Feeling the Pain"
Levy sat in the lounge of the Sentinel Sanctum when Cold Judgement's voice came over the intercom, It's time to train Sentinels! Levy let out a big sigh, Why do we always have to do these things? He picked himself up off the couch with a loud crack of his spine. Oh man that felt good! he exclaimed as he twisted his upper body side to side with a few more cracks filling the room.
Levy began to walk toward his locker and stumbled over a chair, Damn it! Why do they always move the furniture! You know, is it that hard to put it back in its spot? And then complaining under his breathe a bit more he said, It's not like there's a blind man roaming around here or anything. Finally after feeling over each locker in the base he found a braille name tag at the top of one of them. He felt around for the handle and open the door. After finding his suit he muttered, Well, I guess I better put this thing on before I go.
Now as The Purple Psychic, he made his way to the arena for the weekly training session. The Purple Psychic reporting for duty! he exclaimed after finding the other members of the ASSA. Good for you to show up, Purple Psychic, Cold Judgement told him. Always willing to better the team, sir, Psi responded with a slight sneer.
With a very emotionless face Cold Judgement speaks up, All right. Since there's 12 of us here we're going to split into two teams of 6. Once we enter the training room I want one group to be offense and the other to be defense. He pauses looking at each Sentinel present. We'll then switch roles after about 30 minutes. I'll assign the teams and then we'll head in. He looked around for a moment deciding which members would makeup each group. After a few minutes he said, Twilight Silverblaze, Spirit Panther, Doctor Neutronic, Devil-Ray, and Ocean Blue you all are with me. Finale, Old Owl, Purple Psychic, Metallicon, and even the Miss Nightfall you five will go with The Hooded Cowl.
Obviously with such fire power on his team there was no need for The Purple Psychic's psionic attacks, he would most definitely have to concentrate on his healing abilities. As the two teams prepared for battle Psi was getting nervous. Okay this is nothing to worry about right? he asked himself breathing rather hard, his heart pounding. This is fine. Every thing's going to be alright, Micah, he reassured himself. Psi glanced over his shoulder at the rest of what seemed like a very calm team. Why am I so nervous? I've fought alongside these people for several weeks already! Why am I so afraid to fail now? He knew the real answer deep down but just couldn't admit it to himself. He knew that he would have to step up now more than ever. His enemies now are his own friends, they know his strengths, they know his weaknesses. This will be much more of a test than some stupid skulls gang or the likes of the council.
Then the fight began. Psi's team was doing really good at first, and then it happened. Finale's phantom army distraction had been battled through and group one was now attacking head on. Finale sent Psi a telepathic message, A little help here! Psi suddenly felt her health go into the red. He stopped for a second feeling her health get worse. A moment later he reached deep within himself and merged a psychic link with Finale. He takes a huge breathe and with an outrageous outcry of agony Finale's health is restored to her. With all the time it took to restore her health all the members defending on the front line are taking a serious beating.
Levy starts to panic. He can't decide who's more important to keep alive seeing as it was about to become even more ugly. He turns toward Metallicon and heals him; then towards Owl and sends a heal his way. Aaaaah! Cowl screams as he hits the ground motionless. Psi runs over to him and immediately restores his life. Then Finale hits the floor, as does Owl and Metallicon. He then feels the pressure and concentrates real hard putting a regenerative aura around the other two remaining members of his team. It wasn't enough however, soon Cowl falls again. Now the only one left, besides himself, is Miss Nightfall. She managed to take out quite a few before she went down. After she lost consciousness it wasn't long before Psi went as well.
Soon the team's life force is restored to them and Miss Nightfall starts tearing into Psi. Do you know what would've happened if this would have been a real life situation? What is it that I always say? There's an awkward silence as Psi isn't sure if she's speaking rhetorically or not. What is it that I always say, riff-raff? she yells at the top of her lungs. Psi takes a big gulp and says quietly, Don't die. As she starts lecturing on and on about his lack of concentration during the training session Psi starts to fade out as if he was falling into a dream. The last thing he hears her say is something about feeling pain.
<Begin Flashback>
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Stranger seemed very angry and extremely tense as he raised his voice at Micah, Boy do you even know what this training is for? Micah stood there without any answer to his mentor's question. Do you know why I am teaching you all this? Again there was no answer. I'm teaching you because I never had a son of my own and I consider you to be more of a son to me than any son I would have ever had. Also, because this isn't just a way to see, you know. This can be used to defend yourself and to fight evil as well.
Stranger stops for a second and walks towards the park bench. He feels around for moment searching for something. Finally he picks up a bag and asks Micah to come towards him. As they both sit down on the bench Stranger grasps the bag tightly and takes a deep breathe. Micah, I want you to have something.
What is it? Micah asked sitting straight up in excitement as he rarely gets presents. Well, I had it made for you. You did say that you see thoughts in purple, right? Micah looked confused, his excitement not going away really, but slightly calmed down. He answered his mentor with a respectful yes and then Stranger told him about his gift. Well I was hoping that you could become one of those heroes everyone's talking about. I never learned to use my powers as well as you have already and I thought maybe you could use it to do something good for this world.
Micah let his head down and took it all in, I will do my best to honor your family's powers and fight crime as you would hope me to do. Stranger had a look of happiness that hadn't been there in probably his entire life. It was sad, however, that Micah couldn't see his happiness. He didn't need to though, he could feel it.
So Micah took the purple suit and as he pushed on the back of the bench to stand up he cut his hand. Ow! he screamed. Wait, let me see that, Stranger said feeling for Micah's hand. He took the hand and concentrated very hard. As he held his breath and clenched his eyes Micah's scratch faded away as if it were never there. The pain Micah had felt went away, How did you do that?
Stranger told him that to take away pain you must first learn to feel it. He said that this is the last thing he will teach Micah before he heads off into Paragon City and registers as a hero. This will take much concentration and discipline. You must understand that to do this you may be able to heal others but you will feel their pain in order to do so. Once you've learned to heal others you may also learn to heal yourself, but only if you're willing to feel the pain over and over again.
Micah looked worried but dedicated to his friend and mentor as he said, I will do whatever it takes.
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<End Flashback>
Once Psi finally came to and out of his dreamworld he realizes that Miss Nightfall is glaring at him waiting for some sort of answer, Uh, yes ma'am, he responds hoping that was the right answer. You weren't listening to a word I said were you, riff-raff? she asked him. Of course I was, just in a way you'll never know. Before she could get another word in he broke in with, Well let's get this party started. Anyone ready for another go?
This time Psi took in not everything that Miss Nightfall told him but rather what Stranger told him. He remembered why he took this job in the first place and why he must never accept anything less than what he is capable of doing. He must always strive to do better than he knows how. So Psi senses everyone around the room, they broke Finale's phantom army again and her health starts to drop. Instead of holding back and being afraid of her pain he restores her health and begins to look after the rest of his team.
I'd still win if I had called it the biggest CoX group shot. 
