Growing Pains [DBZ/DC]

[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 11

I smirked as I faced the bird woman down with her own weapon. But the longer I held it the more my expression slipped until I was basically scowling.

I gave the mace a little shake but there was still nothing happening.

I smacked it on the ground.

Still nothing.

I flipped it around in my hands searching for some kind of hidden button or something but I couldn't find anything.

"What are you doing?" Hawkgirl-woman finally asked.

"How do you make it do the lightning orb thing?"
"Why would I teach you how to use my own weapon against me?"

Well that was no fun. Using a magic – anti-magic? – mace that covered itself in a lightning effect so it looked like a plasma ball was one thing. Using it normally was the same as hitting someone with a metal club.

That was way less cool. I doubted I was going to figure it out on my own in the next couple seconds either.

Oh well.

"I'll figure it out later then." I responded to Hawkie and tossed the mace over my shoulder. She looked pretty pissed off that I just casually tossed it away like that but that didn't last long since I charged her soon after.

She blocked the first punch with ease because I wasn't entirely sure if the durability thing was somehow because of the mace, but Hawkie was clearly superhuman in the ways that mattered. She was faster, more durable, and actually stronger than I was expecting.

She was also a really good fighter too.

The two of us traded punches, kicks, and holds as we tried to beat the other into submission and I wasn't afraid to admit she was much better than me. I was getting hit two or three times for every one I landed and only my smaller size and Ki assisted strength were letting me escape most of the holds.

I really needed more technique training. I was already being forced to abandon the Tai Chi I was taught as Hawkie started throwing things at me I hadn't learned how to respond to, like what to do when your opponent smacks you in the head with their wings before uppercutting you in the chin.

After that particular combo I decided to take the fight to the sky. I had better maneuverability to offset her experience and she couldn't pull off the weirder wing attacks anymore. Which was a good thing because my vision had gone kinda blurry from that last uppercut.

Both of us were in pretty rough shape actually. I had several cuts bleeding freely and my armor was cracked in a few places. Hawkie was bleeding too and she was keeping her left arm further away from me. I think I might have broken something there.

I needed to beat her soon though. I was starting to get to the point I would be running on fumes. I was having fun, but losing the fight because I ran out of energy just to keep it going was stupid.

"Running out of steam, kid? You can give up whenever you want." Hawkie said, blatantly ignoring her own state.

"Kinda," I replied honestly. "But I'm still gonna win."

"Like hell you are…"

Hawkie flapped her wings and I braced for the incoming attack, only to get caught off guard when she flew right over me. A quick check made me realize this wasn't some mistake, she was going for the mace!

"Oh no you don't!"

I took off after her and tried to scare her off with a few Ki blasts, but Hawkie dodged all of them until she managed to snag her fancy metal stick off the ground and deflect the last two. I gave up shooting at her then. All it was doing was tiring me out.

Then Hawkie caught me in the shoulder with her mace.

I cried out in pain as the spiked end shattered my armor there and sent me crashing back into the ground.

Hawkgirl-woman must have figured that was her chance to end the fight because when I looked up I saw her descending fast, mace raised overhead, ready to crush me further.

Time seemed to slow down as my adrenaline surged at the sight and I frantically thought of a way to win. In the end I realized there was no way I was getting out of the hit so I was determined to make it cost Hawkie.

A weak Ki blast at her face was predictably swatted away, but that meant instead of a devastating hammer blow, Hawkie was forced to settle for a much weaker backhand to my ribs. Even that was more than enough to crack a few of them, but before she finished the attack I blasted her in the chest with the rest of my Ki.

Both of us were sent skidding over the pavement as a result. And both of us were struggling to stand afterwards.

I took a second to judge my remaining energy levels and was disappointed to find I barely had enough to get out of the city. I guess that meant the fight was over.

"We-well this was really fun," I complimented my sparring partner, wincing a bit as talking made my ribs shift. "But I'm done for today. We'll call it a draw and pick this up some other time."

"And…what makes you think…I'm letting you leave?" Hawkgirl-woman was having an even harder time speaking. I think my last attack did some real damage.

"Well, neither one of us have the strength to keep fighting. And you don't look like you can follow me." I pointed out.

"You aren't in shape…to run away either. The local officials shouldn't have much…trouble dealing with you now."

I grinned and fanned my fingers in front of my face.

"You know what I have to say to that? SOLAR FLARE!"

The amount of cursing from both Hawkgirl-woman and the remaining humans in the area was hilarious. I could barely stop laughing the entire way out of the city even though my ribs were aching the whole time. That was annoying. I couldn't wait to get back to my cave so I could take a nap in the Attack Ball. Its medical functions kinda sucked compared to a healing pod, but it was better than nothing.

-o-

A couple days later I was still a mess of bruises but I was feeling much better than before.

I didn't do much during those days other than lounge around the cave and sleep or look myself up on the internet.

It was actually really interesting to see how people were reacting to my presence, especially as my self-proclaimed mission to take over the planet became more widespread.

Initially there were a lot of calls for the government to step in and do something about me, but that set off a bunch of people that didn't like the idea of a government holding a child, even an alien child, in some prison or lab because of something I was 'ordered' to do.

Then there was a whole movement to have one of the heroes step up and take me under their wing similar to how Batman was doing for Bird-brain, Flash was doing for Kid Flash, or Green Arrow was doing for Speedy. That then splintered into several sub arguments ranging from trying to decide who could even manage that given my strength to whether or not it was any better trusting someone in a mask to keep an eye on an impressionable young girl than the government.

I did get a kick out of the flame war that erupted when someone suggested Hawkwoman – which still didn't clear up if she was the secretly evil one for me – take me under her wing(ha!) because she was at least willing and capable of putting me in my place when needed and pissed off a bunch of soccer moms who thought anything more than a timeout was child abuse.

That did remind me that I needed to go talk with Batman about more training since while the Tai Chi forms were really useful when I knew I could apply them, I still wasn't able to use them for everything. I needed either more forms and practice or I needed another style to use.

-o-

Unfortunately for me, Batman wasn't around for training. So I was just wandering the city looking for something to do. Which turned out to be harder than expected because Gotham was kinda awful. Tourists weren't exactly rolling through so anything fun was meant for the locals, which meant things that were fun for corrupt business people or criminals. Or corrupt business people that were criminals.

The point was, even after wandering around for a while I was still bored with nothing to do.

"Hey…" Some random guy called out and ran up to me. "Hey kid. You're that alien that touched down in Metropolis, yeah? The one with the tail?" I wasn't too put out by him not fully recognising me. My armor was pretty beat up from my last fight so I was just wandering around in an oversized blue and gray hoodie I snagged off a clothesline somewhere. Actually considering no one else seemed to notice I had to give the guy a thumbs up for even making the connection.

"Yeah, I'm Califa. Why, did you want to fight?" The guy probably wasn't a hero considering Batman didn't let ones he didn't like hang out in his city and he didn't look like much, but he still might be a fun distraction…

"No, no, no. I'm not a fighter." …or not. The man quickly waved his hands in denial. "I'm a recruiter. See, the bosses are always on the lookout for interesting fighters. It's up to guys like me to try bringing them in."

Oh? A place where fighters ended up? That sounded fun.

"So your boss thought I was really impressive and wanted to offer me a spot?!" I asked, excited.

"Well…no." The man instantly shot down my enthusiasm. "We just keep an eye out for anyone that looks like they could put up a fight and would be willing for a couple thousand in cash. I just happened to see you and thought you could use the money since Hawkwoman stopped your bank gig the other day."

"Oh…" I slumped down a bit. Guess I still wasn't a big enough villain for people to be coming after me specifically. "Well, I guess it could be fun…"

"Fun, yeah. I'm sure it'll be fun for someone." The recruiter handed me a card with an address on it. "Head to this place and tell them Carl sent you. And do me a favor and try and last a few rounds? I get paid on commission, ya'know."

I watched the man walk off when something finally hit me.

He said Hawkwoman stopped my bank robbery.

In all the excitement of the fight I forgot to go back and pick up the money I took!

Grrrrr, my bank robbery was totally messed up again!

 

[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 12

I wasn't really sure what to expect when I went to the address on the card, but a tiny sign next to a staircase leading underground squished between two other buildings wasn't it. There wasn't even a fancy door to set it apart, just the same metal bar door where the outside screen door would normally be and a dull red wooden one behind it.

The inside wasn't any more impressive.

Flat, undecorated, off-white walls that were barely lit by the one struggling light in the middle of the ceiling. A single beaten up wooden desk off to one side with one of those little bell things and an even more beaten up brown leather couch that looked one good shove from falling apart were the only furniture there.

Seeing nothing better to do I walked up to the desk and dinged the bell.

Nothing happened for a few seconds but then I heard a droning, crackly sound.

"People sending in kids now? Guess we're scraping the bottom of the barrel." A voice drawled over a really low quality speaker. "You know what this place is for, girl?"

"Yeah, some guy named Carl said I could fight people here?" I said looking around trying to spot the hidden camera the person must have been using.

"Carl, huh? You a meta, girl?"

"No, I'm a Saiyan."

"Not human, good enough." The voice said disinterestedly. "Whatever, head to the back and we'll have you evaluated for a weight class. Heads up though, if you're wearing a wire or something for the cops, the automated turrets will fire immediately." The speaker cut off and a hidden door in the back wall slid open revealing a hidden hallway.

Huh, this was actually kinda fancy wasn't it? Even despite the ratty exterior. Hopefully their fighters were good too.

Down the hall was another room, this one completely empty besides one really tall muscled guy in cargo pants and a vest. I looked around for any hint on what was going on, but it was just a room.

"Meet Leatherneck," The voice came back as a door shut behind me. "He's the one we use to judge the fresh meat that comes in. He's a meta with unbreakable skin. All you have to do to get a pass to the arena is last two minutes against him. If he breaks your spine, don't worry, we'll drop you off outside a hospital real quick like."

"So just beat him up for two minutes then?" I asked out loud.

"Heh, don't get cocky, brat. I've taken an RPG to the chest before and came out without a scratch." Leatherneck laughed. "And then I went on to feed the guy who shot me his own teeth for trying. Don't think being a kid is going to make me go easy on you either. I looove the sound of tiny bones breaking and I can't wait–"

"Hey, can I start already?" I interrupted. I wanted to get to the real fighters.

"Haah, well now you pissed him off." The voice sighed. "Go ahead. I'll send a cleanup crew in a few minutes."

"Fucking brat! I'm going to take my time pulling you apart!" Leatherneck screamed and lunged at me.

He was annoying so I put a bit more strength than I was planning into my punch.

I nailed him in the stomach and sure enough I didn't do any damage to his skin.

…I did do a bit more damage to everything else when I sent him smashing through what looked like a reinforced brick and then halfway through a metal wall on the other side.

Oops.

I waited a bit for the guy to get up, because while I hit him harder than I was planning, I didn't hit him THAT hard. But no matter how long I waited, Leatherneck didn't get up. Crap, I didn't kill him did I? No he was still breathing, so I should be good…

"Hey, did I win?" I called out to the voice.

"Y-yeah. You won." The voice didn't sound bored anymore. Guess that means I impressed him! "Congrats, I think you're going to be a big hit in the Dome."

"The Dome?"

"Yeah, it's where the real money is made. Specialty fights and stuff. Free-for-alls, team fights, king of the hill…stuff like that. I'm sure you'll have plenty of people shelling out bets for you."

"Does that mean more fights?" I asked.

"As many as you want. Come back here tomorrow. I'll have someone take you to the Dome."

Cool! I was looking forward to this!

-o-

I was back the next day with still no clue what Batman was doing. Kinda frustrating cause I really wanted to know when I could train with him again. I had even done a quick fly-over last night and this morning looking for his ki signature but he wasn't home. But I was too excited about today to care much.

I met a different man at the same recruiting spot that simply shoved me into a plain black car and started driving without a word even though I started peppering him with questions about where we were going, how strong were the fighters, and how many fights I could have in a day.

He didn't answer me once.

So we drove in near silence despite my attempts at conversation until he pulled into a service tunnel that once again led somewhere underground and parked the car.

"So I guess we're here?" I asked when the door opened. It didn't look like much. Some old underground facility they repurposed, I guess? There wasn't much to look at either. Just the tunnel we came through and a large door going inside. Though it did make sense, a probably-illegal underground fight club wouldn't exactly pick a public building or a place that screamed 'illegal things happening here'. Hopefully it looked better on the inside.

The driver still didn't say anything. Maybe he was mute?

"So do I just go in there?" I tried again.

This time I did get an answer! The driver just nodded though, so my mute theory was going pretty strong.

"Okay then, thanks for the ride!"

-o-

Getting to the arena was pretty easy after that.

Apparently the staff was expecting me, so I was guided through what passed for security – mostly just making sure I wasn't being tracked or recorded – and after a short wait I was pushed through a door into the arena itself.

This was much more impressive than the front door.

A large dome of some clear material separated the fighters from the crowd and there were thick metal doors that prevented anyone from just wandering onto the arena floor. The floor itself was big enough that special props could probably be added for events, and was lightly dusted with dirt to make cleanup easier.

I couldn't actually see the crowd, the lighting in the back and the shadows around the place made them all look like black blobs, but I could hear them just fine. I could practically feel the floor vibrating from the noise they were making.

"Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another night of electrifying fights!" An announcer boomed even over the noise of the crowd. "Tonight we have a particularly special event, but before that we have a new challenger to the Dome! She may look like a kid, but she's actually an alien conqueror, here to challenge the champions of Earth!" several boos came from the crowd, "Let's give a proper Earth greeting to the Saiyan, Califa!" Was this a wrestling match? Did I need a catchphrase? No one ever mentioned needing a catchphrase! Anyway, the crowd exploded in cheers, boos, and curses.

"And as our own special welcome, we here at the Dome have decided to give her our own special greeting! The announcer continued once the noise died down a bit. "If she wants to challenge all of Earth, let's give her a taste of what we have to offer…in an everyone versus one match, let's get ready for a Dogpile!" Once again the crowd lost their collective minds.

The giant metal doors rose up enough that the other fighters could walk under them without issue.

And there were a bunch of them. Easily somewhere around twenty.

The cool thing was they all either were obviously metahumans, considering the animal traits on several of them, or had some kind of supertech. One guy was even in a full suit of armor and looked like he replaced his entire arm with an energy cannon. That was pretty neat.

All of them were in some kind of costume too.

I thought there would be more people in just normal clothes but then again even Leatherneck was in something like a costume and he was just a punching bag. It made me wish I had shown up in my spare set of armor instead of just wearing the undersuit. I felt a little underdressed!

Well, only kinda.

I did see several people not bothering with a shirt for some reason or another. Did they not get cold? One of them wasn't even wearing shoes! Just these weird little foot wrap things and karate pants. Although I guess if he wore a shirt he wouldn't be able to show off the snake tattoo on his chest. Still seemed dumb to me though…

"The rules are simple!" The announcer interrupted my musing. "The round ends when one side can't fight anymore! Besides that, everything is fair game! Not only that, the last people standing will get to be included in our final special event. So brace yourselves, this is going to be bloody!"

My opponents all fanned out and started posturing. Some were cracking knuckles, others were posing or playing with whatever weapon they brought, and some were charging energy attacks or guns. All while staring at me.

A sharp smile split my face and my hair began to move from the breeze my rising Ki was producing.

This was going to be fun.

"And here we go, people…3…2…1, begin!"

 

[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 13

It was almost painful holding myself back from charging straight into the mass of fighters in front of me and just cutting loose. But doing that would mean taking out the squishier, normal fighters before they could show off.

Normally I'd be pretty fine with that but then I wouldn't get to see how they dealt with a stronger, faster, flying opponent and steal it for myself. So I had to wait until the first few crossed the distance to actually take me on.

The first to try attacking me were mostly variations of 'super-karate guy' but several were just normal people for the most part.

"And would you look at that, ladies and gentlemen! It seems like Califa is playing safe and waiting to see what comes her way, but will she be able to handle several masters of the martial arts?!"

I found that out the hard way when I tried one of the blocks I had seen Batman use at one point. It was supposed to be a joint-lock, but I overshot and accidentally broke the guy's elbow. Another actually lost a few teeth when I hit him pretty gently in the face.

One guy was pretty similar to Leatherneck where he had some kind of durability power, but was way less skilled than the other guys. I guess he ran into the same issue I was where being hard to hurt made it hard to actually train against normal humans, so I ended up using him as a baseball bat for a bit until the guy with the laser cannon for an arm I noticed earlier decided to take a shot at me when he though my back was turned.

My meatshield took the blast and a few others from some of the others hanging out in the back before the rest of the group started to jump in.

"Looks like she can! Just look at that carnage! It seems just pure human skill isn't enough to tackle the pint-sized conqueror from the stars, but that isn't all she's up against! She's broken the likes of King Snake and Cobra, but they aren't the only vipers in the arena tonight. How will she fare against a little…augmented humanity?!"

And these were the guys I was looking forward to fighting! The ones that could actually put up a fight!

A guy in a metallic snake costume ducked under my improvised shield/weapon and whipped me in the chest with his tail. I was sent flying but while the hit hurt it hadn't really done any damage. No, that was reserved for the guy that looked like a giant pile of living scrap metal. That guy caught me midair and tried to shove me through the floor, and when that didn't work he tried to punch me through it while the crowd cheered him on.

Dust began to billow up from the sheer amount of hits and I guess the scrap-man was some kind of robot, because he wasn't slowing down.

My Ki surged as if finally managed to get a hand in place to catch one of his fists before it attempted to push me further into the small crater that had formed. The fist ground to a halt and the scrap-man grunted in surprise as a ki-blast caught him in the chest and blew him off of me.

The surrounding fighters all took a step back when the dust was blown outward by another Ki spike, revealing me sporting a bloodstained grin.

"And she's up! A combo move from Copperhead and Girder looked like that was it for our new arrival, but it looks like not even that beating can keep her down for long!"

And then cannon-arm guy shot me out of the air.

I was getting real tired of that guy.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to deal with him as several of the rest of the fighters all tried to jump me before I could recover from the energy blast. I lost track of time and details as I fully concentrated on the fighters surrounding me.

I punched, kicked, ki-blasted, and in one case bit everyone that still looked like they wanted to keep fighting. Bones were broken, weapons were shattered, and blood was getting everywhere. Not always because of me either. Some of the fighters didn't hesitate to risk friendly fire if it meant getting a hit on me, usually the ones using regular guns, but since they were taking my punching bags, training dummies, opponents out of the fight, I didn't hesitate to hit them with a Ki ball and slag their equipment.

The big guy made of scrap metal came back for another round, and I had fun trying out some of the new techniques I had seen some of the others use before they were taken out – with mixed results because in some cases the size difference was a bit ridiculous.

"Califa is tearing through the Dogpile! Nothing our defending contestants do can put a stop to the tiny alien menace, but here comes Barrage with ano-"

I finally had time to turn and face cannon-arm guy and send a Ki-blast at him before he got the shot off. The beam of bright yellow Ki slammed into the red beam of plasma and for a second I got my hopes up that I was going to get a beam struggle in the middle of this fight, but while I was fully eager to fight it out energy attack to energy attack, cannon-arm guy decided to duck and run the second it was clear his shot wasn't overpowering mine.

"-ther plasma blast. And Califa sends him running!"

I wasn't letting him get away this time though.

I sent one of the few lingering fighters flying with a kick and dashed closer to the armored man. He tried swinging his arm cannon around to focus on me, but I caught it long before he lined up a shot. Then I squeezed down. Whatever metal his suit was made of buckled and warped under my grip as I crushed the barrel of his plasma gun. Something I followed up with a hard punch to the chest.

With him taken care of, I took a second to look around the arena to see how many fighters were left. I was slightly disappointed that only two, the scrap-metal guy from earlier and a giant humanoid shark, were left standing.

Both of them bellowed wordlessly and charged, and I charged them right back.

Sharky tried to scratch me with the claws he had on the end of his fingers, but I ducked into a somersault handstand and kicked him in the face when he missed. Then, using his face as a springboard I launched myself at scrap-metal guy and landed on his chest.

"Wha' the–?"

I ignored his disbelieving grunt and focused. This guy could take whatever I could dish out normally, so I was going to need something special to make sure he stayed down. Ki gathered in my fist as I drew it back. And then I punched him in the face. Then I did it again. And again and again and again. Until I felt something break.

I wasn't sure if it was something in my hand or the metal that made up his face but it didn't matter because his eyes rolled up into his skull and he dropped.

Okay, one lef–

I didn't even get to finish that thought as a seven foot tall sharkman tackled me off the other fighter and tried to bite me in half. Thankfully I was instinctually able to get a hand and foot in place to stop Sharky from biting down, even if it meant feeling teeth digging into my skin.

"Hungry, are you?" I snapped and raised my free hand, Ki orb forming on my palm. "Well, chew on this!"

I used the resulting explosion to fling myself clear of Sharky's mouth and only looked back when I realized I might've accidentally taken his head off with that attack. I didn't exactly check to see how durable he was.

I didn't have to worry though.

Sharky waved a hand through the smoke revealing his mostly undamaged head, clearly still alive.

"So you thought to take my teeth, you monkey?" Sharky growled as he spat several shards of broken teeth onto the arena floor. "A natural attempt for an inferior creature like you, but unfortunately my teeth cannot be broken so easily." Even as he spoke I could see new teeth pushing the old broken ones out of the way.

"I really just wanted to get away from your bad breath." I shot back. "That was waaay worse than your teeth."

"Insolent! Prepare yourself, when I get my hands on you I will tear your flesh from your bones!"

So don't let him get close then? Anyways it was time to end this, and I knew exactly how I was going to do it.

Even if I was blatantly stealing someone else's technique to do it.

I cupped my hands together and focused my Ki.

"KA…!"

"Hmph, another energy blast? I was barely harmed by your previous one, better make it count, child. It will be the last one you ever do!"

"ME…!"

"King Shark charges Califa! After her last energy attack did no damage it seems King Shark is going for the kill!"

"HA…ME…!"

Bright cerulean blue Ki gathered in my hands as I dragged more to the surface and focused it. Sharky wasn't the fastest person in the arena so my attack was ready with plenty of time to spare, but just to make sure I waited until he was right on top of me, one hand outstretched to claw me, before I thrusted my hands out right towards his chest.

"HAAAAAAA!"

This blast was nothing like my little Ki attacks. It practically swallowed Sharky's huge body before blowing him up and away towards the top of the dome.

I was sooo tempted to see how long I could keep my attack going – it was the first time I pulled off a Kamehameha in a fight! How cool was that! – but the ring owners probably wouldn't let me come back if I broke their fancy dome, so I shut off the energy before I melted right through it.

Sharky had actually made a perfect indent into the dome cover that was even more obvious when he fell away back onto the arena floor. A quick check confirmed he was still breathing, but definitely unconscious.

I win!

I threw my hands up in celebration, but was confused when I didn't hear applause.

"...I…uh, Ladies and Gentlemen, in a stunning final attack, Califa is the last remaining fighter. We have a winner for the Dogpile! Let's hear it for our visiting alien invader!!"

Oh, there was the applause. I did a quick victory lap around the arena waving at the crowd as I basked in my first actual victory since landing on Earth. I really needed to win more, this felt nice.

After a while one of the staff members escorted me out of the arena into a waiting area and explained I was supposed to wait here for a few minutes while they cleaned up the arena for the next event. And since I was the winner I would be fighting in that one too.

They even provided some light snacks!

Barely an hour later I was back in the arena for the 'Special Event'. Which was fine because I was out of snacks and already looking forward to my next fight.

Maybe this time it would be someone really strong that I could practice all the cool new things I saw in the Dogpile.

"Okay, Ladies and Gentlemen, it's time for our grand Special Event! Two sides enter, one side leaves. In one corner we have the Alien Terror, the Conqueror from Outer Space, Califa!" I waved as the crowd exploded into cheers. "In the other corner the bane of crooks and criminals everywhere, the Dynamic Duo, The Dark Knight and Boy Wonder themselves, Batman and Robin!" My head snapped to the other entrance and sure enough, there was Batman and Bird Brain being shoved through the doorway with heavy metal manacles that covered their hands up to their elbows that only fell away once the door closed. "Once again the rules are simple, both sides fight until one side is dead and gets to walk away to fight another day. If neither side wins…" A metal hatch opened up to reveal an automatic turret. "Then it's goodnight for everyone in the arena! ARE YOU READY FOR A DEATHBATTLE?!"

I was barely listening to the announcer once he told me I was going to be fighting Batman. In a serious situation where he wasn't going to be able to hold back or deflect the topic.

This was going to be awesome!
--------------------------------------------------
AN: Happy Memorial Day and thanks to everyone that serves

 

[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 14

The second the match started I couldn't stop myself from bounding forward, eager to test out the new things I had just learned.

I saw the hero and his annoying sidekick open their mouths to try talking – probably trying to convince me to stop the fight – but I had been trying to get Batman to take me seriously in training for forever! Yet, everytime I brought up more intensive training or sparring he deflected by saying I needed more practice with the basics before that.

And while he wasn't wrong, I figured he was more interested in keeping an eye on me than giving me new skills. But now he couldn't stop me! And I got to beat up Bird Brain at the same time!

But first…

"Batman!" Bird Brain cried out when I jump kicked at his mentor's head, missing by a slim margin. That didn't stop me though and I instantly dashed back at him the second my foot hit the floor.

Batman kept trying to avoid me and create distance, but I wasn't going to let that happen!

"And we're off to an acrobatic opening!" I distantly heard the announcer shout. "Califa isn't giving Batman room to breathe in a stunning display of martial arts, but he is countering her move for move! But since the Dark Knight isn't a broken mess it looks like our little alien menace has decided she wants to play with her food!"

I mean, he wasn't wrong…

If I wanted to just win then I would be blasting them from the air with Ki attacks. But where's the fun in that?

The first hint that I might have dismissed Robin a bit too much was three little pellets landing in between me and Batman just after I failed to get him into a joint lock. Then they exploded and I was choking on the thick smoke they spewed out while Batman slipped away.

"H-hey! Stay out of this Bird Brain!" I coughed. "I'm fighting Batman first!"

"Why are you fighting us at all, you stupid monkey?!" The brat yelled back.

"We're in a fighting ring, what else would we do here?!"

"An illegal fight ring." Batman spoke up. "And we didn't choose to be here."

"So wait, that bit with the manacles wasn't just so you could pretend you weren't here on purpose?" I asked. "Did you really get caught by these guys? How?"

Robin blushed bright red and averted his gaze. Naturally that meant I had a laser focus on him.

"You messed up didn't you." I stated.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about."

"Ha! You did~, hahaha" I was forced to hover midair from how hard I was laughing–

*BANG!*

–only to stop when a bullet impacted the ground by my feet.

"A quick reminder that this is a Deathmatch." The announcer said threateningly. "No stopping halfway through for a chat."

I stopped smiling.

This random person was telling me how to fight? When he hadn't even shown himself at all? I must have grown a sense of pride when I wasn't looking because the thought of someone I could almost guarantee was weaker than me in every way that mattered ordering me around rubbed me in all kinds of wrong ways.

I silently pointed a hand at the turret that had shot at me and vaporized it with a bright yellow Ki blast.

"Don't tell me what to do." I said darkly.

Then I turned back to Batman and Robin, who were both looking much more on edge than before. Well, at least it looked like they were going to take this seriously now.

"He's not entirely wrong though. We can talk later… for now I'm going to have fun with this!"

This time I charged Robin with a sharp grin on my face.

To the kid's credit, he didn't freeze up or anything like that. Instead he somersaulted over my head by using my shoulder as a springboard and tried kicking at my back. Too bad it was a move he used against me a lot in our occasional spar so I was ready to turn and catch his foot on my forearm before punching him in the jaw.

I wasn't ready for Batman to take advantage of the opening to punt me like a football, though!

"So that's the way you – eep!"

Batman didn't settle for just a single kick. I looked up just in time for a batarang to fly by, narrowly missing hitting me in the face followed by several more that I had to throw myself to the side to avoid and incidentally interrupting my attempts at mid fight banter.

I ignored the tiny boomerang things hitting the arena wall and exploding and focused on my two opponents. I saw Robin nod at something Batman said and both of them splitting up so we all formed a rough triangle.

Then I was stuck dodging as the two started throwing all kinds of things at me.

Explosive discs, smoke bombs, taser things, and a few more. I wasn't going to touch them after I tried catching a taser batarang with the intent on throwing it back, only for it to go off immediately.

My hand was still tingly.

"A-and we're back in the ac-action folks! Our crime-fighting duo is keeping Califa at bay with an impressive amount of projectiles. But try as they might, the tiny alien terror is simply too slippery to get hit! But that might not be enough to take her out, she hasn't gotten serious yet!"

I ignored the announcer again since it was clear he had no idea what Batman had planned.

All of Robin's throws were aimed to distract or disorient me. They made noise, kicked up dirt and sand, and made smoke, sure. But the biggest thing they did was conceal where Batman's throws were coming from. Those were always thrown so I would have to dodge out of the way and were thrown hard enough that they usually didn't stop until they hit the arena walls.

I was cheating with Ki sense, something I was pretty sure Batman didn't know about, to keep an eye on where the two were – and it was needed after a few seconds when nearly the entire arena was covered in smoke – but his projectiles didn't have Ki in them. I needed to use my other senses to avoid those.

It was difficult, stressful, and incredibly frustrating trying to keep an eye on two people with one sense and as many as seven small flying objects with the rest.

And I was having a blast with it!

Here I was, an alien from space with powers far beyond a normal human and in a wide open room, and Batman had still managed to change the environment around to suit him and give me a hard time! Sure I wasn't using most of those powers, but I had already determined this was going to be a test of skill not strength.

Speaking of Batman, he must have run out of things to throw at me because I could sense him getting closer.

I turned to face him right as he burst through the smoke and went low, trying to kick his legs out from under him. He jumped over it in a move so smooth I would have sworn it was practiced if I didn't know better. My own dodge when he punched straight down was jerky and uncoordinated in comparison.

You would think punching the ground as hard as you could would make a human pause for a bit, but Batman was shifting into a different stance the second he made contact. I dodged, weaved, and counterattacked as best I could while forcing myself to react at human limits. Why couldn't this be how we normally trained?!

"Because you still need to brush up on the basics." Batman said, making me realize I said that last bit out loud.

Then he took advantage of me overcommitting to a punch to throw me over his shoulder and into the floor. Hard.

I wheezed a bit as the air was forcefully driven from my lungs and rolled when Batman went to smash my diaphragm. Only to fall into a trap when it turned out to be a feint and he caught me by the wrist and put me in an armbar.

"You know I could break out of this right?" I grunted as I allowed my arm to be forced into a rather uncomfortable position.

"You'll lose your game if you do." He replied.

I tsk'd. Figures he would have realized what I was doing by now.

"So what now? I might not be able to win right now but you'll probably get tired before I do, and I don't think our friends are going to be happy if one of us just gives up, ya'know?"

Batman sighed in defeat. "What do you want?"

"More sparring matches like this one! And you aren't allowed to hold back anymore!"

"I haven't been holding back. You really do need that much practice with the basics before I could teach you more."

"Yeah, but you could at least mix things up now and again."

Batman didn't sigh again, but I had a feeling he wanted to.

"Deal."

"Cool!" I chirped with a wide smile. And with that I was released. "So what now?"

-o-

By now the entirety of the arena was just a mass of smoke. The organizers definitely hadn't thought about someone using so many smoke bombs that it could cover the entire floor so there were no countermeasures for it. Something the crowd was starting to get annoyed by.

They had come to see a fight. Not just stare at some smoke for several minutes!

Before too many of them could start making a fuss, a massive yellow beam tore through the smoke and a nearby wall.

Then, even more of it started getting pushed away as I flared my Ki higher and higher.

"And it looks like this might be the beginning of the end, Ladies and Gentlemen! Califa has apparently decided to stop playing around and has cleared the smokescreen with one attack!

But what's this? Our Boy Wonder doesn't seem to be in the ring anymore! It looks like the Dynamic Duo is down a member! Was he caught up in that last blast?!"

The grumbles were replaced with cheers as the crowd's bloodlust peaked.

I rose a bit further into the air and attempted to speak, but couldn't get anything out over the noise.

That was…pretty impressive actually.

I just hovered in place, arms crossed, tapping a finger while I waited for the noise to die down.

Once it finally did, I raised my hand and pointed down at Batman dramatically. "Everyone, listen up!" That killed the last of the noise. "I have just one thing to say before I end this!"

"As the future conqueror of Earth, I judge Batman as a worthy champion I must defeat! A Champion of Skill! But…!"

The crowd seemed to lean in, waiting for what I was going to say next.

"...I can't do that yet. So I give up!"

There was a beat of silence, and then the crowd erupted in rage at being denied their entertainment. Too bad for them I didn't really care.

"Well, that was certainly a surprise. In a shocking turn of events Califa has forfeited the match! But don't worry folks, we promised you a deathmatch so that's what you're going to get! Unleash the turrets!"

At the announcer's command there were a bunch of mechanical groans as the turrets he mentioned tried to deploy. But it turned out Batman had already beaten him there. While I had assumed he had been using the earlier smokescreen to attack me by surprise, it had really been so that he could disable the turrets around the arena without anyone noticing.

Of course there were a handful that he missed, but it was easy enough for me to blast them with a Ki attack before they could really get going.

"Ah, ahem, nothing to worry about, folks. We have contingencies for just such an occas– *BAM!* – w-wait! What are you doing in here!?"

There were a few sounds of a struggle over the system before Robin's smug voice rang out.

"And that's one hack of an announcer taken care of! With that taken care of, it's a total victory for the heroes! I hope you all enjoyed the show, ladies and gentlemen. Please feel free to give us a review while we wait for the police to help you on your way out. Thank you and have a nice day."

By then even the dumbest in the crowd had realized the fight club had lost control of the situation and started running for the exit, but it was no use as several security gates slammed closed at the exits.

Not the best ending to my first fight arena, but I still had fun. I'd have to check back with the recruiter guy to see if they had a branch that wasn't dumb enough to kidnap Batman and see if they were looking for new fighters later.

-o-

"So how'd you get caught anyway?" I asked as Batman and Robin waited for the last of the fight ring organizers to get carted away.

"We were investigating a few disappearances and stumbled across a recruiting center." Batman said simply, opting to just leave it there.

"And I tried to stop the recruiter from escaping out the back."Robin rubbed the back of his head and sheepishly added. "There was a gas trap we didn't see."

I just stared at him.

That was it?

"Wow, that's so lame."

"Yeah, well what about you? Did you just follow the first stranger offering you a fight, you muscle-brained monkey?" Robin snapped. Then when I didn't reply, he smirked. "You totally did, didn't you!"

"Shut up, Bird Brain! I was looking for someone else to train me while Batman was busy!"

"That doesn't make it any better." he laughed.

I wasn't about to take that lying down and tackled him to the ground where we both tried to wrestle the other into submission.

I was so focused on delivering sweet justice to the bird brained idiot that I didn't notice Batman shake his head and walk off with a small smile on his face.

 

[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 15

"You know there are easier ways to get my attention, right?"

"Yeah, but this is the most fun!" I smiled as I adjusted the weight of the car so it wasn't slipping off my shoulder anymore.

The Flash wasn't as amused as I was. Or at least he was pretending to not be.

It was bad form for a superhero to laugh at the police chief when his car was stolen by a passing supervillain and held hostage twenty feet off the ground, not when the guy was right there. Especially since this was the fifth time I've done something like this.

Flash hadn't exactly been thrilled to find out he had been training a supervillain instead of the aspiring hero he had assumed I was, but after a week of needling him I managed to work out a similar deal to the one I had with Batman. I wouldn't do major crimes in Central City in return for continued speed training.

He tried avoiding me a bit and relying on our agreement to keep me from doing something too noticeable.

So I went to someone that would complain loud enough that Flash would need to check in even if I wasn't doing anything super evil.

And the police chief could certainly yell. Especially when his 1965 Mustang kept mysteriously finding itself in places a car couldn't get to…like a roof or a tree. Luckily for him there was a helpful alien invader that would be happy to get it down, as long as he could get the Flash here for a bit.

Flash told me I could stop after the third time. I kept doing it because it was funny.

"That is not the way to treat a classic." Flash shook his head in mock despair. "Come on, give the Chief back his car. I know what you want."

"Sure thing!"

I dropped the car back in a parking lot and ignored the Police Chief as he rushed to inspect the thing for damage. Seriously, it was a car. An old one sure, but older doesn't always mean better!

And there was certainly no reason to cry about it…

"Normal spot then?" Flash asked, doing some light stretches with a challenging smile.

"You're on."

After a silent three count, both of us went speeding towards the city limits.

Needless to say Flash beat me by a few miles.

-o-

Two hours later I was laying on the ground, drenched in sweat and panting like a dog. All I could do was glare at Flash who, despite everything I tried, was barely sweating at all. And I couldn't even be sure that wasn't from just standing around in the sun for a few hours.

"Hey, don't give me that look. You're doing much better than when we started." He said genuinely. And if he stopped there you could mistake him for being a kind, caring individual. "Who knows? In a year or so, you might get me to break into a light jog!"

Yep, there it was.

Jerk!

"Oh come on, is that any way to treat your favorite training partner?" Flash continued when I glared harder.

"You aren't my favorite. Hawkie's my favorite, it's just that it's really hard to find her before she moves cities or she has her partner with her. And I can't fight both of them at once yet."

"Oooph, scathing." Flash mimed grabbing his chest in pain. "Well, anyway, I've gotta run. I've got a date in a few minutes. Wouldn't want to be late."

"Is a few minutes enough time to get there and be ready?"

"Sure it is, I'm the fastest man alive!" He said confidently.

"Oh, I feel bad for your date then."

"Yea– wait, what do you mean by that?!"

"Nothing," I said 'innocently', "just that it's a shame if all your dates end too soon because you go too fast."

Flash narrowed his eyes at me and tried to guess if I was implying what he thought I was, unfortunately for him I was used to trying to hide my thoughts and reactions from Batman (not that it seemed to make a difference) and Flash was certainly not Batman.

Eventually he gave up his one sided staring contest and turned towards the city.

"Right. Well, stay out of trouble. Don't go trying to take over a city or something."

Hah! I wasn't about to tell him that was my next idea on how to force Superman to fight me. The Metropolis mayoral election was next week, I was totally going to crash it and declare myself mayor.

Flash gave me a two fingered salute and began to run back to get ready for his date.

He made it all of three steps when there was a massive flash of light behind us.

We both turned to see what looked like a dozen flaming meteors burning through the atmosphere trailing dark black smoke. It didn't take long for me to realize these weren't normal meteors.

Those didn't tend to change direction midair and scatter in several directions.

"Huh, looks like another alien invasion." I idly commented, causing Flash to slump over.

"I'm not going to be on time for my date, am I?" He asked rhetorically.

-o-

From what I gathered on the internet, the last three alien invasions used the same plan that went something along the lines of this:

Step 1: Invade in one big group.
Step 2: Use landing location as a beachhead to attack nearby city. Or for the more aggressive ones, just attack city directly
Step 3: Quickly overrun the population and military forces until nearby hero (or Superman) shows up.
Step 4: Send out Champion(s) that are the pinnacle exception in strength compared to the rest of the invasion force.
Step 5: Lose.
Step 6: Pull back all forces and flee because without Champion(s) X, the invasion force is too small to actually hold the planet and the foot soldiers like living or because the Champion was the invasion force.
And (Optional) Step 7: Leave Champion(s) behind to act as infiltrators/scouts for when the next invasion occurs.

And considering that these invasions were usually wrapped up in less than a day, a lot of people didn't bother panicking unless they were right near the initial invasion point since everything would go back to normal by tomorrow.

So when the black smoke being trailed by the meteors turned into oily black clouds that covered the entire sky and showed no signs of dissipating almost a day later, people started to worry. They began outright panicking when it turned out that the invasion force was actually the second wave and that several people in the military, government, and science facilities had been replaced by shape shifting aliens that had sabotaged local responses and revealed more machines that were pumping the air with black stuff all over the continent.

The following armies of white gray and black, gelatinous, homicidal goo-people with laser rifles didn't do much to calm them down either.

Fortunately for the humans – and unfortunately for me – the aliens themselves weren't so tough that a person with a gun couldn't at least hold them off for a bit. So it wasn't like the invaders were just rolling over any resistance just yet, but there were a lot of them and they weren't even fun to fight.

"Get off this planet!" I yelled as I vaporized another squad of goo-people. "I was here first! I called dibs!"

I'd have said that I'd lost count of how many of the invaders I had done that to by now, but that would imply I was keeping count to begin with. I was far more interested in stopping them from blowing up my favorite restaurants than counting blown up aliens.

Central was the only city I'd found so far that had decent serving sizes and didn't try calling the police whenever I just wanted something to eat. I wasn't going to let some random invasion force me to go hunting for decent food again!

I spotted another group going down Fifth St, shooting at people as they ran away and wrecking buildings thanks to some kind of armored vehicle that looked like a misshapen potato attached to four spider legs that also shot lasers.

I flew over to it, blasted three of the legs off, caught it by the remaining one, and started using it as a giant hammer to squish the smaller foot soldiers running around in panic. Then when there was only one remaining, I swooped down and grabbed it by its…skin? Eww…and lifted it into the air.
"Alright slimeball, listen up. I was having a good day until you jerks decided to show up. So, I'm going to give you one chance to tell me where your leader is so I can politely tell them to turn around and get off this planet before I vaporize all of you. Sound good?"

The alien made a weird repetitive hissing sound that I eventually recognized as an attempt at laughter. "We ArE tHE iMpEriUm. We WiLL conQuEr thiS paThEtIC PlANet AND feED On it. YoU hUMANs CannOt sTOP THIS. EVen yOuR PoweR wiLl jUst make us STrONgeR."

"Sorry, not a human. I'm a Saiyan. Got the tail and everything." I said, waving said appendage behind me.

I then got to witness the fascinating experience of something going absolutely statue still for a moment, before frantically doing its best to claw my hand off it's skin and when that didn't work, claw away at itself in order to escape.

The whole sudden spectacle shocked me enough that I just floated in stunned disbelief even after the goo-person managed to free itself only to fall several hundred feet back to the ground where it splattered on impact.

"What the hell was that about?"

Unfortunately for me, the universe didn't suddenly leap to answer my question. But that didn't mean the invasion had stopped just because something weird happened to me. A nearby explosion drew my attention to another one of those walking potato tanks and more foot soldiers.

…welp, guess the only thing left to do is find another alien to explain what the heck just happened. And if that one didn't give me an answer? Well, there were plenty more of them wandering around.

-o-

Hours later I was tired, hungry, and absolutely covered in soot from all the fires popping up all over the city. Not to mention I was starting to get really pissed off that I wasn't any closer to finding out why the invaders were freaking out about a single Saiyan child on the planet they were attacking. Did Saiyans actually exist in this universe? And if so why am I what's causing them to panic rather than the yellow sun-charged Kryptonian that should be a much bigger threat?

Sure a group of Saiyans would absolutely demolish these Imperium guys, but it was only me here.

My musing was interrupted by a red blur streaking by and doubling back that predictably turned out to be the Flash. He looked a bit scuffed up and more tired than I had ever seen him – not that that said much – but he also looked pretty happy to see me, so I guess he was fine.

"Hey Kid, glad to see you're okay." Flash said quickly. "And I heard you were doing a pretty good job taking care of the city, a lot of people were talking about it!"

I scowled. I wasn't exactly doing that for the people here. But if they were grateful I better get a few free meals, at least!

"Cool, great to hear. I'm guessing the heroes won and now it's just dealing with the leftovers?" If so I was going to be bummed. Despite the amount of destruction they caused, the Imperium was kinda weak. I was hoping for one good fight at least.

"...yeah, about that…" Flash rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

-o-

Minutes later I was standing in the middle of an American Army base and surrounded by several heroes including Superman, Hawkie, and Wonder Woman who I actually hadn't been able to meet before now. Normally, I'd be ecstatic about that, but I was currently too busy glaring daggers at the green skinned man in a blue cape.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you right. Run that by me again?" I grit out.

Martian Manhunter didn't have any hair, so it looked a little weird when he raised an eye-ridge at me.

"As I said before, the Imperium plan to terraform this planet into a feeding ground–"

"I don't mean that!" I angrily swiped a hand through the air. "I meant, what do you mean you left Batman behind?!"

I could feel a bunch of looks from the other heroes but I ignored all of them. Or at least I was going to until Superman put a hand on my shoulder and I began to debate if it was worth hitting him with a full power Kamehameha.

"Look Califa, I know it's hard to hear. He was my friend too. But these things happen and sometimes there's nothing you can do."

"Batman's gone…"

 

[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 16

"Batman's gone…"

I knew the words were wrong. I knew Batman wouldn't just get quietly taken out from something like the Imperium. He was probably hiding out somewhere in one of his thousands of bolt-holes sciencing up some gizmo that would be crucial to removing the goo-people from the planet, just waiting for the right time to make his reappearance.

The problem was, as much as I knew that…I couldn't prove it.

While I had never specifically told anyone about my Ki sense, Batman had picked up that I had some way of sensing where people were. He probably figured out it had something to do with Ki from my attempts to teach him and Robin how to use the stuff, and while he never actually managed to use Ki techniques, he was able to reduce his presence to the point I couldn't find him unless he wanted me to in like a week.

That was coming back to bite me because unless I got close and he wasn't attempting to hide, I'd never be able to pick out his specific Ki signature from everyone in my range.

Of course, just telling everyone he was still alive because he was Batman only got me some pitying looks and more attempts at consolation.

Looking like a child despite being a kickass Saiyan warrior did have its occasional downsides.

"Batman's gone…"

But worst of all was that tiny niggling voice in the back of my head. The one that kept treacherously asking, 'But what if they're right?'

I did my best to ignore that one.

"Do you mind if I sit down?" A voice interrupted my spiraling thoughts. I looked up to see Wonder Woman standing there with two trays of food.

I did my best to avoid making a face. MRE's weren't the horror stories I had heard of…but they still weren't great.

"Sure, go ahead." I motioned to an empty spot on the bench next to me before going back to looking out into the distance. Although, not going to lie, when everything is being covered up by nasty black clouds, looking out into the horizon loses a lot of its appeal.

I accepted one of the trays as it had been meant for me and dug in. Bleeh, overcooked noodles in a watery tomato sauce.

"So why did you want to sit by me?" I asked as I took another bite of food. "Shouldn't you still be busy planning how to deal with the whole invasion thing?"

Wonder Woman bit into her own food and I could tell she didn't find it much better than I did.

"We're taking a small break for now. The others are checking in on friends or family, or doing as I am and taking some time for a meal." She said after a small pause. "Flash actually suggested I stop by since he needed to check in on his protogé."

Oh yeah, Kid Flash.

I hadn't actually met him in person yet, since most of my activities tended to happen in the middle of the week when he would still be in school but I had at least heard he existed during the aftermath of my first fight with Hawkie.

Guess it made sense Flash would want to check in on him.

I wonder if anyone was going to check on Robin and if he had heard abou– nope! Not thinking about that!

"Okay, why though?"

"He thought it might be easier to talk about the loss of someone close to you with someone of the same gender."

I glared at her. "He isn't dead."

To my surprise, Wonder Woman didn't immediately just try to get me to accept otherwise. Instead she just nodded at my words. "But that doesn't change the fact that he isn't here right now, does it?" I scowled, but she had a point. "So what do you plan on doing next?"

"Not going to tell me what I should be doing?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Would you listen if I did?" Wonder Woman shook her head. "I know better than to tell a warrior what to do when they've committed themselves to a certain path, even one as young as you. You already know what you are going to do."

Huh, she could read me pretty well. That was a surprise.

"Yeah, I'm going to go back to the base the others escaped from and I'm going to go find Batman."

"And if there's no one left for you to find?"

My eyes hardened as I looked back out to the horizon where I could sense one of the Imperium's bases.

"Then I reduce the rest of the invasion force to ash and make them wish they had never stepped foot on this planet." I declared resolutely.

Wonder Woman looked sad when I said that but didn't say anything against it. She just collected the now empty trays, ruffled my hair, and went back inside the army base. I followed not long after because the MRE was an okay snack, but I was still hungry. Maybe the cafeteria had something better?

-o-

It didn't, as it turned out.

More food, certainly. Better? Nah.

But leaving the cafeteria with a full stomach and maybe slightly traumatized kitchen staff, I was politely escorted to a meeting room where all the heroes were going over their plan of attack.

When I asked why, I was simply told that if they couldn't stop me from attacking the Imperium, they could at least be there to support me.

Which is how I found myself being bored to near tears as the Martian Manhunter droned on and on and on. Yeah, it was soothing at first. But after a while soothing shifts into boring! Especially when the speaker doesn't emphasize anything and monologues in the same dull tone. Even the black Green Lantern guy looked like he was having trouble staying awake!

"...located in the main structure. This room has an advanced crystal that is responsible for creating the ionized gas terraforming the planet to suit the Imperium's needs." Oh sweet Oozaru, he's still talking! "Should the crystal be destroyed, the Imperium will be limited to operating at night. This will be to our advantage as while they are psychically nearly on par with martians, they cannot stand direct sunlight for more than a few seconds at most. This is how my people were able to stall their advance for centuries."

"Could we destroy the it with a bombing run or artillery strike?" One of the army people asked.

"No, there is a shield surrounding the structure that your weapons will not be able to penetrate. We will need to approach from the ground and make our way into the structure from there."

I bet I could break it.

"Then we will continue focusing on surrounding the structure and supporting the strike team." Someone whose name I forgot but remembered being introduced as a general spoke up, looking at the six heroes surrounding the table in turn.

I didn't mind not being included in the count. I wasn't a hero after all, and now that there was a plan in place I could go back to doing my own thing.

"And where do you think you're going?" Hawkie called out when I tried slipping out of the room while they were talking.

I turned back to her glaring at me like, well, a hawk.

"Nowhere special, I'm just going to go poke at the Imperium. You got your plan right? So I don't have to hang around anymore."

"It would be better if we waited." Manhunter said. "That will allow the sun more time to rise."

"But the clouds will take some time to go away, right? So why not get the cloud machine out of the way now?"

All the heroes gave each other a few looks before nodding. Looks like they agreed.

-o-

I glared at the lumpy black gray and red structure in the distance as once again my Ki sense showed no signs of Batman being in the area.

But I already knew that didn't mean much.

I was vaguely aware of the heroes splitting off in random directions. Each of them splitting up so they could distract the Imperium guarding the structure and find a way inside. All except for Wonder Woman who decided to stand next to me for some reason.

"Shouldn't you be going to help them?" I couldn't help but ask.

"I will soon," She said assuringly. "But I wanted to see what you would do. According to the others, you have great strength yourself. Perhaps I wanted to see it in action for myself."

I shrugged.

I would have thought an Amazon warrior princess would have wanted to be at the front of the assault, but if she wanted to see me put on a show I wasn't going to stop her.

"Suit yourself. Though you might want to move to the side a bit." I warned her.

"Oh? Why is that?" Wonder Woman asked, even as she took a few steps away.

I planted my feet and cupped my hands at my side. "Because I'm going to go right through their front door….KAAAMEEEEEE…."

I paid no attention to the humans that were suddenly startled by the ball of blue Ki forming in my hands. Instead, I focused on dredging up every scrap of energy I could and focusing it into one point.

".....HAAAAAMEEEEEEE…"

Unlike the time I had done this in the arena, there was no real rush to fire my technique. There was no one rushing to stop me, no one forcing me to hurry up. Just me, a glowing ball of weaponized life energy, and a target….

And that target was about to disappear.

"....HAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!"

A four foot thick beam of cerulean light lit up the area and launched towards the Imperium structure. Thanks to the invaders building on top of a rocky mountainous area there was nothing in between them and my attack that I needed to worry about.

Nothing beyond the shield Manhunter warned us about. Too bad for them it held for all of half a second before the beam attack tore right through it and into the structure it was protecting.

I kept the kamehameha going as long as I could until I sensed it punching out the back of the structure before I stopped pouring in Ki and let the attack sputter out.

"Hah…hah…ha…"

For several seconds the only sound was my panting breaths. Everyone was just standing still, looking at either me or the hole I put in the Imperium base.

Man, that took a lot out of me!

"...Great Hera…" Wonder Woman breathed eventually.

But there was no time for everyone to stand around basking in how awesome I was. The heroes were all converging on the hole I blew open! If I didn't hurry they would beat the alien leader before I could do it myself!

I kicked off the ground and started floating towards the alien structure.

"Okay, last one there is a bald tail!" I shouted back to the still stunned humans, making up a suitably insulting Saiyan saying – Sai-ing? – on the spot and then racing ahead.

-o-

The past several solar cycles had not been particularly pleasant for J'onn J'onzz.

It had started with the Imperium finally breaching the quarantine his people had maintained for centuries. A large group of them smashing through the defenses and making their way towards their neighboring planet, Earth.

When it became clear that the various Martian governments were not going to immediately send aid, too busy debating the worth of such an action and how to go about it, J'onn had decided to use his own authority as a Manhunter to pursue them.

Even if Humanity hadn't been judged ready to join the rest of the interstellar community, Mars could not afford to allow the Imperium to flourish by consuming the Earthlings only to return to continue their assault on his people later. Especially due to their own isolationist habits keeping them from making allies willing to assist them in combating the parasites.

Of course, it was thanks to those isolationist tendencies that led to him being surprised just how much contact the younger civilization had been exposed to in such a short amount of time. Humanity was very aware they weren't alone in the galaxy and had several other species revealing themselves all over the planet. A few Thanagarians, a Kryptonian, and some others he was passingly familiar with. Even a few races he had not heard of before such as the newest arrival, a Saiyan.

They even somehow had three active Green Lanterns.

J'onn had been hopeful that the presence of so many defenders would lead to a swift defeat of the Imperium. He had not anticipated that the parasites had already infiltrated the Earthlings and sabotaged any coordinated defense. Thanks to that, and the Human's tribal nature, Earth was doing its best to repel the attackers. But the response was disorganized. Scattered.

That was why he had called out to several of the 'Heroes' and crafted a plan to strike at the most vulnerable point of the Imperium. The source of the putrid smoke that protected them from the light and allowed them to thrive outside their subterranean dwellings.

He could honestly say he had not counted on the Saiyan girl nearly revealing his trump card ahead of schedule…or her pushing the schedule forward by vaporizing a significant portion of the Imperium's defenses with a single energy attack…but if there was one word that could be ascribed to Martians, it was that they were adaptable.

He led the Superman, the Flash, the Hawkwoman, and a Green Lantern through the remaining hallways towards the central chamber, using strength, shapeshifting, and psychic feedback caused by phasing through others to incapacitate as many of the Imperium soldiers as possible while still moving forward.

It was a careful dance, trying to advance while not overextending and allowing themselves to be overwhelmed once again like they had in their initial assault.

But with only one previous confrontation working together, the comrades he had gathered were showing a remarkable improvement in teamwork and cooperation. Gone were many of the little hesitations, the accidental interference, and independent actions. And as such, the five of them ran over the opposition like a carefully directed rockslide.

Which only became more effective when the Wonder Woman burst through a wall and assisted in destroying a couple Walkers keeping them from their goal.

The Imperium fell before their combined might and soon J'onn stood not only within feet of the Ionization crystal that was the target of this assault, but also before the Supreme Leader of the Imperium, the purple and black ball of flesh invoking revulsion in the Manhunter.

"J'oNn J'oNzZ, iT has BeEn A lONg tIME." The Leader projected telepathically. "we SHoUld HaVe KNOWn you WoUlD FOllOw Us tO tHis wORlD. You hAve STubbOrnly defIEd us fOR CEnTuRies."

"And I will continue to defy you and any of your kind. You will never be welcome in this solar system." J'onn replied, preparing himself for the confrontation as he felt the beginnings of a mental attack from the bulbous creature before him.

"You cANnot SToP Us. evEn AGAinst ONE OF thE GreAT DESTrOYErs, tHE IMPeRiuM WIlL PReVAIl!" A mental spike briefly dazed J'onn even as the creature's tendrils reached out to grab him. At the same time hundreds of Imperium soldiers rushed in from the few undamaged passageways and engaged the rest of his comrades, preventing them from coming to J'onn's assistance.

No matter, J'onn was fully prepared to wrestle with the parasite himself. He just had to hold on until…

"yOu'RE hIdinG soMEthIng." The parasite accused, mental tendrils scraping at the walls of his mind as physical ones tried ravaging his flesh. "a SeCREt DEeP IN thE rEcesSes OF yOUr MINd. iS tHIS AnoTheR OF yOuR MartIaN tRicKS?!"

"Do I sense fear?"

The Leader focused all of its attention on J'onn, trying to breach his defenses. "WhAT. arE. yOu. hidinG?" Just according to plan.

"NOW!" J'onn roared over the sound of combat. The presence of the human he had mentally shielded from everyone had finally managed to get into position, unnoticed by everyone and everything in the room.

An explosion destroyed the protective casing of the Ionic Crystal allowing the Batman access to place the necessary device onto the crystal itself.

Red lines faded to blue as the technology took effect.

"WHAt hAve YOU dOne?!" The parasite screeched in dismay as the blue coloration began to spread through the structure.

"Reversed the ion charge." The Batman explained simply.

"KiLL HiM! deStroY thE CrYstAl!"

Every remaining soldier aimed their weapons at the human and for a second J'onn was worried the human wouldn't survive, but a small shape flew next to the Batman a moment before they fired and carried him off. The ground where he had been standing was pockmarked with laser blasts but the crystal remained untouched as the anionic charge being produced by it created a shielding effect from the Imperium's weapons.

"Hi guys, sorry I'm late. I got a little lost." The Saiyan, Califa, said exuberantly. "And Batman! I knew you were alive! No way these Imperium creeps were enough to take you down!"

Even as J'onn wrestled with the Imperium Leader, he couldn't help but grin that the young girl hadn't lost her mentor. It had pained him to deceive her, having seen too many young children receive news that a family member had fallen to the Imperium, but it had been necessary that no one knew of the plan in advance. Lest they risk it being discovered too early.

In an ironic twist, the energy of the reversed crystal caused a bright blue beam to pierce the clouds in a very similar manner to the Saiyan girl's earlier attack. The energy burned away at the cover, allowing the rays of the morning sun to shine through the holes in the building.

The parasites began to flee as the light landed on them and began to burn them away. The soldiers died in seconds, the Leader was stronger but it began to boil and scream in agony just the same.

"DAMn You, J'oNn J'OnZZ! DAMN yoU! NNNNGGGYYAAAAA!!!!!!"


"What's the matter? Does this burn your pale, putrid skin?" J'onn said savagely as he gripped the parasite by as many of its tendrils he could grasp, even the ones embedded in his own body.

"tHiS isn'T oVeR! EVen iF i am dEstroyED, The iMPERIum sURVIVES! aNd YOu hAvE UnLeAsHEd A FAr MoRe DeSTRucTIVE ForCe UpON tHIS woRld! THE gREaT desTRoyEr lEAVeS oNly deAth and EmptY Worlds In itS waKe!" the Leader wailed even as its cellular structure was finally destroyed by the sunlight. J'onn ignored the parasite's final words and focused on keeping it as illuminated as possible until nothing remained of the creature that had started a nightmare on his home planet. One that was finally over.

"So, uh, good news is we won. But what was that about a 'Great Destroyer'?"

J'onn looked up to see that his six companions had joined in a circle around him while the child, Califa, was hovering protectively behind the Batman.

"I do not know." J'onn answered the Flash. "In the many years the Martians have fought the Imperium, they have never mentioned such a thing. Perhaps it was merely a deception to allow it time to escape from the sunlight."

"If it was, it sure didn't work out." The dark skinned Green Lantern commented. "Still, after all that time under those clouds, I know I'm going to enjoy a nice sunrise."

"Yeah, you and me both." The Flash added.

"It's certainly a welcome sight." The Wonder Woman agreed.

"Hmph, as long as the skies are clear I don't care if it's the sun or the moon. I'm just glad they're gone." The Hawkwoman scowled, drawing J'onn and the other's attention to Earth's natural satellite as it began to make its journey towards the horizon, still fully visible in the early dawn hours.

"Oh shit…that's not good."

All eyes turned to the Saiyan child at the sudden foul language and worried tone.

The Superman began to ask what was wrong, but Califa seemed almost hypnotized by the sight of the moon.

Then she began to change…

-------------------------------------------​

AN:
So, as those of you who read DoBB know, I was working through my story rotation and managed to delete several days worth of work by accident which led to a new DoBB chapter.
I was in the process of rewriting all the stuff I had deleted when the same 'fuck it' feeling I got when the stuff was deleted carried over into me focusing on a new GP chapter.
So now, the precursor chapter to the Justice League vs a Giant Monkey.
Oh yeah, and to absolutely no one's surprise – Batman wasn't dead.
To maybe some people's surprise – neither were the rest of the Martians

 

[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 17

The seven heroes could only watch in stunned disbelief as the small Saiyan child transformed into a five story tall ape-like creature in the span of seconds. Interestingly, her black bodysuit and armor grew to match her new height while her whole body was covered in a coarse layer of brown fur, even her normally black hair shifting to match. The only indication of her normal hairstyle was the slight mane of longer fur falling around her shoulders. Her arms and legs thickened into massively powerful limbs that effortlessly smashed through the walls of the Imperium outpost. And most disconcerting, her eyes, normally filled with mischievous playfulness or curiosity, shifted to pure red orbs of malice.

Semi-freed from the confines of the outpost, the Great Ape roared its fury for the world to hear before raising both arms into the air and smashing them down on the increasingly ruined building.

Not content with a single attack, the huge figure began to thrash mindlessly around, causing an impressive amount of destruction in a short amount of time.

"Guess we know what that thing meant by Great Destroyer now, huh?" Flash commented as the rest of them regrouped nearby. Despite being surprised by the transformation, all of them were quick to move when it became clear Califa's change could bring the roof collapsing down on all of them. "So, uh, did anyone know she could do this? Cause the giant monkey form is a surprise to me."

There was a chorus of no's with the noticeable exception of Batman.

"When I questioned her about her background, she mentioned a planet full of giant lizards she beat by waiting until she grew big enough to take them. I assumed she meant waiting until she was older, but if she meant this…" The Dark Knight trailed off.

"Oh cool, did she mention how to snap her out of it by any chance?"

Manhunter closed his eyes and put his hands to his temples in concentration. "Her mind is full of rage. Until she calms down I will not be able to communicate with her."

"No chance you can just put her to sleep or something?" Hawkwoman asked.

"No, her emotions are too powerful for me to influence in her current condition." He said. "We will need to find some other way to deal with her."

Hawkwoman looked back at the rampaging giant and palmed her mace. "Think we can knock her out before she wanders off then? We aren't that far away from a city. If she makes it there before we stop her…" No one needed to imagine the damage a fifty foot giant monkey could do to the place.

"We might not need to go that far." Superman offered. "All she's done is wreck the outpost. We could just keep her here until she calms down or we find a way to change her back."

"It's far enough that we wouldn't need to worry about civilians." Wonder Woman agreed.

With the beginnings of a plan in place Batman turned to Green Lantern.

"Any chance there's something in the non-restricted section of your ring about Saiyans transforming? Or how to change them back?"

Green Lantern raised an eyebrow at him. "And why do you know Saiyans have a restriction on their information? Nevermind, from what I can see here Saiyans can transform into that form by being exposed to cosmic radiation reflected off celestial bodies. The only ways listed for them to change back is for them to tire out or for the source of the radiation to disappear. There is also one other way but I don't think we want to do anything permanent."

A few of them realized he was talking about putting her down for good and understandably balked at the thought of killing a child, especially those who had interacted with her frequently.

"So, what? We have to somehow blow up the moon?" Hawkwoman questioned.

"Whoa, wait a second!" Flash threw up his hands. "I'm pretty sure blowing up the moon is a bad idea, for like, a few reasons!"

"No one is blowing up the moon." Wonder Woman put her foot down on that particular idea. "If all we need to do is remove the source, then we just need to keep her here until the moon sets. We just need to make sure nothing catches her attention or for her to wander off."

As if to spite those words several explosions bloomed on and around the giant monkey, causing it to roar in pain and anger and start looking for the source of the attack.

"What was that?! Where did it come from?"

Manhunter was the first one to find the cause of the commotion. "It's the Army. They think she is a last resort by the Imperium."

"Tell them to call off the attacks." Batman demanded. "The city is right behind them, they'll lure her towards it!"

"It's too late. She's already noticed them."

Sure enough, the Great Ape had turned back to the military forces that had been firing on her. Before any of the heroes could react, a bright yellow light erupted from her maw and utterly destroyed several of the artillery platforms there, sending the Army soldiers scrambling for cover.

To make things even worse, Califa hadn't lost interest after destroying the platforms. She was slowly breaking her way out of the now thoroughly ruined outpost and was heading towards the Army group.

Superman was the first to speak up.

"We have to distract her. Keep her from hurting anyone until she changes back."

"Right, distract King Kong from breaking everything. Anyone know where we can find a pretty blonde in a white dress?" Flash quipped before taking off in a streak of red, the other heroes not far behind.

-o-

As it turned out, distracting the giant monkey from going after the Army was easier said than done Clark noted before refocusing on the task in front of him.

Superman made a note of Flash and Green Lantern taking off towards the soldiers to start evacuating them out of the area and stop any more mouth blasts from destroying the area while he and the rest of the group made for the transformed saiyan.

He and Wonder Woman were the first ones there, and did their best to get her attention by flying directly in front of her face. "Califa, stop! The fight's over you need to–"

Ever since he decided to become Superman, he had fought a few creatures of similar size to what the Saiyan child had changed into but none of them were as fast as she was. He barely had time to notice the instant between when she pulled her arm back again and to when he was swatted into the ground like an annoying insect.

Groaning, Superman began to pull himself out of the destroyed rocks that partially buried him. Califa certainly hit harder in this form too.

If this was the power saiyans could bring to bear when they didn't care about individually overcoming a planet's champions, then he was going to have to rethink how annoying it was the alien child kept challenging him one on one.

"Superman!"

He looked up just in time to see another mouth laser being charged and fired. Just before the yellow beam hit, he threw up his hands in an attempt to block it, but the energy smashed into him and sent him tunneling through the rock and into the Earth's crust. When the beam finally cut out, the tunnel also collapsed and left him battered and in darkness.

-o-

"Superman!"

Unfortunately for the Princess of Themyscira, Diana's warning came too late and Superman was blasted under a mountainside. It seemed that in her current state the young warrior couldn't recognize the people she had just been working with or didn't care and fought them anyway. She hoped it wasn't the latter. She had faced berserkers before and their battlelust often made them unpredictable, but when the haze cleared and they were able to think for themselves again they were usually affected with feelings of guilt.

She may have only met the young Saiyan for a short time, but Diana didn't want the spark of life she had seen in the girl snuffed out because of an accident made in an altered mindset.

With that in mind, she realized the best thing to do would be to end the now unavoidable fight as quickly as possible so as few people as possible ended up hurt.

She flew under a massive backhand and slammed her fists into the jaw of the giant creature. Hard. The force snapped the Ape's head back and caused a roar of pain, but there was little actual damage done.

By the gods, how much more powerful was the girl in this form?!

Diana dodged over a grasping hand and saw both Hawkwoman and the Martian Manhunter land powerful blows of their own, successfully splitting the Ape's attention between the three of them but again doing very little to actually damage it.

Hawkwoman was the next of them to be targeted, probably because she was a larger flashier target between the wings and electrically charged mace. Another mouth beam shot at the winged hero, who managed to dodge it, but when Diana and Manhunter found out the Ape didn't need her eyes to keep track of her opponents.

Manhunter was able to phase through the tail before it slammed into him, but Diana ended up trapped as the Ape tried to crush her by clapping its hands together. She managed to catch them before they slammed together, but that just caused the Ape to put its effort into crushing her gradually.

"RRaaAGHH!" With the mouth beam no longer focused on her, Hawkwoman went for the Ape's head from above in an attempt to knock it out. But in another surprising feat, the fifty foot Ape was able to twist out of the way at the last moment. Caught off guard by the movement, Diana watched as a massive foot came up and smashed the winged woman into the ground and pinned her in place. At least she was still alive if the pained screaming and curses were an indication.

Diana wasn't able to focus on the other hero's condition too long though, as the pressure surrounding her redoubled and she saw the beginnings of another mouth blast charging up.

She braced herself as best she could, but before the attack could be released, two explosions erupted near the Ape's eyes causing it to flail in shock and pain. Diana took advantage of the momentary distraction to free herself as a dark, bat-themed jet screamed past them.

-o-

Batman watched from above as the others regrouped again a short ways away from the Great Ape as he fired another missile at it.

Flash and Green Lantern had rejoined them and Flash had even managed to secure Hawkwoman from where she had been pinned. The only one missing was Superman.

Batman hoped he managed to regroup with them soon. His plan wouldn't work without him.

"Can everyone hear me?" He asked once he figured he had given Manhunter enough time to retrieve the earbuds he had provided and hand them out to the group. A small voice in the back of his head told him it would be faster and easier to have Martian Manhunter let them all speak telepathically, but he was not comfortable with letting someone into his head. No matter that he had done so before in order to trick the Imperium.

No doubt others would have reservations as well. No, mass telepathy like that required a trust that simply didn't exist between them in the short time they were working together. A technological solution would work just fine for now.

"Yeah we hear you, Bats." Flash spoke up. "You have some kinda plan for this one? Cause we're stopping her, but we aren't slowing her down much."

And that was the issue, wasn't it? Yes all of them working together could keep the transformed Saiyan in one place, but injuries and fatigue were starting to pile up. Soon someone would make a mistake that would take them out of the fight and it could spell disaster.

"I do. Although you are all going to have to work together for this to work." He went on to explain his plan. All the while doing his best to distract the raging giant with the diminishing amount of missiles aboard the Bat-jet and dodging the Ki beams being shot from the Saiyan's mouth or the occasional rock thrown his way.

"I've noticed while sparring with Califa there is a kind of scruffing reflex whenever someone manages to grab her tail. Probably how adult Saiyans keep their offspring under control. She's been training herself out of the reaction but hasn't managed it last time we met. Green Lantern, can you create a construct to secure her tail and hold it long enough for the moon to set?"

"If she doesn't move, probably." Green Lantern replied. "The problem is I'm running out of charge and if she struggles I won't be able to hold her."

Batman nodded.

"I figured as much. The rest of us will have to secure her long enough for Lantern to hold her in place by tying her limbs down so she can't move. Wonder Woman, Manhunter, Hawkwoman, can the three of you handle her arms?"

"My Lasso should be enough for one of them at least." Wonder Woman confirmed.

"It'll be awkward but I think between me and the martian, we can handle the other." Hawkwoman added.

"Okay, great." Flash said. " We got the arms and the tail handled but how are we going to stop her from blasting us with a mouth laser or just walking off while we're trying this?"

"Flash, you and I will handle the mouth." Batman said. "There's a tow cable attached to my jet. I'll make a distraction, you will have to bind her mouth closed before she can fire off a blast."

"Oh great. If I get eaten, you can expect a strongly worded letter in the mail." Flash whined. "That doesn't stop her from walking off though."

"I'm guessing that's my job then?" The voice Batman was waiting for asked.

The Caped Crusader allowed himself a small smile. "Yes, you will have to pin her in place once the others finish their part of the plan."

Superman sighed. "I never thought dealing with kids could be this high maintenance." He finished with a smile in his voice.

Ignoring the Man of Steel's joking tone, Batman looked out the cockpit to see the giant ape had lost interest in him and was now moving towards the city lights visible in the distance.

"We're out of time. Stick to the plan."

-o-

The heroes didn't start going for the Ape's limbs immediately.

Not only had she shown that even in a rage-fueled state Califa still possessed some form of animal cunning, if any of them failed to subdue her at the same time they risked her freeing one of her other limbs and making the effort useless.

Instead they reengaged the fight by having Superman attempt to blindside her with a punch to the head, but once again the Great Ape seemed to detect him without using her eyes. This time, however, when the Saiyan went to focus on Superman, Wonder Woman managed to get her Lasso around the Ape's right wrist.

"Go now!"

Following the Amazon's cry, Martian Manhunter, in the form of a long serpentine creature, phased up through the ground and wrapped himself around the giant ape's legs as Hawkwoman dived bombed it from above. With a characteristic warcry, Hawkwoman smashed the ape's head with her mace three times before the Ape tried to bat her away with its remaining hand.

The second it did so, Wonder Woman pulled on the Lasso as hard as she could while an emerald beam slammed into the Ape's back. Off balance and unable to move thanks to the Martian Manhunter, the combined force of Wonder Woman and Green Lantern was enough to cause the Great Ape to fall to its hands and knees.

Hawkwoman circled back around and smashed her mace into its left wrist, driving the Ape even further off balance and finally crashing to the ground with Superman landing on its back and pushing hard enough that the ground under the Ape began to crack and give way.

"Manhunter, Flash, now!" Batman ordered as one end of the towcable was fired into the ground near the Ape's snout and anchored itself there. Flash covered the open ground in a blink of an eye while carrying the other end of the cable and tightly wrapping it so the saiyan was unable to open her mouth.

Martian Manhunter moved from the Ape's legs to the left arm and pulled together with Wonder Woman to force them both straight.

Finally, Green Lantern grabbed the Saiyan's tail with his ring and held on tight.

They had managed to hold down the giant Ape, but just as they had feared simply grabbing hold of its tail wasn't enough to knock the fight out of it. The Ape might have greatly weakened, but it was still struggling and trying to free itself.

"We can't hold her like this forever!" Hawkwoman snarled as she added her own strength to the effort of keeping the left arm immobile.

"Keep it up as long as you can." Batman ordered, "Even if we can't stop her we can buy ourselves time."

"She's struggling too much!" Wonder Woman cried as she strained against the force pulling on her lasso. "She's going to escape any second, Flash, get out of there!"

The Flash ignored the warnings. Instead he zipped around until he was directly in front of the Great Ape's face and waved to get its attention.

"Hey Califa!" He called out and managed to resist flinching as both giant rage-filled red eyes locked onto him with laser focus. "Hey, don't worry kid, fight's over! Why don't you just calm down and take a nap? We'll grab a bite to eat when you wake up, sounds good?" He said in the most calming voice he could.

If the Ape's mouth hadn't been firmly tied shut it might have tried to bite the Scarlet Speedster, but fortunately it was so the Ape had to settle for a great big huff of air instead. Although the struggling was starting to diminish.

Flash had to brace himself against the gust of warm, moist wind – giant monkey snot, eyuck! – but recovered quickly and continued speaking in the same tone of voice. "Yeah, we can try out that BBQ place I was telling you about. Maybe finally introduce you to Kid Flash so he can't whine about missing you all the time."

The more Flash talked, the more the Great Ape relaxed. Eventually its eyes began to drift closed and it began to breathe deeply. The struggles stopped completely and the heroes were able to stop trying to restrain it.

"She is sleeping." Manhunter confirmed for all of them after shifting back to a more humanoid appearance. "As long as she remains undisturbed, I believe I can keep her from awakening before the moon is set."

"Good, I don't want to have to do that all over again." Hawkwoman exclaimed, rubbing at a stiff spot on her shoulders.

"Yeah, me either." Flash added, trying to wipe some of the…stuff, off himself with little success. "I'm already going to need a long shower after this."

"Then let's do a quick check to make sure nothing nearby is going to wake her up again." Superman suggested. "But other than that, good work everyone. We made a good team."

Batman watched as the other heroes split off to take care of whatever they felt needed to be done at the moment. But last thing Superman said stuck in his mind.

'A good team, huh? Maybe we'll need more of that…

------------------------------------------​

AN:
Basically my stream of consciousness for the past few days.
Me: whew, finally made up the work I accidentally deleted. Now time to actually finish that chapter since it's been really delayed.
Brain: or you could do the giant monkey fight.
Me: what?! No! I want to work on my other stories!
Brain: You've been listening to the DBZ Heroes soundtrack ever since the last chapter was posted. You want to do the giant monkey fight.
Me: …fine.

Also before anyone says anything about it taking the entire (future) Justice League to hold down one saiyan even though she is weaker than most of them even transformed…I'm basing this on stories I've heard of in hospitals, where a patient will need to be restrained for whatever reason and it takes several staff to do so in a safe manner without hurting the patient even if the staff are all stronger themselves. Yes, they are stronger but takedowns are hard and Califa wasn't making it easy for them either.

 

[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 18

The world had changed after the Imperium.

Sure, there had been alien invasions in the past. But all of those had been relatively short affairs that ended quickly.

The Imperium had infiltrated and sabotaged Earth for years before launching their main attack and it had taken a collective effort of several of the greatest heroes the world had seen working together in a way not seen since WWII to push them back.

And now people wanted assurances that it wasn't going to simply happen again.

Thankfully, they didn't have to wait long.

-o-
A man spoke on a podium while several brightly costumed figures stood behind him. To many this was the first time that they had seen several heroes standing together without some major crisis getting in the way. That proved attractive enough that the normally dull U.N. press conference was drawing in record numbers with the public across the world.

"...and when we needed them most, the heroes behind me and many more that could not be here today stepped forward to protect our world. We cannot thank them enough, but today I am proud to offer these heroes a medal of valor for their actions and a symbolic one for each and every person that stood against the Imperium." The man stepped back and after a brief award ceremony, Superman stepped forward.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the United Nations," The most iconic superhero in the world began. "A few weeks ago, we faced a threat unlike one we had ever encountered. A hostile force that had not only set their sights on conquering our planet but draining it dry of everything it could offer. A threat that did not come boldly from the stars, but one that hid among us and waited until they were too widespread for one hero to deal with.

"I'm proud to say that when faced with such a massive and overwhelming threat the residents of this world, common and powered alike, joined forces to protect our home.

"But despite our success, this event was an eyeopener.

"There will be some things that are too big for one person, one hero…even me, to handle. When those times come we will look to each other for help, and when that isn't enough…you can look to us," Superman turned slightly and held out a hand to the heroes standing with him. Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Hawkwoman, and Martian Manhunter all stood tall and proud. "For times when one hero isn't enough, more will come. Members of the United Nations, it is my great pleasure to announce the formation of the Justice League."

The Man of Steel might have wanted to say more, but anything else was drowned out by the thunderous applause in the assembly hall.

-o-

Not everyone was interested in watching Superheroes make announcements though. Some of them just wanted things to hurry up and get back to normal. Even if they felt they needed some additional help to…move things along.

-o-

"So…" I looked between the shady guy in sunglasses and the blacked out silhouette on the monitor, who was definitely, totally, not Luthor, in his hands. "...you're saying you will pay me $100,000 dollars to guard a crate until someone else comes to pick it up."

"Correct. We have some footage from the invasion and were impressed with your abilities." TotallyNot!Luthor explained. "We thought this would be a good…test run before we reach out for a more, long term partnership."

"You do know I'm trying to take over the planet, right? Ya'know, the one you're on right now?" I felt compelled to point out.

"I think you'll find humanity is quite flexible when it chooses to work with others, even about being under others. As long as you and the beings you represent are reasonable, I don't see why we can't do business together."

Wow, if I didn't know for a fact that Luthor would never settle for being second fiddle to anyone I might have been convinced he was serious about a partnership. It also gave away how little he knew about Saiyans since we weren't exactly…reasonable all the time…or even most of the time.

"I guess that's fine. What's in the box though?" I asked.

"The United Nations and this new Justice League are doing their best to mop everything up, but there are plenty of scientists and organizations that are very interested in alien technology and its potential uses and are willing to use some less-than-legal methods to get them. I just happen to know several who would be very happy to get a large amount of such technology under the radar."

Okay, alien supertech and not a doomsday device or something like that.

"And you want me to, what? Just hang around and make sure no one runs off with it?"

"That and stop any costumed annoyances that decide to poke their noses into things. I know you're very busy preparing for your future challenges so I won't even have you escort it to the final delivery site. Just wait until my courier service arrives and handles it."

"Ah-hahaha, yeah busy…that's me alright." I shifted awkwardly. I don't think I did anything besides train and browse the internet for interesting places to eat since I found out the Metropolis Mayoral election was delayed due to the invasion.

Thankfully, TotallyNot!Luthor said nothing about that.

"So Miss Califa, do we have a deal?"

"Sure! When do I start?"

"My assistant will provide you with the details. I hope this marks the beginnings of a wonderful partnership."

Somehow I doubted that.

-o-

And while Villains and Heroes prepared for the future…some of the younger names in the game were left unsupervised…

-o-

"So what brings you guys out to Star City?" Speedy asked as he leaned back and took a sip of his soda. "I mean, yeah, I like hanging out with you guys, but isn't it kinda far from home?"

Robin huffed, swiping one of the fry containers before Kid Flash inhaled them all. "Nah, I got dragged here for some charity things to help deal with some of the damages. I figured at least the two of us could meet up for a bit."

"And Star City is like a few hours away from me." Kid Flash added, thankfully without a mouthful of food.

"Let me guess, your mentors say it's too busy to risk going out right now so they're keeping you busy with training instead of any real hero work?" Speedy asked.

"Yeah." "Yup." The other two responded.

"Yeah, GA is the same. Can't really blame him cause things got messed up and everything, and I hear he was invited to something about joining the Justice League. But I kinda want to go out and do something, ya'know?"

"What, like try finding a robbery to stop or something?" Kid Flash polished off his third cheeseburger and reached for another. "As cool as that would be, I'd be in so much trouble for that."

Speedy shook his head. "Yeah, no, I'd get benched for a month if I did that too. I mean why don't we head to the docks and do some parkour off the stuff there."

"Looking to get upstaged again?" Robin taunted the slightly older kid.

"You wish, shortstuff."

"I dunno, flips and stuff aren't really my thing." Kid Flash didn't sound so enthused.

"I have a new camera. You could get some neat shots with superspeed?"

"Okay, I'm up for that."

"Cool, then let's go after – hey! Who ate my fries?!"

-o-

I was regretting accepting TotallyNot!Luthor's job. This was so freaking boring!

The whole thing practically screamed it was the kinda thing that would have someone poking their nose into. I mean, seriously, smuggled alien tech? Batman or one of the other detective-like heroes should have been swarming all over something like this.

Was this going to be one of those annoyingly well planned things that went off without a hitch?

I closed my eyes and paid attention to my Ki Sense. There had to be something interesting going on nearby.

Most of what I got back was just some of the wildlife big enough to be noticeable – a few dogs, a pair of seals in the water, and a few that were too small for me to recognize – and the humans that worked on the dock. But there were three signatures that were moving around in a more active way that suggested a lot of physical activity. I wonder what that was about?

Looking back at the crate I was supposed to be guarding I gave it a whole three seconds of thought before shrugging and floating off towards the three.

The crate would be fine if I took a quick peek.

-o-

"Huh, not what I was expecting." I said, announcing my arrival to the three kids below me.

Three Sidekicks doing parkour in the middle of nowhere wasn't on my list of potential things that I could find checking out the Ki signatures, but that's what I found.

Causing the redhead with the bow to slip and almost fall off the table he was standing on – as opposed to the redhead with a camera that nearly jumped a foot in the air – was worth any disappointment from it not being a local hero poking into things. Too bad Robin was used to people coming from nowhere and barely reacted.

"So what you doing, birdbrain? Also aren't you on the wrong side of the country?" I asked.

"Batman has something to talk with Green Arrow about and doesn't want me running around Gotham on my own, so I'm here babysitting Speedy and Kid Flash-" "Hey!/Liar!" "-the bigger question is what are you doing here, stupid monkey?" Robin shot back, crossing his arms over his chest.

I shrugged. "Looking for something to do. Saw you idiots jumping around and decided to drop by."

Speedy scowled. "We were doing parkour, not 'jumping around'. It's something that takes actual skill instead of just flying everywhere."

That sounded like a challenge.

"Yeah? Then let's prove it." I scowled right back.

"Oh, it's on. Let's see how cocky you are without the powers."

-o-

A few hours later the Sidekicks got calls from their various mentors and had to head back, which was a shame because once we got past the mandatory young teen grandstanding the various parkour challenges we set for each other were really fun.

I couldn't help feeling like I forgot something tho–

The crate!

I rushed back to the post I was supposed to be guarding and did a quick once over just to make sure nothing had happened, but it seemed that even with three deputy heroes cleverly drawing me away (at least that was the story I was going to stick with) nothing had happened.

When a random minion came by a few minutes later to pick it up and give me the rest of my payment I chalked the whole thing down as an easy win and moved on towards the cave I called home.

I guess not everything I do has to end in a giant battle.

…not that if they did that would be a bad thing…

 

[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 19

I panted heavily as sweat poured down my forehead.

Water crashed back together as the last of my Ki beam fizzled out, I had nothing left to sustain it.

I watched it until the last traces vanished and the only thing left was a few gentle waves washing up to shore. With one final sigh I forced myself to relax and flopped backwards onto the sand.

Ki training was hard.

At first I had simply tried to recreate a bunch of techniques all at once and quickly found out aside from simpler energy attacks, I was actually pretty bad at it. I had no idea how to do tricks like the multi-form, spirit bomb, kaioken, instant transmission, or anything like that. It really drove home how hard creating techniques that weren't just huge beams of energy was.

So instead of wasting time trying to figure those out, I was training my control.

To an outsider it looked like I was just firing Ki blasts out into the ocean, but I was constantly forcing the beam to be certain sizes, certain intensities, and moving it around once I fired it. Then once I was getting low on stamina, I would focus on drawing more out. Both increasing the amount of Ki I could comfortably use and making sure I could put up a fight even when I was exhausted.

I'd like to think I made some really great progress. There was just one problem…

"I'm so BORED!" I whined.

Yep, after a while even shooting giant death lasers got boring.

I tried coming up with different games, setting goals, and just about everything I could think of to stay motivated, but it obviously wasn't working.

The worst part was that I couldn't just go find someone to fight anymore. With the Justice League so new, the heroes were busy coordinating and working with governments about stuff and getting their headquarters modernized. Several of the times I went looking for them it turned out they simply weren't in the area anymore. And all the villains I'd be interested in were hiding out until they could figure out how the League would function. Sure there were still criminals and disasters getting cleaned up by different heroes, but the story of Donald Oz, the most unfortunate thief in history, had most of them spooked.

Donald had been in the middle of stealing some jewel when he found out that not only had he tripped an alarm, every single member of the Justice League had just so happened to be in the nearby Mount Justice getting the old WWII hangout of the Justice Society refitted and decided to take a break to deal with him.

It was obviously hilarious overkill for a normal human, but the people that regularly tried facing off against demigods now realized that there was a chance they could wind up facing their own particular demigod and potentially some friends.

And since most villains were cowards, they decided to lay low.

At this point I realized if I wanted to fight someone more challenging than a SWAT team, I would need to go looking for them specifically or force them to come to me.

…and I knew just the person that could help me with that.

-o-

Finding who I was after turned out to be a bit harder than I thought.

Especially because it turned out I missed her by a day when I decided to check out her workplace. Only a lucky overheard conversation between a pair of secretaries let me know when she was expected at a specific airport with a layover allowed me to catch up and start looking.

Even then I almost missed her and her partner because rather than go to a hotel like a normal person, Lois Lane jumped into a car and immediately headed out into the desert and the weapons demonstration field out there with her photographer in tow.

The demonstration was actually pretty cool and I was glad I decided to see what Lois was doing before I went about meeting her in person. It featured some kind of remote control android thing that was supposed to allow the military to respond to issues where normal humans would be wiped out. I guess it made sense the government would still want a way to deal with another alien invasion themselves even with the Justice League stepping up.

The whole thing was interesting enough I didn't feel the need to interrupt and so I planned on simply flying down to meet Lois after the show, but then she and her friend followed some military guy into a bunker and I could feel my already generous patience running out.

-o-

"...to the passive AI system, the IR-0n system slowly adapts to improve the wearer's reaction speed and movements." I overheard the military guy saying after I snuck into the bunker. While I wasn't exactly trained in stealth by Batman, you pick a few things up if you watch him long enough.

"That's great and all, Lieutenant, but what about the concerns that this will create similar problems as Lexcorp's Series Alpha battlesuit?" Lois Lane asked skeptically. I actually remembered reading about that!

Lexcorp made a really neat robocop thing that was supposed to give police similar capabilities to Superman, but the guy wearing the prototype was driven insane by it and the whole thing was scrapped. I guess the military decided to pick up where they left off.

"We've taken precautions against that. The wearer has less direct integration than with the Series Alpha and since the drone is remote controlled there is less physiological dependence on the abilities provided by the IR-0n system." Military guy reassured her. "The effective range is drastically cut down until more advancements can be made, but to the wearer it's just like getting in a car rather than putting on a suit."

"Doesn't seem that much different to me if you decided to call them 'wearers' rather than pilots or something."

"Haha, sorry but the name started out as part of a joke. Here, see for yourself." Another man walked in from an adjoining room. Rather than a military uniform, he was in some kind of hi-tech bodysuit with a bunch of rings surrounding his limbs like halos except for his legs where the rings got wider the further down they went. "This is Specialist Michael Rhodes, one of our 'dress wearers' to use the full term. For some reason the boys don't like being called that so it got shortened to 'wearer' pretty quick."

Ah, cause it looked like a hoop dress.

"Couldn't tell you, LT." Rhodes said jokingly. "I think dress wearers fits just fine. Helps I know I pull it off damn fine."

"Well at least one of you boys has an ego not made out of glass." Lois commented even as she wrote down some notes. "Do you mind if…?" She asked leadingly, motioning to her photographer.

"Not at all, so long as he gets my good side."

"You don't have a good side, Rhodes."

"I dunno, he looks kinda cool from above." I announced my presence as I hovered down towards the ground.

The four humans jumped simultaneously at the unexpected noise and all reacted differently. Military guy (I should probably figure out his name) went for a sidearm that wasn't there. Specialist Rhodes jumped away from the group and flicked his eyes between me and the door he walked out from, probably where the drone thingy's pilot seat was. And Lois grabbed her photographer friend and immediately pulled him behind her and started edging away.

Good reaction speeds on all of them. The only one that I saw do something stupid was the photographer, since his first reaction to an unknown voice in a secure military bunker was to point his camera at me and take a picture.

"Was the flash really necessary?" I complained.

"Sorry!"

"Who are you?! How did you get in here?!"

Wow, he seemed stressed.

"Hi, I'm Califa! I snuck in." I answered casually.

"The alien that attacked Metropolis. Are you here for the IR-0n system? It won't do you any good, the control system is too big for you to move anywhere." Military guy growled.

"You mean the robot thing? Yeah it was cool, but I'm not here for that." I pointed at Lois. "I'm here for her."

"...I see. Specialist Rhodes, take Miss Lane to the back and get plugged in." Military guy said gravely. "I'll buy you some time."

"Lieutenant?!"

"I'm not about to let a hostile alien kidnap a citizen of the US right in front of me. Now get moving!"

"Sir! Let's go, you two…" I watched as the three ran out of the room but made no move to stop them, even when the security door slammed into place and locked with a loud hiss of hydraulics.

While I waited for the robot to get here I turned my attention back to Military Guy. I was really curious what he was going to do to buy time. But after several seconds he still hadn't made a move.

I fidgeted awkwardly and moved around trying to get him to do something, but he just kept standing there watching me.

"So aren't you going to do something?"

"I am doing something." He said back calmly.

I waited a bit more trying to figure out what he could be doing and came to a boring conclusion.

"You're just stalling aren't you?"

Military Guy laughed. "You went toe to toe with one of the most powerful people on the planet. What did you expect a normal human to do?"

"If you just wanted to wait until the robot got here, you could have said so." I scowled and sat down on the floor. "I got excited for nothing. Lame."

"That's it? I admit I was expecting you to blast past me once you realized my bluff…"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah but if I did that, I wouldn't be able to fight your robot."

Besides, I could sense Lois wasn't going anywhere. So there was no reason not to leave her in the secured room while I played with stress tested their robot.

The bunker rumbled a bit as a tall mechanical form crashed through a concrete wall and looked around the room, arm raised to blast something. I couldn't help but laugh privately when the machine paused and looked back and forth between Military guy and me, clearly not expecting to see his boss unharmed and me just waiting for him to show up.

I didn't give him time to think the situation over though. In a second I rolled to my feet and leapt at the robot, punching it back through the hole it made and even creating a new one in the roof. I wanted him to go all out. No holding back because he was scared of bringing the bunker down on him and the others!

"Okay, now we can really cut loose!" I grinned as I watched the robot recover from being punched through a building, floating on some kinda jet-boots and looking barely scratched from the impact.

"You're kinda a brat aren't you?" Came the slightly modulated voice of Rhodes, but he settled into a more aggressive stance anyway.

 

[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 20

Since my opponent was a robot not capable of facial expressions there was no particular signal I could use to start the fight. So I just decided to go when it looked like he was ready.

Deciding to test the robot out before I got too serious I rushed straight in, fist raised for an obvious right cross. But rather than move to meet me, the robot flew to the side and shot an energy beam of some kind at me.

I countered with a quick Ki blast of my own and flew up and over the resulting smoke of the two attacks exploding. I was fast enough to get above Rhodes and get close enough to drop an ax-kick down on his head that he only just managed to block with an upraised arm. I could have tried to power through the block but I decided to backflip off it instead and blast the robot in the chest with a Ki attack. That turned out to be a mistake because when I tried getting closer again, Rhodes just flew backwards while peppering me with energy beams.

"Get back here and fight me!"

"You just dented a combat-rated metal armor plate with a kick! I'm not going to let you trash a multi-million dollar weapons platform that easily, monkey girl!"

I snarled and blocked another energy blast with one of my own.

The fight was quickly turning into a stalemate of the two of us shooting down the other's attacks with me trying to get closer and Rhodes trying to get further away.

One of us was going to need to try something new or this would be an endurance contest to see who ran out of energy first. And since Rhodes seemed content to just blast away, it was up to me to do it.

I fired a Ki beam far to the right but rather than just letting the attack do its own thing, I focused on it moving. Thankfully the hours of practicing my Ki manipulation meant the beam curved just like I wanted it to and slammed into the side of the robot and exploded.

"You can curve those things?!" Rhodes exclaimed as he quickly flew out of the explosion, trailing smoke but not super damaged from what I could see.

"You bet I can!" I shouted back, shooting another two beams to prevent him from getting away.

Rhodes dodged them, but since he had to make sure one of them wasn't going to swerve into him at the last second he was too slow to stop me from getting close enough to punch him. Once again he blocked with an upraised arm, the same one from earlier, but this time he didn't move to escape.

This time he actually punched back.

As happy as I was he was finally fighting back properly, I wasn't going to just let him punch me in the face. Which turned out to be a good idea since I felt something tingle across my skin when I dodged and I felt the hairs on my head stand up a little more.

"Wait, do you have shock-fists?!"

"Tch, smart kid. Yeah, the IR-0n suit had taser gauntlets for subduing tougher targets. Don't suppose you want to throw in the towel now?"

I practically vibrated with excitement and charged again. "Are you kidding? This is just getting cooler and cooler! What else do you have?"

"Making this real hard on me, brat."

I ducked under a quick jab and grabbed the robot by the forearm. Unlike the fists it didn't seem like the arm itself was electrified so I twisted and threw the robot down to the ground where it cratered into a field. I seriously doubted that was going to finish it though if a kick only dented it, so I rushed down after it.

Sure enough, the robot staggered out of the crater just in time for me to throw another punch at its head. This time, rather than blocking, Rhodes took the punch just to let him land a hit of his own. I wasn't just expecting him to let me whail on him though and blocked it.

I yelped as the electricity coursed through my arm and decided straight up blocking was a last resort.

I darted around the grounded robot like a hummingbird, not willing to let Rhodes get an opening to try flying off again, while trading punches and kicks with the robot's own electrified punches. And to my excitement, Rhodes was actually pretty good. Even though I was trying my best to dodge or redirect his attacks, a few managed to hit me and I was feeling a numb, tingly feeling in my arms when he forced me to block.

"You've gotta be kidding me. These tasers were designed to incapacitate an elephant with a single punch." Rhodes complained after I missed a block and he got a solid punch on my face. Yeah, it hurt but my adrenaline was racing and I wasn't going to get taken down by a single punch.

"It's gonna take more than that!" I exclaimed and shot forward again.

"You're right. Sorry 'bout this in advance…" A panel on the robot's shoulder popped open and before I could react a blinding white light seared my eyes. I almost thought it was a flashbomb but there was no sound. Did he just blind me with a flashlight?!

And they stole the concept behind the Solar Flare! How dare the military steal my stolen technique, I'll sue!

Putting thoughts of legal action aside until after the fight, I tried opening my eyes only to snap them shut again when everything was way too bright.

Okay…so I was temporarily blind. I could just track Rhodes' Ki to…Rhodes was piloting a remote control robot. There was no Ki to sense.

…this might be an issue.

Still, I wasn't about to let something as small as having no idea where my opponent was stop me from beating them.

"Might wanna give-" I spun towards the noise and unleashed a double handed Ki blast. "-up before you get hurt. Damn kid, you're pretty vicious." Rhodes' voice finished from a completely different location. I fired a blast towards that spot too. "But you lose this one." His voice changed location again. I figured he was probably using speakers or something like that but I blasted it anyway.

"Hah! You think this is enough to beat me? I already said it takes more than that." I said, straining my senses to the limit. Now that I was paying attention I could hear a low humming sound somewhere up and to my right.

So Rhodes was flying again. Now I just had to figure out where he was exactly…

A barely perceptible 'whump' sound came from the general area I figured Rhodes was followed by a more audible thump on the ground behind me.

"Seriously, give up. Alien invader or not I didn't sign up to beat up kids."

A toothy smile formed on my face. "Good for you cause you aren't beating me anyway." I raised my hand to where I pictured the robot was hovering and released a blast as fast as I could. Rhodes' sudden shout of dismay confirmed for me that I at least hit him. I heard something crash to the ground but it sounded too small to be the whole robot.

I tried opening my eyes again to see what happened but had to shut them almost immediately again. Still too sensitive. But I did see what I thought was a dismembered arm on the ground. Definitely hit him then.

"So what now? You going to keep talking at me while I take shots at you? Think next time I can get a leg?" I taunted.

"You asked for it!" Rhodes growled and I heard the humming sound get more intense.

Relying on my instincts I dodged to the left and felt a whoosh of air pass by harmlessly. I followed after it with a punch and when that was deflected, spun and kicked where I imagined the robot's head was.

"How are you fighting better when you can't see!?" Rhodes demanded.

"I'm awesome like that!"

A metal limb uppercutted me in the chin making my head snap back. I dove to the side and felt an energy blast cut through the space I was just in. Rhodes was finally going all out, which was perfect because I was finally starting to see again. Everything was blurry, but that was good enough.

After getting hit multiple times, the robot was now pretty scuffed up. The worst of the damage was definitely the missing arm. I think I had gotten lucky and hit the thing in the elbow joint with enough power to cut it right off because the remaining part of the arm seemed mostly fine. Hopefully the army guys fixed that for next time.

"Alright then, I'm ready to kick this up a notch. What else you got?"

Rhodes sighed. "You were going easy on me? The brass isn't going to like that. And sorry kid, these suits were fitted for a demonstration not live combat. I've hit you with everything I've got on this thing."

"Oh."

Seriously? He had nothing else?

Meh, fine then. I wasn't expecting a fight anyway and this was at least fun. I'd stop by later once they fixed the robot up and hopefully by then it would have some new tricks for me.

"I'm just gonna finish this up then."

"Don't think I'll make it easy for you."

And to give credit where it was due, Rhodes didn't. Even down half an arm and knowing he was going to lose, the guy did his best to beat me. We ended up flying all over the test range trading punches, kicks, and energy blasts. The army pilot got several good hits in and I was looking pretty beat up, but it was practically all surface level stuff while the robot was taking a much more thorough beating. The fight took a solid turn in my favor when I ended up catching a kick to the side but managed to hold onto the leg instead. I let out a victorious yell as I drove my elbow down on the vulnerable knee joint and tore the lower half of the leg right off.

Down an arm and a leg, Rhodes couldn't stop me from eventually tearing off the rest of his limbs until all that remained was a stumpy torso with a head lying on the ground.

"Well…shit…" Rhodes cursed, robotic head looking at what was left of his limbs. "We'll call it a draw?"

I smirked and held a hand up to the featureless faceplate. "Nah, I win. Better luck next time."

Then I blasted the head off the robot and turned back towards the bunker.

More Ki signatures had shown up, but they all seemed around the level of normal humans. Sure there could be some kind of supertech there, but if they had that why hadn't they sent it out here to help Rhodes fight? No, I was pretty sure it was just going to be normal soldiers. Oh well, time to stop playing and actually get what I came here for.

-o-

Lois watched nervously as the feed from the IR-0n suit flashed a bright yellow before cutting to black. You didn't have to be a genius to figure out that probably meant the suit had been destroyed, but Specialist Rhodes cursing and quickly disconnecting from the 'cradle' pretty much confirmed it.

"Sorry Lieutenant Ross. I did my best but the IR-0n prototype is KIA. I couldn't stop her."

"You did your best." Ross scowled.

Lois could sympathize. This wasn't the first time she had seen one of these examples of cutting edge military tech be praised as an unstoppable titan only for it to be taken apart by an alien using nothing more than their bare hands. Granted the last time this happened, she was pretty happy the tech lost because it was stolen by mercenaries. It wasn't so great when it was supposed to be the thing protecting her.

Sounds of fighting crackled over a console near Lieutenant Ross. The man looked at a video feed before helplessly cutting it off and picking up a handgun he had retrieved once the Saiyan had run off to fight a military robot.

"Well, our intruder has destroyed our best defense and just took out our reinforcements. I'd like to say there's no way she could get inside here, but–" The inches thick metal security door exploded interrupting the man. When the dust cleared a scuffed and bloodied, but happily grinning Califa practically skipped through the wreckage.

Lois was practically resigned to being kidnapped at this point and was ready to give herself up. Hopefully Califa would just take her and leave, because the Army sure couldn't handle her.

"Hi there." The little destroyer chirped and made her way over, shooting one of those little yellow orbs at the Lieutenant's gun and turning it to scrap in the process.

"Hello." Lois knew Califa was definitely more dangerous than any thug or criminal that had kidnapped her in the past. But her pride wasn't going to let her get hysterical when faced with a preteen when she didn't crack to those guys. "So, you wanted me for something?"

"Yep, I wanted to ask you a question."

Everyone in the room froze.

"A question?!" Lois couldn't believe her ears. Did this insane little kid break into a secure military base, fight a cutting edge robot, blast through several squads of soldiers…all to ask her a question?!

"Yeah, so, I've been trying to get a hold of Superman for another rematch but I can't seem to get his attention. But you always seem to get him to come running when you need him. So how do you do it?"

"You've got to be kidding me…"

"Oh, hi Rhodes! Good fight, let me know when your suit gets fixed up and we can go for round two."

"Wait, you didn't come here to kidnap Miss Lane?" Lieutenant Ross demanded.

Califa tilted her head. "Would that help me get Superman's attention?"

"It happens enough, so probably." Lois gave Jimmy a death glare he had the decency to flinch away from. Unless everyone managed to get out of this unharmed, she was going to have him gophering meetings for a year before he even got the chance to get behind a camera again.

"So I could have just grabbed her at the airport? Oh well, I got a decent fight out of it so that's fine. And I guess I'm going to kidnap Lois now?"

The Saiyan had been following them that long?! And no one noticed?!

"Do you think we'll just let you?" Lois had to give it to Ross and Rhodes. They certainly weren't the types to give up. Unfortunately…

"Well, unless you have another robot or something lying around…you can't exactly stop me." A terrifyingly sharp toothy grin stretched across the Saiyan's face. But just as quickly as it came, it vanished back into a cheerful smirk. Then Lois found herself scooped up into a princess carry and floating away as the alien child proved no one there could.

"Oh, and photo guy. Make sure you got my good side!"

Lois hoped someone got word to the heroes fast. She wasn't the best with kids and spending time alone with a superpowered preteen sounded like a nightmare. But she did agree with the tiny menace on one thing. Jimmy had better have gotten some good shots of that fight. If it got out that she was getting captured by children now without evidence not even the army could stop them her reputation would never recover.