Wow...I am honestly shocked at the reception this is getting? You really think it's that good? Alright, so I'm going to keep this brief because I checked Captain America out of the library and I borrowed Thor from a friend so it's movie night at the (Insert Whatever Last Name You Choose to Give Me) household. This shall be such fun.
Tornadowierdo: The sort of universe with...actually you'll find about that later. No sense in giving away spoilers. ;) Thanks for the review!
Keiriala: Thanks for the review! Eh...it's sort of an alternate dimension. That's all I'm giving away right now.
Spadefire: Well, you take three parts coffee, one part vodka, and one part Irish Cream, and you mix them until...oh wait you didn't mean the cocktail...well then...ermmm...Thanks for the review! And yes, The Avengers was amazing. And no, it would be amazing if it were a Star Trek universe (TOS was my introduction to geekery), but it's just a universe where the airships are named by a total nerd.
Disclaimer: Do I even have to use this? Does anybody really care? And the question everybody wants the answer to: Do I own this? You may find the answer is identical to that of this question: Does lapsang souchong tea taste good?
Chapter Two: Chase Blows Up His Mum
As per usual, she bit back a laugh as she surveyed her charges. If they could have looked more like the stereotype of ragtag rebels, Minerva was sure that that stupid Wind boy would be wearing a Che Guevara shirt and the Earth girl, currently doodling something in the loose dirt on the clearing floor, would probably be rolling a joint with her toes because hands were way too mainstream. As it were, the were incompetent kids with hero complexes, kept alive solely by the machinations of a pair of old men and a paranoid dragon with, perfectly sound, suspicions of her intentions.
Sure, she wouldn't exactly harm them directly, that would mean showing her hand, but she wasn't their friend. When Chase first took over, he'd made her his second in command. They knew the Dragons had escaped, along with Dojo and Master Fung, when they destroyed the temple and knew that if the remains of the Temple called her contract in, they'd have someone on the inside, so they agreed that it would be best if her involvement with the regime was kept on the down low. The only people who knew at all were Chase, Wuya, and their pet Mechanist.
It was the perfect set up. She could handle things behind the scenes, attend state functions with the excuse that she was the Emperor's mentor with everybody none the wiser as to her actual position, and she wouldn't have to take responsibility for anything. All the while, hoping that one of the air raids would catch the monks or they would just flat out forget their contract.
Unfortunately for her, they didn't and her efforts to keep her government involvement a secret really worked against her when Dojo paid her cave a visit last year. With one pot of disgusting lapsang souchong tea, she would never understand why Dojo liked that slop, the high society was over and the babysitting began. The monks didn't trust her enough to give her any important information, so she couldn't even be a proper double agent. She would occasionally mind read the Fire girl, but they didn't tell her anything important either so that was right out. At best, she could tell them where they were and they moved around every day so that wasn't even particularly useful information.
Between the babysitting and squeezing in government responsibilities, that she totally didn't have, she barely had time to plan her own coup d'etat. That wouldn't even be so bad, at least she was working, but the new Dragons were so useless, and even worse, boring.
Layla Osham, the Earth girl, was annoyingly perky and couldn't pay attention for more than twenty seconds at a time. Plus, she was somehow both insanely impulsive and skittish at the same time. None of this was not helped by her hero worship of Minerva.
Jermaine Jacobs, the Water boy, was alright enough, if she had to pick the least annoying, it would probably be him, but she couldn't understand a word he was saying.
The Fire girl, Mei Vo, had no spine whatsoever. She never spoke up in training, never argued, seemed almost afraid to fight someone, and never stood up for herself. In short, she was painfully boring.
The Wind boy was worst of all though. She had no idea how he became the leader. When she first met Domingo Montoya, he'd seemed decent enough. He was fairly intelligent and was a very capable fighter both with and without his sabre. However, he was religiously honorable, entitled, and the most senselessly arrogant prick she'd ever met. It was one thing to be upper class and know it, she knew that she was that way, but she could back it up.
He was absolutely clueless as to how the real world worked. He didn't even know how to do the washing. Even she could do that. She just chose not to. Thankfully, his hair trigger temper combined with the fact that he didn't have a devious bone in his body meant that she could at least have some fun with her unworthy heir.
When she'd first started working with them, Minerva was on the fence regarding her allegiances. If the new Dragons were actually useful, who was she to get in the way of overthrowing the Empire and then taking control in the ensuing chaos? However, after the last year stuck on the run with them, she realized that this was not a viable option. She would be stuck with these horrid children until she found out exactly why Chase wanted them alive.
The sorceress pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a sigh. This was going to be a long training session. They were working with magical combat today. She wanted to bring them back to her home and have them run the obstacle course, but for some reason Master Monk Guan, Master Fung, and Dojo disapproved. There was nothing wrong with her obstacle course. Fifteen hundred years made it even more interesting.
She would start out with Domingo and get that headache out of the way first. Then she would go with Layla, deal with other vexation before frustration set in. Then she would go with either Mei or Jermaine. It didn't really matter which.
"Lily, you're up. Mira, you're on deck," she said, tying her long, dark hair back into a low ponytail. "Alright, as I'm sure you're all well aware, you're facing Chase Young. I'm not entirely sure you know this, but he's one of the most accomplished sorcerers in the world and, I'm absolutely certain you don't know this, he's not exactly shy about using these powers to give you lot a sound thrashing. I'm going to demonstrate the application of combat sorcery on Liz. I want the rest of you to observe and plan out how to beat me when it's your turn."
The look that crossed Domingo's face as he realized that Layla was going to be her lab rat was priceless. He knew she would destroy the girl and he wouldn't stand to see his crush humiliated. This was perfect.
"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" he said, his eyes blazing.
"Dominic, you're a good two inches taller than me and you outweigh me by at least thirty pounds. If anything, Lydia's closer to my size than you, if we're not taking into account the mass of her hair," she said, keeping the same rational tone she always did.
"No. I will not stand idly by while you humiliate my teammates for your own amusement." Perhaps she'd been a bit quick to judge earlier. She loved his sense of honor.
"Fine. If you want to be my demonstration, be my guest," she said, shrugging and twisting the elastic around her hair one final time. "Louisa, step back. Your boyfriend's decided to play knight in shining amour."
Both of them blushed, but they switched places without protest. She examined her deep red nails, noting that while they clashed with her eyes, it complemented her dark olive skin, as she planed her demonstration.
He would start the fight, the impatient git always did. She doesn't move, he continues his charge, and at the last possible moment, she becomes immaterial and phases through him. Unexpected inertia carries him forwards and he lands flat on his face. When he gets back up, he finds himself surrounded by mirror copies.
Being unable to tell which one's real, he sends out a wind pulse. Unfortunately for him, this stirs up the very loosely packed topsoil. The ensuing dust storm doesn't affect her of course due to her supersensory spell. With no idea where she is, he keeps on the move. She further confuses him via a taunt amplified with an echo, thereby making it seem to change locations with every syllable.
By that time, the dirt starts to settle, so as soon as he had a two-metre visual radius, she appears before him. She lazily extends her hand towards him, more magical energy than she knew what to do with arcing across her fingers. He jumps out of the way of the expected blast, which would never come because at this range and at that power level, the recoil damage would hurt her more than the initial blast would him.
While he's still in the air, she delivers a swift kick just below his ribs, knocking him out of flight. He hits the ground rolling and while still disoriented, he tries to get back to his feet. His fencing instincts kick in, and he protects his face and chest, leaving his legs open to attack. A quick sweep kick and he's back on the ground, staring up at just enough gathered magical energy to avoid significant recoil. Game, set, and match.
She sighed as she envisioned the plan. The boy was predictable, so there was a less than ten percent chance of variation, with said variation most likely coming within the dust storm.
He glared at her from across the clearing, daring her to strike first. She started a mental count down of three seconds before he lost patience and made his move. As soon as she hit one, he started a headlong charge.
Everything went according to plan at first. The dirt was harder packed than she expected, so it wasn't stirred up quite enough by the wind pulse, so she had to drop the echo from play, but in the grand scheme of things, it was insignificant. Things went otherwise perfectly. As soon as eh saw the sparks, he jumped away. But as she dissipated the energy, she heard a faint whistle and began to mentally curse.
"Everybody take cover," Master Monk Guan yelled as more whistles filed the air. Nobody needed to be told twice.
As soon as she was safely out of range of both the lazers and prying eyes, she pulled out her phone and sent out a text.
What the hell are you doing? You're two hours early.
R, RER, REVER, REVIVER, REVIEIVER, REVIEWEIVER. Do as the strangely written thing says both forwards and backwards.