Tabitha saw Renee down in the garden and breathed in a sigh of relief. Turning, she raced across the roof to the door and sped down the stairs. Reaching the bottom, she hurried through the lobby. It amused her that everyone looked frazzled and was using tv and the computer to try to learn about the explosions in the distance. She rather get into the thick of things and learn first hand. She reached the front entrance and stepped outside.

Reaching Tabitha, Renee just let in all come out. “Tabitha, I have to get out of here. I need to get to the countryside. I’m going to run back to the back, grab my bike, and get back on the road. I know we made a promise to each other last night, but…” She stopped to take a breath, hoping desperately Tabitha wasn’t hurt and didn’t know what caused the explosions.

Tabitha thought for a moment, then suggested, "There is a lodge out on the mountain west of town that I own. Call it a vacation spot. I can take you there if you want. Just give me a few days before you decide to take off on me. Please." She didn't want to lose her friend. She would take care of the problems in town and then see what she could do for Renee. Renee seemed in better control when she was actively using her abilities. It seemed like when her feelings were strong, she struggled. Tabitha wanted a chance to help. This was all she could think of at the moment though.

Renee stopped to catch her breath. She had a friend, a friend who wanted to help. She nodded slowly, agreeing to Tabitha’s proposal. “Ok, I’ll wait.” She turned to look back in the direction of the explosions. “Should we go see if we can help?” I caused it; I should help those I hurt…

Tabitha followed Renee's eyes towards the direction that the explosions had been. She grimaced and shook her head no. Gently taking Renee's arm, she pulled her towards the car. "No, there are rescue crews for that. Trouble seems to like us... or this city. Let's go grab a small trailer to attach to the car and pick up your bike. That mountain retreat is looking pretty good right now. I own a lot of the area and I have some ideas. Need time to get them set up though, so just, hang on." The girl had trouble controlling her powers if she didn't use them often. Really often. Also it seemed that her emotions were tied to them somehow as well. If she could just build up her friend's esteem and find a way for her to train herself then perhaps Renee would be better able to handle her abilities. Maybe she should teach Renee Tai Chi. It was a great way to focus the mind and keep the body limber, flexible, and strong.

The wind wiped around Renee as she sped down the country road behind Tabitha’s unique car. They had left the main highway some hours ago and were heading further into the mountains, away from civilization. Here Renee felt at home. Her family had often vacationed to the Rocky Mountains when she was a child and she always wished she could live there permanently.

Turning a bend, her eyes widened and jaw dropped. Renee followed Tabitha onto a long country driveway that led to a two-story log cabin/mansion. Surrounding it on three sides was the thick forest. Next to the house, a huge garage that looked like it could hold eight to ten cars. It looked like something Bill Gates would own! When she’d said ‘retreat’, I think she underestimated! Renee thought with astonishment. It looked like the place she and Tabitha could relax away from the danger that seemed to follow them like a shadow.

Tabitha pulled up front and parked. It had been about a week since she had last been here. Walking briskly, she grabbed her bag from the back seat and headed over to where Renee sat on her bike. She looked a little dazed at the place. With a grin Renee suggested, "Want to come see your room? It is a pretty neat place. Also if you watched the tv series X-men Evolution, your will be familiar with the concept of the danger room. I have a room that you can let loose your abilities and nothing bad will happen. I think you might like training there." She wrapped an arm around Renee's shoulders and grinned up at the house in evident pride and satisfaction. It paid to have lots of money.

Renee took her off her helmet and looked uncertainly at her friend. Danger room? What an interesting, yet frightening concept. She had never fully let loose her powers. She wasn't even sure what all she could do with them, except harm. "We should probably train together also. We've made a pretty good team so far, but we'll need to learn to anticpate each other's movements during battle." Renee untied her satchel from her bike and walked next to her friend up to the house. This was going to be fun!

Tabitha took her inside to show her around. Downstairs had the main living room with open wooden stairs leading to the rustic looking balcony at the top. "Kitchen and diningroom are back there with some other random rooms. Upstairs is all the guest rooms. I like to have lots of room in case of company. So whatever room you want, it is yours." She led her upstairs to pick her room. "By the way, the basement has all the high tech stuff and training stuff. It isn't much compared to the teen titans but we have ourselves a good setup. I can have crews come in tomorrow to build us a training course outside."

Following her up the stairs, Renee wanted to say that she could build training course but kept her mouth shut. Her new friend had saved her during every fight the day before, and it hurt her pride that she needed to be saved. Better Tabitha not know right now what Renee was really capable of doing.

She stopped infront of the second room they passed. It had a wide bay window with a view that opened into the mountains and the fields below them. The room was full of rustic décor with dark wood furniture, a big bed with posts, and a desk on the far wall. The bay window even had a seat where she could watch the mountain storms that she heard frequented the area. “This one’s cool, is it ok if I take this one?” she asked stepping inside. Sighing, she turned to face Tabitha. “When's dinner?"

She smiled and knodded. It was a good room. Wrapping an arm around the girl, she suggested, "Let's go make something. Neither of us have had a break all day." She turned to head to the kitchen while pulling out her cellphone. "Let me make this quick call... hey Bernie, remember those plans I discussed several months ago? Yeah. It is a go, can you start in the morning? Great. Uhuh. When can you have it done by? Not bad. Thanks. Alright, bye." She hung up and winked at Renne. Well darling, it looks like this time 48 hours from now, we will be outside testing out the new course."

Renee breathed deeply as she mediated on the bay window seat overlooking the mountains. She opened her eyes to see the workmen in the distance, working on their training course. They had been working all day yesterday and were making good time. Renee had been paying secret attention to their progress, making sure they were making an adequate training area for the girls’ needs. Yesterday, she and Tabitha had toured the grounds, Tabitha showing off her estate. Afterwards, they stayed inside, watching movies and playing games.

Deciding she needed some fresh air, she headed outside toward the training grounds. Walking slowly, she inhaled the cool, morning air. As she approached, some of the men nodded towards her before going back to work. Bernie, the foreman, was nowhere to be seen. She stood off to the side watching for close to 10 minutes before she sensed someone coming up behind her....

Tabitha saw Renee head outside for a walk. Today, hopefully, the training grounds would be completed. She trusted the men and the person they worked for. He was a genius on so many levels. If anyone could set up a superhero's place, he could. She walked into the back office and looked at the large monitor. There were statistics and reports coming in with the whereabouts of strange phenomena. Training grounds being finished or not, they might be putting their skills to use more quickly. She headed to the garage. There was a small two person jet here that would serve well. She began to check it over to make sure it was ready to use. Perhaps Renee wouldn't mind a little action tonight.

“What do you think, Miss?” Bernie boomed as he walked up behind Renee. Turning back to look at the men, she smiled. “I think you know what you’re doing,” she replied. Remembering their small argument yesterday during one the times she’d snuck out here to see what they were doing, she grimaced. “Sorry about yesterday, I was way out of line.” “Apology accepted,” he answered, stone faced. He stood there silent for a few moments watching the workmen before he continued. “It should be done by this evening if nothing goes wrong.” Renee nodded her approval. “Great! I’ll tell Tabitha.” She turned to walk away, then stopped. “You won’t say anything to them, will you?” she asked him hesitantly. Bernie kept staring ahead, as if considering her request. “They’re worried about you. They haven’t given up that you’re still alive,” he said softly, turning to face her. “But if you don’t want me to say anything to them, I won’t.” She let out the breath she had been holding and smiled weakly at the older man. “Thanks, Bernie.” She started to leave when he put his hand on her shoulder. “I won’t bring it up to them because it’s not my place. It’s yours. But if they ask me about you, I can’t lie to them.” He let her go and she kept on walking. I wouldn’t expect you to, she thought to herself. Tabitha had no way of knowing that the man she had hired to build their secret training course used to work with Renee’s father high up in his business. Since her parents were mostly on the east coast, Renee wasn’t too worried that her parents would suddenly contact Bernie and ask him about her. She walked quickly back up to the house and went to find Tabitha. Seeing activity in the garage, she headed inside. She found Tabitha looking a small jet plane. "Good morning! What's with the plane?" she asked walking up beside her friend.

Tabitha grinned at Renee and motioned to it, "What do you think about a test flight? There has more strange stuff in town baffling the police. Thought we could give them a hand. Especially since the media has dubbed us... you will never guess at some of the horrible and cheesy names they are coming up with. Don't know what they police think, but the media likes us and wants the police to get out of our way so we can 'save the day.'" She honestly didn't think that that was a good thing for the media to say. The police were important. If they stayed humble then hopefully it wouldn't be too big of a problem.

Renee looked doubtful. "I don't know Tabitha," she said slowly, frowning. She had a problem with that police comment but that wasn't the cause for her worry at the moment. "We haven't really trained together, and the bad guys we went up against were just kids." She paused to think. "Besides, we're not just going to show up like this, are we?" she asked pointing to their casual clothes. She was trying to get used to the idea of using her powers on purpose in front of people. She really didn't want people to know it was Renee Shepherd doing those stunts. That was just asking for trouble.

Tabitha looked her over and slowly nodded. What she said did make sense. They needed some sort of an outfit. "I'll see what I can do about getting us something to wear. For now though, want to at least go for a test flight? She was eager to move to the sky. Impatient wasn't exactly something she had conquered yet. Though they really should train together before fighting. No matter how bad things got. The two of them taking on the world... or, at least Seattle.

Renee frowned, wondering why her friend wanted to get out so badly. They’d just gotten there a day and half ago, and Renee was still settling down from the week’s events. Shrugging her shoulders, she gave in. “Sure, a test flight could be fun….but only a test flight, and no more. We aren’t ready to fight just yet,” she added, looking hard at Tabitha. She wasn’t sure her friend wouldn’t get them into a fight, but a chance to look at the gadgets that were surely on the plane was too much to pass up!

Tabitha squeeled and vaulted up into the cockpit. There she realized she lost some of her normal graceful composure and blushed. Clearing her throat, she strapped in her seatbelt and offered, "Come on up. Let's get this bird into the air. Hey, you can even learn to drive her if you want. It is pretty easy. I'm no genius so the computer is designed to work with the pilot on flying. You can even talk to it. Think of the Iron Man movies and your all set."

After letting the autopilot get them into the air, Renee started looking at the different gizmos on the plane. There was a camouflage device that would allow them to be invisible to known radar and visual detection methods. That will come in handy. There were shields, high performance engines that could go faster than most fighter jets, and sophisticated delicate sensors. The only thing that was missing was any type of weapons. “Hey Tabitha, why are there no weapon systems?”

Tabitha laughed, it was a good question. "First, it is illegal for any sort to be on here. Not even I could get that waved. Second, we are the weapons. I can control so many things from here with my water capabilities. I bet you could as well. Come on, I'll show you." She took over the controls and headed them out to the Pacific Ocean. As land slowly disappeared, she checked for signs of boats or wildlife. Seeing it was safe, she set the cruise control into a large circle and then spread out her hands and concentrated. Slowly, she set up a huge whirlpool. It was barely noticeable at first, but slowly gained in speed and power. Finally worn out, she let it go and the ocean slowly returned back to normal. "How about that for a demonstration?"

"Wow! That was cool!" Renee exclaimed, watching the whirlpool vanish. "Yeah, it would make sense they wouldn't allow a civilian plane to have weapons. Where did you get all of this stuff? Most of this isn't even on military planes." She looked out over the ocean, enjoying the peace of the water and flying. She always loved to fly. Then off to her side, she noticed some dark cumulonimbus clouds on the horizon. "Did you start those too?" she asked her powerful friend.

Tabitha glanced over at them and shook her head. "I don't think I did that. If I did, I didn't mean to. I can't feel the rain in those clouds. It is like there is a numbness there. What do you think we should do? Land or go take a closer look?"

Renee couldn't resist. "Let's go check it out." She deactivated autopilot and started toward the strange clouds. She could feel faint energy emitting from the clouds but with no rain, a storm seemed unlikely. Her hand hovered over the camouflage control when she shyly looked over at her friend. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take over..." She started to move away from the controls.

Tabitha grinned and jokingly said, "If you move back, I will personally pounce on you. Let's take her in and see what is going on." She closed her eyes and placed a hand against the window, focusing on the water below them. Pulling out billions of small droplets, she sent them on ahead hoping to gain some information from them on what the heck was happening. It looking like it was raining upside down.