Author's Note: This chapter could become a victim of the information blackout I'm under. See, I'm still in the Moroccan countryside, so all my googling has to be in sessions. Therefore, Glory Girl's powers and such are based on everything I could grab on the Dallons. I'm fairly certain I did well though. I tend to grab as much as I can during these sessions. What I'm saying is, I had a blast writing this, and I hope you guys enjoy it. -
After eating, I left for the gym. While the weights were useless to me, seeing others spar would be great, and I might even go in myself. Now that I knew for certain I could copy martial arts moves, turning my Saiyan instincts and body-read technique towards absorbing as much as I could seemed valuable.
I was surprised when I entered the large room to see Linebacker Genius there, pumping iron at a bench-press. He immediately switched me out for his original spot, a far less muscular man than either of us, who was obviously terrified at the prospect of helping Linebacker Genius.
Also, Linebacker Genius' name was Bill.
"The whole concept of your powers is fascinating," he said casually as he slowly pumped around 200 pounds of weight up and down. "It's plain that the theme is martial arts. I've been looking into old texts, mythological type stuff. And everything fits. Your ability to adapt to intense environments and workouts is obviously based on the old tales of martial arts masters doing the same to themselves. The laser blasts are a variation on the more mythical arts, which include stories of people controlling fire and other elements with their chakra or ki or what have you."
"Maybe you should switch to a higher weight?" I asked, impressed at the fact he was still speaking so casually.
"Nah, I'm a low-weight, high-repetition kind of guy."
The guy who'd been spotting him earlier glanced over to give Bill a shocked look.
"But yeah, all of this just means we can start pushing you even further. Dauntless' powers may get stronger, but there is no real way to increase the speed of that increase. With you, we can simply see how much you can take, and how far you can go."
"Sounds good to me." As I spoke, I kept one eye on the boxing ring, only half listening. Inside, two PRT guys were sparring, watched by their cheering friends. I activated my super-speed at brief intervals, slowing things down just enough to make sure I got a good look. I had no idea just how much my powers needed to absorb martial arts, but making sure I got a good look at every muscle twitch and instinctive movement seemed like a good idea.
"But that aside, your powers are just so cool mechanically! You see, most Brute's powers don't actually have anything to do with their muscles. Glory Girl, for example uses a force field to push out from herself and generate force. You on the other hand seem to actually tear and strain your muscles so that when they heal..."
At this point, Bill started going into some lecture about the processes behind muscular regeneration and strength building. I tried to nod at the right parts but my train of thought was still rolling. I think of myself as a gamer. And any good video gamer knows to minmax the shit out of anything that helps you get stronger, faster. As an example, let's say you have two different pieces of equipment. One gives you twice as much strength. The other makes any improvements to your mind and body increase by a tiny amount.
A good gamer takes the second one. Twice the strength sounds good on any level, but increasing your learning speed just has way too much potential to ignore. Why double your strength in a second, when you can triple it in a week?
So, as I listened to Bill with one ear, I watched the PRT guys box, wrestle, and joke around, using super-speed, body-read, and my natural abilities. As I did, I also ran ki through my body.
I was very careful about it. I wanted to learn how to control the energy, to learn how to make it work for me. After all, ki was a mystery in a lot of ways. I had long suspected it was responsible for the physics breaking aspects of my powers.
When I went into my super-speed state, I was somehow able to perceive information at a quicker pace. I could see things in slow motion, and perceive the high speed movement of a fly's wings. Yet, that isn't possible. You can't 'speed up' your brain, not without damaging things. At least, not to my knowledge, I like to think I'm smart enough to know when I'm not an expert.
So ki not only increases physical ability, but the mental ones necessary to back them up. Makes sense, in the way that things science hasn't caught up to analyzing just yet tend to make sense. Just because ancient civilizations didn't understand what gravity is doesn't mean they didn't see its effects in action. Of course, once the lab came back with the studies of my ki blasts, maybe we'd have a start to the scientific study of ki energy.
I may make jokes about people using science to study magic sometimes, but I actually have a lot of faith in the scientific method, even when applied to things not commonly seen as scientific.
Although, how much I would understand about all that would depend on if being a Saiyan was making me dumb or not. Fingers crossed for maintaining my cognitive thought processes.
"Yo, Kong!" Assault, dressed in his full costume as usual, poked his head into through the gym doors. People looked towards him as he gazed around the room, before he saw me helping Bill. "Hey, the kids are here!"
"Thanks man!" I looked down at Bill. "Gotta head out. You want me to help out for a bit longer?"
"Nah, I think you got a good enough look at the guys sparring." He chuckled at the surprised look I gave him. "Give me some credit. Any of the weights around here are too light to be any good for a brute at your level, not until we get the new equipment later on in the week. And I doubt you were here to spot me."
He placed the weights on the bar, sighing slightly. "Anyways, I'll go join the sparring ring. In the meantime, don't you have some youngsters to talk to?"
I nodded, walking towards Assault and leaving Bill to continue his workout. I gave Assault a handshake, grinning at him. "Didn't you have patrol? What are you doing here bro?"
"Ah, Dauntless and Triumph owe me," he said casually, smiling. "I wanted to see if I could get any use out of training with you and the kids."
"Really?"
"Yeah." He chuckled. "Don't tell anyone, but I've spent a lot of time training my powers. You don't get this good on incredible looks, charm, and sexual prowess alone."
"Man, you must have had to train really damn hard to make up for your weaknesses in those areas, then."
"Ah, Kong, jealousy isn't a good look for you."
"When I'm so naturally amazing on every level, I have to show some flaws somewhere, otherwise the government would cut me open to see why I'm so perfect." I laid a hand on my chest, sighing with fake sadness.
"I guess one of those flaws is self-delusion. Sad, but I guess when you find yourself next to me, you have to start propping yourself somehow." Assault patted my shoulder, giving me a pitying look that turned into a grin when I chuckled.
Our joking lasted until we reached the doors. Assault reached for the handles, but I stopped him.
"Real quick? Is Piggot letting this go down to get a better idea of who I am? Of what I might want?"
He looked over at me, hands still on the handles. Then he opened the doors, not saying anything else. Which was pretty much a confirmation to me.
The room was a large, open area, with a massive blue mat in the center made to soften falls. Other than that, there was nothing. Just hard concrete all around. I could see a few cracks and dents along the hard cement, and a bunker style room on the far end, presumably for spectators. From what I could tell, the room was for nothing but superhuman combat. Perfect.
Inside were Vista and Clockblocker, both in full costume. The pair stood in the center of the room, talking calmly to one another, and turned as we entered.
"Sup," I said to them, waving placidly. "How was priso- I mean, how was school?"
They grinned, though with Clockblocker's full face mask I had only the movement just above his chin to confirm that.
"Well, they gave us some extra time out in the yard today, so it was nice. Food was still crap though," Clockblocker said.
"So what's first!?" Vista seemed eager, looking between us, a hope for violence in her face that made me smile fondly.
"Well." I looked at the doors behind us. After a moment I shrugged sadly. "I was hoping someone else would come, but—"
There was loud knocking, followed by a bright female voice I recognized. "Hey! Is this it?"
"I don't know," a much less enthusiastic voice said. "The lady at the front said it was the one."
The door opened. A head popped in. One wearing a tiara.
"Oh hey!" Victoria Dallon grinned at us, opening the door to show Panacea behind her.
"Sup!" I said to the pair, smiling at Panacea. "Glad you made it." I looked over at Glory Girl as they walked over. I thought about asking why she was here. Didn't Gallant have a date with her? Then again, saying that would mean I knew Gallant's 'secret' relationship with Glory Girl, so…
"I wasn't expecting you," I said to Glory Girl.
"Me neither." The distaste in Vista's voice was actually really well hidden.
"Yeah, well"-the blonde powerhouse shrugged, grinning-"When Amy told me she was going to train with the Monkey Cape, I had to see what was going down!"
"I really need a code name soon," I muttered under my breath before turning a smile to Glory Girl. "Are you going to join in?"
"Sure." She put a hand on Panacea's shoulder, grinning. "Have to back up my little sis after all."
Clockblocker seemed nervous. Vista and Panacea were varying levels of dismayed, though Vista had more anger to it. Panacea seemed more… robotic somehow. Like she was running on autopilot. Assault was looking around curiously. And I was thinking things over.
It was pretty clear that Glory Girl wasn't used to people saying no to her, and had seen little wrong with going somewhere she hadn't been invited. You have to admire that kind of confidence.
"Well, I figure we'll do some sparring." I looked around the group. To be honest, I hadn't come in with a plan. I'd just thought, 'Let's train with superheroes!' and went from there. Now that I was on the spot, with five people looking at me, I racked my brain for ideas.
"We have two options." I explained, faking confidence where there was none. "We can do team battles, or one-on-one. The goal either way is find weaknesses in our fighting styles, as well as figure out ways to work together and alone against bad guys."
I looked over the others again, crossing my arms. "Now, Panacea, you are the least combat-oriented of us, so anything we do for you would have an emphasis on dodging and moving about at speed. I'm talking parkour medic here." She seemed ready to say something. Realizing she was going to mention my promise to teach her to fly, I hurriedly said, "I want to hold off on any serious training until we get one-on-one time though."
She gave me an unreadable look. I used body-read, and saw signs of suspicion and disbelief. So she probably thought I might not be able to teach her to fly at all. I ignored that in favor of speaking again.
"So, single matches will probably be best. Just to get a good overview and such. I'm the newbie, so I think me taking you guys on first would be best."
"Uh, you sure about that?" Clockblocker said. Yep, definitely nervous.
"It is just sparring," I reminded him. "Besides, I'm the one taking on people who bring down guys like me for a literal living. Not to mention your power kinda counters everything."
"Yeah, right up until a fist enters my skull at super-speed." He held his head dramatically. "I like my face, Kong. I've had it for as long as I can remember."
I chuckled at that. "Okay, so who's fir—"
"Me!" Glory Girl called out, a wide grin on her face as she raised her hand. "Let's do this!"
"Color me surprised," Assault said sarcastically, apparently familiar with Glory Girl. He looked over at me. "Gotta be honest bro, this might not go well."
"Maybe." I walked towards one side of the mat. "But life is risk, right? Good lives anyways. Boring ones don't get to do cool stuff."
"That's what I always say." Glory Girl flew to the other side, clearly knowing what to do. "So, what are the rules?"
That was easy enough to decide. "No groin shots."
"Well that's no fun." The blonde powerhouse winked at me. I wondered if she realized a hit there could incapacitate women as well, but realized she was probably teasing me.
"We aren't doing this for points either, and we aren't going for knock-outs. We'll just go for about five minutes, try and see how we can improve." I looked over at Clockbloker. "Can you count us off?"
"Sure." He walked to the center of the mat, standing at the halfway point between Glory Girl and I. He looked between us. When he spoke again, it was in the overdramatic tone of a ring announcer. "Ladies, gentlemen, and Assault!"
"Heh." Assault smirked at that, not the least offended.
"Welcome to the main event!" Clockblocker pointed his finger at Glory Girl, half-laughing as he spoke. "In this corner! The Blonde Avenger! Alexandria-Lite! She's here to kick ass, take names, and wear a way too-short skirt! Glooooory! Giiiiiiirl!"
She laughed, waving her hands in the air for the imaginary audience.
"And, in the opposite corner! The Monkey God of Fitness!"
"The what?" I blinked.
"The King Kong of the Bay! Bruce Lee's descendant!"
"Let's not go too far!" Assault called. "He's got some work to do to get that strong!"
"The Cape who can't choose a name!"
"That's not my fault!" Clockblocker ignored me.
"The Mighty Koooooong, atleastuntilhegetsarealcodename!"
At that point I was laughing too hard to focus. Clockblocker bowed as we all clapped at his theatrics, then backed away.
"Okay. On three." He looked between us.
Glory Girl lowered into a stance eagerly, something I recognized as a combination of standard self-defense tactics and her going for something she thought as cool. In her defense, she did look cool, bouncing slightly as she smirked at me.
My body shifted, legs and arms moving into a stance of my own. She stared into my eyes, unblinking. I made sure to blink evenly. At the speeds I move, clear eyesight is a must, and unblinking staring contests seemed like a bad idea.
"One!"
Glory Girl. One of the top contenders for strength and durability in the Worm universe. She was experienced in combat. More than that, she loved it. Loved being a hero, kicking butt, so on and so forth. She was confident, standing there.
"Two!"
Super-speed brought things to a nice, slow pace. I focused on my ki again, trying to make it flow through me to increase my abilities, but it slipped my grasp. Despite that, I still saw Amy gasp out of the corner of my eye. Apparently she was seeing something in my attempt.
"Three!"
The fight was on.
-
Glory Girl's opening was brutal in its simplicity. She flew straight at me, fist pulled back, a wide grin on her face.
I blasted her in the face.
Of course, there was no way it would hurt her. According to Wildbow, her powers allowed her to tank a blast from Scion without a scratch, and that guy could pop cities. No way could my comparatively weaker blast hurt her.
That wasn't the point though. Glory Girl yelped in shock as a round yellow ball slammed into her force field and exploded. She had no idea of my new power, and hadn't expected it. The explosion blinded her briefly as well. I moved in at super-speed. The next thing she saw was me.
I didn't punch or kick her. The truth was, I wasn't sure if her field had been dropped at all, and I didn't want to risk punching her in the face without knowing if she could take it. Instead I grabbed her by the shoulders, spun around, and threw her. As fast as I was, she had no way of countering me.
She stopped mere seconds after I threw her, stopping in midair and coming back at me, grinning like a madwoman. I watched her fly towards me, fist cocked back once more. I didn't move a muscle, studying her.
Once again, her fist slamming into me hurt like hell. I was sent flying from the point of impact on my chest, and slammed into the wall behind me with a crack of concrete. Air exploded past my lips, and something in me felt horribly hurt.
It was cool actually. Being blasted into a wall after a punch is pretty much a staple of the superhero genre, anime or comic book.
I spat to the side, then grinned through the pain at Glory Girl. "That all you got?"
She zoomed forward again, fist outstretched. I ducked her punch, letting it imbed into the wall behind me. Then, with all the strength I had, I punched her in the face. As planned, all I hit was an invisible barrier around her skin. She didn't even move, simply kicking out at me.
My finger flicked her in the stomach.
She went flying back, eyes wide with pain. Her heels skidded against the floor, then she was rolling back.
Everyone went still. I wiped my lips, noting the streak of red left where I'd cleaned them on my arm. I looked up at Glory Girl, ignoring the others.
She slowly rose up, only to fall to one knee as she clutched her stomach.
"Hurts, right?"
She looked up at me as I rubbed my own chest.
"It's why we practice. So that we can get over the pain, fight through it, and kick ass with blood on our lips and a smile on our face." I got into a stance. "I'm faster than you. But your shield gives you invulnerability against my attacks, and you're stronger. As far as I can tell, a really big hit shorts out the shield for a second, but we can figure it out so you can work around that weakness."
I smirked at her. "What do you think? Want to keep fighting, get some blood on your lips? Or you quitting?"
She stared at me. For a moment, I wondered if I'd screwed up. In the books, from what I'd read, the initial shock of realizing she was actually vulnerable to something had been enough to throw her for a loop. And I didn't want to do that to her. But at the same time, Crawler had managed to hit her with acid after breaking her shield, nearly killing her.
So I wanted to help her. By smacking her until the lesson came across.
I wonder if that was the Piccolo or Vegeta part of me coming out?
Glory Girl rose up as I mused. She looked me in the eyes. Then she was flying towards me. She was cautious now, her punches far more conservative, less-showy. I blocked her blows, wincing at the force of them, then punched her in the face again.
She backed away before my second blow could land, then dived back in, face scrunched up in focus. I nodded.
"Good," I told her as I blocked and countered. "But what if you fight someone with ranged attacks like mine? They'd be able to keep you back, and simply destroy your shield before killing you." I wrapped her right arm in my left, trapping it, then punched her in the face, followed by stopping my second punch an inch from her face before she could escape, making it clear that, with her shield down, she would have. "Grappling techniques are also a must. Who trained you by the way?"
She forced herself from my grasp, punching me in the jaw. As I stepped back, feeling my mouth for any broken teeth, she flew upwards. "My dad!"
I responded with a ki blast. She flew upwards again, dodging it. Suddenly I was playing surface-to-air missile to her fighter jet. She dodged and weaved through the air, and I sent wave after wave of force after her. Several of my blasts hit her, but apparently they couldn't shatter her shield the way my stronger punches could. Once she realized that, she dive-bombed me at full-speed, roaring with joy and rage.
The blonde powerhouse slammed me into the ground. She rose up, sitting on my chest. She punched me in the face once, then twice, as fast she could, my head ringing under the blows.
God did that hurt. Even Stormtiger's best didn't match up to Glory Girl's pissed off blows. I growled, trying to block her, lashing out as well. She snarled back, sounding more animal than girl, and shattered the concrete beneath us with her blows.
I snapped my lower half up and wrapped my legs around her neck, pulling her over backwards to slam the back of her head against the ground. The blow didn't get through her shield, but it was enough to back flip off the ground and escape.
Without knowing why, I roared at her. The sound was like nothing I'd ever released before. Something less than human.
She roared back. I felt her aura flare around her as a wave of emotions. Anger and fear, flowing together like an intoxicating drink, making me half want to curl up and simply absorb the delicious flood of emotion.
We zoomed towards each other, me with super-speed, her with flight. My fist hit her in the stomach with both super-speed and strength. She grabbed me by the arm, spun around, and launched me towards the ceiling.
I reoriented myself in the air and slammed into the ceiling feet first, cratering it. Then I bent my knees and pushed off towards Glory Girl. She avoided me by flying out of the way, and I left an ankle-high depression where I landed. Then I ran at Glory Girl and started punching her. No full force blows, just hitting her over and over. She raised her arms, trying to force me back. I grabbed her wrists, pulled them down, and headbutted her in the face with all my strength.
Bad idea. Her shield shattered, but my head was ringing. Still, my anger was enough for me to push through. I gave her a light slap to the forehead that carried all the force of a solid punch, giving her just as much of a headache as me.
She staggered back, shouting in pain. I swept her feet out from under her, only for her to float instead of fall, zooming back from me.
I clenched my fist, hard, ready to attack again. Noticing that she'd somehow torn my shirt during the fight, I ripped it off. I growled, then unclenched my fist before clenching it again, feeling like I couldn't tighten it enough.
For some reason, despite my strange anger, I was smiling. And so was she.
We looked into each other's eyes. Body-read told me why she was happy. She was going all out. Finally, she had someone who she could smash, and not break. Someone who tested her, made her feel strong without being weak themselves.
"You know Victoria." My knees bent slightly. "We're not so different."
She didn't respond. She didn't have to. Her body told me what I needed to know.
-
For the next minute and a half, we sparred. When it was over, Assault called it. Glory Girl had won, in my mind. The fact was, her shield could let her tank hits, and I just wasn't willing to simply blast her with my strongest blows. For the brief seconds she was vulnerable, she could be hurt as easily as any human being. Whereas she could hit me at her strongest and be assured I could take it.
That said, we were both bruised and bloody. There were a few spots of red on the blue mat in the center of the room, and twice the craters there had been.
The taste of copper and sweat was strong on my tongue. I spat blood to the side as I walked over to the others. Glory Girl was nursing a nasty black eye, and I must have had one of my own, as well as bruises. Still, we were both grinning.
"So my problem," I said when we had gotten to the others. "Is simple."
"You're an adrenaline junkie?" Assault asked, looking between us in bemusement.
"No." I pondered that. "Well, maybe a little."
"You're crazy!" Vista said. She looked at Glory Girl, and seemed to take a little pleasure in the sight of her bruises and bumps.
"Okay, honestly, what cape both enjoys their job and isn't a crazy adrenaline junkie?"
"I'm not," Panacea said, raising her hand hesitantly. I gave her a look, but decided not to comment.
"Look, my actual problem is that I'm having trouble with my super-speed. I keep planning things out when they should be instinctual. I'm leagues faster than Glory Girl, but she was able to hit me in between the beats of my thoughts."
"Yeah, well this is the first time since I triggered that I've actually been hit." Glory Girl laughed.
"You okay?" Panacea asked, looking worried. "You want me to heal you?"
"Don't," I said.
"What?" Panacea and Glory Girl said in unison.
Before speaking, I stretched. A small pop in my back was followed by a flood of relief. A sigh of relief left my lips.
"Maybe just our faces, so we don't get weird questions." I told Panacea. "But you don't need to heal every bump and bruise I think. If we heal naturally, our bodies will get stronger overtime. And hell, we shouldn't use you for a crutch when we have booboos."
"Booboos?" Assault mumbled, cocking his head to the side.
She eyed me. I mouthed the word 'later' to her. I really had to discuss her practice of overhealing to make up for her issues. I read enough fanfics to understand that Amy was suffocating. Her powers, like all powers in this universe, were made for conflict, and her unwillingness to use it as such meant that she was constantly getting tempted to use them to make diseases and straight up maim people. That's just how shards work. They push their holders to fight, to break shit. Which meant that her constant worries about turning to evil were getting compounded by the constant images of atrocities her powers were pushing her towards.
Amy's refusal to use them for anything but healing, her personal issues with her mom and Victoria, and the constant pushing from her powers to incite conflict, were tearing her apart.
I could see it in her. Body-read told me the truth, clear as day. She was pulling into herself. Maybe she wasn't as bad as she could get. It took a long time for things to get to the point where she ended up in the Birdcage. But she was on her way.
"What do you think, Sailor Moon?" I asked Glory Girl jokingly.
"You would be a terrible Tuxedo Kamen. You just aren't fruity enough." She smirked at the shell-shocked look on my face. "Looked up Sailor Moon after you made fun of me last time." With that explanation, she turned to her sister. "Yeah, he's right. As long as anything isn't broken, maybe leave it." She winced. "Well, and the bruises. I don't want Mom yelling at me cause of this."
"Oh shit." I blinked, suddenly realizing how this looked. "I just beat up a teenage girl…"
Assault coughed, looking embarrased. "Yeah, that actually is pretty shady. Didn't think of that."
Fudgenipples.
Panacea placed a hand against my arm. As I watched, the bruises on my arms began to shrink. It was really cool, watching blood flow back into veins underneath my skin. The feeling was a bit icky, but my face and arms suddenly stopped throbbing. I sighed in relief again, patting Panacea on her head in thanks. She squeaked, surprised. "Thanks."
"No problem," She said.
"Okay, who's next?" I looked over at Clockblocker and Vista. "What do you guys think?"
"I think I'm having second thoughts," Clockblocker said easily. "Seriously, I don't like getting hit. My face is amazing. You can't see it, but I'm telling you, I'm a damn heartthrob of a man."
"I can heal you if you get hurt," Panacea reminded him.
"Yeah, but what would you do about my emotional pain?" Clockblocker dramatically held a hand to his heart, shaking his head sadly. Glory Girl snickered, then winced.
"I'm down," Assault and Vista said at the same time. They looked at each other, surprised.
"Yeah, that works." I cracked my neck. "You two against me."
"Getting kinda arrogant, aren't you, bro?" Assault said. He sounded legitimately annoyed too.
"No, actually I'm fully expecting to get my ass kicked." He blinked. "There are tons of parahumans with powers that effect environments and mess with velocity and stuff. I need to know what to expect. And this way is safest."
"Are you sure this isn't you being an adrenaline junkie again?" Vista narrowed her eyes at me. "Cause you're still smiling."
"…Maybe."
-
I got my ass kicked. Massively so. Assault and Vista, working together, were a damn strong team. Together, they turned my surroundings and speed against me. What does super-speed matter when your opponents can either distort space to their advantage or mess with kinetic energy, momentum, and inertia?
Vista would mess with the distances of the room, making my running and jumping land in just the wrong places. She was a master at it. I have to imagine that her mind was clicking at an insane pace to compensate for my speed, because even at my fastest it was tough for me to tap her. (Just small blows, nowhere near painful.) One second I'd be sprinting towards her at a full sprint, the next she was twenty feet to my left. Another time I was jumping towards Assault, then he was somehow under me, as though the floor had dropped. The ceiling, walls, and floor dipped, dropped, and lengthened at random intervals, making me feel like I was inside the insane world created by a funhouse mirror, the world distorting as I rushed and leaped.
Assault was almost as bad. When I jumped, all my momentum would disappear. When I hit him, my blow's force would negated and redirected into me. I felt like a movie getting switched from play to fast-forward and back, constantly moving back and forth between super-speed and normal speed even as Assault turned my own force against me.
More than once, I'd tap Assault gently with a palm to his chest, and he'd respond with a blow that carried both my force and his own. Vista kept appearing when I least expected while throwing rocks at me. For the purposes of the exercise we considered them 'grenades', as those were one of the things on the list that could conceivably hurt me, and so Vista was focused on moving to vantage points where she could tag me while Assault slowed me down.
That said, I gave them a hell of a fight. My speed was enough that I could quickly respond to the changes in the battlefield as they came. While Assault could redirect my energy and stop his own, I could still keep him on his toes. Vista, while definitely the superhero equivalent of a prodigy, had trouble dealing with my super-speed at times, and got tired from the constant use of her powers. Both of them got tired as the fight went on, forced to compensate for me. When I realized that, I went into overdrive. I ran around the room like crazy, leaping, ducking, and just sprinting, forcing the two to use their powers to defend themselves as I aimed to hit them gently.
They won, same as Glory Girl. At least, I'm saying they did. When time was up they'd scored more hits on me than I did on them. They were more tired though, since my stamina was unnaturally high. I also didn't use my ki blasts. The damn things were too lethal. My kingdom for Solar Flare!
I was overall really pleased with the results of the session. I wanted to continue, but then Panacea and Glory Girl got a text on their phones.
"It's our mom," Panacea explained to me as she looked down at her phone. "She wants to know where we are."
"You didn't tell her?" Assault asked, surprised.
"…No?" Panacea said with a wince.
"Ah man." He sighed. "Brandish already hates me. She's going to shove her fist into my mouth when she finds out about this."
"My mom hates you?" Glory Girl blinked. "Why? What did you do?"
Assault chuckled, running a hand through his hair. "Ah, you know. Old memories and all that."
In other words, she'd somehow gotten wind of his criminal past, and was convinced he was still evil.
"If you knew she hated you, why didn't you say anything about it before when I mentioned Panacea was coming?" I asked.
"Because I live in the moment, Kong. In the moment."
"You didn't want to think about it."
"In. The. Moment."
"Well, she's pissed." Glory Girl closed her phone, sighing. "We've got to go. You want to do this again sometime?"
"Yeah." We clasped arms, then I looked over at Panacea. "Hey, come over here real quick. Quick lesson."
Panacea looked excited, apparently knowing what was coming and eager. The two of us walked over to the other side of the room.
"Okay. So here's the first step to flying," I began immediately. Her eyes were focused on me. "You sensed my ki when I sent out that blast earlier, right?"
"Yes." She nodded her head. "It flared for a second. And it feels different now. From other people I mean."
Really? Huh…
"How would you describe it?"
She quirked her head to the side, her hood slightly shifting. "Well it's… a different color, I guess? It's still bigger, but now it feels like it's supposed to do something, instead of just being there. I don't know."
Huh. So ki that is capable of being used feels different from standard ki?
"Okay, well you need to get your own ki to have the same feel," I said. "Start by meditating. Watch."
I sat down on the cold concrete floor, my legs crossed. I gathered my ki, making sure to go slowly and carefully as Panacea watched.
"You have to guide your energy. Like learning to control the flow of your blood. Then, learn to focus it. To make it do the impossible," A light came into life between my fingers. "And manifest. This is the first step. When you have more ki, you'll be able to unleash ki blasts like me, but that's chump stuff. Flight is the real challenge. From there, more crazy shit is on the path." I opened my eyes to look at her. "You got it?"
She was still staring at the light in between my palms. When I asked her again, her eyes flickered to meet mine. "What?"
"You got it? At least enough that you can start practicing until we meet again?"
"Oh! Yes, I think I get it."
"Good." The light disappeared from between my hands. "Now. One last thing. And this is essential." I lifted a finger sagely. "Pushups."
"…What?"
"Pull-ups. Jogging. Jazzercise." I smiled at the dawning horror on her face, brown eyes wide and mouth half-open. "Ki is the energy of life. The healthier and stronger you are, the more ki you'll have. So it's time to start working out scrub."
"F-For how long!?" she squeaked.
"If you like the idea of flying? For as long as it takes," I told her simply. "We'll draw up a program for you. I'm half tempted to have you do the '100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, 10 kilometer run, every single day.' workout, but you won't look good bald."
"What?" She looked both confused and horrified now.
"Trust me." I placed my hands on her shoulders, smiling. "This only so that you can fly, not turn into Bruce Lee. One day you'll be flying next to me and Glory Girl. We'll get you a plaque."
She frowned. "Wait. Can you even fly?"
"Not yet."
"Then…" Panacea looked at me. Suspicion flowed from her body. "How can you teach me?"
"Good question." I lifted a hand to point at the wall. A ki blast left my palm, and smashed into it. Panacea looked at the wall, then me. "I couldn't do that yesterday. My powers are based in learning martial arts. And in teaching them. If you focus, if you're disciplined, if me and you push ourselves to the pinnacle of human ability and beyond."
I was trying to be confident. But really, I was worried. Once again, she was doubting me. I prayed, hoping she would give me the chance.
I can't tell you why I wanted to teach her so badly.
Maybe it was her powers. If she could get as strong as Krillin, but have her powers as well, she'd become powerful enough to change the world in a big way. But she didn't have the mindset for that. She wanted to be a good person, but she wasn't geared for combat. She probably just wanted to fly for the innocence of a youthful dream, not because it might help her heroics.
Maybe it was her home life. I don't like seeing people unhappy. Men, women, children, if I could help someone out, I tend to do it. If I trained her, maybe I could give her a safe place, the way people had given me one when I was a kid.
Or maybe it was the Saiyan part of me. Maybe, when I told her my powers leaned towards teaching martial arts, I wasn't entirely lying. But that was debatable.
For now, I was simply happy to get a simple, if still suspicious, nod.
-
Panacea and Glory Girl left after that, leaving the rest of us.
"So, what do you guys want to do now?" Clockblocker asked as Assault locked up the training room. "Movie in the rec-room?"
"Nothing kung fu related," I said. "My mind keeps breaking down the moves, telling me how fake everything is, how choreographed all the moves are. Bruce Lee movies keep telling me how much the dude was holding back."
"Nothing for little kids," Vista added. "They always talk down to the audience."
None of commented on that.
"We could always go old school," Assault said as he put away his keys. "Star Wars?"
"Yes!" I raised my hands in the air. The others stared at me. I coughed, lowering my arms. "I uh, that would be nice, yeah."
"Dude," Clockblocker said. "You're a nerd?"
"Enormoursly so." I admitted easily. "I had a big party to celebrate my thousandth watch of the original trilogy."
"Original?" Vista asked, cocking her head to the side. She probably would have kicked me if she knew how adorable I thought she looked when she was confused. "There's more?"
"On Earth-Aleph I think," Assault answered. He gave me an odd look. "I think Micheal Bay made them. Never seen 'em though."
"Michael Bay?" I thought about that. On the one hand, the prequels were already bad. On the other hand, Michael Bay. "Yeah, lets just watch the original set."
-
Later that night, after watching the Star Wars movies together, I headed to my room. I meditated for a while, checking the clock every once in a while. Then, once I felt the time was right, I put on some jeans, my combat boots, and a shirt.
At around midnight, I left the building at super-speed. More than a few papers flew in the wake of my flight, but soon my boots were hitting pavement, and I was running into the city. I stuck to the shadows, keeping off main streets, and made sure to keep an eye out.
While watching the movie with the others, an idea had hit me. I needed to start making plans, to start making moves. But to do that, I needed certain people. Problem was, I had no idea how to contact many of them. But I did know something.
Bitch, AKA Rachel, kept several shelters for dogs around the city. And I had a nose about as strong as a dog's.
Probably an idea that would get me in trouble. The PRT had made it clear they didn't trust me, and this little run would make them angry. But, in the end, the PRT and Protectorate weren't necessary. I liked the people there, and their resources were useful. But if I had to, I could go anywhere in the world and survive. I could hunt wildlife with my bare hands, work out using boulders, and meditate. If I need entertainment or research, super-speed meant I could rush into any town and do my thing with ease.
So, if they decide this little run was worth arresting me, which I doubted they would, then I fully believed I'd be just fine. With that in mind, the journey was worth taking.
Though my new allies' faces flashed into my mind for a moment.
In the meantime, I took deep whiffs of the air. The second I smelled dog, I went after it.
The first place I found was a just stray mutt digging through trash in a back alley. She was a tiny thing, a puppy really. I was getting ready to leave her. Then she looked up at me, startled at my appearance. Our eyes met.
She had brown fur, matted down with mud and muck. Her ears were floppy, and her paws were too big for her still growing body. She barked, an almost pathetic sound. Then she sneezed so hard she fell over, eyes widening in surprise.
"Damnit." I said with a sigh.
Minutes later the puppy was in my arms as I ran at a gentle pace, tongue lolling out happily as the wind rushed past her face.
The next place I found was a legitimate animal shelter. I thought about leaving the puppy there, then I conveniently forgot to do so after she affectionately licked my face.
After that was just a house in the suburbs where the owner had two dogs, both of which were outside. The puppy got some of the food that the owner had left in a bowl outside. I petted her as she ate, and she wagged her tail.
If you aren't getting this, I'm a sucker for dogs.
I ran around for the next hour or so, tracking down every dog scent in the city. While I was at it, I had to stop a few crimes. I didn't have any official way to deal with crime, considering I wasn't supposed to be out anyways, so I tried to be efficient.
Some guy was stealing a car. I knocked him out, took his wallet, and dropped him off on a main street, deciding that was punishment enough.
Three guys had jumped a couple in an alley, and were saying something about what they were planning to do to the woman. I broke their arms and legs and took their driver's licenses, making a note to track them down later and discuss their treatment of woman. The couple ran off, promising to call the police. The puppy growled as we waited, playfully biting my hand, and I left once I heard police sirens coming closer.
A young woman was breaking into a house. I knocked her out and, same as the car thief, left her in a public place, this time sitting in front of a busy 24/7 coffee shop.
One more guy had stabbed a man in the chest after his victim refused to give up his wallet. I broke the arms and legs of the thug, called the police on the thief's cell phone, then carried the victim to a local hospital. My entrance into the hospital, carrying a bleeding man and a barking puppy, caused a bit of a stir, but I left in a hurry.
It took a while before I found what I was looking for, having to slow down to make sure I didn't drop the puppy or hurt it with my speed.
I didn't even know it at first. I reached a spot where I smelled a bunch of dogs had been, but only found an empty lot. It was a large plot of land, covered in weeds and dirt, with lots of old wrappers littered throughout and surrounded by fence all around. I used to play in places like it as a kid, pretending to be a soldier at war.
I circled the place for a bit, confused. I took a deep whiff of the air. Comically, so did the puppy in my arms.
Dirt, freshly churned from the smell of it. Grass, dead and otherwise. Water rushing through a metal pipe. And dogs. But nothing else.
With one sense down, I moved forward, slowly going around the lot.
Okay. Think like a villain. I stopped and shook my head. No, that wouldn't work. Bitch is an animal first. She doesn't think in human terms. So I have to think in dog terms.
I looked down at the puppy. "Any ideas?" She looked up at me, confused. "That's what I thought."
Dogs. If a dog want to hide something… I remember the smell of dirt. The freshly churned dirt. ...They bury it.
I went over the spot in question. The difference was subtle, but I could see the line in the dirt. I reached down in the dirt, the soil pulverized by my steel-hard skin, and hit metal. With the stars providing light, I dug. The puppy helped as best as it could. It took a bit to uncover the door.
It was big enough for one person, made of what looked like the side of a boat. There were a few scratch marks on it, probably from one of Bitch's dogs. I reached down, then stopped. I took a deep whiff. No strong smell of plastic or any weird chemicals. Just in case, I picked up the puppy, took her to the other side of the lot, then used my super-speed to run back to the door and open it.
No explosion.
I picked up the puppy as she ran over to me, then slowly made my way into the darkness.
-
The puppy was still eating when they arrived. There was dog food of course. High-grade no less. I was sitting on the floor, meditating again. The whole place was built like a bomb shelter. Considering who Rachel's sponsor was, that made sense. The dogs were all in cages, big ones with lots of room, and there was a place in the back for them to play around in, as well as a bunch of squeaky toys.
They'd panicked when I first came in. I didn't respond to them, my experience with other dogs telling me that there was nothing I could do short of killing them to get them to stop barking. I choose to wait them out. Eventually, as I meditated, they quieted down.
The puppy must have been have starved when I found her, because she was enjoying the dry dog food with gusto, ignoring the lizard squeaky toy I'd given her. She was still dirty, smelled nasty, but she was also adorable, happy, and on her way to full.
As I meditated on the concrete floor, I tried to extend my senses. It wasn't working. For some reason, I simply couldn't break whatever barrier Vegeta had when he learned how to sense ki energy. I kept at it though. At the same time, I tried to control the ki flow through my body, see if I could learn to form it faster, use it to strengthen my body.
That is what I was doing when the lights went out. It was creepy. The dogs began to whine. But the sound was muted. The back of my hands had been resting on my knees, the sensation of jeans beneath my skin was suddenly fading.
My eyes remained closed. I didn't respond, and I focused on my ki. Maybe I was approaching it from the wrong direction? I'd been thinking of ki from the same perspective as blood flowing through veins, but maybe it was more like miniature cells through my body, like my skin cells?
"Who are you?"
I opened my eyes. As I did, the darkness began to disappear. It all flowed back in the form of smoke. It was unnerving, watching living shadows flow into the body of a black suited figure. He stood with three others, but he was clearly in charge. Body-read had found it hard to understand the physical movement of the dogs, but I could read three of the group very well.
The young man was wearing what looked like a motorcycle outfit, all black leather. His head was covered in a helmet, wreathed in the darkness and painted with a stylized skull. He was pretty big, and I could tell he was a practitioner. He was calm but wary. Ready for anything.
Next to him was another guy, younger than him, though that may have been his far smaller size. He looked like a renaissance faire reject, with a silver coronet, a ruffled white shirt, and skintight leggings tucked into knee-high boots. His face was hidden in a white mask that had an unnerving smile on the surface. He was standing in a relaxed fashion, and body-read couldn't find anything very strong from him.
The third person, a girl, wore a skintight uniform colored black-and-lavender, with the image of an Egyptian eye on her chest. She had long dark blonde hair that hung loosely down her back and a mask. She was also clearly on her way to womanhood, with the sort of figure you often see in magazines. She was eyeing me, looking me over in quick movements, body language inquisitive. As soon as I figured that out, her body language turned bored.
Apparently she'd noticed me reading her, and immediately changed her stance to compensate. Still, it wasn't enough to hide the deeper parts of her body language, and that seemed to irritate her.
The final person was also a girl, well, a woman really by the scent of her. She was wearing the most normal clothes of the group, just a leather jacket, jeans, and boots, with a cheap looking mask of a black dog on her face. She was muscular, by far the biggest member of the group, and had short cut red hair. Her body language was hostile. She was looking for an excuse to kill me. She was hard to read though. She had more in common with the dogs around us than she did the humans and Saiyan in the room.
"I said, who are you?" The leader said again, his voice deep and echoing. I didn't reply. Instead I turned slightly and patted my hip.
The puppy looked up from her bowl, then ran towards me in the clumsy way puppies do. I caught the smelly, happy creature as she came to me, and gathered her in my lap. Then I looked up at the group. One by one, I started naming them.
"Grue. Regent. Tattletale. Bitch." I raised my hand in a wave. "Sup."
"…Seriously?" The renaissance reject had a voice as feminine as his build. Regent cocked his head to the side. "Why don't we just kill this guy and get it over with?"
"Because I'm not here to hurt, intimidate, blackmail, or kill you. I broke in here because I figured there were alarms, and that you would come calling." I looked down at the puppy. "The little one here wasn't planned though."
She barked in reply, lolling her tongue out in a doggy grin, apparently realizing I was talking about her.
"So why are you here?" Grue asked.
"To negotiate." Tattletale's voice was smug. Guess she'd read something in the way I'd done things. I wasn't annoyed. I'd planned on it. "You need us for something."
"Yep." I looked them over, then focused on Bitch. She was vibrating with anger. The dogs around us had gone still.
I rose to my feet, holding the puppy in my arms. I ignored the way Regent and Grue shifted. Tattletale and Bitch didn't move. I held out the puppy.
The small animal looked at Bitch, then yawned. I focused my body language, trying to mimic the way I saw animals offer food to others. "She was starving. Named her Laika. Can you help her?"
Bitch stared at me. Then, she took the puppy.
The instant the puppy was safe in her arms, two dogs in the cages exploded forwards, growing into monstrosities and attacking me.
All according to plan.
