Xander hit the ground hard. "When does the hurting stop?"

"When you learn to use your danger sense effectively," Splinter told him, not even slightly winded.

"How do you mean?" Xander asked, ignoring Raphael's snickers.

"There are many shades of danger. Sometimes we must choose the shade that is best for us," Splinter explained.

"Translation?" Xander asked the Turtles.

"Different attacks feel differently to the mind's eye, you have to prioritize attacks by the associated sense, you should be able to handle and guide the battle in that fashion," Donatello explained.

"Translation?" Xander asked again.

"The right wave takes practice to catch, and the wrong one will wipe you out," Michelangelo explained.

Xander turned to Raphael.

"Learn which buzz means pain, through practice and lots of pain, and you can dodge without thought," Raphael said bluntly.

"So grin and bear it while trying to improve?" Xander asked.

"Yep," Raphael agreed with a grin.

"How long does it take to master?" Xander asked.

"I am slightly warmed up now," Splinter said cheerfully. "Time for group exercises, I think."

"We're still working on it," Raphael said with a wince.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"Behold!" Doom ordered, gesturing to Alicia in her new outfit, makeup lightly done and a slight trim to her hair.

The Wasp whistled. "I think…I want a camera watching when Ben sees her."

"Twenty says he falls on his knees," Sue said.

"One point three billion says he proposes," Doom retorted.

The three women turned to stare at him.

"Doom has complete psychological profiles on all of the Fantastic Four. Present predictions have him proposing in the next eighteen months, most of the delay because of self-confidence issues, but an event of this magnitude should advance the calendar significantly."

"No bet, he just learned to overcome the self-confidence problem that kept him stuck in his transformed state," Sue replied.

*Boom!*

"Hold, Varlet!" Thor announced as he arrived in a flash of thunder. "Thou shall not-" Thor stopped and took a look around. "Friend Wasp, you may wish to notify Jarvis that you are not in a pitched battle."

"You have never tried to convince Doom that a rose blush would look good on Alicia," Janet said dryly.

Doom chuckled and Sue giggled.

"And he was right," she admitted. "The standard rose blush was half a shade off what we needed."

Thor found himself speechless.

"Do you really think Ben will propose?" Alicia asked.

"There's no doubt in my mind," Sue assured her.

"Friend Ben is getting married?" Thor asked.

"Once he sees dear Alicia he will fall on his knees and propose," Doom agreed.

Thor took a second to look at Alicia. "Her beauty rivals the sun setting over the mountains of Asgard," he agreed. "Her raiment is almost perfect."

"Almost?" Doom, Wanda and Sue chorused.

Thor nodded and reached into a pouch on his belt, pulling out a pair of earrings and a necklace that looked like they were composed of ice and flame.

"Mithril and Sutter's tears rubies?" Doom asked while delicately putting them on Alicia.

"Aye, I had thought to give them to my Lady Sif, but in the endless cycle of seasons, she's more a summer than a winter."

"It's too much," Alicia said shyly as she saw herself in the mirror.

"Nay, 'tis simply a bauble, a mere trifle for the intended of a fellow warrior who has shed blood with me," Thor said.

Doom tapped his chin thoughtfully. "She needs a weapon."

"What?" the women chorused.

"Something elegant," Thor agreed.

"I- a sword would look nice," the Wasp admitted.

Sue opened her mouth and paused. "A longsword."

"Maiden's cry, the lost sword of the Valkyrie Hjörþrimul, fallen in battle against the dark god Cyttorak, or the fabled sword Krongeth, the heart of the world that stands in the center of the labyrinth of Zang-Tse?" Doom asked.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"Holy Crap!" Beast Boy said.

"Those movies were awesome!" Cyborg said.

"And that's just the Star Wars trilogy," Magik said. "But you can see now why we hated Warp Trek."

"I hate to say it, but I do," Beast Boy admitted.

"That was geekiness I enjoyed," Raven admitted. "Unlike Warp Trek, the effects were believable, and the acting was Oscar-worthy."

"And now on to the Terminator series. They've only done two movies, but they're really good," Cypher promised as he hit play.

During the first movie Raven quickly switched seats and held Cyborg's hand, as evil cyborgs that were actually machines pretending to be men, pushed all the wrong buttons on him. The second movie showing 'Uncle Bob' passing beyond Skynet's imposed limits to become his own person, brought a smile to his face that Raven couldn't help but mirror, even with 'Uncle Bob's' sacrifice at the end.

"And that's our target," Copycat said. "We pop in, alter the timeline to prevent Skynet, and copy Bob's files on creating and repairing Terminators."

"We're going to turn Cyborg into a Terminator?" Beast Boy asked.

"We're going to upgrade him using their tech," Cypher corrected. "Or downgrade since he'll be more organic and physically weaker."

"He can build power armor to compensate," Mirage pointed out.

"I say we mug an alternate Tony Stark, 'cause he's a bit of a douche," Cypher suggested.

"We'll pick a version with heart problems and give him the secret of cloned organs," Copycat said. "That should get some willing co-operation."

"I can hardly believe you guys are doing this all for me," Cyborg said in shock.

"It's not a chore," Mirage said. "We live to do things like this."

"And it beats the hell out of working in an office," Cypher added, causing the mutants to laugh.

"OK, everyone brainstorm how we're going to alter the timeline to prevent Skynet," Magik ordered. "We want to nail that down before we set foot in there."

"The biggest problem was that no-one believed her and they never managed to get proof to someone high enough in the military to make a change," Raven said.

"Kidnap the President and rub his face in it?" Beast Boy joked.

The New Mutants exchanged grins.

"You can't be serious!" Robin exclaimed.

"Robin, my friend," Copycat said as he draped his arm over the martial artist, "there are many ways to do things, but since we're on vacation…we're going to do things the fun way!"

"We're going to pull a Kirk!" Cypher added with a laugh.

Typing (eventually) done by: Elrod Albino!