TheDragonAdvancesMarvelMoviesUniversebySolusandra-

by kaviyarasank124

TheDragonAdvancesMarvelMoviesUniversebySolusandra-

The Dragon Advances (Marvel Movies Universe)

By: Solusandra

An OC enters the marvel movies universe from K'un Lun. (Xianxai)

Status: ongoing

Published: 2019-12-14

Updated: 2021-03-04

Words: 138928

Chapters: 10

Original source: threads/801391

Exported with the assistance of

Book 1: Chapter 1: In Soviet China, Adventure Calls You

Authors Note: I've been reading a lot of MCU stories recently and ideas of how to do it… not better necessarily, but differently at least, keep popping into the back of my mind and distracting me from my numerous other stories. SO… I thought I'd bite the bullet and start writing this one. See if it can purge the ideas so I can get back to other works… or perhaps become something in its own right. For those of you willing to sit down and read this through, allow me to offer my preemptive thanks. I would deeply appreciate comments from nitpicks to criticism to praise, but avoid flames if you don't mind, simply insulting an author because you didn't like something does nothing except bleed your own stress. If you must rage against anything I post henceforth, please provide at least a paragraph on why it was out of character, a plot-hole or an accidental tangent into soap boxing rather than intentional philosophy from the current presenter.

Boring stuff out of the way; ON WITH THE STORY!

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

[img: . /revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/185?cb=20180303114303]

[img: . /marvelcinematicuniverse/images/1/10/Noah_ /revision/latest?cb=20180312211153]

[img: . /marvelcinematicuniverse/images/1/17/Closure_of_the_Fear_Dimension_ /revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20180423175529]

[img: uploads/scale_medium/7/73958/3700024-3699511-3698414-immortal_iron_fist_vol_1_24_page_24_k% ]

[img: . ]

[img: . /marvelcinematicuniverse/images/0/05/K%27un-Lun_ /revision/latest?cb=20170319063144]

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

November 31st 1986

The hardest part about falling through an unstable rip between time, space and half a dozen realities should be the feeling of being simultaneously trapped without air or the ability to move while being drawn back and forth through a spiked wheel press built for tenderizing meat. For others, perhaps it would be watching helpless as others slide through the same hole, screaming as they're bent, twisted, crushed and silly stringed in the process of moving from different realities TO further different ones still, their screaming souls drawing out a symphony of terror and pain that could probably star in Lucifer's hell or Lovecraft's spheres.

It's not.

The hardest part comes after, when you are stuck lying on a rock in the middle of nowhere for three hours afterwards. Why? Because that's when you get over the shock and what you just experienced hits you; if you can't suppress it. Despite being somewhere in the middle of really tall snow capped mountains the cold doesn't dull the pain any; after all, its not really my body that's been under assault. Eventually, I am able to do something more than just lay there shaking like a leaf and wheezing in pain; and rolled over.

The good thing is that other than a giant bruise from my landing on my back and maybe some unknowable internal radiation damage from travel I'm really not physically hurt. I have no open wounds, I'm not bleeding out externally or internally, and through the pain I can form coherent thoughts… Mostly of the curses. My body examined, my nerves calming (somewhat) I distract myself and begin to take in more of my surroundings.

If the rock weren't obvious enough, I'm not in Singapore anymore. All around are mountains around me are of the distinctly natural sort. Peaks that would extend into the clouds, if there were any. My fall brought me into a temperate valley somewhere between them. There doesn't appear to be any valley leading out of this hole, it's just one rock face flowing into another, so until I learn to fly or get some really good furs and climbing gear, there's no getting out of here.

Wonderful.

Checking the more immediate area around me reveals it's not just me that came through. The Starbucks table and half of my chair are off to either side of the rock, my computer is on the grass just beyond folded open and lying on its edges like a ^ mark. The power cord and mouse are missing, possibly in other dimensions, possibly still plugged into the wall socket back where I was spending my surprise permanent vacation.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that the tear in reality is closing before my eyes and my son, Nick isn't anywhere in visual range. If I'm lucky, that means he's walked off in search of help. Given I was unlucky enough to get sucked into the devils ass crack however, even chances he's either in another different dimension or still in Singapore.

If he's not here, I hope he's still in Singapore; there at least he's got my account info in his phone, citizens papers and a place set up to live.

Fuck…

Rolling over onto my knees, I check the ground around me, but I've no real training as a tracker. I've no idea what I'm looking for beyond what we learned in the Boy-Scouts and that was forever ago. Seriously, how the fuck are you supposed to tell the difference in grass that's been stepped on and shit something's rolled through?

After chasing down several "leads" I'm left with little more than some extra luggage. Nicks backpack, my 15 year old Navy duffel, an airline neck-pillow, a potted plant, half of a barista (poor guy), a rack full of coffee and no indication of Nick. For better OR worse.

Fighting down a new layer of panic attacks, I began calling out his name, using drill sergeants pitch and mountain echo's to be sure I could be heard all over the valley. In between calls I gathered everything into a pile and began organizing and repacking it. Stuck in a foreign planet or reality? Take stock of your resources and plan for shelter. I had no SEER training, just camping and merit badges, but for the moment, that will have to be enough.

Step one? Find water. Water meant not dying of dehydration. Water meant animals. Animals, in a foreign mountain with no idea which plants and berries are edible, meant food. After I found water, the next step would be shelter.

Scanning the valley again, closer this time, reveals the tree line. There are few enough trees to begin with, but there ARE trees among the grass and crags of this valley. Turning slowly I manage to find what looks like it might be a waterfall, an odd enough sight in mountains this sharp, and below it…. are those buildings?

Well fuck me, how did I miss those before?

Shaking my head, I call out again. "Nicodemus!" When even a minute later there's no answer, I gather up what I can and begin moving towards the cliff face where I saw civilization.

It takes me two hours of trekking through the tall grass and random slopes before I can make out my target clearly. If my eyes don't deceive me, I'm looking at an Asian medieval city of sorts. Given the remote local, likely Tibetan Monastery, but I could be wrong. Maybe they're Uyghurs? I stumble on, slowly becoming more sure of foot despite my growing exhaustion. I have to reach the temple before nightfall. Silly me, but I didn't pack a thermal sleeping back for this surprise dimensional incursion into the Himalayas and sleeping outside is almost as dangerous as the dehydration I'll start suffering some time tomorrow.

There is a problem with my plan however,.. in the mountains, the sun sets before it reaches the horizon. I'm beginning to despair, and staving it off by searching my travel-bag for the blankets when a stone appears out of nowhere an smacks me on the side of the face. It's smooth and flat, at least where it hits me, but I can feel the skin break anyway as my vision explodes into stars and tinnitus shrieks its siren call in my ears. My falling to the ground should have allowed me to dodge the next rock which was already in the air, but whoever had thrown it had apparently accounted for that and the projectile hit me in the shoulder, spilling the contents of the bag everywhere.

Shaking my head and raising my arm to ward off further blows at least to my head, I look around, scrambling to get up. Sure enough, my assailant is in view… though… unless those blow screwed up my vision more than I thought, he's got one hell of an arm. Easily 100 feet away is a bald kid in a mustard yellow robe. His features are strongly Chinese, but the sort of dark that comes from a natural complexion rather than tanning. That should just about confirm it, but… I don't know, there's just something off about him compared to the Tibetans as they're always depicted.

Then I see his mouth moving, and a second later hear the words, and my questions are answered.

He's speaking Mandarin.

I know maybe 200 words in Mandarin. Out of thousands. And given the importance of tonal variation, probably really badly. I'd been counting on Singapore's maintaining English as an official language to give me time to adjust, but nooooooo…. Fucking portal… And I'm deflecting…

"Need. Help. Please? Am lost I." I sound out.

The man gave me a disgusted look and both of his fists erupted into a golden brilliance, lit from within, as though a flashlight were placed against the skin, only much brighter. The power flowed up his arms and pooled in his throat and then he spoke again.

"Follow me, fool." the robed… mage? Monk? Sage? told me, English in a perfect Bostonian accent overlaying his Chinese words, making a strange echo of sorts. "I do not know how you got past me, but the Elders will know how to deal with you."

With that, he turned, his robe loosening enough for me to catch a glimpse of a tattoo on his bare chest. That of a certain dragon. The glowing fists and the tattoo connected in my mind and I knew where I was.

I was in K'un-Lun, fifth of the seven Chinese heavens, and the man who had assaulted me was the Iron Fist.

I'm in a Marvel universe. But which one?

Fuuuck… I think. But then I think about it further and realize something. With all of the power available for the taking… Perhaps my son isn't truly lost to me. I will not give up hope. Not just yet.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

December 1st 1986

The "elders" as I learned around midnight, were Yu Ti the Jade Serpent, Lei Kung the Thunderer and Priya the Red Crane. These were the three immortal leaders of the Order of the Crane Mother, trainers of the Iron Fist and responsible for the protection of K'un-Lun. None of them speak English, and all four of them are offended by my attempts to speak Chinese, so the Iron Fist continues that chi-trick with his throat and acts as translator for us. I explain to them my trip through the portal, the rock where I landed, and beseech them for possible sightings of my son, Nick. They speak amongst each other for a while before the Iron Fist returns his attention to me.

"The Crane Mother," he gestures to Priya, "bids that I do my duty and slay you, protecting K'un-Lun from your trespass. But the August Personage in Jade" He gestures to Yu-Ti, "councils compassion. You did not come here of your own will and mean us no harm. Unless you have more words to speak to us, this leaves your fate to the Honorable Thunderer, who deems you nearly unfit for training."

I take in a deep breath and consider. Before heading for Singapore I'd worked at the Pilgrims Point power station. The Singapore government had been willing to… overlook a number of things for me as a member of their own Nuclear facility under construction. To that purpose, I had spent the last several weeks frantically studying up on my Chinese and still had the Chinese to English Dictionary with me even after the dimensional transfer. I was far from stupid and honestly, I didn't fancy my chances with the Thunderer. But I could perhaps do something equally valuable to protecting the immortal city and gain myself some much needed power in the process.

"I am a scholar and builder." I told him. "If the honorable elders would allow it, I would serve K'un-Lun in such a capacity."

The Iron fist repeated my words to the trio and Yu-Ti laughed. The crane mother then said something that the Iron Fist translated as "A scholar who cannot speak is a fish in the sky." I got about half of it that time.

I pull the dictionary out of my backpack and flip through it a few times. Once I'm sure of what I want to say, I speak. "I am Fast learner. Offer chance, honored elder. This humble I, prove worth."

Priya marched up to me and snatched the book from my hands, flipping through it and speaking rapidly. Yu-Ti then took the book from her and began studying it himself. The five of us sat there for some time as Yu Ti studied the book. Until eventually, he spoke. His words were halting, the pronunciation is strange, but it was clearly English.

"This one is curious," The Jade Pinnacle asked "what he would build for us?"

"With tools and time? Anything." I tell him. "I think a better question, is what do you need?"

"From this one?" Yu-Ti asks, looking amused "'K'un-Lun needs nothing. Even so, To remain in tranquility and safety each resident of heaven must serve until they either rejoin the Wheel Of Reincarnation or cross the Bridge Of Destiny into Nirvana."

I nod slowly. "What would my duties be? Had I nothing to offer?" I ask. "And how do most people get here?" I had an idea from the comic, but they never went into detail. What does it mean to be a city of Heaven? They fight for the order of of precedent in heaven, but what does that mean? And the TV show offered even less. Though… there was something wrong about the Crane Mother, Priya. Something I couldn't put my finger on.

The man hummed "I suppose you would want to know why you are here." He said after considering a moment. "There are three types or residents in K'un-Lun. First and oldest are the seekers, we who follow the Dao, seeking enlightenment. The seekers built K'un-Lun in the Age of Heroes when Dragons roamed the land and it was common knowledge that men could rise to immortality through sheer merit. Over the ages, those who seek the true path have continued to find us here, entering when the stars are right. Next there are the dead. K'un-Lun was forged within this valley because it was here many thousand years ago the first Buddha found the dead queuing for passage beyond. They now reside with their families since past in the civilian quarter until such a time as they seek Nirvana, rejoin the wheel of reincarnation or suffer dissolution having lost all who remember them. Finally, there are the natives. Children of the seekers, the dead and in some special cases, both."

He pauses again, taking a sip of tea brought to him in that moment by a servant. "You are an anomaly. You do not study any Dao, nor are you dead."

"Yet." Spoke Priya, looking up from where she was studying my pocket dictionary with a glare.

Yu-Ti inclined his head "not yet." He agreed. "Certainly you were not born here, Even the S'ahra Sharn know how to speak properly. Instead, you penetrated the heavens through unknown means during a time when the path was thought closed."

His eyes flick to the man still standing behind me. "It is, honorable Dragon." The Iron Fist spoke in his double voice. "I checked it after first discovering him."

I grimace. "I told you, I fe…"

"Yes, you fell through a tear in the dao" Priya interrupted "and seek only your son. Likely another green eyed devil with mane of blood."

I sat there, blinking at her for several long moments, trying to imagine what brought on this hostility. It's one thing for a translator to tell you some lady wants you dead, but another to hear the venomous words from her own lips. Then I remembered old Chinese legends, or at least tropes about them, say green eyes as a sign of evil or demonic possession. A lot of older European tales did too, that was where you got the green eyed jealousy jokes, but seriously…

"His hair is copper, actually" I reply, "I blame his mothers mane of gold." She glances up at me sharply, shocked at something, but hides it quickly enough I would have missed it had we not been glaring at each other. Thinking on it, she's probably not used to backtalk. Now more than ever, I want to avoid the order of the Crane Mother, as otherwise she's likely to try and punish me before killing me. The Yu-Ti's explanation did illuminate why she's so eager to kill me though. City of heaven, meet faithless foreigners. By dying, I would go from something threatening her home and those she was invested in with uncertainty to something well within the expected range of experience. A perfectly female rational.

I still think she's a bitch.

Granted, she's also a powerful bitch who I should be wary of further aggravating. Even ignoring I'm in a place with super-powered martial arts monks that is reportedly removed from reality, literally the only thing keeping her political clout from obliterating me like a Clinton whistle-blower is Yu-Ti's disapproval. And given the pair of them just learned English in a fucking hour she's probably smart enough to make it look like I did it to myself.

Yu'Ti seemed amused by our spat and continued. "As for your duties," he continues, "as an outsider you would be expected to train under Lei Kung or Priya as a protector of the city. Later you would be allowed to take up other hobbies to support the city. Running water, farming, carpentry and masonry, black-smithing and pottery. Being a scholar, scrivener, brewer, alchemist, artist, musician or dancer would require you to prove yourself worthy of a divine peach and joining the noble immortals as a permanent resident of K'un-Lun."

My heart… sank. "By running water, you mean..?"

"Carrying water up the mountain from the falls." This time it was Lei Kung who spoke, his voice deeper than you'd normally expect from an Asian man. Looking over at him, I saw my book was now in his hands. Good fucking god, how intelligent are these people? Or is it just a languages thing? In the comics, at least two of the three here were a million years old and K'un Lun had a magical translation effect, but here at least that was a special Iron Fist trick and the others were learning it from my god damned book. "The city has wells to feed it, but this is good training."

Oooof course it is… savages. I carefully kept my reaction off my face, but by Yu'Ti's indulgent smile and twinkling eyes I suspect I failed spectacularly. "And the dead?"

"The same," the old man admitted "except their participation is the primary use of their time until they engage in their next life."

Nothing ventured nothing gained. "What if I were to build you a means of transporting water easily across the city and into peoples homes, even their rooms on demand with enough work?"

Yu-Ti looked intrigued, but Lei Kung scowled. "Avoiding honest labor is why you are fat, outsider. It will take many months to correct, and…"

"Let him speak, Thunderer." The 'Jade serpent' counseled placatingly. "Tell me, traveler, what would this take?"

"Time, mostly. A lot of wood and rope for the transport system. Ideally access to the smiths and potters if you want it piped into peoples homes. I'd offer hot and cold running water, but I don't think there's enough fuel or metal for me to build proper water heaters."

The two of them looked at each other and chuckled as though at a good joke while Priya actually looked… kindly, at me?

"You might be surprised," The Thunderer told me "what can be found in Heaven."

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

We continued to talk late into the night, but In the end, my words merely amused the leader of K'un-Lun and its order of protectors and I received little.

But little is still better than nothing.

The Crane Mother does not get to kill me for being a Green Eyed Devil with Hair of Blood. I do not have to attend the daily beatings ancient martial artists such as The Thunderer imagine to be classes. But I also do not get access to the library at the Hall of Venerable Ancestors and will be required to participate in the daily running of water from the temple cities various wells and waterfalls.

Imagine… A fabled City of Heaven… not having running water. It's a crime.

They do have a pretty impressive sewer system though, for a medieval city. Running beneath all of the toilets is a series of tunnels tall enough for a child to stand in that uses the flow of the falls above to wash their sewage down the mountain and past S'ahra-Sharn, the city of outcasts formed from those who would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven. I had missed the place because it was accessed by following the river through a hole in the rock wall of the pocket dimension to a pueblo style cave city. While I vaguely recognized it from reading Iron Fist decades ago, I mostly know this because I was threatened with being sent there by the oh so benevolent masters should I fail.

Fail at what? Why delivering on my foolish promise of revolutionizing the cities water supply. Should I succeed, I'll be allowed progressively more access to the cities resources and facilities and eventually prove my worth as a scholar in the Hall of Venerable Ancestors. Otherwise, I'll be condemned to what I remember from the comic being described as "and evil Mirror of K'un-lun ". Fun, right? And the S'ahra Sharn are only K'un-Lun's closest enemies. From outside are The Hand, formed from five travelers such as myself who had been granted immediate access to the Hall of Ancestral Knowledge as I was asking. They had first tried and failed to gain immortality from the Divine Peach Tree at the city's heart. Then they had tried to use forbidden techniques from the library to cultivate their way to immortality quickly. When They were stopped, they assaulted Shao-Lao, temporarily killing him and taking his bones to become corrupted immortals. After this, they were finally banished, considered too dangerous even to leave in the under-city of S'ahra Sharn.

Thankfully at least, the H'ylthri plant monsters don't exist in this marvel continuity. Or at the very least, they don't plague K'un-Lun's slopes. That's the domain of the undead farmers, and battles between the Order of the Crane Mother and S'ahra Sharn. Those who die in those battles return at the Gate of Heaven, a Japanese style archway the city is built around, making the valley and endless war reminiscent of MMO's.

My first four days are spent collecting my spilled luggage, settling in and learning about the water system as it stands now. I am provided a small single room domicile of piled stone, no toilet and a woven reed mat as a bed which I replace with my blanket, a few towels, my fluffy bathrobe and the airline neck pillow. Practically royal furnishings compared to my neighbors. The city also provides each new resident a set of saffron colored burlap robes, which I wear as camouflage over my own surviving garments. Two bowls of rice for food are provided daily by the city, and I am required to provide my own water. Each of the districts have their own set of water runners. The Red Crane's Pagoda where the order lives and trains is tended by a dozen or so disciples. They get their water from the bottom of the cliff on which the city sits, gathering it from the waterfall and not the cities sewage outflow, thankfully. The trip is about half a mile each way and disciples are expected to carry 20 or 30 buckets each day as a means of building stamina. The Noblemen's palaces have servants who take care of them, usually from a cliff right beside the nearest of several waterfalls and the civilian quarter have their own communal wells.

My fifth day, I go down one of the wells at night, carrying a goat tallow candle to check out the water supply. To my eternal gratitude, it's not connected to the sewers, but rather a large grotto. Said grotto is filled with bioluminescent fish and fungus that, rather than polluting the water and turning it brackish, seem to instead purify the water, gravitating to my dripping dirt and sweat, absorbing it as food. The water is slightly sweet indicating a strong content of either iron or phosphorus. Judging by the glowing creatures, I'm guessing phosphorus, but hell, this is K'un-lun, maybe it's iron and the glow is their chi.

Taking several of the fish with me, I share a few of them with the locals the next morning in exchange for two long coils of rope and some woodworking assistance. The first well is finished reworking a week and a half later. A hand crank spins two spoked axles. Mounted on those axles were a pair of knotted ropes which caught on the spokes, keeping the rope from slipping. Between the knots at even intervals were tied buckets with the rope affixed to either side. As the buckets reached the apex of the well and went over the axles, they would dump their water into a tray which opened into a slide. This slide emptied into a large basin. Civilians could then either fill their buckets from the spout, or the basin. This quickly proved popular as it allowed the morning water run go from a never ending issue you had to get up early for, to a quick experience of about an hour.

I didn't charge for use of my contraption, as that would take too long and piss off the undead residents of the temple city, but I did take all of the fish that ended up in my buckets. Those fish, apart from upping my meals to three every day and increasing their quality, were traded for more and more expert help in converting more of the wells around the city to the same system. The work quickly proliferated beyond my control as my hirelings caught onto the fish racket I was running and the good will of the other locals.

The experience also forc…. allowed me to rapidly develop my Mandarin vocabulary and enunciation. As it turns out, Mandarin is something of a bitch to learn even with a handy dandy dictionary as tone, nasal clarity and various modifiers have a LOT to do with being properly understood. There is literally a 200 word long poem of saying nothing but "shi" in different intonations. It talks about a lunatic noble and his encounter with a lion.

Learning the subtleties of Mandarin were not entirely a trial however, as it did allow me to learn a great deal about china as it evolved over the centuries and where it was now. MOST of the dead move on just about as soon as they learn about the wheel of reincarnation, but there are a few in every generation that that stay and some have been here as far back as the evolution of the Chinese from homo-sapiens-erectus mating with the Denisovans in Mongolia and ballooning out from there. That dude, Ja-uruk, looks the part and says his family has their own tower here that stretches from that period all the way through china's 100 or more dynasties to Shanghai about the time the British took over.

The whole family tree is there with no more than a 1 generation gap every now and then. Or, at least that's what Lao-er, his great-X granddaughter from 10th century CE told me over a fried fish. She's got some amazing stories and is pretty consistent on the names and details.

It's in this manner that I learn the latest crop of dead are from the china's 1980's by the British calendar. By Chinese date, the year is 6820, a number made suspect by every dynasty since the flood resetting the date to year 0. By K'un Lun's calendar the year is 472 of the 327th era. Each era being 1000 years long. The remaining dead were mostly Taoists, with a good mix of Buddhists for substance and just a few Christians and Muslims for flavor. The only atheists are from Lao-er and Ja-uruk's family from the time before K'un-lun's founding. The freshly dead were from the tail end of China's "great leap forward" on all sides of the political divide, from genocidal communist to dissident from the killing fields to normie Chang townsman to city slicking businessman and student. Mutants were a thing, but either none entered K'un-Lun or they keep quiet about it after getting here. There had also been a number of super-groups making small messes of things ever since world war two where Captain America and the Red Skull kicked off a fad. Some of the older residents thought that this was nothing new however, as there had always been the rare super-powered anarchist fighting the medically or religiously empowered emperor's cousin in china for as far back as any of the solid-ghosts I've talked to so far remembered.

The good thing, I suppose, was that it helped me figure out just where I was. Marvel 199999 or thereabouts, the Movies Universe. This, I determined because one of the more helpful ghosts was a member of the Masters of the Mystic Arts based out of Kamir-Taj 500 years ago. Their Ancient One was Tilda Swinton, a detail I found to be highly telling as the MCU was the one and only continuity to gender bait the Ancient One. My personal head-cannon is that this is the very next universe over, Earth 200,000 because of the presence of Mutants, particularly the X-men. I don't yet know if X-men First Class is a thing here, but one of the ghosts remembers being killed by Charles Xavier in Korea and another by Sabertooth and Wolverine as a pair in Vietnam. As the X-men still aren't included in the MCU it can't be strictly vanilla.

It's as I'm listening to a story from Gna-kalhara about how the Mu empire, now sunk beneath the south china sea, had been working on a lunar colony when the great flood which ended the last Ice age hit that I was called back to face the council. Fa-Lin, The Cranes Daughter came to fetch me by literally grabbing the straps of my backpack and leaping onto a nearby roof from ground level. The roof was three stories up. Fa-lin for reference is not actually one of Priya's daughters, but rather one of her direct disciples. She's a chi-powered martial artist straight out of a Xianxia novel and the only reason she'll never be Iron fist in Danny Rand and Orsen Randell's place is that she's undead and the Iron Fist has to be a living weapon. Apparently, Shao-lao eats spirits as though they were lemon drops in Dumbledore's pocket, no matter how far along their cultivation is.

Good dragon?

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

March 7th 1987

As I'm sat down before the council, I'm introduced to another leader of this merry city, Li Hua, the White Tiger. While the Yu'Ti, the Jade Serpent, The August Personage in Jade, rules over the city as a whole and directly oversees the noble (immortal) cultivators, Priya the Crane Mother leads the inner defense and Lei Kung the Thunderer sees to the outer defense, Li Hua The White Tiger apparently oversees all of the fiddly bits, such as the wheel of reincarnation and civilian housing, development and industry for both the living and the dead.

In the comics, she's also a Russian/Korean half breed who's smoking hot, clad in strips of red leather and wielding battle fans. Seeing her here and having her introduced to me, not as the champion of Tiger Island the third city of heaven "The Tiger's beautiful Daughter" but as White Tiger herself, helps me put a finger on what's been bothering me about Priya and her daughters for the last three months. Priya, the Crane mother, is supposed to be the ruler of another city, K'un-zi; and Davos, son of Lei Kung, would have been her immortal weapon the Red Crane after the man failed to take the position as Iron Fist from Danny Rand. That sparked another memory about watching season 2 of Marvel's Iron Fist TV series.

A fact which distracted me from the question Li Hua was asking me.

"I'm sorry," I told her in Mandarin, "could you please repeat that?"

The woman, dressed in a tight red silk cheongsam and definitively Korean rather than Russian, smirks at me and runs a finger down her curves. "I was asking," she tells me in English, "what facilities you imagine you'll need for the next phase of your project. I feel I can offer you a fair amount of leeway given your industriousness and the faith you've cultivated in your fellow citizens."

"Ah, thank you." I replied, thinking furiously. "I suppose the next step would be piping, so I'll need the cooperation of the blacksmiths and Potters." I pause, thinking, "and a more complete map of the city than I've drawn so far, but I can take care of that." I'm not a city planner or civil engineer, so this will be something of a novel experience. Not new, per say, as the plants I'd worked on before had piping that stretched across miles of facility, but definitely different.

Yu-Ti hums and adds in Chinese. "I am allowing you limited access to the hall of ancestors as well. Only the first floor. You have learned to speak properly, now you must learn to read."

The other two, Crane and Thunderer look at him shocked, but he silences them with a gesture. Li Hua smiles however, revealing the secret. "I look forward to hot baths daily. Also, if the Yu-Ti is willing to allow you access to the library, I would suggest looking into wax paper and oil cloth in place of pottery and metal for piping."

I offer her a confused look. "Why wax paper? Oil cloth could be sewn tight enough, in theory, I suppose, but paper? It'd never hold up to the strain…"

"Amazing things can be done with the smallest amount of chi," she explains, "The first floor should be enough for that, I think."

My eyes widen and I struggle to keep expressions of glee and greed off of my face. "I thank you for your trust, honorable elders." I tell them, bowing deeply.

Priya snorts and Lei Kung shakes his head. "You will not learn such things for a decade, at least." he tells me dismissively. "We expect you to keep working while you study. Li Hua, if I may, send him to the blacksmiths anyway. The boy needs the exercise."

Standing straighter, I adjust my backpack and it's precious cargo. "I will take that under advisement, honorable Thunderer." I tell him, graciously, all the while planning to ignore the suggestion. Perhaps when I can have Chi aiding my recovery rather than a 42 year olds back, knees and poor rations. I've already entirely lost my first world fat over the last 3 months of small… relatively healthy meals.

Receiving a wave of dismissal, I turn and leave through the doors of the temple rather than the balcony I arrived on. Li Hua follows me outside, before summoning an assistant as if by magic and leaping away across the roofs of the immortal city.

"The lady bids me take you to the smithy." The young man with white hair and Japanese features tells me.

I frown. The potters would be more useful, but if I'm going to make clay pipes I suppose I need an extruder. Metal pipes are difficult to make without acetylene and rollers, but clay pipes you only need a funnel with a suspended plug. You COULD roll out the clay or hammer the copper flat and then weld either of them together with medieval tools, but the seams will be shit; prone to cracks, rust, separation and ill fitting sizes if done by any less than a skilled professional. In either case, it'll take a lot more time to do. The real trick will be fitting together watertight pumps and valves.

To my, perhaps rude, surprise, explaining what I wanted too the smiths wasn't difficult. The older ones already knew of the Chinese Rope and Chain pumps and there were already a few world war 1 era Japanese trying to drag their fellows into the modern era, so I wasn't even half through my drawing before they knew just what I was looking for and spinning off their own ideas, such as the screw, rotary and hydraulic pumps. Honestly, I think they were more eager than I was to do this project as it equated to a mandate from heaven to ignore their elders and get something done.

For my part, I ended up helping them load a blast furnace and start pulling copper tubing. I run coke through a wheel mill to crush it and feed it into the bellows to get the metal hot enough to be dragged through an extruder, something I hadn't thought possible with metal. To my knowledge that was only done for wire, and everything else was hammered or rolled.

The things you learn.

At the end of the day, I left the furnace with about a hundred feet of copper piping piled up for shaping. Li Hua's servant popped up almost immediately to remind us that this was going to the nobles houses and so to do our best work.

"I'll also need to build large copper tubs to place on the roofs of each mansion." I remind him.

He scowls at me. "Why? Copper is expensive, you are only allowed this much because it is for the nobility."

I grit my teeth, but speak calmly. "Unless there is some chi magic involved I am not privy to, the water will need to be held on site in a location higher than where the nobles want it to flow to. Not doing so will require more copper. Further, one of the tubs, for there will be two, also needs to be insulated with a thatch that does not burn, so it can be heated with a minimum of fuel." Fiberglass I expect, is going to be rather more difficult to come by, and forget foams. "Li Hua was very eager to have heated water in her house without needing to wait for servants." I explain pleasantly, subtly reminding him that the White Tiger thinks him inadequate.

I think he got the message, as his nose and ears flush red. "I also have been given liberty to use the first floor of the Hall of Ancestral Knowledge." I tell him. His eyes bulge, and he looks like he's about to strike me, but then his head jerks up and he gets an expression as if he's listening to something.

Grimacing, he nods. "Follow me then" he hisses. I do and he sets a brutal pace, which for him is probably a fast walk, the bastard.

Li Hau actually meets us there, smiling for her servant who just about melts into a puddle at the gesture. "Let's get you registered then." She says, guiding me into the enormous stone and red wood building. "The first level is scrolls and manuscripts we've allowed to be translated. They're arranged by those who return them, so organizing the shelves is a constant job for aspiring scholars. The second floor is original manuscripts penned across the ages. Scholars wishing to study there are required to translate on their own and keep the copies in house. The third floor is the hall of memories. where new books are transcribed by experienced cultivators from the imprint left behind by those who have passed on to reincarnation. The fourth floor is the Seat of the Dao, where cultivators record their paths for students of K'un Lun to study. The fifth and final floor is the labyrinth of shades where cultivators who cross the bridge of destiny imprint their secrets into Jade pillars that test the students seeking to prove worthy of such sage tutelage."

She stops at a desk and an attendant librarian rushes up to her. "Get this student a pass for the first floor" she orders him and he runs off to do as ordered.

"So, how do I get access to the higher floors?" I ask, seriously.

She laughs brightly, as though I've said something funny. When I look at her impassively, she quirks an eyebrow and laughs again. "Originally we allowed anyone with the required understanding to do so, but after the Hand, we've restricted it to a series of loyalty tests. Normally for a mortal cultivator such as yourself, you would first need to find us, submit to the Iron Fist, and then surrender both your cultivation and your life to K'un-Lun."

I frowned sourly "So I would have to die?" Or become a slave?

"No," She chuckles quietly, "you would have to forswear your life beyond K'un-Lun is all, vowing to live here until the end of your days." She looks me up and down. "You have no life to go back to, and are offering your expertise, so I have judged this enough."

"Isn't it the hand's mission to return here?" I ask. "They certainly feel no loyalty to the outside world from what I've read." Well, seen, as it was a TV show, but that would probably get me killed before I could explain. Heh heh heh… yeah, don't wanna do that, thanks.

She nods, her expression deadly serious. "Return here and rule." She states, voice deadly calm. "They originally came to us seeking a way to save their children's lives, but when they died anyway the five perverted our teachings and tried to raise them from the dead. The dead cannot leave K'un-Lun, even when the way is open and The Hand did not yet seek to rule. Now they are banished they seek a way to defeat the Iron Fist and our immortal cultivators that they might continue their dark work."

I frowned. "I thought they were banished for attacking Shao-Lao?" I asked confused.

She shakes her head. "A single grain of rice can tip the scales of destiny, but many forget the pile of other grains that weighted those scales to begin with. The story of the Hand is complex and involves many tragedies and more crimes. Many more, after they left. Much of S'ahra-Sharn is made of Hand lackeys who refused to rejoin the wheel. One cannot be forced onto it and the dead remembered do not fade."

Which makes that big community of combatants effectively immortal here. Great. That probably means a lot of the Order of the Crane Mother are former Chaste. Apparently 'our battle is eternal' wasn't just Stick spouting cultist bullshit, it's very literally forever. Well, concrete, well explained afterlives have been great recruiting pitches for millennia, and this one's pretty Valhalla. The Einherjar were hardly an unpopular option, though the lack of good food and parties would probably be something of a turnoff…

It is personally, at least.

"Over the last thousand years, the Hand have returned several times" Li Hua explains softly, accepting the pass from the returned librarian and handing it to me. "And with time, their goals have changed. Only Gao and Murakami have ever offered to repent, and on separate occasions each. Bakuto refuses to believe he has done wrong, Sowande delights in his malice and Alexandra is too proud and bitter to ever bow as she must. Sowande and Murakami now only wish to become more powerful for the sake of power. Bakuto wants to rise to the top so that he can share our teachings with the world. Gao is a whipped dog and Alexandria… Alexandria would now rule the mortal world from K'un-Lun as her capital; or see both worlds burnt to ash around her."

I nod, thinking that over for a few minutes. She seems to sense my next question though, and so stays, watching me, amused. "So, how do I get to the other floors?"

"To reach the second floor you must prove yourself as a scholar on the first floor." She replies, evenly. "That involves a certain level of decorum and service to the librarians along with proof of intellect. Any inappropriate behavior to your seniors or K'un-lun will hold you further back. To enter the third floor, you must be a cultivator, trained in our way and offer your memories to the hall for study and cataloging. To stay there, you must transcribe the skills stored there for the first or second levels. Since you did not come to us as a cultivator, that will involve apprenticing yourself to one of the four orders of K'un-lun until your masters deem your skill sufficient."

"I could not learn on my own from the first and second floors?"

She looks at me, laughter dancing in her eyes. "Perhaps, but how much time do you have? Cultivation is called a way of life, and not without reason." Shaking her raven black hair, she continues, her implication clear. "The fourth floor is for advanced students at core formation stage. You could journey there before that time, but you would not understand any of what is written. The fifth level is for those seeking to become immortals and join the nobility of K'un-Lun. Centuries often go by before one is worthy to walk the jade pillars and the combat experience gained during that time necessary to survive the shades trials."

"Even for a healing saint?" I ask.

She laughs again. "So full of surprises! Yes, combat even for an immortal healer. But enough questions, you have studying to do, young one."

Bowing to her, we part ways.

As I reach the stacks though, I look back at where she left. The more I learn, both about K'un-Lun and the Hand, the more I feel the parallels between us. I very much doubt K'un-Lun would approve of my plans for the knowledge in their library and if Nicodemus shows up at the Gates of Heaven… God help them all, I will succeed where the Hand failed.

For now though… I need a path into S'ahra Sharn. If my son is here, then either the elders haven't been looking for him, have been hiding him from me in the city, or he's at S'ahra Sharn with the undead Hand. The first should have been solved by my rapidly developing network of friends, so that's out. I don't want to believe the second, because it makes little sense outside of a cheesy Saturday morning cartoon plot so that leaves either the last… or his being in another reality. If he's in S'ahra Sharn, then I need to be strong enough to fight or sneak my way into the undercity and snoop around. Simply asking them, seems… deadly. Maybe the right path IS Disney princess-ing it up and just believing in the good in others, but that's not something I feel comfortable with. If he's not in this reality, then I need to leave K'un-Lun and gather the power to re-open that rift, return past their defense and reach or pass through it.

Pretty much… all of that is going to piss off K'un-Lun. I'm pretty sure. Maybe I can frame it as joining the Chaste? Defeating the Hand on the outside would stop their numbers from growing back here, while the Chaste can continue to do so. The failure of their mission would get some of them to rejoin the wheel rather than suffer in hell, and that could cause a cascade…

I'll burn that bridge when I cross it. For now… Let's get studying…

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

March 15th 1987, 8 days later.

"You're doing it wrong, little brother." Tomoi's voice broke my rhythm as I pumped the bellows, fed coal sand into the stream and breathed steadily.

Shaking myself, I focused on him. "Hmm? Rhythm or powder?" I asked, absently.

"No," he replied, shaking his head. "You're trying the breathing exercise for inner awakening, yes? You're doing it wrong. There's a reason you're not supposed to try active meditation until relaxed meditation is instinctual."

I hummed, continuing the physical aspect of my efforts. Over the last week, I'd been spending every extra moment in the library, about 8 hours a day, not including breaks to collect and cook my fish or the nine hours of work at the forge every day. Between the activities I was only getting five hours of sleep, which given all of my activity is not enough. The goal is to have Meditation replace most of my sleep time if at all possible. The books suggested so, but translation was going slowly and I knew I didn't have the full picture.

"Perhaps you could give me a better perspective then… senior?" I almost forgot to add that last part. I'm still not sure about all of the honorifics, and Tomoi is Japanese, not Chinese, despite our shared language and setting.

He huffs. "I would have done this earlier, but I've been waiting for you to be punished." He shakes his head. "You're trying to feel the world around you and shut out internal thought to draw in chi, but that's an advanced technique. In order to get there, you first have to work from within." He pauses a moment to quench the tube we're working on. Setting down his tools, he looks straight at me and begins explaining.

"To achieve first stage enlightenment, you have to connect your soul to your body. Martial artists do this by taking their beatings, meditating on the Dao and focusing their considerable wills on overcoming physical limitations. Sages take a more sedate route, abandoning outside attachments, fasting and dehydrating themselves so that in the end there is only themselves so as to use austerity as their focus. In either case, the basic concept is that the body feeds the mind, the mind shapes the soul, the soul reflects upon the body, reinforcing, feeding and purifying it." He slammed his fist into his chest before making a Buddhist gesture in front of a serene face and then finally lighting up with a faint haze of red flames which reflected off a metallic sheen on his exposed skin. Fire and Metal chi, if I'm remembering the diagrams right.

He looked me up and down. "For you, I would suggest focusing on your exhaustion and loss. Your son is missing, are in unfamiliar surroundings, have been doing a lot and have lost much weight recently. A lot of people fail for years, decades even, because they think that in becoming more aware of their bodies while meditating, not less, they're doing something wrong. But enlightenment in this case is realizing the opposite is true. You must become one with yourself before you seek to become one with the world."

That… made sense in hindsight. Nodding I ask. "Any other wisdom for me, sensei?"

He grimaces. "Do not butcher my language. Abusing these continentals tongue is acceptable, mine is not." Then he pulls out a slate from behind the forge. "I do have some suggestions though."

I stopped pumping the bellows and took it from him, clearing off the Anvil and laying the board down to examine it closer. "You want to build a bathhouse?"

"Yes." He replies simply. "As you almost understood earlier, there is 'something involving chi you do not understand going on'. Disciple Mao tried to explain to you that copper is hard to find, but there is a particular reason why. We do not mine it here, the mine in the pocket dimension ran out millennia ago and we do not trade with the outside world anymore. The copper we do acquire must be recycled from art and weapons or drawn out of the stone by cultivators skilled in the elements of stone and metal over long periods of time. The Order of the Sleeping Tiger has increased their efforts and even brought in masters from other areas to sit in the mines, but they will not be able to gather enough to add plumbing to the the entire noble district, never mind the transient or martial districts."

They could probably get what they need from aluminum, or Iron in the reservoir beneath us, but explaining that without examples could be… difficult. "But you DO think we'll have enough for a rather large bathhouse." I finished, looking at his designs.

He nodded. "Two of them at least" He agreed, "I'd say more, but I should not push my luck. One well appointed house for the noble district, built to our designs by the finest craftsmen in K'un-Lun, and another larger bathhouse built mostly of wood on the style of Onsen in the middle of the civilian district."

I hummed. "None for Priya's Orders of Crane Mother and Lei Kung's Dark Mountain Sect?"

"The inner and outer defenses pride themselves on their austerity" he countered shaking his head. "They also prefer the name 'Chaste', not Dark Mountain, or Black Turtle. You could ask, but I think they'll take it as an insult. Individual disciples will visit the civilian bathhouse and the Elders the Cultivators bathhouse, but in secret, likely as not. The Thunderer prefers to bathe and cultivate in the lake beneath the second set of falls. He says it's bracing, I just think he's a masochist."

The pair of us settled into an easy comradery as we continued to talk and draw until the shift was over three hours later. I redid his piping network and after he explained the use of chi to heat, chill, clean and foul(mineralize) the water, we went about redesigning the system of baths, pools and tanks as well. Some of our more ingenious designs required too much piping to actually work, but we ended up settling on something both the smith and I liked enough to present to Li Hua.

The Tiger's Daughter was disappointed, a point she made clear with her cold and menacing aura, but she understood the reason for the change, and quickly warmed to the idea of bathing in a more social setting. After talking with the leader of civilian operations, we ended up redesigning it again so that there were three smaller, but identical partitions to the bathing houses. Male, Female and Co-ed. There was also discussion about how I intended to pump the water TO the bathhouses in the first place, and I quickly pulled out my maps of the city and how we could use the waterfall and a bit of lumber to create slides that would funnel the water to each location easily. Then the conversation moved onto towels, soaps and medicinal baths, something normally done in private residences using a cultivators own resources.

I struggled to keep mental notes during THAT conversation. There was really just too much to absorb. Sacred herbs, spirit and demon beasts, auspicious times, complex alchemical principles; Tiger's Beautiful Daughter got so deep into it, even Tomoi quickly became lost and just nodded along like a bobble-head, occasionally speaking up when he recognized this or that principle. The Elder caught on though, and it became less of a discussion and more of a lesson after the first hour, during which we were… encouraged to keep notes. Li Hua frowned when mine were in English, but after a quick perusal to ensure I was at least transcribing her words properly, she let it go.

I left with enough research done to account for easily a week at the library, but little context for it all and a desperate wish to have my computer powered up and running once again.

Soon, my precious… soon.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

April 18th, 1987

Following Tomoi's advice had been harder than I'd expected, but when I had come too after my enlightenment it was to find several of my neighbors laying trays of food before me, as offerings to my genius and prayers for my luck to rub off on them. I stopped one of them, a girl named Visha, and asked why.

"Cultivation, as a method of purifying the soul, is one of the few ways to ensure a good life upon reincarnation" she told me blushing. "For those who have committed sins against the world or lived poorly, even a poor human existence isn't guaranteed. But a cultivator cleanses themselves multiple times as they gather power, which goes double for us as residents of Heaven where soul and body are literally one in the same. As a living cultivator, taking the first step of enlightenment as quickly as the dead can only be the favor of the Dao, and so emulating you will increase our own chances. For this we offer gratitude."

I thanked her for the food and let everybody pass by. There was quite a lot here, and I wasn't sure I could eat it all before it spoiled. I was feeling fantastic though. Energy flowed through my body, radiating from indefinable point in my chest. It wasn't my heart, but it was… nearby? And the power pulsed softly with every breath, rising as I breathed in, and falling as I breathed out. Small spikes hit with every beat of my heart and as my mind explored the sensations a rising wave seemed to follow my thoughts. At the same time however, the energy seemed to be draining into my stomach and lower abdomen, probably my intestines, substituting power for the lack of food.

Aaaaaand that seemed as good a place to start as any.

Digging in, I took note of how the energy drain seemed to spike as the first mouthful hit my stomach, but moments later the tide of power coming from my chest began to increase. The drain climbed faster than the return for a while, but as I packed more and more away, the balance rapidly changed, my soul outputting more than my gut was pulling from me to aid digestion and allowing me to pack away far more than I had any right to eat without getting bloated. From there the chi overflowed my torso and rushed out through my blood, seeming to light up the pathways in my minds eye. Raising my arm, I tracked the feeling, but couldn't see any visible difference.

I felt like a god, but visually I wasn't even generating as much chi as the rather lackluster MCU version of Iron Fist. It was disappointing, but perhaps to be expected. Also good for keeping me from getting a swollen head.

Stretching and groaning after a good meal, I felt the soreness in my limbs fading as chi faded into them, vanishing just like it had in my stomach before I started eating.

Thinking about it, all of this made sense. Chi was alternately described as spiritual power, physical power and life force. When you have it, or perhaps simply when you have learned how to feel it, it would naturally follow and enhance your biological processes. It explained all sorts of things like the claims of subsisting for months or years purely on the power of the universe, or the Iron Body techniques that allow advanced martial artists to punch through stone without breaking their skin or bones. Unnatural long life and even immortality.

But would I need to learn how to use it deliberately first? Or would simply having my 'enlightenment' suffice? Briefly I try to move the energy around, but other than increasing the wellspring of chi as my focus ratchets up, nothing seems to happen. Mind forms the soul, Souls reinforces the body. Right. Ok. In most of the manga I know, chi is 90 or so percent physical reinforcement. I'll probably need another enlightenment moment to get to the controlling things part. Think, think…

Tomoi. Or maybe Li Hua. I can't really get a read on Yu-Ti and between the Thunderer and Priya I'm almost certain to get conscripted. Something I'd rather avoid.

Getting up, I use the wet towel method of washing myself and leave my apartment for the work site. We're in the end stages of putting the first bathhouse together and I need to test the sluice and pumps under actual working conditions. It's all disturbingly exciting, given what I used to work on.

Immediately though, I come across a problem. My steps push me half again as far as they used to and I crash into the wall outside my door. There's tittering down the hall, but nobody comes out or makes comments about it. Ah, the double edged sword of Asian Politeness. On one hand, it's much less embarrassing to have people collectively ignore your gaffs, but it's also rather… unhelpful.

Gritting my teeth, I push myself back to a standing position and move again. Chi sinks into my muscles, vanishing as it supports my movements, even as my faster heart rate and breathing causes the source to spike and crest higher. I'm adaptable though, and by the end of the hallway, I've gotten a handle on how to walk normally again. It makes me feel oddly light, as though I'm walking in a pool only without the lateral resistance water provides. Buoyant. Forcing a deliberate laxness gets me out of the building, and I grin.

Time to test myself.

Crouching down, I spring forward into a sprint. Luckily, I don't immediately fall flat on my face and plow the ground with my nose. It's a close thing though, and I stumble several times before settling into a deer-like loping trot. I've seen this sort of thing in pro runners, but it's never been easy for me. Well, it is now. Fuck, doing it is just making me feel MORE jacked, spiking my chi higher. Chi begins to fade into my lungs as I push on, soothing the burning winded feeling running normally slays me with and I watch fascinated as the flows in my body shift to accommodate. Breathing, heart rate, food and thought provide power; digestion, ragged breath, strenuous movement and heightened thought drain power. I almost want to get injured to see how that would affect things in my new awareness now.

That thought gives me pause. What. The. Fuck. Why the hell did I just think that? Does the power affect my mind? Or is it simply the comic geekiness of Having Power that's making me think stupid ass shit? No matter what power I have now, or gain in the future, damage is to be avoided whenever something more important isn't on the line. And there are few things more important than your health. Family for example.

Stumbling to a stop, I rest with my hands on my knees and look around. I've become rather familiar with the layout of the immortal city, over the last several months, and I'm not far from the site of the civilian bathhouse project. It's going to be finished before the Cultivators bathhouse only because slapping lumber together is easier than artistically forming stone and tile. The piping system is just about done for both, it just needs stress testing, as I remembered earlier. We've had a productive month.

Straightening up again, I move to a more sedate jogging pace. The drain on my energy is much less this way, and by the time I reach the construction site, I'm feeling better than I have since… pretty much the moment I got here. Better than I have for the entire year before that too, not to put too fine a point on it. Coming home to find your daughters murdered and your son next to be drowned in the bath does that do you.

Forcing away dark thoughts, I stop by Tomoi.

"You've awoken." He says without preamble.

I snort. "Obviously, unless I'm really good at sleepwalking." I tell him with a grin.

He scowls at me. "Don't be thick, gaijin. Your chi is awakened. You achieved your first enlightenment faster than I expected."

"My neighbors said about the same," I acknowledged. "Maybe it's early, but I'm having trouble making it move how I want it. Willing to offer me any pointers?"

"Meditate more." He replied flatly. "Chi is like a muscle. It starts out as weak and uncoordinated as a baby. The amount you have and your control over it will grow with time and effort. The more important question now is which Dao you intend to follow?"

"Your Martial, or spiritual path." He explained when I looked at him questioningly. "There is only one true Dao, but a thousand ways to arrive there. Lesser truths which guide our path as we come to understand the truth of the universe. One part of that is your method of cultivation. I can only give you the vaguest advice about the paths from North and South America, Europe or Africa, but there are a few manuscripts for each in the second floor."

"I haven't gotten to the second floor yet." I tell him with a grimace. He nods. After a moment, I push. "What can you tell me?"

"Europeans, at least the southern sort, confuse cultivation with worship of the lightforce. But rather than using either properly, they dedicate themselves to an ideal and meditate constantly on it. From what the few European cultivators to reach K'un-Lun have written, they tend to build large cathedrals for their art. You may even know more than I do. You're from there, aren't you?"

I shake my head. "I worked there briefly in the Navy, but I lived in America." From the sound of it though, he's saying saints and their miracles are real. Though, how they could be superheroes and the church still decayed into secularism, I've no idea.

He grunts. "The African's are beast cultivators. Their land is full of demon beasts, and most of their methods involve rather detailed uses of the skin, meat and bones of demon beasts as the base for their growth and techniques. The Americans do similar, but with human sacrifice instead. The last one to reach the Immortal City said that his people sacrificed a thousand beating hearts each year to infuse chi into their crops, ensuring a bountiful harvest."

Aztechs and Mayans. Bloody wonderful.

"The most developed methods however come from Asia. My people, as I said, focus on our spirits. Meditation, adventures, fights and study hone our souls like metal in a forge. I could teach you personally if you were interested. Of the three great traditions we have the highest energy generation rate."

I clap my hand onto his shoulder and shook him slightly. "I think I'd like that. But if you could tell me about the others?"

He nods, smiling. "Continue to come by the forge when this project is done, and I'll start your training. We don't really have much to do normally." Turning away, he shouts orders to several people, before returning to me. "The Chinese way is more focused on the body than the spirit. Using medicines, they focus on purifying their bodies and entering altered states of mind. This allows them a deeper link between their soul and body. In this state, they are able to sense the pathways through which chi flows, and focus on storing power for later use. These pathways are called meridians and the storage areas, Dan-Tien. There are three Dan-Tien," He touches his brow, heart and stomach. "Upper middle and Lower. Most of them form their power center just below their stomach, as it allows them the most balanced approach to using their power. Storing their power in the heart makes for powerful warriors, while storing it in the brain makes for powerful sages, though neither are much good at the others arts."

"And the last group are the Buddhists of Nepal, right?" I ask, thinking of the temples that are so popular in any movie or book about them.

Tomoi however gives me a look of consternation. "No. Well, some of them, every now and then. No, the third path is the Mahabharata Hindu. Their Brahmanda is… difficult to describe. I've lived with some of them for half of a century and I still don't understand them, but they're powerful. Mechanically, where the Chinese separate their power into three dantien of which they take one, the Hindu path separate their power into seven chakra based on major nerve branches and create power centers in all of them. They don't use Chinese Meridians, preferring instead to concentrate on the flow of power between chakras, each of them blocked by certain emotional states and empowered by others. You're not considered a proper cultivator in their tradition until you've opened up all seven and can channel the power of the world through you from crown to tailbone without blockages."

This was something I sort of knew about. It was all over the hippie community and had thoroughly infected the 60's and any pop-culture that referenced the era. Given what I'd been learning lately, there was probably a lot that was wrong about what I knew, but the part about the nerve branches was interesting.

"Has anyone ever tried to use all multiple traditions in tandem?" I asked.

He snorted. "Some have, yes. They're legends in K'un-Lun, either for their rapid rise and journey across the Bridge of Destiny, or for destroying their souls such that even the Gate of Heaven doesn't bring them back to us. Its generally considered the path of the foolish or the desperate. Asians may seem like hidebound and silly traditionalists to your people, but there's usually a good reason for it."

I looked at him sidelong. "Who are you, and what have you done with my friend? You know, the one who pushes his seniors to baldness trying to modernize K'un-Lun? Who was desperately happy when I managed to get the elders to consider it for the sake of hot baths?"

He smirks at me. "I'm one of the fools. I've found the Chinese Meridians and elements to be useful to the Shinto spiritual path, but I'm not big on the idea of power centers. If you're studying in the library though, most of the material you'll find are based on the Chinese tradition. It's strong and stable, but I'm rather biased to the legendary Nippon spirit."

I chuckle. "You would be. As I understand it, Korea, northern China, southern China and Japan have hated each other for a thousand years."

"Thousands," he corrected. "But enough chatter. There's not much I can teach you here."

"To work?" I ask him.

"To work," he agreed, and the pair of us got to it. There were a few problems with me applying too much force, and damaging things, but thankfully, there weren't a lot of things I needed to use my strength for, my mind being more important.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

April 24th 1987

The Civilian bathhouse was finished three days later to great fanfare, and the Nobles Bathhouse open in a week. They were operational a day earlier than the civilian opening, but the decorative finish and luxuries needed time to be perfected and installed.

I however, was no longer involved. The piping had been completed and demonstrated to work to the Orders and that was enough. Li Hua herself set the chi runes on the heated water tanks, from the steam room to the mineralized hot-springs. She also gave me a crucial lesson about chi use there.

"Fire element chi is not the process of life energy becoming flame, but rather chi imitating the properties of fire." She explained as a glowing gold orange finger traced ink and chi onto the surface of the copper drum. "This in particular is why the mystic elements are so much more useful than their natural counterparts. There is of course the nature of fire that heats and warms, but your chi also carries with it the meaning of fire. Is it destruction? Purification? Protection? Passion? Your body burning off a disease? The satisfaction of a good meal or drink? Lust? The glow afterwards? The more you learn about heat, the further it informs your Dao of Fire and the more you can do with it."

"Then, if I wanted to conceal myself" I asked, hesitantly, deciding against my better judgement to trust her "I should meditate on the meaning of shadows and darkness?"

She hummed for a moment. "You could, but shadows are deeply linked to Yin. You could achieve the same thing by meditating on light, which is favored closely by Yang and use it to form illusions so that people see something else." She looked over at me, catching my eyes despite my not looking directly at her moments before. "Why do you feel the need to hide here?"

I grimace, caught out. But then, I expected this when broaching the question. "As I told the others, I want to find my son. If he followed me through the tear in reality, then it's possible he's found his way to the valley's other city. As I understand it, one does not simply walk into S'ahra Sharn."

She nods, pensive. "Why not simply ask the Thunderer to train you?" She wonders aloud. "The Dark Lord of the North is always looking for mortal born recruits to join the chaste."

I snort. "Because I am a scholar, not a warrior. And an old one at that. Training to become a martial artist of any real caliber takes a decade at least. And even that would not guarantee I could get in and out alive unless I found myself to be an undiscovered genius. Besides which, If my son is there, I'm not going to leave him there for a decade just so I can train up, these past months have been bad enough. Going there without training may be possible, sure, but getting back out would be straight up impossible in that case, unless I join the organization your friends use as a threat for the uncooperative."

She smiles pityingly at me. "The Yu-Ti is a man of great compassion. If you asked, he may storm the gates himself and retrieve your son."

"IF Nicodemus is there." I counter. "IF no one has risen within the undercity who can challenge him. IF K'un-Lun is willing to risk stomping into such an ant hill. IF… if I'm willing to pay whatever price Yu-Ti decides on for this favor." I counter. "He'd have to be a saint to do it for free."

This made the White Tiger laugh, but she would not explain what it was she found so funny before the inspection was over.

And so, I took Tomoi and Li Hua's advice.

I mediated.

And as I did, I slowly learned more about my chi. Long hours were spent studying it's flows and trying to pinpoint just where in my chest the wellspring of power was coming from. Replacing sleep with meditation ate up a prodigious amount of power, as it turned out, but after five days I figured out how to move my chi deliberately through my body. It was a slow process, and only increased my strength fractionally, but this was just the beginning… and there was so much more to come.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

May 4th 1987

I have hit the jackpot.

Besides my son, one of the biggest things I've been missing since arriving in K'un-Lun has been my computer. I managed to retrieve the laptop from the hill where it had spilled when I met Iron Fist practically the next day, but alas and alack, the charge ran out quickly without anything to plug the poor device into.

Now I had a solution!

Chi.

Asian myths are full of objects enchanted to do completely and utterly ridiculous things because of Chi. Swords that expanded to the size of a surfboard and allowed their users to fly on them. Books that burnt their pages to banish ghosts. Hair ribbons that would wrap around their maiden's injuries and heal them. A painters brush that could erase mountains. Coins that could become a second moon in the sky and affect the tides simply so that the hero could have a light by which to continue battling the tyrant.

What I was doing was nowhere near that impressive or sophisticated. Even so, after figuring out how to move my chi as I wanted it, I started making attempts to move it outside my body. The faint ember of faerie fire I generated had been unable to do anything of use, save exhaust me utterly. But trying it on the battery of my laptop caused enough of a surge to turn on the fan in my laptop and set it shrieking!

Abused by it's sudden start after months of silence, I cradled the device as though it were a precious child.

I did not cry.

But still… I am back!

The first thing I did after making certain I had a full charge, was pull up the Rosetta Stone Translation Software I'd installed on my computer in preparation for moving to Singapore. Connecting my phone to my computer and allowing it to power up from the cord I tested the program by having it scan some of my own writing from the last several months. It took the computer a few moments to recognize what it was seeing, but shortly, pixelated lines started drawing themselves over the image fed into it, reading brush strokes and comparing them to it's database of characters.

Then it was done.

On my screen was the full text I had painted alongside an English translation and Pinyin pronunciation format. I've apparently got a number of grammatical errors I need to work on, but that's OK, I'm the boorish foreigner after all. Glancing longingly at the list of games loaded onto my hard drive, I consider just wasting the day away and playing them again, but resist. Games can wait until I've confirmed Nick isn't in S'ahra Sharn. Checking the charge, at 97%, I close the computer and replace it in my backpack before heading to the library. I spend the rest of the day scanning books into text files on my laptop and labeling them by author name and date. It's not quite as good as arranging them by subject, but it's more than they have already.

By the end of the day I'd scanned, labeled and re-shelved nearly two hundred books.

Just ten or twenty thousand left to go.

Now, my English reading speed is significantly higher than my Mandarin, but even so, I'm well aware that I'm simply not going to have time to go through the entire first floor in the time I plan to stay here. By talking to the people around heaven, I'd found out that the portal to earth had closed about 2 years ago, so the next one would be some time in autumn of 2000 or 2001. That meant I'd need to either increase my reading and comprehension speed (a lot) or find a way to filter through all of the dross.

Fortunately there is a way.

Plagiarism is enough of a problem in academia that there's good money in inventing some truly clever algorithms to track that shit down, even when it's paragraphs or lines rearranged to form a new paper. Scientific journals are not only not an exception to this, they take it to a whole new level. The entire community is paranoid out of their gourds that someone will steal their ideas that "publish or die" is something of a mantra and paywalls are thick as flies on a carcass, but even so plagiarism abounds and those walls are under funded. So… even I, a simple tech at a nuclear plant, am familiar with the use of spotting programs.

Programs to which I begin feeding the new books.

Now, one may ask "yeah, but how is that even useful here?" and that might be a valid question. After all, the program doesn't have a database for old Chinese documents! Easy. Make the database self referential so that it forms its own meta. All of the repeating passages are highlighted and linked for easy reference, making research across multiple books a breeze and cutting out the need to read things over and over again.

Looking at the timer, the program claims it's going to take another four hours to get through what I've fed it already, so I settle down to get some sleep. Or deep meditation as it were. It works almost as well as sleep and I still need to empower my laptop. I don't know exactly how long the charge will last, but I do know running the processors hot takes a lot of extra power. And so… I meditate on my chi, allowing it to flow out of me and into my computer as I generate it.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

May 29th 1987

Over the next several weeks, I continue to scan more and more books into text files in my library. The repeating passages, and how often they repeat is proving to be useful as is the surrounding context. I've already tripled my recovery speed and have begun to feel the power outside my body. The recovery speed of my chi also has the knock-on-effect of making physical exercise not merely tolerable, but downright fun. It's a situation I can't help but wonder at. Is it becoming fun because it no longer sucks so much to push my body beyond reason? Or is the chi literally altering my mood so that exercising is fun? From recently recovered memories of Marvels Agent Carter TV show, Chi has a profound effect on chemistry, and endorphins released by exercise to stop you from hating yourself are definitely chemistry. Further, chi is your soul acting upon your body, and by cultivating you easily fall into a loop of reaching ever higher.

That this could be mystically fucking with me is a scary thought.

There's not much to be done about it though. Tomoi tells me that, once I reach second stage enlightenment, becoming one with the world, I can begin to mess with elements, a core feature to my plans to sneak into S'ahra Sharn. I'm so close I can almost taste it… and because of that I cannot give up. No matter how much the idea scares me.

There are pretty good fringe benefits at least. Exercising means that my muscles, breathing and circulatory systems are gaining strength, and in doing so, require less of my chi to support the silly things I now want to do with it. Like improving my coordination through gymnastics and pushing myself past the point I'd normally collapse and start vomiting up my organs as I curse whatever stupidity made me think exercise was a good idea. Because my body is improving, it also feeds more energy to my brain before chi even gets involved, increasing the speed and clarity of my thoughts and memories. I'm already smart, but I wouldn't be surprised if this bumped me up 10 IQ points.

This increased understanding and physique, is the source of my increased chi regeneration and reduced chi consumption. That higher level of chi in my body and greater understanding parleys into better control over the energy itself.

Better still, learning better how to move my chi around my body (beyond powering up my laptop) means I can start taking advantage of the effects and techniques moving chi around ones body offers. This is the basis for most wushu in your typical cheesy kung fu movie. The iron fist (not the title, but the technique where you punch through wooden posts and stones) involves little more than pushing your chi into the body part you wish to strike with, reinforcing it so that it can withstand the forces involved in punching stone without worrying about shattering your bones and pulping the flesh in between. That allows you to push your muscles harder and faster even without chi boosting your muscles and nerves, and further still with it. Iron body is the same, as it's the aforementioned effect allowing you to take those enhanced blows.

What the Iron Fist does instinctively is a step above that, sending large amounts of chi into your blows and allowing it to ripple outward enhancing the meaning of the punch so that the force is multiplied multiple times over and spreads well beyond what physics says it should. Classic cartoon punching. Iron cloth is the same concept channeled through iron body training such that it infuses your clothing, or forms a superman aura around you making the idea of your skin and clothing's protection like a thing unto iron, instead of simple flesh and fiber. This doesn't stop it from flowing and flapping in the breeze as you move faster than humanly possible either as it's more conceptual than physics oriented.

Honestly I'm still getting my head around the physics bending portions of this. For a quick short hand though, I've begun training in the same league as street fighter and Tekken.

Finally, during this stage, there is Qinggong or light body technique. This is how martial artists jump ridiculous heights, stay in the air from kicking and hitting their opponents and sail around like kites rather than falling like sensible physics obeying martial artists. The whys hows and wherefores are still confusing me, but it's something to do with focusing on the light and bubbly feeling the first enlightenment gives you and then training to do the Kung Fu wall jumps normally. I wish I could describe it more eloquently, but as I'm still avoiding the orders of Crane Mother and Chaste, I'm not actually being trained in the martial arts themselves which would come with all of the moves and associated philosophies.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

June 6th 1987

Tomoi grunts at me in irritation as I walk into his shop grinning broadly. "You're not a genius." He tells me gruffly.

"But I am faster than most." I counter. He snorts as I begin helping with the bellows. Then he snickers as I pull in a bit of fire chi and hiss at the stinging sensation of it.

"Achieving second enlightenment is baby steps." He says as he pulls out the bar of metal he's working on and starts hammering it again. He's making a hinge, I think. "Now you need to start thinking about your path. Chi elements are chi behaving as…"

"though it were that element, not actually becoming the element itself. To achieve it one must meditate in an area where the element is present naturally and align your internal energies in step with the gained understanding." I recite. "Li Hua told me."

He snorts. "Did she also tell you where the best places to meditate would be?"

I open my mouth, and then close it. Tomoi smirks, but refusing to let him win I push forward anyway. "She told me that my goal of sneaking into S'ahra Sharn would be better accomplished through understanding light than darkness, as I was male and also not feminine."

"I might have to argue with her then," Tomoi replies, a grin of his own twitching across his face "you whine enough for two women." I gave him the middle finger and he laughed. "She is correct. You were whining about how you think chi is influencing your mind earlier. If you alter your balance of Yin and Yang it really will influence your mind. I would recommend meditating on a mountain top. The bright airy surroundings are good for Yang and meditating in the light of the dawn and noonday suns will help you understand light most easily. The cold and water of the snow should provide enough Yin to keep you largely balanced and the emptiness of the peak should shut out the world enough for you to focus only on your task. Night will switch the chi balance though, so be careful of that."

I nod slowly, "Why is that exactly? In the west, light and dark are more associated with the nature of a people rather than gender."

"It's because of your ancestors messing around with the light force and dark force dimensions as opposed to proper understanding of chi." He replied, trading his hammer for a pair of needle-nosed-pliers and a rod he pulled out of a oil well. "Rather than getting an understanding of the soul, they jumped ahead to thinking of things in terms of cosmic forces. They're similar enough to cause confusion in lesser minds, but fundamentally different when you get down the the heart of it."

He fired the metal again, and began twisting the tines of metal coming off the plate into hooks. "Yang chi is weightless, it comes from the soles if you feet and travels up your back, reaching for heaven. It makes you stand straight even under enormous strain and unburdens even the most troubled mind. It is light, fire, stone and steel. Seeking and revealing, Yang will push you to reach higher even as it judges you harshly and refuses to bend. Strength and deep thought flow from the balance of Yang chi in your body, whether you sense it or not."

He inserts the oiled rod into the curled bits of metal and begins hammering them into an even shape. "Yin chi by contrast is heavy, coming from all places and no place, weighing you down and flowing across your face and chest in its path from heaven to earth. It will bow your head even as it helps you hide or yield to greater forces around you. Yin is darkness, water, wind and life. Protective and enveloping it will conceal anything from children and valuables, to monsters and poison. Yin will devour you if you are not careful, but it also makes you accepting and cooperative. Adaptability and selectiveness flow from the balance of Yin chi with or without training."

Putting the hinge and it's bolt back in the fore for a moment, he pulls them back out and uses a second set of pliers to remove the bolt. Plunging the hinge into the water, he then puts it back in the forge to heat up. Tempering. "Yin and Yang are opposite forces, but they are not in fact opposing. They are synergistic, harmonic, and everybody has a strong measure of both. Usually somewhere around 60/40. Having your balance go too far to one side or being the opposite of normal leads to all sorts of oddities. Weak men, monsters, tyrants, boy love and sissies. Harridans, ice queens, devouring mothers, tomboys and lesbians."

That's… pretty big. Bringing this to the west with hard proof could potentially rewrite the entire DSM5. "If you change your balance, could you correct these issues?" I ask, carefully.

"In some cases." He replied, unconcerned. "Some require a change of the blood else they return later, but not most. The issue generally is that some of these states are sought out for a specific Dao." He puts the hinge back in the water and holds it there, sizzling and steaming. "They are limiting paths in my opinion, but they do have their own immortals."

That made sense I suppose, but I would probably shoot for more 70/30. No offense, but Asian men are fairly effeminate by the western view of such things. I'll have to figure out where I am right now first.

As it was nearing night however, I simply took note of his advice and revelations and continued to aid him until he closed up his corner of the forge. I was planning how to rearrange my schedule to take advantage of this and not cut back on my in house research when Tomoi reached out to me.

"Do you have the evening free?" he asked, his manner too casual.

"I have some planning to do, but I have a moment free," I offered, confused "what do you need?"

Looking around the forge for a moment, he pulled me outside and then explained. "Brother Kuo runs a distillery. Plums, honey, kumquat, lotus root, rice. He hides cashes of drink all over town, trading small jugs of wine or liquor for favors. But… there is a rumor that he hides a special stock for the nobles that is made from the divine peach and infused with chi. If you help me find it, not only can we get drunk, it will greatly speed up our cultivation."

A grin slowly spreads across my face. "You're asking me because I intend to study stealth." Tomoi nods and I grin wider. Normally I'd ask for something in return, but the mans' been dead helpful already and simply finding this hidden stash will get me closer to my goal of finding my son. I can afford not to be a douche. "I'll do what I can." I tell him. "Though it may take some time, if I find it at all."

He grins at me. "Come then, let's get some of your ghost fish and I'll introduce you when I hand him these hinges. I hear the plum wine in the bell tower has gotten quite potent and enlightenment is sufficient cause for celebration."

I didn't learn much more that night, but the way my head throbbed in the morning, it must have been wild.

Last edited: Dec 13, 2019

Book 1: Chapter 2: Canoe without a paddle.

A number of people have told me in PM's over the last few years I should put up a I've finally gotten around to it. I'll be putting up notices with new chapters from my various stories, but for future reference, it is also now in my signature. To anyone willing to throw me some quarters, thank you for your generosity. Solusandra is creating Books and Fanfiction | I'll begin reposting everything on shortly. With no furthur ado, on with the story.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

July 4th 1987

Meditating on mountain tops is not all it's cracked up to be. The stone will leach heat out of your ass for hours (cheat, bring a blanket or pillow) any wind cuts like a knife (thank god I have my own clothes to layer) you more or less have to learn Qinggong (magical Chinese parkour) to get to them in any timely fashion and your fellow cultivators will often act as vortexes of air when they get deep into meditation. You see, drawing on the chi around you rather than relying on the strength of your own soul has secondary effects on the environment. Elemental chi may not BE that element, but it certainly acts like it, and the same goes for ambient chi taken from the world. One thing leads to another and you get tornados around all of the different cultivators combining and interfering with each other leading to some truly nasty weather conditions. Particularly at this altitude.

That being said, the vista's are beautiful. The red sun like burnished copper rising and disappearing behind the mountains. Seas of boiling clouds painted a fluffy cotton white rimmed with molten gold, soft orange and occasional flashes of purple. Largely untouched jade and emerald valleys revealed and hidden like a strip tease as they (the clouds) fade in and out almost at random. A perfect view of the stars you simply don't understand if you've lived all of your life in cities, or even towns. That would be particularly breathtaking if I didn't know what was out there in this particular universe.

After the first couple of days coming up here, I'd worked out a schedule.

After sunset, I'd be in the library, working on scanning and labeling the books on the first floor. The librarians had caught on quick and offered to help. After a bit of discussion I encouraged them to do so, figuring it could only help me find things I was interested in all of the dross and repeats. I was labeling things in both Chinese and English, and none of them knew English, so it wasn't as though I was going to miss anything. Or scan repeats unless they removed MY tags. That was most of the discussion beyond my labeling system actually, me convincing them not to replace my tags, or at least to copy my markings when they did so. This would go on until an hour before dawn, at which point one of the librarians would stop me.

At that point, I would go to the baths and clean up. This one girl, Ji-yun has set up a laundry service. Trade her my latest load of clothing for a fish every week because those are still a popular currency and then collect three more for my meals. Community food has improved somewhat, as I've become slightly more important to K'un-Lun, at least more so than the mass peasant souls. Three bowls of rice a day and randomly a bit of fruit or tuber. Taking that all at once initially caused a stir, but a bit of sweet talking, a few bribes, and affidavits I was going to spend my entire day cultivating on a mountain top rather than scamming food centers helped. A lot.

Finally, I would head for a peak and cultivate. From sunrise to sunset, trying to understand the nature of light and shadow.

The first week was shit. As I noted earlier, trying to climb mountains is no fun. Getting rope for climbing tools was easy the first time, but when rando Cultivator 'Ming' removes it shortly after you leave every day, fuck you, you quickly stop getting rope. Iron climbing picks aren't something you can just come by here either, so it's fashioning wooden one and hoping they don't break. Then, the climb takes fucking forever and you miss sunrise. On top of that, climbing at night sucks even in the middle of summer, even using chi to warm yourself so that frostbite can't take you. Simply? The difficulty of learning Qinggong, an exercise of months or years I'm told, is simply more convenient.

Falling helped with that, truth be told. And I fell a LOT in that first week. You learn Iron Body and Light Body fast when it's that or massive chi sucking bruises, fractures and the potential for death with every tumble.

The rewards though… It's nothing less than freedom. It's not flight, but attuning your chi to that feeling of weightlessness during a fall or apex of a jump until your soul begins to mimic it in reality. After a month of effort I can silver age superman it well enough it hardly matters that I'm not really flying. By two points of view, I have a LOT of incentive to learn.

Geeking out aside, I've discovered my yin-yang balance to be about 33-66 Yin to Yang. Mechanically, that means I have twice the affinity and mana capacity for anything Yang related compared to Yin. Add on that I am physically and psychologically male, if we were working by game system point values it would be 1:6. It's not that I cannot DO Yin based techniques or am barred from learning them, but it'll be six times harder for me to gather Yin chi and learn or use Yin techniques than equivalent Yang methods. I could alter my balance, but the psychological and possibly physical ramifications of that put me off the attempt. What's already been happening is unsettling enough.

I still gather and study Yin chi, no mistake, that's part of maintaining the balance. The extra difficulty though make me glad wind, water, cold and darkness are all yin aligned. Plus, needing to keep a closer eye on Yin than Yang (which just to come easily to me) I think is helping my personal study.

See, what I'm trying to do is use light as a medium for concealment. Unfortunately, concealment, however you go about doing it, is a Yin natured effort. So far, I've gotten a sort of adaptive camouflage. It started with the ability to glow like a plasma ball. It's not a battle aura or the Iron Fists molten inner glow I simply don't have the raw power to pull off either, but rather as though my skin was literally radiant. That took about a week to achieve, for which Tomoi mocked me mercilessly, saying I'd become my own childhood nightlight. It's completely useless for stealth, but it was a start.

From there, I tried to get the light to fold around me, sort of like Susan Storm and her force-fields, but that drained my Yin Chi like a hole in the titanic. I wasted nearly a week on it before giving up, and turning my brain to other things, like trying to project colors rather than a simple radiance. I discovered… that either that wasn't possible, or it was an advanced technique I wasn't ready for.

Inspiration struck on the fourth week. I'd been taking my laptop up to the mountains with me for technical research or whenever I couldn't take it anymore and the boredom of meditating and frustration of failed experiments got to me. Looking through my entertainment library brought me to The Invisible Man. His problem was that light literally passed through him and wouldn't stop. That proved to be, while still frustrating, much easier to do. The light penetrating me also increased my ability to pick up Yang-chi from sunlight much much easier. So much so, that I had to bleed off Yang Chi almost constantly to keep my balance. Becoming more masculine could be good on a number of fronts… but bonus traits Harsh, Judgemental and Tyrant aren't traits I want to cultivate either, even if quickly acquiring rippling Arnold Schwarzenegger muscles and a high perception score would be cool. In the end I developed the ability to shine like a spotlight from any part of my body. Good for a distraction and quick getaway, blind your opponent and sucker punch them or skedaddle.

Right now though, I can become roughly 25% transparent. Light, or it's lack, goes through me enough that I look as though I'm a chameleon. Great for concealment, if only it didn't require constant focus to pull off. The chi drain of the technique is about half again as much as my current regeneration rate though. I can keep it up by meditating on environmental chi, but I can't do that while moving.

This leaves me four paths.

1) I learn active meditation, allowing me to drain power from my environment while doing any/everything else. Pros: cultivation no longer interferes with doing stuff. Cons: being a drain on the environmental chi is probably bad for stealth.

2) I gain a much deeper understanding of the technique to reduce its power consumption. Pros: getting there will greatly improve my control. Cons: it'll take some time and I'm getting really impatient of late.

3) I train with Tomoi to gain a better understanding of the Nippon Spirit technique. Pros: Higher, possibly MUCH higher chi regeneration. Probably enough to cover the technique Cons: To anyone who specializes in sensing chi, I'll be a beacon.

4) I train in the Chinese path where I sink power into Meridians and Dantien for later use. Pros: I get a mana pool to store and draw from. Cons: the "spiritual weight" effect you see in anime and manga is actually a thing in the Chinese path.

Apparently the spiritual power bleeding off others presses itself into your body and the delicate structures of saturated chi. This is awesome for rapid cultivation, but comes with the risk of an angry demi god causing you to explode. Evil Overlord List, point 34, no matter how tempting the idea of ultimate power, I shall never consume an energy field larger than my own head… Most of them don't try to do that to you though, preferring to abuse the effect as a disciplinary or bullying tactic. Try to cultivate when they do that, and they're likely to take your head off while you're distracted.

Or… well, I suppose there are six paths. 5) I learn an entirely different technique, Pros; unknown, Cons: who even knows how long that will take or 6) I suck it up and ask Yu-Ti to search the valley for my son. Pros: I'll know more or less immediately. Cons: Whatever Yu-Ti wants in exchange I'll have no right to refuse. Not that I do as is, but right now, he's got no reason to ask anything of me.

I hate exclusive choices. They all suck in just about every case. A good middle ground between two or three of them always seems to fit better.

Shaking my head, I decided to quit the mountain early and visit Tomoi.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

Moving through the streets of K'un-Lun was fun. The physical effort got my blood pumping and breathing up, removing the 50% over deficit I'd been dealing with not in meditation but speed and heavy breathing isn't exactly good for discreetly searching urban areas. People saw me as I ran and jumped among them, but so many of them startled out of my way, apologizing for not having seen me that it was hard to hold my new technique against the urge to laugh. My mirth over the experience actually aided me in my understanding of the light body technique, allowing my passage to be that much more effortless. The understanding came with a slight surge of power from my soul cycle reducing the drain on my ability from 50% over to 45% over when my heart calmed and things in my spirit settled again.

Entering the forge area I continued to get odd looks from the various people I passed and was told several times that what I was doing was rude. Pretty damn offensive to get through Chinese stoicism. Regardless, I avoided most of them and nearly succeeded in sneaking up on Tomoi. He was taking a drink from a water skin when I approached, but as soon as I was within 10 feet of him, he turned around.

"You telegraph your movements." He told me, bluntly.

I frown and sigh. "How many are likely to notice?" I asked. "Most people since I figured this out don't see me until they're looking right at me. I figured, combine this with a bit of actual stealth practice and some better chi flow it could work."

He hummed. "It will probably fool most of the Hand, but everyone who studied under Murakami will see you from across the city, as will the elder cultivators."

Right… Murakami's the literal shadow ninja dude from japan. The one who most closely resembles the Hand I know from the Comic books. "I was thinking of using Bakuto's students as cover and telling anyone who noticed me, telling them that I was practicing."

"I doubt they would believe you. Even for a Novice, you're horrible."

"Hence, the practice," I countered.

He nods slowly. "That could work. The big issue however is that you're alive, and they're not. Unless you've changed your mind?"

"It's that big an issue?" I ask, scowling. "Nobody else has commented on it."

Tomoi shrugged. "You're in K'un-Lun, not S'ahra Sharn" he replied simply. "Living cultivators must all face the Iron Fist in order to enter the sacred valley, and as such, they are brought here first. It is deeply rare one will end up in the under-city for a variety of reasons. Fearing to lose the cities wisdom and resources. Not agreeing with The Hand's worldview. Being killed by the Iron Fist upon entering Heaven. Being killed in the constant war of the lower slopes. Being killed for betraying the city and joining the hand. The Crane and Turtle at least know enough to keep their external agents out of fights they cannot win. The dead cannot interact with the living outside of the seven heaven's after all."

I chuckle. "That's not precisely true." I reply, shaking my head. "Ghosts and Poltergeist are a thing." Maybe, maybe not, but they certainly show up a lot in most of marvel continuities and MCU has both Ghost Rider, the ghost scientists he killed, Ava Starr and the Soul Stone whose powers are expressly about messing with ghosts.

Tomoi seemed to consider this for several minutes before nodding slowly. "This is not an issue still. The Iron Fist shares Shao-Lao's ability to suppress the dead and for them to leave, they must go through the pass he guards."

I frown again, this time in confusion. "Then… why doesn't he go down to S'ahra Sharn and 'fix' the problem of the Hand?" I ask.

The smith grins darkly. "Several reasons. The Fist must always be mortal, for when he is killed, Shao-Lao consumes his soul in payment for loaning his power. Following this, for all the Fists power to suppress the dead, he can still be overcome by immortal skill, uncommon luck or sheer numbers and his death would leave the pass unguarded. Third, for the Chinese dao to grow, pressure is needed.. What better pressure can there be than constant battle against a worthy foe? The conflict justifies the existence of North and South while the East and West tolerate it for the sake of balance and a diversity of paths for all paths are needed to understand the True Dao. After all, some souls will always crave conflict, and for them, that is their heaven."

It's my turn to nod slowly. Forever young, in the best shape of your life, and constantly able to push yourself against an endless array of interesting enemies where injury, death and holding back aren't worries? Yeah I can see that. The food and accommodations still suck unless you're part of the Jade Serpents order though. "And for those who revel in crime or find meaning in being minions or villains, there is S'ahra Sharn; their heaven." I felt it as a bunch of confusing information about this pocket dimension clicked into place. My chi spiked and rose with the realizations as each new piece of information slotted in around it to form a more cohesive picture. It wasn't perfect, there were still plenty of holes, but it made… sense now. Or at least had stopped being incomprehensibly weird.

Tomoi too noticed the minor enlightenment and nodded in approval. To go all Star Wars for a moment here, 'there is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no chaos, there is harmony'. Less with the 'no' and more with the 'origin/goal', but Lucas tried. It's not his fault it goes over most people's heads. No matter, it was all chi to me.

"When you have completed your technique and are ready to hide your presence, there are several techniques for you." He wrote down a series of characters 忍者隠蔽 "Look for this when next you are in the Library. Ninjutsu and Nirvana have similar techniques by which to suppress and conceal the soul so others cannot see it. Also, should you choose to walk the Chinese path instead, forming your meridian and dantien are good means by which to hide an aura, as your excess chi may be funneled into building them rather than shining for those with eyes to see."

I stared at the characters for almost a minute before looking back up at him, face flat. "You couldn't have given me this months ago?"

He looked back, completely unapologetic. "You needed the experience, you don't speak or read Nipponese and these scrolls are on the libraries second level which you are only just being considered worthy of. Another feat of speed by the way, so do not complain."

"But could you have taught me?" I asked.

He looks at me side eye, "you needed experience. And no, I am not a ninja, I have not the skill to use or teach it."

I breathe out heavily through my nose, and nod sharply. "It's always enlightening to talk to you, senior."

"And alarming to watch you, outsider." He replies taking a long pull from a water skin.

"SO… how does one go about forming a core?" I ask. Seems about the fastest way to go about it. Once I learn the secret, use it like a games stealth bar. The formation sucks up my broadcasted life aura and using that energy will fund my own stealth skill in such a way that I can actually use it stealthily.

"Rushing ahead as usual." Tomoi chastises me. "Unless you know how to read sanskrit, the first step is Meridian. They will also improve your energy control, so it's worth it to learn them. Help me with the forge while we talk."

For the next five hours, Tomoi talked me through Meridian Cleansing and Core Formation. Meridians are something of a contentious topic in the world where I'm from. Acupuncture and other eastern medicines have become a rather pervasive fad to the point you can usually find one across from your family doctors clinic in america, and before I left there had been a stir about the Chinese using MRI's and radioactive dyes at acupuncture points to prove the existence of Meridians. There turned out to be something to it, but the correlation between what was written and what was found was about .4.

Meridians according to science are a series of hair thing vessels similar to the cardiovascular network, but instead of transporting blood, they transport a solution of stem cells and Lymph fluid. As the Lymph nodes are connected heavily to the immune system and stem cells to recovery, you can see how the ancient Chinese got the idea.

Meridians according to in your face real magic souls bullshit of K'un-Lun mixes the ancient Chinese energy paths with the science bit, except they blame the connection to your immune system for why most people can't use chi properly. The reason it's called Meridian Cleansing is because as you go through life recovering from illness and eating things humans shouldn't, these veins fill with, essentially, plaque. Acupuncture needles close the veins either by nearby pressure or actually hitting them, and force the body to clean itself by upping the pressure on the rest of the system. Moxibustion (hot rocks and massages) on the acupoints expand the veins so that the flow can open up and the plaque melt away.

Not so with cultivation.

As a cultivator, you use the power of your soul to literally drill your way through these veins, opening them back up by force and in the process widening and reinforcing them. Acupuncture needles turn from pressure on the veins to antenna drawing extra chi in like radio-waves and bypassing the need for multiple awakenings or active cultivation. Whether you go at it from will alone, or needles massages and hot rocks, clearing the plaque out of your body is a nasty business. Burning acidic urine, burning black stool or diarrhea, vomit, black tears and sweat that makes your worst hobo smell well groomed. Worse still, releasing this chi laden sewage into the environment is the cause of demon beasts, animal cultivators with a taste for human souls. And flesh. There's a reason Kitsune are so hated in Korea and China after all, it's not just culture shift, they're literally evil from the poison.

The upside to clearing out your meridians, is that once you get all 20, you're easily superhuman even without learning Iron Body, Light Body or any other magic techniques. You skin is as tough as treated hardened leather, though it doesn't feel any different. You bones are like steel bars, though they're not any heavier. You heal 20 times faster than a normal human, pull off the ever popular strength of 10 men trope from folklore and can go twice as long without food, water, sleep or chi draining in substitute. Sickness and poison take five times as much effort to affect you and you burn them out of your system four times as fast, though both of them clog up your meridians again, forcing you to do a bit of maintenance regularly. Swift thought, crystal clear memory, the ability to learn like a sponge and focus for long periods of time become an expected state of being rather than a focused effort. And most importantly? Your personal Chi flows through your body without resistance and fine control over the soul magic becomes possible.

The actual mechanics of clearing out ones meridians is fairly simple. As the soul forces it's idealized image on the body, anything that the body considers trash provides resistance. Moving your chi through your body is hard because of this, but keep doing it and the refuse gets swept away with the movement. Whatever the cells couldn't deal with themselves but wanted to. Free radical ions, indigestible chemicals, whether waste from natural processes or poisons you ate as preservatives, dyes and flavoring, excess oxygen or CO2, vitamins and minerals you'd OD'd on, certain types of fat and cholesterol, carcinogens and any bacteria that isn't considered beneficial to the running of your body. The body gets rid of much of this normally, but there's plaque like buildup in most cells wearing them down and making them divide faster. As you move chi through your body more and more, it's all cleared away and using your chi gets progressively easier.

This goes double for the meridians. Calm your mind and feel the flow of chi, your meridians stand out in your spiritual synesthesia as bars of iron compared to everything else. This makes them easy to focus on and attack. When the attack is successful and the plaque is removed, these same lines of resistance pool with power thicker and easier than any place other than your 7 chakra. The power of the soul flows through them so easily in fact that merely having them makes your ability to control chi skyrocket. An effect which is essential to the Chinese method of Core Formation, as without that control, forming the core in any of your three Dan-Tien is essentially impossible.

Or maybe not, as the Hindu don't bother with Meridian at all.

When the lesson ended and I left for the Library, Tomoi gave me homework. Work on feeling the meridians for myself. I should consider myself Lucky, Tomoi told me, as normally the Chinese started doing this before their second enlightenment and were forced to use only the power of their own body and soul to cleanse the Meridian. Because he had taught me, I could cheat and use the energy of the world around me to move through this quickly. I told him it was already a thing in Wuxia stories. He gave me a disgusted look and ordered me out of the forge.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

July 11th 1987

Finding my Meridians and becoming constantly aware of them was easy. Clearing them is proving to be hard.

This is actually a benefit though, as the effort solves a problem I'd encountered earlier with my technique. I was absorbing too much Yang chi from allowing light to pass through my body and needing a way to get rid of it. So, as I slink down through the tall grass of the valley, I use that chi to wash my body clean of corruption. Yang chi is light, it illuminates and scours, burning away the unclean with it's harsh judgement. I just take advantage of that. Doing so spends the positive charge, leaving me with pure neutral chi which I can add to my own without contaminating it. This can then become my Yin, or Yang once more and fuel the technique, solving the problem of how to keep up with the intensive Yin drain and my anemic ability and capacity for the energy. This made keeping stealth active without blaring my presence like a megaphone. Spiritually or by running around slamming doors like a maniac.

I've chosen to forgo the mountain or city today and begin searching for S'ahra Sharn because my patience has finally run out and the anxiety of 'what if my son IS there' is getting to me. Id have essentially abandoned him to the Hand's Indoctrination for 8 months for my pride. As he hasn't appeared within the immortal city, they couldn't have killed him. Tomoi assures me he'd bee too valuable an asset for The Hand for that, but that only makes the worry sharper.

There's a LOT you can do to a person without killing them, after all.

Dark thoughts aside, I stealthily follow the Orders of the Crane and Turtle down the mountain. On the upside, they passed within 10 feet of me and didn't noticed. Living aura hidden, check. I already know my upgraded chameleon transparency works on civilians; as soon as I figured out the latest iteration, I tried it out in the market place and pissed everybody off by being a roadblock they didn't see until they ran into me. 50% in bright areas and 75% in the shade. Roughly. On the downside, not being seen on a battlefield means I can be hit by a stray attack and be forced to respawn at the Gate of Heaven. Worse, being suddenly seen by the more powerful warriors means I can be hit by a direct attack from a suspicious cultivator worried I'm trying to assassinate him and respawn at the Gate of Heaven. Both options are bad and strongly encourage me not to get close to the fighters.

After all, there's a difference between civilians and warriors who think battle stress is an instinct you should train more of.

The important thing will be to avoid the lines of Jade Serpent, Wild Tiger, Dark Mountain and Crane Mother on K'un Lun's side, and the lines of Bride of Nine Spiders, Prince of Orphans and Brother Wolf on S'ahra Sharn's side. Those are the elder cultivators with a focus on chi sensing, the elite of both cities. In the comics these six alongside the Iron Fist were the immortal weapons of the Seven Asian Heavens, but the MCU seems to have squashed that. Maybe it was their budget, maybe it was bad writing, maybe the Cassandra Theory of popular entertainment is true.

That last one would certainly make sense given my presence in this fictional universe. Either that, or very strong drugs. But if I'm that high off my ass I've lost my son to CPS anyway.

I follow the martial order of the Crane Mother until they meet their daily battle with the forces of S'ahra Sharn about halfway down the mountain. Off to the side is a patch of flowers that practically shout their presence, even to an idiot like me who's only just begun to sense chi in the world around me. The battles are often like this, over resources such as chi cultivating plants or animals. Other days they' fight over jade and marble spirit stones or copper, iron and gold. Sometimes they fight a thousand duels across the length and breadth of the valley, other times it's a full scale melee.

As spears of ice, jets of flame, clouds of darkness or poison and boulders torn from the landscape begin to fly, I break off. My purpose here was to observe the stragglers from the undercity and get a bearing on where to start searching. General advice such as "follow the river" is all well and good, until you realize that there are three rivers in the valley. Though, calling any of them rivers is being rather generous. Sitting up on my hill behind the K'un Lun fighters I can see the trails in the grass leading back down the valley. Channeling extra chi from my limbs to my eyes and brain I slowly follow them back to the left most river. It's wide and shallow, filled with large rocks.

That's my lead.

Maybe.

Probably.

Skirting the battle as widely as I can while keeping them in sight, I make for the river. One there I risk the use of Qinggong to hop from rock to rock. I may be hard to see, and water's Yin balance may make that even better, but the more telltale signs of an invisible person sneaking around I leave, the less useful the effort.

Eventually I find the cave mouth that enters into S'ahra Sharn. It's hidden back in it's own ravine, like the door to Moria, but thankfully there are no such obstacles here. There are however plenty of people standing around as guards. They sort of make the place obvious what with being dressed as traditional ninja.

The problem is, being obvious doesn't make them any less effective. When dealing with literal magic Hand ninja, Wolverine's Inverse Ninja rule applies.

I move to stand in a shadow for the easier Yin gathering, becoming nigh invisible and settle down to watch.

The guardianship of S'ahra Sharn is a curious thing. The city is underground and far from K'un-Lun. Nobody I've talked to from the city would ever want to go there and unlike K'un-Lun the entire city is militarized. So why is there a guard on the gates? Who are they trying to keep out? Who or what do they want to keep in? The guardians are arranged in two semi circles like an amphitheater, and faced inward. This allows them to keep a watch on the gate, each other, the surrounding cliff faces and the valley outside their ravine. You simply cannot pick them off without more than two thirds of them being asleep. They're also spread out enough that you'd need a pretty big attack to get more than one of them, never mind all of them.

Techniques I do not have. But then, I never intended to fight my way in, either…

The air in the pass also stirs listlessly. Without going into a cultivating trance myself, I can't tell if some or a few of them are lightly cultivating on the job, if one of them is using an air based technique to keep watch or if this is a byproduct from some sort of spiritual sense acting on the area. Until someone I can sense passes through, this is essentially a stakeout.

Well, at least it wasn't unproductive. I HAVE found the city.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

The first of the fighters comes back four hours later. They're carrying only as many flowers as a thief could stuff in their bags rather than bushels of the magic plant, but they're also smoking. Whether they won and most of the flowers were destroyed, or this is just what they manage to gather before being beat off, I'll have to figure out later. It's maybe a quarter of the number I saw during the initial attack, but that's not a concern to me. What is, is seeing the entry protocol for the forbidden city. Hiding in plain sight will give me more leeway than hiding outright, if I can manage it. Otherwise, I'll need to wait till dark.

The damaged cultivators each make a salute of some sort, but I'm not close enough to see. Frowning, I move out of my current position to get a better angle. There's not a lot of options unfortunately, and so I end up having to scale the walls of the ravine behind the guards. Once up there, I do the trick with my eyes again, and watch as the last three Throw up Naruto hand signs and… shit, their mouths are moving under their burnt masks. Repeating the trick on my ear, I nearly fall off my perch as the absolute wall of sound hits me and I miss the password.

Shit.

Sneak in anyway? Or wait for the stragglers to respawn at the Gate of Heaven and make their way here?

The choice is taken from me by a sharp pain on the back of my neck. I've been spotted. As I fall, it's hard to think about anything other than how much preparation I've wasted. I only just manage to catch myself and land on my feet rather than my head and the chase is on. I'd try to talk my way out of it, but swords are out and honest to fucking god Kunnai are flying. My only saving grace is that in the shadows of the ravine, I AM still hard for them to see. A shadow within a shadow.

I duck, dodge and weave, thanking whatever gods may be for the increased flow of chi my thundering heart, adrenal rush and existential terror. For several moments I'm unsure if that's all that's keeping my hide intact or if they're instead herding me towards the entrance to the city.

On second thought, they're definitely herding me towards the entrance. The moment I try to move towards the mouth of the ravine, my narrow dodges turn into three slash wounds and a throwing star in my left leg. The question that remains then… is why do they want to help me complete my objective?

Throwing caution to the wind, I turn and flee down the tunnel.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

[img: . ]

[img: . ]

[img: . ]

[img: /wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Fan_Ming_Art_ ]

[img: /wp-content/uploads/2018/03/19/549638-Asian-Earth-fantasy_art-orange-cave-landscape-rock-fire-plants-flowers-Chinese-lights-peak-Asian_ ]

[img: . ]

[img: . /-Qk0RrDI7zWg/TdIm-vRoh4I/AAAAAAAAA4I/6HfWrETAErM/s1600/yungang_grottoes_datong_china_photo_ ]

[img: . ]

[img: ]

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

July 19th 1987

S'ahra Sharn would be a beautiful place, if it weren't also so harrowing. For the last week it's been an almost constant game of cat and mouse, and I've been unable to get more than half an hour of sleep before I have to evade another set of undead cultivators. Truth be told, I'm only still free because even Ninja it seems aren't accustomed to looking up. That's a trick THEY do, not one done to THEM. Add in the darkness of the tunnels and caverns enhancing my chameleon spell and I'm usually able to escape in moments and hide for hours, if the effort doesn't leave me bleeding too much.

My joke to Tomoi about maybe selling myself as one of Bakuto's chosen fell apart rapidly as each of the man's students student is given a sword forged with their chi and blood upon completing the New York Academy. This tradition dates back to Crete almost a thousand years before Christ apparently and moved to the United States when Bakuto sailed with Columbus fourth Voyage in search of Dragons. Gao and Murakami had apparently found some six hundred years earlier when they sailed with the Chinese treasure fleets to Peru. Bakuto set up his school in upstate New York in the 1800's when he found a Viking Rune-stone on Staten Island about their "Conquest of a nest of Great Worms alongside a small man with fists of light who fought with the rage of Odin." I can only guess at why Shao-Lao would want to kill other dragons beyond spite at their freedom, but I learned that little tidbit while sleeping in the closet of what turned out to be a classroom of some sort for the freshly dead.

If only I had my computer here to record this room for… posterity.

I'm taking a bite of what I've dubbed 'hell chicken' when the next attack comes. Spending time in this pit has sharpened and hardened by senses to a diamonds edge, so the moment I hear the whisper of flying blades I abandon my meal and jump. I land on the wall near the ceiling of the cavern and stick to it almost like spiderman. Its mostly the light body technique combined with pressure against a uneven rough surfaces, but learning to do that has saved my life more than once. I have to leave my position almost immediately though as a fireball fills the trajectory where I'd vanished to.

"We don't want to hurt you, Fresh Meat," the cultivator who found me says in English, "but we can't have an unknown mortal running around our city. It makes the dead nervous."

I'd cussed several of them out in English almost instinctively during the first few days, and so they'd been trying this sort of approach ever since. It would normally be a blessing to speak properly again, I only really get to do that when Tiger's Beautiful Daughter comes by in K'un-Lun; the problem is that any time I actually respond, another projectile finds its way screaming towards me.

I scuttle around the walls, trying to get behind him and too the exit, when a bit of falling sand alerts him to my movements. Fire springs up in the opening, forming a wall several feet thick and pulsing with the man's breath.

Fine. I have attacks too!

As he charges me with a sword made of flame I switch from just about 90% invisible to bright as the noonday sun and the man cries out in surprise and just a little pain as the full effect blasts him straight in the eyes.

While he's stunned and blinded, I try to leave through the flames anyway, but they get more intense and drive me back when I try. Dodging around another brace of small fist sized fireballs, I decide to take a chance and speak again.

"If you really just wanted to talk, then why the attacks." I ask, flipping overhead as the man pirouettes around a wave of flame following one foot and begins a clearly practiced sword form interspersed with bolts and arcs of flame all bracketed by that burning blade. "I can get the original hostility, I'm not one of you and was trying to sneak into your home, but your words and actions contradict each other."

I spoke for too long. A small bead of fire that shone like a star exploded only inches from my new position, staggering me and setting my clothing on fire. Shedding the white shirt was a lot easier than I thought it would be, what with the front of it on fire, but between the threads melting and terror strength I managed it before the rest of my clothes went up. Invisible again, I did my utmost to be undetectable and unpredictable again.

"My apologies, stranger. It is the lack of face you show us." I can't help it, I laugh. The cultivator however nods sagely. "I understand, it seems silly to white man, but we take respect very seriously in the east."

I laugh again. "No, I'm sorry," I reply, " I'm laughing at the paradox of asking an invisible man to show you face."

"Wha…" then the flame user snorts. "I see. Yes, Ignoring the language divide that is amusing. Unfortunately, to answer your question; I cannot let you simply surrender. You must be defeated for us to regain our honor and speak with you on equal footing. Every hour you are not in chains for your trespass is another affront to the Hand."

Then he lunges and very nearly skewers me through the heart with his sword. I take the action to punch him twice, once in the throat and again in the side of his jaw. Both blows echo with a thunderclap in the small grotto, but it's my hands which come away bruised more so than his face. Being in close like this forces him to dismiss his fire sword, but undeterred he instead blocks my next set of blows to his kidneys with a forearm covered in flame. My first attack to have any effect on the man comes a moment later when as he passes me and pivots to counterattack. I stomp hard on the back of his knee, driving it into the floor and blowing up chips of stone with the impact.

Then his pyroclastic backhand sends me flying across the cavern into one of the walls, my breath knocked out of me and another shirt on fire. I'm struggling to get it off when he appears over me and lands a blow right on my jaw.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

? July 1987

I wake up with a massive cramp in both shoulders and my jaw feeling like it's on fire. Jerking in shock as the pain returns me swiftly and brutally to consciousness, my arms cry out in protest as I swing back and forth slightly. Looking around through bleary eyes, I can just make out that I'm being suspended by a pair of chains affixed to almost bracer like manacles around my forearms. They don't hurt as though I've been suspended on my full wait from handcuffs, but then, the growth of my cultivation has been making me tougher.

Or maybe it's just the design of the gauntlets.

I wait for what seems like an eternity for anyone to come check on me, but no one does. Not even when I start cultivating in the cell. The Chi here is heavily with stone and darkness and the chains and torch provide a small amount of Iron and Fire, but what I need, what I really need is water. Not for the chi of it, but for a god damned drink. Dehydration kills you in three days, but after only one or two you're already in hell. Chi helps some, latching on to the moisture of my sweat and breath and drawing it back to me. It further protects me by feeding me what I need for so long as I can maintain a decent flow.

My first effort, after devoting chi to sustaining myself, is to heal my broken Jaw and ribs. I can't do it in a moment like Iron Fist does in the TV show, I'm simply not that strong, but with the abundance of Earth Chi here I make progress. It's excruciatingly painful, and I can feel the fragments of bone in my jaw rearranging themselves before fusing together over a period of several hours. My ribs are faster and easier, having only been fractured. The breaks seal stronger than before with only an hour of effort and power dedicated to them. The next bit is weird… restoring my tooth. I don't know how I know, but I'm certain I can do it, that the fragment of bone and pulp still in my jaw can act as a seed while my body takes extra calcium from my body for the process.

That takes what I subjectively feel to be about a day before I'm spitting out the bloody fragment and my new tooth is sliding it's way up and out of the mandible. The saving grace of the process is that the chi devoted to the effort also healed the massive bruising in the area.

By the time I've finished, my captors still haven't returned and I'm beginning to get nervous. I didn't respawn at the Gate of Heaven, so they obviously didn't kill me, my plans aren't derailed yet, but if I end up imprisoned here for the next 13 years, they could be. I try wracking my brain for everything I know about S'ahra Sharn. Everything I learned in K'un-Lun, everything I can remember from the comics, everything I managed to scrape together here while I was frantically trying not to get caught. In the MCU S'ahra Sharn merely mentioned, nothing more. In the Comics it's the 8th cursed city of heaven only accessible every 88 years when the seven cities connect forming the Heart of Heaven and the Tournament of Heaven decides the order or precedent for souls going to each city. S'ahra Sharn is the magically sealed Forbidden City that houses the greatest evils of all 7 cities and can only be opened by the combined chi of all immortal weapons. Useless trivia in both cases. That leaves me with what I've learned from being HERE and the only thing I can think of are Tomoi's words.

"They would never kill your son, a living disciple in K'un-Lun would be far too valuable to them."

Is my son here and arguing clemency for me? Or am I to be the Living Disciple? If the latter… what do they want from me? What could the living do for them that they as dead cannot do? It's not about modernization, I've seen electric lights, plumbing and power tools around the city. They're doing well for themselves, despite the lack of complex chemical and mineral needs for things like electronics. I certainly couldn't help them there without materials, they're at the sweet spot between too much and too little advancement for my skills.

What comes to mind next is a fighter who can stand up to the Iron Fist. Shao-Lao's power suppresses the dead, making K'un-Lun's guardian an immense force in the city's defense and one they can't easily counter. That's ridiculous though, because I'm completely untrained and The Iron Fist is a who knows how old genius warrior with untold years of combat experience and an unknown cultivation rank supported by the full weight of a fucking dragon. Thats a non-starter if I ever saw one. Unless they have some miracle method of cultivation they can't use because the Dragon's Champion laughs at Ghosts? No… then they'd just apply it to enough people to overwhelm the fist or wait for a new inexperienced one.

Like Danny.

But they can't possibly know about him… Can they?

I shake aside such useless thoughts. If they know the future, then the Chaste wouldn't be the reason for so many of their deaths.

The last reason I can think of is to carry something out of K'un-Lun to aid their living brothers. Bakuto's raison d'etre is to spread cultivation to the world, but aside from Dragon Bone, he doesn't know enough of it to really matter. Captain America's after 20 years of training? Not enough. The Chi attacks Gao demonstrated? Maybe, but those take it out of the immortal, so they couldn't teach anything stronger and any alien, magic user or Inhuman would just laugh. Murakami's Raison d'etre seems to be simply to return home. He was the groups Healer, amusingly enough, and apparently required the most convincing to betray K'un-Lun. Gao just wants to be the groups kindly and conniving grandma; though she may want a way to restore her youth… Proper cultivation could do that. Sowande… who even knows about him. He seems to have everything he needs and loves his war with white Africans and Wakanda.

Alexandra Ried though… She's dying. Does S'ahra Sharn know? How I could possibly help them, I don't know. The Extremis maybe, but they'd need a lot of brainwashing for me to willingly tell them that.

My mind continues to run in circles for days getting nowhere, so while I wait, I cultivate.

Earth and Darkness are the strongest presences here, so I work with that. Earth runs up the back of both legs and squiggles around in the stomach and spleen. Darkness is all Yin meridians, accounting for both water and wood. Liver, Gallbladder, Kidney, Bladder, running down the front and sides of the body, but mostly through the core and the legs. We'll go with water for the moment. Front of the body flowing down the breast, diving in for the kidneys and then coming back forward to intersect the bladder before continuing down the legs. And if that isn't an opening for 7 year old boy humor, I don't know what is.

Drawing on both as much as I could, I begin attacking the Meridian lines, sinking deeper and deeper into a trance as chi from outside my body is drawn in to drill away at the mess of plaque therein. For the Yin of Water, I start at the bladder and work my way up to the kidneys. For Earth, I start at the ball of my heels and work upwards as well, counting on my arteries and Kidneys to eliminate the filth once it was dislodged.

An indefinable amount of time later I'm being slapped awake.

At first, I don't know what it is I'm seeing. The lack of food, deep meditation and increase in filth running through my blood has obviously caused me to start hallucinating, because in front of me isn't just any random Asian dude, it's Tomoi.

"Finally, you're awake." He tells me gruffly, holding a water skin up to my mouth. I drink, cough and drink some more while he continues speaking. "Several people came down to have that talk you asked for, but when we couldn't rouse you we'd begun to worry that you'd poisoned yourself."

"I need to pee." I groan.

The Japanese man scowls but nods, and picks up a bucket he'd apparently brought with him. "We figured as much." He carefully unzips my pants and then holds up the bucket. What comes out is not urine, but an almost acidic black syrup. It streams into the bucket like warm honey and starts to smoke faintly. "Again, you make a lot of progress in a remarkably short time…" he mutters shaking his head. "Makoto said you gave him that fractured knee and even managed to become nothing more than a heat haze to his eyes. Incredible."

"So, are you like a shape-shifter?" I asked, "Or an illusionist? Either way, could you take someone else's face? This is creepy."

Tomoi slaps me hard across the face and the black stream misses the bucket momentarily, landing on his shoes. He quickly removes the offending shoe and tosses it off to the side where it begins to visibly rot. I however, am not particularly caring. That slap felt like being smacked around with a metal slab. I can't see out of one eye and I swear several of my top teeth are going to fall out if I don't do something. Working my jaw, I fight through the pain and bite down. The detonation of agony in my skull almost causes me to black out, but the entire tooth is there, so Chi swiftly floods to the area to re-affix each of them. A complete healing will take me some time, but they're at least safe from being spat onto the floor.

Redirecting most of my chi to my eye, I do black out as several fragments of bone rearrange themselves. When I come too again minutes later, my vision is back. It's complete shit… but it's back. Looking around the room with my other eye, Tomoi is still there. He has a new shoe though and the bucket with the filth is being handed off to some rando. Rando looks excited though, as though the filth is worth something. I really don't want to think what, though I should probably learn just in case I get the chance to leave this accursed hole in the world and begin teaching myself.

"You ready to talk, gaijin?" Tomoi asks, turning around to see me conscious again. "Who am I kidding, you're always ready to talk."

"You're really Tomoi, aren't you?" I ask quietly.

He snorts. "Yes. Before you go on some self righteous rant about how could I possibly betray K'un-Lun or how you knew I was bad all along, think about it for a second. Hang there and really think."

I spit off to the side. "I don't care about that shit." I told him. "I care that my fucking friend would betray me like this. If you were Hand all along, you could have told me whether or not my son was here. I wouldn't have needed to train endlessly for a pointless rescue that in the end meant nothing. All those things you said about the importance of a living cultivator to S'ahra Sharn and the cause of the Hand, fucking hell, you were leading me here all along! I was just too stupid to see it. Well fuck you, you obviously don't know anything about me, or you'd know I'll make it my purpose to spite you! Shit-wad."

"Are you done?" he asked, clearly unimpressed.

I sneer. "Sure, let me out of these chains and I'll demonstrate."

He sighs. "You're a fool, Gaijin. There is no grand plan afoot, unless it is a trick played on both of us by fate itself. You met me of you own plans. You befriended me of your own foolishness. We are like minded, you and I. You plan to betray K'un-Lun yourself, to save your son, just as the Five did so long ago. But you needed this journey. You needed the goal to fight for. This? The quest through heaven to find your son? That IS your Heaven. Else you would not have left America to save his life, you would have simply abandoned him to the mother and child protective services you despise so much and gotten yourself out. You needed this journey to prepare yourself for the next one. Leaving K'un-Lun will require greater strength than you imagine, and only by training as you have for the last year for the next twelve will you be strong enough to pass the Iron Fist."

He spreads his arms and shrugs in the manner I taught him. The 'what is there to do about it pose'. "When fortune fell into our lap, who were we not to take advantage?"

I laugh silently to myself. This fool doesn't know what I know. How the Iron Fist will be killed by a plane falling out of the sky. How a spoiled rich brat will become the next Iron Fist only to abandon K'un-Lun to the Hand's tender mercies the moment the pass opens. I don't have to train at all, I just have to keep my eyes open. I open my eyes, gaze smoldering, quite literally, and ask a single question. "Is he here?"

Tomoi shakes his head. "We didn't know about the rift until you started spreading your story around the Immortal city" the Nipponese man replies. "I and several dozen agents within K'un-Lun searched it top to bottom and our men down here searched the valley. Unless Yu-Ti and his nobility have the boy, he never arrived with you. What you seek is beyond and behind the rift."

"… fuck" I swear in English. Black acid starts sizzling its way down my face but I don't make a sound. This quest just got a hell of a lot longer. I try to take solace in the fact that my 'friend' actually tried to help me, but honestly, he'd probably have used my son to blackmail me into helping him and the hand rather than appealing to me like this had things happened differently.

"What does the Hand want from me?" I grind out. "And what do they think they could possibly offer?"

Tomoi doesn't hesitate. "Your ability to dedicate yourself to a cause has impressed The Hand, and as a goal close to the hearts of the five fingers, we would like to make you an offer. The Hand requires a warrior of sufficient strength who is adept in the workings of the modern world. Finding these traits in common is remarkably difficult, you see. A living cultivator, trained by K'un Lun or S'ahra Sharn who can navigate the world and bring the fight to the chaste. Who, if we've chosen right, can save the other children in need."

I frown, "which ones?" The only children I can think of who both The Hand and Chaste fight over are the Black Skies.

"It is a bloodline known as the Black Skye." Tomoi explains, confirming my suspicions. "They are like the Iron Fist in that their power is deeply connected to the Dragons, and so can match the Iron Fist and even exceed them. But unlike the Iron Fist their soul is not consumed by the dragon once they die, they instead become dragons. Powerful, majestic and impossible to control."

"They also don't come here to K'un-Lun with you" I noted, "and could be used to suppress Yu-Ti's cultivators when you turn the tables." I reply, understanding.

He nods, but grimaces as well. "Well, not Yu-Ti. Even after nine thousand years, he still lives. But we have plans for that. The important thing is to replace or balance the Iron Fist."

Which explains why Alexandra Reid thought Electra could actually help her take over K'un-Lun. To kill the Iron Fist, the cultivators of the immortal city and possibly even replace Shao-Lao. Fucking hell.

"And after explaining this, what makes you think you could meet my price?" I ask nastily.

The smith's face stiffens. "Simple. To find your son you will need to travel across dimensions. The Hand can get you an invitation to Kamir-Taj. Your good heart and need will get you past The Ancient One's interview, but you will still need a master to sponsor you. We have one. Your commitment will be to safeguard and train a Black Skye until the Hand can return, and in exchange, we will get you into the Masters of the Mystic Arts, your single best chance at following your son."

The Jokes on them there too, but I might as well play along. Both of us have much to do if we want to play our parts and we can't do it here. "Done. So, how do I get out of here?"

He lets out a massive sigh and smiles at me. A broad grin, perhaps the first I've ever seen on his face. It's usually just small smirks. "First, you will need to assure the elders of your sincerity." He explained, walking forward with a key. "Then we will need to smuggle you back into K'un-Lun. I have managed to convince Wild Tiger that you are training on a distant peak and she shouldn't worry. Your progress the last few days on your Meridians will be enough to prove that to everyone. Only the Crane Mother is truly suspicious, but she commands the Iron Fist as though she were truly his mother, the bitch, so we will both need to sneak out of here and avoid his gaze."

By that point he had undone both of my legs and one hand. He had the key in the final lock when he looked into my eyes. It was almost as if he knew I was contemplating turning invisible and seeing just how far I could beat the shit out of him.

He undid the final lock and I fell to the ground. My legs were wobbly and barely caught me. "Ugh."

"You have a severe case of blood poisoning," he told me flatly. "You will need to purge yourself again before we leave here." Then he grimaced in disgust. "The alchemists will want that, so do it in another bucket, not the toilets. It's not a deal breaker, but the elders will be mad at you for upsetting the alchemists."

I make a face. "What do they even want that gunk for?" I ask, disgusted.

"Do you remember that chicken you were eating when you were caught?" He asks lightly, putting my arm over his shoulder and helping me walk.

"It was the size of a great Dane" I nod. He furrows his brow in confusion. "About twice the size of a wolf."

He nods in understanding. "Under normal circumstances, most plants, beasts, people and objects do not cultivate, but in a spiritually rich area, anything which survives for a century unchanged can accumulate the spiritual weight which allows them to do so. Places, heirlooms, and trees mostly, but ancient wise men as well. This was how cultivation was originally discovered." I nod as he drags me along. That makes sense. It also explains the tendency for cultivators in folklore to be religious, scholars or old widows. If they can discover it independent of study and tradition, then they can then make the traditions to study.

"But as I told you when we were discussing Meridians, the black filth as you call it, is the reason demon beasts exist. The corruption, laden as it is with the chi used to purify the body, can force a spiritual awakening in plants, beasts and insects almost immediately making them grow large, twisted, bloodthirsty and cultivate rapidly. This does not work on places or objects however, corroding and often killing nascent spirits. There have been efforts in the past to apply the same principle to people, but those efforts were… destructive. Many legends of demonic races were born from these efforts or accidents which achieved the same."

"And other demons are literal demons or aliens." I add. When he looks at me oddly. "The Ghost Rider and Kree."

He thinks for a moment and then nods. "Yes, I see. Even still… Our alchemists have experimented deeply with corruption, forming it into special medicines we can use to control the evolution, size and demeanor of demon beasts and sacred herbs. They are responsible for most of the cultivating plants and animals in the valley. We would keep them all in our cavern if we could, but that's simply not possible. Even if we can control their growth, the plants at least still require specific mixes of local elements much of the time. If we only engineered the plants and creatures of the undercity the number of recipes we could use would shrink to almost nothing. So, we accept the war with K'un Lun, setting infiltrators among the city to steal back much of what we made, and keep us sharp for the final battle when we will own all of heaven and need not fear the high city."

I know he's framing it as sympathetic when it's probably not, but how many really think they are the bad guys? Even when they are clearly in the wrong, there is always a justification. I could probably solve their little issue with greenhouses and a crew of elemental cultivators. It'd be a pain in the ass for those involved, but the more they give to the plants, the faster the plants could help them grow. Unfortunately for them, I'm feeling pretty spiteful right now. It'll be something for me to test and research privately…

But that is all for later. For now… S'ahra Sharn's answer to Li Hua, Lei Kung, Priya and Yu-Ti.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

Last edited: Dec 14, 2019

Book 1: chapter 3: Foundation

As Tomoi dragged me towards the alchemists and my vision slowly returned to the eye the rat bastard had damaged, I am reminded once more that chi may be messing with my mind.

It has been noted in the past that I had a tendency to be too clever for my own good. Overthinking things and screwing myself over in the process. Much like magic itself, really. I had always hated the corruption angle most stories went for, insisting to myself, my friends and the author that it is the person that is corrupt, not the power. Power is after all only a tool that allows you to do things… bigger, and the corruption you're seeing in those who gain it is what was already there simply becoming obvious. If it was suppressed at all before their rise it was suppressed by the inability to act on said corruption…

But what if we were both right?

Chi is your soul upgrading you to yourself, but MORE. So… Like an activist in their echo chamber, the vile corruption of those burnt by power is you and your principles when taken too far without a friend to hold you back and keep you grounded. Like my enthusiasm for working out since my original awakening. My mistrust of the Elders after Priya and Lei Kung wanted to go medieval on me. The impatience that drove me to try and sneak up on mother fucking ninja… and the pride that made me think I could wing it.

I even know how they caught me too, now that I'm past panic and have a chance to reflect. Daredevil season 2 was all about how the Chaste and Hand taught themselves to track opponents blind by their breathing, heartbeat and the whistle of a weapon parting the air. Detail was given on how Matt had to go to progressively more ridiculous heights of hearing as they suppressed those sounds. Theoretically, chi can allow me to do the same, substituting chi for oxygen in my blood and the beating of my heart. The draining of my chi during such an exercise would suppress my presence to those who sought others by their chi, and dark clothing of the stereotypical ninja would take care of most visual aspects. I've already learned the modified qinggong that allows you to walk silently.

I squeeze my eyes closed and groan softly, prompting Tomoi to drag me along faster. Here I am, having figured out what was wrong with me, and moments after that epiphany I'm already falling prey to that which was revealed. Unfortunately, I don't know how to suppress my chi or interrupt the threefold cycle. All I can do, I suppose, is 1) give in, 2) research the more obscure texts in the hall of ancestors for a solution or 3) actively work on myself. Changing your nature is possible… but in most cases it takes a significant trauma paired with both inner and outer discipline. My friends here… yeah, no. Outer discipline isn't likely to be a thing in this case.

At least I have the Relevant Trauma Wake Up Call part down pat. Yippee…

Inner discipline? Debatable. I can focus on self improvement pretty damn hard… but success has been somewhat variable, and that was before magic became involved. Still… I'm nothing if not determined.

Some things will have to wait however, as we've arrived at the alchemists.

"Fa Zha, I need an assistant." Tomoi told the man who opened the door to us.

He looked me over, fingering the veins on my neck. "This is the one who…"

Tomoi rolls his eyes and pushes through. "Yes. That bucket was from him. We need another."

He nods, and ushers us into the building. "FITZ! Get over here! We need an extraction, get the needles and a pail!"

The alchemist assigned to help me purge the rest of my impurities is a startlingly British Stereotype. I'd swear he was a blond version of Nigel from The Wild Thornberries Adventure, complete with giant hooked nose and buck teeth. He's wearing what looks to be a hand-stitched khaki safari uniform complete with pith helmet and far too many pockets, but it's made of some odd shimmery material with an uneven weave. Also handmade, I'd guess. In his hands are a bandoleer of needles and what I'd swear are glass milk bottles. He looks me up and down with a broad grin on his face and sticks out his hand. Offering him mine, he yanks it forward and sweeps up my three remaining shirt sleeves.

"Hmm… acute prana poisoning. Smashing to meet you by the way, Ignore those other chaps, none of them have quite the class of Ms Reid's company." He said gesturing to the several dozen men and women rushing around the shop before jabbing one of the needles into my arm and placing the milk bottle under it. He then flicked the needle with his finger and it sparked. Immediately a feeling of ice flooded my veins and black ooze began to issue out of the end.

"That would be Alexandra Reid?" I ask, voice dry and cracking. He hums and snaps his fingers, conjuring a ball of water from the air.

"Here, drink this" he orders. "Smashing to meet another member of dear Andra's party, absolutely smashing! Names Fitz-Lyode Pemperton, at your service. I had you pegged form one of Bakky's boys when you stumbled in here, given you're a yank and they've got a flair for overcompensation!" The various alchemists around the room seemed to be half asian, a third African-Black and the rest a motley crew of African-American, White and Hispanic.

I scowled, but took the comment for what it was. I did deserve the admonishment after all. "What day is it?" I ask, my voice considerably less croaky after the water. "And how did you get" I wave my hand around gesturing at nothing in particular "here?"

"It's July fourth, I believe! A rather auspicious day for you yanks!" he replied, giving me a disapproving look before continuing. "I was part of the Indian expedition, died 1843 trying to penetrate the Meru portal. Impaled from behind by an Asura. Went straight through five layers of shielding! Nasty business. I didn't originally resurrect here, but the inhabitants of the mountain were rather insistent I not be a part of their British quarter. Uppity blue tossers."

"Meru? The infinite mountain?" Tomoi asked from the other side of the room.

Pemberton turned around, grinning toothily while he removed the needle from my arm and then jabbed it into my neck without even looking. I winced, but somehow the inattentive jab had failed to cause any stabbing pains. Either that, or I'd been too distracted by the date to notice. The fourth of July. I'm getting out of this hole on independence day, what are the odds? "Precisely, my boy! Lady Reid has been surveying each of the seven cities, seeing if she can't gain support for her faction here." That hadn't worked out for her, obviously.

Still. "How does this work exactly?" I ask, swiping one of the needles from his bandoleer. Examining it closely, it's clearly a hypodermic needle. I can't imagine how they made one though, unless it came with someone through the gate? Unlikely. Metal cultivation perhaps? Some very delicate work in that case. I'm kinda impressed if that's right.

"Silver, my boy!" the Brit exclaims. "Silver is an agent for cleansing evil. Long history in many countries that! I just inject a bit of yin into the metal and the corruption resonates to it, like iron filings to a magnet. After the Yin gathers it together and the silver begins purging, your blood pressure and opposition from your chi do the rest. Better than sweating it out or drawing it into the stomach for a good vomit! Stuff is a bugger and a half to get out of cloth. Acid burns everywhere!"

That was… interesting information. I allow Fitz to prattle on for several more minutes, extracting the impurities from my blood and listening to him jump from topic to topic, almost scatter brained in how one thing led to another. According to Mr Pemberton, the seven cities of heaven in this reality are Avalon on an alternate version of the Isle of Mann shrouded in impregnable mists, Eden beneath the waves of the Persian gulf, Z'Gambo in a system of 'holy' caves in Ethiopia, Xibalba accessed by a ziggurat in the Yucatan, Meru in the kashmir region of India, K'un Lun in the Kuenlun mountains of china and the last being sealed beneath the ice of Antarctica after the flood. Pemberton's admission that he'd originally died in Meru implied that moving between heavens was possible for the dead, but did he move while the respective portals were open? Or while they were closed? Was it possible for the living to do so? I've tried going over the mountains since gaining the ability to scale them with the Light Body technique, but simply ended up on the other side of the valley I'd just left.

Pemberton himself has visited Avalon, Z'gambo and Eden before his death at Meru. He described Avalon as "a rather rowdy place" hosting every European pantheon short of the Aesir and more than a dozen popes. Rather than being gods, the many pantheons of Europe were all immortal humans somewhat akin to the elder cultivators here. The major difference between here and there though was that the Greek, Roman, Celtic, Germanic, Russian and other sundry 'gods' in Avalon collected spiritual energy through worship, something that sort of curtailed popular use and limited cultivation to folk heroes and those who could gain and build a cult following. This was later usurped by the Catholic Church with their saints and popes. While the extreme faith of the occasional paladin could do in a pinch, it was the worship they and the folk heroes and demigods before them received from the towns they saved or terrorized that really got the ball rolling. The pagan 'gods' in turn fell out of favor not because they'd faded away from the public consciousness, but because a war in Avalon between the Greek/Roman pantheon and the Celts had unleashed the previous pre-flood generation, the Titans, who killed both of them, trapping the groups in heaven. Catholic Rome had later killed the rest with Jesus Light and Roman steel.

This worked in their favor eventually though, as many saints and popes efforts to stamp out old European traditions ended with them traveling to Avalon, only to be met with several pantheons of very angry immortals in the mist. Between the honey trap that was Avalon, the nature of cultivation in Europe and the church's own efforts to stamp out any knowledge of how to go about cultivating that worship, the practice largely died.

Eden, slightly contrary to what Tomoi had told me earlier, is where cultivators confuse the Lightforce and Darkforce for chi, cultivating them in tandem and misusing all three. Or four, as it were. These cultivators spawned the legends of angels and demons that festoon middle eastern religions from Sumeria to Persia to the Jews. Christians and Muslims just sort of followed the Jews, though in the case of Christians in Europe this mixing of cultural practices was a large part of why cultivation died out in Europe.

Z'gambo, reportedly, is as hostile to the Hand as K'un-Lun and for much the same reasons. Pemberton goes on for several minutes about the row between Reid and Sowande over the later's blunder there, but apparently killing several black panthers for sport bars you from the heaven where they're one of the chief factions.

As Pemberton begins describing his part in the expedition to Meru though, he finishes with my blood work and Tomoi is hustling me off to meet 'the elders'.

"Fitz," I say as Tomoi begins dragging me towards the door. "I'd like to talk again, if that's not an issue. Think you could help arrange that?"

"Certainly, m'boy!" The blond Thronberry lookalike replies excitedly. "That would be smashing! Do you like boxing perhaps? Or fencing? These Asian sorts look down on good honest fisticuffs and I can predict my own fellows blindfolded these days."

I shrug. "I'm more a scholar myself, but I could learn."

"Smashing!" he calls out as Tomoi loses patience and yanks me out of the doorway.

"You shouldn't encourage him." Tomoi says gruffly as we walk. I offer him a raised eyebrow in response and he continues. "Your position must be one above suspicion going forward. You'll be in the same class as infiltrators like myself, and if you get caught coming down here you'll be expelled from the city. Worse for you, you'll likely be killed first, compromising yourself with both faction and curtailing any plans to find your son."

And this is how it starts. If he'd just been warning me off… , but no. Compromised with both factions. In a land where death is not an escape.

I suppose there's always the wheel of reincarnation. I'll have to investigate that and see if there's some sort of Akashic record perk for being reborn with your memories in tact.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

Evening July 4th, 1987

Where K'un Lun has four of the 7 champions from Iron Fist, S'ahra Sharn has the other three. Not five for each of the fingers, three for the remaining comic book characters. The Prince of Orphans, Brother Wolf and Bride of Nine Spiders.

The Prince of Orphans is Bakuto's champion, named such for Bakuto's tendency to mass recruit orphans from wherever he happens to be located to fill his personal army. The Prince, or Princess as in the case of Colleen Wing, is Bakuto's most talented student in that generation, and this dude is the most talented Bakuto ever taught. Or maybe just the oldest swordsage Bakuto taught… shrug. Something of a departure from the comics where the Prince was a black man taught by Tibetan Monks how to become a psychopomp, this man is a Greek Swordsman who claims he fought beside Alexander the Great before being humbled by Bakuto in the Hind Brahamata, an ancient college now reduced to rubble by modern day Pakistan.

Brother Wolf is Murakami's champion. The line of champions started because of the man's passion for hunting rare and difficult creatures (such as the dwindling demon beast population) and the bond his ninja developed with the dogs he kept around. In nearly Ranma Saotome esque fashion, it developed into something insane, to the point each champion is taught to psychically control any dog they get within 30 feet of. Many of the pack the champions regularly keep become spirit beasts and their chi helps train Murakami's next champion and any new members of the pack. This isn't much of a departure from the comics beyond trading a heavenly city in southern China for The Hand in Japan to be honest.

Finally, Bride of Nine Spiders is Madam Gao's champion, is much the same. Named such for the giant spiders the women keep to make their poisons. The champions attend to them, and in turn are taught how to use her Yin chi to make clouds of poison that do anything from cause disorientation to death in mere seconds of injection, inhalation or skin contact. Caustic acids, hallucinogens, paralysis, pain amplification and a rather alarming variety of healing tonics are also part of this training. By the point of the series, Madam Gao has moved from assassination poisons to cash crops like synthetic heroin laced with dragon bone and tolerance inhibitors, but the bride is still a major asset.. The one in the show, Alissa Gomei, is an entomologist in south Korea, running her own lab with cash flow from the spirit beasts venom. Venom powerful enough to overwhelm the Iron Fist. Or… at least; the inexperienced meat-head Danny Rand.

Sowande and Alexandra Reid don't have champions. Or rather, Alexandra does, but the black skies don't come to K'un Lun when they die. If they die before having their power activated by an infusion of dragon bone, nobody is really quite sure what happens to them. If they die afterwards, they resurrect repeatedly until they become a new dragon, a process both faster and far more physical than the usual mental degradation of those using dragon bone medicine to cheat death. Three new dragons and nineteen active Black Skye have been born by this process since the Hand began trying to use the Black Skye to return to K'un Lun but the dragons are uncontrollable and often had to be destroyed by the Iron Fist when the chaste could not behead them young, jobs that often killed these sent to do them, be they Iron Fist or Chaste army.

Sowande on the other hand simply has no use for champions, as he spends his followers lives as frivolously as the african warlords he battles for sport.

The chamber they meet me in is beneath an amphitheater with three sections facing a two tiered pulpit. 'The Spider Queen' is sitting off to the side smoking something in a pipe while lounging on a chaise longue, her body barely covered by strips of cloth that seem to eat light. Brother Wolf is leaning against the back wall, a small shih tzu on his shoulder and a gigantic Akita-inu panting at his feet. His clothing is fur, but subtle waves of light play over the hairs, prompting shivers as I watch them. The Prince is the only one who's taking this meeting formally, and is sitting behind a large black marble desk that absolutely hums with power to my novice senses. His clothing is that of a modern suit though the material seems to be silk… or maybe steel? Ironsilk? It doesn't creak like metal mesh as it moves, but the undeniable impression of metal fills my mind as I look at it.

"Tomoi tells us you are ready to work for the Hand." The dark man behind the desk rumbles in smooth english.

"Tomoi exaggerates." I reply deadpan, making the smith go rigid beside me.

The room is still for a moment while the Prince of Orphans brings his hands up to his mouth, lacing his fingers together. He stares at me as though he's considering a piece of meat. Tasty, inviting, but moments from bearing a blade. "Does he now?" The greek asked. "I notice that isn't no. Tell me what it is you want, and I'll consider it. Do not blame me for my actions, however,.. if you try my patience."

"I am a scholar and a father." I tell him simply. "That's why I have progressed so quickly (and if Tomoi is trustworthy) why you have any interest in me at all. A mere mortal or a poor cultivator would likely have been slain the moment I was caught at the gates, simply to deny and spite K'un Lun. Or if I wasn't, I certainly wouldn't have been let out of my cage after a mere tacit agreement to help. Also, I have only Tomoi's word that my son is not in the undercity. I am well aware that my lurking did not cover more than a tenth of your domain, and because you were aware of me he could have been moved. I am prepared to do a great deal for my son, even decades of work for a shadow organization I have no interest or loyalty in… But I need something I can trust that says he's not here, being withheld from me, before I can agree to that. Finally, S'ahra Sharn claims to be an expert on demon beasts and one of your alchemists offered to teach me in return for light sparring. Tomoi says this is ill advised, because you need me to be in deep cover. For all this I would like to negotiate."

Cold, yet somehow seductive laughter issued from spidergirl on her couch. "Oh? Is that all?" she asks, drawing a finger down her side. "You don't wish for something more… valuable?"

"No." I reply flatly, wiping the smile off her face.

Her eyes bore into me and she huffs, indignant before turning away. "I'd warn little brother to watch his back, but I hear Bushido types enjoy that sort of thing, eh, Tomoi?"

Tomoi doesn't shift, but I can feel him frown. I sigh heavily through my nose as the Prince of Orphans and Brother Wolf look irritated. "I arrived at S'ahra Sharn shortly after my wife of 15 years drowned and strangled our two daughters in the bathtub and tried to do the same to my son. To my detriment, when I discovered them and pulled her off of him, I also threw her down the stairs. Because I did not immediately finish the job, this was sufficient for the family court to deem me an abusive husband and attempt to charge me and take away my surviving son, Nicodemus. Would you like to know what she said in her defense before judgement? She did it because I spent too much time with the children and she felt alone. She claimed she didn't hate the kids, or want to spite me, she simply killed them so I would have more time and money to spend with her. The family court felt this sympathetic enough to assign her to mental hospice for five years instead of life in prison or execution. Forgive me, but it will be several years before I am interested in romance of any nature."

Brother wolf barks a laugh. "If you could not even do this, what use have you? To fail at avenging one's family?" He spits on the ground. "Such an unreliable tool is useless, kill him."

Spider girl looks contemplative however. Pulling a needle out of her hair, it ignites a sizzling jade smoke. "I could help you with that," she tells me, seeming somehow genuinely sympathetic "let you move on." The feeling is clearly unnatural but still I want to give in… until the Prince raises his hand and the air seems to shatter, dismissing all of the unnatural feelings.

"I swear on my cultivation base, that your son is not, to my knowledge, being held by any member of The Hand or anywhere in S'ahra Sharn." The Prince states firmly. "Will you swear your fealty in return?"

"I swear on my cultivation base, to find and protect the Black Skye until the Hand can return to K'un Lun." An unnatural perception gives me the impression of iron bands wrapping around my soul. The chains are inscribed with the words of my oath and I somehow know that should I consider myself to be doing something to break the oath, my power will be disbursed and the first enlightenment will need to be recaptured for me to start again. That means the Princes own oath was binding also. I feel my heart sink like a stone. Tomoi was telling the truth. This excursion really was a waste of my time and an entirely unnecessary risk.

But… maybe I could recover something from it. After all, I'd promised to protect Electra and that boy Stick kills in the Daredevil TVShow, not something so foolish as 'serve The Hand'. And 'the hand returning to K'un Lun can have many meanings. Such as my killing them all. Or helping them achieve their goals. Or waiting for them to figure it out on their own.

The Prince probably understands that too, as he frowns. But then he nods and says "that will have to do. On the matter of alchemy however, we will need something more. Your oath that this knowledge will not be shared with K'un Lun is the minimum bid I will accept, and for that you will only be granted basic lessons. If you are a scholar as you say, that should be enough to conduct your own research."

The knowledge would be largely dependent on my own research anyway, once I left the sacred valley. Still, knowing the history of their research and how they dealt with massively corrupt demon beasts and hell spores likely to result from the initial gunk would be essential. Not just for learning how to make medicines to control the mutations, but also for using the right amount to awaken a plant or even a field of them, to power. Jade Spirit Rice anyone? Yin-Yang Carp. Moonbreeze Silk. And other silly yet startlingly accurate names.

"I would be willing to swear not to knowingly or by willful negligence share knowledge gained from S'ahra Sharn with anyone loyal to the valley of K'un Lun." I reply, reasonably. Dog boy scowls while spider girl smirks, amusement sparkling in her eyes. "But what if instead I were to pass if off as my own work in the immortal city and share my ongoing cultivation research with S'ahra Sharn? Tomoi says you are impressed with my progress. Perhaps my path can provide you similar results? Further, if K'un Lun is no longer wasting their corrupt essence and instead spawning their own spirit crops, your infiltrators could bring back far more than mere fractions of what you yourself seed across the valley. You could in fact see so many fields appearing that the Hand could harvest some of them unchallenged."

"We have thought of this, outsider." Brother wolf speaks up. "But that would give us no advantage we do not already possess."

"It may not tip the balance of power, that is true" I agree, "but in raising the quantity of resources available you still benefit. Greatly, immediately and in the long term." I make my case. "You have seen this in the recruits of this last century. Competitive production benefits everyone, even as the best process sees personal advantage." I state emphatically. "As the group with the most research and most experienced researchers, you will have and keep that advantage during my stay in the valley and almost certainly after I leave."

"And what do you get out of it? Hmm?" spider lady asks, blowing an orange smoke ring at me. "No schemer such as I see in you ever does anything without benefiting the most from the transaction."

"As the one 'doing the research' I would have preferential access to all resources generated by my efforts. Be they learning tools, cultivation resources or sacred artifacts. I would grow stronger and more important while acting as a weight on their own advancement, further developing your advantage from the largess." And developing my own cache for when I eventually escaped. The outside world is highly unlikely to be the spiritually rich environment it is inside, so the more plants and animals that can be enlightened, the easier it will be to not have these 13 years be wasted once I'm out.

I have a number of ideas on how to bust open that rift, with and without the Masters of the Mystic arts… but getting any of them requires power as a starting point or they rapidly become insanely difficult to pull off.

The three of them seem to be considering this thoroughly. Brother Wolf is the first to speak. "You will be given a chance." He replies. "We know you cultivate separate from the others; continue to do so alone on your peak. Our envoy will meet you at dusk once a week to exchange scrolls. We expect you to release our studies slowly." He finishes gruffly.

The Prince cocks his head to the side, seemingly listening to something. "Do well, and we will see about inserting Lord Pemberton into your sphere. The Iron Fist of this age does not know him, but the Thunderer is familiar. You will be responsible for ensuring they do not meet. You will likely be collateral damage if they do." Then he looks to Tomoi. "Lead him out through the L2 entrance. Blindfold him before you exit and keep him so until you're away from recognizable landmarks."

Tomoi bows stiffly to each of the three and then leads me out of the room. Even after the door shuts though, I can hear Bride of Nine Spiders whisper in my ear. "Don't worry, honey. The crazy ones leave their mark, but it's nothing a few good experiences can't erase. I'll see you have your son and your sanity back before you know it. Trust Gao Li Lan…"

Even a half an hour later as Tomoi and I enter the sunlight for the first time in almost 2 weeks, I'm not sure whether the shivers running up my spine are hope… or dread.

~! #$%^&*()_+! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

Tomoi tried to blindfold me as he was ordered upon exiting the hidden side entrance, but the last month's experience hiding myself and my clothing allows me to turn small holes of cloth in front of my eyes transparent with almost absurd ease. After enhancing my eyes and removing the barrier, I take in the landmarks, burning everything into my memory. How Tomoi opened the door, how he closed it again, the rocks and ridges in the area, the placement and type of trees and shrubs. All of it.

After all… sneaking into an unguarded entrance and exploring a city that's not looking for me is SO MUCH EASIER than sneaking in the guarded front door. Flubbed recognizance mission notwithstanding. Plus, now that I'm "part of The Hand" even if I get caught again, it'll be fine. At least until word gets up to the line of champions. Best to keep a low profile when I try this. My quasi-arrogant impatience just about got me killed last time when it wasn't supposed to go any further than scouting.

I shudder at the thought and Tomoi, misinterpreting my reaction bursts into a warm radiance, like that of a fireplace. One would think that being able to live something approximating a video game existence with endless respawns would be fun as hell, but when your first respawn removes the logout button… heh, well, trapped in a game is a genre as well, and it's generally rated 'horror'.

After leaving the small crag holding the door, Tomoi takes to the skies, as it were; Superman jumping his way up the mountainside and crossing over the ridge. After doing this a few times so that our location on the map's edge is thoroughly confused, he grunts and takes my hood off.

"Think you can get back on your own?" He asks gruffly. "The orders will have watchers ready for you, so appearances matter."

I nod, not wanting his presence and watch him leave.

I'm still… conflicted about how to handle the man. Do I consider him a traitor or shady friend? Which of us is more responsible for fucking me over? Did the experience in fact fuck me over? My Chi is stronger for the experience, but not by much, given I've had similar already. The intense emotions, thick chi of the city and week completely of uninterrupted meditation allowed me significant progress on my meridians, I can see why seclusion training is a popular trope… but I was also imprisoned and shanghai'd into a criminal organization who I've even less empathy for than this callous 'heaven'. Viewing his actions and words in hindsight, Tomoi was very obviously preparing to lead me to The Hand; but my own actions and possibly some chi based head fuckery were pushing me to do a lot of stupid shit involving them in the first place. My willingness to commit their same 'sins' for the same reasons being a prime example.

In the end, I make no progress on sorting myself out by the time the sun is down and the milky way blazes it's trail across the sky.

As a shifting groan in my stomach reminds me I've been eating chi and fuck all else for a week I give up my musings as a bad job and begin the process of returning to town. Ah for a Diablo style Town Portal… Kamir Taj cannot come soon enough.

The first step, finding K'un Lun, is at least relatively easy. The city is a pretty major landmark despite the grand expanse of the valley. Once oriented, the next step is to make my way down the mountainside to the valley separating me from the cliff city. Deciding to take it easy and effectively announce my presence, I use Light Body to glide down the slope like a kite, passing a herd of Yak-things on the way down. The effort takes several jumps regardless and is about as exhausting as simply walking the distance, but being able to imagine myself as flying makes the chi cost entirely worth it.

I'm 'found' by several Disciples of the Crane Mother near the stairway up from the lake where the temple gets its water.

"Outsider! Your presence is required by the Crane Mother!" One of them called out, stepping forward. "Come quietly or be suppressed!"

I raise my hands in surrender. "I was under the impression Priya would rather never see my face again," I comment calmly, approaching slowly "did something change while I was training?"

The disciples grab me roughly and twist my arms around to be bound by a strip of cloth behind my back. The force is rough enough it goes straight through my minimal chi enhancement and nearly dislocates my shoulder. "You went out for daily cultivation and returned two weeks late. You could not be found on any of the peaks when Wild Tiger sent out searchers. The Crane Mother suspects you of plotting with The Hand against K'un Lun. You will answer to the orders for your absence." He grinds out as we begin to march up the stairway.

"I was unaware seclusion training was against the rules" I reply. "Surely Priya has bet…"

I would say more, but a fist slams into my kidney. "Silence, outsider. Your cursed tongue is not worthy of her name. You will address The Crane Mother by her title and defend yourself before her, not us." Wisely, I remain silent for the rest of the trip up the stairs focusing instead on healing my kidney. It took much less chi than I expected from the pain, something I think is thanks to my opening the associated meridian.

Once the seven of us are in the Temple of the Crane mother, the disciples force me to my knees, kicking out the backs when I refuse to cooperate. The moment the struggle ends, Priya walks in. Now that I have the senses to look for it, her silk sari hums with the power of wind and wood while her jewelry buzzes with water and darkness.

"So, you have learned to cultivate after all" she murmurs, grabbing my chin and moving my head this way and that. "I had the last disciple to tell me so whipped for lying. I will have to reward him in apology now." She squeezes and my jaw cracks audibly. "Where have you been these last two weeks? Do not dare to lie."

"Ig ah cav, culthiva-ing." I slur through the pain. She lets go, shoving my head back and to the side and I take the reprieve to devote my chi income to healing my jaw.

"Two weeks and you're halfway through four meridians?" She scoffs. "Liar! You had the help of an alchemist! Who was it; that we could not find you or your accomplice?"

I spit blood onto her polished tile floor. "I took neither potion nor medicines, Crane Mother." I counter. "My progress is due to my autistic focus, a soul heavy with experience and the sparse tutelage of a man who cares little for my safety."

She hisses like the bird she's named for. "I know you're lying to me, but I cannot sense it when you speak. Swear to me and I shall call this a misunderstanding."

"I swear what I have told you is the truth." I bite back. Technically it is. The alchemist in S'ahra Sharn gave me only water and had nothing to do with my progress, only my recovery afterward. I was cultivating in a cave during my absence, pretty consistently too, as evidenced by my progress on the stealth technique as much as my meridians. There's just a difference in semantics between a cave city beneath the mountain and a natural cave higher up on the slopes.

The Nepalese woman narrows her eyes. "Swear to me on your cultivation."

"I swear on my cultivation this entire situation was a result of my overeagerness and not thinking things through rather than any criminal activity. That I have used no alchemist's remedies to speed my cultivation and spent the last two weeks almost entirely alone in a cave… "

Her eyes blaze, but then she schools her features. "Barely a tremor in your soul. Fine. I can eat crow when the need arises. You have become a cultivator and are progressing along The Path. That means you will need to join a sect. In recompense I offer you a place in my Order of the Crane Mother. We will correct your poor foundation and strengthen your body to handle…"

"No."

She stills. "What. Did. You. Say?"

"Thankyou, but no." I reply. "I must refuse."

"You will receive this honor…" She tells me steel in her voice. "To do else would be to show me a remarkable lack of Face. I could not be blamed for my actions in such a circumstance." The threat is clear in her voice, though not her words.

"I wonder what Yu-Ti would have to say about that." I ask bitingly. "Such a high ranking subordinate with so little self control. It would show him a remarkable lack of face."

"Brothers Chodak, Rabten." Priya barks. "Help him up so that he might be shown his deficiencies. One cannot teach a student who's cup is full."

The sash binding my arms is removed and I'm hauled to my feet. Before they can start however, I vanish before their eyes. This time, I don't breathe, using chi to facilitate oxygen exchange in my lungs. Under normal circumstances your lungs are about 17% efficient at oxygen absorption and you can, at most, hold your breath for a minute. Athletes and dolphins can do so for half an hour at nearly 80% efficiency. Chi takes the place of that training, and Quingong provides me with a silent step. Without my breathing, silhouette or movement to track me by, I quickly evade the disciples.

"Silence, you fools!" She orders, before looking around like a bird, cocking her head this way and that. I touch down and push off the floor, heading in another direction and Priya strikes. A ripple of air blasts through the space where I'd briefly paused and shatters the wall behind it. It's the same strike Madam Gao uses in Defenders and Daredevil. I hop again, something none of the disciples can hear, but the Crane Mother does. She's suddenly beside me, grasping at the air where I just was as I float away.

This time I land near the doorway. Moving carefully, I make no sound even the monster herself can sense, but as always seems to be the case in this place, something goes wrong. A hand lands on my shoulder and with a feeling like stepping into a dry sauna all of my techniques fail at once.

"Such vulgar actions." Yu-Ti murmurs from over my shoulder. "What quarrel would disturb an old man's rest?"

The question is obvious bullshit; the Jade Serpent sleeps at the top of the winged tower dominating the middle of the city; not the austere warrior temple on it's fringes. I'm tentatively grateful for the deception regardless. There's a shifting off to the side, and I get the barest glimpse of Li Hua smiling before she vanishes from my line of sight. She was waiting for me as well, like Tomoi predicted and brought reinforcements.

"I overdid my training" I answer swiftly "and ended up spending two weeks in a cave, Jade Serpent. The Crane mother suspects me of stealing from your alchemists to aid my progression, even after swearing I had not."

"Do not answer for me, child!" The woman snaps. "I suspect him of far more, August Jade Lord. He hides things and proves his disloyalty to K'un Lun who sheltered, fed and taught him by refusing membership in our temples; an honor he barely deserves. He could not possibly have developed such effective techniques on his own; he is obviously working with The Hand!"

The ancient cultivator nods solemnly, one hand behind his back, the other firmly around my shoulders. "Indeed. I see." He replies pleasantly. "Your progress is rather remarkable for an outsider… but then, most outsiders come to us already well past your point of development, so their requirements are greater. Perhaps this is to be expected. While overeager, young Priya was correct. You will be required to choose a school and swear loyalty to K'un Lun or have your cultivation bound."

"Have I not already sworn to Wild Tiger and The Hall of Ancestors?" I ask. "Just now I swore on my cultivation her claims were unfounded."

The ancient cultivator chuckles. "The Tigers daughter will be pleased by your faith in her." He shakes his head. "This is a greater commitment than access to the first level of ancestral knowledge. None of us expected you to learn our ways in less than a decade. Either you were closer than we imagined to awakening on your own, or Tomoi is a greater teacher than we realized; an achievement he should be rewarded for. Come, we will perform the ceremony in the morning. You will spend the night in meditation on this development."

As the dragon led me away, Priya protested. "Honorable Patriarch, why do you protect this unworthy one? As Matriarch protector, I need to know when I can and cannot chastise my lessers."

He smiles, nodding at her. "I understand. Know that Tiger vouches for him and I find his antics amusing. Fear not, your concerns are heard and treasured."

Politics for the win?

As Yu-Ti leads me off, Li Hua joins us. As she nears, she pulls a paper banner out of her chesongam and all noises cease. "Report." She orders me. "What was the outcome of your scouting mission? Did you find your son?"

My jaw tightens. It's my fault. If she didn't have a witness telling her I went in, my earlier explanation of my intended training combined with my two week absence would have been enough. "No." I reply heavily. "I wasn't able to search the entire city though, they kept finding holes in my technique and chasing me with swords of fire and other elements until I could escape. That's what took me so long to return. Finding a way past them. One does not simply leave S'ahra Sharn."

She snorts. "You predicted such. Yet you went anyway. Why? I told you you could have asked the master," she nods to the Jade ruler.

"It wasn't… supposed to happen like that." I reply with a sigh. "It was supposed to be the first of many missions, not a suicidal charge into the depths." I turn to the quietly chuckling old man. "Honored elder, do you know the fate of my son?"

"We have investigated your entry to the valley. Many of my greatest resident pupils have probed the rift and discovered that it was caused by the improper use of three keys. These artifacts were most probably destroyed in a single strike, judging by the short life and instability in the opening. My sages have tracked the chi signature back to Xibalba, the city of heaven near your homeland. The road that brought you here cannot be retread. What was once can never be yours again. It is best you let go and accept your life here. As for your son, we were able to confirm that two souls tied to your own survive, each in a different dimension. They miss you terribly, but more than that we do not know."

Two souls. Nico and fucking Mina most likely. Unless Cassie or Lily are somehow ghosts. At least Nico isn't going to be trapped with the homicidal wo…

Three keys? An explosion! Xibalba… The blue tear explodes in my minds eye and a memory comes back to me. Season 5 Agents of Shield. Xibalba is the 'fear' dimension, though Pemberton called it one of the 7 heavens. It was accessed through the Temple of the Forgotten by three Kree Monoliths. Monoliths that were destroyed briefly by a Kree beacon exploding in the Lighthouse facility… forming a rift. A rift very similar to the one Nicodemus and I were pulled through.

I know how to reopen the way.

As that epiphany hits me Chi is vacuumed into my body, refreshing me and my soul expands just the tiniest amount. But that leaves the question of where Nicodemus is. Is he in Xibalba with Izel and Sarge? Or some other yet unnamed reality? When I get access to the monoliths, will it (the white stone of Time) transport me to when he was taken? Or however many years it takes me to find them after that? And how can I ensure it's the right answer?

"May I ask why I was not told this earlier?" I ask carefully.

The old man smiles while Tiger frowns. "You never asked. Dear Tiger tried to tell you, but your spirit would not be swayed. After, it did not seem right to interfere with your dao, and I'm sure you'll agree that the results speak for themselves, young sparrow."

"Sparrow?" I ask, confused.

He nods. "Sparrows work constantly and frantically, attack and harass those far their superior and sing boldly rather than prettily. But… this achieves impressive results for them and their children."

I snort. "Outside K'un Lun they call that being the 'Brash American'. Trade princes hire us when they need an advisor to suggest something they can't get away with saying themselves."

Tiger shakes her head. "This is unimportant. Your respite was two dragons seeking position. I need to know everything that happened down there, or Red Crane will take advantage. The Honorable Yu-Ti was willing to extend me this favor because your antics amuse him, but the situation is far from resolved."

Of course, politics. I had guessed as much when they retrieved me. It's not for my sake, so much as I'm the symbol of their struggle. A proxy for the two women. And so, as the three of us walked to my apartment, I told them everything.

Well, almost.

Everything I was truthful up until Tomoi pulled me out of the cell, merely citing how I was removed due to the advanced concentration of impurities in my blood needing to be purged. I then told them about making my way out the secret passage, which I described as an air shaft and the condition in which Tomoi dragged me back to the Eternal City. They listened intently, asking questions and having me expand on various parts of my experience. It was difficult to avoid talking about the promise I had made to the Hand Elders, but frankly, the threat that it would be far harder to explain doing so kept my tongue flexible and my mind sharp.

When finally I was let go, it was with my stuff in a better apartment than the one I've been squatting for the last year. I was so exhausted I didn't even bother unpacking, just lying down with my suitcase and duffle bag on the woolen futon and going out like a light.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

July 7th 1987

The ceremony to join the Order of the Wild Tiger was a simple affair. It took place in one of the city squares which had a mosaic of a white bengal tiger on the black side of a Yin-yang. There were twelve other initiates from around the city joining us, one of whom I recognized, the girl who explained my apartment's food offerings to me. The thirteen of us kneel on small fur matts before a number of Tigers subordinates who run the various districts and city utilities while several thousand of the long term citizens, all also of the Tiger School, watch on from the sides.

Each of us swear on our cultivation to "respect the elders of K'un Lun in their authority and wisdom; to defend the city with the patient fury of a tiger and work to build a place of peace and safety for souls transitioning from one life to the next." After which, we're given white kashmir wool robes woven from the goats herded by Tiger Initiates. This as opposed to the austere saffron and burlap for the Crane and Turtle disciples or the silk robes for Dragon Disciples.

Once everybody has their robes, the officials recite a verse which we all repeat. "The crane spreads her wings, the mountain casts its shadow, the dragon contemplates heaven and the tiger holds its territory." Somehow it's poetic in chinese. Why territorial Tigers are the builders rather than crane who builds nests, the dragon who lair or the turtle who hauls around its shell, I've no logical rationale, but I suspect it has something to do with the origin story for Tiger's Beautiful Daughter.

In the Iron Fist Comics, Tiger Island, the sixth heaven, is a tropical island off the coast of North Korea. Here, women cultivated martial arts and chi into a wild and reckless fighting style that won them great renown while the men were builders and farmers. The year after Tiger's birth, Mongols invaded the heavenly island and slaughtered all of the women warriors, leaving only those women who were too old, too young or had never bothered learning to fight in the first place.

To save the heavenly city, the men treated the invaders to a feast and tribute, using their hammers to smash in the heads of the drunken warriors. They then negotiated on equal terms with the survivors to keep the women docile and provide tribute in exchange for peace. The raiders agreed and left heaven, taking with them their spoils. Thirty years later, the Mongols returned with a larger force and Tiger's Beautiful daughter learned the truth of the past. She rallied the women of the village to fight and ambushed the Mongols as they burnt the holy city. Following dreams given to her by her mother (the true wild tiger)'s ghost, she took on the spirit of the Tiger and became one of the 7 immortal weapons.

In this reality, the tiger seems to still be sleeping, as it were, and she'll likely not wake until Danny Rand's betrayal of the city lets The Hand invade. Or who knows,.. Given she's the head of her order, maybe her story happened long ago? It would fit with Disney's laziness to not have fleshed out their stories any.

Regardless, after taking our oaths the various Masters Of The Tiger sorted through the 12 other disciples, claiming or rejecting applicants. This part took several hours as a few of my 'classmates' were fought over, one of them literally.

When they finally got to me, I was handed a scroll with my job among the order, penned by Wild Tiger herself. Four hours a day running maintenance on the bathhouses and the scripting techniques that run them and another eight hours following up on the corruption pills from the 'book of alchemy' I'd 'discovered' in S'ahra Sharn. All four elders were interested in having a better supply of alchemical ingredients with which to make cultivation pills. Even the Jade Serpent sect who made and got preferred access to them still had to ration the valuable drugs.

I decided to start with another construction project. The greenhouse Idea I'd had when in the undercity. For that, I'd either have to see about hiring/requisitioning some people or figuring out how to create runes to spool up the powers I'd need. The bathhouse ran off them, after all. It shouldn't be too hard, right?

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

September 2nd 1987

"Errhm! M'boy, if you don't mind my interruption?" Opening my eyes to the late dawn light, I quickly suppressed my irritation at being interrupted in my morning cultivation as I recognized the british accent.

Grinning down the slope I greeted him. "Lord Pemberton. A pleasant surprise. I suppose you're here for that spar? Or is The Hand coming through on their offer of Knowledge?"

Pemberton grins broadly, showing lots of teeth. "Smashing! You catch on quick!" He takes off his khaki shirt and folds it crisply in a blur of movement. Underneath the cloth is a rippling mass of muscles and scar tissue, including a large white mark over his heart, like the eye of a lizard or cat. Putting up his fists in a boxing pose he speaks again. "I prefer to meditate while moving or with milk-tea and a project, myself."

"Maybe you could teach me that later" I laughed. It'd certainly help to restore my downtime if I could gather power while working. Hopping down off my rock, I looked down at the folded shirt and saw a book laying atop it. Grinning, I went into a loose stance. My empowered mind allowed me to more or less memorize the various stances and patterns of combat I'd seen around town, but other than using them for stretching and Dynamic Tension training, I'd never really bothered to learn or practice.

"Sir, I was wondering if perhaps you could answer something for me."

"I could but try." the colonial man replied, jovially. "Don't throw a wobbly if I can't do anything though."

I paused briefly, considering what that might mean. Coming to a conclusion based on context, I brushed it off and moved on. "I worked for six months on cleansing my body, and another three on my meridians, but only got small improvements. In S'ahra Sharn though, I was able to half clear four of my Meridians in the space of a week. I thought it was due to my extreme focus while I was hanging there prisoner, but in seven weeks of trying the same, all I've managed to finish clearing one of the four. Is the power denser in the undercity? Is Yin better for cleansing yourself? Or is it something else I'm missing?"

"AH! I see! Do you perhaps remember a certain doomcock you encountered prior to your capture?" When I frowned in confusion, he explained. "The giant rooster, lad. You killing and eating it was how they found you." My eyes widened and he continued. "Smashing! Alright. Beast meat has properties similar to that of elixirs, as far as power gathering is concerned. It is typically of lower quality, however, on the order of pound to gram. On top of that, digesting it comes with a boost in your level of corruption. It's quite the tradeoff, but as corruption is what allows us to make more beasts, the ability to recycle is a useful one. Any other questions?"

"What's with the silk?" I asked, throwing a punch. "It looks odd and all of the higher ups seem to covet it." I dodged several punches before taking one on my forearms. Each of his blows was getting progressively faster and stronger. "Is it a, uff, rarity thing? Ahk, or…" I was cut off as the blows were now coming too hard to reliably block. Focusing some chi into my brain I began deflecting and parrying rather than blocking and continued my question. "… is it something to do with cultivation nobody told me?"

Pemberton had a broad buck toothed grin on his face as we circled and traded blows. He occasionally gave me pauses and openings, his return to attack becoming punishing if I didn't at least TRY to capitalize on them. "Ace m'boy! Ehrm, yes. Silk is one of the best conductors of chi we've found so far. Wearing it allows for collection and expulsion of chi without damaging our clothing in the slightest! Something lesser fibers often fail to achieve, to a variety of results."

"Some of the champions believe it's to do with being a transitional material. Insects use it to cocoon, you see? Moving from one life, that of a worm, to another, that of a bug or fluttershy. By Meru's reckoning, worms are among the lowest form of life and insects not much higher, while butterflies are one of the highest forms alongside the cow." He started mixing basic kicks into the fight, forcing me to change tactics again before I could begin processing that. "Personally I think they're all barmey, but there is something of a qualitative difference between the silk of say, a moth, a spider or a cricket. I prefer spider myself, it's produced much more often and in greater quantity, even if you have to braid it to get the propa strength for weaving."

I grunted and tried to take a more aggressive stance, pressing him because he'd told me before he'd been getting bored with fighting those he knew. "Have you tried using different types of spider? What's the difference between egg sack vs webb thread? Dragline silk is pretty strong. If those sort aren't here, what about demon beasts?"

Fitz-Lyod laughed in delight as he blocked and dodged my unorthodox strikes. "Lexington form over Oxford! Bully!" he crowed. "Yes, egg sack thread is swell for sutures, as the birthing aspect enhances mystic healing! I've never tried it for clothing though. Perhaps bandages? My current clothes are from earth and fire aspected spiders. I had one of the brides help me with that, a lovely woman named Jung-sook. The earth enhancement strengthens the threads so they can form a proper cloth, while fire is my primary element. Now, those lessons you asked for…"

As we continued our 'fight' (I was sweating like a pig, while Pemberton looked as though he were just doing light stretches) the conversation turned more towards English Kickboxing. He corrected my form, left openings so I could run through drills and generally seemed to have fun. Despite myself, I found myself enjoying the conflict as well. As Fitz explained it, the trick to boxing, marathons and active cultivation were all the same. The Fugue state one entered when the blood thundered in your ears and drove out all extraneous thoughts. Where the asian methodology had you clear your mind by willful deprivation; the european knighthood had spent centuries developing the ability to do the same through action, narrowing your will to the next action, progressively discarding wasted thought and movement until you were so focused on what you were doing that all else disappeared.

We fought for another two hours till I was out of stored power and continuing on the flow coming from within. All the while, I tried to bring the idea of the suction force of meditative cycling into my actions. As my vision began to tunnel on Lord Pemberton's eyes and flickering fists, I felt it. Energy beyond my soul began to trickle in, giving me a feeling of relief. That destabilized my fugue, dropping me back down to where I started, but it was a foundation to build on.

In the end, I worked on the problem for another seven hours, and didn't even notice when Fitz left. I ended the day however, able to cultivate, at the very least, while working out. Coming down from my high, full of magical power, I found My skin was covered in a sticky black tar like substance which itched something awful. It was cleansed corruption, bled from my body through sweating and it had caused my pants to melt off my body.

Grumbling darkly, I began peeling the foulness off of my body and rolling it into a ball. My chi helped me to keep it from sticking to my skin and hair beyond what you'd expect from a girls facial cream mask. Eventually I'd finished digging the black stuff out of the nooks and crannies of my body and collected it into a ball about a third the size of my fist. A black stress ball that oozed a spiritual sense of unease and nausea. If I didn't know how valuable this concentrated crap was, I'd definitely hasten to get rid of it.

However, I was late for work at the Bathhouse and Pemberton was gone, leaving in his wake, the book I'd spied earlier. Grabbing it in one hand, the corruption in the other, I stealthed and began to head home.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

October 1987

It took me two months to full work out how to cultivate while doing other things and once I did, I started doing so almost constantly. Getting really into my work isn't odd or unexpected for me though, so other than noticing how rapidly I go through clothing now, nobody comments. Holding the corrupted mass however is somewhat complicated, as it rots just about everything except Glass.

With this in mind, I went to find the city glass blower.

Said glass blower was a shed that connected the Potters workshop to the Forge. The man inside was from the Warring States Period of China around 200 BC to 200 AD and was the half blood son of an egyptian and Tibetian. His family lived along the Silk Road, which passes pretty close to K'un Lun and for the most part, sold beads for necklaces and other jewelry. Making glass of any quality requires numerous tools from the smithy and access to the potters annealing oven, something neither group really appreciated so the man, Abrahem Lao, spent most of the last two thousand years learning how to perform his craft using chi.

That, in fact, was probably a large part of the reason he was tolerated by either potters or smiths guilds.

Well, that and the fact that he was a member of the Dragon Sect. His silk robes are something of a giveaway.

Convincing him to craft me a series of glass jars was… difficult. He kept telling me to go to the potters and ask for celodon. Eventually though, I managed to get him to agree by telling him about my greenhouse project. A project that would need a large number of large glass plates and complicated glassware for a chemistry set. It came all the way down to drawing the plans and images out for him before he agreed to help. Getting him to teach me required that I explain everything I could remember from a documentary on glass making from national geographic. Glass blowing in particular was of interest here.

Finally though, I managed to walk away with several thick glass jugs to hold corruption in. I squeezed the rubberized ball of filth I'd been keeping on a rapidly flaking piece of granite in my quarters into it and added a bit of blood to dissolve the mass before capping it.

Step 1: Swipe silver corruption cleansing needles from Fitz. Complete.

Step 2: Learn a better cultivation technique. Complete.

Step 3: Get glass bottles to hold corruption. Complete.

Step 4: Feed corruption to something small and easily controlled or killed. Pending.

Step 5: Profit.

April 24th 1988

Translating Pembertons book is going slowly, having been written in code. It took me a while, but I eventually I sussed out what he was doing by rotating the pages before feeding them into my translation program. He was sounding out English words and writing European right to left rather than Asian top down, but everything he said was written in Chinese pictograms… as a phonetic. Getting the hang of it is proving to be a bitch and writing a translation algorithm into the program's source code was similarly difficult, so I foolishly tried to forge ahead on my own.

Once I started clearing my meridians more efficiently and had a steady supply of corruption, I'd tried to start with enhancing rats. I figured they were small, unwanted and easily killed, so nobody would really mind me doing so and the results would be easy to handle. Unfortunately trying to work without S'ahra Sharn's notes caused a horrible mutated monster that just about killed me. The rat became a whirling ball of shadows, teeth and unadulterated fury that went straight for the throat. Holding on to it resulted in poisonous acid burns and trying to catch it was like chasing after a greased pig. When I finally managed to smash the thing, I'd needed a full meditation draw of chi for the rest of the day to heal from the wounds. With that in mind, I went looking for other methods of advancement while I worked on translating the book page by page.

This was where working at the bathhouses for the last ten months has paid dividends. I'd initially thought I'd need to search carefully for how to create runes, but four months in, I'd been given a lesson on just how the scripting was done after I'd accidentally scrubbed away one of the rune sequences regulating the woman's hot spring.

Runes, or barrier formations as my supervisor and bathhouse boss Jai Fong calls them, are artistic formations of blood and corruption. Tomoi had told me long ago that K'un Lun wastes its corruption, compared to S'ahra Sharn's method of feeding it to plants and animals to force the creation of demon beasts and sacred herbs. I don't know, but personally I'd have to argue with him. Rune magic is cool as fuck, incredibly versatile and pretty stable over long periods of time. Though, I suppose demon beasts and sacred herbs create their own feedback loop generating more of the mess, where runes are only a material sink.

What is and isn't corruption is determined almost entirely by what is and isn't healthy for the body. The resistance it causes chi seems to be an effect of the material literally sticking to the energy like epoxy. This is bad for learning to use chi, because it makes the energy difficult to move; while said movement is the essence of cultivation. Once out of the body, that same property has fringe benefits. The large amounts of chi required to dislodge it remains with the filth, at least for a while, allowing it to be used to jump start the spirituality of plants and animals.

Runes work by a similar idea.

Techniques work by forming chi into specific shapes out of energy and throwing it at your target. Corruption, which holds chi to it, can be formed into similar shapes and keep the chi there without mental effort from the user. This is useful because it means that you can create permanent techniques that last for as long as the writing does and can be re-cast without needing to train someone in the technique shown. It's not even a precise art, as making the shapes similar but not identical can form useful variations of a technique at very little effort.

Or degrade them to the point they're better used as a bomb than their intended purpose. Which, depending on the situation, can be just as useful. Trap items for instance.

These shapes, by and large, are incomprehensible squiggles. But if you squint your eyes and tilt your head just right, these squiggles also look similar to the various Asian languages, suggesting perhaps an origin for those languages. Trying to read them as Chinese, Japanese, Korea or Indian yields poor results. Most historians think this is because an artists 'style' (required to qualify as a scriptor) amounts to sloppy handwriting, but that's not… entirely… true. I think it's more likely things changed from this original form to more modern alphabets as a result of drift over centuries. Though the thick sticky ink corruption forms is just as likely a culprit.

Regardless, feed pure chi into these formations, and it will do exactly what it's intended to every time, even if the user doesn't know what the creator intended. Feed the right chi into the right shapes and you can pull off miracles. This is why Davos was so against the art museum cleaning the "Tibetan Singing Bowl recovered from Qinghai" in Iron Fist season 2. He insisted that cleaning it would destroy the bowl. A thorough museum restoration would likely remove the 'caked on bodily fluids' so I'm forced to agree with him. Though, at the potters workshop, I'm told it's typically worked into the glaze rather than painted on, so maybe not.

Adding it to metal on the other hand is a pain in the ass, perhaps explaining Tomoi's lack of esteem for the art. Working corruption into the metal weakens the alloy. Painting it into the metal means it's easily washed off, either by blood, cleaning and preserving oils, or just being stupid enough to clean the metal. Like me. In most cases, this is done by carving the runes into the blade and then filling the depressions with corruption. This helps, but not a lot. Fortunately, chi will sit on the metal like any other inorganic material. Absorption is a bitch, taking centuries, but it'll lay on top of the metal for weeks, at least.

Glass has most of the same problems as metal. Fortunately, I don't particularly mind painting formations over trying to directly enchant the material. Unfortunately, a greenhouse tends to get really humid. Fixing this problem currently involves laminating the formations between two panes of glass. This is more difficult than it sounds as Abraham questions literally everything I do, criticizing me with the zeal of every elitist everywhere.

Ancient Chinese Glass making came to the orient through Egypt, after the tsunami flood waters subsided and civilization rebuilt itself. It traveled along an early version of the silk road mostly in the form of jewelry and was made from roughly equal parts sand and witherite; a jasper variant high in barium oxide and lead along with 4 or 5 other trace elements. The glass was typically green, because of the Lead and it along with barium were added to lower the melting point of the sand to where shity ancient forges could work with the material. Glass today is made of 75% sand, 20% salt and trace amounts of aluminum, magenium and various metal to stop the salt from dissolving the glass when wet. Salt takes the place of barium and lead in this case, but it makes the glass vulnerable to thermal shock. PURE sand/quartz glass can be tossed into water while white hot and survive, where glass made by Abraham and modern factories need an annealing kiln lest they form a web of stress fractures and explode from the outside cooling too much faster than the core.

Because K'un Lun cheats by using chi in place of fuel and safety equipment, I was eventually able to convince Mr Lao to help me forge the panes of glass out of pure sand, forming clear glass sheets, rather than the murky green stuff he was experienced with. This, so long as I could spin up the necessary power to complete the project. It was obviously something he didn't expect me to accomplish, given he'd been perfecting his art for nigh 2000 years and never did it that way.

This is where formations come in.

Figuring out the formula I wanted to use took some time, but eventually I found a barrier flag in the library that was meant to form a firestorm in the middle of a series of forty one flags. The technique was meant to destroy an army or even a city, using only a few chi masters. With a few adjustments, however, it could be made to contain heats in excess of 2000 degrees within a small area. Adding another formation meant to float stones in the air allowed for a crucible 300 degrees hotter than the melting point of silicate. Add in a set of stone rollers and Abraham Lao's utterly heat proof hands, and sheets of glass quickly became a reality.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_

May 28th 1988

Of course, once we started producing large amounts of glass from simple sand, people started to get interested. Li Hua, among others, had expected that I was going to simply make a garden, and that the delay in my research was due to the time it took to research the absurd notion of feeding plants and animals corruption. But as the sheets of glass began to stack up outside of the forge, underlings were sent to investigate. It wasn't long until Mr Lao's work, multicolored beads, figurines and of course, our now sheet glass for windows, quickly came into high demand. In less than a month, I went from fighting for his attention, to being his favorite person in the entire city, to once again, fighting for his attention as apprentices, customers and patrons began to flood the sour mans workspace.

In that time, I'd managed to get two thirds of the greenhouse completed. It wasn't as good as I'd hoped, not by a long shot, but now I had my own premises to work from. Originally I was supposed to have five buildings, each a long row of typical greenhouses, one for each element. With my new troubles, stemming from Mr Lao's meteoric success, I had to convert it into one large five sided building. Almost as much space, but lacking the ability to discreetly section off environments I'd hoped for. While troublesome, this is not a deal breaker, due to the valley itself being a single biome. Or three, if you count the snowy peaks and S'ahra sharns small cavern, but I don't have access to the plants and animals in the Hands territory and so little grows above the frost-line.

Each of the five walls hold a laminated glass barrier formation set to spin up large amounts of the five Chinese elements. The writing does this by first drawing in chi, then looping it through an item of the appropriate element and then storing it in the motion; each loop purifying and concentrating the power. This is the same way cultivators gather power normally, but in reverse and is particularly useful for my own cultivation. Eventually, the setup is intended to be the power supply for various inscribed pots, each holding a different type of sacred herb. The ceiling itself possessed another loop, spending the day building up a charge of Light Chi to be released overnight providing growth potential 24/7. At the now open center of the building I intend to set up a glass forge of my own, as well as a pottery Kiln for making the pottery that will feed specific minute mixes of elements to the plants later when this project finally gets a breakthrough.

That will have to wait until I've finished translating Pembertons book though. So far, I'm 180 pages in, and the text is all about Pembertons own adventures since meeting Alexandra Ried.

Fitz is quite the character, to be perfectly honest. Starting his association with Reid as one of her patrons in the British colonial expansion, his writing paints the utterly fascinating story of a young nobleman taken on a whirlwind adventure into magical lands. A renaissance man at their finest, Lord Pemberdon has dabbled in Avalonian politics, made friends and allies in a secret order, gone on adventures through Africa, lost a lover at the gates of Z'Gambo, fought beside Reid's forces against Sowande another member of The Hand, attempted to breach Eden in a dive suit only to be turned back by an angel with a flaming sword, partied with Bakuto at his palace in Kashmir India and finally died at Meru. Quite a full and adventurous life.

That was the chapter that fascinated me the most. His death, his time on the infinite mountain, and finally his banishment and journey to K'un Lun.

The primary cultivation method of the Indian Heaven has seven Dantien, or chakra, not the one of three taught here, and I was deeply interested in knowing just how that was accomplished. The answer, according to Pemberton, is what Chinese tradition calls the Prime Vessel. It is the twenty first and second faux meridian which runs from your crotch to the crown of your head and back down. All twenty of the other meridians intersect these two lines at one point or another in their winding path through your body and in acupuncture it's used in a similar manner to test points in electronics.

The Hindu don't bother with the other 20 meridians, because they do everything on these two lines. Yang flows up the spine, Yin flows down the line of symmetry and the seven chakra form at the eddy points between the two flows. Something I can only imagine becomes stronger with the other meridians. Each swirling pool is conveniently bracketed by a set of major nerve branches which snake their way out of the spine to connect the rest of the body to the central column. As far as the Chinese are concerned, the Dantien correlates with the sacral chakra, heart chakra and third eye chakra.

But that's where they diverge.

The Chinese method demands that to form your Dantien, you must form a Dao, a path that you will hone for the rest of your life and use that as the catalyst to compress your entire cultivation base, all 20 meridians worth of energy, into that single idea on one of those three locations. For them, core formation is like clearing out the meridians, but on an immensely grander scale.

The Hindu on the other hand describe the seven chakras as a slippery emptiness, waiting and wanting to be filled. They don't form cores and each chakra has an action, position and pair of emotions that regulates it. Once understood and atoned for, the Chakra will open on it's own and begin spin, filling with the power of your spirit. Opening them isn't an either or thing either, but dependant instead on how thoroughly you embrace each of the activation conditions.

The root chakra sits just above the triangle tailbone and deals with sexuality and survival. It is blocked by fear and deprivation and opened by satisfying the human needs. Being free from injury, danger, hunger and such. It's a pretty simple chakra, though it does require you to be in contact with the ground. Opening it fills the area with neutral earth chi and is meditated on either while having sex or standing on one foot with the other drawn up to your tailbone and your hands clasped in prayer.

The Sacral chakra sits at the junction between the stomach and intestines and deals with pleasure and life. It is blocked by guilt and opened by any and everything that you enjoy. The hedonists spot, essentially. I think this is also why it's the primary Dantien for Chinese methods. Your Dao is a driving goal of your entire life, the holy grail that you'll spend the rest of your existence seeking and seeking to understand more fully. If what you choose isn't something you enjoy, it will soon become so, as everyone ends up liking things they're good at. It also has the very curious distinction of being the Dantien most associated with pregnancy and new life. I'd say don't ask me why, but I suspect it's rather mechanical in this case as the womb expands to fill the space the energy pools during pregnancy. The primary element here is Water, which is cultivated in the horse stance and primarily Yin natured. As a Dantien, it offers a balance between body reinforcement and energy manipulation techniques.

Next up is the solar plexus chakra. It rests just below the diagram and atop the liver. Rather than being the center of air chi however, it's the core of Yang natured fire chi in your body, something I suspect has a lot to do with the liver. Water then fire makes sense when the liver is the primary factory of chemical enzymes and acids in your body. But maybe I'm reading too much into the physical nature of things and not enough into the spiritual. The Solar plexus chakra is activated by focus and drive and blocked by shame. The more you accept the things you do and stop second guessing yourself, the faster and thicker the energy here spirals. Oddly though, the suggested pose for cultivation is to sit in a V with your legs raised to balance you and your hands extended to your knees. How this helps either breathing or digestion I've no idea, but I suspect it has something to do with the ability to maintain focus. It's a hard pose to hold for any length of time and the stone headed determination to do so would be about the right mindset for opening.

The Heart chakra is, well, in the heart, and fills with Air chi. This seems weird to me, as I'd expect water, or maybe fire, but as it seems to encompass all parts of the cardiovascular system, air works. This chakra's pose is also weird. Involving standing on one's knees and then leaning back to hold your ankles which makes breathing a little difficult. As a Dantien this one will get you the best possible results with body reinforcement. Logical, given the vascular network reaches every part of the body. It deals with love and is blocked by grief, two emotions that weigh heavily on the heart; something that anyone who has felt them can tell you with absolute certainty. It reminds me of the Speech from Bones by T. about suffering and wings.

… It also reminds me of that scene between Captain Kirk and Spock's Brother. 'I need my pain' indeed.

This chakra is likely going to be the one that gives me the most trouble out of the seven. It's a broader chakra than that of course, it's not just about romance, but also friends, family and in some cases, ideals. Men in particular can and even tend to fall in love with the idea of a group, movement, item or philosophy just as strongly as romantic love and be entirely devastated by its loss or failure. Women can too, but they're far more people or pet oriented.

The next chakra is the throat chakra and it sits right atop the cleft in your collar bone. Freed by truth and clogged by lies using this chakra allows you to literally speak reality into being like the christian concept of the Logos. It's got a strong Yang nature to it, keeping up with the alternating pattern but it has the most bizarre stance so far. You're supposed to stand on your shoulders with your feet in the air and your neck and arms used as a brace to keep you upright. I very much suspect the Iron Fist used this chakra somehow when he first translated for me after my arrival. I have a lot of vague ideas ranging from him actually learning the seven chakras to it being an effect of being bound to a dragon, for whom the throat chakra is important to breathing fire. I'm unsure how this one will react to me, given my propensity to use the truth to spin lies and tell stories to convey a more important truth.

The six chakra is the third eye. Where the throat chakra revolves around the lies we tell others and is Yang, the third eye is focused on the lies we tell ourselves and is Yin. Habit, intuition, Instinct, the subconscious, your lizard brain and most specifically the Pineal Gland. The third eye chakra deals heavily with dreams, self deception and empathy. Once opened by laying your illusions bare it allows for things like astral projection and prophesy or sight beyond sight. Pemberton notes that he himself stalled out here, but this is the classically recognizable chakra every normie is vaguely aware of through hollywood. Sitting in the indian style with hands on your knees chanting Oooommm…. repeatedly. It's also the location of the Upper Dantien, making them 3 for 3 Yin natured by the chakra system. That strikes me as being important, though again, I cannot say precisely why. Using the third eye as a dantient though gives the user immense control over and recovery of chi.

Finally, there is the crown chakra. The last of the Yang chakra, it rests atop the corpus callosum, the bridge between the two hemispheres of the conscious brain. Commonly this is thought to be the most dangerous chakra, needing the user to divest themselves of earthly attachments. Not so. According to Pemberton, the crown chakra is opened by logic and an openness to experience. The earthly attachments you have to give up are your personal biases. If your logic is flawed or you deny new information through attachment to your previous thinking, this chakra becomes clogged and your thoughts muddled. Or in extreme cases, the seeds of insanity planted. This is the chakra of enlightenment, not apathy induced suicide, and the confusion comes from many of its users breaking through the barrier between the mundane world and the 7 cities of Heaven shortly after opening. Telepathy, the Akashic field and all of the kinesis abilities can be understood using this chakra.

As far as Pemberton has written, the two methods can be used in tandem, but there is, as of yet, no method for combining the two different philosophies into a cohesive whole. This, he theorizes, has a lot to do with the nature of the Dantien cores. A core represents the total amount of chi that can be present in a body at any one time without either spilling out or causing spontaneous combustion. This soft cap on power can be changed through various methods of condensing power and purifying the mind, body and spirit each one leading to the creation of a named Tier. But always, the core remains the same, representing the maximum amount of power your body can safely hold.

For the Englishman, these combined methods meant that even though he is at a lower tier than many of his nominal superiors, he is more or less inexhaustible in comparison.

For me, it was a research project. One of far too many in an ever growing list.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

August 1988

Translation of Pembertons' book is finished.

Finally.

Over a thousand pages of research and personal stories which have given me as much insight into S'ahra Sharn and The Hand as they have their methods of alchemy.

As it turns out, my early failure with the rat wasn't as bad as I thought. Cut the dose of poison by about 90% and prepare for some horrible shit. Evil violent mutations bent on killing everything around them are expected in the early stages and without some pretty advanced chemistry skipping steps simply isn't possible. This is mirrored in Formation Seals with the recipe for the Ink being 80% blood and 20% kiln roasted, and thus chi neutralized, corruption.

Without going into too many details, the corrupted plants, after they start cultivating, begin trying to purify themselves as well. Whether enzymes or spiritual essence, what they build up during that process is what you need to distil in order to render the corruption safe for wide scale use. Doing this over seven successive generations produces the most stable results the Undercity Sages have found so far, afterwards requiring a small input of corruption to keep the system balanced. Something that can be acquired by eating said corrupted herbs or demon beasts.

Controlling the specific mutations and their elemental properties comes after that and seems to be in large part where research stalled. There's an impressive and extensive amount of information on plant types and how local conditions affect the end product, but they never actually figured out how to control the process beyond where to plant or what sort of plant to fertilize.

With my barrier seal controlled greenhouse, I can do precisely that with minimal effort. The question really is; would doing that be worth it?

Sacred herbs in alchemy are chosen less for the physical matter of the plants themselves and their chemical properties and more for their spiritual aspects. I recently got the opportunity to tour one of the dragon sect's alchemy labs to watch them make the pills, as a reward for announcing a breakthrough. The alchemists use some really precise and complicated cooking methods, but in the end, their process reduces several pounds of plant matter on the low end into a pill the size and weight of a lemon drop. The amount of useful chemicals I could get out of those materials is closer to a cup of active ingredients, and I'm thoroughly amateur in any chemistry that doesn't involve unstable isotopes.

The spiritual weight of those pills on the other hand is nothing to be dismissive of. Over the last year, I've managed to clear out 16 of my 20 meridians. According to Li Hua, this is a speed she would expect from a disciple with a dedicated personal tutor. These pills though? One pill and a tenth my 'training' can clear a meridian in a day. Or two. Depends on your ability to control your chi.

Obviously this is magic, not chemistry. I should have fucking begged Yu-Ti to let me join his faction, but whats done is done. Maybe I can apply again later.

The next step up are pills to cleanse the body, bones, bone marrow, brain and various specific organs of corruption. Again, a single pill, and a single day will do as much as I accomplish in a month. And I'm GOOD. This level requires a relatively light mix of impure elements as opposed to pure chi. The reason for this is the same as the elemental alignment of the meridians and the organs they travel through. You've got to balance the power in the pill to the organ you want it to influence or the medicinal chi will simply flood your body rather than targeting a specific portion of it. This isn't a bad thing… but it's a massive waste of a pill and requires the consumer to have much finer control over themselves in order to use it effectively.

The third tier of pills are where the elemental nature of the plants used becomes important. These are pills meant to help you with your Dantien Core. Building it, recharging it, condensing the power within and otherwise breaking through boundaries. Filling your core with unaligned or pure chi is akin to watering down a beverage. For power you generate yourself, this is taken care of by your Dao path influencing your soul to produce power similar to your chosen law of reality. For power taken in from outside, a precise mix of elements is a must.

Finally, there is the fourth tier of pills. These pills just get freaking weird as they're better described as spells in a bottle. Changing your face, hair and eye color, height, gender, and even species are all possible at this level. And that's not even getting into the pills where the spell in a bottle is absolutely literal. Whether it's a pill that allows you to spit fire, perform a new technique until the effect runs out or graft said spell into your soul as though you'd trained it for decades, it's all possible.

Thing is… I still fully plan to ditch the valley in 11 years and take my business abroad. One thing all cultivators here agree on is that the spiritual power outside the valley is far far less dense than inside the seven heavens. That's after all, why they're the seven heavens. Without having that power around to draw on, all of these pills and alchemical principles are purely academic and the chance of making them is, at best, minimal and extremely difficult.

So the question becomes… Do I learn them for later? Or do I concentrate on churning out corruption pills in as high a quantity as I can for building myself a Chi farm after I leave? The less time and effort I devote to doing so, the more effort it will take for me to build up my own place of power once I leave. But the more I Learn before I leave, the more I can do with that power once it's built up.

The same question applies to the other aspects of my cultivation. Right now, I'm at 16 of 20 meridians. 22, with my plan to include the Vedic chakras in my system. The Meridians are obvious, above all other concerns. Each one opened adds 9 years onto my lifespan and 40% to my base strength and durability before active technique use. THOSE will be completed soon. But working on opening each of my chakra, building Dantien Cores, growing techniques, painting useful barrier formations, practicing alchemy or wrangling sacred beasts takes time. Time that could be better spent on one path or a few complementary paths instead of being divided across many.

What is worth doing? Is it better to be a jack of all trades because I want to go outside where I'll be stuck with the least of any of them? Or specializing hard on one so that maybe I'll be competitive with whichever marvel reality I find myself faced with once I get out?

Decisions, decisions… The mind is willing, but the body and spirit may not be able.

For now though, I have reports to write. Both of my nominal masters have been getting antsy and it's time to prove to them that I'm still worth keeping around. Over the last several days I've been seeing shadows with living eyes following me and The Crane Daughters were poking around openly before I announced my progress and got Yu-Ti to give me the alchemy tour.

For The Hand, my writings are all about the Greenhouse and the nature of the sealing techniques therein. I don't give them any of the patterns I've set up to defend myself from attack, no need to be foolish, but all of the utilities are there. I explain how they can adapt the building to working within their depths and how to get the foreign elements, such as light, to spin up while hidden in a dank dark cave.

For K'un Lun, I tell them everything I've learned about alchemical corruption. How much to give plants and animals. How to build up the resistance essences and balance them against the corruption. My best guesses on ways to spread the effect over a wide area. The dosage differences I found between Rats, Mice and Bugs and what that will likely mean for larger animals. Pemberton's book helped there, but I've carefully kept the manuscript hidden from view, only bringing it out to scan new pages into my laptop since getting it. No need to offer easy proof of my status as a traitor; Priya's already gunning for me.

Both reports are, of course, already on my computer, which is where I did most of my editing as the knowledge and theories evolved.

When I'm finally done, hours later, I take both sets of papers, turn one and the book invisible, and leave my haven.

"Crane Daughter!?" I call out. "I know you're watching! Come out! I have a delivery!"

I resist the urge to jump as a hand curls spider-like over my shoulder. "Yun'ai." She introduced herself, whispering into my ear. "Your latest research report?" She asked. I had done this a few times already, but it was always a different 'daughter'.

I pulled the visible sheaf of parchment out from under my arm. "Yes. If you wouldn't mind delivering this to the Library. I'd like them to copy it for the relevant parties and then archive the original."

The woman took it, sauntering around in front of me and flipping through the papers quickly. "I'm not your little errand girl."

"Ah," I said, "but you ARE an errand girl." I countered. "And I prefer this to your sisters grabbing me by the scruff of the neck and flying off."

She smirks at me and fingers my neck for a moment before blowing me a kiss and leaving. Thankfully without me in tow. I watch her soar off through the city, dodging chi reinforced wood and ricepaper highrises. Then I sighed heavily. It was time to go see Tomoi.

I'll admit that I've been neglecting my relationship with the man. Rather than pestering him daily or weekly for insights while I help him with his work, I've come to him perhaps… once a month? And then mostly because I needed something made on special order. Twice we went out drinking, pursuant of his quest to pin down Brother Kuo's distillery. The man is a fox, I swear. Kuo, not Tomoi. While Tomoi only seems to be stellar at hiding his allegiances, Kuo is somehow able to vanish between the blink of an eye when he feels the needs of politeness have been met.

Shaking my head, I step into the craftsman's hall and wind my way between ringing forges to Tomoi's workspace. The man is there, in his usual spot, working on an oil lamp. Coating my hands in Fire and Metal chi, I pick up the cherry red metal and look it over.

"Put that down before you get fingerprints in the metal." I shrug and wipe my finger across the surface, chi smoothing out the offending marks. Tomoi snorts. "You've improved again" he grumbles "Lao teach you that?"

"Watching you, actually." I tell him honestly. "Abraham taught me how to fuse earth and fire so I could keep the glass malleable without needing to put it back in the forge. Apparently he had a hard time getting forge access before…"

"You blundered in and changed the entire nature of his work." Tomoi finished. "You have that effect on people. It's making you enemies."

I frown at him. "What! Why?" I asked. "Everyone I've worked with has benefitted!"

"You're making them look bad." Tomoi replied deadpan. "These are masters who have spent centuries or even millenia perfecting their arts. All they know, all their masters would teach them, all they could discover, they use and abuse to refine their Dao and their positions in the city. Then you come along and overturn the applecart. K'un Lun has three hundred thousand years of history, over five cycles of human civilization. They've always either known more than those who came here or the revelations outsiders brought were small. But this cycle is different. We're not in regular contact with the outside world; the last cataclysm saw many key masters cross the bridge of destiny without leaving disciples and things are changing faster than those left behind can keep up. That has made this cycle in particular have trouble accepting things from non-pilgrims, leading in a large part to why the wheel of reincarnation is so popular among new arrivals. An issue that further stifles the valley."

"But I'm more stubborn than that." I mutter. "I see." Then I pull my manuscript and Pemberton's book out of my robes and seemingly out of thin air.

He takes the bundle and quickly hides the book before studying the loose pages. "Actually, I was going to say you should be more grateful to Yu-Ti for his protection. I told you when we first started working together; I was expecting you to die. Repeatedly, in all likelihood, until you chose to use the wheel rather than stay here. There's a reason I haven't been doing the same thing as you and bringing the industrial revolution to the City. I've died in 'accidents' more often than I like to admit. Always when I tried to change things. Strength is power here, literally, and the city lord has taken a personal interest in your growth. That old bastard has held the city in an iron grip since before the last fall of humanity, so you can guess at the power he commands."

"How has he kept that power for so long?" I ask, interest piqued. In the comics, Yu-Ti gets assassinated by his son who seeks to take over the city. He succeeds… right up until Danny Rand returns home for payback. "According to the histories I've found in the library, anyone else who gets to his level crosses the bridge of destiny for the next realm."

"Yu-Ti's never been interested in that, that's how." Tomoi grunted sourly. "Also, he's the one who made the Iron Fist. Shou Lao was a refugee from the last cycle. Yu-Ti took an interest in his situation and their relationship has been the basis of K'un Lun's security ever since. Some of the older residents tell of times when the immortal city was invaded by different forces, human, alien and demonic. Several of those invasions destroyed the city. None have done so since the pair of them took the reins. That's but part of why your mission is so important."

They need a dragon and a powerhouse to replace the current set. Not just to overthrow, but also to secure their positions afterwards. I see. Layers. Always layers.

I nod slowly. Perhaps asking Yu-Ti for his favor more directly isn't such an unworkable proposition. "You can get those delivered?" I ask.

Tomoi nods. "I'll see to it. If all of this works, I can see you making friends rather than losing them in the near future."

I grin tightly. "When K'un Lun starts making enough pills for these enemies to get some, I still start making friends there too."

Tomoi just laughs at me. At, not with.

Last edited: Aug 18, 2020

Book 1: Chapter 4: Montage

December 1988

Success tastes like chicken. Creamy chicken soup with rice, to be specific.

I found out about a month ago that I can force the enlightenment of beasts and plants simply by feeding them an abundance of chi from my barrier formation cycles, which has proven a good method of gathering raw corruption, but that's not particularly feasible for large scale implementation. Kun Lun doesn't mind, and it's gotten me a lot of forbearance with Priya of all people, but it's no good for my purposes.

Finally though, I've gotten the dose down to an equation involving dose, chi density and bodyweight. This has brought me to the point where my corruption pills can reliably cause most plants an animals to start drawing in chi without also becoming twisted murder machines whose appearance comes straight out of cthulhu mythos. Instead, they take on a physical aspect of the chi they start drawing in like a vacuum. I thought the rats were bad when they became a mass of teeth, eyes and tentacles that moved like grease lightning, but try fighting a four foot tall rooster with feathers made of stone and crystal for their beak and claws or biting into a grape and finding yourself with a mouth full of napalm.

The taste is divine in both cases, for all the ancillary headaches.

My proof of concept was done on the 12th in an artificial rice paddy in my greenhouse. The resulting spirit rice was harvested on the 20th and contained strong elemental notes of light, wood, water and earth. Wood was 40% while the other three were 20% each, and Li Hua predicted that the balance would continue to push further toward wood had the rice been given more time to mature. The outer shell of the kernels gave credence to the 'wood' content but I've gotten pretty used to eating 'wild rice' since getting stranded.

White rice is an industrial process, one they simply don't do here.

This all worked to end with my receiving a christmas present. China, or at least ancient chinese cultivators, celebrate christmas too, to a point. For them, the winter solstice and its 3 days of night are an auspicious time for cultivating Yin energies and performing rituals that require a great deal of the dark feminine power. Visha for instance, the girl who explained the food offerings when I first awakened and who had joined the tiger sect in the same selection as me, was able to clear three meridians without cultivation pills during those three days of night.

For reference, in the last six months she's only cleared 2 of them. Fast for someone with no driving obsession, but dreadfully slow for a girl with a direct apprenticeship.

My present, quite amusingly, comes on the 25th, as the darkness ends. Li Hua, arrived to have breakfast in my glass shed and presented me with a piece of jade. It's a small piece, about the size of a nickel and a radiant shimmering green. Into its surface are lightly carved a series of runes I can barely make out individually, but look like knotwork art from more than a foot distant.

"While I appreciate the gift, elder tiger,.. what is this?" I ask her, gesturing with the hand holding the amulet.

She smiles around a bite of soup. "That is your new Library Token." She replies simply. "You have cleared body cleansing, meridian opening and if you continue to progress at this rate, you will likely be forming your core and discovering your Dao by the return of summer. But to get there, you need knowledge. That token will allow you access to the third floor of the Hall of Ancestral Knowledge, and once you've submitted your wisdom to the library and transcribed at least one other, you will have access to the second and fourth floors as well."

I nod, not even bothering to hold back a grin. "Do you have any suggestions, Beautiful Tiger?" Quickly, I slip the leather thong holding it around my neck and tuck the chip into my shirt, one of the few remaining.

"My first suggestion is not to use such familiarity outside this private space." She warns, sipping the plum wine I'd bought from Brother Kuo. "I like you… and Yu-Ti thinks you are amusing;.. but you are VERY junior to me and many here would kill you for the lack of face, not just among Priya's disciples."

Setting her drink down she continues. "As far as cultivation is concerned, Yu-Ti wants me to let you go in blind, and do your own research. He believes you have something heretical planned and is eager to see what you come up with." She fixes me with a gimlet eye, but says nothing further.

"Did he… tell you what it is he suspects?" I ask, slowly. She shakes her head, spooning out another bowel of my soup, somehow having finished the last while I wasn't looking. Carefully, I craft a response. "I've been talking to a few of the immigrants from Meru about their seven chakras. That may be what he's referring too."

She blinks surprised. "You're planning to forgo core formation?" She peers at me closely, eyes seeming to glow and I get the impression that she's literally looking through my body. "Hmm… perhaps thats for the best, your elements are a mess. You appear to be grabbing everything without integrating the energy."

I nod. "That is pretty much what I've been doing." I agree. "Identity and ownership dont seem to matter too much for what I need them to do. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but clearing corruption out of a meridian causes the left over energy to completely neutralize, and that's much faster and easier to claim."

She hums into her bowl as she drinks down the broth. "So long as you weren't using it for body cleansing or infusing I suppose that's fine." she replies, grudgingly. "Using raw elements to cleanse or infuse your body requires the proper elements for each organ and sinew in careful balance. To do otherwise would cause you to rapidly age rather than extend your life as would occur with chi you have properly claimed or chi from your own soul."

With that, she stands up. "You have work to do, and more to research. I expect to see you quite busy come planting season."

I snort and smile, standing up as well and taking her bowl. "As my tiger commands."

~! #$%^&*()_+

After Tiger's Beautiful Daughter leaves, I pack up the rest of my soup into a few ceramic tupperware I'd personally crafted between experiments and stow them in my backpack beside my trusty laptop. Leaving my greenhouse, I join the cities fliers as a demented sugar glider, soaring ever downwards on the light body technique. I steer myself with the white robes of the order, having finally broken down and started wearing them. What can I say? After a year, I've started to run out of my own stuff.

Landing several minutes later in front of the Hall of Venerable Ancestors, I proceed into the library and unzip the backpack. The scholars grin broadly as I begin handing out the sealed meals, but even as they begin inhaling the aroma, they're all business. They know the drill.

"What is it you want for these?" Naidan Bayar, 'resplendent guardian of the eternal library' asks me. The mongolian's a pompous little shit, but of the various scholar factions here, I consider his leadership to be the least onerous. He sees the library as his personal hoard; but when I ask him to do something for me, it gets done. None of that patronizing or obstructing stupid foreigner nonsense I go through with most of the others. It comes down to a quirk of mongol society, where giving them food and supplies is taken as a sign of submission and fealty. I give him something, food for the scholars under him and the biggest bowl personally, and he feels responsible for me as one of 'his pet merchants/scholars'. The only thing more impactful would be feeding his horse or saving his life.

I show him my chip from Li Hua. "I've been allowed access to the second, third and fourth layers of your hoard, Bayar Khan," I reply. "Any insights you could give me would be useful, in terms of avoiding repeat information."

He nods, and makes gestures to the others, who are waiting in him to start eating. "Are you looking for anything specific today?"

I nod. "Three things. I'm looking to form my core, so I'll be spending most of my time on the fourth floor. Also, I'd like any information you have on the Meru heaven and their method of chakra cultivation. Finally, my access is dependent on offering and transcribing my own experience into the third and second floors. Do you have any advice on what would be best to offer lay at your feet? My cultivation path was developed here, so the memories are unlikely to be particularly interested in that information."

He nods, massaging his thick spiky beard. "Among my horde, you have become known for your creative process. Write me a treatise on your works here and the method whereby you came to these revelations," he orders. "Chun Kao and Ngo Fa shall assist you in your perusal of the second floor. Go." He snaps his fingers twice, and the mentioned men pick up their bows and leave, giving me irritated looks.

I smirk in reply and offer them a gesture that translates to 'bon appetit'.

Naidan takes a bite of his soup and grins wolfishly. "A hearty dish! You are done with your divine monster research then?"

I nod. "A meal should be about the equivalent of a low grade elixir" I tell him, nodding, "but due to the nature of my research, it does come with a fair amount of corruption. Just remember to flush it out when you cultivate the power of the meal later."

He nods and the other gathered scholars begin digging in with gusto. "I shall remember that, scholar. Now, I shall escort you to your first trip up the stairway of glory!"

~! #$%^&*()_+

April 1989

In the end, forming a core turns out to be a simple matter of compression. Or as the chinese insist; refinement. Chi, when formed by your spirit acting directly on your body, is a plasma. More than energy, but less than matter. The first awakening, or enlightenment, condenses it to the density of a gas, allowing it enough presence to interact directly with matter in and outside your body. This is where the initial doubling in all your stats comes from.

At its simplest, forming a core requires you to continue compressing this energy further until it's a liquid which pools in your various chakra, and then choosing one of these chakra to compress it again into a crystal. This process is known as the Chi Condensation Phase in the hundred or so different variations of cultivation I've discovered since I began my research on level 4. The reason Dao philosophies sprang up around the effort is very straightforward. Like rain or snow, compressing chi from gas to liquid or crystal is significantly easier if you have a seed material around which it can form. As this is a mostly spiritual substance, this seed, almost naturally, is a thought.

An idea.

A philosophy.

And… just like snow… the properties your chi takes after this effort is heavily based on the shape of the seed material. Power, versatility and your growth curve are all determined thusly… as is the potential for rejection. If the idea you force your soul to coalles around is poorly suited to who you are, or worse antithetical, you could very well end up seeing your chi weaken, poison or even attack you rather than receiving legendary benefits.

It's not uncommon actually, for an ambitious, sly, overeager or simply stupid cultivator to choose the wrong thing. Because people most identify with ideas that they agree with rather than something they want to present yet are not, often this simply slows their growth and provides lackluster powers rather than being directly harmful. This causes them to stall out at a certain point, plateauing and being unable to progress further until they understand the problem and rework their foundation.

… It's also not exactly uncommon for prideful cultivators to stick stubbornly to their chosen path and instead cut away at themselves to more closely fit their choice.

There is good news though.

Not only do I not need to choose a dao, the earlier limit I'd worried myself about, where a core represented the full measure of chi in a body and capped how much it could handle was a misunderstanding on my part! Or perhaps the haphazard manner of my instruction. In either case, these are, neither of them, actual requirements! They are instead mechanical results, expectations based on simplicity and standardization! After all, like a machine, the fewer moving parts are involved, the sturdier it's design and less there is that can go wrong. When synchronizing one Dantien Core with who you are is difficult enough, what sort of fool would want to try and use more of them? Let alone seven?

The Hindu from Kashmir and Pakistan to Vietnam and New Zealand apparently.

And me, because I'm just 'that guy'.

In keeping with asian tendencies, once this method was deemed to be the more efficient path, they turned it into a math equation, refined it down with a perfectionists hand and then promptly forgot anything else had ever existed.

I suppose I fall to that trap too from time to time, as the point of my efforts since gaining access to the second and fourth floor of the hall has been to understand and summarize the entire cannon of cultivation in Kul Lun. What I've found so far can be stated thus.

1) Cultivators tend to be masochistic. The exception to this is when they are sadistic. Outside of external resources, every one of the variations on the basic steps from enlightenment to immortal ascension involves how you can advance by hurting yourself. External resources are occasionally mechanical, like meditation, alchemy and runes, but commonly are about how you can gather energy faster by hurting others. Not all references to "cultivation cauldrons" refer to metal or ceramic pots… often enough, they refer to other people.

2) The steps to cultivation always begin with Awakening and end with apotheosis, but every other step; be it in variation, order, repetition and even the number of steps you include; can be changed without preventing you from reaching immortality.

3) The steps are thus. Awakening. Body cleansing. Meridian opening. Body infusion. Chi condensation. Elemental alignment. Dao discovery. Core Formation. Higher energy conversion.

The order I just listed is the one most commonly used, and is generally referred to at the Nascent Soul path. The end goal of this path is that the core is meant to be used as a womb where the cultivator forms a secondary soul, built around their dao. Probably why the sacral pregnancy chakra is their preferred spot. This secondary soul will eventually hatch from the cultivator not unlike a chestburster alien, either upon full maturation of the nascent soul stage or upon the cultivators' death.

Regardless of when this happens, it for all intents and purposes makes the cultivator literally immortal. As in, a punch given or received from their perspective is measured in nuclear warheads, and resurrection from having their body destroyed is a simple effort of the Dao Soul gathering physical matter around it. For this reason, they form their core last so that it's as pure as possible, free from damage caused by tribulations, wholly dedicated to your Dao path around which it forms and as large as possible without tearing the users guts out.

The next most common one creates the core directly after enlightenment, naming a dozen different dantien quality stages based on which of the other steps you've gotten to. Each of these steps is represented by a 'bottleneck' where you have to fill your dantien to a new maximum before taking the next step. Chi condensation and chi gathering phases are repeated constantly in this method. This willingness to juggle the order of the steps is the reason there's such wide variation in popular fiction surrounding the methods and difficulties of core formation. Core bottlenecks happen because you form your core FIRST after awakening and do all of the other steps later, each step, or gradient of it, allowing you to build a larger or/and stronger core.

This category is further separated in two by the question of infusion vs tribulation. Infusers double their energy by having both a dantien core which acts as a refinery station, and infusing their flesh with the energy of the latest stage of power from their core. This acts pretty similarly to scientific principle where every 7 years, you've replaced 100 of the cells in your body. This is the method where chi poisoning is most common and has the most direct effect on your physical wellbeing, which makes choosing a personally suited cultivation method most important.

Tribulation cores choose their dao path almost immediately and have to readjust every time they take the next step in their cultivation. This causes their soul and chi to attack each other resulting in a backlash that makes it look as though nature is going berserk. Defying heaven, they call it. Completing your advancement in this method requires that you either adjust your understanding of The Dao with every power increase, bringing it closer to yourself, or that you burn away a piece of yourself which is out of alignment with your current Dao.

In either case, I group these two very different methods, and 100 others which are mostly variations on training methods, because their end point is in seeking and integrating higher forms of energy as a method of reaching immortality, as opposed to forming a new soul to essentially replace you.

These three supra paths may or may not account for everything the other 6 heavens do. Case in point, the Hindu and their infinite mountain. From the writings available to Kun Lun, the Asura, blue skinned many armed and sometimes animal faced immortals, don't even bother to cleanse their bodies of corruption, simply using their power to keep the free ick in constant motion with their ever increasing chakras.

As far as I can tell, the seven chakra get around the problem of having seven cores in their body by constantly cycling chi between themselves and their environment and in the case of Devya, body cleansing. As the power never really settles in their body, the cells ability to hold that energy isn't nearly so important as their ability to handle throughput.

Of course, this makes them even more vulnerable to the environment than chinese cultivators, though the raw power they can handle is a fair bit more impressive, as is their stamina.

Having reviewed all of this information and Ser Pemberton's notes on the other cities, I think I might have a solution.

My Dao, should I end up using one, shall be that of synergy.

Synergy is the conservation defying effect whereby two things that seem separate tend to, on further understanding, form a whole bigger than the sum of its parts. For example, Electromagnetic radiation. When you begin studying Magnetics, it seems pretty simple. A field effect that draws metal, specifically iron, to it. As you study it further though, you learn that the reason it draws in iron is because magnets are big iron crystals and electrons easily slip between the atoms of the metal crystal. This leads to the understanding that magnetics isn't just a field effect, it's intrinsically tied to the behavior of electrons. That means the seemingly discrete field of study, electricity, has synergy with the studies of magnetics and Iron. Go a bit further, and you learn that electromagnetics isn't just limited to iron; literally everything has its own magnetic frequency and so by studying another two fields, frequencies and metallurgy, you can create magnets for just about anything. Including light, as an extension of the particle wave theory you come across when learning about electromagnetism. Matter, magnetics, electricity and light are therefore all fundamentally connected through the principle of synergies.

And that's not even the end of it.

In short… it's all connected, and all of reality is built on a complex web of synergies. Contradictions exist because you haven't yet learned the synergy that built them, and are still trying to look at things from the singular perspective of a base material. Like the One True Dao, synergy allows me to encompass everything in a single word.

That this line of potential bullshit allows me to get away with being haphazard in my cultivation so long as I'm clever has absolutely nothing to do with it, promise.

It also fits my general approach to life's problems. Exclusive choices suck ass. No matter what it is, there always seems to be just as many drawbacks in any solution as there was in the problem requiring it. Usually, the only way to get ahead without hurting yourself is to pick some form of middle ground. Pursue multiple options people tell you are exclusive and do your best to use their benefits and drawbacks to cancel each other out. The end goal being to reduce the number of problems hanging around your neck with each solution, rather than treading water as most single options do, or god forbid, adding more. The method can't account for everything, but it does tend to help me make my own luck; current dimension aside.

My hope of course, is that this will allow me to synthesize a path from all paths. Japan's strength of self. China's internal alchemy. Indian Chakra. European hero worship. Marvel Madness. Those to whom I let slip an inkling of my plans call me power hungry, disrespecting the spiritual journey by trying to play fast and loose a la carte so that I ascend like a star. That I seek power for the sake of power and must be concealing the lust to dominate. Personally, I just see the time involved in normal cultivation methods and think 'moving like that, I am never going to reach my son'.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

[img: wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Recorrected_ ]

[img: /content/v1/55a9457de4b0e82a7749b6d3/1498247081160-6Z6F2SOQ120KQKLA9QLX/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kDGRILtDLJmJJwzuwt6gDZV7gQa3H78H3Y0txjaiv_0fDoOvxcdMmMKkDsyUqMSsMWxHk725yiiHCCLfrh8O1z4YTzHvnKhyp6Da-NYroOW3ZGjoBKy3azqku80C789l0jPr-pmnuYuVEEKCm3zWq1Q2SW3URN_Um5Iavx2dpXZHyI-zQztI_ ?format=1000w]

June 19th, 1989. The summer solstice. Three days of light. This period bears the same significance for men as the three days before Christmas have for women. The spring or fall equinox would probably be a better time to do this, but I missed the easter while I was researching core formation.

Gathering chakras is supposed to start with the Root chakra, which is neutral, and then proceed yin, yang, yin, yang, yin, yang; but I know from chinese cultivation that there's no compelling reason it needs to be this way. The official position is that power flows downward in the chakra, from the crown chakra to the Root, but I also know that each chakra is a vortex caused by Chi going both up and down. On top of that, I'm not a yin bias, so going neutral, then Yin would be potentially detrimental to me.

These are all rationalizations of course, but this is what I prepared for based on the information I had available.

The Manipura chakra is set in the solar plexus, as I said before, between the liver and the diaphragm. Activated by the mantra of Ram, cleared by confidence, blocked by shame and filled with fire. Aside from the Root chakra, that particular combination made this the easiest one to open. I had thought originally that it was meditated on in the Yoga boat pose, but Kalhara of the Mu Empire corrected me on that when I made the occasion to hunt the man down. There's an entire slow dance of Yoga poses you go through while repeating the mantra, and working on it with him this last month seems to have helped, even if I can't feel more than ambient chi swirling there yet.

I've set up on top of my roof, with a rug of the Manipura symbol, loaned to me by Kalhara, and a ten flag variation of the barrier formation I normally use to melt sand for glass blowing. The Mu himself is standing watch outside my circle, and will be maintaining the six essential oils and four gemstones in their incense burners atop the flags while I meditate for the next three days. I've paid him in the same fire corrupted rice I'll be eating for this exercise and he seems pretty happy with the arrangement. Finally, on top of the solstice, I've added a few scripts to pull up the chi that's been building in my workshop below for the last 13 months and burn it around me over the next three days.

Basically, I've stacked the deck here as hard as I can. If all goes well the next three days, I'm going to walk away with a fully realized Yang Fire core.

"Boy," Kalhara's voice interrupts my musings, "the sun is rising. It is time to begin."

I nod and stand up, taking the first position atop the rub. Each pose is supposed to be held for ten minutes, then slowly transitioned to the next over a period of 10 seconds. 30 different positions, 10 for each side of the triangle on the rug. Breathe in for five seconds, taking in all of the fire chi I could manage, breathe out for another five seconds uttering a single word that takes the whole 5 seconds to say: Ram. The entire sequence takes 5 hours and 5 minutes to go through. This would repeat for the next 64 hours until sundown on the third day.

Let's boogie.

Active meditation is probably one of the most useful skills I've learned since I began cultivating. The ability to just sort of zone when you're working on something is when I've always done my best work. Usually, I get there by listening to music, a podcast or audiobook, but since that lesson with Fitz, I'd figured out how to do that with cultivation. It started with using motion to get me into that zen state, but eventually I had managed to broaden the sorts of things I could do while also focusing on cultivation to just about anything but talking. For some reason, it's really hard to hold an intelligent conversation while my mind simultaneously explores the nature of my soul and how it relates the underpinnings of reality in the marvel universe.

Even so, that made what I was doing here and now just about perfect.

As the stretches and breathing brought me into the frame of reference needed to reach out to the world around me, I began cleaning house. Li Hua had been right when she told me back at christmas that my cultivation was a mess. I had so many different elements floating around in my system, it was a wonder they worked together at all rather than forming into something potentially dangerous, like elemental chaos. One by one, I released each of them into the halo of cycling fire chi until all I had left was my personal balance of Yin and Yang chi provided directly from my soul.

As the gathered elements sparked and smoldered in the ring of fire, I drew the burning essence back in to replace what was lost. It ran through my veins like a fine whiskey, all of the buzz and burn, but none of the dimming perceptions and loosening of higher brain function. Carefully, the burning power was guided to the proper chakra and there it began to spin. More and more chi flowed into the gap until I got the oddest feeling that I couldn't hold any more.

That was the signal to begin compressing it.

As I noted before, compressing chi takes a lot more energy if it doesn't have an idea to coalesce around. I had originally planned to count on that, thinking it would form a denser energy that would be more useful to me in the long run, but further research had put that idea to bed. Rather than pushing me further along core formation faster, it would instead lead me to much earlier bottlenecks. So instead, I'd set up this ritual. Everything I'd learned about the Manipura chakra went into the mental fingers enclosing the energy, applying pressure until it eventually began to form droplets of napalm in my chest. The entire mental space of gaseous fire chi becoming but a few droplets and relieving the bloated feeling I'd had before.

As more of the chi gathered in my barrier formation rushed in, pouring through my body like a fire hose, those droplets grew into a thin stream of unbroken liquid fire. Then a river and finally after what seemed like an eternity, a pool of liquid fire, spinning like clothes in a washing machine. I continued drawing in and compressing more until I got that full feeling once more.

Now came the tricky part.

Making liquid chi based on the fire element was expected of the Manipura. That was the entire point of the rituals I'd borrowed up till now. All of the liquid chi in my chakra held the identity of the Manipura. Now I had to add a second layer onto it, the crystal heart that would, ideally, form the base for all future efforts. Impressing the identity of Synergy into the center of the Manipura and compressing it further into a proper dantien core. I had hope that this would work, as the entire chakra system was built with synergy in mind. Seven layers of a spiritual journey each building upon the other, leading the Buddha's to nirvana. Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Sound, void and thought. But this? Well, Pemberton had achieved it, so it wasn't entirely unprecedented, but he had done it over a period of 3 years. I was trying to do it in three days.

I pressed upon that conceptual connection between the two ideas and squeezed.

Throughout the effort thus far, I hadn't really felt any ill effects. Part of the bonus of integrating the essence of fire into your spirit is that it allows you to not suffer from heat related problems. But now, for the first time in almost 8 months, I began to feel feverish. Sweat sprang up across my body and the air became oppressive. Waves of head washed over my skin like gusty desert air wavering this way and that, undecided on what it wanted to do beyond filling every crack with hot powded misery that would turn to sticky mud as you began to sweat like a pig.

Gods, I hate Bahrain.

No! Random thoughts must not distract me here! Refocusing on the task at hand, I pushed the memories away and devoted the extra brain space to more completely managing the three concurrent ideas. Manipura, Synergy, coalescence. Simple in theory, but a lot harder than it sounds, even if you're a smart cookie.

As the whole map of what I intended to accomplish settled over the three separate trains of thought however, the searing white hot pain in my chest began to subside. With a shudder that ran through both my body and my soul, a tiny seed collapsed into existence in my mind's eye, taking with it nearly two thirds of the chi I'd been working with. It was tiny too, like a grain of sand where once there had been a grape.

It had worked though!

I hadn't exploded! Or spontaneously combusted! Well, maybe I had done the latter, thin flames appeared across my body whenever I worked with fire and earth chi in order to shape glass. But it had worked! A solid Dantien core, surrounded by liquid chakra! In jubilation, I reached out to the cycle and took everything! It flowed in rapidly condensing through both cycles until… suddenly… the draw dropped to fumes, as though there was nothing left.

That jarring sensation startled me awake and I stumbled in my repetition of the Yoga. The area around me was dark, the sky turning purple and most of the light came from the torches atop my flags. The sudden sound of a dozen people clapping caused me to lose balance entirely and I fell, arms and legs akimbo, my head banging solidly into what had to be a reinforced steel telephone pole. Groaning and rolling my head to the side, I saw that it was instead only my own barrier flag, now glowing slightly with its own radiance in the dark of twilight.

I didn't have long to contemplate it though, as Li Hua's face swam into my field of view, offering me a hand up. I took it, matching her brilliant smile with a goofy, if somewhat sheepish grin. "So, um… you were watching?"

She snorts and shakes her head. "We all were." She gestures around and I take in the other three elders, most of the leadership of the white tiger sect and lots of people in silk robes all of them embroidered with a green dragon in various sizes and locations. Kalhara was seated next to Yu-Ti himself, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

"A most pleasing demonstration, tigers disciple" the ancient ruler proclaimed. "Moving straight through foundation establishment in three days to achieve a small high grade core is no small feat. I have questioned your accomplice thoroughly on your preparations and found myself impressed. When you recover, this event shall become a path manual on the fourth floor of the hall of ancestors. For now though, I shall allow you to make a request of the city. This generosity is not unlimited, but you may ask anything and heaven shall move at your words."

Two and a half years. 30 months and 21 days. That's all it took me to go from a middle aged civilian schmuck people debated killing out of hand to a core cultivator.

Granted, I used the summer solstice and most of the products of my experiments to get there; but what is the point of having resources if you don't abuse them to their fullest extent? What this means for me, is that I am now the lowest rank of important people. People Kun Lun actually gives a damn about.

Politically speaking, this means I have gained the respect of Priya and Lei Kung, and no longer need Yu-Ti's amusement at my antics to protect me from death. I still have to be polite and follow the rules, but those rules are a lot looser and not so prone to explosive reprisal by the city's protectors.

What to ask for though? "When next the pass opens, would heaven be willing to send out ambassadors to the mortal realm?" I ask carefully. "I cannot be the only man of worth in my generation, surely K'un Lun would benefit from finding more like myself?"

Priya snorts. "And I suppose you intend to be one of those ambassadors?"

I spread my hands in a 'what can you do' gesture. "They will need someone to help them navigate the modern world." I reply, reasonably. "Things are changing rapidly. Traditional ways of life speech and action are falling away as people forget why those traditions were important to begin with. Any effort would be far less effective without me."

Lei Kung shakes his head. "No. This is already being done by my disciples. Until The Hand have been removed from the mortal realm and their plans ended, a more public relationship cannot be countenanced. If you wish to become my disciple however, you can be allowed to leave."

"And lose such a potent researcher?" one of the jade dragon members asked, disgust clear in his voice. "Ridiculous."

Li Hua stepped up to me, hand on my shoulder. "The council will have to discuss this in a private session," She told me, not sounding apologetic. "Is there anything else you'd like, if this cannot be granted?"

I force down a scowl and the urge to shrug her hand off my shoulder. "Continued and expanded license to perform my experiments without fear of censure" I replied gruffly, fixing each Priya and "the ability to hand pick my own team of assistants and access to research materials from either the Jade Dragon sect or the fifth floor of the hall of ancestors."

"Only Freedom; not resources?" Yu-Ti asked, a laugh in his voice.

"Everything that is truly great and inspiring was created by the man who could labor in freedom" I reply. "A quote by the Sage Albert Einstein. I would appreciate full access to all resources, but I'm wary of the price." I gesture around me. "As I have proven, with freedom I can create my own resources."

Many in the crowd hiss in anger and disagreement, but Yu-ti laughs aloud and claps as though a young boy who's just seen his pet do a particularly amusing trick. "The caged bird may not sing, but neither can you build a windmill without wind. Is not synergy an element of balance? Do you not work for others to make your living?"

I nod. "Technically. But I left the Navy because they were overbearing, and enjoyed the reactor because I was allowed to do my job as I willed it; due to professional courtesy. Synergy may begin with balance, but it's principle is growth."

"A wild growth is a weed, useful to no one. It is through cultivation of our fields which crops are grown." The Jade Serpent countered, an amused smile on his lips.

I opened my mouth to verbally parry back, before shutting it. This is my chi hurting me again. I'm independent, sure, but he's offering me a personal favor and has repeatedly shown himself to act in good faith. My soul rebels against the idea, but in this case, I really should just bow. Consider this… payment for a job well done! Yes! Turning in a quest. I did the work, got the xp and now it's time for the loot.

This self delusion is going to hurt me when I get to the inner eye chakra; but not holding it is hurting me now.

Let's level up this bitch. "What was it you had in mind, August Jade Lord?"

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

May 1991

Working for Yu-Ti and the Jade Serpent sect is a lot like what I imagine 'working your way through college' is supposed to be. In the mornings, I work in my greenhouse or help various high ranking members build their own Chi cycles. In the afternoon I attend apprenticeships with various cultivators.

The Heavens Ascending Wheel Formation is the name they've given the arrangement of flags or laminated glass plates that spin up chi while I work on other things. Apparently they have their own similar formations based on terrain shaping feng shui. But while these work better than what I've created by an order of magnitude… they're rather hard to create, take up a lot of space and definitely aren't mobile. One example of these formations is the city itself. It's entire layout is built to feel power to Yu-Ti's winged tower at the center. And from there, the Divine Peach tree at it's top.

My classes, taught by various cultivators, are punishing. Without the increase in intelligence granted by my meridians and core formation, I'd almost certainly be unable to keep up with the pace. Scrivening (runecraft), Enchanting, Jewelcrafting, Glassblowing, Pottery, Masonry, Carpentry, Woodcrafting, Landscaping, Feng Shui, Spirit Farming, Beast Bonding, Leatherworking, Heavenly Gourmet Chef, Poisoner, Apothecary, Alchemist, Physician, Acupressure, Acupuncture, Moxibustion, Dancing (Terpsicore), Black Tiger Boxing, Southern Dragon Kung Fu, Weaponsmithing, Blacksmithing, Armorsmithing, Tailoring; the list is pretty exhausting.

The two fighting styles I'm pretty sure aren't so much so I learn to fight and defend myself as to punish me for my arrogance when Yu-Ti made his offer. This based on their teaching methods reminding me of the Ranma ½ manga and the sheer amount of pleasure they seem to take in utterly demolishing me every session. The medical classes, I believe, are Yu-Ti's personal touch so that they can't hurt me too badly. Without the crazy old mans protection, I'd probably be sent to respawn at the end of every lesson.

Screw them though, as otherwise I'm just about in heaven. An ironic statement, given as far as this marvel reality is concerned, I am actually physically in heaven. Still, it proves that synergies was a good choice for Dao. I'm learning at a rate I wouldn't have thought possible before; deciphering first principles in days rather than months and churning out new ideas almost as fast as I can write new journal entries. Half of them even pan out now! Which is better than my rate of 1 in 10 of the previous 3 years.

The real damper on my new situation is that I've stalled out on my chakra openings. The sacral chakra is blocked by guilt and the heart chakra by grief. While I managed to repeat my success with the solar plexus chakra on the root chakra, blocked by deprivation, on the following fall equinox, doing the same thing on christmas failed hard. I thought initially that I'd not managed it because I'd somehow failed at the setup, but when I formed my third core at the throat chakra, opened by truth and blocked by the lies we tell others, I succeeded easily.

If my method isn't flawed, then the only answer is the obvious one. I'm holding tightly to the memory of what got me here. How I failed to recognize the depth of my wifes insanity. How I didn't deal with it before she snapped. How afterwards, I didn't kill her when I had the chance. How I couldn't save my daughters. How I lost my son to a force of nature. How everything I do, and the frenetic energy with which I pursue it is so I don't have to think about it constantly. So I can atone for that error and eventually see it corrected.

Kalhara, Fitz and the hall of ancestors all insisted that chakras weren't an either-or… I'm supposed to be able to open any of them a crack just by releasing some of the related feelings and emotions. Enough to allow a flow between them. Either that wasn't enough to allow for liquid chi, never mind a core, or my informants were wrong; releasing just some of your problems wasn't enough. It would be disgustingly and depressingly ironic if in order to attain the power to retrieve my son, I would need to let go of my will to do so.

Another irritating part was that these gaps were the "proper" places for dantien cores. Maybe that was what I was missing? Only one core per dantien zone? Hmmm… If THAT was it, then that means I'll want to clear my third eye chakra rather than crown in order to maintain my 25/75 yin/yang balance.

Of course… that would mean I'll need to suss out my own self delusions.

Or abandon this chakra business entirely. But that runs into the wall of 3 dantien. The only path which included multiple cores was a tribulation path where by the second core I'd already be immortal. As I'm not an untouchable colossus among these mere mortal tier cultivators, that obviously can't be it.

I'm gonna need a second opinion.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

One of my favorite classes over the last year and a half has been Shìjiǔshī under Brother Koa. Translated literally, it means serve wine division and looks like seven or eight characters jumbled together to make a maze. Transliterated, it means he's an alchemist wizard who specializes in wine, beer and hard liquor. Finding a way into his private cash of wines has been something of a long term quest of mine, but it sort of fell by the wayside due to the monks alarming ability to vanish, even in an open field, when you didn't keep a close eye on him.

Unlike most of my… teachers, these last two years, Brother Koa came to me personally, rather than being sent by Yu-Ti to test my ability to cross pollinate disciplines. While my efforts at spirit farming had massively increased the amount of sacred herbs appearing up and down the slopes of K'un Lun (and the arms race between the Hand and Crane), Brother Koa had still had some not insignificant trouble getting resources for his own projects. In exchange for advancing the maturation and tailoring the elemental flavor of various crops for the brother, he agreed to not only teach me, but let me help him dispose of old stock.

Divine Wines, as I noted a few years ago, have uses other than allowing cultivators with our super enhanced livers to get rip roaring drunk. Depending on the recipe and level of fermentation, they're capable of the first three tiers of alchemical pills and elixirs. The fourth tier seems to be too complicated for most brews, but the brother has still developed things like the dragons breath bourbon and cherry blossom wine of limb regrowth. Say nothing of the rumored Peach Liqueur of Immortality Tomoi claimed he made for the elders themselves.

It should surprise no one that I used the stock in much the same way as the brother himself. Bribing useful people to do useful things for me. Ah for the days when a simple fish was enough…

After a couple of weeks of boozing up my 'betters' and asking pointed questions they wouldn't remember later, I found my way back into the depths of S'ahra Sharn. Ostensibly I was preparing another ritual site for my latest attempt to break through to a new level of cultivation, but in truth I'd gotten things ready in the cave beneath the city wells months ago. Instead, I had snuck out under a perfected version of my invisibility, one that even obscured body heat and chi senses, and gone to visit Fitz.

I'd had to bribe a few citizens to show me the way to the alchemist, but once there, the boisterous brit was more than willing to assist. For a bottle of the good stuff, naturally; though I suspect he would have agreed even if I hadn't offered.

He led me to a room deep in the bowels of the city and pulled out a set of seven bowls and various incense sticks. Setting the bowls in a septagram, he lit the incense sticks and invited me into the circle. I entered, he took one of my hands in both of his, and suddenly the world seemed to change. I could still see the stone room, but it was as though looking at a mirage. We were standing on a balcony built into the side of a mountain, who's slope was made of blue lapis stone and extended up and down into the distance.

"This, my boy, is astral projection. You need the third eye chakra to use it, and mine's not particularly well developed. So for as long as it lasts, welcome to Meru, the Infinite mountain." Fitz explained grinning toothily.

I looked at him oddly. "Weren't you banished from here?"

He shrugs. "Oh, Indubitably! But that doesn't mean I didn't leave allies in my wake! For this exercise we're looking for a particularly rebellious chap by the name of Dehaka. He and I have been… penpals of a sort, for the last century and a half. So you're not caught off guard, he's an asura. Skin like a ripe blueberry, four arms and a gorilla face. Massive chompers! Ready?" I nod, only a grin betraying my excitement. "Smashing!"

Somehow, Fitz and I walked and climbed across several walkways, stairs and ladders in a circuitous route worthy of a video game fetch quest level. Off the edge of the walkways people flew up and down the mountain in streams and patterns, their skin colors as varied as the elemental energies upon which they rode. Eventually we reached a particular door which looked like a beetle shell. Fitz knocked on it briefly and then walked through the door as though it weren't there.

I pause, tilting my head and staying in place, only to be dragged through the door moments later as Pemberton marched merrily forward. That was more what I expected when he said astral projection. Focusing a bit, I lifted off the ground and zoomed up to him, hovering just over and behind his shoulder.

The inside of the residence was decorated in a manner I can only describe as that of a hunting lodge run by a hoarder. Taxidermied animals, mounted animal heads and weapons of all types were piled atop one another in great drifts and dunes. All of them radiated chi at a level which threatened to choke my astral presence even despite my three cores; or perhaps because of them. It was, in short, a mess.

I reached out to touch one of the weapons and Fitz spoke back over his shoulder. "Wouldn't do that if I were you, chap. The toys they make here work on a conceptual level. As in, you touch them here because they cut you all the way back in undercity, not the other way around."

I withdrew my hand quickly and followed him a bit closer, ignoring his smirk. "What if I stole one? Would it appear in my pocket?" I ask him, slightly peeved.

He sniggers. "It very well could. Chances are though, it would be cursed. The sort of thing that would follow you around despite discarding or destroying it. We're here though," He gestures to another door that had what was very clearly a bear skin stretched over it and stapled on with nails. The door would open to bisect the bears face, giving it a weird 4 jawed alien look.

We proceeded through it and were greeted with the sound of rhythmic slapping. On a rather fluffy looking bed, what looked to be a blue skinned Goro from Mortal combat was busily screwing a girl, one leg over his shoulder, the other on the bed. 'Goro' looked over at us, and he indeed did have four very large fangs, which could be seen before he broke into a smile, but I wouldn't describe him as apeish.

"PEMBERTON!" the blue man Rumbled happily, accent somewhere between upper crust London and dragging cement slabs. "Don't mind her, we're just working on our root chakras. What is it, friend? A new apprentice?" The four-armed man with muscles like a greek god turned his burning green eyes on me.

"Something like that," I reply with a grin/wince combo as the pair on the bed shift into a new position without breaking stride.

"Naturally!" Pemberton answered in the same moment, beaming like a proud father. "My most talented one yet! Not even two years since his first lesson in what chi even was and he's already got three chakra open. What's more, he's got northern style crystal cores in each of them!"

That caused the pair to pause in their efforts, and turn to consider me closely. "Hrmf… take a break, Chandra, I think we've taken care of that battle jitter tightening, anyway, continuing is just for mutual entertainment."

The girl, who looks mostly normal, except that she's alabaster white with golden eyes, pouts before popping up and kissing Dehaka deeply. "I'll bring refreshments, and we can continue when the gnats have hopped off." She replies in a voice that sounds like Irish brough and slaps me in the brain with the impression of wind chimes.

Fitz rocks back and forth on the balls of his feet as she leaves, turning to watch her go before snapping back to our host and asking. "Devya girlfriend, eh Haka ol chap? Naughty naughty. How long until the battle to 'retrieve her' happens?"

The Asura chuckled and smacked Fitz on the shoulder. The man obviously felt the blow, but looked pleased nonetheless. "What brings you Fitz? What's his deal?" He thrusts a chin at me.

"I'm having a bit of trouble with my chakra and came to Lord Pemberton for help." I reply. "He brought me to you, guru."

Dehaka looked to Fitz for confirmation, and he nodded, grinning broadly. "See, what you make of him, will you?" When Dehaka sighed as if put upon and nodded, Pemberton crowed in reply "Smashing!"

Dehaka bent down slightly and looked at my chest, his glowing eyes lighting up to shine like spotlights and a third eye opened out of unblemished skin on his brow. He went up and down my body, ignoring my attempts to explain and even silencing me as he conducted his examination.

"Fascinating stuff." He rumbles eventually, leaning back.

"Can you tell what's wrong?" I ask him, hopeful, but warry. And annoyed.

He nods. "You're trying to do too much without half of the materials." He replies bruskly. "That second layer you're working on, you've got a bunch of concepts stuffed in there, things you intend to add in the future. That's fine, but without adding them, you can't build further. Right now they say Synergy of: and then note which one they are. Nippon spirit, Chinese Internal alchemy and Meru Chakra. It's like you're trying to build a house without siding material for the walls, utilities, furniture or roof; just the land, foundation and a frame. The next four cores simply won't form until you either start adding those other elements; these Avalonian imperative, Infinity stones, Lightforce and Marvel madness as you call it; or simplify the concept so that they aren't expected and you simply synergize everything you study."

It's as though a tension starts unwinding in my chest. Alright, so that's one fundamental hurdle down. But he didn't answer my original question. "What about the chakras themselves? Why won't they open? Are the… issues… I hold too weighty? Or is there something I'm missing?"

He snorts. "I am not a priest. If you want someone to soothe your grief and forgive your shame, bribe Chandra when she returns and try not to die." He replies bluntly. "If it's actual advice you're after, know this. You don't have to let go, to open the chakra; you need to stop lying to yourself about why you won't." He reaches out and flicks me in the brow, nearly bowling me over. "Open this one, and you'll get what I mean." Then he laughs again. "You imperials are an odd bunch. So full of self deceit, yet each one so loosely held and easily discarded. It's like you do it on purpose."

Pemberton claps his hands once. "A man is naught but the sum of his masks." He replies. "Thanks for your help! And just in time too, I'm beginning to feel rather w-" The scene cuts out and we're back in the cavern room filled with incense. "Oobly… oof." I go over to Fitz and help him up off the floor into a sitting position against the wall.

"You alright?" I ask him, concerned.

He nods, before clutching his head and moaning. "Yes, quite alright. Just took it a bit too far there. Did it help?"

I humm. "Maybe. I'll know when I get back to the circle I guess."

Fitz chuckles. "Bully! Now, help me up, I've got something to show you!" He first led me up seven levels to a small market where they butchered a metal furred rat the size of a cat and cooked it in front of us and then back down four and what I'd swear was halfway across the city into an open natural looking chamber. At the center of the cavern was an earthenware pot, but it was larger than any pot I'd ever seen, even since coming here. There are large kim-chi pots which three people can sit comfortably inside all throughout both cities. This pot was big enough to put a New York apartment inside.

"You have a habit of brushing off old ideas and giving them a new coat of paint." Pemberton stated as I looked at the pot in confusion.

"Happy to help." I reply, confused. "But beyond the obvious, what exactly am I looking at?" I asked, pulling out my phone and filming the pot as I walked around it. A ladder goes up to the lid of the gigantic jar and the pulley system is set up to lift and seal it. The entire jug is covered in obvious scriptwork, sunken into the surface of the jar, which I slowly deciphered as I walked, but there was a LOT of it.

"This nasty little artifact is called a Goo." Fitz offered, chuckling darkly. "Traditionally known as the Divine Poison Pot, smaller versions are normally employed by filling it with poisonous insects and letting them eat each other until only one is left. The process is of course imbued with chi, and that allows the bugs to absorb the properties of each other's venom. They are used in assassinations and as an antidote for the worst of poison based chi attacks. Larger versions like this are commonly used by the champions of Madam Gao, the Brides of spiders, in their training. Seal the girl inside with the nasty little pets she's been cultivating and use the pots functions to rapidly advance her own core as she struggles to survive them. Apparently though, nobody really thought to put multiple people inside until just recently."

He turns to me. "Cultivation cauldrons sometimes mean other people. Methods of stealing another's cultivation are not rare, but never have I seen the process so automated."

He pulls out a sheaf of papers and hands them to me. Taking them, I read, my heart sinking with every page. The first few pages are in Tomoi's hand, detailing the rituals I'd been setting up since that first time almost two years ago on the solstice. The next several are historical research by another on the Gǔ 蠱 and it's uses in the past, including schematics and various methods to induce cultivation up to and including core formation in another and then steal it through medicine, consensual sex, rape, combat techniques and murder. Finally, six pages about how to combine the two methods so that 9 people can sit inside the pot and have 8 of them give the 9th their progress. There were unfinished notes on what actions inside the pot produced the greatest results and how much energy could be spun up inside before the users entered without the pot exploding when disturbed.

"Thank you, Fitz." I tell him sincerely. "I can't imagine these were easy to obtain."

He grins too broadly. "They've been waiting for you to come, actually. They intend you to use this to improve the Black Skye activation process. That's page 13, I believe. Now, let's get you out of here. It really isn't safe for you to hang around."

Last edited: Sep 1, 2020

Book 1: Chapter 5: Peak

I got back to K'un-Lun without major incident. A pair of armies appeared suddenly as I was walking through one particular field of seed grass, but I managed to get out of the way with only one flying weapon and two fireballs clipping me by accident. If either side noticed (likely) they didn't pursue when I leapt into the air early superman style and landed well out of range of both sides.

After scanning, uploading and typing the new information into my computer, I headed down to cistern. I stared at my work for several hours, thinking about what I had learned. It seemed as though I was successful in kicking off the arms race I had proposed when I first got caught. I suppose that makes me a war profiteer, and for the most part I don't give a shit. I might even be excited! These people can endlessly resurrect for god's sake, and have made it clear endless war is their heaven after all.

But the Gǔ makes me wonder. What the hell am I doing, being the unarmed man in an arms race? Granted, Lord of War by Nick Cage was a favorite of mine and its wisdom that the cardinal rules of gun running are 1) NEVER Under Any Circumstances pick up a weapon and join the customers and 2) True safety comes in a reputation for neutrality. This bears out in a lot of real world situations too; keep your head down, and the alligator will eat you last… The agitators consider you cowed and the establishment consider you a beast their stable. The problem of course is whoever wins, they're still going to eat you; so it pays to have teeth.

I'm halfway there, just being a cultivator; my interactions with the Crane sect have gained an edge of genuine, if grudging, respect since I first formed my core. But I need more. An ankle holster of sorts.

… or back pocket nuke.

Ever since I got here, I can't stop hearing about the importance of dragons. Iron Fist this, Black Skye that; dragons and draconic power are the thing everybody covets even as they're utterly terrified of it. Of all the players in this game, I think only Yu-Ti isn't concerned about what might happen if something were to go wrong with Shou Lao or The Hand.

The question in this thread is; how do I go about getting myself some of that? Or something comparable? Orsen Randel and Danny Rand were able to hold the fist at the same time in the comics, that's how they defeated Ch'i-lin, predator of Immortal Weapons; but MCU insisted Shao Lao was a 1 man dragon, accepting no multiples. Given Tilda Swinton is the Ancient One, that suggests this is an MCU baseline universe of some sort; but If I could replace the current Iron Fist (unlikely, given this one's experience)… would I even want to? If I CAN hold it at the same time that still leaves me Junior to the problem people in K'un-Lun. If I have to steal it from the current Iron Fist, that just means they can steal it back, and my window to make use of it would be too small to be of real honest use. On top of that, in either case, this reality is clear that I'm promising my soul as a cultivation pill to the giant snake unless I can leave the universe before dying. Not really a good option.

The next possibility is Dragon Bone. Both comics and MCU agree that even a million years later, dragon bone is a serious concern. In the MCU, it retains enough power to temporarily grant a human the dragons regenerative powers, and in the comics, it was the source of a bunch of the more problematic artifacts the various Iron Fists were forced to deal with. Bone is commonly shaped into weapons, and Chinese Dragons commonly wear antlers, which mythology says are shed from time to time, just like the deer they resemble. Loose teeth, shed scales and broken claws are also an option, but those seem like they would be somewhat more difficult to obtain.

The last option is to take my last 6 years in this valley to become a complete and utter badass monster nobody wants to fuck with. Granted, I've been progressing like a prodigy, but I don't hold out much hope of that one being a viable option.

Heh… sad really, when facing down a dragon bearing a title like 'the undying' is a less daunting prospect than fighting my way out, should I find myself somewhere I cannot talk my way out.

Also, that sort of life puts a target on your back. I've already got several of those. Foreigner. Mortal. Resource. Asshole. Disruptive. Maybe if I add Thief or Iron Fist I can call myself the Sage of Six Paths?

They wouldn't get the joke. Not sure if that would make it funnier or steal the joy.

And I'm getting distracted.

Time to plan my acquisition of enough dragon bits to be useful.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%&^*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

The first step in my plan was fairly simple. I needed something with which to schmooze my problem children. As Silk was largely regarded as being worth its weight in gold around here, I started there.

Getting access to the silkworms was easier than it really should have been. While silk was a natural transition material and thus predisposed to channeling chi, in order to get the best possible results the dragon sect feeds them any chi laden plant material the alchemists don't use themselves. Their preferred feedstock is mulberry leaves, but as fallen leaves aren't any good and denuding the tree would harm it, they make do with castoffs and still face a bottleneck.

My research is responsible for removing that bottleneck. Or at least easing it noticeably. Magical plants are a lot more plentiful than is natural these last few years and so they felt they owed me. Coming to them with a jug of chi infused mulberry wine, a bushel of leaves from my own greenhouse and a proposition netted me six worms, four female, two male. They even instructed me in how to tell the difference between the squishy little monsters.

Once I got them back to my lab, I went through the equation for corruption and fed them corrupted leaves until they mutated. The grubs grew rapidly after that (this time fed pure leaves) from the size of my pinkie to about the size of my forearm by the time they grew no more. Then they started spinning.

Something a lot of people don't know about silk producing worms. The silk cocoon isn't actually a part of the chrysalis they mature inside. Instead, it's a sort of fibrous armor, insulation or maybe even a disguise. The actual chrysalis is the thing's skin, which hardens into a transparent but surprisingly durable shell as soon as their silk glands in their mouth are emptied. The resultant silk is rough and somewhat brittle, but silk farms solve this issue by tossing the gestating worms into a pot of boiling water. This firms up the worm the same way as crab meat and softens the silk. The heat is actually what makes it elastic and shiny. The silk is then unraveled from the cocoon and the worms eaten like chicken nuggets. The breeding stock of course is set aside to hatch from their shells and create the next generation of moths. Silk can still be collected from chewed open pupa, but it makes for much shorter threads.

I don't have the worms to waste though. Instead, I take this as an opportunity to work on my fine control. Namely, by levitating boiling water heated by my own fire chi to clean some thick paste off a flower without causing the petals to wilt. The effort takes me three weeks and a lot of chi-healing practice on my plants to get right. The cocoon of your average centimeter long Silkworm is a single one mile long thread. My worms are about 50 times as big, so when I'm done I'm able to tease nearly 14 thousand miles of high quality thread off my 6 50 centimeter long bugs. That may sound like a lot, but making a dress out of silk often requires 2000 cocoons. 1000 for a shirt or pants. Give or take a few hundred depending on designs. This doesn't even take into account embroidery. A truly mind boggling amount of thread goes into making a bolt of cloth.

Taking that to my next Tailoring class almost gets me murdered by a greedy shifu, but warning her that it's intended as a gift for the elders stays her hand. A small jar of cherry wine, a promise to mention her in a good light and a dress of her own if we have any silk left when we're done gets her to aid me in weaving the silk into cloth. By the time I get to leave four days later, all of the silk has been used and she and I have four shirts and three dresses woven and embroidered with precise measurements and I am in awe at her ability to control needle and thread telekinetically. I learned the method from her, of course, but the sheer difference in speed and dexterity between us is rather humbling. It's like the difference between hand sewing and a machine, something you really don't appreciate until you've done both.

The first dress I deliver to Priya, trying not to smirk as the heartless bitch seems to visibly soften when I hand her the pink silk, embroidered with a saffron bird. As soon as she'd done admiring it though, her expression hardens.

"Alright, what do you want?" She asks me bluntly.

I shrug and let loose my smirk. "You, off my back. Consider it a peace offering."

She makes a gesture and one of her 'daughters' pops out of nowhere. They begin whispering, no doubt telling her about what I did to get this fine garment. The mocha skinned tibetian woman's eyes widen considerably for a moment and I know I have her.

"Fine. You have proven your worth and loyalty to the city." She agrees haltingly. "My daughters could use the rest." She then narrows her eyes, considering. "Who is the shirt for?"

I shrug and hold back a smirk. Seems she only knows about the one I'm carrying. "It's a debate at the moment. I may use it to bribe your husband, or it may go to show my appreciation for the Iron Fist bringing me here all those years ago, rather than slaying me on sight as you say is his duty."

She nods stiffly. "Off with you then. You've used enough of my time."

Bitch. Even so, I don't feel the telltale hum of her 'daughters' following me as I leave. Maybe after today, I won't have to give them the slip when I want a little privacy.

Hmm… that may actually be bad for my stealth practice. Oh well.

Finding the Iron Fist isn't hard; after 130 years at the same job, dude was pretty predictable. Almost like an NPC, he would patrol between Yu-Ti's tower, Priya's red crane pagoda, the valley outside Shuo-Lao's cave and the portal that once every 15 years would connect Earth and Heaven for a period of 2 years, 2 months and 2 days. His duty was to protect that portal, acting as I.N.S. for souls migrating to K'un Lun via one of the other heavens or trying to emigrate from K'un-Lun to another heaven. When the portal opened to earth, he was to protect it against agents of The Hand trying to return and challenge everyone else to prove themselves as pilgrims.

Bai Wen, the current Iron fist in place of Orsen Randel, took the whole ascetic monk thing FAR too seriously in my humble opinion.

I found him meditating in the pass, floating about three feet off the ground in the seated lotus position. The aura around him was like a golden bonfire, scorching the rocks twenty feet away as he pulled in air chi to feed the flames.

I stood there for a few minutes, waiting for him to recognize that he had company. By the way his ear twitched every time I made a sound, I could tell he knew I was there, but he gave no response. Shortly, I got bored and called out to him, loud enough to be clearly heard by a normal person over the wind. More ear twitching.

Shrugging, I took a seat on a nearby rock. Close enough that everything was pleasantly warm, but not so close as to be burned even over time. Folding the shirt I'd had made for him, I laid it in my lap and pulled out my phone. I'd rather have my laptop if I was going to kill time, but it had become such a valuable artifact for me that the only time it would leave my secure vault was when I used it, or when left Heaven for good.

For the next three hours I powered the smartphone with my chi, played Angry Birds and cultivated. I could tell my presence was bothering the Fist, but he was doing that asian thing where he serenely ignored you until you stopped being unseemly.

Well, you know what they say about games. Two could play.

Thirtyseven hours later, Bai Wen was still going strong. I swear, this guy could give a cat a run for its money in the ability to project silent disdain. Why was I trying to get on this guy's good side again? Oh yeah, so the primary dude guarding a certain dragon doesn't get twitchy if I try to approach the giant snake. I'm halfway through another repetition of the Anja Yoga form for opening the third eye when he finally breaks.

"I fought the british in the opium wars before coming to K'un-Lun" he said matter-of-factly.

I dropped the mantra and slowly switched to the next pose. "And?"

I can feel his glare. "Losing to your kind, and seeking purpose, was how I arrived here. You are not welcome."

"Not sure what I have to do with that." I tell him calmly. "My ancestors were American. And before that, Irish."

"You say that as though I should know what it means," he dismissed. "Why are you here."

Stopping the pattern, I stretch, do a somersault and grab the silk shirt. "Here. A gift."

He snatched it out of my hand and began to throw it before stopping. "I don't want y… is this… Heavens Ascending Silk?"

I watched in amusement as he unfolded the shirt and stroked the slippery yellow material. He found the dragon embroidered on it's back, the same as the one seared into his chest. "I… th… The british came bearing gifts as well, silken words hiding swords and cannonfire" he challenged, glaring.

"You don't seem to be giving the shirt back," I note smugly.

His fists tighten in the material. "It is fine material and workmanship. Expertise is always worthy of respect." He bites out.

"Yes, It's yang attuned silk. The silkworms I corrupted were fed primarily on yang energy collected from sunlight. I'm trying to make them spirit beasts." I reply grinning broadly and crossing my arms. "I was wondering in particular what effect dragon fire would have on my research, but approaching The Undying One is a little dangerous on several fronts, so… you. If you refuse, then consider it thanks for not murdering me when I popped out of the rift. Priya loves to remind me how it was your job to do so."

"My job is to defend K'un lun from invaders and welcome pilgrims." He says formally. "Having passed me without my knowledge, you could have been a pilgrim." He gestures at my stomach. "Obviously that ended up being correct."

"After a fashion," I agree. "So. Dragon fire?"

He sighs heavily and his fists begin to glow like stars. The yellow white glow flows across the silk like light underwater and ethereal flames begin to waft off of it. "A near perfect alignment." he huffs, stripping off the saffron burlap that makes his upper robe and putting on the shirt. "At its simplest, dragon fire is a fusion of two chi concepts. Life and fire. This is different from using the two elements in tandem and is often called soul fire instead."

"Because it burns souls?" I ask. "As I understand it that is why the Iron Fist is K'un-Lun's ultimate weapon and protector."

He shakes his head. "No. A dragon's fire is itself a living sentient flame. Everything it burns feeds that flame, becoming more living fire. Destroy a dragon's body utterly, and so long as that fire is not extinguished it can reform itself from the nearest serpent. The Fire IS the Dragon. This is why it's so difficult to kill a dragon unless you are also a dragon. Or a Benu bird, a phoenix as Egypt convinced the rest of the world to call it. A Dragon or Benu may consume that flame, growing brighter and hotter. But mortal armies must wear down that flame by forcing the dragon to burn things that don't feed it and regenerate wounds until extinguished for the dragon to finally be slain."

"Was that the original purpose of the Iron Fist?" I ask, translating quickly for myself. "Were you proxies for dragons so that they might hunt others of their kind without risking their own fire or leaving their lair of treasures? And while we're on the subject, what is a dragon's treasure? I've heard lots of stories, but they change with every culture."

Bai Wen nods. "Yes. If a dragon's disciple failed against another Dragon or Benu, the Dragon only lost the fire invested in them, but if they succeeded, they could feed from afar with every success. Against dragons or anything else. Yu-Ti sanctified the process when he saved Shuo-Lao from the Skrull-Kree-Aesir war that ended the last age. Since then, there has only been Shuo Lao the Undying. As for treasure, anything that is touched by dragon fire and does NOT burn to ash is considered a treasure of the dragon's hoard. It becomes a Dao unto itself and burns like a coal in the great Braiser."

"So that shirt is going to become an artifact heirloom of the Iron Fists?" I ask grinning broadly.

The Iron Fist looked away, irritated. As far as information went, I had what I needed from the man. There was likely something I was missing, like why Dragon bone was important to inducing this process in mortals, but I had enough to start from. It also paired well with Phoenix Endsong comic where the Iron Fist was something capable of countering the phoenix force, despite never showing anything even remotely approaching that level of power beforehand. Materially though, I still needed him. Still needed Shuo-Lao. Creating my own dragon's fire would more than likely NOT be a simple process, so I would still need a bone weapon as a holdout pistol.

"So… have you ever fed Shuo Lao? Or does he subsist off the flame you generate as his Fist?"

"The Undying One subsists mostly off the Iron Fist, but on special occasions we are allowed back into the cave to feed the braiser directly. Something only a mortal can do without becoming part of the flame."

Also likely why Danny was able to defeat the Shuo-Lao by interposing himself between the flame and the body burning the symbol into his chest, while Davos faced him in direct combat and lost.

"A mortal like me?" I ask, wiggling my eyebrows. "I told you I was creating spirit beasts. If you came by my workshop from time to time, maybe a few of them could end up as snacks."

Bai Wen was silent for a while, staring at me. "You want to use the Great Dragon. How? And Why?"

I snorted in reply. "Hell yeah, I do. Why wouldn't I? In order to make myself safe from all of the politics I need to be seen as essential. As beyond reproach. Everything in this heaven leads back to him, some how and some way. Keeping the amusement of Yu-Ti is one thing, but If I can become the one who supplies the Iron Fist and Feeds the Dragon, none of the dead will dare mess with me and the three most powerful entities in this reality will be invested in my survival and happiness. From there, I can best use the resources in my reach to pull open the rift that delivered me here and retrieve my son."

"And so the circle closes," a new voice sounds from behind me "and it all comes back to the beginning."

Bai Wen bows slightly, his hands clasped in salute. "Honorable Shifu Lei Kung."

The Thunderer walks out from behind me, hand briefly on my shoulder before going over to Bai Wen. Fingering the man's new shirt, he circles around behind the Iron Fist to fix me with a hard look. "That's quite the ambitious plan." He says flatly.

"Is it one you disapprove of?" I ask, unable to keep the challenge out of my voice.

He shrugs. "That remains to be seen." He pulls my laptop computer out of nowhere and I stiffen, trying to figure out how he got it. More even, how he got it out of my greenhouse without causing a massive explosion. Then I notice the glint of a ring on his finger. It hummed with chi and when I reached out for it with my soul, it projected a feeling of deep and twisted space. It was an item of legend. An interspatial ring. An RPG inventory on your finger.

"Tell me, whose side are you on?" he asked, waving the artifact in his hand.

I flex my chi and the plastic case lights up with a seal before vanishing from his hands and appearing in my arms. "I am on MY side." I reply. "I don't see where that needs to be a zero sum game. When both sides benefit, I tend to benefit more."

"A sound philosophy," The Thunderer replies, smirking as he puts his hands behind his back. "But I ask again. Whose side is your side? K'un-lun? The Civilians? The Hand? You have the most curious habit of associating with many groups who are in opposition to each other, and it makes me wonder."

"I am not altogether on anybody's side," I tell him truthfully, "because nobody is altogether on my side. Everywhere I turn, people want to use me or kill me. So far, only non cultivators and Yu-Ti have ever helped me out of simple kindness, and then most of the time Yu-Ti did it because I was an amusing proxy for something else. But you know what? Fine. I can deal with that; so long as in the end I get what I want."

"Yes, your son." Lei Kung replies, seeming to soften for a moment. Probably thinking of his own son, Davos, now two years old. "I cannot help but notice certain parallels however. How can I be sure that this time will turn out different than before?"

"I like to think the results of my actions speak for themselves." I counter. "But if you can't trust that, then trust in being my best option."

The Thunderer seems to consider that for some time before nodding. "Our sages were able to probe the rift, and you do work yourself hard." He fixes me with his gaze. "I was once the disciple of a dragon and fought side by side with Bor Titansbane of the Aesir and the Mu Directorate of earth. When my dragon died in the conflict, I retired here. And when Yu-Ti saved Shuo-Lao from certain death and brought him here to recover, I stepped forward to teach the next disciple. I have taught every Iron Fist since then. If you want to approach the Dragon, you must train with me; something you have refused on multiple occasions."

He looked over at Bai Wen. "If you wish to aid him in his various games, that is for you to decide xué tú. But do not let him into Shao-Lao's valley unless he trains properly with one of us."

I close my eyes and breathe heavily through my nose. I want to rage at these assholes, but they have a point and I was the dipshit that revealed my hand simply to put someone off balance. "How do you intend to fit your lessons into the schedule Yu-Ti has given me?" I ask, seriously.

The Thunderer considers me for a moment. "I will take over both of your current combat classes. I feel you will appreciate that and I know Brother Yu-Ti will not mind."

I probably would, too; if his lessons were a little less 'training is a beat down' than they are right now. "I accept."

"Good. Your first lesson starts now. Fight Bai Wen so I can get an idea of how far you've actually progressed. Seeing you whipped like a dog every day for a year only displays your former teachers lack of discipline."

"One last question before we start?" I say looking at my new sparring partner.

Bai Wen sighs. "What is it now?"

"If the living flame is the true expression of a dragon… why are dragons symbols of water in most asian mythology?"

Lei Kung snorted. "A misunderstanding. More than half of the earth is water, and the biggest prey live within the seas. Naturally the biggest predators would follow them. A sea dragons water breath is still hot enough to cook a man in seconds and gives way to fire quickly."

"Now… FIGHT!"

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #%$^&*()_+

Training with the Thunderer was an experience. Rather than endless beatdowns or patterns, he would show me a move and then have me use it on him. When he was satisfied with my form, he would call out 10 random attacks or blocks we'd done before and I'd have to remember them and do them right. If I did it wrong he'd throw or knock me on my ass. If I did it right, he'd catch my attack or block. Either way, we'd move on to the next move and set of 10. I noticed fairly quickly, he called out anything where he swatted me around more often than those I got right.

Once I had all of the moves he wanted, he changed form, calling out random moves for five straight hours. During those hours, he went faster and faster until I started screwing up again. He would hold that speed until my form evened out and then he would up the ante again.

That continued for several weeks before he changed again. This time, it wasn't about speed, but power. He guided me in how to get the most force out of my body, and then the most force out of a given amount of chi. Then how to put more and more chi into an attack until I could exhaust myself entirely with a single strike. That the strike was able to imitate the Iron Fists more popular feat of turning a 15 foot section of wall into explosive shrapnel. I don't even care that the Fist can do that repeatedly, it left me grinning like an idiot for most of the day.

After he had me do that as the lesson of the day for several more days, he changed tactics again. This time, he had me spar with his other students. Mortal members of the Chaste who traded in and out of heaven every 15 years. For them, this was a cross between a reward for good service and the US military's College Advancement Courses. The point of this set of lessons was to teach ME how to hold my cultivators strength back against civilians; and to impress upon THEM the importance of their lessons in the more spiritual aspects of combat.

Being used as an example of how swiftly one could advance earned me a lot of enemies among the Chaste's exchange students. That changed to grudging respect when he told them that the cultivation resources they were getting were a result of my bullshit. For some, it even became awe when stories got around that I did it all without the pills or teachers; just library access.

While all of this was happening, I delivered the other silks. Yu-Ti took his blue shirt with it's green dragon and put it on his wall, the crazy old coot. Lei Kung took his black shirt with a saffron turtle embroidered into on the first day of lessons and laid it on a rock alongside his normal gi. He put it on without a word after a post lesson bath under a waterfall. Li Hua was the most visibly appreciative, kissing me on the cheek when I presented her white silk with with black tiger embroidered on it. All of the instructors become notably nicer afterwards, though the pace of their lessons increased.

Perhaps the most important outcome of the affair however, was that Bai Wen actually took to visiting me as I asked. Our first project together was the moths. With extreme care, we infused all six of them with dragon fire. Four of them died, despite our best efforts, but what we learned from each mistake was enough to save and succeed with one male and one female moth. The end result of this experiment looked vaguely like a fairy dragon from World of Warcraft; save that it as white and fluffy.

[img: . ]

[img: . ]

Sadly… they didn't last long. Like the moths they originated from, these silk drakes had no mouths and had to subsist entirely off the Chi I fed them. And I did feed them. Regularly. I swear! Shortly after their egg sack was woven however, they expired.

Here though, there was another relatively important difference. Two of them, in fact.

First, silk moths normally lay 200-500 eggs about the size of a bb. These eggs are lemon yellow and turn black if fertile, white if not. They will then only hatch after experiencing winter conditions. My moths lay 70 eggs, each about the size of a golf ball. Second, when the moths died, they turned to ash and all 70 eggs gained a golden inner light. Bai Wen said it felt similar enough to dragon fire he was able to pull it from the eggs at a touch.

I tried as well, in secret after he left, but got burned for my troubles. Pulling the fire out of the eggs required a predatory mindset to begin with, as none of the normal kinesthesia involved in cultivation seemed to work otherwise. After that, it felt like a mix of hot oil and worms moving through my meridians. Trying to imprint my personal fire over the eaten eggs living fire was the real problem however. Not only did it not gel with the core or liquid chakra I had there already, IT fed on MY chi leading me to almost destroy the greenhouse as I was forced to reject the chi or be replaced by it.

This was not the end to the frustration either. The eggs also required actual winter to mature and hatch, something I found out when the silk farmers 'put them in the refrigerator' trick failed to mature them. Weeks of building ice chi wasted.

At least the effort saved my greenhouse.

On the fall equinox, I went through tribulation atop my old mountain top. The one I used to cultivate before I built the greenhouse. Earth, Fire and Sound tore at the mountain top as I chiseled away at my three solid cores. I'd been examining my cores closely in the last several months and Dehaka had been correct. I went into my Dao of synergy with certain ideas about the things I wanted to synergize rather than focusing solely on the concept of synergy. This had made my cores rough and of uneven density, causing the liquid chi exchanged between them and my profound veins to be chaotic and inefficient, weighing down all my actions with chi and impeding my growth.

Two years of solidity made them fight my efforts to change and redefine them. The effort forced my will and chi to fight each other, resulting in large chunks of chi being broken off the core to suddenly and violently expand before being expelled in thoroughly energetic expressions of their associated element. As I began to gain headway though, my purified dao began to aid me in pushing the conversion of the rest. It made the chaos and elemental fury whipping around me fiercer still, straight up destroying the ritual I'd built into the mountain to fuel the process and recapture the wasted power, but by the time the sun rose on the fourth day, I'd finished.

The results were impressive. My chi was more potent, my mind moved faster and chi began spinning in my three Yin chakra; proving my previous efforts there had not been entirely in vain. The amounts were minute, and I'd need to work on them alot in the future to place a core there, but now it felt as though an invisible weight vest had lifted off my soul. Now, I knew I could do it.

For the next three months, I worked on those chakra, widening them with every issue I worked through. Of the three though, I'd have to say, the third eye chakra is the worst. Discarding self delusion is a painful process. Even more so than deliberately inviting fire (living or otherwise) into your body and crystalizing it. Most of it was admitting just how much I didn't actually know and how many assumptions I tend to make without checking them; normal everyday human foibles. Checking them against my now almost 50 years of experience and all of my education before confirming or discarding them widened the mental representation of space in my third eye dantient with every admission.

But then there were the little gems of wisdom that club you like a two by four straight to the face.

For instance; everybody likes to believe that they're the good guy. Even the cynical fucks who think humanity is doomed and pointless or do clearly evil things in the name of their "greater good" tend to think of themselves as heroes in their own heads. Turns out, I'm not. If anything; I'm the asshole real heroes deal with because it's necessary and they're not one of the villains. That doesn't sound like it should hurt. Intellectually saying it certainly doesn't. But like facing down someone in your mind and facing them down in reality, raw truth has a tendency to blindside you initially. Which… really, they sort of tell you on the label with this chakra.

The upside to having all of your comfortable illusions confronted and stripped away though, is that it makes grief and shame pretty difficult to hold onto. Knowing exactly what you did and did not understand, even in the back of your mind, when you screwed up all those times and just how much (or really, how little) you could have done then works wonders for your sense of clarity. Self loathing is just as much a lie as casual arrogance, in the end.

I also made a more scientific discovery when I went to form my third eye core on the solstice. Either the Yoga (and most of the ritual really) is psychosomatic; or the lore about the seven chakra being a downward series of pools and waterfalls is much more important than I'd originally figured. I spent the whole of Christmas working through the Anja, but the power kept flowing down to pool in my other two yin chakra, never allowing me to get to a sufficient power density to collapse into a solid.

Despite my trouble with Yin energy though, I was able to boost the Heart and Sacral chakras to about 20% of what I needed to initially form my original core and the third eye to 30% of the same with spinning liquid chi before the winter solstice ran out. Only 70% in 3 days rather than getting all the way there in 1, taking another to condense and having the third to build power. 4.25:1, better than the 6:1 I normally work with when cultivating Yin aspects.

That the chi in the lower two chakra made their conversion automatically without my input was also a surprise and worthy of note. More wasted effort in my previous attempts apparently. Or perhaps all the work I'd put into opening them in the first place mattered more than effort in the moment.

Gha! I hate this not knowing!

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%&^*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

January 1994; western New Years.

Aside from Nick, the food is probably the biggest thing I miss about modernity. Salt in particular. Something so simple and easily dismissed, but it has such an enormous effect on flavor. Too much is obviously disgusting, but even a teaspoon added to a pot of food will triple or quadruple the quality of the flavor. We do at least have a fair number of spices here. K'un Lun may be in the middle of bum-fuck-nowhere, but it was also situated along the silk road, which saw trade from Korea to the Ivory Coast and Moscow to Mumbay.

Most of the herbs and spices here were grown by the alchemists for medicinal purposes before I got here. Their feng shui chi gathering gardens didn't produce chi enhanced crops very often, but when they did what was grown was carefully preserved in the city's storehouses while the rest of it went to meals for the cities longer term residents. Mostly the Dragon sect, but on occasions like this one, their 'largess' got as far down as the civilians.

Of course, that' entire dynamic is different now. When a bit of sticky black fertilizer can force a plant to start cultivating in days rather than a few by chance each year, the purse strings loosen a bit. More crops are grown, the elites grow more snooty about the quality of what remains in the storehouses, and what can be offloaded on your lessers expands rapidly.

This of course, makes it hilarious when some of that trickles down to ME. I not only make my own herbs, but cultivate them to a higher quality than what the Dragon Sect nobles now covet, so receiving a small box of herbs with a single leaf of weakly yin empowered Ginseng with my allotment of rice and veggies almost gets me mugged when I burst out laughing like a madman.

Unfortunately, rejecting the distributor's 'gift' is impractical. Even if it has no use to me, it's a massive loss of Face for them. Yes, note the caps. Turning down a gift is a significantly greater crime than theft, bullying a junior or talking back to a superior, and each of those can start a blood feud if you don't have the right friends.

Luckily though, there is Brother Koa and spiced liquor is always in demand.

After several years of being one of his major suppliers, the cagey Monk has finally shown me his hidden distillery. After returning to my greenhouse for his latest order of chi-powered herbs, I give him the box alongside the purchase and begin to pursue his stockpile.

The jars, jugs, bottles and barrels in here are all inscribed to concentrate chi into the contents so finding the valuable items by magical synesthesia is all but impossible. That doesn't mean it's unorganized however. Like any good sommelier, Koa is meticulous about aging, ingredients and chi type. I make my way back to the last place I left off and continue taking notes as I have been all month.

Finally though, I have found it. The holy grail of this wine cellar. The Divine Peach Wine.

It's stored in a surprisingly drab green-white celadon jug without adornments. Other than being stored in the distillery itself rather than one of the many overflow cashes, there is no indication it's special until you open it. The moment you do though, the smell is unmistakable. That same smell permeates the entire city every year when a new peach flowers on the celestial tree.

I continue down the line, as though nothing special was discovered, but Brother Koa somehow knows better. He comes over with a small shot glass and a dipper, and spoons out a drink, putting it beneath his nose and inhaling the fumes slowly. "It's a remarkable vintage, isn't it?" He asks, rhetorically. "The body is made from 1000 year divine peaches that fall from the tree early rather than reaching maturity. This, admittedly, is most of them. But then, what else would you expect from a sacred herb where a single fruit can grant a mortal in poor health from bad living and disease at the end of their natural life span, youth, health and immortality? Just as with any cultivating plant or creature, there are mostly failures."

"Still,.. Even failures have their uses." The monk finished, downing the glass in one throw. "A single shot glass can completely purge a body of corruption and bring the drinker to chi condensation stage. The Jade Lord keeps this vintage close, drinking from it personally, and only rarely sharing. To receive a glass is to receive his personal favor. Of course, some of it is expected to go missing. Wine stewards privilege; I have to ensure the drinks quality after all."

"How useful would it be to one who's already passed chi condensation?" I ask, posing my question as a double entendre. The phrasing could just as easily be academic interest or dismissal as someone pleading for a glass. Kuo smiles, catching on to the wordplay.

"Pretty useful, I would think." He replies. "Even the best students are never perfect. Cleansing and infusion are often cyclical processes that take multiple lifetimes to complete. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which, may be because of a poor diet. Eating foods that have not been purged of their own corruption by cultivation, or foods that deliberately have high amounts of corruption in them." He smirks. "Of course, you already knew that. It is why you've been hunting me almost eight years after all, isn't it?"

I shrug, innocently. "Can't blame a guy for being curious. But suppose I were after this wine. What would it take for a glass or two to go missing? One wouldn't want to slight their seniors unnecessarily."

The monk chuckles. "You know that a sip is probably worth more than both of our lives, right?"

"I'm certain I have no idea what you mean." I tell him. "We were having an academic discussion about hypothetical events. I believe that's called philosophy."

"Well, in the interests of philosophy." Kuo replaced the lid on the peach wine. "An assistant could be trained for a couple of eggs, I imagine."

I look at him incredulously. "You want to make beer from bug eggs?" Dropping the act.

Brother Kuo shrugs. "Technically, it's called grog. As sailors over three ages of humanity have proven, you can make alcohol out of literally anything, so long as you have yeast. Usually though, the bug, or egg, is not used in the actual preparation of the drink, it is a pickled flavoring added later, like the wood types used in barrel matured drinks."

Twisting my neck until it cracks on its own, I shudder and nod. "Alright then. Two silk-dragon eggs?"

Kuo scoffs. "Two would hardly be enough to properly take advantage of this opportunity. Five."

"The eggs are almost as large as a chickens," I counter. "Unless you're planning to ruin several types of drinks, two will do."

"I do in fact plan just that." Kuo remarked. "Four eggs."

"Three eggs." I shoot back, shaking my head. "Bai Wen checks on them regularly. He'll ask where they went."

"In a good batch, one in ten eggs will turn white and die." Kuo insists. "In a bad batch, more than half of them fail to become a fertilized black. Four."

"Four," I agree to his reasoning "but for two shots of divine peach wine. An assistant requires much careful training."

The Monk hummed for a moment, closing his eyes and twisting his hands in consideration. "Done."

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

Stealing my eggs turned out to be easier than I expected. Four of the eggs had turned white and another seven black, which made removing a bunch of them from the snow important. The ones closest to the dead white eggs were burning a much brighter gold than the others, which brought to mind the question of whether the eggs had died naturally from non-fertilization, or if the fetal worms were learning to predate on their fellows already.

I took two of those six brighter eggs, and one of each dead and successful eggs to brother Kuo. His smile nearly split his face, and he quickly spooned out two shots worth into another celadon jar, this one just large enough to hold the two shot glass portions.

"I would suggest drinking that during one of your rituals, or in a secluded chi shielded room." Kuo told me, as he carefully went through his inventory, selecting which drink to ferment the eggs in. As soon as he was done, I was quickly ushered out of the distillery, the door closed in my face.

Shaking my head, I stop off at the greenhouse and then head for the waterfalls. Lei Kung, the lunatic, uses the lower end of the waterfall to cultivate. Sitting atop the pool the icy water empties into, he cultivates the force of the falls pounding on his head and shoulders. The constantly moving water brings him a steady flow of chi above what anything short of a landscape based chi gathering formation could offer. Normal people on the other hand, sit beside the icy flow and cultivate on it's banks.

I access my root chakra core and manipulate the lakebed where the water empties into a platform two feet below the surface. Flattening it out, I carve the symbol for Svadhisthana into it and wade out into the current. Taking out six prepared barrier flags, I plant them in divots prepared for them and smile as they begin to rapidly syphon the chi flowing through the water, spinning it up to a nice torrent around a foot above the actual water. There is no Yoga this time. No special minerals or sacred oils. Just me, the waterfall, some rune work and a glass of INCREDIBLY potent peach wine.

[img: media/3550a2_0567a18236ff4301aa2859f45b6e964f~mv2_d_1461_1461_s_ ]

Anchoring myself to the rock with a small application of earth chi, I uncapped the bottle and took a sip. The moment the wine hit my tongue, my eyes bulged and chi began to flood my body like a torrent. I quickly recap it and place the jar on my head to steady myself. Chi billows off of me like a bonfire to the point it's even pushing away the thunderous power of the falls, but thankfully the flags capture it, spinning up all of the excess and waste like any other power. Thank god for runes.

Closing my eyes, I sink rapidly into meditation and begin to cultivate.

Chi condenses rapidly this time, ignoring my usual difficulty with Yin aspects entirely and condensing as though it were simply awaiting my permission. The Sacral chakra rapidly fills with liquid power holding the identity of Svadhisthana and when it's full, I begin applying pressure to it, willing it to condense around the purest form of synergy I can conceive of. My other three cores aid the effort and with a THUMP! the power collapses to 1/1000'th its previous liquid size.

There's still more chi though. A LOT of it.

Taking the hint, I rapidly refill the chakra with liquid chi. Like the other three, it refills to the point about half the space is filled with liquid power. Anything more, automatically condensed into solid power layering the core again and again like a pearl. I continue until the power billowing out of my guts finally eases, then start on the loose spiritual power whipping around me like snakes in a tornado.

Power flows into me like a river, washing impurities from my flesh, bones and organs until it fills my blood. Shifting my focus slightly outward I direct the corruption to pool as a worm in my arteries and then leak out through my abdominal aorta and into my stomach. Vomiting it later will be horrible, but better that than dealing with intense blood poisoning. Not for the first time, I offer a prayer of thanks to Yu-Ti for the medical lessons he dumped on me.

When the water core is almost the size of my fire core I try switching the end point of the draw to Anahata, the Heart chakra. It… works. After a fashion. The water power being gathered from the current flows straight down through the bottom of the air chakra and past my fire chakra, hissing a bit, before pooling into the Sacral water chakra. The leftover energy from drinking the wine though settles in easily. Grimacing slightly, I split my focus, putting mental effort into separating the power out into two different streams (three really) which flow into the appropriate chakras.

When the wine chi in my guts and flags finally taps out, my heart chakra only is 80% full, but that's still quite a lot.

Stumbling to my feet, I take the jar off my head and quickly make my way out of the water and back to my greenhouse. When I'm there, I almost immediately vomit into one of my pots. The thick black liquid feels thicker than vomit and almost cohesive, like a slug. It bubbles and writhes with halfhearted attempts to form tentacles looping up almost a foot, but when I'm done I feel miles better. I haven't even done body infusion, but already I feel easily twice as strong, despite adding less than a third the raw energy I already possess.

Fucking hell this shit is powerful. I look at the wine as though it were a genies lamp. Endless power and riches held within, but a dangerous, deadly waste if handled wrong. I didn't even drink a quarter of it, and it was enough to build an entire mid sized core in an aspect of myself I'm not suited to. Almost as though the liquid itself were a solid core in motion.

That… That is power. I can much more easily understand how a single peach could grant immortality now.

I can also understand why Tomoi and the Hand want it. Fucking hell, if they got their hands on that tree… world conquest is a realistic goal for Alexandra, not merely a ridiculous comic book plot. I… may have made a very bad decision, by working with those clowns. Shaking my head, I console myself by reaffirming that the chains on my soul don't actually bind me to helping THEM. Just Elektra. And any other Black Skye I happen to discover.

I transfer the corruption to a series of glass jars, simply for preservation purposes, and take stock. It's the middle of the night now. Not surprising, given we're in the depths of winter, but I had started somewhere before lunch time. Making a decision, I gather up a dozen flags and glide down to the civilian quarter. Dropping down the nearest well, I enter the cistern and set up the flags where I had previously tried to open Anja, the Third Eye. Sitting down in lotus position, I take another drink of wine.

This time, I'm ready for the explosion of power. I start cultivating it immediately, sending it to the third eye and heart in equal measure. The moment the pair of them are full, I compress the heart chakra. All four cores pulse as the fifth forms and I move onto the Third Eye. It compresses as well and I direct the rest of the chi in my body and what has blown out of my body while I stopped focusing on absorbing it.

The cores this time are smaller and different sizes when I run out of power, but I'm fine with that. The point isn't to make them all a uniform size. Not yet. For now, I just have to use my elixir as fast as possible, to advance as far as possible before anyone discovers what I've done.

Leaving the flags where they are, I pop out of the well like a weasel and return to my greenhouse. This time I gather all of the flags I have remaining. Technically, I should be using 1000 flags for this. The symbol for the Crown chakra has 1000 points and symbols; 20 rings of 50 petals, each with their own symbol around the central device. I probably don't have time for that. I need to get to the highest point of K'un Lun and chug the last shot of wine and just hope what I've set up is enough to handle the power.

Thankfully, the highest point in heaven ISN'T Yu-Ti's tower. That would be incredibly inconvenient. It is however a snow capped peak in clear view of the winged pillar. When I alight on the summit, it's noon once more and I use the power of water and wind to form the snow into a small amphitheater. Tall enough to hide myself and the 41 flags I have with me, but open to the heavens. I set the flags around me in prime numbers. 2, 3, 5, 7, 11 and 13 with myself at the center, the singular. This a more european conception of numbers of power than the asian I've been working with for the last 7 or 8 years but I've found it works for seal work more often than not. Probably something to do with Numerology which I'll learn when I hit Avalon, but for now it'll have to do.

Uncapping the jar I take a small sip and begin cultivating. Things start out fine and the excess power is caught by the first two flags. They shudder and shake as though blown around in a strong wind, but I'm already recondensing that power into my crown chakra. Saharava fills with liquid rapidly, far easier than the third eye and heart chakra, and the six extant synergy cores collapse it into a seventh core almost as a formality.

The moment that happens, power explodes out of me in a perfectly literal fashion, forming a pillar of light as it's caught in my runic barrier of chi collecting flags. They shudder and rattle as if in a strong wind as each one fills with a ring of light before overflowing and unleashing their excess on the next ring. Above me, the clear blue sky seems to flip from day to night in an expanding iris of stars as there's a qualitative change in the chi flowing through my body.

Chakra cultivation is dependent on the environment. More ambient power means more personal power. With the opening of the last chakra, as much chi as I can physically handle is trying to cycle itself up and down my spine. All seven cores churn like paddle wheels and my meridians widen as liquid chi roars through them, overflowing like irrigation canals in a hurricane. The energy in my cells rapidly increases until suddenly it's as though a black hole enters the outer orbit of my little constellation. The yawning maw of infinite hunger progresses steadily, darkening ring after ring, consuming all light and letting nothing escape until it reaches me. I stare up into the emptiness with wide unseeing eyes, or perhaps eyes that see so much I simply can't process it.

Then the darkness slaps me, full across the cheek and everything stops.

Last edited: Sep 1, 2020

Book 1: Chapter 6: Downhill

Dragon advances 6

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

January 1994

I wake up on a couch staring up at a vaguely familiar tiled ceiling. The room is cold, but not uncomfortable and my body feels like I've been pummeled all over by a mob.

"When Kuā Fù swallowed the sun, no river could quench his thirst and for his folly an empire died." Yu-Ti's voice sounded off to the side. "While this story is an allegory, the real Kuā Fù was a man much like yourself. He too combined multiple paths to heaven and as he tried to ascend to immortality, his death created the great Gobi desert. You came within moments of death last week as the chi flooding your body overran your ability to fuse with it. Even I required more than a day to perform that feat. When you are ready to move once more, I suggest thanking Bai Wen profusely. "

"I'm not dead then?" I ask him, croakily. Summoning an orb of water, I drink it before continuing. "How long was I out, Jade Lord?"

Yu-Ti chuckles. "No, you are still very much among the living, though it cost you most of the energy you gained. As for how long, you have been asleep for a week as your cores settled and your body healed the abuse. Congratulations by the way; one medium sized high grade core is enough of an accomplishment. Seven harmonic high grade small cores is a feat worthy of crafting a Jade Path Pilon. Perhaps in a century or two, you will even be one of our legends. Go now, nephew, there are others who await you."

I opened my mouth to ask what he meant by nephew, but by then, he was already gone. That only leaves me with the dictionary and a bit of context. In Chinese there are four different words that, in english, translate to nephew, and three of them sound the same, if you're not asian. It's an issue of which syllable is emphasized, and in this case, I'm pretty sure its a familiar honorific denoting affection rather than an acknowledgement of family ties. Sort of like saying junior or senior in the diminutive.

This is good for me because it either means he doesn't know about the peach wine, or finds my acquisition and use of it to be cute. Not the best place to be, but I'll take it.

Regardless of that, I need to see for myself how things stand. Closing my eyes, I start the meditative breathing exercise and sink into the awareness of self granted by first awakening. Seven stars of light now illuminate my inner self, each the size of a cherry pit, surrounded by about a grape's worth of liquid chi. The liquid of all seven spin slowly like a paddlewheel mill, sending chi up and down my body. There don't seem to be any eddies or major blockages, which is good.

The draw from this system is roughly 12 times as strong as flow coming off of my own soul, but this seems to be just the passive "sleeping" speed of my chakra's. I'll have to test how far this goes while active later, but my normal chinese cultivation draw started at twice as strong as my soul and eventually built to 20 times what I could do with mere focus in heaven. A few hundred times, when syphoning from prebuilt energy spirals.

There are some interesting differences, though… Previously, all of my meridians connected through my solar plexus core. It was the first one I made, and consistent with chinese writing on the subject, that was the only one the network would connect through. Now though, all 20 meridians flow in and out of each of the seven cores, not just the original core and 2 junction meridians of the Prime Vessel. Second, where my chi had originally been a sort of clear golden light consistent with my Yang focus, it was now a more… honeyd color and consistency. Closer to the lantern under the skin color displayed in Iron Fist's MCU TV show. Or the Soul Stone.

This was likely the qualitative change I felt earlier, before everything spiraled out of control and the black hole, Bai Wen apparently, saved me from exploding. I'll have to run some tests, but I think my chi is probably more potent now than it would otherwise normally be for my level of compression, infusion and capacity.

But I've stalled long enough. Time to face the dragon.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

Bai Wen, it turns out, is in my greenhouse, rather than any of his normal haunts. While I was out, two of the black eggs hatched and he's playing with the result.

They're still worms, but these buggers have a noticeable scale pattern on their white squishy frames. Walking over to the Fist and his pets, I take one of them and finger the scales. They feel like hard plastic; just a little flexibility with sharp edges. They'll probably end up reflective too. I give the man his worm back and begin gathering leaves.

Thankfully, this is a greenhouse and we're in stock; else the worms would starve and Bai Wen would steal their fire.

"I understand I have you to thank for my continued mortality." I tell him as I work.

He grunts. "The Undying One demanded your presence." He said shortly. "He has been most displeased to be kept waiting."

I look over at him with a raised brow. "He's an immortal dragon. Who as I understand it has the expected hibernation habits. Why would he even notice the wait?"

"Idiot." The Iron Fist grumbles. "When he is awake, Shuo Lao has the same frame of reference as us. He is not a mountain, to blink an eye and miss the entire life of a mortal, he is a predator, who strikes between the beats of his prey's heart." He shakes his head. "This is irrelevant, The undying one has gained a taste for your moths, and after your foolishness, you as well. He wants to taste more of your chi and the chi of these… silk-drakes, as you call them."

I pause. Now isn't that worrying. I HAD wanted the dragons attention, but only after a fashion. Only enough to walk in, get some cast off scales or antlers if he did that, and then never return. The great snake having a 'taste for my chi' though, didn't factor into that. Anywhere. At all.

But… maybe it could? If it turned out I went suicidal Maito Gai every time I charged up the seven gates, er chakra,.. It might be good to have a hungry dragon nearby to bring me back down to ground state, as it were. Though, I'd feel much more comfortable if that hungry dragon worked through his intermediary. I've no intention of being literally eaten. That is a trope I fully intend to avoid.

"He will need to leave me several females and at least one male then." I warn. "You can't feed him all of them, no matter how much he cries for treats. Not until there is enough of them his appetite won't impact production."

"Do not treat the Undying One as though he were a pet." Bai Wen snaps.

I return to his side and begin feeding the worms leaves. "I've seen little pet shop of horrors, I have no intention of being fed to Shuo Lao." I tell him. "So if you don't want me to be rude, you'd better explain that 'he wants to eat your chi' thing to me carefully. Is it going to be like when you saved me, and he just vacuum's up all the chi coming off me? Or is the winged serpent going to try and bite my arm off in his eagerness?"

"Shuo Lao is not a quetzalcoatl," The Iron Fist responds waspishly. "He does not require daily sacrifices of hearts to sate his bloodlust. The Undying one is a Yinglong, wise as he is fierce! The most patient of the sapient wyrms!"

I met Bai Wen's eyes. "Sapient? Not merely sentient?"

He narrows his eyes, considering whether or not to be insulted, and scoffs. "Of course."

I hum. "If you can guarantee my safety, then I won't resist." I stop feeding the worms a steady stream of leaves and instead take them both from Bai Wen and put them in the basket. Attaching the latched top of the wicker device, I sling it over my shoulder and turn on him. "Well?"

He scowls. "I do not want you here. You are disruptive, heretical and nearly destroyed all of Heaven with your foolishness. Were I to have my way, you would be fed to Shuo Lao in your entirety, or granted your wish of exile the moment the portal opened… But my partner and my lord both have their demands. So yes, I will ensure your continued mortality. On my cultivation, I swear it. Until such a time as either of them come to their senses."

You poor boy, I think absently. This is the MCU, and you die when a plane falls on top of you, like the eastern witch in the wizard or Oz. "Times a wastin, then. Forward!"

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%&^*()_+

[img: . ]

Shuo-Lao's cave is a fairly well known location. Far from being secret, it's protected primarily by the fact that the dragon inside will literally eat your immortal soul if you irritate him. No wheel of reincarnation, no respawn at the gate of heaven, no nirvana across the bridge of destiny. Just a spark of plasma in the raging bonfire that is a dragon's soul. You'd think a group of people with endless respawns available whose stated mission is to escape the eternal cycle of reincarnation would be less afraid of true death, but nope! If anything, they're MORE afraid of it.

There's probably some interesting going on there psychology, but that's not really my field. One of the things I had to admit for the third eye chakra was that two elective courses and reading a few textbooks does not make me a psychologist.

Well, maybe a really amature one.

Regardless, the big question I had as we approached Shuo Lao's cave was just what sort of dragon he was. Bai Wen had said Yinglong, but I don't really know what that means beyond the translation. The MCU hadn't said, beyond a pair of burning red eyes and Marvel comics had given no less than three completely different images. One of a Wyvern, one of a lindwyrm and another that looked like some kid had gotten ahold of a clay sculpture of a european dragon.

What came out of the cave was… a bit different than I expected, but probably something I should have guessed. The Tattoo is a bit of a giveaway, really. Shuo Lao was a eastern dragon, It had a long bronze scaled snakelike body with 8… comparatively tiny… limbs about the size of my own leg ending in four massive claws each. Yinglong; directly translated; means, a responsive dragon. Transliterated; it means Rain-god Dragon. Between the forward most set and second set of legs, were a pair of massive web and finger wings with only small shoulder attachments. The webbing between each of the 'fingers' sparkled with tiny scales, making the wings look like a cross between a bat and a butterfly.

With a different head, it could have been a winged serpent; but that face cemented it as an Asian dragon. The face was more dog than lizard, with a rumpled snout, big nose and clearly defined lips. The eyes (though they did glow red) were very human; as were the brows above them and the beard and hair that swept out around the aqualine fins around the head. Finally, the Antlers. Though there were branches and a great deal of curvature to them, they were more the wavy Kudu horns of african gazelle than deer antlers.

All this, I got to see as Shou Lao coiled around the pair of us like a gigantic snake, its four foot thick, hundred and twenty foot long body walling us in three layers deep, before twisting around the last 10 feet to look at us like a torso. I made to jump away almost the instant the Undying one burst out of the cavern, but Bai Wen grabbed my shoulder and held me in place.

"Bow," he hissed, as the great serpent leaned in close to look at the pair of us. Putting actions to words, he bent 45 degrees at the waist and neck, placing a closed fist against an open palm.

I just stared at the dragons face, marveling at the oddity inherent in asian dragons. The almost human quality it gave off for no easily definable reason. Bai Wen nearly panics as Shuo Lao snorts a cloud of smoke at the pair of us and speaks aloud.

The words are like nails on a chalkboard crossed with a rockfall, but in my head english words reverberate. "A Dragon, never bows."

I can't help it, I laugh. "Hungry?" I ask him in english and he nods.

"Provide the tribute, hatchling."

Bai Wen straightened, giving me the stink eye, and I opened up my basket. The worms inside had gobbled up most of the vegetation during our short walk and moved from being about the size of hotdogs to the thickness of pythons and as long as my arm. I tossed one of them up and Shuo Lao blasted it with fire midair before snapping it up and breathing the fireball back in through its nostrils. The second one disappeared much the same way.

"Not as satisfying as a hunt," the dragon rumbled "but better than the usual offerings." He looks down at us. "You please me, Hatchlings. Speak your prey."

Speak… your prey? Maybe, make your request? Not sure, but it makes the most sense.

"Do you shed your antlers?" I ask him, still in english. "I was hoping to make some weapons. A sword, a bow, some daggers. For the glory of K'un-Lun and the Iron fist, of course…"

Shuo-Lao snakes his face forward to examine me with his very human red eyes. Sniffing, he snorts smoke again. "A Dragon Advances. Stop running, little hatchling. Step boldly and sharpen your claws."

Bold, I can do. "If you don't mind," I reply, "that's why I'm here."

The serpent growls, slowly drawing back, and it takes me a moment to realize he's humming. "Meditate and Groom my scales. You may have the sheddings." He rumbles finally. With that pronouncement, the dragon's body ripples and he uncoils like a tape measure. In moments, he's spread across the length of the valley, sunning himself and pulling in an ungodly amount of chi.

As the wind begins to pick up rapidly and stones start to levitate on their own, the Iron Fist rounds on me. "Are you mad, Ang-Moh? I just promised to protect you and you immediately shame yourself in front of the Undying one? Are you TRYING to die? Are you TRYING to leave heaven vulnerable to the whims of The Hand?"

I shake my head, shouting over the now howling winds. "Not sure about you, but the big guys seem to like it!" Bai Wen growled loud enough to be heard over the storm winds and I grin. "Come on, let's groom a dragon! Those scales won't gather themselves!"

I could tell just looking at him that the Iron Fist was frustrated and wanted to hit me, but even he could see what an opportunity this was. So, we got to work.

Cultivating near Shuo Lao was, in a word, intense. His titanic spiritual presence drew in chi from almost a mile away and saturated the air where we were working. Opening up my seven chakras to spin like turbines and process that power led to me literally bleeding liquid chi out of my fingers as I had atop the peak. In this though, Shuo Lao came to the rescue. The extreme suction of his soul worked the same way trying to breathe in high winds does, stealing your breath away and forcing you to work for it. It didn't stop the overload, but it certainly tuned the whole process down to something I could begin to work on controlling.

On top of that, the grand wyrm drank in the liquid spiritual power I spilled as though it were moisturizer on cracked dry skin. Drinking it in made him start to vibrate, and I'd swear he was purring.

For my part, the state of being helped a lot with the one step I hadn't yet taken care of. Body infusion. Or Iron Body Preparation, as the library called it. This is different from the Iron Body technique in two ways. First, once completed, it's always on. Second… well, remember how I said cultivators are masochists? Most of the methods of preparing for special body constitutions involve using full body harm of some manner followed by overflowing your core to heal the damage all at once. This will gift the masoc… cultivator,.. with a measure of automatic damage protection, an extra layer of specific damage protection, occasionally a bonus to certain mystical affinities, and most importantly, allow you to restore your age to that of your prime, should you have gotten old learning how to cultivate in the first place.

The ordeal ends when your remaining chi returns to your core, further condensed from being a "copper core" to "Iron". Depending on how much suffering you willingly undergo, the increase in your chi capacity can be anywhere from 50% to 10 times what you had previously.

One of the crazier methods involved allowing yourself to be bitten by spirit beasts with acidic venom repeatedly while meditating. Because it wasn't immediately deadly, especially if you were building power, it was considered an acceptable method of toughening. The only upside to this sort of self torture is that the process would grant you troll-ish regeneration. No joke, so long as you had chi and your core didn't explode, you could regrow limbs or even your head without technically dying.

The OTHER primary method, as opposed to self harm, is the long methodical task of drawing strings of energy out of your core and meridians and tying them off to the nucleus of each individual cell. This method gives a low level version of every torturous special body constitution method out there, but as you can imagine, takes something like a decade for even a genius to pursue. Several centuries for most who follow it.

I tried to follow it at first, but even for me, that got to be mind numbing. Particularly when after a year I'd only gotten a few layers of cells deep around my meridians. I was GOING to simply continue plugging away at it for the remainder of my time here and after I left K'un-Lun; but with the damage I took opening my seventh chakra, and the assistance of Shuo-Lao here, I think maybe I can do something akin to an Iron Body focused around the ability to hold, channel and recover large amounts of energy.

Which leads us back to the dragon in the room. Or valley as it were.

Dragons, or at least this one, have scales somewhere between fish and lizards, rather than snakes. The difference, beyond what layer of the skin the plates grow out of, is mostly an issue of how they layer and how they molt. Lizards grow large plates that sit half under the skin and half fused on top of the next subdermal plate. These plates only cover places which don't need flexibility and flake off the top layers of each scale, as opposed to dropping the scale itself. With a fish, the scales grow from the lower dermal layer of the skin, but 90-95% of the scale is exposed to the water and just falls off when damaged. Snakes, the scales don't layer, and are fused to the skin across their entire length. When they come off, it's like peeling off a sunburn.

Shuo-Lao's scales were completely on top of the skin, but only half of their length was fused to the skin. Should one grow old and fall off, there wouldn't be a hole in the armor due to the long overlap, but they did fall off like fish scale, rather than flaking or peeling like a lizard or a snake. Those dead scales which were ready to fall off were a dull tarnished bronze color as opposed to the gleaming pates of the rest of the body. That was really useful for finding them, though each of these scales was about the size of my hand, did help. I have a pretty big hand.

Similarly were the scales on the wings. These were about the size of my thumbnail and just about as thick. There were a lot more of these ready to fall off than the larger scales, but I suppose that was to be expected. They weren't nearly as important to Shuo Lao's natural protections, and there were a hell of a lot more of them.

The task of actually grooming Shuo-Lao was an interesting one. In some cases, the scales more or less came off at a light tug. In others, the 'dead' armor needed to be carefully peeled away. On top of that, was the issue of cleaning the dragon himself. He wasn't about to simply let us take his scales, much of the surrounding area had to be cleaned as well, or he'd snap at us. It took a bit of doing, but eventually I managed to work out a synergy between chi from my throat, sacral and solar plexus chakra that created a hot water massage. The rapid vibrations of the hot water cleaned even stubborn grime off the 'living' scales, as well as loosening the 'dead' ones without causing pain or irritation.

Next we went over his hair. After washing it in much the same way, I had to create what I would have called a relatively coarse brush to carefully card and untangle the dragon's mane. The hairs were an interesting material all their own. They bent, hung and flowed about as easily as normal hair when on the dragon, but the moment any of them came loose, they became as stiff as steel wire. They were about as thick too, a full millimeter in diameter instead of the tenth to hundredth of a millimeter of human or animal hair. Apart from the usual issues untangling hair, this property provided its own challenges to deal with. It did come with the bonus of knowing which hairs we could take before we even really got around to collecting them, but it very much complicated the untangling process.

In the end, we ended up using our chi to force the hairs straight, and then removed them as we combed and cleaned the normal hair. For me, this involved empowering my hands with the iron fist technique and literally pulling them straight, like pulling metal wire through a grommet like back at the forge. For Bai Wen, we discovered it was as simple as applying dragon-chi to the hair. Light up those fists of his and the hair goes limp and can be pulled out easy peasy.

Well, comparatively, at least. It still needed to be untangled from the rats nest the dragon's hair had become in various places over the decades between grooming himself and burning the refuse.

What disappointed me though, was that there were no loose or broken claws or antlers to be had. Those were burned almost immediately upon being discarded, their chi reclaimed and substance reduced to ash.

In the end, Bai Wen and I walked away that night with twenty two large scales, 174 small ones and 318 hairs, forcibly straightened and then tied into a bundle. Bai Wen was nigh apoplectic when the snake told us if we weren't careful, he may come to expect grooming from "the hatchlings". Even demand it.

I laughed my head off at that. Bai Wen threatened to cut out my tongue.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

January - June 1994

Almost as soon as I returned to my workshop with the dragon materials, the big heads decided to stick their noses in. Li Hua, Yu Ti and a pair of elders from each of their respective temples walked in and began examining my haul. The problem with having special materials, it seemed, was that people expected you to do something special with them. I had fully intended to simply cut and weave them into weapons and armor for myself and the Iron Fists. But no,.. that was too simple. The Dragon had gifted me some of his own flesh and that demanded I take the next step in the journey of magical builders. Forging sacred artifacts.

Not that I disapproved, far from it, I'm happy to learn… I just wish they'd taught me earlier rather than holding back until they could butt in on something important.

The process of creating sacred artifacts is deceptively easy. Emphasis on the deceptive part. You don't need runescript, magic words or gestures, auspicious moments, materials or ritual; all you need to do is layer and compress chi into an object until it forms an artificial soul. Sounds simple right? Even after you get over freaking out about forming a soul and get down to the mechanics it's still deceptively straightforward. Just as you form a core by focusing on a Dao and compressing your chi, so goes forming a new soul… you just do it outside your body; in the object instead of yourself, and compress the chi throughout its entire length and breadth of the object rather than a central point.

The study of how this occurs in nature was the original discovery of cultivation after all. The process can be done by simply using the object in a consistent manner for a century or two in a spiritually dense environment. Assuming the object doesn't break down from age or misuse, you find yourself with a lot of mundane sacred artifacts, living buildings and Genus Loci such as the 7 heavens… and sacred trees. Doing it deliberately usually takes a couple of years, and the thing you need the sacred artifact to do, of course, informs the choice of Dao. Figure around a decade of the craftsman channeling chi through the object, meditating on the object's purpose and using it in the intended manner. This is practically a religious experience for sword artists and a central part of many of their paths.

The process can be accelerated however by treating the object like one would a path advancement and compressing liquid or even solid chi into the object as you build its purpose.

The advantage to forcing it is of course obvious, in that you get magic items fast. 9 months for a beginner, I'm told, but one month with the hands and resources of someone like Yu-Ti. I find the nine months timeline suspicious, but that's a matter for later investigation. The "disadvantage" of building the artifact soul rapidly like this is that despite having a soul, the artifact will not 'come alive', and will simply remain an object. Albeit an object with cool magical powers.

Personally though, I'm having a hard time counting that as a disadvantage. One one hand, a talking gun or sword that can move to aid its wielder in battle is fucking cool! It's most young boys' dreams! On the other, what happens if you lose its loyalty or for some alien reason it comes to hate people? Mythology around the world, but especially in east asia, is full of evil magical objects that hate their owners and leave a trail of devastation behind them.

I thought these were allegories for stupid people being unable to handle new things. In my own world, they probably are! Not here though; cursed artifacts are definitely a thing, and parasitic cursed artifacts the most common evolution of sacred artifacts made or traveling outside of heaven.

That in particular is the biggest drawback of artificial souls. An artificial soul can draw in chi, use it and potentially act autonomously… but if it was not formerly a living being, or built to be part of one; then for whatever reason, it cannot generate chi on its own. On a ley line, In heaven or in the hands of a cultivator, who cares? It probably won't take more than you can handle unless you're trying to star in your own anime. Away from a source of potent spiritual energy though… heheh… it may very well drain the user until they die and then attempt to steal their soul.

Successful soul stealing is uncommon, but if successful you get a win/loss scenario. On one hand, the artifact no longer needs to be parasitic! The Victim is an immortal magical artifact! Cool, right? On the other hand, 'I have no mouth, but I must scream'. You get a haunting, and that's no fun for anyone.

Except maybe a transhumanist; but I think even they might regret it after a little while.

Back to my project though.

Working the scales into something other than cool looking animal parts took some time. Chi enhanced epoxies and resins don't work very well with the Iron Fists chi, turning some of the more needed chemicals to ash, which mucked up the rest of the mixture. Also, even dead, the scales are tougher than nails as materials go. Tougher, because all of the nails, needles and drill bits I've been able to develop through use of metal chi break against the scales. This, despite them still being flexible and elastic.

… or at least, flexible under my level of strength. That's something I'm having trouble calculating these days.

Regardless; after a bit of experimenting, we found that the scales, much like the hair, become softer and flexible when exposed to the Dragon Chi of the Iron Fist. This of course meant that in addition to figuring out what we wanted to do with the material, either Bai Wen or Shuo-Lao had to be personally on hand in order for me to shape it for him. The dragon himself seemed smug about that fact, and abused it to set up a sort of chi-trading bargain with me. I cultivated in or near his cave with my seven chakra spinning, and let him nibble on my apparently extra tasty power. In return, he or Bai Wen would help me forge the part, build the artificial soul and he personally would teach me more about dragons and dragonfire.

The first thing I made was a set of armor inserts for the Iron Fists's yellow shirt. It was now double quilted drake-silk with dragon hair embroidery and slightly overlapping scale mail armor in between. Bai Wen can still be crushed by enough weight or impact, but neither blade nor bullet is going to pierce any of the son of a bitch's vital organs. The next item was a set of pants that did the same thing. Both of those were physically completed in the first two weeks after figuring out we couldn't shape them with any of my tools.

The next set of items were plate gauntlets and boots. All four of these packed hidden blades made of shaved dragon scale which could be deployed at a moments notice should the need arise and added another level of danger to the Iron Fists kickboxing style before he decided to light up. And if he did, well, the materials became a lot softer and channeled the dragons chi even better than his flesh did, so not only was no range of motion lost, but his blows became even more powerful as a result.

Shaping the new souls was… a bit harder. We both knew we wanted them to identify as armor for the protection of the Iron Fist line, but both The Fist and The Dragon were pretty bad at crafting souls on account of their unfortunate tendency to eat them when encountered. That and I personally had trouble manupilating dragonfire. For obvious reasons.

The real coup for me came when, after a lesson with the dragon, I found a broken claw embedded in a molten section of cave wall. Initially, the fused glassy rock around the prize refused to respond to my normal attempts to shift it with Earth chi or even heat up when hit with fire chi; but after a few trials, I shattered it with a synergy between my throat and root chakras, causing the super durable dragonfire hardened stone to vibrate into a thousand obsidian shards. It was in that way I came away with one of the deadliest weapons in heaven.

Or at least… this heaven.

In the TV show, the Hand required industrial diamond tipped saw blades to slowly chip their way through dragon bone that had lain dormant for thousands of years, so this claw remained wickedly sharp despite it's ordeal. Poking myself with it instantly drew blood despite my now immense durability and almost before I could draw my finger away, the claw had consumed almost all of the chi in my hand.

I looked at the fragment in wonder, as it glowed a soft molten gold and grew hot in my palm. It was… regrowing. Seriously, the freshly broken claw was itself regrowing in front of me as it burnt my stolen power. I watched it's snail slow but still visible pace as the nail extended from one inch with just a small nub of red in it, to almost two inches in length, almost afraid of the implications. If I fed this thing enough power, could I build my own Dragon? Just how bad an idea was it that I was even considering such a thing? And as letting it drain me seems all sorts of dumb, how much of a monster would I be for feeding it so many souls that it might recover? Because in the end, that's what chi was, and if it took from the living that quickly I would almost certainly snuff out the dead more often than I could pull it out on time.

Of course… that was more or less the point. Back pocket Nuke, remember? I'd come for a soul killing blade… and now I had one.

I ended up turning the claw into a bracelet, capping the end of the claw off with silver and a cheap leather thong. I added a few carved stones and other animal bones to it, to disguise the deadly artifact. It seemed to have worked too, which was a relief. The claw didn't seem to absorb chi from the air, my presence or even liquid chi dripped on it, but boy was it voracious when exposed to chi laden blood. Or perhaps just blood in general, given how it apparently worked for The Hand's leaders and champions.

Nobody noticed I was now wearing it though.

This sort of camouflage probably wouldn't hold up around the likes of Yu-Ti, or The Thunderer, but either Bai Wen didn't notice, or wasn't inclined to say anything. Which, given the Iron Fist was as prone to verbal vomit as I was, is saying something.

Shuo-lao noticed though, and he seemed amused. Specifically, I got the impression off of him that he was looking at a toddler, clumsily copying his father. This got me more 'words of wisdom' from the old snake.

The Dragon Advances. He does not bow, cower or retreat. He plunges ever forward toward his goals, twisting and turning perhaps, but never stopping. Never showing weakness, for weakness is death.

The Dragon Consumes. Destruction is not done for its own sake. Gathering and hoarding are virtues. Everything is kindling to be carefully tended that the fire may steadily grow within you.

The Dragon Conquers. Flames spread, and so too a dragon must ever strive to acquire more, until it has everything. Not merely regardless of opposition, but specifically because there is opposition.

The Dragon Dances. Motion is life. A spirit at rest does not grow, nor does a body or a flame. Coals may smolder far longer than the fire that made them, but only when stirred and fed are they truly alive.

The Dragon Endures. Everything burns. All attacks can be weathered when the attacks and attackers themselves can be used as fuel. And even if the attacks are too much, the greater the pile of ashes, the longer the fire can survive without sustenance, to reignite when fed once more.

Each of these lessons corresponded to the dragon's own dao. Or perhaps their chakra system. When Shuo Lao was explaining each of them, the winds generated by his chi gathering would shift and change. It was only after I remembered my trip with Fitz to the Indian heaven that I had the insight to turn my third eye chakra on him.

The third eye is an… interesting chakra. Up until I used it, I'd never really SEEN chi. Everything was a fuzzy sort of sixth sense, like closing your eyes and guessing the position of the sun or a fire from the warmth hitting your skin. The amber glow everything gave off while channeling the power barely even scratches the surface. SEEING chi through the third eye revealed an entirely new landscape, like an acid trip. An MC Escher painting, or Benedict Cumberbatch's awakening as doctor strange would probably be better comparisons, but even they don't really describe it well.

The entire valley is covered in a three dimensional web of energy that, while it interacts with the physical matter, doesn't really seem to have much to do with it. From high in the air, to deep in the earth, veins flow and pulse, meeting at junctions where the energy pools and swirls before moving on. All of it seems to move with an uneven rhythm, moving together as though part of the same system. Or maybe… the blood flow of a singular being.

Closer, or perhaps more accurately on a smaller scale, were the elements. Each thing the chi flowed through altered the elemental composition of the energy subtly, influencing its behavior and forming the metaphysical landscape, related but in opposition to the physical one. Watching that energy gave an impression of a distinct shape. Scratching that shape out in the dirt outside Shuo Lao's cave saw me writing in the Formation Barrier rune script. Further, any chi that flowed over the marks I had scratched into the dirt with my finger and chi would change to match the element my finger painting had described.

Looking back to the dragon himself allowed me to see all of these things again, superimposed over the serpent himself. Only Shuo-Lao, the truth of him, was not limited to his body. His chi was a gigantic bonfire complete with nine individual firestorms along his length. Dragons, unless I am mistaken, seem to have nine chakra, but only 12 meridians. 8 for the organs, and 4 for power storage.

This is my breakthrough.

I pull out the claw, and look between it, the basket I've been using to transport Shuo Lao's sheddings and silkworm treats and Shuo Lao himself. All this time I've been mucking around trying to feel out the elements and all I had to do was open my third eye chakra. It's almost painful to contemplate.

Scratching out a series of symbols into the dirt, I watch as the chi begins to pool and spiral. It's resisting Shuo-Lao's own cultivation and trying to ignite, but there's a problem. The symbols I've drawn are two dimensional. The shapes I'm seeing in the chi have three dimensions. At least. Scraping up a handful of mud, and mindful of the great serpent himself watching me intently, I use earth and water chi to shape the mud into what I'm seeing in the living flame. Then, I trade the water chi for my own fire, leaving behind only enough earth chi to hold the shape I want suspended.

Sparks.

"The Dragon, Advances." I startle as the Dragons growl sounds in my ear and drop the formation. It shatters into clods of flame dried mud on the ground and the small candle of living flame is sucked away into Shuo Lao's open mouth.

I had NOT noticed him getting that close!

"The shapes alone were not enough," The serpent hisses, sliding around behind me as he continues to talk. "Your own fire was what gave it life, hatchling. Now, do it again, and complete the journey you started when you first tried to steal MY fire."

I look up at him warily. "You're not mad about that?"

He snorts. "The silk bugs are delicious, and their fire is good for my mane. Advance, and be forgiven; hatchling. It has been a long time since I ruled a flight."

Carefully, I do as ordered. This time, I draw the chi patterns I see in the dragons fire in the air with chi from my solar plexus chakra. Glowing plasma shudders in the small cavern of Shuo-Lao's coils until suddenly his power balloons away like two magnets of the same polarity. From my chi a ball of fire, about the size of my fist is born. And I do mean born. It pulses like a heart and radiates a sense of undeniable vitality. Hungry, yet healing. Destructive and creative. A substance that bridged the gap between spirit, flesh and will.

"The flame of the beginning." Shuo Lao growls, looking down from above me. "The secret fire. Consume it, and become whole."

Oooooh boy.

I could feed it to the dragon… That'd probably stop him from eating me. I could also accept it. Forget the claw, this would be stronger and more poignant. It'd also be an amusing loophole in my oath. By protecting myself until The Hand leaders could return, I'd be fulfilling the conditions and protecting an artificial dragon affiliated with The Hand. Technically.

The problem was what happened last time I tried this. The fire tried to eat me. Would this be any different?

Extending my senses into it I'm surprised not to be rebuffed by the now familiar void of my chi being consumed. It… feels like me. But not me? Me outside of myself? As I continue to study it, my perspective begins to double and I lose control of my trance.

Shaking it off, I make a decision. This fire is already me, spiritually it won't harm me. Moving from my knees to sitting indian style, I breathe in deeply and start cycling. As the seven chakra spin, flooding my body with chi, I wait until my entire body begins to throb with overload and then pull the fire into myself. It settles into my solar plexus for a moment, and then, like a dam breaking, the fire floods my body.

The pain is purely physical and indescribable, but mentally and spiritually… I feel good. Like a muscle unclenching in a hot tub. I'm not being consumed spiritually, speaking, but rather undergoing another qualitative change in my power. My synergy cores feel more complete than before and the feeling of my soul that I get every time I dive deeply into cultivation doesn't fade as I come back to myself. My clothing seems to have been mostly burnt away though, leaving only the silk-drake shorts. My skin is smooth and clear, my joints don't even twinge and the white hair in my beard has faded back to red.

Closing my eyes and feeling within, I find that I'm no longer spending significant amounts of chi the aches, scars and inefficiencies of being 57 years old and suffering 10 years of rough living. They're all just… gone. I'm in tip top shape. More than that; my cells now act as a secondary storage bank for liquid chi, effectively giving me an 8th core to draw from and quasi-permanently activating the Iron Body technique. Which also means another core (or, well, pseudo-core) I need to fill every time I get low.

"Welcome to the Light, Fire-soul." Shuo-lao rumbles, smug satisfaction and greed rolling off his voice. "Now,.. prepare tribute."

I sigh. Of course. Greedy dragon helps me steal fire from heaven, now wants to chain me to a rock and peck out my liver. Fuck you, Prometheus.

Drawing a spark of fire from my solar plexus, I ignite my middle finger, offering the dragon a candle flame.

Shuo-lao radiates displeasure. "I said Tribute, juvenile; and you dare to present me scraps?!"

I chuckle briefly, both disappointed and relieved he didn't get the reference, and reply; "Teach me to fly." That said, I increase the size of the flame from a candle wick to a fist sized fireball.

The Dragon growls deep in it's throat and I increase the offering until he quiets down. It's now about the size of my head, representing a good 10% of that core's total power. Shou-lao hums, seeming to mull over my offering for several minutes before breathing in and ripping the miniature sun from my control. "A little thin…" he muses "and, lacking a certain… something… but acceptable. You will provide the same tribute daily! Fail, and I will consider our arrangement at an end. Now watch closely."

Tyrannical demands delivered, the dragon's power shifts and wisps of steam begin to form around the valley. The vapor gathers together forming honest to god clouds around each of the beasts claws and at strategic places where Shuo Lao then brushes against like a snake using a rock to move. Slowly, methodically, the celestial serpent uses these patches of mist to snake it's way into the air and hang there. Eeexactly like a chinese hanging scroll depicting dragon flight.

The pace and care he's putting into each action, I can only assume is for my benefit and I watch the clouds closely with my third eye chakra powered vision. Mimicking the pattern causes air, water and yang chakra to collect and swirl in the same place, forming a spongy mass that hangs in the air and moves at my command. Placing my hand atop it, it provides resistance, the Yang energy seeming to provide it enough form to do so… but not enough to lift my body. Glancing back at Shou-Lao, I figure out the problem. Sneaky snake is simultaneously using the Light Body technique. Which means that in order to fly on a cloud, I'll need to use it too. Not an advanced technique like in Dragon ball, but two complementary techniques at the same time.

Aaand I likely didn't notice before, because the dragon usually moves faster than a bullet.

But then… what is the point of his wings? I expand my cloud and climb onto it as the dragon radiates impatience and the question is answered. The wings light up with yang and wind chi, adding a third technique into the mix, and rockets around his little valley. He continues this for several moments before returning to stare at me. This is a very Yang heavy set of techniques, but given Yangs nature as a rising/lifting force, I suppose that makes sense. Though, I wonder if perhaps I could cut all of this out and just use raw Yang and sufficient will.

Something to work out later.

My movements are slow and shaky at first, but thank god for chi powered brain enhancements. Once I begin to get the hang of the two techniques and now freer 3d movement flying starts to become pretty fun! If you've gone skydiving, you probably know what I mean. Just, y'know, with less wind in your face from falling at terminal velocity. Figuring out how to add the third layer, the wind based speed boost, is harder, given I have no wings, but turning it into a sort of reverse wind-shield did the trick. Instead of creating a shell to push the air away, I separated the air in my path forming a slip stream. The required mental gymnastics for that made me fall several… well, ok, a lot of times before I got it right. Still, it's fun as shit when the threat of plowing face first into the ground only means you get your clothing dirty. Ah the blessings of finally getting a Special Body Constitution.

Several hours of playing around with my new abilities is draining though, and I'm forced to recharge several times. That leads to and exploration of the other advantages of my new "iron body". For starters, Meditating on the move no longer requires a trance-like state, an effect of being able to feel the state of my soul at all times. Next spinning all 7 chakra no longer threatens overload, everything burns as it passes up or down through my solar plexus and becomes identifiably mine in an instant, allowing it to convert almost effortlessly into a form I can use. Additionally, that instant assimilation means that controlling the power is much easier than it used to be, almost leaping to perform as intended. Lastly there are the three stereotypical bonuses of seeking a special constitution; I'm able to hold the Iron Body technique completely instinctually, if I have any chi to spare it automatically heals my wounds, and as I used a fire core I now appear to be practically immune to fire. The best bit though, is that the few wounds I do get appear to be on fire as they heal, and that's just cool as shit.

I end up offering Shou-Lao another tribute of fire before I leave, having generated it while seeing if I could still overload myself. The answer is no, and the treat mollified my new dragonic overlord. Made him downright smug, in fact. At a guess, that Aura I spied earlier has something to do with it. If he can hold chi that's not in his cores, veins or constitution, that could likely explain it. It's not something I've ever seen in the Hall of Ancestors though, so where to start… eh?

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

June 1994

The more things change, the more they remain the same. The moment I returned to my Greenhouse, I am greeted by Lei Kung.

"Congratulations on your path advancement, young Dragon." The man says, putting down a cup of Tea. "I expect you believe you have swallowed the moon, but you will find that was only the eggshell. Come, Li Hua has already agreed you are more fit for my temple than her own."

"Meaning no offense…" I reply slowly, "but wouldn't this normally get me into the Jade Dragon sect? I'm not a warrior; I'm a builder and recently achieved a major milestone in my mystic arts."

The Thunderer nods sagely. "Yes, you have independently rediscovered the initial steps of the Path of the Dragon. All shall bow in awe…" He huffs and takes another sip of his tea. "But for that, you will need to travel. And you will need to understand austerity, as most of the wonders you can learn in the Jade Serpent Sect will wither and become mundane outside of heaven. Most of all, you will need to learn to control your new strength, lest you expend yourself the moment you leave heaven, killing everyone you touch and wasting all of that progress."

"Only the first steps?" I ask, interested. "What are the next ones? Acquiring a serpent spirit beast to take the place of a nascent soul?"

He nods. "Additionally, Avalon's Path of Heroes. Or both of them could be exchanged for Xibulba's Path of Sacrifice. In either case, you will need the resources of the Chaste, and my people could benefit from your presence. Both as an instructor and as dumb muscle for our war effort."

I nod slowly, taking a seat opposite him, and biting into a strip of spirit beast jerky. "As interested as I am, why can't I just continue to train with The Undying One? He's already keen on taking advantage of me. I've also sworn to reopen the rift and fish out my son. Yu-Ti and his sages were able to look through it and see him, so wouldn't I be better served in his house, learning the same methods?"

The Thunderer shook his head. "Shou-Lao, for all his nobility, remains a greedy dragon. He is a poor teacher and will not give you power if he thinks you can use it to challenge him, only if he is certain he can maintain your subordination. Yu-Ti will be happy to have another Sage to gossip with and train in silly and esoteric fields of enlightenment, but even with your rate of learning the process will take a century, and you are simply not that patient. Finally, our Lord has told me of your oath to protect the Black Skies for Shou-Lao. You will need to collect that which we normally kill and for that, you need to be useful on and actively participate in missions for my order. This will be particularly important to you, as by becoming a fire soul, your body and your path are much more intertwined. Should you break that oath, not only will you lose your cultivation, there is a real chance you will become a walking husk as consequence of your choice of constitution."

Yu-Ti you sneaky bastard… That was technically allowed under the terms I had sworn, but it was not a tactic I had expected from the Jade Serpent. Had I even told him about my oath? No, I hadn't. The only person who knows about it in the city should have been Tomoi and why would he rat me out? Whats more, why would he still be walking around if he had? The only thing I can figure without asking is the occasional reference to the Jade Serpent liking his games.

"Would that really happen?" I ask. "I thought the body didn't start replacing mass with energy until the immortal breakthroughs."

Lei Kung nods. "Normally that would be accurate. But you chose a constitution that accentuates your body's ability to handle large amounts of energy; working yourself to overload before being remade in fire of all elements. Worse, Dragonfire. I know you have been learning from Bai Wen about how the Dragon IS the fire, not the body? As you progress down this path, that will become increasingly true for you as well, making managing your chi essential to your health."

I frown. "But wouldn't that be the same for you? As an Iron fist older than the apocalypse? Who survived your own dragon?"

He grins over his tea. "And you see why I do not cross into the mortal realm with my sect students, despite still being fully alive and technically mortal."

I nod. "If you don't mind then… whats with cultivating under the waterfall?"

He laughs. "Mine was a seadragon who made his territory in the Okhotsk Sea. Those are rough waters. Water, force and fire are my elements. "

I nod. That made sense. I had been trying to figure out the connection between the waterfall and seemingly lightning based personal style for a while. If it was liquid fire though, that would make more sense. Thundering waves, which asians have long attributed to sea dragons.

"So, if I accepted the transfer, what would my new schedule be like? Would I still have time for my research? Or would you expect me to train all day?"

He finishes his tea. "Your lessons would move from weekly to daily. Mornings are spent in meditation, after running water up the mountain. I understand you care for your garden here" he gestured around the room "during that time. Unless you wished to aid your fellows in their cultivation, you would still have that time free. Afternoons are spent learning to fight with chi. Your lessons would need to be somewhat specialized towards holding back, but for you and the chosen, all would focus on control and fine usage."

I consider that, and earlier revelations during the conversation. Most of my work in the mornings involves building my stock of corruption pills. The actual gardening aspect is really a small amount of effort anymore. The benefits of building a greenhouse. Particularly a magically automated one. However, the only reward for good work; is more work, so the rate at which I've been able to grow my hidden hoard is glacial. Worse, I'm beginning to run out of sources of corruption. The more that's invested into the livestock, the environment, the growing popularity of runework and my stache, the less I have to work with going forward. I've been trying to use the chakra circles to allay that and reclaim my resources, but again, growing demand.

Combine that with Yu-Ti's apparent knowledge and tacit approval of my dealings with the opposition… maybe it's time to break out the Gu research and look toward applying it. For now though, I need to test the waters.

"I see. How… far do your students usually get in their cultivation?"

He smiles. "It is good you already think of your fellow students' welfare." Then he grimaces. "The chosen who the chaste send for training have usually awakened and cleared at least one meridian before arrival, but some, considered prodigies, are sent here to awaken. Commonly, one in five finish body cleansing by the time they leave, and one in three classes have a student complete core forming. This strength and longevity allows us to counter the Dragonborn member of The Hand, but their recruitment has exceeded ours of late."

He stops there, leaving unsaid, that anything I can do to help would be desperately appreciated. Even before Electra became the black skye, the chaste were struggling with a losing war. "I'll see what I can do." I tell him. "But I'll need leeway to interrupt your lessons and skip them from time to time for research."

"Explain to me what you need, and I will work your efforts into my lesson plans."

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #%$^&*()_+

1999

Researching the Gu is an interesting topic. Most of the runework and symbology on the pot is based on the ability to spiritually fuse two things together without destroying both of them, and then encouraging the base matter to rearrange itself to match the fused spirit. Only a small portion of that is actually useful in transferring chi from one subject to another. In the case of the Black Skye advancement chamber, there is a similar narrowing of focus, in this case an effort to accentuate the X factor in the black skye bloodline that turns humans into dragons rather than draconic ghouls.

Paring out all of the extraneous processes is excellent training in terms of my facility with runes and combining it with the chi gathering rituals has yielded fantastic results. As a consequence, I have found a method, in a chi dense environment, to rapidly force the advancement of a cultivator under my care. Not getting them around the hurdles of advancement bottlenecks, but moving them between them with the same, or greater, facility than elixirs.

Source of corruption material acquired. In spades.

Useful methods for doing shit outside of heaven… still pending.

The advancement of the chaste however led to me being "asked" by Yu-Ti to form a Jade Path Pillar on the fifth floor of the hall of ancestors. As part of this process, I got to sit with the mining sages and learn how to manipulate stone and metal to grow a jade pillar. Once that was done, I was further taught how to imprint my knowledge into it in a manner which others could access without corrupting it with their own thoughts, memories and ideas.

This combined with the Gu led me to my current project. Aside from the necessity of raising energy, the biggest problem with cultivation is breaking through. It's said that out of a class of 20, there's 1 who can learn through reading, 4 who will learn through observation, and the other 15 need to learn by peeing on the electric fence for themselves. The difficulty of teaching cultivation breakthroughs is similar. There's only so far you can get by reading philosophy, or even imitating a role model; in the end, most of advancement is done on your own. That's why it's called a path or journey.

But what if it didn't have to be?

Using what I learned from creating my path pillar and refining the Gu, I created a jade crown and went around K'un-Lun city and S'ahra Sharn, collecting the memories of first stage enlightenment in the Jade. I focus primarily on those who have recently awakened, the more recent the better, and philosophers on both sides who study the process, but beggars can't be choosers, so anyone who's willing to trade is a viable target.

With each memory I gather, I find another willing victim among K'un-Lun's civilian population. A lot of them don't cultivate, because for one reason or another, they deem it too hard. But when a shortcut is offered by the guy who gives you fish… I had plenty of volunteers. It took me several months to start showing results, but once rando-shen-nobody started awakening after a day meditating on the crown, the snowball began to roll. First it started with people coming up to me a month, weeks and then days later, having figured it out, and after almost a year, the collected insights began to allow random assholes to cross the border in only an hour.

I made an awful lot of 'friends' in the two cities as that success began to build.

Setting my followers up with Gu rituals to speed them toward the next bottleneck had me swimming in essence of corruption in short order and breathed new life into that portion of the economy. Jade serpent members began to apprentice themselves to me and my greenhouse became a proper workshop as several of them built me a house of my own. Shortly after, the greenhouse became a tower with seven levels. Yang at the top descending to, fire, air, water, earth, metal and Yin at the bottom.

Between feeding Shou-Lao, conducting my research, using and abusing my followers, training and training with the chaste, I barely got to use my house for more than five hours of sleep each night.

As my following grew, so too did demands on my time. This forced me to create several more crowns of enlightenment to keep up with followers experiencing and needing breakthroughs. Soon, keeping the models and memories updated between the crowns became a chore all on it's own. But I couldn't stop. First stage enlightenment, be one with self. Second stage enlightenment, be one with the world. Nippon spirit, through experience we grow and advance. Body cleansing. Meridian cleansing. Dao crystallization. Chakra opening. I needed it all.

It honestly came as a relief when at noon on september 23rd, 1999 the day of the autumnal equinox, Lei Kung announced the gate of heaven had opened and class was at an end.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

Quietly I escape the feast and move into stealth. I have things to do, and not a lot of time to do it in.

Working on the crowns has given me a lot of access to the Jade Serpent sect and as part of that access came the knowledge of numerous inter-spatial-storage-rings. Learning how to make my own was sadly something I'd never had time to do, but I had gained enough favors over time to buy one. It was time to turn in those favors.

Making my way over to the Tigers sect feast, I quickly found my mark Quartermaster Mao Quan Yee. He was loathe to leave the celebrations, but respected me enough to believe that I wouldn't waste his time. Taking advantage of his hurried demeanor and a bribe of drakesilk, I got him to select a golden band embedded with a few carrots of imperial jade capable of folding a 30^3 foot volume nigh undetectably, cushioning and sorting it's contents and keeping an inventory in the mind of the bearer.

Once we parted ways, I went around the city collecting all of the crowns I'd scattered around both K'un Lun and S'ahra Sharn. Once done, I left each city with four, one for each sect, and headed to my workshop. Opening the hidden storage level, I packed away my laptop, the half a metric ton of corruption pills I'd squirreled away over the last several years, my personal library and one of every tool I had built over the last decade. You never knew what you'd need, and it paid to be prepared.

Essentials collected, I stowed the dragon claw, my entire wardrobe of drakesilk clothing and even, after some contemplation, the cloud wool fuuton Li Hua had gifted me on my last birthday. I considered roving the twin cities and stealing everything of value that might fit in my inventory, gamer style, but decided against it. Best not to tempt fate too much on my way out the door. I want to be able to come back after all. Getting my son and escaping 4 years before the mad titan kills half of all life among other goals. Instead, I fill the rest of the space with the food and pills I have access too.

When morning dawned the next day I marched out past a sour looking Bai Wen alongside 30 members of the Chaste with nobody seeming any the wiser.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

According to the chastes map, we emerged from K'un-Lun on the north face of the kuenlun mountain range in xinjiang province, china. Down the slope to the north lay the silk road and the VAST Gobi Desert. Instead of proceeding down however, we circled around the peak and descended back into the sacred valley.

When not moving through a very specific crack in these particular snowy peaks, the valley is, for all intents and purposes, on another world entirely. Instead of the Lush green slopes I'd come to know quite intimately as a spirit farmer, we descended into the Qarqan River Valley Nuclear Testing Site. The ridge holding K'un-Lun city had a massive blackened chunk taken out of it, almost as if godzilla had taken a bite out of the mountain, and the valleys leading down to the river were a mix of grey and brown. It wasn't complete desolation, but the chinese hadn't left much up to chance.

"You see now, Brother, why we cannot allow outsiders to know of the heavenly city?" One of the Chaste, Jacob Park asked me.

I choke out a dark laugh. "That's communism for you."

Jacob gave me an odd look. "No, this is chinese cultural revolution."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

It's his turn to laugh bitterly. "No. The Chinese, Koreans and even Japanese do this every time a Dynasty ends and is replaced. Holy sites, art, history, everything that is not vigorously defended is torn down so that history can begin anew. That is why staying hidden and protecting the Jade Lord from The Hand are so important. Without them, even heaven would fall."

With those cheery words, we descend into hell.

The Qarqan river flows west down the valley and through another bombed out hole, representing S'ahra Sharn, and then down the outside of the Kuenlun range. Once it reaches ground level, it turns north, flowing through the region's farmland. Eventually, we make our way to the nearest city, Qiemo, and rent out most of two hotels for the night.

The group will be breaking up tomorrow to avoid showing up on the CCP's radar as "suspicious group traveling near a proscribed location at an auspicious time", so rather than sleeping, I stay up late and meditate on the local chi.

Qeimo is near enough to a ley line that it offers a good gradient for what I can expect outside of heaven. Where inside K'un Lun, my aligned chakra's could offer me 40 times the draw of my rather powerful soul, out here on the line, I'm getting maybe three times the draw. Two and a half to be safe. If the density ratio continued when off the line, I would probably be able to scrape together one fifth of the power my soul provided by having all seven of them open. Maybe as low as a tenth if I was unlucky.

I was busily in the middle of calculating my technique costs and probable recharge times when I was interrupted.

In the middle of my room, a swirling emerald light appeared. It seemed to be trying to form a shape, but like a TV with a bad signal on in some movie, it couldn't quite keep coherent. Conjuring a small bead of chi into my finger, I fired it at the emerald apparition, intending to dismiss it. On one hand, this is marvel and strange happenings like this are almost text book hero/villain origin stories; on the other, I already have a mission and have no desire to get caught up by the narrative gods is some jankey plott full of shenanigans.

Instead of vanishing, attacking me or pulling me off on my call to adventure however, the image stabilized into… me. Green me looked at real me from a sitting position in the air, one foot up and body curled around as though trying to hide something.

"Hello me, I don't have a lot of time, so listen closely and don't interrupt."

"Ah, shit. I hate this plotline. You bastard, what did you did to get us roped into this of all plotlines?" I groused, unfolding from the lotus position on the hotel bed.

Green me laughed quietly. "Don't cry too much, Days of Futures Past is far worse when you have to live it. Right now, we're borrowing Doc Stranges Time Stone. Tony doesn't know what we're doing with it, he thinks I'm trying to wake the doctor up, but right now, we're heading to the infinity war confrontation with Thanos. Yeah, that guy. I'm telling you this, because we fucked up but good. A LONG story short, don't go to the Ancient One. At least not until we have fuckoff powers. I did that tomorrow by your reckoning and ended up imprisoned within the mirror dimension for sixteen years. Kalecius sprung me loose to fight bald bitch and Strange and I'm still running around because as soon as he did so, raccoon boy fell for my sudden yet inevitable betrayal." Green me said, grinning almost crazily.

"Evil overlord jokes aside, that bald bitch takes her 'protect earth from dimensional invaders' job seriously and she sniffed us out the moment Mordo led us into her office. Didn't even consider helping us get home or get Nick. I've made myself invaluable to the good doctor though, which is how I knew how to contact you. If you want my advice, head to South America. You know the place. Shit, I've gotta go! I hope this is enough to change the timeline, good luck and godspeed."

With that, future me vanished as he was struck by a beam of green light. Alright then… seems like a change of plans is in order.

Book 2: Chapter 1: On the road again!

AN: Warning; this chapter is brought to you in collaboration with the Alternate Histories Forum. We discussed what world history would look like if it were written by Modern Marvel. I was tempted to crib off Marvel 1602, but ended up going with their more serious take on what would likely have happened if various fictional countries existed and heroes had epic adventures on top of their historical achievements. Hope it amuses you. Or at least isn't too annoying.

September 25th, 1999.

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuccckkk!" I stared at the point where the image of my future self had vanished, attacked by a beam of light. Given what I remembered from the movies, that was… probably Tony, hitting him, me, us? With his omni-beam. If this DIDN'T end up changing the timeline, if some narrative force dragged me back there… that was gonna fucking hurt! I groaned and massage my face with both hands.

Ok, ok, so, what do we know? Future me has the same chi boosted recall I do, so what is in South America? What's special about the continent? For a start, the Hulk goes there to hide. Twice. Not relevant, that doesn't happen until 2003 or 4 and 2009.

Operative ghost from Ant-man gained her powers as a 5 year old in Argentina… but that was in November of 95… Elias Starr also blew his quantum tunnel to smithereens giving his daughter her powers so I likely can't even loot his ruins. Pity this is the MCU and not the comics, Ghost in the comics was a scientist thief who built his quantum battle-suit on purpose.

Speaking of Argentina, the X-men exist in this reality. If that means includes the first class timeline, that means a lot of Hydra scientists to loot and at least two mutant enclaves which may have useful powers to recruit. Put that on the back burner.

Deathlock was field tested by Hydra in South America, figure more nazi scientists. The initial field test was in 1990, but the technology made the project effective fell out of the sky in New York in 2012. Probably something useful there, but nothing that would help me against the gender-bent sorcerer supreme.

What else? Agents of shield, Skye's first mission. Another bit of Nazi loot. One of the tesseract tanks from Captain America the first Avenger teleported into the middle of an Incan Temple; agent Coulson and company were dispatched to retrieve it in 2013, but it likely arrived earlier, given it was discovered when the temple was opened by anti-Peruvian rebels.

That's my target, the ziggurat of Llactapata in Peru. As a source of Space Stone energy, it can likely be used to get me out of space warping effects like the mirror dimension. Or if nothing else, give me a means of fleeing that The Ancient One can't interdict. Or if she can, I really am just screwed.

But that begs the question… why am I still free? She HAS the time stone and admits to Strange she's abusing it, she has sling-rings that breach both distance and inter-dimensional barriers. Could it be as simple as not planning a future where our paths cross? That would be the most logical explanation for why someone with future sight doesn't fuck with you.

That seems… too simple though. Too easily foiled. Perhaps… perhaps by going there I fall to corruption in every timeline she saw? Most magic stories contain their own corruption and I've already noticed and documented changes in my actions and personality due to Chi training. An increasing extremity in all my views and activities. The willingness to work-out to the point I now look like a bodybuilder. Or perhaps my draconic path? She saw me eating her school in most futures and decided to preempt it?

Though that now begs the question, does the timeline change forward AND back when someone fucks with the timestone? Is she going to wait until my appointed appearance and then hunt me down? Or is she not going to hunt me down at all, because I no longer go to Kamir Taj? Or is she going to hunt me down later, because now the visions she saw are of some event further in the future?

Gaahaahahahaaaaa! THIS IS WHY I HATE TIME TRAVEL! Yes, I recognize the hypocrisy, given I intend to abuse time to get Nick back. I still hate all plot-lines that involve it!

Withdrawing my hands from where they're tangled in my hair, I breathe deeply and center myself. I still have time. I have a plan. Panic is stupid. Narrative is not explicitly out to get me. I WILL see my son. Properly calmed and focused, I get up and start moving. It's… 3 am… dammit. Sighing, I check the alarm and go back to meditating.

Playing with small expenditures of chi, breaking, fixing and changing things in my room, I examine my technique waste in this chi poor environment along with general cost and recharge times. After writing everything down, I figure I could probably demolish the building I'm in with any one of my 6 bronze cores or my Iron body, and consume most of the city block in a firestorm from the one I advanced to Iron before running out. Recharging them though will take 100 hours for the bronze cores and 750 hours for my dragonfire core, assuming I only cultivate and cultivate uninterrupted. I'm not sure how fast it would recharge from eating people, I still haven't gotten around to that yet. Assuming I'm not wildly wrong on the ratio between on ley line and off, 10 days to recover a bronze core or my Iron body and 10 weeks for my iron dragonfire core. All of this consecutively rather than in parallel, so… 2 months on a ley line, 5 months off. Just factoring environmental recharge without nippon spirit… 3 months on a ley line and 26 months off.

Thaaaat's not gonna work. Which of course was why I'd been preparing for 10 years for this. Between chi gathering formation barriers and feng shui landscaping and a literal ton of corruption pills and ink, the only relevant detail I'm missing is the location of an unclaimed ley nexus point. Or hell, just a ley line. It's not like I can just claim Stonehenge or the three Sanctums the MotMA are using to interdict dimensional travel. I HAD of course researched it in the Hall of Ancestral Knowledge, but while K'un-Lun has maps, those maps show notable changes across centuries and they often leave out places beyond asia and the seas are almost always a big question mark.

Of course,.. If all ley nexus are as large as the 7 heavens, I could easily use New York City beside the Ancient One and not affect the Sanctum enough for them to notice? My alarm goes off, shaking myself from such dangerous thoughts and I get up. It'll probably be easiest to just follow a line out of the city to the nearest ley nexus and claim some unsettled land nearby. That's likely what Bakuto did in the TV series if I don't miss my guess. If that's true, join him or fight him, I'll likely end up stealing his base out from under him for my own use.

Heading downstairs, I join a small group of chaste disciples going through martial forms in the parking lot. Most of them are going through the Rolling Thunder Fist form Lei Kung teaches after you master the "basic" Kung Fu schools, but a few (my disciples) are going through Chakra Yoga. None of them have gotten as far as core forming, but cracking open their 7 chakra allowed them to go from the dregs of this class of Chosen to 100% body cleansing with all meridians open and liquid chi throughout before we left the valley.

I join them in their exercise, mirroring their movements.

"Good morning, Master," one of them, Jordan Kahananui, says. "Ready to start going on missions? Senior Park says he received word a Hand strike team is preparing to skirmish with us as we greet the new class and take our leave. Personally, I'm looking forward to it. Those bastards are in for the surprise of their lives, thanks to you!"

I nod. "Just remember to empower your Iron Body. I don't want to see any of my people falling to a bullet storm because they got cocky."

Jordan's eyes got wide briefly before hardening and nodding. "Yes, of course, master. They would be that dishonorable. They'll probably open the engagement with poison too. We will watch what we eat before the engagement. Do you..?"

Rolling my eyes, I pull strips of Star-song Yak jerky out of my ring and hand it out. The five of them accept graciously and begin pulling water from the air for drinks.

"Regardless of our confrontation with the Hand, there's been a change of plans." I tell them. "Rather than Kathmandu, I need to get to Machu Picchu in Peru."

Several of them looked around at each other confused, but Jordan simply nodded, accepting my latest insanity without missing a step. "I'll see about arranging it, sir. Would you like me to get a Greek or Runasimi guide for travel within the province?"

Greek? Shouldn't it be Spanish? Or was it Portuguese? I suppress a flush at realizing I'd never bothered to find out. "Runasimi if you would, disciple. I need to open the Llactapata ziggurat and retrieve an artifact from inside. If it's still there, I believe it will aid us in similar proportion to the Crowns."

Several eyes widened comically and Kahananui nodded fervently. "I will see it done, sir!" He barks, snapping out of his workout to stand and bow. As he finished the motion, he snapped his fingers and two of the others, Kurt and Maddie, fell in behind him, bowing quickly before running off.

The class leader of the regular disciples, Jacob Park, walks up behind me and I sigh. "What was that about?" he asks.

Turning around I grin. "I finished a bit of research I started before leaving Heaven." I told him easily. "It's led me to change plans. I'll be making a short stop in South America; there's an artifact there I need to pick up before doing anything else."

"I wish you had informed the masters beforehand, brother." the Chaste class leader told me, sounding grumpy. "They could have helped."

I shrug and grin back at him. "The project was a long-shot, I didn't want to make plans before I was certain."

He nodded slowly. "And this will aid the Chaste?"

"If successful." I agree. "I'd say more, but we're being watched."

The moment the words left my mouth, the predawn light shattered in a storm of silver. Bullets, thrown ninja weapons and black clothed figures descended on the parking lot like a tsunami. Reaching into my soul, I set the chi in my brain spinning and watch as the world slows down around me.

Time to get to work.

Standing up, I grab the ring of a kunai, turn around and throw it at the nearest black clad figure, twice as fast. Snatching a trio of throwing stars out of the air next, slamming them into the shoulder of another ninja before letting go and yank a sword out of his unresisting grip. Parrying another sword with the stolen blade, I vanish the weapon into my storage ring and use my opponent's surprise at the sudden lack of resistance to drive my meaty fist into his stomach. He folds over the blow and I pivot to slap him across the back of the head with my other hand and grab his falling sword as well.

The rest of my party isn't doing nearly as well as I am, but they're still doing better than our ambushers. I pause to watch for just moments as Chaste warriors kill their opponents with minimal injury despite being outnumbered 3 to 1. We're still taking casualties; one man loses an arm, a girl I remember training gets a giant red gash on her stomach, a guy I helped get his Iron Body regeneration goes down as a bullet takes him in the eye; but there's simply a qualitative difference between our cultivation and The Hand's. It's like Hydra trying to dog-pile Steve Rodgers. It might work occasionally, but you're probably just going to get fucked up.

It seems I spoke too early though, as from the roof of the hotel, a row of figures appear, illuminated by the fire of rocket propelled grenades.

Surging the chi in my body I curse and go for broke. Moving fast enough to cause the air to shake and shudder around me, I rush forward to grab one of the flying bombs and spin around. Completing my turn, I hurl the bomb back at the people who launched them and move for a second. I get four of the twenty or so bombs before the salvo hits us. As explosions rock the area around me, they also rock the roof of the hotel, causing a sizable portion of the building to collapse inward. It seems I managed to hit a crate of explosives with my counterattack, probably more RPG's, given most of the men up there are now hamburger.

The news on our side is both good and bad. On one hand, the Hand's disregard for their own people means that they've decimated most of their own force. Unfortunately, that also means that they got a lot of our people too. Charging the fallen, I pull pills meant to regenerate entire limbs out of my ring, and stuff them into the guts of those wearing Chaste colors. A drop of water chi from my sacral chakra releases the potential of the pill into the nearest chi pool.

I don't have time to stand around and watch them start regenerating, so I simply speed to the next asshole in saffron robes, one after the other. I pause enough to make certain The Hand members are dead before pocketing their swords. Those Hand who look like they'll survive, I leave where they are. No point killing potential minions if they're already out of the fight.

I'm on the twelfth downed Chaste member when the flow of battle changes again. From the far side of the parking lot, near the other hotel, fifty fresh mortal Chaste students from the new class charge in, howling in furious rage. They descend on the remaining Hand forces with vengeance in their eyes, my three disciples at their head. They tear through the shaken remains of the black clad forces for the most part, until they break like a wave against a tidal wall before one of the combatants. An old man in a white button up and simple grey pants. I'd say he looks like a stereotyped Chinese office worker, save for what he's doing.

The white clad fighter is juggling a sword, an Uzi sub-machine-gun and a gourd of some sort of liquid as he fights the mottley mix of new students and yellow clad monks. All three weapons are mixed into a dance you might see from a circus juggler alongside punches, kicks and bizarre contortionist movements that none of The Chaste warriors can get a bead on. If I don't miss my guess, the style is some armed variation on Drunken Monkey Wushu and the warrior is Chi'an Tang, self proclaimed Black Dragon and enemy of the Iron Fist.

In the TV show, he slapped Danny Rand around like the punk bitch his actor really is; at least until the alcohol was gone. In the comics, he's killed every Iron Fist for the last 5000 years who held the mantle past the age of 30. His reputation is earned it seems, as despite five of his opponents being early state core forming experts, he doesn't seem to even be slowing down.

Setting all seven chakra and 20 meridians spinning with power melted off my cores, I charge in and snatch his gourd out of the air. It vanishes into my storage ring as his sword slashes across the side of my face, carving straight through my Iron Body and grinding against bone. I spin with the force and recover as fire licks across my skull, restoring my eye and a glowing orange coal. Recovering even as I complete my tumble, I turn to face him and have to parry a flurry of blows, each fast enough that my cheating only just allows me to keep up.

"You're gonna regret that, maite." the Chinese warrior states with an Australian accent.

"Probably." I reply, lighting one fist with fire and the other with lightning. "But so will you."

His fierce scowl turns into a broad grin. "Just so." He agrees, and blurs forward. Fingers go for my eyes and I dodge to the side, drawing dragonfire up from my solar plexus to breathe it at the offending limb. The chi manipulation is faster than my own limbs unfortunately, which just miss the grapple by inches as he withdraws to pat out the fire with one hand and hip-check me. The fire on his arm is not going out though, and I can feel it eating away at his power.

Chi'an comes to the same conclusion and grabs his spinning Uzi out of the air to fire a fan of glowing green bullets at me. They sizzle and hiss through the air as I dodge them, radiating an aura of poison which goes on to hit three members of the chaste. They go down screaming, black streaks moving visibly through their skin even at the speed we're fighting. Risking getting shot or stabbed again, I put a bit of extra chi into my limbs and brain and grab the gun as he goes to change it for a claw-strike.

The weapon vanishes into my ring and I dodge the sizzling green fingers as his sword rams into my guts bisecting both kidneys. The arm holding the sword is the one I set on fire though, so I reach my will into the flames and order them to burrow into his skin. He yelps and lets go of the sword, allowing me to store it as well.

"Hey now, that's just not fair." Chi'an whines as we begin to circle each other. "That's an heirloom, that is!"

I don't have time to pay attention to his whining though, as black corruption and foriegn chi spreads through my guts like a parasite. "I guess you'll just have to… URG! Get used to it, then!" I snarl, as my chi turns wholly to fighting off the poison. Reaching out for the fire now blackening the other mans arm, I call it back and breathe it in. New knowledge surges into my soul of the fire's experience burning away at the Hand champions essence and I turn it in the poison. Immediately the black lines stop spreading and a chunky yellow fluid starts oozing out of my wounds.

"Burnin regeneration," the 'black dragon' mused conversationally, looking at my wounds. "Now thas novel stuff… Say, whats your naime?"

I turned to the side and vomited up a small ball of green black and yellow that hissed and bubbled on the pavement before wiping my mouth and turning to speak. "Does it matter? You fired RPG's at me. And stabbed me clean through. I'm gonna fucking take it outa your ass." I tell him, building chi in the arm sparking with electricity.

"Oy! I don swing that way mate!" the Black Dragon objected, bending backward at the waist as I punched a bolt of lighting at him. It hit a car instead, causing it to explode. He rotated around, his knees moving at odd angles and almost touching the ground before he came up to ram a series of green smoking knife hand strikes into my ribs on the right side. "Though if you do, we take all sorts. Don boite the Hand and the Hand provides, it does!"

My chi expelled the attacks in small geysers of fire before sealing up where his fingers had penetrated not only my drakesilk but my skin as well. "And why should I believe you?" I ask him, slamming a burning fist into one of his shoulder blades as he weaves around me, snakelike.

"Because unless I'm hallucinatin here, I've been sent ta extract yah!" He replied cheerily. "Blood red hair, bright green eyes, smarter an better than tha average cultists? Seems a dead ringer ta me!"

I stare at him incredulously, pausing my attack and holding back my surprise as he does the same out of… courtesy I guess? "And you didn't think to mention that before… why?"

"Cause yer a spanking big beastie! Tha paintin Ol' Bakki had commissioned for you looked like a doddering ol' professa who was half your size, twice your age and far better groomed!"

[img: attachments/771181859085352960/776376133821792286/Reynard_Hemming_civilian_cultivator_ ?width=951&height=564]

"Fuck you, I like my dwarf beard." I retort. "And getting an Iron Body will do that too you."

Chi'an holds his hands up. "Ay, I already told you, I don swing tha way." He reposted, a shit eating grin on his face. "But gettin an Ironbody in, wha, 10 years? Tha's impressive. Whaddya say we blow this joint? Continue our conversation o'er a pint? Muslim raisin and yak wine is shit fer flavor, but it's got a powerful kick!"

I shake my head. "I might have taken you up on that offer for a good apology," I admit "but I've got a pressing appointment. I have to pick up an artifact in South America before I go anywhere else." He opened his mouth to object but I continued. "It's non-negotiable, Chi-an Tang. Withdraw, and I'll meet you in New York in a month or two."

He looked like he was going to argue, but then he looked around at the carnage on both sides, shrugged and turned on his heel. "Welp… you killed the guys who jumped the gun, an I guess I got what I came for in either case. Chinatown at New Years, kid! Don't be late!"

As Chi'an sped off, I let myself spin back down to a more human frame of reference and groaned, collapsing onto my ass. That short fight itself had spent barely three percent of my total power, but combating the drunks poisonous chi had cost me nearly another 20% all on its own. Fuuuck meee… I can only hope my regeneration will learn with each encounter.

It doesn't take long for someone to come looking for me though. No rest for the wicked I guess. As everybody recovers, pulling out pills of their own, grown from my changes to K'un-Lun, Kahananui comes over to me and begins checking me over. "Are you alright boss? You collapsed when you drove that other guy off. We could hear you roaring at each other, but nobody knew what was said."

I groan and decide to be somewhat truthful. "His name is Chi'an Tang, he's a champion of The Hand and he was trying to recruit me. Said I was the only worthy one here. He told me we'd meet again and left to get a drink." My throat chakra constricts slightly around it's core, reminding me of its activation condition, but it's a small thing, so I ignore the twinge like a bug bite.

Jordan scowled. "Murderous bastards. They probably didn't even know your real value, just that you could fight back. Well, we showed them. Here, let me help you up," He held out his hand, pointless as the gesture was. I let him pull me to my feet regardless.

"I know you weren't gone long before the attack went down," I grumble, "but how are we doing on those tickets?"

He grinned. "Because airports are sparse in this region, the flights we got booked last night are more or less the same." He replied. "We lift off in 2 hours, assuming the commies don't lock the region down."

I nod. "How many did we lose?"

His expression turned dark again. "Twelve. Three from our class, nine from the incoming class. We took out nearly eighty of them though, despite being initially outnumbered almost 3 to 1. We would have lost twice as many, all of them from our class, without all of the new pills and this group would have been wiped out entirely if not for your training, sir."

"It was entirely self serving, kid, don't mention it." I reply gruffly.

He shakes his head and takes my shoulders in both hands. "Self serving is taking what you can for yourself and not giving back. You may have grasped at everything both in and out of reach as ruthlessly as anyone else, but you gave back tenfold. That makes you a saint from my perspective." He holds my gaze until I roll my eyes and nod. He grins, slaps my shoulder and lets go. "C'mon, lets go get our flight."

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

My disciples and I stay for another hour, patching up the remaining 48 Chaste wounded and looting the corpses. I investigate the incoming student group, but unfortunately Stick isn't among them. Their leader is a guy called Yuseff, no second name, and he doesn't admit to knowing Elektra, even when I use my chi to force open his throat chakra. A messenger arrives briefly to inform us that the local military base suffered its own shootout as a Hand plant tried to hold a coup only to be countered by a Chaste infiltrator leading the communist forces against them. The Chaste member was killed in the fighting by a "civilian" matching Chi'an's description and the base is in complete disarray.

They still haven't gotten their act together when we leave an hour later, going so far as to not even have air traffic control up and running. Most of the class split up on buses brought in by the chaste, going right and left on the G315 highway while another six followed us in a second plane. The Uyghur pilot just shrugged and took off as if waiting for the Chinese didn't matter.

The first flight was Qiemo to Korla in our little puddle jumper and took about an hour. After a half hour delay, we then flew for another hour to reach Ürümqi Diwopu international hub, serving flights to Mongolia, Russia and eastern china. Here we had to get new tickets going east rather than south, but two hours later we were on a much nicer flight, taking us all the way from the edge of the gobi desert in Xinjiang to Beijing in five hours. No in-flight meal or movie, but what can you do? From Beijing, we flew to Dalian Zhoushuizi in Liaoning before changing planes to skip straight through North Korean airspace to Haneda international, in Tokyo. Strangely, nobody seemed to be concerned about that part, so I tried to remain calm, but it was still a relief to land in Japan.

Funny enough, Japan was where we first hit problems. In China, they weren't able to scan my passport, so they just compared my face in the picture to my much more hairy face, stamped beside the Indian stamp I received while traveling to Singapore and let me through. Japan, though, shares a database of passports with the Americans, so when they scanned mine, it came back with information.

"Sir, would you please step out of line?" The passport clerk asked. The woman was polite, to a point, but she also pressed a button beneath her desk which caused more than a dozen bored looking security guards to twitch and look at her. Then look at me, each other, her and back at me. I sighed, this had been bound to happen at some point, the question was whether I wanted to deal with it now, deal with it when I got back to the US, or ghost these irritating gnats and continue on my journey.

I shook myself of that last thought. Not gnats, people. I could kill them like bugs, but that wasn't who I was. Who I wanted to be. The confrontation with The Hand a few days ago notwithstanding; one does not simply take an RPG to the face, after all.

Grumbling deep in my chest, a sound which caused a lot of the approaching guards to back off momentarily from nerves, I moved as ordered. They took me to a nondescript door that looked like it should have been for a janitorial closet off to the side, and opened it, gesturing for me to enter ahead of them. I had to duck my head and turn sideways slightly, the door is build for the average Japanese, not a now bearlike American, but I managed without much difficulty and was greeted by a surprisingly large concrete room. It was almost classic, hosting a metal table and one way glass wall.

Four of the guards filed in with me, taking positions at the corner of the room, while on the other side from the door I came in, another person entered. He took my passport from the guard and read it. Then he pulled out a device about the size of a brick and scanned it again, just like the lady at the line of desks had. He read the information and frowned.

"I don't suppose I could provide an explanation you'd believe?" I asked, spinning chi through my throat chakra so that my words came out in "perfect Japanese". I was actually speaking English, but they would hear it in their most familiar language and local accent. Probably the most useful thing I learned from Bai Wen in five years of working together.

The man cleared his throat. "You speak remarkably good Suns Origin for a westerner."

Suns origin? Right… the Japanese call their people and language Nipponese, Nippon directly translating to suns origin. I grin slightly. "You learn to speak a lot of languages, when you travel like I do."

"And how much would you be traveling," the agent asked, brow raised "with a fake passport?"

I nod, understandingly. "See, that's the part where you're not going to believe me. Would you like the truth? Or a polite lie?"

The Japanese man frowned. "You do understand that traveling without a passport, coming from communist China no less, is a serious charge? I know you Americans are brash and disorderly, but even you must understand such things."

I chuckle. "We'll start with the truth then, and if you don't arrest me, we'll go for the lie you'll accept. I have spent the last decade or more in the K'un-Lun monastic city in rural china after a portal opened beneath me. That passport you have isn't a forgery, and is completely accurate. When I fell through, the year was 2019. I arrived in K'un-Lun 13 years ago just after the portal closed."

The agent scoffed, two of the guards outright laughed and one of them became visibly mad. "You expect us to believe you spent the last 13 years in heaven, and that's why you're here with a bad passport?" He asked incredulously.

I shook my head. "No, I don't. It's quite the alarming tale. But, I can either prove it, or we can move on to the polite lie and get me some proper local identification. Which would you prefer? Because I'm going to need that Identification either way."

The agent sneered at me and nodded. "Alright, prove it then."

Smiling, I raised my hand, illuminating the meridian veins within by pumping massive amounts of chi of various elements through them and snapped my fingers. Energy burst out of my hand, forming small balls of light that radiated a sense of identity to even the weakest minds in the room.

One of the guards fainted, another collapsed to his knees and began kowtowing, the third stood there, mouth open and stiff as wood while the fourth pulled his gun on me and snarled. "Mutant scum!"

I looked over at the man who called me mutant scum and gave him a disgusted look. "I am a cultivator, little man, I worked for my abilities." And promptly ignore him.

Movement in the corner of my vision caught my attention, and I turned back to the agent. He had a look of wonder on his face, and was reaching out to touch the brilliantly golden light of the Yang chi star. "Would you mind?" I ask him. "That is the light of my soul you're fondling."

He drew his hand back as if burned. "Ah… ahem, er… yes, great sage. Um, what was the polite lie you wished to give us, that we may expedite this great ones journey?"

I gave the man a raised brow. That was quite the reversal of attitudes. Whatever, I could deal. "The polite lie is much the same. My plane went down in rural China several years ago, and I've only just worked my way back. I would like to be escorted to the American Embassy so I can prove I'm not dead, replace my Chinese forged passport and get back to my life."

The agent nods rapidly, and pulls out a notebook, writing furiously for several pages before tearing one off. He hands it to me, kicks the guard who's still kowtowing in the ribs and turns to me with a hopeful expression. "If the way to heaven is still open, perhaps the great sage in his grace would be ever so benevolent as to aid me on my own journey towards enlightenment?"

I considered for a moment. Personally, I didn't care. In fact, I'd argued to support just this action on a few occasions. But K'un-Lun had been quite adamantly against it.

Shrugging, I decided to do it anyway. I had a habit of defying heaven, they wouldn't be surprised.

"Know this, young one. Heaven is under threat by an organization known as The Hand. If they or communist China learn what I am about to tell you, even that which is eternal, may become scarred and darkened. Do you have the fortitude to protect this information, and only share it with those you would trust with your own soul?" The agent pales dramatically, but nods as though his heads about to come off.

"Alright then" I say, manipulating the chakra so that only he gets the translation, and speak audibly in one of the older (long dead) dialects of Chinese I learned in heaven. "K'un Lun can be entered for the next two years and three weeks, before it closes again for another 13 years. If you can find the organization known as The Chaste, they will act as guides, but should you go it on your own, I offer you this path. Travel to the Qeimo airport on the edge of the gobi desert and travel up the Qarqan river into the mountains. The communists unleashed a nuclear device on the physical location of the heavenly city, so you should be able to use the cinders as a good landmark. The portal to heaven is on a snowy gap in the northern ridgeline of the valley that faces the ruined city. Only by traveling through that pass from the outside will you enter heaven. When you reach the gate, you will be greeted by a warrior in green and gold silk armor, wearing a mask. His name is Bai Wen, the Iron Fist. Tell him ang moh sent you. He'll understand."

The agent bowed deeply and the formerly kowtowing guard brought me back out of the room to come face to face with my five disciples.

"Elder brother, is there a problem?" Jordan Kahananui asked, eyeing the guard dourly. The security guard took in the group, their saffron robes and looked back at me, before gulping.

"Nothing to worry about." I reply, grinning like a shark. "Airport security has simply volunteered to take me to the American embassy to update my passport. It seems I was declared dead."

Maddie and Hernando snickered at that, but Kurt nodded seriously. "We will all likely need to update our Identification," the German acknowledged. "We've been out of touch long enough our families likely consider us dead, regardless informing them of our pilgrimage."

With that decided, the guard commandeered a rental van to take us into Tokyo proper. Jordan, Maddie and I were dropped off at the American Embassy, while Kurt was taken to the Germans, Hernando to the Spanish and Leo was taken to the British embassy. Explaining my 'situation' to the staff got Jordan and Maddie cleared quickly with paperwork to reverse their declarations of death, but I once again ended up in an interrogation room.

The agent who interviewed me this time took nearly an hour to arrive, and tossed a pair of folders on the table beside my passport.

"You don't look like a 10 year old girl." He tells me, derisively.

I pull the folders toward me, opening both of them and find one with a picture of a young girl. Japanese and native Hawaiian, with my social security number. She's cute, part of an accelerated class and a ballerina. Probably end up a heart-breaker in six to eight years if she keeps them both up. "Yes, well, you know us shape-shifters," I reply, rolling my eyes and closing the folder. "New families are just so much fun."

The agent takes it seriously though. "You're like Mystique then?"

I give him a look. "I was being facetious. Let me guess, your agency doesn't have a sense of humor it's aware of?"

The agent snorts. "A 'Men In Black' reference, cute. You're also far too young to be the other guy." He indicates the second folder. This one is more interesting. A world war 2 veteran with my name, my old appearance and most of my same information, including birthday (though not date) and one of the original social security numbers from when such things were first issued to Americans. This guy though was part of a field engineer unit sent to aid Chiang Kai-shek against the communists. Declared missing in action in Quinghai province, presumed captured by the CCP and later executed, body never found.

He even had my same name and parents.

"So, who are you, exactly?"

I close the folder. "You don't believe I'm Corporal Reynard 'Rey' Hemming, army corp of engineers, back from communist china?"

The agent, who still hasn't given me his name, sits down across from me and looks me in the eyes. "No. You could be his son junior, perhaps, but for you to be him, the commies would need to have some sort of cryogenic stasis program and a reason to use it on you. While I could believe the first, the second is simply preposterous."

I smile broadly. "I suppose that's good. Because I'm neither of these people." I tell him. "I'm going to be claiming the soldier's identity though. It's convenient, and you won't believe my real story."

"And what story is that? The one you gave the Japs about how you're a time traveler who spent the last twenty years in a monastery?"

"Only thirteen years." I reply, holding up a finger to correct him. "And you'd be amazed what you can do with healthy living and a bit of purpose in a Chinese monastery."

"Looking like a 25 year old prize fighter when you're 87 isn't one of them." The agent replied.

I merely chuckle. "By my own count, I'm 56; but that's neither here nor there. I'll look like this for another thousand years, minimum."

"You're delusional."

I bring my hands up slowly, and clap them together, drawing a line of fire out between them as they part. Rotating my hands in a circle, I leave lines of water behind while the fire firms a pentagram. Small motes of yang chi coalesce into stars at each of the points where water and fire meet before a writing darkness forms in the center of the pentacle. The formation does nothing. Or if it has any purpose beyond me personally faffing about with chi control to show off, I don't know it, and thus it doesn't reflect in the identity of the chi. Instead, the whole thing radiates an identity of someone far older and more powerful than who I appear to be is sitting on my side of the table.

"I don't know, agent. You tell me?"

He took it surprisingly well, all things considered. "Shit." He muttered. "Alright, this is way above my pay-grade. Just… sit tight while I make some calls, Mr Hemming."

"I prefer, Rey, if you don't mind. Though for the last decade and change, I've gone by the Chinese words for outsider, bastard, bad influence, red haired devil, builder, Hatchling and other similar titles. Only my students ever called me by name, and even then, they mostly called me elder brother."

"Right… whatever you say, freak." He said, shaking his head.

After the agent left, I got bored and began to cultivate. Tokyo's metaphysical landscape is… weird. It's a nexus point for more than a dozen different ley lines, but it feels… unestablished maybe? Like it's not where the hub is supposed to be, and it only recently moved here. Though, given geological timescales that could have been centuries ago for all I know. Most of the lines are small outgoing paths, leading who knows where but four of them are big. The two biggest lead north north west and east south east, along the main spine of the country. Another major line leads just slightly north of east, and I figure that probably goes to Korea. The last bit one is weird though. It stinks of storms and blood and heads southwest, straight into the ocean.

The cool part about this place though, is just how many people appear to have gotten stage 1 enlightenment done. I can feel 100 of them in my third eye and I can only see a few miles in radius just yet. Tokyo's huge, so doubtless there's more. Most of them seem to be clustered slightly northwest of central Tokyo, about 10 miles from the embassy. I marked the place in my memory for later exploration. That would either be some sort of pilgrimage for me later to learn more about the Nippon Spirit school of techniques or a Hand stronghold I'd either need to join or wipe out. Still debating that point.

The agent didn't return for another four hours and when he did, it was with another agent. Sadly, not one I recognize from any comics or TV show. She was SHIELD though.

She looked me up and down and spoke aloud. "I thought you said he got lost in China, not India."

I grin. "We got all sorts in K'un-Lun. And I'm sort of a maverick. Don't worry about it, agent…?" I explain, holding out a hand.

"Wheeler," the shield agent said, not taking mine.

I let go of my cultivation draw and the air in the room stopped circulating. And I stopped glowing. Faintly. Tokyo's environment was seven times stronger than my soul, it was nothing on the 42 I got up to while working at K'un-Lun but that was better than the one fifth I had to deal with through most of the trip.

"So, what do I have to do to prove I'm alive?" I ask the shield agent. "Because being legally dead makes having a life somewhat difficult. You get dragged to places like this for instance."

Agent Wheeler frowned. "Paperwork, mostly" she said flatly. "You also need to go on the Index and receive a caseworker."

"I'm afraid I'm not either settling here or simply on my way back to the US." I deny. "I'm traveling on business. Unless you're going to send this caseworker with me, I'm gonna have to pass."

The agents looked at each other. "And if I put you under arrest?" Agent Wheeler asked slowly.

I smile slightly. "I'd simply escape and continue on my journey. Unless you're secretly Agent Natasha Romanov, in which case that is an excellent disguise, you've no chance of stopping me. As I said; I have business I must attend to. Even so, I'm here talking with you, rather than bypassing customs because I felt it would be more convenient to renew my paperwork now. I revealed my abilities to the embassy agent because I'd rather not sit here for weeks waiting for clerks to go through the paperwork and because achieving my ultimate goal will likely require me to do some favor or other for Nick Fury, so I needed to get in contact with you anyway."

"And what is your ultimate goal?" Wheeler asked, writing notes.

"Oh, you know, the usual." I reply waving my hand negligently. "Return a few missing artifacts to my order, save a few kids abducted by a rival organization, train a recently discovered chosen one." Escape this reality before it suddenly ends… "Nothing particularly special."

Wheeler continued to write. "What made you think you'd need SHIELD's help? There are dozens of organizations that specialize in missing children. Our department specializes in superhuman security, dangerous science and international conspiracy."

I chuckle. "Because the kids are superhuman" I reply "as are the people who took them. And because several of the artifacts are in SHIELD custody, recovered after raiding Hydras pillaging facilities. I believe you call them 084's and store them beneath a lighthouse. Quite where this lighthouse is though, I'm unsure, and doubtless there's quite a bit of security which we'd both really rather not have me fight through."

Wheeler froze. "How do you…"

"Know about the lighthouse?" I ask. "I saw it in a vision when looking for the artifacts. A mystic flyover isn't quite google maps though, so… contact the owner."

He nods. "I see. And how to secret organizations of wizards lose their artifacts to a group like Hydra?"

"The blue guns." I answer simply. And the fact we never had them to begin with.

"The blue… oh. Oh! Ok, that makes sense." The agent goes quiet for a moment before leaning forward. "Here's what I can do for you. I can expedite your passport on the good faith effort you've shown here. Just fill out a few papers for me, and I'll have it done before you are. Officially reinstating you as a living legal entity, never mind as Corporal Hemming; that will take some time, no matter how many strings I pull. And if SHIELD is going to pull those strings for you, the absolute minimum you'll have to agree to is registering on the Index and cooperating with your caseworker."

"And your preferred asking price?" I challenge, amused.

"SHIELD is always looking for capable agents, Mr Hemming. You won't be the first 'Gifted' agent in the field." She gave a small smirk.

"And If I agree to that, you'll get some sort of commendation for having recruited me," I guessed.

She shrugged. "It's only fair. I also take hits and blame if you cause trouble."

I nod slowly. "My contact for finding the kids is in New York City. SHIELD still has its headquarters in the old Bell building on 3rd avenue?"

"They've completely rebuilt the bell building, but yes, same place." She handed me a small folder of papers. "Now, please fill these out, starting with this one, and we can get started."

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

I left the Tokyo US embassy three hours later, with all five disciples and returned to the airport. Our flight into Japan had arrived late in the evening and the next one to America wasn't going to be until morning tomorrow, so thanks to the quick turnaround at the embassies we stayed the night in the utterly luxurious 9 Hours Haneda capsule hotel. I'm joking here, it was about as comfortable as racks in the navy, but after 13 years in K'un-Lun, barring the palatial cultivators estate I made in my last two years, it was still a step up.

[img: . ?width=846&height=564]

The next flight left at 4AM and lasted 16 hours. Breakfast and Lunch were served on the flight, along with several movies and complimentary headphones. The TV screens were large clunky vacuum tube models which was something I definitely didn't miss replacing, but there was just something… nostalgic about watching "Fight Club" and "The Matrix" as "new premiere" videos. And Ironic, given where I where I had been for the last decade and change.

The movie are… interesting case studies though. Marla Singer, Tyler Durden's girlfriend, is now Marla Singing-water; a half Native American and the machines in the Matrix are now using human brains as a distributed computing matrix rather than chemical batteries. Human brains are what RUN the matrix in the first place and why all of the themes about waking up are there. I'd heard internet rumors that was what it was originally supposed to be in my own reality, but corporate Hollywood couldn't grok it, so they demanded the change. In either case, the movies are 98% the same, which is an interesting indicator for things to come.

Landing was another interesting experience. We were in Mexico's main international airport, but there were three major things wrong with the place. First, the city was still called Tenochtitlan, not Mexico City. Second, everybody here spoke Italian, not Spanish. Well, Italian and Nahuatl, but the native Aztec seemed to be in the minority. Third, rather than yellow fog, a trash lake and ramshackle faux-modern buildings; the city I can see from the airport looks like a tropical resort built around the still existent Lake Texcoco. There's even a handy dandy travel guide with labels and everything.

There is something very odd about this reality.

Then again… it is called Earth 200,000 for a reason, should figure there would be more drift than 616 which merely has super-powered secret heroes, communities, nations and races floating around. We had a 12 hour layover though, so I decided to get to the bottom of it.

Or, well, at least scratch the surface. Heh.

As my disciples and I sat down for dinner at a restaurant attached to the airport, I spoke to them (deliberately) in mandarin. "So, you remember how I'm not from your world?" I asked the group. They nodded and grimaced, having been told this before when they decided to become primarily my students rather than The Thunderers. THAT had been an interesting few days. "Well, it seems I've run face first into… more significant differences from what I remember." I waved my hand around to indicate the general area. "This place? My history tells me it was conquered in 1519 by Hernan Cortez and his conquistador army in the name of Spain and has been so mismanaged it's considered the most polluted and crime ridden city in both American continents… Thaaat's obviously not the case, so, care to fill me in?"

Jordan shrugged. "History beyond Hawaii wasn't really my thing. I spent most of school getting into fights. Maddie?"

The Korean American girl, Madelyn Cho rolled her eyes. "Sometimes it's hard to remember you're not from here, master, you certainly fit our history of heroic figures. Alright… just, keep in mind, I'm NOT a historian, I'm just the relative geek in this group, so there'll probably be a bunch of important details I don't get right here. Bear with me."

"SO, let's start with the easiest part, the Hernan Cortez and the Reconquista. In 1490, after 700 years of Jihad, Spain finished consolidating the reclamation of the Iberian peninsula and launched a counter invasion of North Africa. Cortez was one of the great cultural heroes of the early campaign, but he was also one of the most brutal generals involved. He was instrumental in returning Christianity to the region spanning from Marrakech to Carthage. Spain would spend the next hundred and fifty years sending wave after wave of conquistadors to eradicate the Islamic menace and reclaim Christendom. The entire region from Morocco to Egypt is collectively referred to as Hispania these days."

"The spanish fueled this campaign by changing marriage laws in Spain so that a man could marry as many as four wives if he could afford it and if he and they agreed to have large families and all sons except his heir would join the Reconquista. They further promised foriegn brides to all conquistadors. As you can imagine… the result was bloody. But… it worked. It's generally considered one of the darker times in human history these days. Unless you're Hispanic, they're fucking proud as punch to be descended from the winners. I guess in your timeline this happened to Central America?"

I nod slowly, processing that. The reconquista had originally been intended to do… more or less what Maddie had described, but failed to follow through when the British sank their fleet on the eve of invasion. The marriage thing was… well, ok, it wasn't surprising either. That was more or less the origin of the Hispanic race in America. Native women and then African when the local men ran out from death-camp slavery and they had to import. That the Spanish here didn't finish in Persia though was interesting, as it was also part of Christendom prior to Muhammad.

"South America too. I assume something else happened there? In my timeline, a man named Columbus found the Caribbean islands with four ships granted to him by the Spanish queen after he seduced her. The Columbian expedition was supposed to be a distraction, first as a propaganda piece, and then when Columbus actually found something, a way of building money to fund the Reconquista. But just as they were preparing to launch on north Africa 1580, the British challenged them, and in 1588 the British fleet managed to sink their entire Spanish Armada in a single battle. That battle gave the Brits the balls to take over half the world before the burden maintaining an empire just about killed them during the two world wars."

Maddie nods. "British history sounds more or less the same, I think? They sent armed trading ships all over the world and conquered everywhere they landed with money, right?" I nod. "Well, take out the part about sinking the Spanish Armada then and our history's probably the same there."

"As far as Columbus, yeah, he got four ships from the Spanish queen. I hadn't heard he seduced her before, but that makes sense. Anyway, she gave him the Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria and Gallaga. Most people forget that last one. Anyway, Columbus ships sank somewhere in the mid-Atlantic shortly after Spain launched the Reconquista, and when he returned in 1495, he had wild tales about having been attacked by a leviathan and having found Atlantis in a cave under the sea floor."

Our meals arrive and we pause the conversation while the server places everything down. When they leave, Maddie continues. "He peddled the story back and forth across Europe for almost a decade before managing to get Italian controlled Greece to buy into his story. They only gave him two ships, but he set out again and managed to find Amazonia. How the Greeks managed to keep it quite nobody quite knows, but between Amazonian gold and the Reconquista distracting their overlords, the Greeks managed to free themselves from both Italian and Ottoman control, hold off the Suleymani Jihad and reconquer Turkish Europe from Serbia to Moldavia and convince both Italy and Spain that they got the gold from robbing the Ottomans."

She shook her head, digging into the pasta. "The Greek conquest of South America at least was pretty straight forward. They would march their army up to a city, send forth a champion to fight the city's champion, who was usually the chief or the chief's son. Then the Greek champion would marry the chief's daughter when the chief or his son was dead. As far as the amazonians were concerned, that was perfectly civilized warfare, and so they started sending diplomats to meet with the greeks. Greece and the Amazonians managed to work out a deal; they'd give the Greeks their cheap gold art and excess warriors eager for glory, and in exchange, the Greeks would give them steel and the knowledge to find, make and use it."

She scoffed. "The promise of Amazonian warriors was how the Italians finally figured everything out. When they did though, they kept it quiet too, but invaded Athens and convinced the Greeks to let them in on the scam. The Italians took the place of your Cortez and conquered Mexico from Panama to current day California and Texas. They were more brutal than the Greeks, but followed more or less the same pattern of marching their armies up to cities and marrying into the city when they won. The Aztecs practice of human sacrifice though, that pissed off the catholic church something fierce, so there was a campaign against the priests, which naturally pissed off the people causing them to fight a lot harder than their southern cousins. Lots of racial tension in Mexico over that still, which isn't helped by them having a much smaller mixed race population than either North or South America."

My inquisitive delight turned to a scowl. "America's different too?"

Maddie shrugged. "Maybe? I dunno, what's the history of your America?"

I lean back into my seat. "To keep it simple? It started with the Norse finding Newfoundland and getting beaten off by the Skraelings."

"Yeah, that's different." Jordan interrupted.

I frown when he doesn't continue and press on. "Not much else happens between 1230 and 1500, but Columbus coming back in 1494 having found the Caribbean spread across Europe like wildfire, and England started reexamining Norse maps of Newfoundland. They sent out a colony to found Labrador colony in Newfoundland and Roanoke colony in Virginia in 1580, but they vanished too."

"That Roanoke place inspired Lovecraft's stories," Kahananui interrupted again. "The colonists claimed to be hunted by strange squid faced creatures from the sea who wanted to eat their brains, but a romance with the local tribes ended up teaching them how to resist the mind slavers and fight back using copper and silver dust and weapons. It's total bullshit, but it makes for great stories!"

I'm starting to notice a pattern here. Romance, heroes and villain armies. I pause for Jordan to continue, but again, he doesn't, blithely eating as he watches me for more. Narrowing my eyes at him, I continue. "The British tried again, in 1606, succeeding in founding Jamestown Virginia. Jamestown started America's rather complicated history of slavery. Namely with the white colonists rebelling against the company men holding them in bondage, killing them and taking the colony into their own hands. America was too far from England to really enforce the law though, so the crown let it be and started setting up new colonies using criminals and political rivals as first in colonists." I waited for Jordan to interject, but he didn't, so I continued. "1619, after several failed attempts to reclaim the settlers, the Burgess group, the noble family responsible for setting up most of the colonies purchased slaves from Niger and shipped them to the colonies to take up the duty of cheap labor."

"That didn't happen." Jordan spoke up. "The Spanish owned most of North Africa at that point and considered anything African theirs to be claimed at some later point. There were a bunch of battles over it."

Maddie nodded. "The first African slaves arrived in America in 1730, Florida with Malian imperial settlers. There's also been a lot of conspiracy theories about colonial America's attempts to buy from the Malian Empire on the Ivory coast. If the Spanish didn't sink or capture the ship, there would be some random slave who would break out of their chains and murder the entire crew in the middle of the night and sail the ship to Congo. Records from sailors who jumped overboard talked of silver weapons that would cause their steel to melt on contact and shining shields made of air."

"That would probably be Wakanda," I reply, pointing at her with a forkful of shrimp and noodles.

"Wakanda Is just a myth!" one of my other disciples, Leopold scoffs. "Italy rolled through those goat herders like they weren't even there and found nothing."

I fix him with a stare. "Wakanda is real." I tell him, flatly. "The Hall of Ancestral Knowledge has memories of the place. They're built atop the meteor crater of a metal called Vibranium, which causes most metals to melt on contact and absorbs impact like my fire absorbs chi. Captain America's shield is made of the material."

The five of them swear and begin whispering to each other. We all continue eating for a few minutes before I continue. "With the success of Jamestown and the rest, most of Europe quickly got in on the act as though it were a fashion trend. One of the more famous colonies though, was Plymouth Massachusetts."

"Thanksgiving story, right?" Jordan asked. "The chief, Powhatan, tried to recruit the colony to help the Iroquois Nation against encroachment from Oshiem, but the Puritans shut him down hard. He came to them again every month, offering less and demanding more, until they started to take casualties from starvation. Then a Scottish girl offered herself to him in exchange for mercy and he brought Plymouth a feast and just enough supplies to last the winter if they rationed carefully. The puritans continued to refuse for two more years, but the prisoners and political exiles faction who was sent with them as punishment accepted that Christmas and started the American tradition of conquering land through marrying all of the locals."

That brought me up short. "And Oshiem is?"

"Country north of the United States. Where your Skraelings drove off Lief Ericson, It was him, wasn't it?" I nod and he continues. "Right, when your Skraelings drove off Lief and his buddies, for us, Thurd Liefsdottor married one of the Skraelings and joined the tribes. Funny story too. See, the Skraelings were like the Aztecs in that they practiced human sacrifice. That didn't bother the Vikings none, cause they did it too. But when the Skraeling army stood before the Newfoundland fortified village and told them that if they wanted the land they needed to seize the hearts of the people, they thought the Vikings understood they meant you had to carve out the warriors beating hearts. Instead, Thurd walked up to the chief's son, grabbed him by the balls, kissed him and asked if he wanted to start the mating combat in the field or her meadhall. Oshiems' been a little weird ever since."

I cracked up laughing. "In my timeline, Oshiem is called Canada and was settled by the French, starting with Pierre de Monts and Samuel de Champlain just north of the great lakes. The British and French fought over the area for a while, but the Brits took Newfoundland in the treaty of Paris. The french also went around through the gulf of Mexico to claim everything on the Mississippi river. That worked for a century or two, until that same war forced them to sell the entire region to America in the 'Louisiana Purchase'."

Maddie nodded. "That happened here too. The Mississippi Paris thing, not Oshiem. Oshiem never fell to the Brits or the French and while they tried to sail down the Mississippi, they encountered fierce resistance from the Sioux alliance. The french claim to the riverland suffered about as well. They did manage to take most of the Caribbean islands from the Italians though, which caused a lot of naval battles between Italy and France. Particularly as the french enslaved all of the native Italian descendants, forced the remaining natives into the sea to swim for Florida and ransomed the pure Italian families back to Italy."

We continued to talk for hours on the subject, but other than Mutants being a thing and high-school students nicknaming westward expansion "the great fuckening", American history seemed to get closer and closer to what I recognized as we neared modern day. It was actually fairly eerie how close modern history remained, in spite of the massive changes earlier in the timeline.

Transatlantic slave trading was run directly by the Malian Empire rather than going through European middlemen, but it still happened. The civil war still happened, but it was much messier and more focused on states rights than slave states vs free states and reconstruction was shorter and less humiliating. The 13th amendment didn't exist, but then, neither did Jim crow or the 3/5ths rule, they just seized Malian Imperial property and offered the slaves a choice of citizenship and assimilation or a return to Africa, namely promptly created Liberia. Instead of Spanish American war, we had an Italian American war with the same conclusion. Westward expansion included 1000% more romeo and juliet but there are still reservations. Small ones. Apparently all that time fighting Oshiem made them resistant to America's new romance based expansion. They're the only pure natives tribes left in America, though even they still have significant mixed race populations. The acquisition of California and the west coast temporarily created two americas to be joined by the transcontinental railroad. Robber barons, big oil and Teddy Roosevelt included a lot more native american names, but were otherwise unchanged. There was no trail of tears, little bighorn or japanese internment, but world wars 1 and 2, the roaring 20's stock market crash, prohibition, Civil Rights 60's, Ronald Regan, Alger Hiss, JFK and the cold war all happened almost exactly the same. Cuba was Creol rather than Hispanic but the Russian still tried to station nukes there.

To which point, we're apparently including the X-men First class timeline, because that was when Mutants hit the history books. Magneto assassinated JFK, Jimmy Hoffa was revealed to be Mystique, the Korean war was won by Charles Xavier, Vietnam and Cold War spy games had both public and classified mutant teams codenamed Unicorn on our side and Baba Yaga on the Russians. Days of Futures Past doesn't seem to have happened though, and if the Apocalypse or Phoenix sagas happened at all, they either happened while my disciples were stuck at K'un-Lun with me, or nobody even noticed the cinematic global events taking place.

Also strange, California retains its name, as according to Maddie, it was named that after popular book about a Califa, or Muslim queen, who ruled a great mountain strewn desert that hid a lush valley full of grapes, much like southern California.

Most of the changes between my modern timeline and this one look like they're going to be subtle cultural cues like the million and one in jokes in a Pixar movie.

The important question though, was how much did this change my plans? Did this 2010's Marvel revision of history affect anything meaningful in terms of my gaining power, having fun, or getting my son back? The only thing I can think of is that it'll make finding the Kree city more difficult. Instead of going to the named Spanish fort in Puerto Rico and lifting up a drainage pipe cover, I'll have to crack out the ground penetrating radar trick I learned for my root chakra. No big deal. Also, if Stick has already given Electra to the Natchios family, stated as being the Greek Ambassadors to the United states, that… may make things rather complicated. Or perhaps not, because the Spanish ambassador isn't particularly important in my world despite having the same relative international historical place.

The big consequences come later as best I can figure. I mean, OK, we have X-men first class. That means the impact marvel has on the world is much earlier than Tony Stark vanishing in the middle east in 2008. On the other hand, that apparently didn't matter enough for my future self to comment on it when warning me that Infinity war was still happening the exact same as in the MCU.

Figuring there was nothing I could do about in my present mission, I dismissed my disciples to have fun on the town. Tenochtitlan was very obviously a resort city after all; so long as they knew how to get back to the plane, a Chaste chapter or safe-house it would be silly not to allow them. I did insist they used the buddy system though. We may have proven they were each worth 10 Hand warriors, there was no reason to expect we wouldn't be ambushed anyway for narratives sake.

For my part, I wandered along with Kurt Vahlen just sort of passively observing everything while he did as he pleased.

In my world, lake Texcoco has been filled in by trash, concrete and deliberate constant drainage, reducing the valley to the worst excesses of urban sprawl. Here, the lake was carefully preserved, its shores covered with resort hotels and marina. Casino spread garish lights, not quite as thick as Vegas, but comparable, and the Island of Aztec lore remained, encircled by its natural moat and bridges. The island on the other hand, hadn't been preserved very well. There seemed to have been attempts to revive things in neo-modern, but the great ziggurat and other ancient architecture had been replaced by glass and steel art pieces. Kurt said they were government buildings, and the entire island had been given over to the colonial, now national, government use exclusively.

Opening my seven chakra, I set them spinning; listening to the foriegn languages with my throat chakra and looking out over the world with my third eye. The lights of the city dimmed as they were replaced by a far stronger brilliance of mystic forces. In my new eyes, the city had become a hubcap of ley lines. There were five worth mentioning, one thick and golden heading off toward the southeast, and four… comparatively spindly streams coming in from the west, northwest, north and east-north-east.

Each of them gave off a distinctive feel, and if I had to, I hazard I could guess where the spiritual power came from. The ley lines to the west and south east quivered with a feeling of age and blood scabbed over by a film of bright newness. They were likely more ancient Aztec cities undergoing urbanization by an apparently prosperous nation. The one to the southeast also shivered with faint but deep echos of terror, pain and incredible power, it likely ended at the Temple of the Forgotten in the Yucatan. In the northwest the leyline practically danced with the feeling of dreams and anxiety. The same twisted feeling of a cultivator on drugs rotted its core and when I concentrate I could swear movies were playing among the spiritual currents. Likely Los Angeles, or whatever they called Hollywood in this weird world where mexico was greek. Directly to the north, the line was thick with fire and earth but fairly blasted the same feelings that came off the brightly lit casino' around the lakes perimeter; Vegas I'm almost certain. Florida or maybe Cuba in the east-north-east; at the core of the immense presence of water in the line was a hint of earth, life, salt and the same party atmosphere as radiated off the resort hotels.

If I had to guess. I'll need to actually explore them to know anything for sure.

The flows within the city itself were more interesting, if for no other reason than I had a better read on them. Aside from my disciples, there were 38 people in sight who had active spirits. Of those 38, only seven of them seem to have any organization to their spirits and only one is as powerful as my friends are. If it came down to it, I could probably handle all 38 of them at once. From the look of things though, I probably wouldn't need to. None of the 38 were in the same place; and while that may not mean anything, it did cut down on the chances they were organized somehow. Or that they were after me and my people.

Focusing in on each of them in turn, I looked for anything interesting. Several of them seemed to have their chi pooling loosely around their third eye chakra and were sitting across from civilian spirits. Fortune tellers maybe? One of them with the thickest chi of the group, seemed to notice my attention, but couldn't pinpoint me. Let's put that at a tentative yes. One had his chi pooling broadly in his lower dantian and radiated a mixed feeling of contentment and hunger? He moved around like in a dance, his right arm moving rhythmically as though he were chopping something. Possibly a gourmet chef? It would be hilarious if he'd accidentally become an enlightened chef simply because of the location. If I ever came back, I'd have to try his food.

Three others seemed to reach out with their chi in a way that hurt my head. They were touching other people all across the city, but I couldn't quite fathom how or what they were doing. 10 others gave off a feeling of blood and had things tacked onto their souls, as though pinned there like military badges. It felt unnatural, and if I had to guess, that was the sacrifice magic of Xibalba. The previous group may have been hero cultivators? But what would hero cultivators be doing here? I thought they were extinct?

The remainder had even stranger souls. If you've ever read a paper about dark matter and wondered how it looked when an energy you couldn't see affected another energy you could see, this would be a pretty good example of what you're probably imagining. Their chi, in most cases, was thick enough to be water, but it swirled, ballooned, contracted and formed spikes of energy seemingly in response to something. Whatever that something was though, I couldn't see it, and it didn't seem to be their physical movements. Whatever was going on, there was either none of the order to their spirits that signified an enlightenment, or the order that existed was alien and arcane to me and my studies in a way the others just weren't. Where the hero and sacrifice cultivators hurt my head to look at, they were at least working along a paradigm I could comprehend. These guys? Not so much.

With my luck, these would be either Mutants, Inhumans or part of the lively alien community all marvel continuities seemed to cultivate.

Things to worry about later. I popped out my computer and made a detailed report of my findings before checking to see if anywhere nearby had a wifi connection. They did not, I'm sad to say. Wifi was first released to the public in 1997 and household routers in 1999. Marvel is supposed to be on average a decade ahead of modern tech, but either that didn't extend into Mexico or didn't hold true in this reality.

Sighing, I checked the time and stored the device once more. Time to mix business with pleasure.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

The first of the spiritual anomalies we reached was one of the fortune tellers. She operated out of a casino Kurt had taken a fancy too and while he played the tables, I approached her booth.

"My, what a strong man you are…" she crooned in Italian. "Obviously bound for greatness. Would you like old Madam Adler to tell you your future?" I folded myself into the seat across from her and pulled out a chi condensation pill, causing her to frown. "I don't deal in drugs, young man."

I chuckle. "You've never seen drugs like mine, fortuneteller." I counter, rolling the pill across the back of my fingers. "This is a chi condensation pill. If you have any training whatsoever in your craft, you'll be able to use it to advance your powers from a gimmick used in the atrium of casinos to something you can make real money with."

The old woman's eyes lit up, before turning suspicious. "Assume you're telling the truth, you would not give something like that up for free. What is it you want?"

I snorted. "Can't you guess, fortune teller?"

"Give me your hands, boy." I do so and her eyes begin to glow faintly. I can feel her power trying to flow up my wrists, only to be rebuffed by the sheer weight of my chi, like air trying to get through a wall. With an effort of will, I let it pass, and the power continues up to my own third eye where it joins the spiral. Then she begins to speak. "I see… a crown. You want me to wear it. No, not wear it, feed it. Feed it my mind. My… powers? No, my experience using the powers my grandmother taught me. And… you were truthful about the pill. IT CAME FROM WHERE!?"

She jerks her hands back as though burned and stares at me in awe and horror. With a small mental flex, the power she left in my body burns and becomes entirely my own, along with an impression of what she was doing. By forcing open another's third eye chakra, you can gain insights into them and the things they hide. It's not mind reading, indeed being closer to psychometry, but it acts similarly enough. More interestingly, while held like that, the victim cannot lie to themselves. They can lie aloud of course, but a lot of people can't really tell the difference.

"As it turns out," I reply lazily, "the dead do indeed talk. And quite a bit else. Now, you've proven you're not a fraud, so how about we make that deal?"

She reached out her hand shakily for the pill, but as it rolled over my ring, it vanished, to be replaced with the jade crown held between two fingers. She scowls. "If I put that thing on, you must allow me to use it as it was intended. You're gaining a lifetime of skills in this deal, the spirit pill is not enough."

My grin turns to something approaching baring teeth. "And in that crown is the knowledge of a thousand lifetimes." I repost. "Knowledge being the one resource that grows best by trading, you may take an equal time gaining knowledge as you spend giving it. But in that case, I'll keep my pill and you can repeat the effect by training your abilities like I did."

"You would torment an old lady so?" she wheedled, giving me a pained expression.

"Yes."

"Fine. Give me that pill, and I'll give you my experience."

The pill reappeared, and I handed her both items, a string of my chi clinging to the jade. I watched in satisfaction as she did exactly what we agreed to, starting with her mother's lessons as a teenager and continuing on for fifty years of using, modifying and developing new techniques. In exchange, she took the knowledge of how to open the other six chakra and properly digest chi taken from pills. It's rather fascinating to watch someone else go through the process, but by the end of the hour, we're done. Her chi has become a liquid and all six of her remaining chakra are growing wider in a rippling sequence.

I retrieve the crown and store it, holding out my hand. "A pleasure doing business with you, Madam Adler. Give your mother my regards."

She returned my handshake with a notably more powerful grip than before and I left to find Kurt.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

The next anomaly we met was one of the native sacrifice cultivators. He operated out of an arena down the street from the casino. Kurt laid his winnings from the casino on himself and joined the matches for a lark, while I made my way to the VIP box where the cultivator sat.

I tried to be polite about it, but I still had to knock a few of them aside on my way up. By the time I got to the hallway with the cultivator though, the guards were letting me through and an escort had even appeared. When I got to the room, it became obvious why.

"Welcome, invader." The native man said, rising from his chair. "I could feel you and your friend from the moment you entered the front door, but not taking part in the games? That's rude." The room around us looked like a cross between a hunters lodge, a morgue and a Hoarder's warren. Jars of eyes, hearts and brains, mounted heads, ears, tongues and limbs, a plate of freshly cooked liver and all of it a mix of human and animal. There tended to be multiple times more animal parts than human, but there was still evidence of at least 30 human sacrifices here.

The question though was "how do you get your human sacrifices?"

He scoffed "you're American, aren't you? Right, straight to business." He made a gesture, and his men brought a seat for me along with a small table on which a steak was placed. "In deference to your greater power, I will answer your questions, but only if you return in kind."

"I can agree to that. I apologize for forcing my way up here, but it seemed efficient. Better to ask forgiveness than permission."

The arena owner hummed, pouring a strong drink that fumed alcohol like a cloud. "Definitely American." I took the offered cup, and used Adler's technique to crack open the man's third eye and throat chakras. "Most of my trophies are from hunts I went on personally, but my human samples are more eclectic. Those who donated their bodies to medicine, traitors with useful skills, challengers who signed blood-sport waivers in my Arena. I am not a good man, but I am far better by your northern estimation than my rivals. Now, how did you manage to gain such power? No one path offers the results I feel from you."

Having forced him to respond truthfully, I felt obliged to do so as well. "I am a student of many paths." I tell him. "And for a price, you could be as well. That is, in fact my business here. In K'un-Lun and Mount Meru, I have walked the paths of Heaven and Earth, learned all their myriad secrets and combined them as best I was able. Now, I travel the world, hoping to reach the other five heavens and do the same. If you would tell me of your path of Sacrifice, I would tell you of Heaven or Earth."

He laughs. "You must plan to be here for quite some time then. Alexandro Cuautli… " He said, offering me his name.

"Reynard Hemming." I reply, "And I've got a faster method." I pulled out another pill and the crown. "This is a body cleansing pill. Take it, and the spiritual power within will clear away most forms of damage including scars, disease and drugs and make your chi easier to use overall. Though there is a minor side effect of pissing black ooze for a day or two as your body empties out the mess. I suggest directing its power to specifically work on the kidneys, heart and liver, but you may wish to do otherwise. I offer this in apology for my earlier rudeness."

He took the pill and examined it before popping it in his mouth. "Know that if you've poisoned me, that by accepting your gift my arts can let me strike at your spirit from a great distance."

My brows raise, intrigued. "And if I was dealing with you honestly?"

He frowns slightly. "Then I would be unable to harm you by that method. Why am I telling you this?"

"Because you feel like bragging," I tell him blandly. "Also, my spiritual presence is affecting you. If you've ever been with someone else who so outclassed you, it's similar." I clear my throat as the chakra there tightens. God dammit the drawbacks to chakra are irritating. "On to business though, this little ornament is known as the Akashic Crown. By putting it on, you offer to trade knowledge for knowledge. Everything the crown has learned before is open to you, in exchange for the things you have learned. Show it the secrets of the Path of Sacrifice, and you can see how to multiply your power with the secrets of the paths of Heaven or Earth."

"And what if I want both paths?" Alex asked, now looking both extremely greedy and incredibly warry. "Or if I don't trust an item designed to root around in my head. My path has multiple ways to enslave another, and this sounds similar."

"Fascinating as that is," I rebut, "memories have to be transferred deliberately and will always feel foriegn to the receiver. So long as you don't show me those methods, I can't take them. And while there are likely methods along the paths of heaven and earth, they have not been shared with me. I can put the crown on and use it myself, if you're worried it's a trap. I recently purchased some skills from another and haven't had time to review them yet."

He seemed to consider the issue for several minutes as I dug into the steak he had offered. It was a rather pungent pork, likely wild rather than farm raised, but it was excellently cooked and seasoned. It wasn't until the announcer in the arena mentioned Kurt Vahlen that Alex spoke again.

"If you are this powerful from two paths, I shall be more so from three. I will take your deal, American. A path for a path."

I handed him the crown, leaving a string attached to the jade headpiece. Settling in, I watched as Kurt fought and Alex Cuautli learned. The information flowing in from Alex was roughly the same volume as what I'd gotten from Miss Adler, but it was all novel methods and techniques, not things i could have figured out on my own with time and practice, and that made it far more valuable. As such, I didn't interfere when he greedily took in most of what K'un-Lun had to offer.

What I saw in the memories Alex offered the crown though, was surprising. There's a lot more to sacrifice than killing someone and taking their things. You can make sacrifices of yourself to others, enchanting multiple people, short or long term, or pass down all of the spiritual power you'd gained over a lifetime to an heir. You can make sacrifices of yourself, to yourself; suspending progress on one aspect or another of your power to quickly advance others, or store power automatically for use in big bursts later. You could aid others in performing sacrifices to you or to another third party, transferring power or traits in a manner very similar to the Gu, but almost more advanced. And finally, of course, there was the ability to sacrifice others. You could take an enemy's power upon the altar, gain their perspective by taking their eyes, their courage by taking the heart, knowledge and personality traits by using their head. The ability to selectively take on the traits of various animals was what most interested me, but the possibilities were as expansive as they were gruesome, and surprisingly, often honorable.

Or, well, as honorable as self sacrifice is to begin with. Often you help others better by helping yourself than by giving everything up for others, but catholic philosophy is so deeply engrande in our culture, good luck getting even the most ardent anti-christian activist to recognize that. For the greater good… bah humbug. Forethought leaves lie to that.

By the time Cuautli is done trading, the crowd outside is chanting Vahlen's name as he's moved from fighting a wild boar, to several people with weapons, ranging from clubs to guns. He was dancing through them, striking with a rippling force that somehow threw his opponents around, but didn't break bones. Lei Kung's signature style, the Thundering Fist. Gotta love that comic book physics.

Taking back the crown, I also removed my chi from his chakras and stored the device. "Are you satisfied with this trade?"

Alex nodded. "I'll tell my man at the betting window not to cheat your man on his earnings. Now go, I have much thinking to do."

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

Kurt walked out of the arena behind me with a duffle bag slung over his shoulder. "So, where to next boss?"

I looked over at him, amused. "I thought I was following you? Don't tell me you've already completed your night's revelry…"

He huffed. "Don't think I didn't notice you wandering off to talk to foriegn cultivators, master. I look forward to working with you on the new techniques."

I shrug. "Maybe. The Man in the Arena spoke to me of sacrifice. It's profound, but not entirely pleasant, stuff."

"Most things aren't," he countered, "but you make them into day use tricks anyway."

"Hmm… It'll certainly help with crafting sacred beast parts." I agreed, thinking. "And it's got some interesting techniques for turning delayed gratification into power. Gradual progression vs burst advancement. I can also see an option to turn a zoo into permanent minor power ups. But it's also got techniques to do the same to other people. That seems to be most of it actually."

Kurt looks over at me oddly. "I would have thought that sort of thing would have been suppressed by what we talked about earlier."

"I guess they didn't get everybody and just drove it underground." I shrug. "Not really surprising, given how hero cultivation was largely lost to europe. Competing with the locals would be bloody business, so somethings bound to slip through." Waving my hand as though to clear away bugs, I continued. "I was able to sense four types of paths here, across about fifty people. I've already got two of them and the last I don't think is a proper path, so the last target is a hero cultivator… that way, about three miles. We don't have enough time to really make any of these paths efficient where the crown is concerned, but with a good example to use that's about where I started in K'un-Lun, which works for me."

The pair of us walked about a mile, discussing the things I'd gotten from Alex the sacrifice cultivator when Kurt went quiet and looked to the side. "What about that one, master?"

I looked where he was pointing and felt like slapping myself. Somehow, I'd been absorbed enough in our conversation, I'd missed us walking up on a catholic church. Well, mini cathedral honestly. Looking into the medieval structure with my third eye, I saw what Kurt was looking at. It was one of the spirits with the chaotic chi. This one seemed to be parted by spikes of… something I just couldn't see. Given Sir Pemberton's travelogue of the seven heavens, this was likely a middle eastern (or in this case coptic christian) cultivator of the Light and Dark dimensions.

Did that mean all of the bizarre souls were people either corrupted by or cultivating Light and Dark dimension energy? Or were they still mutants as was my original guess? Because if they were churchgoers that meant this method had the most practitioners in the city. On one hand, that could make sense as in my world both Italians and Mexicans were highly religious despite the efforts of the left… on the other… I'd kinda been hoping for mutants?

I relayed these thoughts to Kurt and he sneered. "You're right, let's go."

Huh… I… hadn't expected that. Shrugging, I started walking again. "Mind if I ask?"

"The Light and Dark dimensions are a plague," the german replied. "My last mission before coming to the holy city we followed Hand operatives into a Roxxon Lab. They were working with Light and Dark energy, trying to control it. I was the only one in my unit who survived. That was why I was chosen to enter heaven, because I survived where others did not, therefore I must be special." He spat on the sidewalk. "You saw how I was when we met. Last in class, only ahead of Hernando."

"I see…" He'd told me he'd lost his entire cell when we'd met, but never why. Given he was also the most religious of my five apprentices and catholic as well, this was one of those psychological things I wasn't qualified to handle.

Mental note. I probably shouldn't take him with me when I went to sweep up Cloak and Dagger in 2008.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

We finished the walk to the closest Hero cultivator and found ourselves standing outside a late night news station. Making our way up the outside of the building through judicious use of Light Body technique, we entered through a balcony and proceeded inside. The Hero cultivator was the comedy anchor, ranting about the latest government scandal, Mutant Rights demonstration and how racial tensions between the Aztec and Italians seemed to have created another cartel war. One without shooting this time; because hatchets and ice pick's were apparently more civilized.

The guy was mildly funny, but by listening through my throat chakra I was probably missing a lot of the context behind why one thing or other would cause the audience to laugh or cheer. Translating meaning rather than specific words and twists of phrase could do that. Kurt and I went almost half an hour without being noticed, waiting for the guy's episode to end, but the crowd camera turned on us when a studio guard tried to remove us and I knocked him out with a pat on the back of the head.

"Hey, you in the shiny blue suit!" the anchor, Geovani called out. "Is that silk? I didn't know we had any hoity toity types in the crowd! Come on down! Let's have a chat!"

Shrugging, I stand up and walk down the side of the audience to a chorus of jeers. "Mr Croce, sorry to crash your show," I say, smiling as I hold out my hand. "I had intended to meet with you after, but you certainly like to talk."

The Italian man smirked. "I'm a late night host, of course I like to talk. Gotta ask though, silk? Isn't that a little tacky?"

I shrug. "Not when you weave the fabric, cut and tailor it yourself."

The crowd quieted at that, murmuring in confusion. Geovani was apparently thrown off too, because he laughed nervously. "And, ah, why would you do a thing like that, mr?"

"Reynard Hemming, call me Rey." I reply. "As to why, I was lost in rural China at the time and decided to help out a few friends. There's a certain… power that comes in handcraft. I think you may be familiar with it." I flexed my chi slightly. Not enough to glow visibly, but certainly enough for another cultivator to notice. Croce paled briefly, breaking out in a light sweat before looking at me calculating.

"That is certainly an interesting experience, why don't you tell us about it?" He pressed.

I smiled slightly. "You don't seem the long form interview type. Perhaps in your office after the show."

He narrowed his eyes. "Perhaps, but I can't just let you come up to the stage without giving the show something. How bout, as a man who's traveled, you tell us your opinion on the mutant crisis? Word is, our glorious leaders are planning a global conference to decide the matter on Ellis Island next year. Do you think the muties should have the same rights as people? That they're a menace to society? That those incompetents in the government even have the brain cells to decide for us?"

"I believe that equality is not something you can be given, it's something you do." I reply. "If mutants want to be treated the same as everybody else, as their human dignity demands, they should show the world that they're just like us. Not the special snowflakes of the Xavier school, nor the terrifying terrorists of Magneto's brotherhood of minions. Find a normal boring job that benefits from your abilities and go public with it. Gather together and form recognized towns, districts or even cities where most people are mutants and live and work as if you're just like every other asshole stuck in 9 to 5 hell or entrepreneurial panic. People look up to heroes, fear villains and resent elites, as eager to see them fall as to see them rise."

Croce laughed. "And why would you think an idiot thing like that?" The rest of the crowd laughed too, though they also cheered, booed and hissed at me.

"The part about mutant equality? Or the part about elites?"

"Both. Either. I mean, look at me, I'm popular, rich and charismatic and all of my fans love me!" The audience roared in approval.

"Well, the elites thing is simple enough." I shrug. "Seeing you rise is inspiring, because it means maybe we can too." The audience cheered at this. "And seeing you fall satisfies our vicarious resentment of not being where you are; because if we can't be where you are, at least you're not having a good time of it." This got a lot of nervous chuckling and a few cheers.

"As far as rights; human or mutant it's a matter of philosophy and perspective. If you can be given your rights, then you are inferior to the one granting them. If you can take your rights, then you are superior. But equals mutually recognize each other's personal authority. That's why the american constitution is written that rights are handed down by God, and all mortals are equal before him. Rights are not the property of the state to be distributed on a whim, such officials are merely custodians; however well or poorly they discharge that duty."

"Rey… I've just got to say it. Could you just… try to be funny in your delivery?"

"Isn't that your job?"

He glares daggers at me for a moment, before turning back to the crowd. He tells a few more jokes, compares me to a statue and closes out the show. As soon as the camera's red-light turns off, he grabs me by the cuff and tries to drag me off the sage. I let him stumble with the effort, before following. Once we're in his office, he slams the door and rounds on me.

"Are you TRYING to get me fired? Is that it?" He asks. "Or did I piss someone off so they sent you here to kill me? Because that's about what you did back there, you son of a bitch!"

I shrug. "You're the one who brought me up to the stage, Mr Croce. I was content to wait until your set was finished."

"Fine, whatever, let's just get this over with." He snaps and fast as lighting, punches me across the jaw. Air in the office ripples and papers and nicknacks jump at the strike. My head snaps to the side and I can feel my jaw creek. Growly, I snap back around and grab his neck, my hand full of fire. He tries to scream, but I squeeze… before coming to my senses and extinguishing the attack, pulling it back into my skin.

Breathing in deeply through my nose, I exude water instead, and encourage the skin to heal. He'll have a scar in the fashion of a large white hand print, but that's better than dead.

"WOULD you mind?" I growl at him. "Believe it or not, I'm not here to kill you for your shitty opinion program."

"Then… why… are you… here?" He gags out.

"I was planning to offer you a trade," I snap back at him.

"And what… gak, makes you think… you have anything I want?"

"You cultivate spiritual power from the people who listen to you." I explain. "The natives of this land cultivate power from the things they kill. I cultivate that same power from the world itself and my own strength of character. I had thought you might be interested in trading notes."

"Let me… go and we'll talk." He chokes out and I release my grip, letting him drop into his chair. "God damnit, man, what do they feed you in rural china?"

"Rocks." I reply, deadpan.

He coughs, "I can believe it." He massages his throat, still red despite the healing. "Jesus christ, I messed that one up." He looks me in the eye and scowls. "You're scary powerful, you know that? Maybe tone it back a little? People will be less likely to think you're about to eat them."

I huff. Jokes aside, he's no idea how close he was to just that. "So… are you open to exchange? Or are you still paranoid?"

"You know, this is a terrible way to start a relationship." He groused. "Teachers beating their students into the ground is only something you do in boxing or fencing, not philosophy. That ain't a foundation I think'll last long enough for either of us to teach the other anything."

"Luckily for you," I pull out the jade crown, "I have a shortcut. Connect to the jade in this crown like you do to your listeners and you can trade memories with all the minds who wore the crown before."

He looks at the crown as though it's going to attack him, but replies calmly. "While I may not be as strong as you, I've got power coming out of my ears. More than I even know what to do with. What would I need with more?"

"If you didn't want more, you wouldn't pursue cultivation to begin with." I counter. "You certainly wouldn't pursue your public career when public attention means you're being fed. Right now, you've got massive amounts of power coming in, and then going straight back out. Learn from me, and you can store that power for use later. Learn from me, and you can bend the elements to your will. For amusement, battle or profit, whatever strikes your fancy. Something as frivolous as always keeping your drink at the right temperature, or as important as saving your life and the lives of those important to you in a disaster, the choice would be yours."

The idea is taking well with him, and he nods slowly with every point. "And what would you get out of it? You're already way more powerful than me."

I chuckle. "Because with this, my knowledge of the spirit will be more complete. Also, I can always be MORE powerful, because there's always a bigger fish."

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

After finishing with the talkshow guy, Kurt and I meet up with the other four and return to the Hotel for some sleep before the next flight. That next flight was 5 hours from Tenochtitlan to Panama, which was also part of Mexico in Earth 200K, and after a 2 hour layover we were rewarded with another 4 hour flight to Lima Peru. After another passport roundtable, we were finally on the LAST flight of the journey, 2 hours from Lima to Cuzco, only 160 kilometers from our target. I considered jumping out of the plane during the last 20 minutes of the flight, but as I didn't QUITE know where Llactapata was beyond somewhere on the mountain we'd flown over on the flight from Lima to Cuzco, I decided patience was the better part of Valor and waited with my party.

As they say in DND, never split the party.

Another one of those subtle yet entirely blatant differences from my reality and this one, Peru is a region in the country of Amazonia, not its own unique country. Rather than the 13 countries that I remember, in this south america, there are four. Amazonia combines Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, the bottom quarter of Columbia, the northern fifth of Chile and is Greek in culture. Columbia includes Venezuela, the northernmost 5% of brazil and is portugese. French Guiana consumed Guyana and Suriname to simply be Guiana and is apparently VERY french, whatever that means.

Finally, Argentina here includes Paraguay, Uruguay, the remaining four fifths of chile, the bottom 10% of Brazil and is a german stronghold. As in, it's always been a german colony, and when Germany lost world war two, the people who could retreated there rather than surrendering to allied forces. Apparently the world thought that was humiliation enough though, because they allowed it, and everyone who had to stay in Germany when it was split between the UN and Russia hates them with the boiling passion only three generations of unceasing resentment can inspire.

What this meant for me, was that Peru was a good bit more developed than I expected it to be, complete with a trans andes railroad the tunneled straight through the mountain, a good highway system, actual paved roads, even in the boondocks, rather than wagon trails and tour busses going straight to my destination. Llactapata is one ridge over from Machu Picchu, which is apparently still settled by native Incan's. The ziggurat of Llactapata and surrounding ancient village are still an archeological site at least, so when my fellow monks and I came tromping through we were barely paid any notice by the other working tourists.

From memory, the tesseract tank gun was right in the entrance chamber at the bottom of the Pyramid, probably because the show didn't have much of a budget for impersonating or infringing on actual archeological sites at that point. Regardless, the current scientists are currently working around the top of the ziggurat as the entrance at the bottom is walled off. In the show, the archeologists finally take a sledgehammer to the wall in 2013 and discover the 084, as Shield calls it.

Me? I open my third eye and root chakras.

Incas, like the egyptians, are rather famous for their clever, math dense, use of raw stonework. The mechanism to open the door is a series of 4 stones, hidden by moss and vines which you need to push an inch inward in order to unlock the disk shaped door. The stones would move a series of counterweights and uneven stones that alternately blocked and rolled the door, allowing multiple tons of stone to be moved with very little effort. Under normal circumstances, a reasonably athletic person could push the stones in with minimal strain. Under these degraded conditions, they could still do it, but they'd need to put their back into it.

Good thing for me, I look like a bodybuilder and can punch 100 times above my weight class if I don't watch my energy levels.

Pushing the stones in enough to trigger their mechanism is a loud affair unfortunately, attracting the attention of the archeologists still outside. They try to press into the small tunnel with me, but my apprentices wisely ward them off.

As the stone rolls aside, scraping off decades, possibly centuries of disuse, I am greeted by a happy sight. Just as Episode 2 promised, german engineering stuck halfway into 500 year old Incan wall art. Jordan walks up behind me with the rest of my disciples and a group of archeologists who are almost as giddy as school children.

[img: . ]

"This… is not what I expected" the Hawaiian tells me, sounding shocked.

I smirk at him. "But you're certain it's what I came for, aren't you." He nods. "You'd be right. I expect you thought we'd be here for something I dug out of Heavens Archives? A sacred secret of the far west?"

"Well, yeah" Hernando spoke up as I began carefully working the stone so that I could pull the object loose. "It's sort of what we do? I mean, it looks cool and all, but how is this… mahine, supposed to help us against The Hand?"

I chuckle. "You have no idea what this is do you?" Two of them shook their heads, but Kurt Vahlen raised his hand. "German, of course you know, don't you?"

Kurt nodded. "That is german engineering. Not hard to tell, if you know what to look for. But what is it doing in a mayan temple?"

"Incan temple," I correct. "And your estranged countrymen down south could probably answer that for you." He scowled and I continued. "This is a Tesseract device, developed by Hydra during world war two. Because of Captain America, many of these devices were destroyed, often explosively, and often by similar devices, momentarily commandeered by James Howlett and his Howling Commandos. People believe many of those same commandos and the hydra forces they fought died when struck by the blue beams they produced."

"Many believe…" Maddie spoke up, "but not you? You called the device a tesseract. You don't mean?"

[img: . ]

I grin darkly as the device pops out of the stone and I turn around, holding it protectively in my massive hands. "I do though. The Red Skull thought he had found the ultimate weapon of death. Armin Zola imagined he had found an unlimited power source. In a way, they were both correct, but for the wrong reasons. Odin called the blue crystal the Tesseract because the energy it releases bends spacetime into a pretzel. Anyone and anything 'vaporized' by the energy from this device is instead transported a random unknown distances across the galaxy, possibly the universe, resulting in humans from world war two appearing all across distant space, with all of the implications that entails."

"So, most of them probably still died," Jordan comments, dryly. "Because, you know, space is fucking enormous, and mostly empty?"

I shrug. "Sure, or stuck inside something solid like this tank gun. But several of them appeared on alien planets and lived a variety of lives. A few were even interrogated by alien governments. Worse, some of these devices got out there, and aliens traced their origin. That came back to haunt us in 1984 with Captain Carol Danvers of the US Airforce and… is going to come back to us again in about… twelve years. Give or take."

"And you know that, the same way you knew how to find this." Kurt finished. "Scheisse."

"Do you know how to use it?" Maddie asked. "To travel I mean?"

At this, I grin sheepishly. "Not as of yet, no." I tell them. "At least, not in any controlled manner. Firing it like a gun though? Easy peasy." I turned the device around and showed them the button labeled 'feúern'. "Now… I know that's not as useful as I promised it'd be, no, but figure out how to cultivate or otherwise channel the energy in here in a controlled manner, and I expect it will allow me, and possibly the rest of the Chaste, to travel anywhere we want, any time we want, without being bothered by distance or expense. How's that for a revolution?"

Last edited: Nov 13, 2020

Book 2 Chapter 2: The swing of things.

Book 2 Chapter 2: The swing of things.

I WANT to tell people that figuring out the Space-stone was a long complicated affair requiring the user to develop a deep spiritual, physical and intellectual understanding of space, acquired over months or years of effort ranging from running to modifying Einstein Rosen Bridge calculus on the fly… but let's be honest here; Carol Danvers, dip-shit mind-slave and barely able to think her way out of a paper bag if it didn't involve Rage-Smash was able to figure it out and absorb the power, in both cases by complete accident. It took me 40 hours.

Granted, Carol might not have survived said accident without regenerative Kree blood, but humans are resilient. In my home dimension, people have survived "deadly levels of radiation" for months simply by refusing to acknowledge their death. Same with cancer, inoperable/malignant or otherwise, and crazy diseases that are horrifying to look at, never mind endure. In the end, nobody escapes life alive; but defying medical science is something of a hobby for some people. And in marvel universes, that kind of obstinance breeds superpowers with disturbing regularity.

That wasn't to say using the tesseract attuned crystals was easy though; the blue energy burned almost as caustically as dragons-breath. It didn't take more than a few attempts before my students left me to my experiments, preferring to spend their energy recovering from the attempt.

Because I didn't want to blow up the crystal and risk the dice that my disciples and I could tank the space stone energies, survive and gain power the way Danvers did, the first trial involved me (stupidly) palming the tiny cylinder like Peter Quill or Red Skull. I had justified it by telling myself that as a mere tertiary source, the power feed would be so much lower that I could handle it. That… went about as well as you would expect. Space magic gamma radiation surged through my system, causing several meridians to crisp and caramelize while space around me warped and twisted as though I were Vista from Worm having an epileptic fit.

At least I didn't teleport wildly across the galaxy and get stranded like Red Skull.

I managed to drop it and allowed my living fire to repair my body, but the experience cost me a good 10% of my total chi. When the Collector warns the Guardians that the power stone fed on life force, amplifying its effects the stronger those who interacted with it were, that was literal. He wasn't talking about your health and resilience, he was talking about literal life force. With that in mind, I had a base to work with. After all, I'd been studying an energy that will seize upon your life force and consume and convert it for years with Dragon-fire.

The second set of experiments involved me pitting my will against the crystal. I extended a thread of dragon-fire to it and tried to wrestle for control of the power while it was outside of my body and easily dismissed if things went wrong. The good news is that I learned to make portals! The, ah, bad news, is that they're not very well aimed. Random places in the air mostly, thank god, though I think a few of them may not have been Earth's atmosphere. They smelled bad and had funny looking horizons, though that could have just been the portal energy distorting things. Even so, there were a few in space, two in deep water and one in a magma pocket of some description before I gave the effort up as a bad job.

The third experiment involved turning the beam on and cycling my chi nearby outside of my body. Standard chi conversion strategy, right? Not so much. That caused the beam, which was already incredibly dangerous, to supercharge as it passed through the center of the chi ring. It dug out a tunnel straight through the mountain beneath Machu Pichu about 20 feet in diameter before I managed to turn it off.

The tunnel was clean bore, at least. Didn't even shake things enough for the locals to panic, let alone cause an avalanche!

Fourth time seemed like the charm, at first. Using one of the detached crystals as a centerpiece, I set up a series of flags using the lessons I'd learned from using the gamma-space-magic so far and set up a chi cycle around the crystal. This worked pretty well, as far as I could tell. Blue wisps of energy leaked out of the crystal to meet amber wisps of energy reaching down from the chi ring. Where they met, both streamers flashed and turned into a lighting strike… but blue energy was starting to infect the chi spiral, and the crystal was gaining an aura around it. THAT was something I could study.

This was where my disciples volunteered to aid me. The notes they took were exemplary and they were able to pull the power into themselves. That's where things went… weird. They didn't try to burn out like I had, or explode, or die… but the space power settled into different places in each of their bodies and discharged wildly before dissipating. For a short while, it looked as if they had developed individual powers like MCU Wanda and Pietro, but the power they had didn't stick around and left them weak and full of corruption which needed to be cleared out.

Several tries later, they each had gained better control over the effects, but the effects didn't stick around once the energy had discharged. And it DID discharge, they didn't seem to have a choice on that front.

I tried it myself as well, but while I got better results in terms of effect and control, the power still left me like a raw sunburn, used up ungodly amounts of my chi and refused to stick around once expended. My disciples and I suffered no casualties though, which was better than I could say for Wulfgang Von Strucker in Sokovia.

The fifth attempt was much slower and more involved. Perhaps I should have started with this method first, but I'd been… inspired… by memories of the comics, movies and fan-fictions on the subject. Regardless, while my subordinates slept and meditated, I worked with my new toy. Piles of notes, models of the formations chi made in my third eye when infected by space stone energy, tiny wisps of that power pulled into my system and played with, repeatedly. By the time the sun was coming up over the mountains, roughly 10 am the next morning, I had something that worked.

A wheel of obsidian about a foot in diameter and six centimeters thick, heated and fused by my own dragon-fire chi was inlaid with silver tubes depicting the spiritual nature of space stone energy. Then the tubes were filled with corruption I'd purged from myself and my disciples after the damage we'd taken from the energies. The patterns that represented the space stone's power were surrounded by threads of gold and corruption from the pills I intended to grow my farm with, in rune-script informing the item of my intent that the energy be extracted from the stone and made safe for human use. These scripts were checked against a chip of Jade containing everything I'd learned about biology up to this point and a removable test tube containing samples of blood I'd taken from myself, my disciples and all of the archeologists and their local guides at the ruins. Finally, I compressed an artificial soul around the idea and let her rip.

It took a few adjustments, but it worked. No more pain, no more wild surges… just cool space magic, returned at double the energy level of the chi offered… aaand a bit of corruption, but at this point, who's counting?

The energy expressed itself differently through each of the chakra.

In the crown, it allowed me to twist space around me like Vista, but controlled this time. In the third eye, it allowed for teleportation, though I had to move my perspective out of my body before I chose my arrival point. In the throat chakra, it allowed me to see, hear and speak across any distance, really useful for the teleportation bit, but hard to comprehend without suffering a massive headache. The Heart chakra let me change MY size like Hank Pym's ant/giant-man and I played the fool with it a bit, posing by the pyramid. Solar plexus was the one I loved though, flight. Just… will it, and gravity was defied. The Sacral chakra was… weird. Being in multiple places simultaneously is even more difficult than it sounds, to be honest. Finally, the Root chakra gave me a weird form of super-speed where my movements traveled disproportionate distances; appropriate for the fight or flight chakra.

Particularly important though, was that, even now, the energy didn't last. I could store it like normal chi, but once I used it up, I still needed to reconvert power through my new toy. I have a theory that I can fix this issue by using the space chi in an Iron advancement, but as even using it like this causes a buildup of corruption I'm leery about continuing. I could potentially fix the corruption issue by clearing out the blood currently in the artifact and substituting only my own pure sample; but that will have to wait for later.

We have visitors, and I'm down to 5% of my maximum power. Just barely twice as strong as any of my disciples. Incidentally, this would be a perfect condition to redefine my Dao, were I interested.

As can be imagined, when a crazy guy dressed in silks crashes your dig-site, removes something from a sealed temple and starts playing with spectacular powers, people talk. Archeologists, being intellectuals who love to hear themselves speak, talk even more. Publish or die, they call it. It wasn't like they were hostile though, my opening up the temple without damaging its structure was something of a dream for them, and they pounced on my disciples to help them open more rooms while I worked.

Buuut, they also called their universities and government license offices on us. Those offices then called the Amazonian FBI equivalent and the Amazonian FBI sent their spooks. The spooks gathered some military aid in the scramble, and by the time dinner was bubbling over the pot I had three guys in suits and another thirty in combat fatigues pointing guns at my face.

Oops?

It's not like I didn't expect this to happen when I threw caution to the winds, but I did think they'd take a bit longer. Even in the MCU, SHIELD usually took about a week to get to the scene of any event they weren't in the middle of a chase sequence for. I really didn't expect some third world country to be this on the ball! But then, that's entirely my fault I suppose. This is a different reality, there should be different expectations. And Amazonia was at least second world, given the roads in this area of the backwoods were actually paved, unlike my reality or the TV show.

"So, what can I do for you gents?" I ask, using my throat chakra to translate.

"Amazonian bureau of cultural heritage," the lead spook spoke, "It's come to our attention that an outside party entered a protected dig-site and removed an artifact of power from the premise. By descriptions, that would be you?"

"For a given value of artifact, sure." I replied with a shrug. "It was in an Incan temple, and is an item of power, but I don't think world war two German engineering quite falls under your department."

The army men tensed at that, coaxing a chorus of metallic noises from their weapons. It was almost intimidating. Who knew if I could still resist bullets while I was this low on chi? Perhaps thankfully, spook 2 stepped up. "It may not be his department, but it is mine. Bureau of internal security. From the records we gathered on the way over here, you would be Reynard Hemming, USArmy veteran?"

In this reality, sure. "That's what it says on my passport." I agree noncommittally.

"Then in the interest of not causing an international incident and souring American amazonian relations, I'm going to have to ask you to turn over the weapon voluntarily." He said, as politely as you get out of government types. "Now."

I raised my hand and manifested the tesseract tank firing chamber out of my ring. "Sure, why not?" I had already removed the power crystals. "But as this is abandoned foriegn military equipment, owned by neither the country it was found in nor the country of the finder, it falls under salvage rights. So what are you going to offer me for it?"

Spook 2 stepped forward, and tried to take it from my hand, but even this low on chi, my grip easily resisted his attempts. "I suppose that depends on what you want. Once we have the artifact appraised, we'd be willing to offer you a fair market price plus a finders fee."

I suppose that was fair, given what I was giving them was essentially a glorified paperweight; having removed the power source. "I suppose that's fair. But I came here searching for… cultural information. After a fashion. Surely you can offer something appropriate?"

Spooks one and three look at each other, confused. "If you wanted that," spook three asks, "why come here and not the national museum at Nova Roma?"

I blink. Nova Roma? The hidden roman city from New Mutants?… OK. That would explain the hero cultivators and the Greeks' success in conquering the continent. Nova Roma was set up by Greek and roman heroes fleeing christian invasion, that would give them a head start on the language barrier and turning local customs to their best advantage. I just hadn't expected it to exist in this continuity. Or to be something people just knew about if it did. Because, y'know, hidden city?

"I had some research that said Llactapata would have stuff I couldn't get elsewhere." I reply with a shrug.

Spook 1 nodded. "And did you find that unique material?"

"I've only been here a day." I chuckle. "But I think I found a thing or two, yeah."

"But not the thing you were expecting." The spook nods, missing the obfuscation. "So, what do you want to know?"

"Everything," I reply with a shrug. "Texts, legends and teachers with an emphasis on mysticism, but the rest is fine too."

At this, the three spooks stiffened. "You're… enhanced?" Spook 2 asks, sweating visibly.

I grin, enjoying myself. "If that's what you kids are calling it this century, then yes."

"Unfortunately, that sort of information isn't easy to get ahold of." Spook three says haltingly. "The two world wars and the twilight cathedral massacre of 45 saw the end of a lot of that. The remaining families guard their secrets jealously. We only know they're more than folk tales and propaganda because that's specifically our job."

The four of us look at the firing chamber in my hand. I toss it up a few inches and catch it again several times. "I'll trade you for letters of introduction." I eventually responded.

"I trust you'll be able to convince them on your own?" Spook three asks.

I nod. "I'll take that bet then."

Spook 3 began writing down names and addresses while Spook 1 wrote a letter of introduction, in Greek. Spook two reaches for the device again, and this time I let him take it, releasing as he lays the papers in my hand. It would work for one more firing with what was in the buffer, maybe two if they were short. Let them think they broke it. Or that it was running out of juice. Spook 2 took the device back to a foam filled steel case and locked it away, while the other spooks and their men proceeded further into the dig-site to begin talking to the archeologists. Maybe to see if they'd found anything of significance, maybe to learn about what else they'd seen me doing since the last report.

I took that as my que to skedaddle and my disciples melted out of the shadows around me, looking worried, but expectant.

"It's a good thing we didn't need to fight." Alexandro said. "We'd have had to kill everyone, and that just feels too much like what The Hand would do."

Leopold shook his head. "You say that about every situation."

"Well, how else are you supposed to manage having no witnesses?" the Mexican asked, clearly amused. "If someone sees, you have to take them out and anyone who sees you do that as well, and it just spirals out of control until the entire town is dead! At least here, there's only a few dozen of them…" he joked.

Maddie rolled her eyes and Jordan snorted. Kurt asked the pertinent question. "Do you have a plan, master? Or do we run?"

"A bit of A, a bit of B." I reply, taking out the disk. I begin to draw power from it and four of them, excluding Jordan, take a step back. I roll my eyes and direct the power to the third eye, throat and crown chakras. Collapsing the space between us, I grab them all in a bear-hug and in a flash of blue light, we're gone.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&(*)_+~! #$%^&()_+

Our first stop is Machu Picchu. Mostly, because it was the easiest place to navigate too, being in line of sight and at least an hours drive out of the spooks way should they somehow manage to follow us. After briefly explaining my findings and methods to my disciples, they stuck close of their own volition while I navigated spacetime for our next teleport.

Moving great distances isn't all that hard with Tesseract energy, all points in the universe are equidistant from each other as far as it's concerned, the issue is knowing which of those infinite points you wish to arrive at. That's where the pseudo astral projection from the throat chakra comes in handy. Scrolling out from Peru like I was using google earth, it became pretty easy to rotate a bit and zoom back in on America's eastern seaboard. While there may have been no handy dandy delineations like on a map program, Long Island is still a pretty distinctive feature to zero in on.

I consider a number of locations to drop in on. Mostly, I don't want to cause a panic and get SHIELD dropping in on us. Or The Ancient One. But I also feel the need to be a bit dramatic. Central park, the Empire State Building and Statue of liberty are all considered. Liberty in particular, because it would be properly thematic… but in the end, I chose a small copse of trees on broad channel marsh just south of JFK International Airport. It fits everything we need and there's nobody there to raise a fuss.

That and appearing at an airport should be thematic enough for any lurking narrative gods to shrug and allow it, rather than fucking with me and setting up some story moment in my pick of blind alley or broom closet.

After a short celebration at landing safely, "completing our mission" and 'securing a great power for the chaste', Alex leads us to the nearest payphone and calls a pair of taxi to take us to the Chaste's local safe-house. Or rather, the closest of 13 local safe-houses. Where the Hand have their hoity toity office buildings, art galleries and dock yards, the Chaste operates much more like a street gang. Or distributed terrorist cell. Honestly, I think the writer for Iron Fist kind of hated the series, given how he portrayed everything. I still wonder if writers make the world, or if the world informs the writers like Cassandra theory.

Regardless, the safe-house we stop at is in the basement of an auto-repair shop in Flatbush. That's south of Brooklyn, by the way. We were offered sleeping bags, water, subway sandwiches and the information that we were the first of the latest class to return and our campaign would begin tomorrow.

I pulled my king size cloud wool mattress with drake-silk sheets out of my ring and offered the flabbergasted host a strip of starsong yak jerky.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

While my disciples got to work integrating with the local cell, I pulled out my Jade Crown of Akashic Knowledge and reviewed that which I had gained on the journey here.

The spiritual revelations that form the basis of the Path of Sacrifice and the Path of Heroes are interesting in that they come at the same issue from two different angles. At their base, both paths demand you come to terms with the idea that we are all connected. Become one with others. The soul is limitless and unbounded by time or distance, therefore all souls touch each other and interact constantly; and through this constant interaction, chi can be shared.

For the Aztecs, such relationships are that of power dynamics. The weak give. The strong take. Equals make equivalent exchange. Weaker partners can overcome the strong. No knife cuts deeper than betrayal. The fool spends lavishly and immediately, but rarely grows. The wise delay gratification for a meaningful payoff. So on and so forth. All relevant variations and techniques spread from this understanding of our place in reality. Taking and giving through these connections as a matter of force. This was why the Arena master believed he could steal my power if I poisoned him, even should I escape the area unscathed, while if I treated with him in good faith, he could only offer me blessings.

For Europe, the relationship is that of social dynamics, of cause and effect. A person is but the sum of their experiences; we act in the now and plan for the future based on what we experienced in the past and a large LARGE part of that is our interaction with other people. The larger an impact you have on another person's life (regardless of whether you interact with them regularly or not in meat space) the more your souls interact with each other in the liminal plane. More interaction = more sharing = more chi for you. This is tied heavily into the belief in the divine right of kings and how (even now that monarchy is dead) we still have such an obsession with celebrities, politicians and businessmen.

You don't even need to know how to gather chi from the path of heroes to benefit from it, apparently; as all of those spotlights are still shining your way regardless, lighting up your path. Knowing however, makes the difference between uncommon luck in life and literal power. I like to think the raw strength of my soul and broad experience is what causes my high natural chi generation, but if this is correct, at least a part of it must be credited to all of the people who I shared stories, projects and innovations with in Heaven. I imagine it's also how Shuo Lao shares his chi with the Iron Fist even over great distances and why he thought my chi was thin, but had a good full flavor to it.

As much as the Path of Heroes would get me the best results and is the one I want, engraving such understanding from my brain onto my soul is going to take a little while. The Path of Sacrifice on the other hand is apparently something I've been working towards for a while without even knowing it. The basis for the consuming flame spirit technique is an understanding, however incomplete, of The Path of Sacrifice. Connect to the spirit of the thing, and then burn it away as fuel for the undying flame. In essence, reaching out with my spirit to take from the weak, as the Aztec's do. Just less ritualized.

Based on the parallax displayed here, and earlier comments for several sources, the Path in M'gambo is likely another perspective on the same issue. If we're all connected, then becoming one with others can mean becoming one with beasts too. Sprinkle in a little of the eastern paths philosophy about becoming one with nature so you can cultivate the chi from your surroundings, you could probably become one with Genus Loci, spirits of the land and enchanted Items, as well.

Everything is a variation on first principles. Everything is those derivations interacting, weaving, gaining in complexity. Everything is synergy.

As I think that, my cores and the crown vibrate like plucked strings and the air around me shifts. In a now familiar rush of enlightenment, large chunks of environmental chi rush in as though to fill a void caused by the new understanding and even the Jerky I recently ate yields hither-to untapped energy to me.

Reaching out, I still can't feel the threads I saw with the Hero cultivators in Tenochtitlan, but I get the inexplicable feeling my fire and general cultivation will be much more effective now. Smiling to myself, I prepare to dive back into the technique knowledge and start learning the ins and outs of Sacrifice. If I'm reading it right, it'll allow me to more or less gain XP like an RPG character and that is something I cannot pass up. Unfortunately though, a hand on my shoulder wrests me from my contemplation's.

"Master," Jordan Kahananui says as I open my eyes. "It's time, we've got our first mission."

"How long was I meditating?" I ask him, stretching as I get up.

"About a day and a half." He replies easily. "It's October first."

I nod. "So, what's the mission?"

"The five of us are being sent with local brothers to scout out suspected Hand hideouts," Jordan explained. "When we're sure, we call back to base, and they send you in as artillery."

I frowned, but nodded. I wasn't keen to start a killing spree, but I could also walk through any non-magical weapons and with my third eye, see through most of the Hand's tricks. "Tell them to examine Rand." I tell him. "Madam Gao is using their co-founder Harold Mechum to sell cocaine laced with dragon bone. Extracting the heart blood from the victims as the dragons fire burns them from the inside is one of the steps of the immortality elixir." I tell him.

Jordan looks at me blankly for a moment before cursing. "This is another one of those otherworld visions of yours?" I nod and he swears again. "OK, here's your phone. Keep it on you and not in your Ring. The signal can't get through the spatial distortion."

"Does anyone mind if I conduct my own business while I wait?" I ask. I'm going to do what I want anyway, but it's easier if people don't get in the way as you run amok.

Jordan didn't know and as it turned out the local gang objected quite loudly. But after a bit of questioning under forced truthfulness and I lent out one of my crowns. Not the one with recently acquired revelations stored in it, but all the same. They can't challenge me, even with all of my secrets there just isn't enough power here for them to reach my level any time soon. And having half competent, reasonably durable minions whose lives I had a significant impact on will be useful. Both before I figure out Hero cultivation and after.

As they're fighting over who gets to use the crown first, I make my escape.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$^%&*()_+

Now I'm in New York, I've no shorter a list of things to do than when I escaped Heaven. First among them, being to secure my Identity here. After printing out a mapquest page for my various destinations, I take off running at a sedate 15mph. My Iron body can let me go 20 before I start sweating, 40 before I have to start pushing chi into it, but 15 is your average Olympic sprinter, and I don't exactly need to catch rockets here. Just get places and make an impression.

Besides, it's still better than taking even the crazier cabs.

Arriving on west third, I ran up a dozen streets to the intersection with the SHIELD building and opened the door. If you didn't know what the place was, it'd just be any other crazy busy office building in the middle of New York, but as I walked in, half of them reached for guns. It's nice to be appreciated. By the time I reached the front desk, there was an agent waiting for me with a file and lanyard in hand.

"Mr Hemming?" The agent asked. He was a man with a buzz cut, dusky skin and a big nose.

"Last I checked," I agree. "Agent Wheeler in Japan called ahead for me?"

The man nodded. "Agent Blackfoot. We weren't expecting you for another week or two. Follow me."

With that exchange, the foyer relaxed and everybody put their weapons away. I followed Blackfoot into an elevator and he spoke again. "For our records, would you mind explaining how you got here from Rural Peru? We weren't able to track your progress after that, and the agency has a rewards program for agents who develop such methods."

I chuckle. "You won't like it."

"Tell me anyway." He pressed.

I turn invisible in front of him and reply, "I have my methods. I could teach you, if you have a decade to do little else."

Blackfoot grunts. "I'll pass. A decade of training is a significant chunk of my peak career time."

"You're certain? The fringe benefits are amazing. 1000 year lifespan comes standard." I offer him.

He looks conflicted and shifts his jaw noiselessly, but as he opens his mouth to speak, the elevator dings and slides open. His brow furrows and he changes his mind. "We're here."

I shed my invisibility and follow him out of the elevator. We pass through a cubicle farm full of other agents making calls, running printouts and tapping away at… is that a flat-screen? It is..! That's an LCD screen! Technically the technology was created in 1888 by Austrian scientist, Friedrich Reinitzer and commercialized as a computer accessory in 1969 by RCA researcher Richard Williams, but they didn't really take until 2004 and most government offices STILL didn't have them when I left in 2020; but here they are, in a government office in 1999.

Granted, this is SHIELD, not your average government bureaucracy.

Eventually, we arrived at Blackfoot's office. It was small, but it wasn't a cubicle and it had a window. I take a seat across the desk from him and wait. He only ignores me for a minute, which again, is impressive for government work.

"Alright, facial recognition brought up your file, in case you're curious." He said, absently. "Agent Wheeler transferred over information that you're Corporal Reynard 'Rey' Hemming, army corp of engineers, 87 years old, and you came back from Rural china with superpowers. Your enhanced persons index file is awaiting assignment of residence and determination of employment." He looks me in the eyes now. "Would you prefer seclusion, work placement, or recruitment?"

I run fingers through my beard. "Lay out the options for me. I've an idea, but make it black and white."

Blackfoot grimaces. "With seclusion, we get you a decent apartment, an assistant and pay you a pension to sit tight and not cause trouble for anyone. It's not glamorous, but it is comfortable and you get a therapist. In order to discourage you from engaging in the usual roaring rampage, we'll assist you with sweeping up the organization or event responsible for your enhancement."

"Work placement assumes you're fit to join normal society. You can do what you like, but no using your enhanced abilities. Your case worker will meet with you once a month to ensure things are going smoothly and we'll help you get an apartment and a job, but the apartment will be minimal and we won't be paying you. As a responsible adult, you're expected to take care of that yourself. We'll offer you the same assistance with your enhancement, but going on the expectation that it's not a disaster as with seclusion cases, we'll likely try to fold them into SHIELD."

"Recruitment is of course as an Agent of SHIELD. You will be transferred to the SHIELD academy in Field Agent track. While there, you will take all of the usual courses, along with a specialized class to aid you in discovering and controlling your enhanced abilities. Your first assignment will be to write up a report and move with us to wrap up the organization or event that gave you your powers. Starting salary is 100 grand and the enhanced individual signing bonus is 60. All of this assuming you don't fail out or go on a rampage either in school or after."

I hum. That's about what I expected, given the portrayal in the Agents of Shield TV show. Though the extra details about cleanup is interesting. It looks like 2008 was simply when the incidents got public enough they couldn't contain things anymore. Tony at a press conference and Hulk are rather difficult to control, admittedly.

"I see. Seclusion's right out. I don't suppose work placement includes me continuing as is, working for my order and keeping you up to date on my activities?"

He grimaces. "Technically, it could be stretched to make that work. But you said in your last interview you wanted a favor from the Director? Being an agent is the best way to achieve that."

"Or I could offer him something juicy enough to run the case personally." I counter. "What's your clearance level?"

"… 6." He replied.

I snap my fingers. "I suppose it was too much to hope for a stealth 9 doing my induction. Whatever, pull Phill Coulson for my first caseworker interview, I'll fill him in then. Tell him to bring his trading cards. He'll know what I mean."

Blackfoot stares at me with an expression that screams in monotone 'I hate you'. "I'll put in your file that your occupation is SHIELD consultant. Your offer of training will be passed up the chain alongside your memo to agent Coulson. We'll get back to you soon. As far as your identity," he presses a button and his printer begins screeching as it prints out forms. "Fill these out and we'll get you situated. SHIELD will insert you into the system as your own grandson along with the appropriate paper copies. Please note that they will have a classified SHIELD reference number attached. This will act as both a deterrent to anyone digging into your past, and a kill-switch for us, so don't fuck up. Here."

For the next five hours, I filled out forms for a closet apartment in hell's kitchen, a bank account with 100$ at Armed Forces Bank, a list of my purchasing habits for insertion into AFBanks system, aptitude and knowledge tests to confirm my fake job history as a nuclear engineer, a new social security number, a Linkedin profile (it launched in 1995 here, rather than 2003), social media profile and school records. GED, SAT and several correspondence college degrees. It likely would have taken longer, several weeks in fact, but the neural acceleration afforded me by chi to the brain allowed for perfect memory and incredible writing and typing speed.

I leave the building with the lunch break, holding my shiny new Drivers License, Social Security Card, Voting ID, SHIELD Index card, a letter for my new landlord in Hell's Kitchen and a flip-phone. Not bad for a morning's work, and all I'd had to do was agree to make a mess on Shield's schedule. I'll make messes elsewhere, of course, but so long as they have the obelisks and I don't… I won't rock the boat too much. I store the ID's in my ring and slip the phone into a pocket. The jerks are likely using the phone to track me, but again, rocking the boat. Not on something I don't particularly care about.

A quick jog down to hell's kitchen, I turn the letter into the landlord and pick up the key. The apartment really is a hole. The bathroom is large enough for a standup shower that I can't fit into, a sink, a toilet and an aisle that I can maneuver to any of them through. The room opens into a small kitchenette/office combo that has a microwave, trashcan, desk and cupboard set all crammed into one Frankenstein monstrosity. That nook then opens into the bedroom, which is six by 8, most of that being taken up by the bed, which is 4 by 6. Again, I only just barely fit. And not comfortably. No WiFi either.

But I suppose that's the entire point. This is SHIELD doing it's version of 'good enough for government work'. Shrugging, I return to the landlord, ask how long the rent is (3 months paid by SHIELD up front, non-recurring) and take off again.

~! #$%&^*()_+~! $#%^&(*)_+~! #$%&^*()_+

When people talk about New York City, they often talk about Italian pizza, so I buy a pizza pie with the account SHIELD gave me and walk down the street with it. I can already feel indigestible stuff beginning to load me down with corruption again, but after 13 years in K'un-Lun it simply tastes far too good to put down. I need to recharge my reserves and rebuild my supply of corrupted essence anyway, so it's all for a good cause in the end.

Because I'm taking it easy today, I'm seeing the sights, like the Captain American Museum.

In the MCU, when Dr Erskine died, Steve went on Tour with the USO as an entertainer. They did this because without the good doctor, Steve was the ONLY super-soldier and the Strategic Scientific Reserve wanted to balance having him on hand with Steve's need to DO SOMETHING. In this reality, at least according to the museum, Steve went directly into the conflict as part of the Weapon X Project alongside super-soldiers from a Oshiem, Mexico, Amazonian and other American agencies. The SSR and Weapon X based them out of Sicily as a quick reaction force across France, Germany and Italy.

Steve fought alongside a number of heroes until he learned Buckeys unit had been captured and he began his campaign against Hydra. Heroes for whom the museum sells trading cards. There are full decks for heroes from each of the participating countries including Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Greece, The Caliphate, India, China and Japan. Granted, the cards for the Caliphate, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia are the dark/foe cards, but decks are still sold. As are other memorabilia. Of particular interest to me is that the Captain America deck contains cards for James Howlette and Victor Creed alongside icons like Dumdum Dugan and Peggy Carter.

It gave me a few ideas about how to set myself up. The Captain's shield is made of Vibranium, as is the Adamantium in Howlette's claws. The material has a stated value of ten thousand dollars per gram. Per. Gram. That's insane. And I know where to get a few samples. Making my way to a nearby cafe, I sequestered myself in a private corner, rejoiced at the presence of wifi, and pulled up maps of Alkali lake in Oshiem (Canada), 3 mile island and the British Museum in England. A large hot chocolate and slice of lemon pound cake later and I had a satellite reference for my targets.

Pulling out the wheel, I remove the vial of blood and clean it out. After a thorough scrubbing with magic water, I refill the tube with my own blood and add chi to the system. I'm gratified to find that my theory was correct, and using just my own blood took care of the corruption issue.

Using that power, I cast my awareness toward the England. Once in the British museum I followed the signs to the African exhibit and then to the artifacts captured from the Malian Empire during Britain's war on slavery. From there, it wasn't hard to find the cursive plaque labeled Fulla tribal axe. Drawing a circle of blue light on the wall, I tore open a portal and reached through, pulling back the axe. Then I closed the portal as alarms began to ring on the other side.

Apologizing to the other patrons of the cafe for not muting the noise on my phone, I remove the stick from the artifact and press a pair of earbud headphones to the 'axe' blade. Turning up the volume on my computer I watch in amusement as the rough metal finish flakes off to reveal a shimmery silver-white metal, flickering with wisps of purple light. Works as advertised, excellent.

Zooming out again, I draw a bead on 3 mile island. This one is somewhat disappointing however. The place isn't destroyed and according to a quick google search, never was. I still look around for a bit, trying to find indication of the secret Weapon X facility underneath. Nothing a ghost can find, it seems. Which is good news for Deadpool if nothing else.

Next I try Alkali lake. Upper and lower Kananaskis Lake in my reality. The dam is a lot bigger too. Projecting my consciousness down through the spillway tunnel, I pass through the gigantic pressure door and enter the Weapon X facility. The upper section is abandoned, just as Logan discovered in the interlude between X1 and X2, though there is plenty that remains worthy of looting. Diving down however, reveals that the place is indeed still occupied.

Moving around the beta facility through the space warping awareness, I methodically searched the base until I found what I was looking for. The Adamantium foundry. Adamantium is a metal resin formed from mixing equal moles of Vibranium, Iron, Titanium and Carbon in a configuration known as a High Entropy Alloy. Where normal alloys are 95% the metal you want and small amounts of a metals you want to borrow the characteristics of, HEA's create all new meta-materials due to the even mixing forming a pseudo-molecular-metal-grain with unique properties from the original components.

And while that's freaking cool, what it means that a quarter of any adamantium produced is Vibranium by mass. Further, as Adamantium must be kept molten, less you lose it forever as a virtually unbreakable solid, the Weapon X facility needs a stache of the unique metal on hand. A stache I wasn't entirely certain would be there, as it had been revealed in a movie that didn't seem to have happened in this universe, Wolverine Origins. In the movie, Wolverine and Deadpool leave Stryker as he's about to storm Wakanda and retrieve the metal. A feat performed in the MCU by Ulysses Klaue.

I should have checked the Weapon X facility first. Turns out this place is loaded. An entire wall is stacked with the vibration canceling magnetic levitating tubes containing the glowing purple metal ore. I debate briefly between greed and stealth, and GREED wins out. Weapon X are assholes in the highest order, and I can put this metal to far better use. Namely, by selling it to someone who'll properly appreciate its value and becoming filthy rich.

Packing up my computer and stuffing the last of the lemon cake into my mouth, I vanish in a flash of blue, likely startling the cafe's patrons. It'll be amusing to see later if there's a story in the newspaper about alien abductions. Regardless, I appear once more in the Weapon X storage room. I unfortunately do not have the storage space in my ring to take more than 10% of the loot in this room alone, so as soon as I arrive, I direct the disk to open a portal from Alkali to the basement of the Chaste's auto repair safe-house. With that done, I begin grabbing entire shelves of the stuff and marching them back and forth through the hole.

I'm about halfway done when one of the local cell members walks in on me. I quickly conscripted him to aid me. He activated a pager and did as I asked. In short order, I have another four people helping me and the metal is soon transferred entirely from the Weapon X facility storeroom, to the Chaste safe-house.

That done, I close the portal.

I'm not done with Weapon X though. I'm no hero, nor am I particularly self righteous, but that place is a problem for me and it has to go. For starters, there's the chance they'll manage to connect my impending sale of, honestly priceless, Vibranium to the theft I just pulled off and they'll come after me. I'm not particularly worried about their spec ops men, Iron body and all, but as government, and black ops, they'll likely be able to freeze my account and enact civil asset forfeiture which is simply not something I can allow. Further, who even knows how long Stryker has been torturing his son into mind controlling other mutants prior to the movie? Mutants are an unknown. One that can quite likely still hurt me. Stryker can't let this go, so after I dismantle any men he sends after me, he'll almost certainly send his trained dogs. No, better just to cut the cancer out now while they're still unaware they should be on the alert.

On top of that, I simply didn't like the movie. Or Weapon X in general. What sort of gratuitous moron thinks tortured slave warriors is a good idea? Forget the mountainous moral failings, it's completely inefficient! The quality that makes man dangerous, and glorious, is his creativity! Self motivation and the ability to solve problems via critical thinking! Such foolishness wastes that potential.

Returning to the base with my space wheel, I search for the holding pens. Its classic, nay cliche, that every Weapon X variation has a number of mutants in cages, waiting for a messy vivisection, torture session, brainwashing or highly experimental enhancement, and like the movie, this facility is, of course, no different. Tearing open a portal, I step through. The kids in their cages automatically shrink back, though a few of them still have the presence of mind to recognize that someone traveling in such a novel method is unconnected to their captors.

"Are you here to rescue us?" one of the boys asks, trying to press himself through the bars of his cage. There are… 8 of them at the moment.

"After a fashion," I reply, calmly. "I'm actually here to rob the place. Your good fortune I guess. Got a name?"

"Sam Guthrine," the boy said eagerly.

"Tabitha Smith," another said further down the cages.

"Roberto De Costa" "Yuriko Oyama" "Danielle Moonstar" "I'm not supposed to be here." "…" "…"

That brought me up short. Three missing names, one in denial and Lady Deathstrike? I suppose there had to be a time before she was Lady Deathstrike, but… no, this continuity is very different from the comics. Stryker made her. Who knows how, but it was shown in the scenery of X2. As for Foley, how do you get to be this deep and still be in denial?

"What's their deal?" I ask.

Roberto speaks up. "That's Josh Foley, he got captured with me on my dad's yacht, thinks it was an accident and if he just explains it to the psychos here they'll let him go. The quiet ones are Kurt Wagner and Rahne Sinclair, they're catholic and think this is their punishment for being mutants."

Josh Foley? Elixir? OK, that's actually kinda funny. In the comics he joined an anti-mutant group and triggered in the middle of one of their events. With the exception of Yuriko and Foley, this is the roster of The New Mutants, the X-men's 70's roster after the original team appeared to die on a deep space mission. Foley was part of the second run of New Mutants, and student of the original leader, Dani Moonstar.

"Right, whatever. Lets get you out of here. Places to be, things to steal, people to kill, you know how it goes?" I walked up to the first cage, this one holding Yuriko and yanked it open. If any of them were likely to try and kill me, it was her. If it comes to a fight, best to do it while the others were still safely out of the way. The cage tried to electrocute me and as soon as the lock was torn asunder in my fingers an alarm sounded. When Yuriko didn't attack me but simply gnawed on her lip worriedly, I decided she was no threat. "Riiiiight… get a move on girl." I bark and begin moving faster. I'm not chi accelerating, but I'm still moving fast. I rapidly rip doors off their hinges one after another and usher the kids out of their cells and toward the portal.

As I finish with the last one however, I find myself faced with a problem. Only three of my eight escapees have gone through the hole in reality; Smith, Foley and Wagner. And Wagner looked like he was trying to decide whether or not to come back.

"Alright, what are you idiots doing?" I snap. "Get through the portal. These things aren't exactly cheap to hold open, you know!"

"You're going to fight, right?" Sam asks, voice eager, eyes shining like frozen stars. "We wanna fight with you."

I laugh. "Haha, no. I can save myself easy enough. With the possible exceptions of Sam and Yuriko, all of you are squishy and if you got captured in the first place it means you don't know enough about your powers to be of use."

"You'll need me," Moonstar countered. "There's a traitor psychic on base and I'm the only one his powers don't work on."

Each of the others voiced their own arguments, all of them made in a din at the same time, but hers was the only one I listened to. Striding forward, I grabbed Yuriko, Sam, Rahne and Roberto by the scruff of the neck and tossed them through with Smith, Foely and Wagner before slamming the portal shut.

Not fast enough apparently, as Kurt and Tabitha appeared on my shoulders in a puff of black sulfur and faint wisps of red energy. I ripped the teleporter off my shoulders and looked him in the eyes, but before I could open my mouth, he was making excuses in German.

"… and I can get the others out fast if everything falls apart. Please, let me redeem myself by saving who I can."

I narrowed my eyes and glowered at him for a minute before dropping him. "Alright, come on. I've got a secret government agency to destroy. Don't get in my way, don't get killed and don't get caught."

Walking up to the airlock door, separating the mutant prison from the rest of the facility, I reach into the great door and begin rapidly weakening the metal in a ring. Once done, I step back and kick it with my full strength. The door blasts backward, flying across the room and rag-dolling. The moment it stops, burning stings like hornet bites start peppering my face and I'm pummeled from two angles by a hail of bullets.

Then, the metal rain stops and the screaming starts.

Behind me, Dani is holding her head as though she were trying to crush it, the effort of using her power to bring so many victims deepest fears to life weighing on her. Not wasting time, I accelerate my perception and rush into the room. Grabbing each of their guns, I bend them, and the metal into a hog-tie and move on to the next one. One after another, until all 20 of them are down. I'm done before the dust has finished settling.

Though, that may be because my movements generated storm currents in the hallway.

When the children stepped through, Tabitha looked at the men struggling or unconscious on the ground and asked in confusion; "Why didn't you just kill them?"

I shrug. "Why bother? They're grunts. Kill them by the trainload and nothing is different."

"But they're human! If you're here, you know what they've done to us!" She burst out.

"I'm human." I reply with a shrug. "Follow or stay, I need to get moving. There's an entire base full of these dudes."

"With the things you can do," Moonstar said, stumbling up to fall in step with me and wiping blood from her nose "how can you say you're simply human? Mutants are human, but they don't treat us like it."

I chuckle. "Because I'm not a mutant. However much you've suffered as a result, you got your powers by birth. An inheritance laid down in your blood. I got my powers through training in the fifth Heaven."

"So you're a bible freak." Moonstar replied flatly. "Hey Kurt, looks like you've got a friend!"

I laugh again and peer around a corner. "Less Jesus and more Angry Buddha. The heaven I trained in was the holy city of K'un-Lun near the Gobi desert."

"You're serious?" Tabitha asked from Dani's other side.

"As a heart attack." I confirmed. "Dani, prepare a psychic assault, I'm going to bust down this door."

The scene from before repeated itself, except this time with 10 soldiers and they didn't have time to shoot me before Dani had them on the ground crying. This happened several more times as we worked our way to the control room. This one was sealed behind three different layers of doors, five feet thick all told. Using my third eye, I identified the mechanisms that operated the doors and sent earth chi out to degrade them one after another. When I was done, I simply shoved the doors aside, shattering the mechanisms as I did so.

Inside were three more soldiers who'd had the opportunity to watch the entire tableau. Had I been on my own, I'd have simply teleported here and taken over the base from the command console, but with the munchkins in tow… whatever, it was done. Dani immediately broke the three of them just as she had all the others, but this time, I put my hand on her shoulder.

"Just two of them." I told her, "I need one to work with."

She gave me a questioning look but relented, and one of the camo-clad-commandos sagged to his knees, breathing heavily, shaking like a leaf and babbling out barely coherent pleases for mercy. I picked him up and found, to my surprise, that it wasn't a man, but a woman. Probably the first one I'd found in the base, unless they were all as butch as her.

Whatever. I inserted my chi into her system nonetheless and forced open all seven chakra. She shuddered and went slack as her root and heart chakras opened, suppressing her fear and grief responses. "Have you locked down the base?" I ask.

She shakes her head, "Only the parts you moved through."

"Tell me how to lock it down. Every section." She did, and I followed her instructions. The soldiers on the surveillance screens began to panic as their secret fortress turned against them. "Where is Colonel William Stryker?"

"He's in Washington, securing more funding for the project."

God dammit. Shit can never be easy can it? "Has Colonel Stryker been informed of my assault?" I ask next.

"A general notice was sent the moment you opened the cages." She answered, squirming in my grip now.

"But does he know this base has fallen?" I press.

"No."

I sigh in relief. "How do I send an all clear signal to him?" She told me, and I sent a text over Stryker's emergency line that the Mutant breakout had been dealt with, and the animals were back in their cages. Repairs would be needed, but the base was secure and nobody was killed. Next question. "Where is Jason Stryker; Weapon 143?"

Jason, it turned out, was still on base. Thank god. I followed soldier girls instructions and found him easily, sitting in his wheelchair in the base's medical wing. Even before Stryker engineered him into a living weapon, he was the unholy lovechild of Magneto and Xavier, possessing the latter's mind control powers and the former's morality. This little shit was using his powers to attack his mothers sanity in order to torture her since he first started being taught by Charles back in the late 70's. Regardless whether his parents were supportive, rejecting or abusive, that represents a complete lack of forethought or discipline. Which was why now, his professional mutant hunter father, was using him as a windup monkey to steal the free will of other mutants to turn them into living weapons.

Living weapons, I can get behind; I practically am one. But Marvel's methods make me cringe.

Flipping through a few screens, I find the armory. "Mr Wagner," I call out.

"Ja, der-herr?" The German teleporter asked.

"Can you teleport to a place on a screen?" I asked. He could in the comics, and his warning to storm in X2 made it seem like he could, it just wasn't safe if he couldn't judge a jump to open space.

"I, ah, Haff never tried it." He replied nervously, worrying his hands.

Looking at the map and calculating based on the size of the room and corridors, I pointed. "That direction, 37 feet, you'll come out in the middle of four men who've been locked inside. Take Moonstar with you. When you come back, bring restraints. Lots of them."

He nodded, offered his hand to Dani like a gentleman, and after she hesitantly took it, vanished in a puff of smoke. I watched on the screen as they did just what I asked, and soon the men were down and handcuffed hand to foot behind and across their backs. Kurt returned, ecstatic, his arms carrying a box of cuffs and a thoroughly nauseous Ms Moonstar.

Excellent, things are going well. I give Dani a bit of water chi healing to soothe the stress she's been putting herself and her power under and pull out the wheel to make another portal. It opens up into The Chaste safehouse and I roll my eyes at the standoff I revealed on the other side. Three of my disciples are there, holding elemental weapons against Roberto and Sam; Foley and Rhaine are on the ground, pinned; and Yuriko is standing on a small pile of Chaste, though she isn't rocking her signature claws and the walls are clear of blood splatter.

"Really? I step out of the room for five minutes, and everybodies at each other's throats?"

The local Chaste terrorists aren't particularly happy with the five mutants I left in the middle of their safe-house, and tell me so. Loudly. It's a breach of security apparently. The Mutants complain about how the chaste are bigots, which I suppose is possible, but also largely irrelevant. I warp space in order to smack everybody up the back of the head at once and pull the local leader (Heninger) through the portal, presenting him with his new secret base in Oshiem.

While Heninger calls the other bases for volunteers and reinforcements, I take the wheel and Dani to find Jason Stryker. As we enter the medical bay with my new administrator access, Dani freezes in place, one eye twitching. The wheelchair bound corpse on the other side of the room seems to be having fits too, so I assume they're involved in some sort of Psychic contest. I try to observe it with my Third Eye as I take down the two soldiers assigned to care for Jason, but whatever energy they're using, its much the same as my attempts to view Light and Dark Force energy. It's after effects are obvious, but it itself is invisible to me.

Moving in to disable the guards while she works, I groan as my vision distorts and suddenly I'm somewhere else. It takes me a moment to recognize my surroundings after 15 years away, but this is the bathroom where it all started. My son, Nicodemus, stands in the tub, dripping wet with bruise marks forming on his throat. Behind me lays my wife, Mina, where I'd thrown her against the railing of the stairs.

"Kill her," Nico rasps. "She's hurting us, kill her!"

I close my eyes slowly and feel my blood stir with anger. "This is your chance, father. Protect us, now, like you didn't then." Cassiopia and Liliana call out to me, rising from the tub, faces blue, necks purple and eyes like dead fish.

My eyes grow cold even as my blood heats and my heart pounds. This isn't time travel, or insanity, or reality, this is Jason Stryker. He's trying to protect himself, and with Dani here attacking his mind, he doesn't have enough left over to control me like he did Xavier in the Movie. But that doesn't mean he isn't trying. I can understand it. To a point I can empathize with it. But as much progress as K'un-Lun helped me make on coming to terms with the event, Jason is (perhaps unknowingly) stepping on the wound and grinding in his heel.

My body (old out of shape me, in this vision) becomes wreathed in a sheathe of fire (shaped like my current self) and I roar. Shoulders forward, arms back, legs stepping forward and mouth open, I unleash a wave of dragon's breath at the imposter wearing my children's faces. It washes over them and they scream, melting away to reveal Jason, his eyes wide as they blacken and shrivel into a quickly disintegrating skull. I keep up the stream of fire until he, his two guards, and half of the medical bay are so much slag.

On the other side of the room, Dani collapses, both from the back-draft and from the struggle she was engaged in suddenly ending. Swearing to myself, I rush over to her and remove her from the charnel house. Second degree burns cover most of her front, and I pull water chi to begin healing her, rapidly soothing away the damage. As soon as I'm satisfied she's no longer in danger of dying from thermal shock, I turn back to the site of my tantrum.

I wince. Talk about a massive overreaction. A pang of shame hits me and the sacral chakra I just used to heal Moonstar shrinks slightly. There's nothing I can do about that now though, so I walk over to the inferno and breathe in. Inhaling deeply, I draw in the raging plasma that even now is trying to eat the metal and stone of the room. As it comes in, it brings with it the screaming souls of Jason Stryker and his two guards, Guri Hanson and Jerad Engles, embers in the inferno of my dragon soul. The first, and if I keep a clear head about it, only souls I'll ever eat.

"Holy shit…" a shocked voice whispers from behind me. Danielle Moonstar has re-awoken from the shock of my attack and is laying on her elbows in the corridor, staring at the damage with wide eyes.

I walk over to her and check on her condition, pulling out more water chi to finish healing anything I'd missed. "Thank-you for your service, Ms Moonstar." I tell her softly, helping her to her feet. "Is there somewhere you would like to go? A home? Xaviers perhaps?"

She looked away. "My home was destroyed by my… by a demon bear. I have nothing to go back to. And I doubt a bunch of heroes like the X-men would want someone who's big power is being so scary people die if I'm not careful."

Kid, you've got no idea… It seemed as though her backstory was the same as in the comics though. Or close enough for me to not be entirely lost when dealing with her. "You can stay with me then." I tell her firmly. "If you don't mind palling around with a bunch of magic monks."

She giggled and repeated the last two words. "Sure, whatever you say, Dumbledore." I cuffed her across the back of the head, softly this time. "Thanks for healing my burns. It's kinda scary how you have so many powers. Almost makes me believe you really are magic, and not just a really powerful, really crazy, mutant with cat eyes."

I snort. "What's holding you back?"

She looks at me incredulously. "No chanting, no dancing, no sacred herbs or remains, no hand gestures, no magic symbols, no wand or staff, you're wearing a suit rather than some ceremonial garb and look like a football linebacker rather than a college professor. The only part of you that seems magical is that disk you use to make portals and the fact you have far too many powers to be in any way fair."

I shake my head and shove her lightly down the hall. "Go help the others then, the base is locked down, but it's not secure. I'll finish up here."

As I watched her leave, one thought remained with me. What did she mean about cat eyes? Entering the hospital again, I managed to find a mirror and looked into it. My eyes were… the irises were now a luminous green color, glowing faintly in the dim light.

Well… shit.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

However bad I may have felt about murdering Jason Stryker, it was overshadowed by my frustration with the rest of this operation. When Danielle and I returned to deal with the remaining soldiers, it was to find that Tabitha and Yuriko had led the Chaste in murdering almost half of those I had captured. They were also well on the way to battling it out with the rest of the base. Literally, any soldier who didn't surrender immediately. This apparently included the ones I'd captured, because when they were being transferred from their bonds, they'd tried to run or fight back.

They were slowed down somewhat by Sam, Rhaine and Kurt trying to stop them, and Roberto being a useless dithering mess, unsure which side to help. Foley for some reason thought he was included with the Soldiers rather than their attackers and was sitting with them where they were being held.

What. A fucking. Mess.

Fighting down the urge to kill them all myself to save myself the aggravation, I went to the security office. Now that I had Stryker's number, it wasn't hard to use their (probably illegal) system to track the man by the cell towers he was connected to. Sending out my perception to find the place on the map, I entered a house in the DC suburbs and found the mans phone. Searching the house didn't take too long, and I found another six soldiers, Stryker and his three guests.

A CIA suit, Senator Kelley, and some guy with a briefcase and slicked back black hair. The man with the briefcase looked up at me, noticing my presence despite it being immaterial, and smirking.

"Well, I think that about covers everything on my end." Briefcase said, pulling a series of papers to himself and stacking them neatly in said artifact.

"Where are you going, Nathaniel?" Kelley asked. "This meeting just started."

"Something urgent came up." Nathaniel replied smoothly. "You already know what I offer and what I expect. I'm sure you can continue without me for one evening?"

Scowling, I tore open a pair of portals beneath the Nathanial and Stryker, catching them off guard. Kelley went ballistic as I closed them. Good, Let him think Essex is a mutant.

Returning to my body, I got a good look at 'Nathaniel' killing Stryker in the hallway with a beam of red energy from his hand, and swore. "You asshole! The fuck did you do that for?"

He looked at me and shrugged. "You were going to kill him yourself, weren't you?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Probably, but I wanted to question him first." If for no other reason than to get the locations of Wakanda, Ulysses Klaue and the rest of Klaue's Vibranium stockpile.

"Which is why I killed him first." Nathaniel, replied brightly. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to find a new organization to collect my samples for me." He said, and pulled out… a sling ring.

Son of a bitch.

Accelerating my perceptions, I dive out of the way as another red beam fires at me from the mans right hand while the left spins the ring to open a portal. Regaining my feet as the beam tears through several monitors, I surge forward into the hall and use my maximum speed and strength to tear off the arm that's firing the destructive beam at me. Rather than a spray of red blood, the gaping wound sort of hangs there in the open, revealing a pool of some sort of black Ichor. Scowling, I discard the arm and go for his other hand, the one with the portal device.

Despite being almost sonic however, Nathaniel catches up. A green glow forms intricate geometric patterns in front of one of his eyes and he turns to face me as I rush forward.

"That was quite rude." He admonishes me, pulling his sling ring bearing hand out of my reach.

"Turnabout's fair play." I snarl. "You fucked with my plans, I fuck with you."

I try to light him up with fire and lightning, but he evades by strikes, leaving green afterimages behind. "Ah ah ah." He rebuts. "You, ahem, 'fucked' with my plans first. I was using the Enhanced Weapons Program and you not only dismantle it, but kidnap me in front of a major patron. Now I'm going to have to rebuild." He pulled out a handkerchief and wiped a speck of black off his cheek while continuing to dodge my attacks.

"Perhaps not all is lost though." 'Essex' continued. "You have truly beautiful eyes. Give me one of them, and I can let bygones be bygones."

How the fuck is this guy keeping up with me? I swear internally. Wizards in the MCU aren't supposed to be able to handle this sort of magical throughput. The Doctor Strange movie makes excessively clear that Time Manipulation, beam weapons, portals and even flight, were all things that required enchanted artifacts to operate. That using enough power to do so on your own would tear the body apart. But here 'Nathaniel' was, doing it almost casually as we danced down the hallway.

I'd suspect Apocalypse's enhancements, but aside from the black ichor thing he doesn't look like a Vampire and the events of that movie didn't happen. Unless it happened more like the comics? Gah! Why do the X-men movies have to be such a mess? 3 or more competing timelines is fucking ridiculous! Never mind reconciling them with a fourth superseding timeline!

"Come and take them," I challenge.

He smiles, "Gladly!"

He rushes toward me with his hand questing for my eye. He's faster than me, but not THAT much faster. Probably the spell he's using matches reference frames with the thing he's observing. Otherwise, why not simply to time-stopper and outclass me?

I dodge the lunge and punch up at his elbow with a bolt of lightning. It's faster than I am as well, and apparently faster than Essex, because it hits and causes him to freeze up for a moment. Just long enough for me to bend the elbow the wrong way and grab on. I fail to tear his arm off like I had the first one, but I manage to get his index finger along with the sling ring attached to it. Both of which I immediately vanish into my own ring.

"Now that was just uncalled for." He pouts, leaning back at the waist to avoid an attempt to decapitate him. He punches me through the rib as I try to recoil, closing the opening and setting up the next attack. His blow flings me backward into what looks like a cafeteria and I feel the bone snap. Shatter, really, as shards of it move several inches into my lung.

As I'm recovering however, he does something truly horrible.

I had to have the tesseract wheel out in order to use the thing. It may be able to function through the folded space of my ring, but I didn't know how to manipulate it through the distortion field. So when I summoned the evil mutant to me, his actions had distracted me from the obvious course of action, that being to store it back inside the ring. After all, I should have been faster than him, right? I'd thought him human, and if he was a speedster, he shouldn't even know how to use it. After that, well, I was a little busy.

He flickers out of my view in a flash of green. When he returns, the wheel was in his hand and crumbling, as he crushed it in front of me to take the blazing blue cylinder and the vial with my blood in hand. "Thank you," he said, holding it up "with this, I believe our business is concluded." Then he vanished in a flash of blue light.

Mutherfucker.

Last edited: Dec 10, 2020

Book 2: Chapter 3: Rebound

AN: Happy New Years everybody! I wanted to do this for Christmas, but things kept getting in the way. Like life and actually writing something I felt worked. Still not entirely sure on that second bit, but I'm reasonably satisfied and tired of rewrites. Standard disclaimer, not all character opinions are my own and for the disturbing science stuff I did actually talk to experts, yada yada yada, read, comment, review, flame, and hopefully, enjoy.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

Well… that was humiliating. Twice in an hour, I get smacked by mutants as though I were back to being in Lei-Kung's classes. Worse, both mutants were widely accepted punching bags for the heroes. It all comes down to my assumptions though, and I can feel my crown chakra punishing me for my bias'. It's not as bad as needing to clear the node all over again, but only just. I suppose the biggest reason I made this failure is because my vision of the future supported the notion that I could rely on the movies, which claimed "our world, but with these events". K'un Lun itself should have shattered that notion the moment I began my cultivation path. It was far too detailed, too involved for what was presented in the TV-show. Or the comics for that matter. The other side of the argument is places like this; Alkali Lake. Things, places, events and people directly shown in the movies and TV shows appear to be reliable. Just not the necessary adjacent details.

The lesson here, I suppose, is to assume movie details, but nothing else. Not even what the movies might hint at. Socrates ~ True wisdom exists in acknowledging just how much you don't know, and seeking to correct that imbalance. At that admittance, my crown chakra eases up slightly. I'll still need to work on examining those assumptions, but I'm on the right path. Sighing, I do what I've done since I first entered this reality; I push the problems I cannot act on off to the side and focus on the ones I CAN.

The battle with Sinister wasn't a complete loss. Just mostly. Sinister is one of those issues I was just contemplating, where his presence is confirmed, but so little is shown about him you basically know nothing. Like Shuo-Lao. In Sinisters case, I know he runs the Essex corporation, and seems to be involved at least peripherally in every plotline. If not directly, then as a scavenger. He appears as a white businessman with greasy hair and a briefcase. Often unidentified except in the credits, you can usually see the name Essex embossed on the briefcase and him walking off with something mutant related at a random point in the movie. In Ryan Reynolds version of Deadpool, he was instead shown delivering something to the Mutant workshop. With the exception of X-men Apocalypse end credits scene from the days of futures past timeline though, he's always a blink and you'll miss him sort of detail with not more than 5 seconds of screen time per appearance.

Whether this makes him an immortal geneticist who worked first with Darwin and then Apocalypse, or simply a cold war biomedical businessman with his finger in every pie however is up for dice. Here though, I can also confirm he's a (quite possibly unparalleled) sorcerer as well. He's also far more congenial than I would have expected. Affably evil rather than simply creep factor 11.

That being said, he's still creepy as hell. After all, he wanted to remove my eye, considered our business concluded after stealing a vial of my blood and was apparently a partner in the Enhanced Weapons Program. Beyond the creep factor that's not actually as big a problem as his demonstrated power suggests. His cordial departure suggests he's unlikely to sic whatever institutional power he has one me. Not retrieving his sling ring or annihilating me when he got bored and ended our fight suggests his magical power won't be an issue either. Genetically, I'm nothing special; particularly in this reality. I have no mutant powers and 140ish IQs are merely, barely, entry level for plot relevant smart guys. The Threefold Cycle has likely had some effect on my DNA as I'm now even smarter and an Adonis, but if he tries to clone me, as is Mr Sinister's signature move, he'll get nothing. At least, nothing by his standards. If in the other hand he uses my blood as a targeting method for a spell… , well fuck me, I guess? If there's a way to target me with a spell, there's likely also a way to target my blood across the world with another spell, but while Sinister MAY have the knowledge to do so, I do not.

The bigger question is what horrifying potential shenanigans Sinister is going to get up to with his space crystal. Ideally, he'll pull a Red Skull and get stranded on a barren planet, nere to trouble me again, but while that's the most likely event in any other reality, the Marvel universe tends to invert such things. Going by Sinisters' revealed character, he's likely to pull more experiments like Wolfgang Von Struker did, creating Wanda and Pietro. That could give him an army of mutants or equivalent forces which would be bad, but probably easier to deal with in the end. Super-people are still people, after all. Alternatively, his revealed sorcery could take him in the direction of expanding his repertoire of spells into space-stone shenanigans, and other than general ideas, I don't even know where to start with that problem. Kusanagi would be the least of things he could create with that sort of power. Worst… he could pull a Thanos, and use the crystal to go around collecting the gems. The world Mr Sinister is likely to create with that sort of power doesn't bear thinking about, and with his unnatural capacity for sorcery, I couldn't even guarantee we'd at least be rid of HIM when he does it.

That's what I can't act on; so what about the things I can?

First issue; the loot.

During the battle, I had managed to take Nathaniel Essex' Sling Ring. I'd also taken his arm and he'd been courteous enough to leave me Stryker's body, if I want to get gruesome. Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to, and dive face first into Native American cultivation. And if I'm going to do so, it has to be soon in both cases. The fresher a sacrifice, the better the results.

Next, there's the base itself. I haven't done much damage to it, it's well hidden, well stocked and comes with a dozen or so Marvel scientists. None of that's anything to sniff at. The funding is likely to dry up with the death, or more accurately Public Kidnapping, of the project leader, but I'd come to terms with that when I kidnapped him. The issue is how much effort they're going to spend on harassing Nathaniel vs reclaiming the base. They likely don't know it's been compromised, so if things go well, Senator Kelly and the Pentagon are just going to send us a new commander, who I can subvert. If they DO know, or more likely suspect, then the Chaste could be in for an actual recovery invasion. The base is hardened against such things, and if I build another portal device; sieging the base is more or less impossible, but that's far from ideal.

Then, there's the metal. Adamantium, it's recipe, and the base material, Vibranium. Ten. Thousand. Dollars. Per gram. And I've got slightly less than half a ton.

Finally… there's the mutants. Eight of them for now, though I expect we may lose a few, or most, of them when I allow them to decide what they want to do. Regardless of their future prospects though, I know who they all are. It's the roster of The New Mutants, the team comic Xavier creates after a deep space mission appears to kill the original X-men. In the X-men movies, they're split between being named extras across various time periods, and coming together in the psychological horror TV series named after them. Thankfully for them, that last one seems not to be the case. Unfortunately for them, this has included them in the horrible machinations of Weapon X and Mr Sinister.

Although, I suppose they're not the entire roster.

Nightcrawler was with the team of "dead" x-men for a while before becoming one of the team's faculty advisors. Yuriko was one of their recurring enemies. Tabitha was part of the second new mutants team roster. Joshua Foley was part of the next generation team, led by New Mutants original, Dani Moonstar herself. Of the group, Danielle Moonstar, Rahne Sinclair, Roberto da Costa and Sam Guthrine were the members of the original team. Unfortunately, past Dani who has already expressed an interest in me over Xavier, I'll need to interview them in order to figure out who I can keep and who will go.

Next issue; the tank gun I had taken the blue crystals from had held two power cells. I could rebuild my space wheel. The problem with this is twofold. First, that I had intended to give the second crystal to The Chaste, building them a portal with it. Without that, I have to come up with another plan. Like building them a stargate here with comms, teleport and portal beacons. Or jumping the shark and advancing one of my cores to Iron via space chi and praying that works.

Finally; my eyes. Dani was incorrect when she called them cat eyes, or dragon as the case may be. The pupils have not become slits or enlarged to cover most of the eye. They don't even look inhuman apart from the subtle glow. The problem is what that glow represents. When I first arrived in K'un-Lun, Priya gave me all sorts of shit for having green eyes. Green eyes are a sign of demonic possession pan-asian mythology, just as red hair is a sign of immense bloodshed in the wearer's past. I had dismissed this as pure bunk, and managed to convince most of the city of the same by the time I'd left. Unfortunately, here I am, just having eaten three souls, and my green eyes start glowing. They're not even the same shade of green as the glow.

Worse still, my research has informed me of just what that glow means. Or rather, the Gu/Black Skye research that Sir Pemberton handed me, compiled from S'ahra Sharn's libraries confirmed it's meaning.

Glowing green eyes are the sign of what is known as a Demonic Path cultivator. Very simply, a demonic path cultivator uses the death, torture and or torment of other human beings in order to fuel their cultivation. There are hundreds of methods in xianxia and wuxia stories, and a dozen or so in the research I managed to get a hold of. Generally speaking, this doesn't alter a person's appearance into something demonic, apart from the green eyes and red hair. Even so, the methods for doing it are a recipe for creating sociopaths. After all, what else do you call someone who only values other human lives as resources?

Well, cannibal, I suppose; but typically, a sociopath.

Generally speaking, I believe I have good discipline. Ironclad if I want it to be. Honest. But I'm almost scared to go into meditation and see how much I gained from eating those souls. What if I like the result? Can I stop myself from eating more? Can I stop myself… from eventually ending up devouring entire villages like the dragons of old? Villages get a whole fucking lot bigger in this day and age. Would my sanity even survive giving in to such an event? It's not out of the realm of possibility, and I really don't like that thought…

Self control. I just need to maintain self control and a normal human perspective on the value of life. I will. Maintain. Control. Not a lot of people could use my kids against me the way Jason did. And the rare soul who could (and more importantly would) make me a liar? If I can't avoid them, not many will miss that sort anyway.

Unfortunately, that leads back into my most time sensitive concern; the 'use em or lose em' type. Returning to the control room where the initial battle took place, I collect Sinister's arm and Stryker's body. Taking them both to the burnt out infirmary, I pull out my crown and draw up the arena master Cuautli's knowledge of sacrifices.

The path of sacrifices had a lot of complicated techniques and procedures (which I would experiment on later when I had non-critical materials to play with,) but in essence boiled down to a pretty simple concept. The practitioner needed to reach out with their soul and collect the spiritual essence, the chi, of the thing being sacrificed and form a shell around it. Once encapsulated, they stuck that shell to their aura or anothers' like a velcro patch, from which the wearer could then reference, absorb, reject or project the preserved chi at any time they wished.

From there, each thing sacrificed had its own purpose which could then be divided into several meanings. A set of eyes could be used to give the wielder an enemies perspective on things, their eye color or visual acuity. A sacrificed tongue could allow you to learn their language or charisma. A sacrificed hand would let you know of their works and deeds and how you might perform them yourself. Their heart could grant you their courage and empathy. Their brain, knowledge, wisdom, creativity, memory or talent. There were a myriad of different procedures, depending on the spiritual meaning of what you wanted to take from your victim.

And of course, all of it had to be written out in blood.

By contrast, Shuo-Lao's method was incredibly simple. The fire consumed, and anything that wasn't wanted by the soul got discarded as ash, while anything the burning soul considered useful was integrated seamlessly into the flames. This has been immensely beneficial for normal cultivation, as a lot of the time necessary to cultivate is the time spent cleansing the energy and claiming it as your own. But I'm after specific knowledge from both subjects, and can't risk it slipping by me because my spirit subconsciously assumed it wasn't useful or integrated something stupid because I unconciously wanted to punish myself. Not now that I'm unable to simply question either man.

Gathering a bit of sharp chi on my finger like a claw, I carve the Aztec runes into the floor and then cut open my own wrist to allow the blood to flow through the cracks. The ritual I use is the simplest one, which will allow me to see anything either the arm of Sinister or the body of Stryker has done in the past. They're essentially psychometry, but as I didn't kill Stryker and Essex not only got away but won a confrontation I started, I don't have the souls of the victims here to latch on to cutting any sacrifice's value by half or more. That's the price you pay for fucking up.

Once both sacrifices chi is contained and stuck to my aura, I manipulate some concrete to give Stryker a sealed coffin and proceed to burn Nathaniel's arm. It was double dipping, sure, but I needed to know as much about this guy as possible for our next meeting, so I'd take what I could get. In particular, I needed to know just why his body was filled with black Ichor rather than flesh. I needed to know just what that meant, and I needed to know what, if anything, it had to do with his unnatural power for sorcery.

In both cases, I wanted to know if it was something I could do. Above even that though, I needed to know if I had the possibility of doing sorcery in the first place. It was all well and good for Steven Strange, fated sorcerer supreme to learn how to use the ring in a day, but for myself… I didn't really know where to start. There was also the problem that it worked on "the energy between dimensions", not chi or space stone energy. Could I even use that energy without another wizard awakening me to it? Or did my falling through a multidimensional rift almost 14 years ago now already cover that? And how would I know?

More questions for later, unfortunately. While the arm as a sacrifice showed how to form the symbols for various spells and their effects, and burning the arm showed corruption in a remarkably similar pattern to what using the space crystal left, neither sacrificing it nor burning it told me how to draw out such energies. Not without having a source on hand.

Though, as Chi is the diluted energy of the soul gem, perhaps it's as simple as focus? What to focus on though? For chi, I had to reach enlightenment on the fact that soul mind and body were unified. What would space, reality, power, time and mind require?

I contemplated this for a while before deciding to set it aside for later. I could figure it out when I wasn't in the middle of my latest mess.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

Opening my eyes, I found I had an audience.

"Master Rey," Jordan spoke first, placing a hand in front of Lady Deathstrike's mouth and punched for it. "We have finished securing the base; all their holdouts belong to us. I had to explain several more times you wanted prisoners over corpses, but we got it done. Now, there are several matters that require your attention."

I nod and stand up, brushing ash off my pants. The fine powder slides remarkably well off of silk, I notice absently, before dismissing the thought. "Disposition of the prisoners, reestablishing transportation for our forces and requests from the mutants, I presume?"

Jordan nodded with a grin, continuing to ignore the woman attacking him, "perhaps not in that order, but that's about the long and short of it. We'd like to know what's going on too."

I look across the gathered crowd cough. "Rescuing the mutants and capturing the base wasn't part of the plan. I just needed Stryker and the metal. It's called Vibranium and is probably the most useful thing in the galaxy after chi. Stryker knows where it comes from. They were sort of an impromptu action when I couldn't find the colonel. Lucky them."

Yuriko abandoned her attempts to find anything she could use to hurt Jordan and made to speak again. He moved to block her again and I gestured for him to let it go. He shrugged and I turned to the Asian woman. "Yuriko Oyama, you had something?"

She glares at Kahananui but nods. "My father, inventor of Adamantium, works here with the late colonel. He would know where to find more of the metal. But you must take me with you when you force the truth from his soul."

Someone talked… Trying to decide if I care… nope! "I sense a story there." I tell her. She's volunteering information too easily. Bragging? Or more likely, she wants something. In the movie X2, Lady Deathstrike was a pretty one note character. She was Stryker's personal shadow and his answer to Wolverine's desertion. Little more than eye-candy-and-action fan-service, really. In the comics… she was disfigured in numerous ways and a low quality villainous mastermind, but that expanded her to being at least two dimensional rather than one.

In the comics, her father, Kenji Oyama developed the adamantium bonding process that would later be used on Wolverine while training her and her two brothers to be ninja in his service. When her two brothers died in the Weapon X project, she stole her fathers research and contracted another supervillain to use it on her. Yuriko was not a mutant as in the movie, and survived the process by bonding with the adamantium on a cellular level rather than skeletal, which was what allowed her to reshape the "indestructible" metal. She then proceeded to spend 40 years of comics hunting down anyone so much as tangentially related to adamantium.

Here though, Yuriko was apparently a mutant, and rather than merely inventing the bonding process, he apparently invented adamantium wholesale. Or at least, according to Yuriko, a likely biased source.

The tall Asian woman stared hard at me for several moments before turning away slightly and scowling cutely. "I am looking for someone. A man named Logan. We were lovers before my father drove him away. I came here to plead with him and found out that he had not been satisfied with merely driving Logan and I apart nine years ago, but experimented on him, lost control and Logan escaped. That was all I got before he convinced the Colonel to imprison me with the test subjects. I must know more. I must find Logan." She made a face that looked as though she were in great pain before bowing almost in half. "Please, I beg of you."

… WOW… was this a different sort of Yuriko than what I was expecting. Mutant, pre-adamantium, willing to humble herself and NOT on a crusade to murder Logan for 'for good this time'. I set that as a priority image in my mind and sighed as my crown chakra eased just a bit.

"I will do what you ask." I tell her, placing a hand under her chin and pulling her out of the bow. "For now, wait over there while I talk to the others." I wonder if I can just tell her to wait at Xaviers. Nah… having her in my debt may be enough to net me her employment and, at a stretch, Logan's as well. Showing him this base and Stryker's corpse would also help with that. With that in mind, I grab some water and Yin, forming Ice chi and send it to freeze the man's coffin.

She nods and moves off to the wall, leaning against it.

Next up was Tabitha Smith. Code named "Boom boom", she's basically an upgraded version of Jubilee. Where the famous firework mutant hurls a stream of miniature plasma balls from her fingers, Tabi can control the size of her bombs, from micro-particles that tickle to artillery pieces that blow away entire buildings, and everything in between. The tradeoff, I suppose, is that she can only create one at a time and charging or shrinking it away from the standard hand grenade size she makes automatically takes time. From reports, her power works very much the same here. The reason she didn't use it to escape, is because outside of Yuriko, nobody in the cells has bomb resistance. Including her, incidentally.

Her personality and appearance also seem to be pretty similar. Willful to the point of belligerence, even among friends. Perfectly willing to get her hands dirty, and disdainful of those who aren't. 90's mall rat, though I don't know if that one holds over here. Petite, blond and really cute in the face, though marred by her typical expressions. Though that last grouping may have more to do with her being 14 than anything else.

"I want in." She demanded.

I offer her a raised brow. "In on what, my little murderess?"

She rolls her eyes. "Battlefield, self defense, call it whatever, but they had it coming, don't deny it. And from what I heard, you burnt a couple of people alive in this very room. As for what I want, I want in on your little seven heavens cult. If you can teach these virgin scrubs magic, you can teach me godhood."

I laugh outright. "No. Next."

Her face goes red, and both fists clench, covering themselves in burning plasma, waiting to explode. "And why the fuck not?"

"Because I don't like you, kid." I tell her flatly. "And because you neither have much to give me nor are you likely to take instruction well. As for my murders, that was an accident. Psychics should know better than to trigger berserker rage in their opponents. Given what had been done to him though, I believe it may have been a suicide. Now, unless you'd like to give me a safe location to drop you off, scram, you're holding up the line."

She whipped her hand back as though preparing to throw a plasma ball at me, but Kurt closed his hand over hers, extinguishing the attack. She looked at him, shocked, before huffing "fine, whatever. It's not like you could do anything anyway."

Kurt Vahlen leads her off to the side where she slams herself up against the wall and fumes.

Next up is Roberto De Costa. In the comics, he was called sunspot. His superpower was being superman. Sort of. He creates a black aura that makes him look like a demon and pulls in light, which he then uses to become super-durable, strong and fast. He also occasionally has flight and solar energy attacks, depending on the comic author writing him. He appears briefly in Days of Futures past, before being promptly killed red-shirt style by a sentinel, and in the New Mutants TV series as one of the inmates where he's whitewashed and starts a relationship with Illyana Rasputin.

A Black-Hispanic, playboy and soccer star being scouted for the Olympics, he was the son of a major food distributor across south America. Sort of, Walmart superstore type deal. Unfortunately for him though, his trigger event was being fouled on the field, and causing a stadium wide panic. His father disowned him, the police were after his head, and he's suddenly outed as a mutant. Only his blond stepford girlfriend stood by him, and she was killed by Hellfire Club member Donald Pierce, 'The Reaver'. After a trip to Nova Roma to recruit Magma, he makes up with his father, only for the man to die in his arms and restore his inheritance.

His powers here are similar, as so far reported. He complained about being out of juice, having had no access to sunlight for months when the mutants fought each other over whether or not to follow my 'avoid killing' orders. Either he's a coward, or he has a moral compass and it's tempered by sufficient common sense to not get involved in a superfight when he's got no power himself.

He looks… different than in the comics though. Straight hair, instead of curly, a shade lighter skin and somewhat hooked nose. At a guess, I'd say he was a bit more hispanic, or greek/inca as the case may be, in this iteration than originally.

"What can I do for you kid?" I ask. "Is there a home you want to get back to?"

He snorts and crosses his arms. "Yes and no. Do you know who I am?"

I offer him a raised brow. "Vaguely. You've already given me your name, and if I'm not mistaken your powers are solar fueled constitution."

He nods slowly. "Ok, hoss. But what you don't know, is that me papi is a businessman. A big one. When he found out I was a mutant, he pulled me out of school and had me do correspondence courses. That was nice at first, because I could study ahead if I wanted and test out of any class I already knew. Then I learned he'd disinherited me and sold me to this guy named Essex. I'm out one day with my buddy Josh and suddenly the street is empty of people. I go to ignite my powers and there's a pain in my neck. The last thing I see before waking up in a cell is Josh falling to the ground beside me, his eyes big like he was on mushrooms. I didn't even find out what happened, until one of the scientists studying us told me in exchange for my cooperation with their testing."

He drew in a heavy breath and held it for a moment before continuing. "I want you to help me perform a hostile takeover. Once I've got dad's company, your cult can use our distribution network to pursue this war of yours."

I run my fingers through my beard, humming. "Sure, I can do that." I tell him. "I'm gonna want you to be there while I question him though. It may turn out the scientists lied."

Roberto scowls, but nods. "I agree to this, but you don know me papi. He came from 7 generations of poverty, became a millionaire by 20 and was trading politicians like baseball cards in 7 different countries by the time he was 30. I can believe he would sell me to keep his reputation."

I shrug. "We'll burn that bridge when we cross it." I tell him, offering the boy my hand. He takes it, serious, and heads over to stand against the wall by Yuriko.

Next up is Josh Foley, who was apparently dragged into the room by Maddi cho. He looks over at Roberto and scowls before turning to me, looking twitchy and biting his lip. "I guess it's my turn then" the blond kid says. "Yer majesty," he bows mockingly. "Ya gotta get me out of here. I keep telling everyone, I'm not a mutant, but nobody will listen! I ain't got no powers and don't want em. You offered to send Tabi home, can you do the same for me? My parents are probably outta their minds lookin for me."

Joshua Foley, Elixir, looks much the same as he did in the comics before using his powers to turn his skin and hair into liquid gold as a means of attention seeking. He and Roberto are sixteen, thereabouts but where Da Costa is athletic, Foley is tall and lanky. Dirty blond hair, blue eyes and a face I'd describe as more bishonen than handsome, he's not all that impressive right now. In the comics, his power was like Amy Dallon from Worm, except less limited as he could use that biokinesis on himself at will, healing wounds and even changing his mutant abilities on a few occasions.

I glance at Maddi. She nods. "He has some sort of power." She confirmed. "It keeps trying to reach up my arm and push aside my chi. Not sure what it's supposed to do though."

I nod and poke the boy on the forehead. Inserting my chi into his chakras, I ask him, "do you have powers?"

"Yes." He says flatly. Then his eyes bug and he pulls away from me, mouth flapping and throat making funny sounds as he tries to deny what he'd just told me. That's the thing with this technique though. I can't force you to tell the truth, but I can force you not to lie, to me, or yourself.

When he gets done shaking his head, tears are streaming down his face. I kind of feel sorry for doing this to him, but I expect denial is going to screw him over here about as much as it did in the comics. Maybe less, because some of the tropes, like mutant detectors and suppressors don't seem to be a thing outside of the Last Stand drug.

"Do you know what your powers are, Joshua?" I ask, voice soft and gentle.

"The scientists said I did biokinesis or something? All I know is I didn't hurt as much as the others after they were done with me." He replies back without stuttering a bit, despite the silent tears. He probably thought that they were being lighter on him because they couldn't prove he was a mutant. Though with his powers, he could very well have given himself anesthesia and amnesia of the incidents in order to protect himself.

I nod. "I've got three offers for you kid." I tell him. "Join me, explore your powers, and we can do great things together. Second, I can send you home. You'll be on your own once we find your parents, but if you're OK with the risk, that's your choice. Just understand what you are now, and take steps to train yourself. If nothing else, so that you don't use your powers by accident. Final offer, is I can send you to Xavier's school for the Gifted in upstate New York. From there, you can learn from the best, or seek out Magneto, or go it on your own with a clean slate." I withdrew my chi from his chakras and patted him on the back. "Don't decide now, go over there and think about it." I pointed to the wall with Tabitha, Roberto and Yuriko.

He nods, sniffing, and slams himself into the wall beside his former friend, before sliding down into a sitting position, holding his head. Roberto slides down to sit beside him, and they start talking quietly. Or, at least, Roberto starts talking to him; I can't see if Foley is responding or not.

Before anyone else can step forward, Kurt Wagner puffs into existence before me. HE at least, looks just like in the movie. Skin like a ripe blueberry, covered with a delicate pattern of tribal tattoo scars, 3 fingers and toes instead of 5, a bladed monkey tail, yellow wolf like eyes and a sharp toothed smile. Despite this demonic appearance though, he manages to project boyish enthusiasm.

"Father Hemming," he bows to me, putting his hands together in prayer. He's acquired a rosary at some point since I last saw him. "Though you follow the heathen Chinese, I too would like to learn the ways of heaven. Your disciples have told me you tell them tales of the other six heavens, including the Eden? Is it truly guarded by a burning angel with a sword of light?"

I nod slowly. "I knew someone in K'un-Lun who had been there. That's what he told me." I explained carefully. "He said the gate is submerged beneath the Persian Gulf however, and I have not yet been there."

He bows again, visibly vibrating with suppressed excitement. "Indeed! I offer myself to you, Father, that I may follow your teachings and make pilgrimage to each of the heavens."

Well… I do need to make the journey myself, eventually. The gap between what is known outside versus what is known inside the other heavens is likely as astounding as it was in K'un-Lun. I nod to Kurt. "You're not worried your appearance might make that difficult?" I ask him. "I don't mean to be insulting, but you do look a bit like the renaissance version of a devil."

He looks away, and his cheeks turn from blue-purple to black. "I have… had time to come to terms with that. But if you read the bible, angels and devils are not actually described as such. Of the nine species of angles, only one looks like mortal men, and those were not among the fallen. Demons as found in scripture had no forms, instead possessing anything that struck their fancy until they were driven out, formless once more."

Kid had a point. But based on what (little) I knew about christian cultivation so far and the MCU's Ghost Rider, Kurt likely wasn't going to be that lucky. To crush a boys hope and faith? Or let it sneak up on him when the portal opens? Decisions, decisions… "Welcome aboard, Kurt Wagner." I gestured off to the side. "Go stand with Kurt Vahlen, he'll begin your induction to the Chaste." The boy puffed away before I even finished my statement, leaving behind those same wisps or red energy and black sulfur.

Red for the reality gem perhaps? His teleportation was supposed to pop him into another dimension for a microsecond before returning him to this one.

Later. I'll have plenty of opportunity to examine the boy later.

"Is THAT what you want?" Tabitha spat from off to the side. "Fawning obedience? Us offering ourselves to you? Our most private details?"

She had more to say, but that was the point Maddy put her hand over Tabby's mouth and muffled her. I rolled my eyes and sighed. Glaring over at her I wonder briefly if this was how Elders Dragon, Tiger and Thunderer felt dealing with me. "You've got spirit, kid. That'll serve you well if I ever change my mind. But that's not going to happen until you drop the vitriol."

"I apologize, master" Maddy added "I will control any future outbursts."

I nod and smile at her before turning back to the mutants. Dannielle is there, leading a tiny redhead, her hands supporting the girls shoulders. Rahne Sinclair, wolfsbane. Her powers also seem to be the same as in the comics, that being shape-shifting between human and wolf. Now that I look at her seriously though… I can understand the energy she's using. It's chi, and the chi inside her is shaped like a wolf. I would have thought that, as a shapeshifter, she'd be using red space stone energy to alter her personal reality, but apparently not. Still, that would explain her lupine demeanor, rapid healing factor, soul-bond with comic-dani and shapeshifting.

Rahne herself is the youngest (at least visibly) member of the captives here. Petite, apparently prepubescent, but too boyish to call a loli. She was younger than the rest of the team in the comics too, but who knows here. Unless I ask, of course. Her hair is buzzcut, but a similar blood red to my own, and her eyes are blue. She's also the only one not wearing a dirty torn version of street clothes, clad instead in a stained white jumpsuit.

"Sah e's true wha thar daemon said?" She asks, shaking me from my examination. "Yer fram heaven?"

I shake my head. "I'm not from heaven, I trained there. I'm a simple engineer who found the power of his soul during a tragedy."

As I speak, I pull Yang-chi from my crown chakra and form it into a star in my cupped hands. The 8 gathered mutants stand/sit straighter as the warm soft light floods the room with my confidence, drive, passions and other yang associated concepts. The Scottish girl stared at the light, wide eyed and reached a shaking hand toward it. I let her touch the light and received a shock as it was yanked from my control rather than being mildly disturbed by her own weaker spiritual presence and flowed up her arm, making the image of the wolf within her sharpen and gain definition. She shuddered and blushed from the experience, apparently enjoying the feeling as the hair on her head lengthened several inches and her canines became real canine fangs.

"Ah dinna care wah ye think ye are, sir" she said, voice quavering "yer an angel tah me. Kin yah cure me ah mah affliction?"

I grimaced at this. Whatever her power did, it straight out prevented me from doing anything meaningful TO her. Well, I could probably still eat her with my fire, but not the rest of it. I could feed and train her, but that would end with her understanding and strengthening her power, thus defeating the purpose of her request. In the comics, she was de-powered alongside Rogue by a gun created by Forge, the mutant inventor, and re-powered by Josh Foley when the pair were in a hot-for-teacher tryst. If Foley could make that happen, he could probably do the opposite, but not without having training himself.

"I don't have that power," I tell her gently. "Perhaps I'll find that magic later, but for now?" I shake my head. "Still, I offer you the same deal I gave Joshua."

She shifts uncomfortably, eyes projecting fear and pain at the suggestion. "Ah'd rather stay wit you, Father. If tha's ahright."

Hmm… Probably the same as the comic then. Orphan, raised by a fire and brimstone pastor. I wonder though, how she went from that to here without passing through the arms of Moira McTaggert. Did the priest sell her to Weapon X like Roberto claimed happened to him? Did Weapon X rescue her of all unlikely things? Or was her situation entirely different from the comics? Things to ask later, when there was less of an audience.

"Alright," I told her. "If you could go wait with the others?" She looked to Danielle before moving, which was an interesting development. The Native American girl rubbed the Scottish girls back before pushing her lightly toward the wall. "Dani?"

She turns toward me as Rahne moves off. "I'll be staying with you." She reaffirmed. "Unless you send me away."

I snort and grin slightly. "Any other demands?"

She smiled a little as well. "You offered training. Other than that, I'd like some time to hunt. Being around people too long is uncomfortable, and leads to… " she grimaced and trailed off.

"The demon bear?" I ask, and she nods. "We'll take care of that." Given the bear was created by her own unstable powers amalgamating the fear of everyone around her, that could be cleared up by a bit of Psi training and chakra training. I'd offload most of this on my disciples though, as Ms Moonstar is one of those people likely to send me into the same sort of rage that made me kill Jason Stryker, and I'd rather not have any more souls in my furnace if I could help it.

As she walked off to Join Rahne, I turn on the last of the mutants, Sam Guthrine. The blond boy shifts uncomfortably before walking forward. "It don't seem right to ask," the boy said, "but you've been offering the others aid." I waited for him to continue and he drew in a breath and spoke in a rush. "I came to Weapon X willingly. President Rodham shut down my town's coal mine an we didna have the money to move. The town's hollowing out an I got a big family. When Stryker offered to pay a good life if I came with him, I jumped at the chance. I dinna know what they were doing here, I swear… but now he's dead… the money's gonna stop, isn it?"

"I suppose that depends on who they send to replace Stryker." I tell him. He gives me a look of confusion, so I explain. "When I took over the base, I also kidnapped Stryker. Nathaniel Essex may have killed him, but as far as the government knows, he was kidnapped by the geneticist. The question; is whether they believe the base has been compromised and whether they'll send an army to take it back or a new commander to resume operations. If they send a new commander, I can simply subvert him, and keep the project going. If they send an army, they're likely to cancel the project's accounts, in which case, I offer to provide the financial support you need." Then I shrug, "Or you could take the offer to go to Xaviers, and he'll likely help you. Your choice."

Sam nods slowly. "Working for one villain is as good as another." He said, before snapping to attention. "If you do right by my family, I'll do right by you sir."

I frown slightly. "I'm curious, Samuel. How do you know Stryker kept his word in the first place? You were a test subject here, for all you know, he could have left them in a lurch after kidnapping you."

Mr Guthrine rubbed the back of his head. "He gave them the first briefcase of cash for my signing bonus and first three months of service up front. He was real irritated with ma, cause she insisted on counting it with a bill sorter."

I hummed. "That doesn't mean he kept up with the payments." The blond cannonball shrugged helplessly, and I nodded. "Welcome to the crew kid." I turn to Jordan who's still standing in the same place where he'd presented Yuriko to me. "Disciples?"

The Hawaiian shrugged. "It'd be cool to know where we are. And when we're getting back to New York. There's still the mission for The Hand, and you were right about Meechum having cancer. If your prophecies hold, we can collect Madam Gao by just keeping an eye on him. That'll be a major feather in your cap, master."

Sad thing is, the Chaste will probably consider Gao's death a greater achievement than the portal I plan to build. Whatever. "We're in Oshiem, under Kananaskis Lake in the mountains near the west coast. We're about 20 miles from Calgary to the north east and 60 or so from Vancouver in the west southwest. As far as transportation, I can open a portal right now, if you want, but I'm going to need about a day to rebuild my device. Maybe a bit longer, as I've got a few ideas to make it easier to use."

"Then if the master wills it, I will take my leave." Jordan replied, bowing.

Nodding, I pull the remaining crystal out of my ring and set it on the floor. Channeling a spike of chi through it, I twist the energy and focus on the basement of the Chaste safe-house in Flatbush. Jordan comes out of his bow and walks through alongside Kurt Vahlen, Kurt Wagner, Leopold, Hernando and Sam. Surprisingly, Tabitha and Josh stay, alongside Yuriko, Dannielle, Rahne, Roberto and Maddy Cho. From the other side of the portal, two dozen new members of the Chaste come through, bow to me and move off to find Heniger.

Looking at those who are staying, I ask "You're sure you want to stay here?" making eyes specifically at Foley.

"I'm staying with Danielle, Father Hemming." Rahne replies.

Tabitha glares at me and crosses her arms, as Cho laughs softly.

"My father is in Brazil." Roberto replies with a shrug. "I can stick it out until we head south." He pushes up from the wall. "Until then, I think I'm going to go find some sun. I'm utterly starving." Josh Foley says nothing, but follows Roberto out of the room, Moonstar and Sinclair trailing after.

Shrugging, I vanish the crystal possessively and turn to Yuriko and offer her my hand.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

Yuriko leads me through the facility to where the scientists have been holed and calls out to the security camera for the door to open. It does, and the 9 men and 2 women within shrink back at our approach. The door slams shut behind us with the finality of a tombstone and I give everyone an insincere smile.

"Hello, everybody." I start out. "You have all been spared so far because some of you have uses." A bunch of them paled, while a few began shouting about their qualifications and what they could do for me. I listened to the din for a moment during which the terrified ones swiftly began to join in. Then I raised my hand to stop them and let my meager chi flood the room. Everyone paled this time, even Yuriko, and more than half of them stumbled into seats while two fell to their knees eyes wide and breathing labored.

I drew back in my power and allowed them to recover. Normally that wouldn't work on anyone who didn't have an established Dantien core, but the predatory power I learned studying under Shou-Lao is different. "Thank you for your cooperation, but I will be interviewing each of you individually. Starting with Mr Oyama, as his daughter here has questions for him." I turned my third eye on and looked the man over. An awakened spirit, and not an inconsiderable one. Interesting. Yuriko has one as well, though not as developed.

"She already knows more than she needs to," Kenji spits in Japanese.

I answer him in the same language. "I believe I will be the one to decide that, Oyama-san. Will you stand and speak with me?" I offer him both of my hands, palms up. He looks at my hands as though they're poisonous snakes, and I sigh. Walking forward, I stride straight through several attacks on my arms, throat and eyes and grab him by the throat as he tries to flip up and over my head. Maintaining my hold, I interrupt his flip and slam him into the concrete floor on his back. Something cracks and as I lift him, several chips of stone fall down from his back and he cries out at the rough treatment.

Poking my chi into him, I bind nine broken ribs and then zero in on his chakras. Forcing each of them open one after another, he goes slack as the gates of fear and shame are thrown aside by my power. Once all seven of them are propped open, I turn to Yuriko who's looking at the older man with cold eyes. "Ask your questions, Deathstrike." I tell her; in English for effect. "Until I release him, he cannot lie. Not even to himself."

"Why did you drive Logan away, father." She asked, voice like ice.

"He was an imbecile," Kenji spat "a thug. A war-hound that killed many, following one conflict after another for over two centuries. He is unworthy of your attention and a stain on my bloodline. If your brothers were still alive..!"

"The twins have never deserved your scorn." She hissed. "Nor did Logan. How did you come to be involved in the adamantium bonding experiment?"

"When your spawn were born, you insisted on searching for him. You even called Stryker, damn you, but my old friend decided to call me first. I was enraged, but it was an opportunity. I was already working on a way to bond Vibranium to flesh based on an old Nazi project, Destroyer of Worlds, and Logan presented a subject most likely to survive the process and give us the data we needed to make it repeatable. So I told Stryker to collect him for the project."

He sneered. "Your precious Logan had already moved on, falling in love with another woman, a freak like himself called silver-fox. He even asked for new name tags, to remember HER by. Wolverine, a beast with a foul disposition, just like him."

"Children?" I asked. Both of them jerked, as if just remembering I was in the room. "Who are the twins?" I'd never heard about this before. Though, if Logan has been a former lover, mind wiped or not that would explain Yuriko's dogged furious determination to kill him across so many comics. Hunting down adamantium users just never struck me as something a person could keep up a head of steam for, japans Bushido obsession or no. Not with a vendetta lasting over a century in the comics.

"Akihiro and Kirika" Yuriko replied. "They're both nine now, and they have their fathers claws."

I whistled low. In the comics, Akihiro is better known as Dakkon, meaning mongrel, Logan's son by Itsu. Kirika is his daughter by Mariko Yashida, who herself is daughter of the Silver Samurai and the reason SS comes after Logan with an adamantium katana every time he even hints at visiting Asia, never-mind japan. I suppose with Mariko and Samurai being time-shifted for their age of apocalypse movie, and the relationship going nowhere in a 'fuck you' to the fans something had to give, but I figured it was simply that they all went the way of the dodo. Amalgamating them? Well, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

"I've got to ask," I said muttered into the mans ear. "If this was all about protecting your daughter from Wolverine, why were you planning to use the adamantium bone process on her?"

"Logan infected her. She is like him now, and no longer my dau-aurgh!."

Yuriko lashed out and struck him in the throat, collapsing his wind-pipe and forcing me to repair it lest he choke to death. His answer just made me even more curious though. "What do you mean by infecting her?" I asked him. I'd thought she was a mutant in her own right, with the same healing ability. That's certainly what the movie suggested.

Yuriko blushed and looked away from where I held her father. "I do no know. It started when I was pregnant with the twins. When I was six months along, I got shot and was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. But by the time I arrived in the ER, the wound was already developing scar tissue throughout, forcing the doctors to cut me open again to remove the bullets." Her eyes flick up to the other scientists. "I thought it was my own mutation activating to save my life, but doctor Rice believes differently."

A young but balding brunette man coughs. I look over at him. "Gonna talk willingly?" I ask him.

He blanches, but nods. "It's a fairly well documented process with new mothers," he responds, "though it rarely amounts to much. You see, it was discovered by a team of childbirth researchers in the 60's that every time a woman sleeps with a new man, fragments of his DNA infiltrate her body. In a woman with few or even only a single partner, radio-dye-imaging reveals this inspires a degree of loyalty beyond what should be present from the relationship itself. This effect becomes more pronounced if children result, as stem cells from the placenta fulfill a similar but stronger function for the child. This effect is mitigated and even reversed the more men she comes in, ah, contact with. It's all very fascinating. It probably wouldn't work in the case of any other mutant, but Mr Logan's specific mutation is based on his stem cells, as theoretically are those of his progeny. Several biopsies have confirmed that wherever she undergoes rapid healing, her daughters cells replace her own. This isn't as alarming as it sounds, on average we replace all of our cells every seven years, or so. As she is not already a clone of Mr Howlettes daughter through and through this effect only seems to activate upon her wounds and is not malignant. We're actually in the process of developing a serum to recreate the effects! If successful, it could make war, medicine and old age obsolete!"

I gave the scientist a flat stare while Yuriko looked to be almost incandescent with suppressed rage. "Consumed by a clone, huh? Just how many times has that happened with your serums."

Dr Rice turned red and coughed a few times. "No, ah, time we couldn't, ahem, properly incinerate the results..!" I sighed deeply. Super-soldiers. I hate marvel methods. "We're currently working on a method to isolate the specific gene and splice it into the host's own adult stem-cells," Rice continued hurriedly. "But we've been having to invent entirely new tools for the process, so it's more of a shelved side project than anything. Stryker, the fool, is more interested in immediate results, even if they're messy. He simply does not understand that real science takes time!"

"This is a distraction," Yuriko snaps. "Father, where is Logan now?"

I consider taking the conversation back to the science of things, because right now I'm really conflicted on whether to employ these lunatics or break my no wanton killing resolution from earlier and annihilate them all and I need more info to do so… But I'd also agreed to help Yuriko with her problem, and I could continue the interrogation at any time.

"I don't know." Kenji growled out.

Deathstrike struck him, this time in the sternum. At the point of contact, a burst or chi lanced out from her fingers, rippling through his chest and interrupting the beats of his heart. A classic kung fu death touch; I catalogued the technique for later study before glaring at her. Converting some wind and fire chi into lightning, I electrified the organ, setting it beating again.

"Why did you do that?" I ask her, irritated.

"He can take it," she scoffed. "This is how he trained me and my brothers. He does not need your healing."

I shake my head. "And it's probably half the reason Stryker had you locked up." I turned back to her father" What do you know about Logan's movements?" I ask him, as he gasps and shakes from the two attacks.

"He came out of the experiment a bestial monster and spent the first five years in the wild, simply relearning how to be human. Though how successful he was there is deeply debatable. He wanders across Osheim and New England mostly. A filthy vagrant, sleeping in his truck and fighting in biker bars for cash where he is known as Freki." The Japanese scientist coughed out. "There have been forty two missions to recover him over the past sixteen years, and all of them ended in the beast either escaping or killing those sent after him. Each time, he becomes more adept at doing so." He focused in on his daughter's eyes. "I saw it as a problem before, but now I know it was a blessing. If you hunt him, you shall never find him!"

Rolling my eyes, I pick the man up and press him against the wall. As he makes contact, the concrete begins to warp and flow, covering his hands and feet and wrapping a band around his stomach and mouth. He continues to curse and make oaths, more-so as I remove my chi from his system, but I ignore him for now.

In the movie, Wolverine picks up Rogue in Laughlin Alberta Canada while or shortly after Mutant Registration hearings were going on in the Senate. On one hand, I'd been able to find Alkali by what was shown in the movies, so they were far from useless. On the other, with Canada being Oshiem and Kenji's statements directly refuting much of wolverine origins, it's unlikely to be that simple.

"Yuriko, if Weapon X has been making so many attempts to take Logan back, then they likely have detailed data on his movements and where he was last seen." I tell her. "Go to the barracks and bring me back their intelligence staff. If I find you and Tabitha have killed all of them, I'll lock you up."

Her face works through several expressions before blanking. She bows to me. "It will be as you say." That of course started an entirely new round of muffled cursing from Dr Oyama, which brought a small smile to his daughters face, and she positively sauntered out of the room.

Turning back to the scientists, I clap my hands together and grin broadly at them. "Now that we're alone… who wants to go first?" They look at each other and look at me fearfully. I roll my eyes. "I'm not going to torture you. Without Ms Oyama's grudge against her father present there's no need for that. As far as my touch, it's physically painless."

"But not mentally?" One of the women, a Hindi if I don't miss my guess, asks.

I shrug. "Well, more spiritually. I'm essentially walking up to your chakra and kicking open the gates and then keeping them open bodily. You can't shut the door again until I'm out of the way. Opening the third eye in particular can be traumatic, as it's blocked by the lies we tell ourselves. That sort of truth can be quite mentally taxing, particularly when it comes in a shock rather than gradual enlightenment."

"Pah," another man says. "Chakra? Really? That religious goo gah nonsense has no place in the modern world."

Deciding it would be best to nip the issue of denial in the bud, I make the come hither gesture at him and lines of glowing multicolored energy flow out, wrapping around his limbs and dragging him closer. Once he's seated in front of me, pale and shaking, I make my voice soft and ask. "How many powers can a mutant have?"

"O-on-nly one or t-two related powers." He replies. "S-some appear to have m-more, but they always end up being required secondary adaptations or clever use, not root cause."

I nod along. "So, how do you explain the range of abilities I've shown? Keep in mind, I got them in my late forties, early fifties, long after mutants stop triggering." The scientists stirred, interested and whispering among themselves, but I held up my hand. Only the man before me would answer.

"I don't know. Mutants have been appearing for centuries. Logan is proof enough of that. Maybe you're the next step in their evolution. A super-mutant."

I hum, inclining my head. "I suppose that's possible, but that wouldn't explain how I trained my disciples to do the same things I can. Or the monastery where I myself was taught by far more capable beings than myself." I put my hand on his shoulder and broke open his root chakra, removing the terror more effectively than my, no doubt strange and unnerving, demeanor could. "Occam's Razor suggests that the simplest answer is often the best. I, a normal human, and my fellow monks can have many mutant powers, is because humanity has always had this potential. What makes mutants special is not their powers, but the fact that they don't have to go through rigorous training in order to possess them; only to control them. They're cheating, essentially."

The murmur becomes a furious hum of muted conversations at that pronouncement, and I look around the room. "Don't tell me you actually believed so many varied and complete evolutionary advantages each of which would require millions of novel and well ordered gene sequences could have come from a single mutation? One generation to the next? Either the parents and grandparents for several generations are untriggered mutants, or they're doing magic, like me, as an instinctual ability."

They shifted uncomfortably. "The leading mind on the subject is Charles Xavier, and he cites the Cambrian explosion and similar events as examples of this happening before."

I fight the urge to put my face in my hands and scream. "The Cambrian Explosion is neither mysterious nor uncharacteristic. Have none of you studied husbandry?"

One of the scientists in the back raises his hand. As the others notice, several more do as well. I gesture to the man. He clears his throat. "Creating a new stable species takes about six to nine generations. These species, if allowed to breed with the native population they were cultivated from, will disappear once again within two to three generations if the selective pressures that created them are removed. After twenty five to thirty generations of forced departure however, the separation is sufficient to be called an evolutionary branch and reintroducing the new species to the original results in, at best, sterile offspring, if offspring are possible to begin with. Generally, maintaining these pressures in nature is infeasible, but migration, natural disaster, invasive species and other such environmental modifiers can persist long enough to force the change outside of a laboratory. However, a steady or cyclical environment will suppress mutations away from the most efficient system, which promotes genetic stability so long as the environment also remains stable. These islands of stability could theoretically last for millions of years, without major disasters like global cooling of our coming man made ice age to interrupt them."

I wince and nod. Back in the nineties, the global warming scare was a global cooling one. I'd forgotten that. Regardless, I pick up where the scientist left off. "The Cambrian explosion was caused by the introduction of photosynthesis. With phytoplankton converting the acid seas and poison skies into something multicellular organisms could reliably evolve in, life expanded everywhere. Anywhere there was room. Free diatomic oxygen being both a deadly poison, a shield against deadly ultraviolet light and key to efficient metabolism cut down life-cycles from thousands of years for many small organisms to a period of minutes while at the same time vastly increasing the variety of things that could be digested. New environments, new energy, shorter turnover… ; mutation on a grand scale. Like his naming of the mutant sub-species as homo-sapiens-superior, Xavier and Lenchier's conclusions are juvenile at best, criminal at worst and almost certainly ideological. Tell me you've done better, or I'll bring Yuriko back in here."

All of the scientists collectively paled at that. After a moment, the Indian woman stepped forward and put her hand on the shoulder of the scientist I had seated before me. "Allow me, Jasper." The man flees while the woman takes his place. She extends me her hand and I take it, amused. "Dr Kavita Rao, I was a cancer researcher before Colonel Stryker recruited me from Warrington Labs. I was brought in because of my work on high energy nucleotide degeneration. Mutants have the most fascinating mechanic that they are able to not only survive large amounts of radiation, but use it as a secondary metabolic driver; particularly high band Gamma radiations. I believe this is the source of their remarkable powers, and was researching the possibility that it was tied to their mitochondrial DNA. Jasper, the man you were just talking to was tasked with creating a Gamma detector on the theory that it could be used to identify unrevealed mutants. Your words on the chakra intrigues me though. If you wouldn't mind explaining it to me?"

I nod, and set all seven of my chakra spinning at minimum speed. Air begins to rush into the room through any opening and a light golden nimbus surrounds me, appearing to my audience as something between a heat haze and a fire centering on me. Weaving a bit of illusion, light spilled out of my body in seven places from my ass to the top of my head.

Speaking from my throat chakra I began. "The body supports the mind." I create a glowing figurine of Dr Rao between us. The image pulses, doubling and contracting into the brain which glows brighter. "The mind informs the soul." I continue, causing the brain to flash, resolving into a shifting kaleidoscope behind the image. Further pulses of light move back toward the image, causing it to change with every beat. "The soul enforces the body." Tendrils of light come off the psychedelic image to connect to each of the limbs, moving them as holographic Rao danced like a puppet on strings.

"For your average civilian, this means little. A person with a strong soul will find themselves in better health, recovering more quickly from injury, disease or censure and possessing an uncanny optimism or drive. Whatever their situation, horrible or privileged, they make the most of it and thrive. A person with a weak soul will find themselves more prone to injury, disease and bad leadership. They are miserable with themselves no matter their circumstances. This can be corrected by actively seeking out a wide base of experience and facing trials. Both of which grow the soul, that's how the great souls became so in the first place; but try convincing people."

More tendrils of light come out of the 'soul' representation, plugging into each of the chakra. "Enlightenment, born from understanding the threefold cycle changes that. Rather than exuding chi into the environment, you gain conscious awareness and control over it, allowing you to shape, direct and collect it. The vitality demonstrated by strong souls is the simplest and most obvious expression of this training, and the more power you collect, the stronger it becomes. But it is far from the limit of the power of the soul."

I pulse the light around my chakra and lines of light appear all over my body, revealing the positions of the Meridian network. As they glow, I continue. "The less obvious effect is that the nature of the soul begins to force itself on the body. Evil and virtue become physical traits. A masculine or feminine soul can enhance or counter physical gender. A bestial soul can impart animal traits ranging from personality to physical characteristics or even the ability to completely transform. Back and forth if you're lucky."

This time my meridians pulse and elemental energies flow out of them, forming in the air and impressing upon the gathered scientists minds their identity. "With sufficient training, the seven elements, earth, water, fire, air, void, Yin and Yang can be under the command of anyone." I pause. "No, that's not quite right. Not everyone has the mental fortitude to achieve enlightenment, but once given the knowledge the enlightened can come from anywhere. The only solid requirement; is a soul."

I drop the illusions, and suck in the expended power. "As I've recently been learning from observing mutants, they use the same organs and veins; and in a few cases even the same energy; but without having to struggle through enlightenment. Thus, my calling them cheaters."

"Heh, cheaters," Says another scientist, this one American Indian of some type. "I suppose that's better than the usual accusations. You're not going to convince the little people of that though, not without giving them each the light-show personally." He pauses. "It can't be transmitted over the TV can it? I'm not making bad assumptions here?"

I shrug. "I've never tried, but it seems unlikely. It's not visible light, you can't see it without also possessing a soul, the people who taught me have done experiments proving it. I doubt a camera would be able to transmit it. If it is possible, it would be part of the Dao of heroes though, that works on the principle that souls are limited by interaction, not distance or physical barriers, so it's conceivable that any parasocial relationship would be fair game; including a television broadcast."

By this point, most of the scientists had begun taking notes. We talked for another hour, learning the things they were studying for Weapons Plus, how it was being used, and what their opinions on the subject were. I use the forced truth technique liberally, particularly in regards to asking how they used their knowledge and their moral alignments therein. The dozen of them were an absolute goldmine of information on a wide variety of subjects, which set my synergy cores aquiver in delight, but the most common opinion among them was callous curiosity and a dislike of restrictions. I suppose it's good that only three of thirteen (such as Kenji) were racist, but with only one being a moral objector to the methods being used by the Colonel, that's hardly encouraging either.

They caught onto the fact that I didn't need to touch them to force my chi into their chakras pretty quickly and that cut down on the number of lies and "that's classified" comments I had to deal with. As with all good things however, I was soon interrupted by the return of Lady Deathstrike.

~! #$%^&(*)_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$^%&*()_+

Yuriko returned with three men held together by handcuffs around their neighbors' wrists and ankles, though thankfully in a line like the three legged man races rather than a circle. Shoving them into the room, they looked bruised and bloody as though they had been worked over, which likely they had. Irritating, but out of my hands and easily fixed. "Report." I ordered her as I picked the bound men up to their feet and began expending chi to heal them. As their teeth pulled back into their gums, their noses realigned and the swelling around their eyes deflated, the mutant assassin began.

"I questioned the prisoners we captured and went through the base records with Kyle Toriyama, these three are the surviving members of the base intelligence division."

"How many were in the division?" I ask, before she can get further.

At this, she blushes. "Twenty. It seems they had a tendency to choose death over capture. I recognized these three after a short session because I was there when your men pulled them off their computers. They were sending out an alarm when the mutant grenadier and your soldiers captured them. I did not think to stop my allies, a mistake on my part."

I hum, as my chi binds a spot of internal bleeding. "Nor did you think to obey my orders. Was I not clear enough?"

"It was not clear to me they were worth following" she snaps before looking away. "I shall do better next time."

I sighed. "I take it these three didn't talk?" She shakes her head and the scientists mutter to themselves behind me. "Why not bring them to me directly?"

"You were busy, and after my fathers training and then the hunt for this base I am experienced in interrogation." She replied proudly.

I offer her a raised brow. "I guess they're better." Yuriko blushed and scowled again. "Fine. They're here now." I pull out the chi that remains after healing the worst of the intelligence officers damage and lay my hand on the first ones neck. A tendril of chi sinks in and forces open the throat chakra. If they simply remained silent under torture they probably weren't trained for obfuscation, just resilience; no need to crack open the third eye. Placing my other hand atop the man's buzz cut, I pushed another tendril of spirit into his crown chakra. Without bias's he'd have no resistance against speaking to us either. Neither point can force speech after all; that's a purely psychological trick.

"Tell me everything you know about James Logan Howlett, codename Wolverine." I order the man.

From there, the man begins a long, and to my ears, incredibly interesting report about Logan's past. It seems that before WW2, Logan's history is pretty much the same as in the movie Wolverine. 230 years old, born in Oshiem, bastard son, kills his father in revenge for the man killing his mothers husband who he thought was his father. Ran away with Sabertooth, his halfbrother, and participated in every war from 1770 to 1980. Logan did it because he wanted to fight for a cause and sleep with exotic women, like most recruits. Sabertooth did it so he had a licence to kill fools and mark it as a battlefield casualty; something which the intel officer insists probably saved more lives than the brothers combat skills did.

During WW2 things began to change, as Gunny James Logan Howlette was the leader and organizer of the Howling Commandos. When Captain Rogers rescued them from their month in hydras prison camp, he became one of Cap's close personal friends. After Rogers 'died', though, that's when things start to really change. Logan joined the SSR with Peggy Carter for a while, changing her TV show to something of a Buddy Cop flick. In 1950, Logan and Carter were married, giving a name to the nameless husband Steve freed from a prison camp. Things work out for them for about twenty years during which they had two sons, neither of whom became mutants, and the Howlette brothers gained a reputation in SHIELD for being the team you called when there was a slippery target who just absolutely, positively had to fucking die.

Then, Vietnam 1972, a group of US soldiers abscond with some experimental Stark Tech, planning to sell it, through the Vietcong, to the Russians. Their mission goes well, as these things go, but they get caught at the end by the USArmy proper, while placing the heads of the renegade commanding officers on a stick and get executed by firing squad. Twice. Of course, being them, it didn't take, and Stryker recruits them for his black ops unit. He returns to Carter briefly, and gets the US Enhanced Weapons Division more closely associated with SHIELD, forming The Index. The same one I registered to recently. That's apparently how Weapon X get's its mutant vict-er-recruits normally. The funding meeting I interrupted was part of an ongoing effort by Stryker to once again distance himself from SHIELD, who he considers to be too soft on the Enhanced soldiers employed by the US and allied countries under SHIELD's umbrella.

Finally, during a raid in (apparently rural) Wakanda in 1989, Logan deserts the group, leaving Stryker, Ulysses Klau, Deadpool, Sabertooth, Blob, Kestrel, Bolt and Zero to break into the hidden nation with the help of N'Jobu. Logan in the meantime, returns to America for his grand-daughter's highschool graduation before heading off to Japan on a mission for his wife, now former Director, Carter and Director Fury. There, he meets Kenji, who Stryker's been courting for the Enhanced Weapons division, and tries to convince him to join SHIELD instead. Only for the mission to fail when Logan romances Kenji's daughter, Yuriko rather than keeping on task.

Carter, now in her late 70's, takes this badly and after a fight, he starts traveling the US until he ends up working for a logging camp where his latest romance, Kayla Silverfox, is a school teacher. That's about where the Wolverine movie breaks down. Logan loses his memories because of the trauma of having molten metal poured onto his skull, like in the comics, not as a result of being shot in the head with an adamantium bullet by Stryker as 3 mile island crumbles around them.

Peggy, it seems, was the one who told Stryker where to find Logan when he was at the logging camp, as she was still angry over the thing with Yuriko. She wasn't any more pleased when Stryker sent Silverfox in as a honeypot, or when said honeypot worked. Nevertheless, SHIELD's been trying to shut the Weapon X project down ever since Logan went missing. Peggy Carter, despite her advancing age, was part of the first team to find Logan after he'd gone feral, and the first to lose him. Rather than pursue him however, Carter personally filed Logan's death certificate.

Finally, we get to the point Yuriko is interested in. Logan's most recent whereabouts. Wolverine was last seen in Saskatchewan four months ago where he's been accused of having stolen an camper truck. The same one, likely, that he used in the beginning of Xmen: The Movie. Other witnesses claim "Freki" won the RV fairly in a game of 1v4 ice boxing, ahem, I mean hockey, but that's largely irrelevant as the intelligence officers had somehow still managed to misplace the man despite the large bullseye he drove around in. I guess enough people here in Osheim are scruffy muscular types with bad attitudes and driving their own homes that it's hard to keep track of them.

As cool as knowing large parts of Wolverine's history in this reality is, the two parts that interest me most are his relationship with Carter and that this intel officer knows the location of Wakanda. The part with Peggy is interesting, because her sons didn't impart Logan's healing factor on to the director of SHIELD as Yuriko's twins had done to her. Either that was a major hole in the theory, or the daughter was important. Also, Logan's sons by Peggy didn't appear to have Logan's mutation themselves, unlike Akihiro and Kirika.

After stopping Yuriko from killing the three men in frustration, the woman storms off and I get them to mark the Location of Wakanda on the map and give me contact information for Ulysses Klau. He's not in South Africa, at least as far as Weapon X is aware. He remains however, one of the greatest thorn's in Wakanda's ass, peddling Vibranium and stolen Wakandan tech all over the world to any secret organization he can dig up, on the condition they too become thorns in the hidden nations' ass. That in particular, is how he's stayed ahead of the War Dogs all of these years. Klaus' vibranium tech and mineral sales are the entire reason the metal is worth 10 grand per gram. That's what he charges for it; and apparently enough people think that the products are good enough they are willing to pay.

Chaining the intel-ops up in the scientists room, removing the gag from Kenji's mouth and ordering one of the Chaste to guard and bring base rations for all of them, I follow Yuriko's trail after she stormed out of the room. Surprisingly, I find her crying in a room not far off. She suppresses it the moment she notices me and wipes her face dry, but the damage is already done. "D-did you get anything more out of them after I left, Rey-san?"

I shake my head. "No, I didn't. But I know where he's going to be in about a year." She gave me a confused look and I continued. "Before I left K'un-Lun I saw a set of events where Magneto is hunting a young girl named Marie D'Ancanto. Wolverine will meet her as a runaway calling herself Rogue in Laughlin City, Alberta. This happens during a series of US Senate hearings on Mutant Registration, a few days before the UN Convention on Mutant Affairs on Ellis Island. Which is happening in about 9 months."

Her eyes grow wide and a smile spreads across her face. "Nine months? A vision from heaven… I've been searching for nine years, I can wait nine months."

Suuure you can, you little Yandere. "Another option would be to head to Westchester, New York. Visit the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters and ask the Headmaster if he'll take you to Cerebro. Cerebro can find Logan, where he is NOW and fly you to him on a supersonic jet." I shrug. "Charles would probably require you to stop killing and join him with your husband and kids, but if you think you can do that, it'll be faster and more certain to get you what you want. My foreknowledge is more focused on the girl, Logan just happens to be there."

She chews on her lip for a minute, thinking about it before shaking her head. "Nine months, I can wait. Logan will return with me to Japan and meet his children there."

And that was the story of how I recruited an immortal ninja assassin. Heh. Well, not really, I've got nine months to convince her not to retire. This will take some planning. I leave her alone and head topside. I need to recharge and process my gains. That doesn't NEED to be done outside, but it does help. Pulsing earth chi from my root core, I make myself a map of the base and wend my way upward and outward.

As is becoming increasingly common though, I'm interrupted at the last minute.

"Master, if you have a moment?" I turn around at the voice of Maddi Cho. She's not usually the type to make requests; like me, she prefers people to come to her instead. Being the bottom of the class in K'un-Lun broke her of a lot of that, but some things are just… nature, I guess.

"What is it, Maddi?" I ask, turning back to her. Past the asian girl, at the end of the hall, there's a flash of yellow. Tabitha?

"I would like to request some time with a Crown" she said formally, bowing almost in half, hands in her lap.

I breathe out through my nose. "This is for Ms Smith?" Maddi twitches but nods. "I told boom boom I wasn't going to train her. Are you trying to make me a liar?"

"With respect, Master; you told her you would reconsider if she cleaned up her attitude." Maddi replied, a grin I don't need to see on her face to hear in her voice.

I cross my arms. "And you'll vouch for her good behavior?" Maddi pauses and I pounce. "Teach her the old fashion way." I tell her. "If she can achieve enough balance to comprehend the threefold cycle, I'll consider my objections overzealous and give her a crown."

She nods slowly and turns to leave, before stopping. "Rey… if I may be so informal. Why not allow Tabitha enlightenment, when you so freely offered knowledge in Tenochtitlan?"

I hold back a smile. Calling me out on my hypocrisy, huh? "Because in Tenochtitlan I was trading with independent powers. Known quantities with known goals who will be highly limited by their environment in the power they can attain. Taking on Tabitha as a disciple while she's still a loose cannon, is a danger in our own house. Do remember, she called you and your brothers human scrubs, while she herself would be a goddess. She's not entirely wrong either, her attack power already compares to ours, and with chi to back her, you won't be able to keep up without figuring out your Dao. And if SHE gets to her Dao before we can be reasonably comfortable about her loyalty?" I shake my head.

"Are you afraid she'll turn on you?" She asked, looking defiant, "or afraid of her becoming more powerful than you?"

I scoff. "I'm worried she'll force me to eat her." I reply darkly. "You DO remember why heaven fears the dragons, don't you?"

Maddi winced and bowed. "I understand, Master. I will take her through the chakras as well before requesting the crown again." She turns on her heel and heads off down the hall.

Finally, I'm outside. We were in Canada during the depths of winter and snow was piled several feet thick freaking everywhere. The exception to this being a spot on top of the dam which was emitting steam. Roberto, it seemed, worked as a gigantic focusing lens, as well as a solar spunge and was emitting sufficient heat for the quartette to be relatively comfortable. Danni was sitting on one of the half melted walls, legs crossed and meditating. DeCosta was lying in a pool at the center, his head propped on a rock and jumpsuit folded down to tie around his waist. Foley sat nearby, talking to him, quietly and Rahne pounced in and out of the snow less like a wolf and more like a fox.

Shaking my head, I joined them and sat down opposite Danni to meditate and cultivate.

We're not on a ley nexus here at the lake, nor particularly close to any ley lines, so the environmental chi is relatively poor, about 3% the draw rate of my nippon spirit technique. Even so, the chi that does exist is remarkably pure and crisp, moving easily at my command and bonding seamlessly to the new information being processed by the concept of synergy. I just sit there for a while, basking in vortex of chi and ideas as information given to me by the research team draws connections back and forth in an intricate web worthy of any loom, spider or conspiracy theorist.

I'm shaken out of my trance briefly by Rahne, in wolf form, curling up against my back, licking my face when I turn to glance at her chi devouring presence. Shaking my head, I focus more on my spirit than the environment. I have to process what I did downstairs eventually, and now is as good a time as any.

The energy I'm receiving from my enlightened spirit has risen by very nearly 130%. 20% on account of Jason himself, 50% on account of one of his guardians, MD/Lt Guri Hanson, and 60% on account of the other, Lt. Jerad Engles. Jason, despite being in his 40's and a genius when he was younger, had little in the way of life experience or spiritual development. Likely on account of being a vegetable for the last 25 years and a psychopath before that. Quite the little genius, eating his soul has more than doubled my understanding of psychology, and I'm worried, possibly lowered my own wisdom score. Dr Hanson, the med tech that took care of Jason for the last 15 years had significantly more life experience than him, and I'm guessing, a stronger spirit naturally as well. Finally, Lt Engles has been in half a dozen wars, learned 12 languages and survived dozens of near death experiences. All of which is now available to me.

Of the three, I feel most guilty about the two soldiers, but having taken them, I don't mind their presence. I feel even less guilt now about killing Jason, but honestly wish I could be rid of his soul and all that came with it. Which sets off another pang of guilt. I shouldn't be feeling these sorts of things, or judging the souls I've collected so callously to begin with; but I have, and there's nothing I know of that I can do about it. Save perhaps set up a small grave shrine to commemorate their… sacrifice isn't the right word. Something to that effect though.

The worst part I think is that I can prefer the presence of two of the souls. That suggests I could have learned to value them as people had I come across them in a less confrontational circumstance. That should make me even more horrified that I'd killed them, but it's instead the opposite, and that in itself is insidious. That I would welcome the essence of other souls to the point I had a particular taste, let-alone a taste for those I could potentially call friends is just icing in the shit-cake.

Aside from that, burning the bodies of Jason and his bodyguards along with Nathaniel's arm gives me some contrast for human, mutant and mutant sorcerer. Among other differences between the bodies is the corruption patterns. The soldiers had the standard environmental corruption you build over a lifetime. Engles had less than the rest, and I get the impression from his body that he was one of the sort who naturally brushed up against enlightenment in periods of extreme duress, but never managed to break through.

Jason's corruption was primarily environmental, but his brain and spine contained large amounts of a very similar pattern to when my disciples and I messed with the Space stone. This pairs well with his being a psychic. Nathaniels arm is almost entirely corrupted. Every cell is thick with refuse of at least four different types of corruption; environmental, two more gamma and another that looks like the result of someone taking cultivation pills without ever performing a purge cycle. If he isn't already, then he's right on the verge of becoming a humanoid demon-beast. All it'd take is a bit of direction on chi use and he'd make the transition for sure.

Also of interest, is a mechanic for handling gamma corruption, keeping it well below what it really should be based on use, and hints of what look like they may be the mutants method for pulling in and metabolizing the radiation. I'll need more samples in order to tell though, I think. Which is unfortunate, as I'd really rather not go around devouring people for perks.

If this were the comics, I could just go around and find anyone who's bothered to do science on mutants. The mass graves they all seem to produce would be the perfect kindling for this sort of research and all the thoroughly despicable smart people fodder for my dragon soul and synergy cores. Fortunately for my faith in humanity though, that doesn't seem to be a thing in any of the Movie-verse stories. Let's hope that holds true in this reality too.

With my internal examinations done, I turned my third eye outside. Moonstar has moved to take Rahne's position, her back to mine, and the wolf-girl is splayed out beside us, her head in Dannielle's lap. Roberto has moved from laying down in his steaming pool to standing, facing the fading sun. Foley has dried off and is crouching nearby, giving Rahne a belly rub, his expression inscrutable.

"See anything interesting, Josh?" I ask him, causing him to snap up as though he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Ah, no sir. Well… sort of." He said uneasily, looking away.

I stand up and stretch, popping several vertebrae. "Don't hold back kid, I won't bite." He snorts and I shrug. "Ok, I apologize for that thing downstairs," I tell him "but denial isn't useful unless it's pushing you to focus on something you honestly need to get done."

"What about shutting out Tabitha, or burning that other kid to death?" He asks, grumply.

I huff. "That kid was messing with my head. Any psychic who's foolish enough to tickle a dragon is asking to get burnt. As for Tabitha, she's a bit of a racist; I'll teach her when she tones that shit down. Same offer goes to you, Foley." Josh looked away, flushing scarlet. "You were a human racist not a few hours ago; avoid going mutant racist on me and I can teach you to be as powerful as I am."

"What's wrong with knowing who you are and where you come from?" Dannielle asked, sounding irritated.

Right, I forgot she was racist too. Probably because she got over it so quickly and thoroughly in the comics. "Nothing," I reply. "The problem comes when it makes it difficult for you to work with others. Or at the extreme, when you start openly killing others for no more legitimate grievance than being different. It's one thing if that asshole insulted you, stole your stuff, attacked you, your friends or your family, killed or raped someone; these are legitimate grievances. It's another if you're the asshole who's hurting an innocent."

"But didn't you violate our minds, take over the base and kill a bunch of people?" Foley asked.

"Sure," I reply with a shrug "but apart from the mind thing, that's not a grievance against YOU. And because the base was multiracial it can't be a racial grievance; the three people I killed was a mutant slave-breaker and his human attendants. All of the other people who died were killed by Tabitha, mutant prisoner, Yuriko artificial mutant, and my allies The Chaste, humans like the base personnel. Quite against my orders as well. Finally, it'd be more accurate to say I touched your soul than that I violated your mind. I can't actually do telepathy yet. What I can do however is talk to your soul, and souls can't lie like our bodies do."

"Well, we've got a lot of legitimate grievances against the humans of this base." Danni added. "Imprisonment and torture among other indignities!"

I nod. "That's true. And now half of them are dead. But the question I want you to ask is; is that a racial grievance of humans against Mutants? Or is it a political grievance of citizens against a corrupt government office? Remember, It was a bunch of humans who saved you, and many of them aren't even enhanced humans like myself and Yuriko."

"As enlightening as this no doubt is," Roberto interrupted, "the sun has gone down. I am going inside."

I shrugged and nodded. "The night is best for female cultivators, I'll head in as well. I've got a portal to open."

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

Reforming the Wheel I'd used earlier was relatively simple. One of the benefits of chi aided perfect recall. Forming a viable portal generator on the other hand was a bit trickier. The space stone's energies could be made safe by adding blood and medical runes to the wheel, but only safe for one person at a time. Useful if I wanted to horde power to myself like a megalomaniac, not so much if I wanted to fuel my army of doom.

Luckily, that's where chi perfect memory comes in handy.

I remembered precisely how I had used the space energy while I held it, so walking my disciples through the same process was relatively painless. Once they were doing what I needed, I recorded the symbols the space-soul energy made when they were communicating across distances, teleporting and forming portals. When we all needed to recharge, one of us would form a portal to the Gate of Heaven, something which bothered Bai Wen no end, and open our chakras as far as they would go.

It took a bit of doing, but after several dozen uses of each skill, I managed to create a cypher of sorts for the new symbols. Once that was figured out, I started experimenting with materials. What sort would conduct space energy? Which would impede it? Even a little? Did the symbols still work after I'd crafted them? Could they be malleable? The answer to these questions was pure quartz, lead sulfide (but only a little), yes and fuck me but no.

The end result was a ring of forged quartz surrounded by more quartz forged symbology for communication, viewing, teleportation, portal and entanglement. The whole thing was then covered by black lead-salt which was in turn sheathed in a few atoms thick gold for corrosion resistance and then Steel for durability, except for the inner ring of quartz and the entanglement synchronizer. The entangled remotes were designed to look like smart-phones and had more quartz. The remotes had but one purpose; to phone home. I'd love to have given them more flexibility, but that's going to take a lot more work. Instead, their position provides coordinates to the portal device by activating the entanglement sequence. When the ring and the remote believe they are inhabiting the same place, the ring then provides the space warping.

When we first sent everybody back out, I controlled the portal directly. I had already used the wheel to fill up on space energy, and the Chaste directed me to a number of safehouses and bases around the world. I would then teleport with one of the Chaste at Alkali to the location and find their leader. After a short questioning about his loyalty, we would attune him to the remote by blood and chi so that only he could ever use the thing and then have him open a portal back to Weapon X.

The whole process took about a week, and that was with me working around the clock on 3 hours of sleep a night. Pretty soon though, the base was humming with activity. Thirty thousand people spread across a planet in cells of 4 to 8 is barely a force worth talking about. Thirty thousand people moving back and forth through a single location is insane. I had to move the portal to the room intended to house Cerebro and extend the structure to form multiple new rings just to handle the load.

It was a relief when Kahananui called in requesting my presence. Philip Coulson had found the Flatbush safehouse and was here for a meeting.

Last edited: Dec 29, 2020

Book 2: chapter 4: Making friends

Stepping out of the portal in flatbush, I immediately went to check on my Vibranium stockpile. It was still sealed in stone as I had left it. Nodding to myself, I extracted a tube and resealed the vault with my chi. By the time I was done, Sam Guthrie was waiting for me. The blond mutant was dressed in a pair of blue overalls with the garage's logo sewn onto them. His fingers were oil stained and he still looked as if he hadn't seen the sun in a while. He saluted and spoke as soon as I was facing him.

"Sir, Mr Kahananui asked me to collect you." The boy said professionally. "Agents Coulson has arrived as you requested."

Nodding to Sam, I moved to follow. "Did you have time to check up on your family, Sam?"

The boy nodded. "When you started issuing portal devices, I requisitioned one from the cell leader and flew home." He explained. "You were right, the payments weren't coming. My family had been told I'd been killed in action. They were hella surprised to see me. Even more when I invited them to come live with me in New York. Ma didn wanna come but dad overruled her. He's more or less taken over the garage. Impressed your private army with his mechanical skills he did! Said it was easier than managing mining equipment."

I nod. "Keep an eye on your siblings, if you don't mind." I told him. "Three out of five chance they'll be mutants too, though with different powers." The Guthrie's were famous in the comics for the entire family of 8 or 9 kids being mutants. Likely more due to later comic writers not having enough imagination to create new characters and backstories, but possibly also because the Guthrie clan characters were popular among writers and readers alike.

Sam nodded. "Will do, sir. You'll pay them, same as me?"

"Of course." As soon as I get this metal sold.

Our conversation cut off as we reached the top of the stairs and were greeted by a pair of familiar faces. I dismiss Sam and he heads off into the shop, picking up a clipboard and sliding under a car. Though a good bit younger than in the movie, 13 years younger in fact, Agent Coulson is still easily recognizable. Walking up to them, I held out my hand to Coulson and nodded at Jordan.

[img: . 3LQJtJSQRyGiCQHaJ4?pid=Api&rs=1]

[img: . ]

"Already employed, I see." Coulson remarked in his blandly amiable way. "It's quite the operation. Mind telling me about it?"

I shrug and smile. "What is there to tell?" I said. "Standard fully legitimate front organization. What, did you expect us to go around selling gold, curses and love potions?"

Coulson inclined his head. "More periodicals filled with new age drivel like Horoscopes and advertisements for blessings of wealth and success." He countered. "That's what you usually see in groups proclaiming themselves to have magic."

"Sorry to disappoint," I laugh. "We're more of the meditate until you become Captain America type."

"Strong claim." Coulson hummed. "I've always found meditation to be something of a waste of time myself. Good for organizing one's thoughts, but anything more was just an excuse to slack off."

Jordan looks positively offended at that, but I nod and respond before he could. "I thought that too at first, but then I found K'un-Lun, and well, as they say; 'seeing is believing'." With a flourish of my ring hand, I summon a crown.

Coulson looks at the tiara nonplussed. I hand it over to him, and he takes it hesitantly, turning it over in his hands and examining it. "Silver… and Jade?" I nod. "It's new, or at least better forged than most older artifacts. With… etchings on the inside? Vaguely asian, but I can't tell which language." He shrugs and tries to hand it back. "What am I looking at?"

I retrieve the crown, amused. "The material, structure and history of the item are largely unimportant, so I'll spare you the incredibly fascinating technical details." I tell him, a laugh in my voice. "The importance of the item is in the metaphysical mechanics of it. You see, Jade is capable of holding memories and knowledge within it. This is one of the major reasons it was important to imperial china; the right set of Jade artifacts meant everything to a ruler's competence. This piece of Jade is known as the Crown of Ancestral Knowledge, or the Akashic Band, depending on who you're talking to and contains a great deal of knowledge on how to use the power of the fifth heaven. I've been adding to it as I travel, collecting the knowledge of the other six heavens within, in the hope of eventually forging a perfect understanding of the soul."

"I see." the agent replied, flatly pleasant as ever, though now he was looking at the crown warrily. "That sounds like the type of artifact SHIELD would put in a box with a serial code and never touch."

I snort. "Even when wearing it for a day can make you the equal to Steve Rogers?"

Coulson cants his head to the side slightly, seeming to consider my words. "Assume for a moment I trust, never mind believe, you and place this device on my head… why me?"

"Why not?" I ask flippantly. Despite not changing, his flat gaze manages to convey extreme irritation with me and I fight not to laugh. "Because before I found K'un-lun I knew a you who was fifteen years older, and he was perhaps one of maybe five or six people in the entirety of SHIELD I'd trust to receive power and not be an ass about it. People say power corrupts, but I don't believe that; I think Power reveals. And when your character was revealed to me, I didn't think less of you for it. In fact, I was kinda inspired."

The atmosphere seems heavy between us, so I laugh to break the tension. "That, and even if you were to comprehend all of the enlightenment I have gathered thus far and become as skilled as I in the time you have the crown, you'll still require more than a decade to challenge me as I am now." I boast. "The power of the seven heavens is as much about daily discipline and long term physical conditioning as it is about understanding the light of your soul. And in that time, I won't have been idle."

Phil nodded sharply and pulled out a phone. "I'll need to call this in. Give me a moment." I resist the urge to laugh aloud at the utterly flat delivery. Philip Coulson, straight man of the MCU comedy club.

Coulson walks off to the side of the room, and I pretend I can't hear him and Fury talking over the phone. They're debating whether I'm telling the truth, and whether what I think is the truth is something worth gambling on. The world security council wants supersoldiers, and here I am offering to provide them… but Fury also doesn't want to give them the excuse to cancel the search for Captain America. There's a mention of President Rodham again, and I amble over to the shop computer to check things online.

President Hillary Rodham, feminist activist and former congressman. Apparently she decided not to marry Bill Clinton, and used the media scandal to propel herself into her first office in the 70's. She gain popularity as a warhawk and feminist icon during the 80's after the major CIA screw up that removed the Shah of Iran in my timeline instead failed, causing him to switch from Liberal anti-slavery pro-womens rights pro-secular to Neocon Caliph intent on restoring the persian empire.

She got elected president in 92 on the platform that she'd restore peace in the middle east, stopping the conquest, repairing American Persian relations and returning the Shah to liberalism. She got reelected 4 years later on having gotten the US into war with the Persions on the side of India over ownership of my timeline's Pakistan. The Indus River Valley was never lost to India in this timeline and still contains the thousand temples and universities of ancient India which Islamic aggression leveled where I'm from. But it also contains hundreds of Mosques from the Islamic migration that eventually conquered the region in my timeline. Thus, the Persian Caliphate's casus belli in the region.

Now, Hillary's running again, for the 2000 election but looks to have lost last month. Which is odd, because that would mean she'd been running for her third term. Typing faster, I pull up an online copy of the constitution.

As I found out in Tenochtitlan, the 13th amendment doesn't exist in this reality, being an issue of state laws rather than federal. Most states made racial discrimination illegal either shortly before or shortly after the civil war, but California, Tennessee and Louisiana hadn't done so until the 60's, only getting rid of slavery, and Illinois, Indiana and Michigan had actually made it legal to discriminate again during the early 50's after the world war 2 industrial boom flooded the states with all sorts of minorities, none of whom got along, leading to a massive crime surge and civil rights era style backlash.

But apparently there were others as well. The 15th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 26th amendments don't exist either; being either gone entirely as in the case of the presidential term limits and moving senatorial elections to popular vote; or part of state constitutions instead as in the case of alcohol and drug prohibition and minority and women's rights. Amusingly, the 24th amendment prohibiting poll taxes and 27th amendment mandating that congress can't change their salaries until they're reelected still exist, but was put in place as the 14th and 15th amendments and the 27th was expanded to say that Congressmen couldn't benefit from a pay raise they voted on period, and that the raise would go to their successor.

That being said, Prohibition of alcohol was headed mostly by the Native American and Skraeling lobby, rather than the aggrieved wives lobby and is still largely illegal in majority native american states and cities. The trade off is that Marajuana, peyote and Mushrooms are legal there instead, when they're illegal in mostly european states and cities. Sadly, this change didn't stop the 16th amendment and IRS from being a thing; the bastards.

For the most part, these details are barely of academic interest to me. Information to assure I won't make gaffes due to conflicting timelines in my head. But two things stick out.

First, the nature of the revised war in the middle east will likely have some effect on the Iron Man movie. What, I can't be sure, but chances are it'll mess up what attempts I could potentially make to get involved. No doubt Stark is already over there selling weapons, and Stane is waiting in the wings courting the Persians with illegal weapon sales.

Second… A united India wasn't something Indian's had even in India until the British East India Company took over the continent and declared it a British Colony, giving everybody a common enemy. That was a large part of why India lost so much of its history to conflict with the Muslims. But if that hadn't happened here… what could I learn about Indian cultivation, simply by visiting the civilian temples in Meru's shadow?

Potentially an awful lot..!

Or nothing at all. After all, Tilda Swinton is still The Ancient One and going anywhere near Kathmandu would tempt fate. Hell, just being near the Sanctum in New York is tempting fate.

"Planning another trip?" Coulson pipes up behind me. "I'd have to advise against it."

I twist around and give him the stink eye. "Not for a while, I don't think. Just trying to decide how recent events are going to affect… various competitors." I trail off, waving my hand vaguely. "So, what did Nick decide? I stopped listening after a couple of minutes."

Coulson gave me a piercing look. "I'll have to remember that." He said, pulling out a little notebook, scribbling and then putting it away. "As far as your offer… you mentioned five people. Who were the other four?"

"Nick himself, Melinda May, Steve Rogers, Leopold Fitz and Jemma Simmons." I list off automatically. "The last two… I think they're kids right now, and anyway, I'd only give it to them as a paired set. Their hearts are golden, but they're a trainwreck without their other half."

"Steve?" Coulson bursts out, showing the first expression change of the entire meeting. "You knew him?"

"Eeeh" I shrug and wiggle my hand in the air. "Shield digs him out of the ice in June of 2010. Lot of stuff going on in June, they call the event 'Fury's Big Week'. I get the impression that if he'd still had hair, he wouldn't have afterward. Heh." I give him a pointed glare. "Don't think that means you can go slacking off though, it's the cumulative efforts between now and then that find him."

"Do I tell you how to meditate?" Coulson snapped back. Then he adjusted his shoulders. "Would you happen to know where we found the Captain?"

I shrug. "Northeast coast of Greeland. The reason it took so long is because the ice shelves there change every season and Rogers went down in the middle of a blizzard. You could probably find him faster by engineering some form of gamma radiation detection, the blue bombs work off of a grouping of harmonic gamma frequencies. Nasty stuff, but pretty to listen to."

Coulson nodded and pulled out his notebook again. After a moment he looked back up at me. "Director Fury has authorized me to test out your device, but demands to know your criteria for selection. What makes you choose or deny someone, how does the process work and what is the timeframe? You said I'd need a decade for the process to reach your level. What's your level, and why would it require that much time?"

I scratch my beard and shrug. No real harm telling them. I might even get something out of it. "The process, as you call it, is pretty simple. You press the jade to your forehead and then select the memories you're willing to trade for what's inside. Don't worry about losing them, or about exposing classified information, the most valuable quality of knowledge is that it can only grow when shared, never diminish, and only by offering it willingly will anything pass in or out of the Jade. It's an issue of purity that I'm still trying to wrap my head around."

"Trading memories can last for anywhere between a few seconds and a few days, depending on the volume of information and your fluid intelligence. Comprehension of the information is a bit more difficult to judge. For your soul to experience the required alteration, IE enlightenment, you've got to accept the new knowledge on a fundamental axiomatic level, and some people have… trouble with that. It's faith, but faith supported by knowledge rather than existing in absence of it."

"Like faith in the friend who's taken a bullet for you." Coulson asks.

I nod. "Exactly. After getting enlightened and getting used to your new senses, the issue becomes mostly about energy. Every soul radiates chi, but all life absorbs chi to enhance its function and though you need to be enlightened to see it, the landscape moves excess chi along like a system of rivers and lakes. What this means for you, is that by being outside of the seven heavens, collecting energy is going to be somewhat difficult."

"The collection techniques I know of right now, are the Nipponese Spirit technique, which allows you to collect the full amount of chi coming off your own soul; the Daoist Medicine techniques, which allow you to extract chi chemically from plants and animals which have absorbed it; the Bodhisattva Dharma, which allows you to collect chi from your environment; and I'm beginning to understand the Avalonian Imperative, which allows you to collect chi from others based on how much you've affected their life." No need to tell him about the Native american method involving sacrifices. That'll tank all his and Fury's trust in me before you can say 'let me explain' and I don't know enough about dark and light force cultivation to trust telling.

"That's four," Coulson remarks, "you said there were seven heavens. What are the other four traditions?"

I wince at that. Man catches on quick. "I haven't been to all of them, so I don't rightly know. Rumor says the native american heaven, Xibalba, does something involving sacrifices, the african heaven, Z'gambo, works by forming contracts with more powerful spirits and Atlantis has figured out a means of doing everything the rest do through machines. Howard Stark and Samuel Erskine's work on Vita rays would be a credible example of something at the very least similar."

"Doesn't Xibalba mean 'the place of fear'?" Coulson asks.

"Yup." I reply flatly.

"Cheery." He replies, just as flatly. "Shield and I will get to work on tracking down Stark's work on Vita rays. It was dangerous technology and the man guarded it carefully, but if we find anything, we'd ask you to examine it. Should the similarities be more than superficial we'll work out a deal. Now, back to how you determine candidate selection."

"To quote an old english saying, 'if you wish to know the true measure of a man, give him power and then observe not how he treats his superiors or equals, but his inferiors'. Chi is that on steroids. Every personality flaw or virtue is going to become amplified. The more chi in your body, the more extreme your traits, ALL of your traits, become. Keep that in mind when doing screenings, and you'll be fine. Randomly grab some prisoners or wanna be politicians, you'll end up with an army of Red Skull's rather than Captain America's. Grab your average Joe off the street, 10% chance of another captain america, 30% chance of red skull, 60% chance he'll be pretty near the same uninteresting schmuck coming out as he was going in."

I roll my eyes. "Of course, K'un-Lun simply accepted anybody who could both find them and achieve initial enlightenment on their own effort. If anyone went bad, they just exiled them to the city on the other side of the valley. S'ahra Sharn, the Australia of heaven."

Coulson frowns. "If going bad is comparable to becoming red skull, that seems rather… inadvisable."

I shrug. "It provides those who's heaven involves fighting an eternity of bliss." I reply. "You'd have to be there, but it makes a twisted sort of sense when you see it. Check out holy scripture some time. All of them talk endlessly about warriors' honors and the forever wars of heaven and hell. There's a reason for that."

"You're testing my faith in humanity." Coulson replied drolly. "That's not something you keep easily in this business." Funny guy… "What are the capabilities and progression I can expect?"

"With each of the major enlightenments, your strength, durability, stamina, healing, speed, reaction speed, thought speed and memory integrity will improve by a single multiplier of your current physical condition. Undergo body cleansing, and you get another multiple and seven extra years on your lifespan. Next are the meridians, a blood vessel network for chi in your body. There are 22 of them, 11 yin and 11 yang. For each yin/yang pair you cleanse, you get another multiple and another 7 years."

"Finally, there are the seven core locations, corresponding to the indian chakras. Indians simply condense chi from a plasma state to a liquid state and are done with it, but the chinese compress chi all the way to a solid state in one of the 7 locations. They call it a Dantien Core. Think of everything I've said you'll gain so far. Compressing a core will put all of that in a parentheses and then use its own set of multipliers."

The mans eyes widened slightly at that. "I suppose forming a core takes a lot of time then."

I laugh. "Like you wouldn't believe." I pause, waiting for him to finish his notes. "Core formation is important in another way too, as in order to do so, you need a seed around which to crystalize things, like the dust at the heart of a snowflake. Choose the wrong seed, and your growth will slow, stall or even turn against and poison you."

"How do you get seeds?" Coulson asked. "This seems like a pretty big drawback if it's that serious."

I shrug. "Self discovery. Core seeds are ideas. Concepts and axioms about the universe. It could be something as simple as trying to understand the entire universe through heat. It's creation, loss and exchange; the initial idea being fire. Perfect choice for someone wanting to be a pyrokinetic. Or Cryokinetic, as they become the same thing pretty quickly. Or it could be something as complicated as Sonder, the mathematics of metaphysical relationships and related psychology. You can choose literally anything you can imagine."

"The problem comes in when the building chi doesn't reflect the chi radiating off your soul. Doesn't reflect who you are as a person. Your personal chi tries to fight the chi you've gathered as though it were a foriegn body, and the degree to which they fight can range from sugar making you fat because the body can't process fructose, if you go with something a little wrong for you; all the way up to malignant metastasized cancer if you choose something that just completely goes against who you are because you want a promised set of powers."

Coulson nods, continuing to scribble. "Do you have one of these dantien cores, Mr Hemming?"

I grin. "I have seven cores, one in each of the available locations, though all are compressed around the concept of Synergy." I grin wider and toothier as Coulson's head snaps up, eyes wide. "I achieved it by using the concept of Synergy; the science of how things become more powerful than the sum of their parts by working together toward a common purpose. It allows me to do pretty much anything I damn well please, so long as I take the time to understand the associated elements and how they interact with each other. Despite my many critics, it's been working out pretty well so far."

"Then that would put you at what, 110 times stronger than you look?" His eyes roved up and down my large frame. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Pull out, Agent Coulson." I hear Fury mutter into Coulson's earpiece. "We'll debrief when you return to base."

"I'll take your offer, Mr Hemming." Phil continued, putting away his notebook and removing the wire from his ear. "How soon will you be expecting payment?"

Interesting. A leap of faith? I suppose that is in character for him, given most of the people he recruited in the TV show. I shrug. "As soon as Fury's convinced I'm not trying to turn you into a mushroom. As I said, I'm not looking forward to fighting SHIELD for my artifacts. You may not know what I'm after, but you know where, when I don't, and if there's anything you alphabet soup agencies know how to do well, it's shuffling evidence."

"A mushroom?"

"Kept in the dark and fed shit."

"Ah." He accepts the crown as I hand it to him and put's it on. The moment he does, a thread of chi extends from the Jade into his crown chakra and his pupils dilate to dominate most of the iris. A thread of his chi twists around the one from the crown, feeding back into it and Coulson goes still, mind alight with activity, but eyes vacant. From here' everything's a waiting game.

I hate waiting. I've spent 13 years waiting.

After making sure Coulson securely ensconced both on the couch and in his own mind, I go back to the computer and begin browsing.

The incoming president, replacing Hillary, seems to be Cotter McKenna; 1/8th algonquin, 3/8ths french, half Irish. That that's even a part of his campaign platform makes me sigh, but the middle american indians came out to vote for him in force, which is apparently a historic moment here. At least according to the news media; which probably means its a third each; lie, fabrication and fact. His platform is mostly about creating unity in america. He's promised to get out of the business of foriegn interference and deal with as many local issues as his administration can humanly solve. A nice dream, but every president since world war 1 promises something similar, and then mostly delivers the opposite.

Other big news includes Johnny Blaze being scheduled to perform a number of stunts at President McKenna's victory rally at the Kennedy stadium in DC; Von Doom Industries announcing they've taken over the contracts for the International Space Station, to be held aboard the Von Doom Space Station and will be helping retire the old station to the air and space museum next month; Alchemax Bioresearch lab was partnering with Columbia University's bio-research department on the Global Genome Project, a successor to the Human Genome Project, for which they publicly thank President Elect McKenna as provider of the funds during his time in the Senate.

Lots of big things are happening for the new guy. Yay for him. From my perspective, well, he was the president in the first two X-men movies; and the highlighted events foreshadow most of the early 2000 era marvel movies. The ones that didn't make it into the MCU due to a series of rights dispute between 20th century Fox and Disney. Disney, being greedy, wanted sole ownership, while Fox was willing to hold the properties hostage so long as they had to settle for less than half. The directors had WANTED to conglomerate them into Avengers, but no dice. Thus the extra Amazing and MCU spidermen series; that horrifying 2015 reboot of Fantastic 4, Ghost Rider being part of Agents of Shield and Inhumans taking the place of the X-men.

This universe, it seemed, disagreed with Disney and went instead for the director's cut.

The chi behind me shifted and pulsed, and I turned around to look at Coulson. My third eye showed that he'd achieved initial enlightenment, comprehension of the threefold cycle. Looking down at my watch my brows rose. 3 hours. I wonder if that's good or bad. Back in K'un-lun, I'd gotten the timetable down to 1 hour, but the chi density there was also a minimum of 9 times higher. Did that mean Phil was at least three times slower than the average heavenly citizen? Or three times faster?

When nothing else happened for fifteen minutes, I went back to my research.

Wilson Fisk is a white man with a VERY minimal internet presence; the Natchios are Greek Ambassadors in DC and Mathew Murdoc is 13 years old right now, going by his dad's obituary; supporting the TVshow timeline over the movie timeline. Frost Financial runs an investment empire and prep school in Westchester New York that runs K through College rather than Frost industries running a series of blood banks and nightclubs. So, nix the blade movies. But Man-thing, a 2004 box office super-flop apparently persists. Man-thing was a face on the Grandmaster's tower in Thor-Ragnaroc, and Schist Oil Company is currently in public negotiations with the Florida Seminole Corporation and the Florida state legislature over a stretch of everglades. The Bywater town council is in support, but a fair portion of the swamp's 1000 residents are protesting.

None of the other early marvel movies have evidence for or against them, though that may just be due to the young nature of the local internet.

Man-thing though is of particular interest. The Spirit Of The Swamp possesses Ted Sallis (recast from a nebraskan biologist into seminole leader who initially sold the land to Schist before "running off with the money") and destroys the oil rig and refinery in 2004 after a series of grisly 30 some odd murders wherein the victims are tortured to death by plants being supernaturally grown inside them. That has all the ear-marks of a Xianxia Demonic cultivator, and where there's a cultivator throwing his weight around, there is chi in abundance. Add in this world's Native American Dao of Sacrifice and you could easily have said environmental anti-hero. Anti-villain? Monstrous semi-hero who killed an awful lot of innocents before getting it right.

In the comics, Sallis worked for AIM on Project:Gladiator, an attempt to recreate the Captain America supersoldier formula. Sallis believed he'd finished it, shot up with the formula and burned the base, escaping in a jeep with his wife, Betty Brant. This, naturally pissed off AIM who shot him off the road and into the swamp, where the nexus of all realities use the formula as a hook to enchant his body, turning him into Man-Thing, a Hulk like creature powered by the energy of nature… When nature is damaged or men with evil emotions surround him, the Man-thing becomes acidic, poisonous and goes on hulk style rampages.

Asshole moment though? I mostly care about the possibility of a largely uninhabited chi-rich area up for purchase. Whether it's the spirit of the swamp, or the nexus of all reality, or something else entirely, it's worth at least a look-see.

I look up from my plotting as another shift in chi occurs behind me. Two hours this time. Glancing over Coulson, I blink. He's learned the Nippon Spirit. Not a bad first choice. And… no way. Lines of chi are extending off him like a sea anemone, and I can swear I feel distinct identities to each of them. Son of a bitch picked up hero cultivation! How!? After staring at the man for several minutes, I snort and shake my head ruefully. Whatever, that's another perspective I can use to understand it myself.

Walking over to the meditating agent, I find the wire in his ear and use it to find his phone. Removing them both, I place the bud in my ear and clear my throat. "Nick Fury?"

It takes him a while to answer, likely having gone off to do something else while he waited for Coulson to respond, but after several minutes, the unmistakable voice of Samuel L Jackson growls out. "I presume this is Rey, how's my agent?"

"He's taking rather well to the process, director cyclops." I reply, letting him hear the minor jealousy in my voice. "Three enlightenments in five hours. That's probably a record." I'll have to teach him how to deal with corruption before he leaves. "Immediate results, he'll come back to you four times stronger. Maybe more if I don't stop him."

"And if I order you to release him now?" He asked, voice hard.

"I'd do it." I shrug, voice bland. "It wouldn't hurt him, beyond hindering his future growth rate. I am curious though, five hours and no extraction team?"

He snorts. "What makes you think I haven't? I'm holding off because my man inside your security system says you've been browsing the internet without a care in the world. That makes me suspicious. Either you're not worried about what I'll do to you, incapacitating one of my best agents, or the situations not what it looks like."

"A little of A, a little of B." I reply. "Got a sniper on me?" Fury grunts. "Have him shoot me in the head if you like. Anything short of anti-armor will just give me a headache. I don't mean to brag, but I'm much more worried about you moving my artifacts or messing with my ID papers than anything your agents could do to me physically."

Fury was quiet for a bit. "How much longer is Agent Coulson going to be under if I leave things be?"

"If you trust he knows what he's doing?" I correct him. "No idea. He's gotten through a lot of the hard parts, the rest should just be technique and conditioning, the latter of which he'll have to do after he leaves my office. I suppose it really depends on how many tips and tricks he wants."

"That's alright, Shifu Hemming," Coulson's voice sounds from behind me. "I think I've gotten enough. Your device drives a harder bargain than you do, by the way."

I Turn around and grin. "So, what goodies did you give me?" I ask.

"A couple of languages you didn't know, an advanced guide to modern bureaucracy, all of the history lessons you missed along with a number of less sensitive secret histories, and my experience figuring out the 'One With Others' question. In exchange, I took One with self, one with the universe, Chakra opening, a guide to cleansing and storing corruption and a guide to the basic elements. Though I do think I got the better side of the deal here."

I hold up his phone, where Director Fury is listening. "I dunno, I suppose that depends on how mad ol one eye is with you and how long it takes you to deliver my cargo."

The agent shakes his head. "You'd likely get it faster by coming in and playing agent yourself."

"Yeaaah…" I drawl, "but I've got this… thing about authority. It's why I picked you rather than offering to help Fury train a battalion of superscops."

"You're not worried I'll share these lessons with my fellow agents?" He asked, voice curious, expression flat.

I snickered. "Good luck. A chi-thin environment and reliance on verbal lessons rather than psionic experience sharing? It usually takes my organization a decade and we've had a thousand years to work out the kinks and personality conflicts." I reach across the room and tap my ring finger on the crown, vanishing it into storage.

Coulson jerks slightly in reaction before shaking his head. "I should have tried to learn that technique," he breathes. "A decade huh? So whats the deal with these crowns then?"

I grin at him. "Well, I'm just a special kind of asshole. The Jade pillars of knowledge were for advanced students only those who were forming their core and looking for a Dao. Or those who had created their own Dao and wanted to pass it on to future generations. So it came time to make my own, I had a little fun. I learned the technique, and instead of dropping it as a one off, I paired historical precedent of the emperors with open source marketing theory of modern america. Boom, prosperity and an educational revolution."

"Which you are now keeping to yourself." Coulson notes.

I shrug. "I'm giving it to as many allies as I can justify. But building up an enemy by accident is, how did you say it? Inadvisable."

The secret agent stares at me for almost a minute, expression inscrutable as always. Then he nods, takes his phone and wires from my open hands and reconnects them. "I'm on my way back for debrief, sir. If you don't mind though, I think I'll run. It's not far, and it will be an objective test of Mr Hemming's claims."

Fury grunts in reply, and Coulson takes off.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

Selling gold is a tricky prospect. Most vendors won't buy it from you at full price and the government tracks anyone who sells more than 10 grand in a year. Selling better metals such as platinum or uranium straight up involves their direct interference and "oversight". Even if you deposit your bricks of refined rare earth in a bank, they seize the bricks and credit the bank an equivalent number of serialized notes, or in this computer age, code. As such, selling alien metals such as Vibranium is the equivalent of telling everyone in your hemisphere "come at me bro".

Of course, it doesn't help that the only other people selling the metal are secret Wakandan's and Ulysses Klau.

Consequently, my plan for divesting myself of Colonel Stryker's stash in exchange for cash involves doing so by back room deal. My preferred target for said deal being none other than Anthony Edward Stark. There are other options of course, but I either don't trust them, or this timeline says they're broke and can't pay. Of course, one may ask, why in the 7 heavens and 9 hells would I trust Tony? Simple. I don't; but I know that whatever universe he's in, Drunk Uncle Tony always always ends up a hero.

Besides which, I desperately want access to Jarvis.

As soon as the meeting with Coulson is done, I portal to the Chaste team surveilling Alexandra Ried's mansion in Malibu California. From there, it's a short jog to Stark's own mansion workshop. Stopping at his gate, I press the buzzer and wait while the camera whirrs to stare at me.

"We don't entertain solicitors." Drones the bored voice of Edwin Jarvis.

I pull a single tube containing Vibranium ore out of my ring and show it to the camera. "Not even when they have Vibranium?" I ask teasingly.

The camera whirrs a bit more and I shake the container, causing the ore to light up with blue and purple lines. Then another voice answers. "Jarvis? What is it, I'm kinda in the middle of… someone."

"My sincerest apologies sir, but a man is at the door offering what appears to be almost a pound of Vibranium Ore and the facial recognition database taggs his identity as classified."

Oooh, Classified. Don't I feel special? There's a feminine yelp of "brute" in the background and the camera starts acting funny. I can almost imagine him wrestling with the jury rigged monitor, trying to get a better look at the sample tube.

"You're… not Klau." Tony mumbles over the intercom. "Who sent you?"

"I sent myself, Mr Stark." I reply. "And this is not the limit of my supply either. However, if you're busy…"

"No, no. Jarvis? Send pepper in to collect ms… Watts, I think her name is?" More feminine cursing before Tony's voice returns. "Oh, Cynthia, you know I love you. Now get out." With a buzz the gate wheeled away and I strode up the driveway. I was about halfway up the quarter mile length when Tony arrived, shirtless from a hidden staircase. I look him over, grinning slightly at Downy Jr's amusing attempt at a beard. He's in pretty good shape though, toned, not like most tech CEO's. I used to be jealous even of him. Now I'm jacked and it's just funny.

Stark didn't even bother examining me in turn, snatching the tube of Vibranium from my hand and holding it up to the light to examine. "Extraordinary…" he breathes before snapping to fix me under his gaze. "Do you have any idea how much this is worth?"

I hold up one hand and examine my fingernails. "At ten grand a gram, round about 10 million dollars." I reply airily.

Tony snorted. "Walk with me, sykes." After a few hundred feet, Tony looks back at me. "So what's a big guy like you doing running up and down Malibu in a silk monkeysuit with ten mill in his pocket?"

"Looking for you." I reply with a grunt. "I figured you should get first right of refusal on something like this."

"Oh? Why me?" Tony asked, walking backward now, eyes narrow.

I shrug. "Genius billionaire industrialist. You've got the cash to purchase the entire half ton and the brains to use it for something more intelligent than an adamantium Tank. Besides, the way I hear it; I can trust you not to stab me in the back for my source. Not unless I go out of my way to deliberately piss you off first."

The 30 year old CEO gave me a considering look before grinning broadly. "That's fair, hoss. Sooo… half a ton? Looks like you struck the motherlode. Can't buy it all though, even I have to justify five billion."

I chuckle softly as the driveway widens out into a loop. "You'll buy it all, I think. Though perhaps not immediately; even you gotta play around with it first. Sure, we both know it resists inertia, turns vibrations into raw power and gives the big middle finger to any metal that's not it, but what do you do with that? Your dad made America's hero his iconic shield. The Enhanced Weapons Program gave Howlette an indestructible skeleton. I think you can do better."

Tony chuckled low in his throat. "Flattery, is it? Hell yeah, I can do better. Give me a year I'll put your metal in a thousand different products."

I nod and pause as we reach the doors, which Tony opens to let a fuming blue haired girl and a redhead experiencing visible schadenfreude through. I glance at them and then frown, narrowing my eyes. Is that natural blue? Or incredible dedication? Eyebrows and arm hair… I tag her with a bit of my chi as she passes and dismiss the issue.

"I look forward to working with you, Mr Stark." I tell him, extending my hand. "Am I invited in? Or will your assistant be settling my account?"

Tony makes a show of thinking about that before shrugging. "Gotta verify the metal first. You got a name, big guy?"

"Reynard." I reply, summoning my SHIELD Index ID card like a magic trick and handing it to him. Tony waves his hand and Pepper steps forward to take the card. "You have a spectrometer on site?"

"Mr Stark, this is a government ID, but I've never heard of the agency. Strategic Homeland…"

"SHIELD, Ms Potts." I interrupt her. "They chose the acronym before they decided what it should stand for. It's a more common practice than it really should be. Before you ask, SHIELD regulates people like Hank Pym and Professor Xavier."

"And dealers of Vibranium?" she asked skeptically.

I smirk. "Among other qualifications." At some point Tony had disappeared, leaving the pair of us alone in the… bar? Living room? Solarium? It was the one with the piano where Stane nearly kills Tony. Whatever the case, I guess that means I'm not invited to the lab. Pity. I wanted to see how far along the master engineer was.

"What sort of qualifications?" She presses. "Your card says Index registration, but what does this code mean?"

"Magician." I reply, straight faced. She scoffs. "No, realy, I have magic fingers. They're very impressive."

A faint blush creeps over her cheeks even as a scowl twitches at the corners of her lips. She's been trained on Tony though, so it's a wonder I even elicit any reaction. "Does that mean you're a mutant? Or a huckster skilled enough to fool even the government? Because selling Mr Stark some fake Vibranium? That's not going to work."

I sit down on the edge of the bar and regard the ginger with my head tilted slightly to the side. "A darkness around your eyes, not been sleeping well? Given your employer, I presume you're often busy at odd hours." I clap my hands lightly and offer her a bit of yang and water chi, sparkling blue and gold. "A 'Pick-me-up'. No need to be shy."

At my motion, Ms Virginia Potts took a step back, eyes wide. "Jarvis, are you seeing this?"

"Seeing what, Ms Potts?" The AI answered, crushing an earlier theory. Pity, an AI with a soul would have been interesting.

"Those lights!" Her voice trembled slightly, but she was visibly getting control of herself as I held still and didn't attack. "He's using a mutant power…"

"I'm sorry Ms Pots," Jarvis confirms. "Mr Hemming does not appear to be holding anything. I will talk to Mr Stark about giving you a short break."

"Pepper," I interrupt her, "only creatures with souls can see chi. It is after all, the light of the soul. What I am offering you is Yang and Water with healing intent. It's not much, but it should deal with that fatigue you're feeling. Also; it's not a mutant power, but a trained one. One you could learn, were you to either impress me or spend a decade at my monastery. If you're not interested however, I will reclaim my power. Don't worry, I won't take offense; your reactions were sufficient amusement to pay for the trifle."

The woman listens closely, attention rapt, up until the final comment. Her right eye twitches before her gaze narrows. Stepping forward boldly, she thrusts her hand into the field of lights and I smirk as she gasps and flushes at the feeling.

"T-that was…"

"Rejuvenating?" I ask. "Normally that spell is done with blood or wood chi, but blood projects a frightening presence to most people and wood feels creepy in my opinion. Yang is confidence, passion and warmth, while water is a minor healing agent. Not as effective, sure, but I prefer it."

"I was going to say addicting." Pepper countered, shaking her head. "You're certain it's not a mutant power?"

I shrug. "Not unless a city of several million in rural China all happen to have my exact mutation by pure coincidence. "

Anything Pepper had to say to that was cut off by Tony's voice sounding over the intercom. "Pepper, pay the man. His core sample checks out. One kilo of pure vibranium."

The woman straightens. "Mr Hemming, would you prefer cash, wire or bullion?" she asks, changing from flustered to cooly professional as though a switch had been flipped.

I hand her my navy federal bank book. "Wire, if you would be so kind. Mr Stark, if I could trade speed dial with you?"

"Consulting?" Stark asked over the PA, "I suppose you could afford it; half a ton you said? Give Pepper your phone." I did so and he audibly grimaced over the intercom. "A flip phone? Eesh, give me a sec, I'll give you one of mine." He appears a moment later, clad in a wife beater, the same pair of pajama bottoms and welding goggles pushed up on his forehead. With a flick of the wrist, he tosses me a smart-phone of all things. "Early production model. Those things are going on the shelves next month. I intend to kick Apple straight out of the market if I can."

I examine the thing, trying not to be impressed. 7 years early isn't bad, but this is Tony, he's supposed to be 20-30 years ahead. Pulling my old 2018 model out of ring storage, I compare them. The app system isn't as intuitive, but the technical specs are comparable. It'd put Tony at maybe a generation behind? Which, honestly is only 6 months at the rate IPhones were moving when I left. Clapping my hands together, I store them both, to Tony's inquisitive look.

I smile at him, saying nothing, and he narrows his eyes. "So, this mine of yours. What do you want for it?"

I chuckle. "More than even you can afford, Mr Stark. Though I'd be open to a deal where I sell only to you. For that, I'd want your full attention and effort on various consulting jobs. I would pay your fee in Vibranium and of course, you could patent the results."

"Payment processed, Mr Stark." Pepper spoke into the tense silence.

"Deal, Mr Hemming." Tony replied, holding out his hand. As I took it, he tried to pull me in, and I belatedly had to remind myself to move. Tony noticed it though. "You'll understand though, if I keep investigating. Nothing personal, just business."

I shrug. "I look forward to the attention, Mr Stark." I reply, as he lets go, smacking me on the shoulder.

"Ms Potts, show him out and transfer my appointments to video-call. I'll be in the shop all day."

With that, he left, not even looking back. Pepper led me to the door where a car was waiting and handed me a business card with her name and a number on it. I took it, briefly considering if she was flirting with me, but decided it was more likely a business thing. She's Stark's personal assistant and wife across a dozen continuities; the chance I derailed that in one meeting is pretty much zero.

~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+~! #$%^&*()_+

Trust a government to be slack in their defense, but quick on the money, I wasn't even back to the Chaste watchpost when my SHIELD phone buzzed. Agent Blackfoot was still my caseworker apparently, either I hadn't been upgraded yet, or he had been promoted, and of course he wanted to know just what I had done for Stark to make him pay me a cool ten million and change. I explained in the vaguest terms I could manage that I'd sold the industrialist some metal and an exclusive contract for more. Blackfoot promised to investigate further but, thank god, didn't freeze my account for the offense of being successful. He probably would have if he'd known what the metal was or that it was stolen goods. It's good to have confirmation they don't know about Weapon X yet.

Still, I should see about spending that money fairly soon.

Returning to Alkali Lake, I question the warriors moving though the hub about where I can find Stick and end up portalling to a prison in Russia where the man is apparently recruiting some locals. The place is pretty, a glacial lake and medieval town full of survivalists. Apparently a few of the Russians in Stick's New York crew were held at the nearby gulag in the 80's before financial troubles and the uranium mine depleting forced the soviets to shut it down.

When I arrived, Stick was sitting by a campfire with their leader Jacob, roasting a bird on a spit. Possibly a chicken, as there were several running around the streets, but maybe something else as well. Looking at them both with my third eye it was easy to see what Stick saw in these people. Jacob was filled with a pale blue fire that made my eyes itch. I sat down across from Stick and beside Jacob, and pulled out some plum wine from K-un-Lun, offering it to the pair.

"Jacob, this here bratt is Reynard Hemming." Stick said, by way of introduction. "He's as old as I am, though you wouldn't know it. He's also the reason you didn't see me coming today, so if you still wanna shoot someone, there's your man."

I snort as Jacob takes my wine and coughs. "I hope this isn't going to become a common occurrence." The man replies, handing the wine to Stick who sniffs it, his milky eyes going wide at the smell.

"No, I gave my word, just your boys an me. Rey's a special case." He takes a long swig of the chi infused drink and sighs. "Ain't really nobody can stop him from going where he likes. But I think he's here for me, not you. Ain't that right, boy?"

I snort. "After a fashion." I agree. "Sorry to interrupt, but I need to find someone, and I think you can help me."

"Do tell." Stick replies.

"Elektra Ryuko."

Stick tenses, hand gripping his telescoping cane tight enough to make it creak. "Who?" He forced, voice nonchalant.

I smile unpleasantly. "Two, two and a half years ago, you trained a little girl answering to the name of Electra. Cute little sociopath, she absorbed all of your lessons like a sponge to the point you recommended her to Lei Kung for pilgrimage at the tender age of nine. Then it was found out that she was a Black Skye, a daughter of dragons. Her bloodlust caused her to kill several members of your cell, and when ordered to dispose of her, you killed several more before giving her to the Natchios family. Am I ringing a bell?"

"She's a good girl." Stick growled. "But it seems to me, you already know everything you need to. Are you here to execute me then? Or keep me here while your disciples kill her?"

I couldn't help it, I laughed. "No, you dipshit. While I'd be interested to fight you, probably WILL fight you for her, I don't want Elektra dead. I've sworn an oath to protect her. One that's begun to itch at me. I can likely find her on my own but I can't have you doing what you're doing now, and getting the wrong idea about my interest."

"I'm hearing a special emphasis when you say Oath," Jacob interrupted Stick. "Would this have anything to do with the chains around your soul?" I nod slowly. "Might I ask who the oath was made to?"

"The elders of heavenly valley." I reply. It was technically true. I'd just made it to the elders of The Hand, rather than the Elders of K'un-Lun.

Contrary to what I'd hoped though, this didn't make Stick relax, but rather stiffen further, if possible. "What do the elders want with Elly? They're the ones who ordered her end in the first place."

I shrug. "Maybe they did," I allow, "But Shuo-Lao wants more dragon-kin, and I've agreed to protect all of the Black Skye's from your war. I've already given orders that I'm to be brought in on any and all hunts, now I just need to collect the one I know exists." I fix my gaze on Stick and lower my voice from authoritative to something vaguely pleading. "I want you to aid me. It will make things much…"

"No." Stick replies flatly. With a smooth motion his stick sweeps up the campfire, coals and all, and hurls them at me. Before I've even finished sighing, he's on his feet, cane lancing forward like a rapier toward my eye. I catch it in one hand and stand slowly, wiping the ash off my suit. WIth a small burst of flame, I finish off the remains of the campfire that fall from my lap and my beard and glare at Stick.

"You don't want to do this, Stick." I tell him.

"No, I think I do" the old blind man replies. He moves in a blur most people probably couldn't follow and kicks me in the face. I lean my head back and spit a blob of flame at his foot causing him to grunt. Most people would be screaming at this point, but he just jabs at this leg and leaps into a spinning kick trying to smack me in the face with my own fire. I lean my head to the side, letting him pass by and breathe in the fire. I don't want him dead, just defeated.

"Stick, you don't have an Iron Body, I do." I tell him, tanking several strikes. "Stand down and let me heal you. We can work this out."

He responds by sending a ripple of chi down his staff that explodes in my hand. It's the same trick Madam Gao uses to great effect against Danny Rand. For anyone else it may have destroyed their hand or sent them ragdolling across the snowy village. Instead, let fire out of the meridians in my arm, absorbing it hungerly and causing the end of the stick to melt to aluminum slag in my hand.

"Stick, why do you fight him?" Jacob asks us. I glance over at him, seeing his arm up and a dozen villagers pointing bows at us. "Is he not offering to protect your daughter? I recognize that soul fire, is he a demon of some sort?"

"He's a dragon, Jacob." Stick spits as he lashes out at me, his staff spinning like a wood chipper, forcing me to actually fight for the first time in the confrontation. "That's the problem. Dragons eat each other. That's the purpose of the Black Skye bloodline. To consume the dragon or be consumed by it. If he wants to bring Elly to K'un-Lun there is no other purpose and either way, I cannot allow that."

"Oh for fucks sake!" I explode. Spinning the chi in my brain up to bullet time, I step forward, deflect his stick. Catching the upcoming strike I twist stick around in a joint lock. He moves to escape it and I smack him across the back of the head, before letting him go and trapping him in a bear hug. Once I'm certain he's secure, I drop back to a normal frame of reference and growl into his ear. "I'm not trying to eat Elektra, or any of the other Black Skye. I'm not even trying to feed them to Shuo-Lao. Would you like my oath to that effect? Or are you going to continue to be a paranoid ass?"

Stick struggled for several moments more, trying contortions and chi attacks. He got nothing but a few more burns to show for it. "Swear it then."

I snort. "I swear on my cultivation base that I do not seek to consume Elektra's fire or feed her to Shuo Lao."

"I see more inscribed chains." Jacob comments, and Stick goes slack.

I toss Stick to the ground and glare at the villagers. "Call off your dogs, fire soul, I'm not here for you either."

Jacobs eyes widen and the archers' bows creak as they're drawn back a bit more. "Stand down, everyone. The misunderstanding is resolved it would seem," the man says, voice unnaturally calming. They follow his command and most of the wander off, but two particularly scarred individuals stick around, giving me dark looks. "So, this was… rather unconventional," Jacob says, sitting back down around the scattered fire and dusting the roast bird off. "I suppose that does count as a demonstration of what you're offering however. Will all of the warriors I send with you come back as strong?"

"Some could be stronger." I reply. "Most will likely be weaker. It's a question of the quality of their soul, the quality of their training and the quality of the souls around them. More souls, more loose energy to build your own. More awakened souls, more competition for said energy." I look around with my third eye. "A place like this? It could probably support two immortal cultivators? Three at a stretch. The land has history of some sort, but the population isn't enough to keep up. Ice and Magma would be best. Got anyone you'd describe as solid unrelenting passion or cold cutting and immovable?"

The man nods. "I can think of one or two, is it important?"

Stick scoffs. "After a century or two of training it could be."

"I've found a way to cheat training times," I counter the old man. "Maybe I'll show you, when I have Elektra."

Stick growls, but the conversation continues productively from there. When Stick activates my portal device, leaving it with Jacob, we leave with a tall man with black hair and eyes named Yuri and a small blond named Tanya. Both are awed by the blue portals and the hub but I ignore them, as I stick close to Stick, determined not to let the old man give me the slip. We leave them with Bai Wen and then portal to DC where an angry stick leads me to the ambassadors district. Cocking his head as if listening, he jabs his half melted blind cane at one of the mansions. "She's inside." He says, and turns to leave.

I grab his shoulder, holding him fast. "Not so fast, yah crotchety old fart." I tell him. "If all I needed was directions, I could have looked the Natchios up online. You got them involved. Got them to adopt our cute little psychopath. Now I need you to explain to them that either Elektra's coming with me, or I need 24/7 access to the girl. You can pass it off as my being the father you found after three years of searching, or her new dance instructor for all I care. In the end, the three of them trust you, where they won't trust me."

"Do you even know how to dance?" Stick asks.

I huff. "No, I was being facetious. But if it comes to that, give me a week and I'll be a damn virtuoso."

"You're an arrogant little prick, ain't' yah?" He spat to the side. "Fine, we'll play it your way."

"It's only arrogance if you can't back it up." I reply, following him to the gate.

Getting inside the Ambassador's residence is pretty straight forward. Stick is a registered friend of the family, and as his Plus One, I'm allowed in with little comment and only a single armed guard.

Hugo Kostas Natchios, Greek Ambassador to the United States is a large man. Not fat, though he does have a bit of a paunch, but big in the same way I am. Bald and sporting a salt and pepper beard, he had the look of a circus strong-man who traded 600lb dumbbells for beer a couple of years back. In the comics, Elektra really was his daughter, and he named her after the greek classic character who was the mirror to Oedipus, an important part of her character background, given there was a lot of foreshadowing about a sexual relationship between the two before she went to college at met Matt Murdoc. Here though, the only known relationship between the two is that Hugo agreed to adopt Elektra as a favor to Stick and because his wife was barren.

His wife, Christine, is the daughter of the former greek ambassador to Britain and pairs dark hair and creamy mocha skin with blue eyes, an oddity among greeks. In the comics, she was the 'most important person never shown'. Christine died in childbirth with Elektra, as her brother Orestes hired muslim terrorists to assassinate her when she was 7 months pregnant with his sister. In the greek play Electra, Electra and Orestes plotted together to assassinate their mother after she betrayed their father Agamemnon to ambush for sleeping with Electra. Here, nothing so torrid happens, and Christine is only ever shown as the kindly woman who adopted a young dragon to fill the void in her heart left by empty nest syndrome.

The pair of them size me up as Stick makes introductions. "This bratt here is Reynard Hemming. He's a student of mine, and he could probably kick every last one of your guards' asses at the same time, even the ones I trained for you. I don't mean to interfere with how yer raisin elly, I know you two love her as much as I do, but I'd appreciate it if you let him train her."

Hugo rubbed his chin in thought, much the same way I run my fingers through my beard, and considered Stick's words. "I could consider it old friend, but you understand this is a big ask. My people and I have not vetted him, and if he truly is as dangerous as you say… what exactly is it he's going to be training my little girl to do?"

"If I may," I speak up. Hugo gestures for me to continue and I do so immediately. "Stick taught your men to control their bodies, to turn their every movement into a deadly weapon. But that is only the first step on the Dao. What I specialize in is the spiritual aspect." I make a series of gestures and leave the light of a different element in the air each time, radiating their identity for the Natchios to feel deep in their core. "Elektra is uniquely qualified to learn what I have to teach. It is why he hid her here, and I hope, why you will grant our request."

The other three were quiet for a moment, looking at my display, eyes wide. Christine was the first one to regain her voice.

"If what you say is true, I understand why you want to teach her." She said slowly. "But what are you expecting of her, that she should need to be taught?"

I shrug. "What is there to expect? Why can a teacher not simply wish to instruct a worthy student? Is that not how modern schooling works?" It isn't, but the propaganda says it's supposed to be.

"Most teachers don't hide their students in the homes of well armed friends." Hugo Natchios rumbles.

I turned to the man and watched him for a moment, before nodding. "I understand, you need some convincing. What would you consider a worthy trade. Unlimited, unfettered access to the girl. If it is money, I have recently come into several millions. Security concerns? I can train the pair of you or several of your guards in the same methods. Or perhaps something more personal. I understand you adopted Elecktra originally because Christine cannot have her own children, and you love her too much to get someone else. I am an accomplished healer, among other skills; perhaps I can do something about that."

The married couple look at each other, communicating in the way experienced couples do; while Stick regards me with a calculating expression.

"You are very dedicated to your goal," Hugo replies slowly. "If you can do as you say, and make it so my wife and I can have children, I will consider that sufficient. Otherwise, a million per year, deductions offered for training our security personnel."

I bow slightly. "I am glad we could do this the pleasant way. Do you have a chaise lounge? A divan? Or perhaps a couch you don't mind sleeping on? An altar or medical slab would work best, but I understand bare metal or stone is generally considered uncomfortable and unnerving."

Hugo's eyes narrow. "What exactly are you intending to do?"

What?… oh. Oh! After offering a fertility treatment, I asked for his wife to be comfortable on her back. "I'd like to say I could just hold her hand and she'd be healed, but I will need to be able to examine her, and that is easier done laying down, than sitting. Think of it as visiting a dentist. Specifically, I will be gathering spiritual energy and pulling it through her body to energize her cells and wash away corruption. If you'd like, I can demonstrate on Stick first. He recently received severe burns to his foot, and seeing is believing; or so I'm told."

Stick growled at me. "I'm fine, boy."

I snorted. "As the one who burned your foot, I doubt that. Come on, old man, consider it me apologizing."

Grumbling, Stick put his foot up on the coffee table, in clear view of the Natchios. Half of the soul was black and red char, somewhat hidden by the top of the slipper remaining pristine and the heel not bleeding. Kneeling down, I took his foot in one hand and began channeling with my other. Water manifested from my spirit and cleaned out the dirt and gravel that had been embedded in the meat and the charred skin around the edges. When that was gone, the water chi turned red and gained a certain unnerving aura of spilled blood. Before the husband and wife could really react however, the bloody power had sunk into Stick's foot and rapidly regrew the flesh and skin, leaving behind a perfectly healthy foot. The last sparks of crimson energy drifted up his leg, revitalizing the nerves the man himself had attacked in order to keep fighting me, and stick hissed as feeling returned to the limb.

I turn to the Natchios. "Satisfied?"

Perhaps foolishly, they were. The three of us moved to a new sitting room while Stick was led off by a pair of guards to visit with Elektra. I was wary of letting him go alone, the man didn't like me, and I needed Elektra to be at least ambivalent to my presence in order to fulfil my oath. I couldn't kidnap her either, as such oaths worked on my internal interpretation and I would consider that harming someone. If he turned Elektra against me and I couldn't talk her around, this entire theatre performance would have been a waste of time.

Speaking of said theatre, I give Ms Natchios a body cleansing pill, lay her down, and charge my third eye with extra chi. The Natchios are in their late forties, which for childbirth, normally means significant chances of downs syndrome, miscaraige, autism, premature birth and any genetic diseases you may have hiding in your code just dogpiling your poor spawn. However, Immortals in K'un Lun, the literal live ones like Priya, are capable of having completely healthy kids well into their second millenium… so long as they keep up with regular body cleansing. That was half of what I was doing for Ms Natchios; using the energy of the pill, and a bit of my own Yin for direction, to cleanse the lady head to foot excepting her meridians. Old lady has a LOT of corruption in her, and I drain it into glass milk bottles and store it in my ring.

The second part of her treatment after body cleansing is to run a specific organ cleansing on her genitals. Thankfully, I don't need to cut her open or root around like a Gynecologist. Her problem expresses itself as a significantly increased level of corruption in her ovaries. The pattern of which I've become familiar with as meaning disease damage. After a bit of questioning, I learn that Ms Natchios had a rather nasty case of mumps while pregnant with her first child, a boy that likely would have been Orestes. Quite how a salivary infection causes ovarian inflammation and fallopian necrosis I have NO idea, but it's not actually an uncommon side effect.

Needless to say, the boy miscarried, and she hasn't had a period since. Thankfully, Blood chi is uniquely suited to regenerative spells and I don't need any special medical knowledge beyond how to take over the womans own chi flows. Incidentally, a technique I learned in S'ahra Sharn's library. Its primary purpose is the theft of another's cultivation base via sex, but here, it's better employed to tell Christine how to repair her own body. Step 3 of the three fold cycle, the soul maps it's ideal form upon the body. My blood chi, her yin chi, boom, full restoration.

When I finally come up for air, so to speak, it's five in the morning and I've been working for almost sixteen hours. Standing up, I stretch, pop what feels like half of the bones in my body and offer Christine a hand to help her up. Hugo tries and fails to push me aside, so I step out of the way and let them embrace. The mans' been up the entire time, watching and looks like it. I turn to the guards and demand a breakfast for three before turning back to the happy couple.

"I'd get her checked out by a mundane medical professional," I tell them. "I'm certain of my work, but it'll be faster confirmation that simply waiting around for her period to pass. Which has started again, by the way. Also, I've added seven years onto her life, so; congratulations Ms Natchios, on being 41 again."

She laughs happily if tiredly, "forty one, I feel like thirty five!"

I chuckle quietly. "Then maybe you'd like to show your Husband after breakfast. For my part, I'd like to eat, and get paid. Elektra will be joining us for breakfast?"

Christine nods, and snaps her fingers at one of their servants, who walks off. "She normally does, but breakfast is at six not five."

"I'm not surprised you didn't notice," Hugo mutters, "but Elektra came in to watch you several times after you started working." He hesitates. "She seemed… upset about something."

I grimace. "Probably stick." Ideally, she was upset because of that daddy complex she displays in the TV show, and stick being his normal peevish self. If he didn't stick around after showing up out of the blue and naming me her new trainer, that'd do it. UN-ideally, he might have told her about my nature as a proto-dragon and hers as a dragon-spawn, and she's worried about me eating her.

The Natchios nod in understanding, indicating that Elektra had probably had a similar reaction when Stick left her there with them the first time. To this, I shrug and follow the servants to the solar dining room, which is really just an enclosed glass semi-patio attached to the kitchen. Finding a spot, I sit down and begin to cultivate.

DC is a swamp. Literally, politically, spiritually. It's not positioned on a ley line, or nexus but the sheer number of souls here ensure that there is plenty of chi just sitting around. It's created its own ecosystem of turgid swirling pools and streams that line up almost perfectly with the neighborhoods and districts of the city. This would be fascinating normally, but the character of the people living in the city make it less everglades and more pigs wallowing in a morass of their own filth. Hatred, grief, lies, paranoia, poverty and excess characterize the nature of the environment as much as elemental earth, water, wood and decay. Spiritually swimming through it makes me feel like I need a long scrub in a hot shower.

Fortunately, It's nothing a little cleansing fire can't fix. Now, burning down the capital of the United States isn't something even I can justify doing. Forget the political and timeline ramifications, I don't want all of those souls. Particularly those souls, if this is the environment they create. But! Coating myself and the presence I use to pull that mess in with a bit of dragonfire? Entirely doable.

I'm not in the central pool, which incidentally is the washington obelisk, but the Natchios ambassadorial mansion is in one of the nearby tributaries where a lot of the other residential districts feed into. The nature of this, perhaps unsurprisingly, is akin to that of a ponzi scheme, or voting public, in that the lower class neighborhoods feed into the pool at the shopping districts, those districts feed into the pool at the bureaucrats offices and those offices feed into the monuments around the city, ending in "the mall" where it all channels toward that pointy pile of stone.

Kinda like Yu-Ti's tower, if I'm being honest with myself. Actually, the entire setup is very reminiscent of K'un-Lun, except that the energy in the heavenly city is so much more hospitable.

I come out of my trance as Elektra walks into the room. Her presence is a cold predatory void intruding on mine, much like Bai Wen during some of my more spectacular episodes, only much smaller. Opening my eyes to her silent presence startles the 12 year old and for a moment we stare at each other, glowing green eyes to black. Then she speaks.

"I don't want to like you." She tells me, scowling. "I want Stick."

"That suggests you do like me." I note, amused. "Pray tell."

She bites her lip and moves closer, steps still silent. "You're… warm. Being around you feels like I'm in the shower after training. Or… it did? The feeling stopped when you opened your eyes."

I hold out my hand and she looks at it as though it were an alien, but she comes closer again. Skittish little kid. "What you're not feeling is called Chi, and among other duties, I'm here to teach you about it. Can you tell me what Stick has told you so far?"

"That he wasn't here to take me back" she snarled slightly before softening. "I like the Natchios, they're… nice… but then I said I needed to train, they thought I should be a ballerina."

I can't help laughing just a little, even though it immediately puts the girls back up. "Ballet isn't all bad. I've seen several people turn it into a fighting style. It's hell on your joints though."

"And training accidents and fighting injuries are hell on the rest of you," Christine Natchios breaks into the introduction as she leads a small train of servants carrying breakfast for everyone.

Elektra scowls at her. That seems to be a theme with the girls expressions. "Well, the injuries she's liable to receive under my training are a bit more… exotic." I reply, still amused. "Still, the health plan is world class. Wouldn't you agree?"

Christine blushes heavily as Hugo grabs her ass on the way past. "Well, be that as it may." She admits, accepting a plate from one of the servants.

I take a seat at the table as well, and watch as Elektra takes a position closer to me than the Natchios. The food is good. Alevropita, a sort of paper thin pie crust layered a dozen times with feta cheese and liberal use of bacon bits; Ladenia, a greek brioche that's cooked rather than cold; Sfougato, a quiche/omelette thing with zucchini, mint leaves and bread crumbs and finally tzatziki, a strained yogurt mixed with honey. The whole thing is heavy on bread and dairy, but the drinks at least are fairly standard. Orange juice, coffee the curdles the nose hairs and herbal tea.

We eat and make small talk for a little while. As Greece is much more important on the world stage in this timeline, there's mentions of meetings with various american politicians, and how to schedule Christine's medical exam around that. Elektra talks about her other tutors and answers the Natchios questions about her most recent lessons and how recent arranged socializing went. Eventually though, they get awkwardly back around to me.

"So, what exactly are you going to be teaching elly?" Hugo asks. "We've been aware of people with… your talents and the truth behind them, but much of it is shrouded in mystery. Deliberately, I think. Stick seemed quite reluctant to aid you, but you've done right by us so far as I can tell."

I scratch my beard and consider briefly how to answer. "Would you prefer the lecture, the sales line or are you trying to dig for my reasons?"

Elektra snaps up from her breakfast at the last comment and the Natchios glance at each other before turning back and nodding. "All of the above," Hugo replies firmly, "but we're most interested in the last one. It's my understanding that most faith healers truly are crackpots. That what you did to Stick's foot and my wife is, in truth, vanishingly rare. Miraculous even. If I, we, are going to be beholden to you, we'd like to know the sort of person you are. Why… why us? Why Elektra?"

I nod slowly. "Dismiss your servants and turn off any recorders." I tell them. "What I have to say is for your ears only." They nod and make some rapid sign language to their servants who bow and leave hastily. I flex my will and surround us with a sheath of wind and lighting aspected chi as an extra precaution before continuing. "As you've likely guessed, the two of you are entirely incidental to everything I do. I'm here for Elektra, and helped you because, well, it was easier than kidnapping her."

They stare at me grimly and I roll my eyes. "Don't give me that. You'll understand why in a bit." I take a drink of my tea and continue. "To my detractors, I am what you might call a triple agent. I prefer free agent myself, as like you, my work for them is mostly incidental to more personal goals. However, eleven years ago, I made a soul binding oath to a group called The Hand that I would protect Elektra until they were able to return to K'un-Lun, the fifth city of heaven. Given they've been trying to return for the last two millennia and change, this duty could very well extend beyond any of your natural life spans. Elektra and I will be within an acceptable range from each other for the foreseeable future."

"I… see." Christine said, squeezing her husband's hand. "That would explain why you are here, but not why Elektra is special or why providing miracles was easier than simply taking her from us. You have the power, or at least deeply believe you do."

I nod. "When the leader of heaven and its guardian found out about my oath, they too agreed that I should carry it out, but their reasons were different from the Hand. The Chaste, who Stick is merely a captain, are the enemies of The Hand. But while I promised to protect Elektra, I never agreed to serve either group. If I have any loyalties beyond myself, it is to the Guardian of Heaven, Shuo-Lao The Undying, a chinese rain dragon. The dragon in particular is why Elektra is special. Her bloodline is tied intrinsically to the dragons and is known as the Black Skye. Born with the blessing of the Dragons, Black Skye's have extreme natural skill with all forms of Martial and Spiritual arts. So much potential that they are feared and coveted by every mystic organization on the planet as both the source of miracles and the death of nations. That's why Stick hid her here in the first place. The Chaste want her dead for the threat she represents, the Hand want her to destroy heaven so they can rule over the ashes and Stick? Heh, stick is just a sentimental old man trying desperately to deny it."

Elektra, who has begun hyperventilating as my confession wound on, fixes me with a wild gaze far more intense than the Natchios paired skeptical ones and asks probably the most pertinent question. "What about you?"

"Me?" I shrug. "I made a bargain for my life and the life of my son. I want nothing from you, Elektra. But I'd welcome you as a student and maybe a daughter." I turn away from the girl and back to her guardians. "As for why performing miracles for you is easier than kidnapping her, that's fairly simple. While I could turn this place into a crater with a thought, adopting Elektra in the aftermath, or kidnap her, unnoticed and without leaving you means to trace us, I would then have three international organizations familiar with my powers and goals harassing me. By becoming her teacher and companion I can fly under the radar and protect her by showing her how to protect herself. Healing you is no more effort to me than that which I would teach the girl and provides its own benefits."

There's a clatter as Elektra flings herself out of her chair and runs into the house. Hmm… Perhaps that was too much truth for one morning. Ah well.

Last edited: Mar 3, 2021