Pushing it to the Limit (Izzy)

Suzuki spent a lot of time in the danger room. It was almost an obsession. She only really left when she felt her knees wobble and body demand food. She'd often annoy the heck out of other Titans with it, too, but that didn't really matter to her. She needed to improve, and she needed to do it fast. She'd met too many monsters in Jump, and knew she needed to be prepared to face them head on.

Speaking of monsters...

Her Susano'o shattered to dust under the force of the snow monsters devastating punch, slowing it down just enough for Suzuki to move her head an inch away and save her head from leaving her shoulders. She'd mixed a few simulations, and this was proving to be the most difficult one she'd experienced.

Black flames cluttered the snow white fur of the fierce snow creature, making it jump back and holler loudly in rage. Suzuki wanted to capitalize on the opening but an intense heat from behind caught her attention. She couldn't hear anything, her headphones made sure of that. It was reckless to take away one of her senses in a training simulation she hadn't tested before, but recklessness was how she made improvement.

Behind her there was a flame slinging goblin like creature, along with it's 6 friends. They stormed with a speed that was a nice compliment to the yeti's lumbering powerful blows.

She'd been trying for hours, but a new challenge came up every time she adapted. She used her sword to parry a few flaming rocks the goblins threw, ignoring the burns she felt on her arms from their heat. Then she spun towards the giant again, who was already barreling through the little that remained of her Susano'o. She did a few quick hand signs just before the giant grabbed her arm. That's when the lightning struck.

The next few moments were white. The bolt had hit the back of the Yeti, who had responded by throwing Suzuki into the snowy mountainside. Her vision was hazy and everything hurt. She was shocked too. She smelled burning flesh just before feeling heat again. She met eyes with 4 charging goblins. Her black flames hit one, though her left eye had a line of blood fall from the exertion. She threw her sword at another, and raised a foot to stop a third... the fourth had a direct shot at her stomach he was about to land. "*&#*$..."

Yang had spent the last half hour in the rec room. It was important for her to maintain her physique, considering she didn't just get it naturally at least. She knew Suzuki was in the danger room. How would she know? Well there was unauthorized access to it, as shown on her gauntlets. And yet she didn't stop her. Girl after her own heart really, constantly training.

When she walked onto the observation deck however, she blinked at the training simulation. Suzuki was getting way too reckless with these combinations. Part of Yang was actually getting tired of it. She sighed and sat down to watch for a bit, observing and taking mental notes about her combat style. Suzu was doing relatively well, honestly. But apparently she'd forgotten that the Yeti's fur would insulate him, making her lightning pretty much pointless.

Yang sighed and walked down from the deck, entering the room herself, hair blazing. Working out did wonders to charge kinetic backlash, what with all the weight pushing down on her. She dashed forward and used her strength, along with a shotgun blast, to punch a hole right through the Yeti's chest with her left hand. Once in, she opened her palm and fired the sonic cannon on her left arm inside of him. The sim disappeared on the spot and Yang punted the goblin leader in the skull to get him off of her teammate. The other three panicked at the sight of a new threat and retreated, ending the simulation. "Goblins are funny little things. If you don't immediately show dominance, they assume you're passive. Otherwise, they assume you can take them and retreat."

She offered a hand to help up her teammate. "You okay? You got a little somethin' under your eye." She said, legitimately concerned. She wasn't aware Suzuki's powers could do that to her.

Suzuki hadn't even known that Yang was entering the simulation. She'd been at it for hours, and she had the headphones in. The Goblin landed a harsh blow on her exposed abdomen before Yang caught it and the rest retreated. Suzuki looked to Yang, though with the amount of power she'd used today she could barely make the blurry figure out to be Yang. She pulled the headphones out, music still pretty audible despite them being around her neck.

Yang lectured her about how goblins worked, something that only served to make Suzuki grit her teeth rather roughly. Then Yang asked if she was okay and pointed out the blood that Suzuki seemed to just be noticing for the first time. She dropped her head to the hard floor with a thud as she wiped the blood away from her cheek.

"I'm fine. I had it under control. It's not like I need a babysitter..." Suzuki ignored the hand that was offered to help her, but made no move to get up on her own either. She just needed a minute to catch her breath is all. Though she was starting to notice how painful it was to take deep breaths, making hers short and shallow.

Yang clicked her tongue and pocketed the hand. "That didn't look very under control to me. It looked like you'd recklessly combined programs that effectively made your powers useless, and then proceeded to take away one of your most vital senses in combat." She said, pointing to her headphones. "Goblins are dangerous. Yetis even more so. You have to be more careful or you could end up getting killed." She sighed when she realized how much pain Suzu was in.

"Darla, gimme a bioscan of her..." She called to the AI in the room. Nothing. She walked over to the nearest terminal and hit a few keys. Darla popped back online panting. "Please never do that again ma'am..." She said, directed to Suzuki.

"Of course..." She would have had to disable Darla to mix sims without Yang's codes. She sat back while Darla did the bioscan, waiting patiently next to her. "Bioscan shows that Titan Suzuki has sustained a fractured rib from her latest escapade." She chimed. Yang sat up and clapped. "Alright, you heard the creepy disembodied voice. You're done today." She said, again offering to help her up.

Darla just replied in a very irritated voice. "Gee...thanks Yang."

The lecture continued, though Suzuki had expected that. Goblins were dangerous. Yetis were dangerous. It was clear that Suzuki couldn't handle danger. A slight scuff escaped her lips as she shut her eyes to compose herself. The computers AI appeared next, huffing and puffing and looking in worse shape than Suzuki. It practically begged Suzuki not to do that again, which earned a laugh from the raven haired girl.

"And if I ran into creatures that countered my abilities out in the real world, where I couldn't end the simulation... what would I do then? Not all of us are so durable, Yang. Some of us actually have to be prepared for being at a disadvantage."

She spoke while her scan was being read, not really caring what Darla had to say about her injuries. She again didn't accept Yang's help, but sat up on her own and opened her eyes. A few more drips of blood came from her left eye, and her vision was still blurry. She hadn't realized that she'd pushed herself this far... but her pride wouldn't let her admit that she needed help, so she used her own strength to bring herself up on her wobbly feet.

"Now I know, lightning on the goblins right away, then flames on the Yeti until it drops. We learn through pain. Next time I'll clear both simulations."

That was how she was taught, and that was the best way for her to learn she imagined. Next time a big threat came to Jump, she'd be able to handle it.

Yang facepalmed slightly. "Out in the field you have us." She said flatly. Almost as if the answer was obvious...it SHOULD be obvious! "Shockingly enough you're part of a team. It's what we're here for." She stepped back as Suzuki got up.

When she wobbled, she moved as if she were going to catch her, but she managed to right herself. "...C'mon, Hotwire can fix your rib but I wanna get a look at your eye for a bit." She said, grabbing her hand and pulling her lightly toward the door.

The answer seemed so obvious, but to Suzuki it never crossed her mind. She had people she could rely on? That didn't sound right. The Titan's hadn't struck her as a team, though she admitted that she hadn't seen them in their prime. She thought of the Titans as support...

The thought was boggling, maybe she had a concussion or something but her head hurt and thoughts seemed jumbled. That's probably the main reason she followed Yang without much complaint.

"Are you... A doctor?" She asked, sounding borderline nervous. She didn't care for doctors and definitely wouldn't feel comfortable with one looking at her eyes. Her eyes were valuable. More valuable than anything to her.

But her eyesight was bad. One glance could tell that her eyes were glazed over and she was having trouble. She squinted a lot, trying to make out shapes as Yang led her around.

"Depends on who you ask. I have a doctorate in engineering so...technically yes. I'm a doctor." She lead Suzuki into her mech lab. Several different suits of armor littered the walls of the room, gadgets lay unfinished on benches everywhere. It was very clear how much time Yang had been spending in this room as of late. She was trying to adjust to so many new team members all at once, and it was difficult for her. This helped her.

Yang guided her to lay down on the nearby chair. "I have however been working with metahuman genes. I know what makes most people tick, and I know how to make the ticking stop." She smiled, realizing how awkward that probably sounded. "Basically my theory I'm going to look into is seeing whether or not putting an inhibitor on your powers will work. What I'm thinking is that if I disable your powers when you're not using them, it'll be less of a strain on your eyes. You'd essentially be able to fight harder for longer." She figured that sounded pretty good to Suzuki, so she started a scan.

It all sounded like a mouthful to Suzuki, to be honest. Turning her powers off while she wasn't using them didn't sound like much to her. She already had to activate her eyes to be able to use her powers. Inside the mech lab was a sight for sore eyes, though anything that Suzuki looked at right now was a sight for sore eyes. "You don't get out much, do you?"

It wasn't meant to be insulting. Suzuki herself didn't get out much either. She just spent all her time training, lately. Though she did occasionally run into Titan's as she passed through the tower.

"The way my eyes work, I have an inhibitor built into my powers. When my eyes are red, it's called the Sharingan. In English, they're called 'The Eyes That Reflect the Heart'... basically without them activated, my powers aren't available to me." Suzuki explained, though she was uncomfortable with it. She'd just exposed her biggest weakness. She was very vulnerable to sneak attacks.

Yang smiled. "I understand, but at the very least I should be able to lower the amount of damage it does to your sight." She pushed Suzuki onto the chair and sat at a nearby computer, typing like a storm. "And no, I don't get out much. Being a superhero and CEO doesn't exactly give me room for a love life." She snorted, doing a quick scan. "So from what I can tell, the direct flow of chi to and from your eyes not only changes the color, but it's also what creates the strain on your vision."

She clicked her tongue a few times as simulations ran. "So the first thing I'm noticing is that you're going to need laser eye surgery for what you've done to yourself today. Or you could just wear some glasses. Your choice. I can do both for you here." She gave her a kind-hearted smile. "However to prevent this...well, it's actually a much more difficult thing in the long run. Do you want me to put time into a long term situation? Or are you going to show any degree of moderation?" It sounded harsh. It was harsh. But she had a point.

When she was sat down, Suzuki was starting to feel like a child getting lectured. "I doubt you'd need much time to make a love life..." She mumbled, not sure if Yang even heard her. Suzuki was aware of the strain that her powers put on her eyes, it was one of the curses that came with her blessing. Slowly, over time, she'd lose her sight.

"Laser surgery..." She mumbled, rather threatened by the idea but she knew that glasses would be inconvenient. "We can do it here, then. I doubt there is a long term solution. The story is whenever I use my powers, my eyesight gets closer to nothing."

She sighed, rubbing her eyes and hoping she'd see straight after. "If you have a solution, I'd be willing to try. Moderation isn't my forte."

Yang sighed. "You don't know the half of it." She grumbled, doing some work on her computer. "Well on the plus side, I can do laser eye surgery. It's much more technological than medical so it's straight up my alley." She smiled. "Just lay back and gimme some time to work, okay?"

If Suzu did as she was told, she'd be knocked out rather quickly, and awaken 6 hours later. Her vision was almost perfect again, maybe better than it had been before. Yang sighed though. "I make no promises of that being possible to do again." She said with a shrug.

Suzuki followed Yang's instructions and was out rather quickly despite her best efforts to stay awake. When she did reawaken 6 hours later, everything was different for her. It's amazing how different the world was with 20/20 vision. It was something that Suzuki hadn't experienced in about a month. She looked up, but then squinted at the light.

"That light is... bright." She said, then let out an uncharacteristic chuckle. She was still feeling the drugs and not exactly herself. She sat up, not feeling her ribs in pain. "I should get back to training."

Yang pushed her back into the chair. "Oh no you don't. Not a chance in hell. You still need that rib fixed." Yang had her sat up and was shining a light in her eyes, checking her pupils. "Looks like that went well. That's good, at least. If you start bleeding from the eyes again, you have to tell me literally the second it happens. What time, what you were doing when it started, how your head was positioned, how much you'd used your powers that day, literally everything. Understand?" Yang looked considerably more tired than when they'd started the procedure. Evidently those six hours weren't easy for her.

Suzuki fell back to the bed with relative ease, though that fact caught her off guard. She felt fine, but why was it so easy to push her back? Was she blessed with strength that strong? Suzuki scuffed at the thought, again feeling reminded of her weakness in this world. She needed to get better. She couldn't stay this pathetic.

"I'm..." She started, considering voicing her declaration out loud but deciding not to. "...tired."

The confession was honest and her tone carried that honesty, though it might be strange considering that she'd just slept for six hours. Anesthetic had a funny way of working a person over. She yawned, stretching her hands up like a child. For some reason she felt like a child right now.

"Can we take a nap?"