gave in.

The last thing she heard as someone picked her up was "Night Light."