Growing Pains [DBZ/DC]

[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 21

I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that I might be an impulsive idiot.

How did I discover this?

Because I couldn't follow my own stupid plan when distracted by a shiny robot and a combat high!

I was supposed to find Lois Lane, ask her how to find her boyfriend, and then leave. I wasn't supposed to kidnap her off of any army base because everyone told me to!

Kidnappings are serious business! I wasn't ready to kidnap someone yet! I didn't have a slow-moving, easily disabled deathtrap or a cage suspended over a lava pit or a bomb with a giant count down timer or anything! Heck, I didn't even have a warehouse to put her in! Lois was going to think I was a total amateur when all I could do was ask her not to wander off because humans were stupidly fragile (usually) and I couldn't just tie her up and leave her in my cave. That was just asking her to get eaten by a bear because I wasn't going to babysit her the whole time.

"Hey! How far are you taking me?! We've been flying for hours!"

Oh, yeah. And then there was Lois herself.

I really hoped I would figure out what to do with her soon.

-o-

Lois looked around the place I had made my home and I could tell she wasn't impressed. Yeah, the space pod in the back was probably pretty cool but that didn't really matter when everything else looked like it would have fit in on an episode of the Flintstones.

But it wasn't like I really needed furniture and I was durable enough that rocks weren't all that uncomfortable.

"So you've been living here since you landed on Earth?" Lois asked, politely ignoring how unprepared I was having a human here.

"More or less. Sorry if it's not what you were expecting. I'm still getting a hang of the whole 'villain' thing and haven't really focused on living spaces or lairs." At least that was the story I was going to stick to. Peer pressured into kidnapping Superman's girlfriend? Who, me? No, I was just a novice that didn't have a convenient underground base just yet.

Of course that still meant I was stuck with Lois for a while.

"I'm guessing you don't exactly have some master plan if you just brought me to your home." The reporter accurately guessed. "And I'm guessing you aren't going to let me leave until Superman shows up?"

"I have a plan!" I quickly interjected. "It's…" I trailed off.

Was there any point in futilely trying to pretend I knew what I was doing?

Well, my pride. But that was going to take a beating anyway because it was obvious I wasn't fooling Lois.

"Okay, yeah I don't have a plan." I admitted. "But it's not my fault okay?! I wasn't expecting everyone to assume I was kidnapping you!"

"What else were they going to do after you broke into a military base only to focus on me?" Lois's eye was twitching. Yeah, she was annoyed.

"Not tell me to kidnap you?" I suggested but that only made the twitching worse and decided to switch tracks. "Um, do you want something to drink? Or maybe a snack as an apology? I can't let you go until Superman shows up and I don't have somewhere to put you but I have a bunch of stuff from the last time I went out for food…"

Lois stared at me for a few seconds before eventually sighing and making her way over to the stone chair I had carved out of a boulder I liked. "Do you have a cushion for this or something?" She waved a hand at it.

And while I didn't, I did keep several pillows and blankets in the Attack Ball she could use instead.

"Well, if I'm stuck here, do you mind giving an interview?" Lois asked once she was comfortable. "At least that way I'll get something out of this clusterffffff– mess."

Lois took out her notepad and a pen while I thought about it. There wasn't much of a reason to do an interview but at the same time there wasn't much of one not to. And it would help pass the time while we waited.

"Sure, what do you want to know?"

"Why don't we start off easy with the Saiyan race. What is your culture like?"

Oh, that was an easy one. "We're the greatest warrior race in the galaxy!"

"Really? What would the Thanagarians say about that?"

"Who cares? Yeah they're strong, but a Saiyan is always getting stronger. We don't need fancy Nth metal weapons to do awesome things, we just use our fists."

"So Saiyans don't use tools often?"

"I mean some of them do?" I replied, thinking of Trunks and his sword or Goku and his Power Pole. "But most of the time we're stronger than whatever you make the weapon out of. And the strongest of us can blow up a planet with just our Ki, so why bother with a weapon?"

"That's…not…exactly what I had in mind." Lois said hesitantly. "I meant machines or vehicles… Can you really blow up a planet by yourself?!"

Oh. "I mean we use spaceships, obviously." I said, looking at my Attack Ball. "And I think we have some other stuff on Vegeta to help carry things? Not really sure about that cause I wasn't allowed to explore a lot before I got a new mission. And for the planet thing, not yet but I'm training really hard! I'll get there one day!"

"...I changed my mind, I need a drink." Lois said, and then patiently waited while I got her a bottled water. "You mentioned Vegeta. Is that the name of your homeworld?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it's also the name of our King. And the prince actually." I think. I knew we had a king thanks to Old Me's memories, but Jerk Dad never mentioned his name or if he had a son. But it's not like Lois had a way to check, right? And unless another Saiyan came after me for some reason, no one was going to correct me.

"A dynasty name then?" Lois mused. "Is he a good king at least?"

"No idea!" I chirped. "I'm only a low class and I was constantly sent on missions to prove my strength. I don't think I've spent even a full Earth year on Vegeta. And most of that was either being stuck in a healing pod or fighting my dad."

"Great. The child alien invader is an abuse victim. Just perfect." Lois muttered, though I don't think I was supposed to hear that part. "What's a low class?"

"It's how the warriors are split out. You have Low Class, which is most of the normal warriors. Mid Class which is above that, usually that's the leaders and stuff. And then you have the Saiyan Elite. Those guys are usually born at a certain power level and are like, twenty times stronger than a low class." It was a bit more complicated than that, but talking about classes was boring. It also didn't help that I was planning on leaving the Elite Class in the dust eventually, which meant I really didn't bother remembering the differences between them all that much.

That wasn't the end of it though.

Lois was doing a really good job of asking about all aspects of Saiyan society, and if she had an expert she could have written a book about the ins and outs of our culture. Too bad all she had was me.

I did my best, but in the end it was just about as effective as asking a normal middle schooler how America worked, who the senators of each state were, and what was the government's five year plan. My best explanation about how the Saiyan government worked boiled down to; we have a king, the strongest do what they want, and everyone else falls in line.

My explanation of our economy was actually worse. Did Saiyans have an economy? Was it just a barter system? Were we actually enslaved by the Trade Organization? I had no idea.

I also made sure to keep the Trade Organization out of our conversation.

Not out of any loyalty to them or anything. I just didn't want to answer a billion more questions about an organization I knew nothing about and may or may not exist. I had found the manual for the Attack Ball's radio and set it to receive only and had gotten nothing on the listed Trade Organization frequencies. It could just mean I was out of range or the radio was broken, it could also mean whatever caused me to crash on Earth had sent me to another dimension and they didn't exist. Either way, I didn't want to talk about them.

She asked about what we tended to eat, and I told her we were Omnivores, capital O, but meat was preferred. She asked if we had schools, and I told her that generally newborns spent a few years in an incubation pod where they learned basic knowledge before getting taught by someone else. Usually an older or retired Saiyan, but not always like in my case where I got to deal with Jerk Dad.

Lois seemed to get really uncomfortable with the topic for some reason and eventually the questions circled back to what I said about Saiyans. About us being the greatest warrior race in the galaxy.

"I realize Earth is a bit of a backwater to the rest of the galaxy, but how can you call yourselves the greatest warrior race next to empires like the Thanagarians, Tamaranean, and other martial races? We've even heard some stories about Imperial Kryptonians but we've never heard about Saiyans before you."

I shrugged. "Don't know why you haven't heard of us, but the reason we're the greatest is we don't need tricks like the others. Take away the sun for a Kryptonian or weapons from a Thanagarian and they're not that tough. But you can't ever weaken a Saiyan like that."

"I might be wrong, but I don't think you can weaken a Tamaranean either and they have a very prestigious warrior culture." Lois pointed out.

That was fair, and there were probably a ton of other alien races out there that were strong on their own. But…

"They have a limit." I replied smugly. "Saiyans never stop growing stronger as long as we push ourselves. And that's for normal Saiyans."

"Normal Saiyans?" Lois asked.

Ah crap, I didn't mean to let that slip. Oh well, it's not like it needed to be a secret. Or the full truth.

"Yeah, if Saiyans are the greatest warrior race then the Legendary Super Saiyan is the greatest warrior. The best. End of story."

I thought about the first time I had seen the Namek saga and the lead up to Goku's transformation.

Vegeta had thought the Super Saiyan was a being of uncontrollable power and rage. Someone that would literally destroy solar systems because his power was so vast and in some ways he was right. A natural born Super Saiyan like Broly was exactly that, an undirected engine of destruction that few could stand against.

But that wasn't the Legendary Super Saiyan in my mind.

A golden figure standing on a shattered planet. A being that refused to give up no matter what. Someone that never lost not because they were the strongest, but because when they were defeated they would get up, push past their own limits and try again.

THAT was the legend in my mind. The one I was chasing. The one I would pursue step-by-step until the next time someone talked about the Legendary Super Saiyan? They would be talking about ME.

-o-

Lois did her best not to shiver at the look in the tiny alien terror's eyes when she spoke about her people's legendary warrior.

She had met her share of religious people during her job, the kind who just KNOW something is true and would never be persuaded otherwise. That was the same look in Califa's eyes when she talked about the Super Saiyan. Califa would probably follow such a being into hell if they simply asked.

Not necessarily a bad thing. But if the other Saiyans were as cruel and destructive as the girl's answers hinted at, Lois couldn't imagine what kind of monster a Super Saiyan would be like.

She really hoped someone was looking for her and got here soon. She had a lot of information Superman and the Justice League would need to know about Califa. Earth had gotten lucky the prepubescent Saiyan conqueror had a pretty good heart despite the childhood she had. They might not be so lucky with the next Saiyan.

------------------------​

AN: It's that time of year again. As a sort of Holiday gift to everyone - and punishment to myself - you all get a mass update!
This includes a new chapter for:
A Wandering Soul
Fire Princess
An Elf in Skyrim
Mass Effect:Knight of the Old Republic
Growing Pains
The Devil of Brockton Bay
Ghost Spider
Fox Tales (Snippet Thread/Kofi exclusive)

Happy Holidays!

 

[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 22

"So how long do you think it will take before Superman comes to get you?" I asked during one of the breaks Lois asked for so she could organize her notes.

The reporter just paused her writing and raised an eyebrow at me. "How would I know? It's not like I have a way of calling him."

"You don't?" I asked, genuinely surprised. I thought she would. "What about something that lets him track you? Or Batman track you, I guess. I'm sure he would help out Superman if the jerk needed it."

"Why would I have something like that? Besides, I was forced to leave all electronic devices at the security gate back on the base."

"So how is he supposed to know where to come get you?!" This was such a bad idea. I should never have listened to photo guy about kidnapping his boss.

"You tell me. I'm the victim here, remember?"

I ignored the annoyed reporter and thought over what this meant. No signal and nothing for Batman to magically track meant it could be days before someone came to pick up Lois. Days that I would have to put up with her asking questions about every little thing she could think of and I would have to listen to because I couldn't leave her to go train without risking her crossing a bear or something.

Yeah, that wasn't happening. Time for Improvised Kidnapping Plan B.

"Hey Lois! Wanna go on a trip?"

-o-

A few hours of flying later the two of us touched down in the first major city I could find. I would have liked to head to a city I recognized or even back to Metropolis, but flying with Lois screaming in my ear that I was going too fast got old real quick so I just picked one close by.

Then, after dropping Lois off on a rooftop, I looked down at the humans rushing around on the ground. It was time to begin the next phase of my plan.

My Plan B was basically the exact opposite of Plan A. If going to the middle of nowhere and waiting for Superman to come to me wasn't going to work, I would just have to make myself so noticeable people would send him to me instead. And what better way to get his attention than making the government be the ones screaming at him to do something?

"Attention government agency goons!" I called down to the black and yellow outfitted group trying to both guard a perimeter and break back into a lab that looked like it had been attacked by another villain. Though points to them for bringing fancier looking guns than normal. "I'm here to challenge your Champions for the fate of the planet again! Call out Superman!"

"Uh, Califa. I don't think those people work for the government." Lois commented before ducking away from the edge of the building.

"What do you mean?"

"I think that's a H.I.V.E. logo on the van, they're a–" Lois was cut off as the goons down below started shooting at me.

So not government agents according to Lois. Why did H.I.V.E. sound familiar? Were they like the Metropolis special police or the Star Labs security teams? Or some kind of discount SHIELD that I forgot about? Meh, as long as they called Superman I didn't really care.

A blue laserbeam missed me by inches and I decided to give the goons my full attention.

I shot a ki beam into one of the SUV's the goons were hiding behind – turning it into a burning wreck of twisted metal – and sent them scurrying for cover and then very obviously toying with them by shooting several weaker beams that barely dented the other forms of cover they were using.

Despite being fancier, most of the guns I could safely ignore. Sure bullets stung a bit when they hit me and really scuffed up my armor pretty good, but I would take those every time rather than the unknown laserguns they had with them. Something that was quickly picked up on by the humans down below and eventually we were in a fun game of tag where they would try to herd me into position with the more standard guns before trying to hit me with the laserguns while I did my best to dodge.

That didn't mean I was just going to let them shoot at me though, that would get boring fast. So every five laser shots they missed I would blow up one of the cars. Cars they were quickly running out of given how trigger-happy some of them were. If Superman didn't show up soon, the goons were going to have to walk back to whatever base they called home.

"Come-on guys! Either step up your game or get someone who can keep up! This is getting embare– Ack!" My snarky banter is interrupted by an SUV smacking me in the face. Considering I was still hovering over twenty feet in the air that could only mean one thing.

Someone fun had just shown up.

"Better! Now you're getting it!" I exclaimed as I shoved the car off of me and looked where it had come from, eager to see who showed up.

It was a giant man walking out of the lab followed by another squad in the same black and yellow colors as the goons but missing the chest armor and the sleeves on the upper part to let the man's ridiculously huge muscled arms move freely. He was also missing the almost insectile helmets I had seen on the others too, showing off his wild red hair.

I approved. He almost looked like a Saiyan with that outfit. He was missing the tail though, so no chance of that.

"This runt is the one giving you so much trouble?" He growled, making the goons flinch.

"Mammoth, sir…"

"Shut up. We have what we came for. I'll deal with the brat."

Mammoth, huh? The name was familiar and I kinda remembered him being part of a team… the something five? So a Fantastic Four stand-in?

Although if he was here with just some goons then I guess the team hadn't formed yet.

Meh, I'll think about that later. For now…

"'Deal with me', huh? You're pretty cocky. Hope you're a good enough warm up for when Superman gets here." I smirked at the giant and kicked off the ground before Mammoth could say anything else.

I wasn't expecting someone looking like him to be a fast opponent, but the muscular giant was quicker than I expected. He snapped up one arm just in time to use his forearm as a shield and the only reaction I got was a small grunt.

I felt the muscles in his arm tense and kicked away from him before he could retaliate. And even then the wind pressure from his backhanded swing blew my hair back.

Okay, quick, but probably not fast, and very strong. How durable was he though?

The second my feet hit the pavement again I rushed him. Mammoth was again quick enough to raise his arms in defense when I went for his face, but he seemed content to let my slowly strengthening punches and kicks rain down on him.

"That tickles." He grunted, and that was the only warning I got before he tried slapping at me again. I jumped over it and using his arm as a springboard, kicked him in the face.

"Yeah?! How bout that one?"

"Grrrr."

Mammoth didn't verbally respond beyond growling and charging me in turn. I lightly jumped backwards as he repeatedly attempted to use his massive fists to hammer me into the pavement, taunting him the whole way and dishing out some counterattacks that didn't phase him much, only for him to snag another SUV as we passed by and use it as a baseball bat to smash me into another car and then through a building.

"Okay, I probably deserved that." I mumbled, pushing myself out of the wreckage. "But that means no more holding back!"

My Ki aura flared a pale white as I powered up and I shot out of the ruined building and straight into Mammoth's stomach. This time my punch folded him in half and sent him flying into the second or third story of the building across the street.

I didn't even get time to grin before the few goons hanging around opened up on me again. And this time I was just annoyed by it.

"Take a hint already and get lost!" I snapped and fired off several Ki beams. This time I wasn't playing around and exploded all the cars I hit. That was enough to finally send all of them scurrying away.

Seriously, didn't they figure out I was just playing with them earlier?!

The slight distraction was enough for Mammoth to jump back down to street level and glare at me. From the look of it my punch might have hurt, but it didn't seem to have done much damage.

"I'm going to crush you for that."

I rolled my eyes. There was no point in a warmup getting so dramatic.

Mammoth didn't like that though and smashed both hands to the ground causing a shockwave that knocked me off balance long enough for him to get close enough that he was in punching range. And considering he was like three feet taller than I was, it meant he was able to punch at me while I still had to get closer to do anything.

We traded punches as the fight moved down the street, the occasional car or light post getting used as an improvised weapon, and I realized eventually that Mammoth was wearing me down faster than I was doing to him. And by that I mean I missed blocking a punch and winced when I felt a bone in my arm crack under the pressure.

Arm hanging uselessly to not aggravate it, I switched things up so I was flying around the giant faster than he could track and occasionally knocking him around with a Ki blast. I didn't bother with those too much though, because the standard blasts only seemed to push him around and make him mad.

"That's it you annoying little fly! I've had enough of you!" Mammoth raged after I got inside his guard and blasted him in the face, also incidentally proving my point.

The red-headed giant lifted his foot and brought it down on the cracked and cratered streets with enough force to cause a localized earthquake. From the savage smirk on his face, he was pretty confident this move was going to deal with me.

I looked around at the devastated surroundings and had to admit it was pretty impressive. There was just one teensy tiny problem…

"So, uh, you know that didn't do anything right?" I asked hesitantly. "Cause I'm flying right now?"

Going by the way his smirk collapsed, no, no he hadn't realized that.

Mammoth was kind of a moron wasn't he?

Oh well, like I said he was only a warmup. I should probably try to end this now.

My Ki flared even higher and I sped past his guard again. This time I landed an uppercut that lifted him a couple inches off the ground but I wasn't done. Before he could react, I twisted midair into a kick that broke his nose and sent him flying down the street. Naturally I flew after him and spun into an ax-kick, slamming him headfirst into the pavement and leaving me hovering just over the resulting crater, a Ki attack charging in my hand.

Mammoth groaned, still not actually unconscious, and looked up at me with a dazed expression.

I grinned down at him. "Smile for the birdy!" And unleashed my attack.

Once the smoke cleared I saw Mammoth was finally out for the count and in no shape to keep fighting.

With that out of the way I flew back up to the rooftop I left Lois at and waved at her. "So, government agency dealt with. Their superhero backup is taking a nap for a while. And the guy who attacked the building before we got here is probably going to get away. You think that's enough to get Superman's attention soon?"

Lois gave me a long look before she started rubbing at her forehead. "If you had listened earlier I would have told you those were H.I.V.E. agents. They're a terrorist group, not someone working for the government. They were the ones attacking the lab."

I froze.

"So they were villains?"

"Yes, yes they were. And while I'm sure someone will be glad you stopped them, did you have to destroy a city block in the process?"

"I'm not supposed to stop villains!" I protested. "I'm supposed to be beating the heroes and taking over the world!" I slouched in midair, even my tail drooping down. "Do you at least think this got Superman's attention?"

Despite looking like she had a headache, Lois looked at something behind me and smirked. "I think you got a little more than that, kid."

I turned.

Flying silently a little above me with his arms crossed in front of his chest was Superman.

…Along with Wonder Woman just off to the right of him.

……Aaand Green Lantern just off to his left.

This…this wasn't part of the plan…

 

[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 23

My current situation sounded like the beginnings of a bad joke.

A Kryptonian, a Demigoddess, and a Super Space Cop vs a pre-teen one-armed monkey girl. Who would win?

Obviously not the monkey girl. Anyone who thought otherwise was lying to themselves.

Well, I guess that also depended on exactly which pre-teen monkey girl you were talking about. There were probably a few out there that could pull off a win, but I knew for certain I couldn't. Not at my level, anyway.

Was I a bit bitter? Yes, yes I was.

Because unlike all other times I got in over my head, there was no winning this one. Or even 'winning' like the last few times. No, this was an instant Go to Jail card. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

Maybe literally actually. I did just attack the army yesterday and just helped demolish a good section of a city block. Someone was probably pissed about that.

Although…escaping from a superjail did sound kinda interesting- No! Stay focused! Think of plans to break out of a jail when I wasn't being stared down by three superheroes that could beat me with one arm tied behind their back.

One-on-one I could potentially do something unless they got serious, but against all three? Unless I got insanely lucky, yeah, it wasn't happening.

Was this what it was like to be Vegeta? Where you beat one guy and feel all good about yourself, only for a bunch of people stronger to instantly pop up and you have no chance of winning?

Cause if this is what it feels like to be him I completely understand why he was so pissed off all the time.

Still, that didn't mean I was just going to just give up. I just had to buy myself some time by doing what I've been doing since I landed in Metropolis.

Take refuge in audacity.

"Hey guys! Wha-"

"Are you alright, child? I'm sorry we didn't arrive before the end of the fight. You seem wounded, do you need to see a healer?" And Wonder Woman cut me off before I could begin.

Here I was desperately trying to figure out how to get one over three opponents I had no chance of beating and yet Wonder Woman just saw an injured child that had just finished fighting what I now knew was a villain and wanted to make sure she was okay. I wasn't even a threat she needed to be wary of right now.

…Ouch, my pride…

I deflated midair, even my tail drooping down despondently.

"...yeah, my arm is broken." I most certainly did not pout. "...The shoulder might also be dislocated." cause now that the adrenaline was wearing off I realized I couldn't move it very well.

"Well your shoulder is definitely dislocated, but it looks like you only cracked the bone." Superman spoke up, and I realized he must have checked it out with his x-ray vision. "Why don't we get that looked at while we talk. We actually needed to-"

"HEY! Before you go off and do your superhero stuff, can one of you get me off this roof?!" Lois yelled at us. As if the heroes didn't already notice her.

"Lois?! What are you doing here?!"

I turned and stared at a visibly surprised Superman. Did…did he really not notice her?

"That gremlin decided to kidnap me!"

"Kidnap you? What for?!" "Wh-wha?!" Wonder Woman and Superman made questioning sounds at Lois's revelation. Green Lantern, on the other hand, was a bit more calm about the whole thing.

"Why don't we all head down to the streets and get the girl's injuries looked at. Then we can talk." He stated reasonably.

-o-

Watching the three heroes help with the aftermath of my fight was interesting.

Batman never hung around the scene longer than to make sure the police showed up and the bad guy was in cuffs. And he certainly never talked to anyone unless he had to.

Flash was kinda the opposite of that. He would happily chat with the responders, the bystanders, and even the guys he caught for as long as they wanted. It was a good thing he was so stupidly fast. He'd never get anything else done otherwise.

Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern didn't work like that.

Green Lantern sternly moved from place to place using his ring to move piles of rubble, clear paths, and shuffle people around as needed. And while he did talk to people, he seemed to say as little as possible to explain what he was doing and preferred talking to the responders.

Superman, after he made sure no one was trapped by the rubble, was hanging out by the ambulances. Either assisting the EMT's with his supervision or simply calming people down.

And while those two had handled the cleanup, Wonder Woman took me to get my arm looked at and helped reset my shoulder before she moved away to deal with the reporters that seemed to have crawled out of the walls considering how many there were.

At least she was until I tried slipping away. I got maybe twenty feet away before I was dragged back by my tail - not literally, she actually used her lasso - Then she turned herself into my personal babysitter while answering a few more questions from the crowd.

Lois looked far too smug about the whole thing.

Anyway, once things got to a point the regular professionals could handle the rest, the three heroes grabbed me and Lois and moved us to a fairly deserted park so we could talk like they wanted.

"So what are you doing here, Lois?" Superman began. "And what was that about a kidnapping?"

"I was in Nevada for a demonstration when this one-" Lois took advantage of the fact I was still tied up to pat me on the head and ruffle my hair.

I glared at her. "I'll bite…"

"-decided to invade the base looking for me and a way to get in contact with you." She said, looking at Superman and completely ignoring my threat. "No one thought the little gremlin would do all that just to ask a question, so we all assumed I was the target. Jimmy made a mis-timed statement and I got taken on an unexpected flight as a result." She scowled at me for the last part and then went on to explain exactly what happened at the military base.

I was unrepentant. Yes, it was stupid to kidnap her when I wasn't prepared to. No, I would not apologize.

"...I had no idea…" Superman sounded stunned. I had no idea why. I doubted anyone in charge of the army would've been happy admitting losing to a single alien and probably kept the whole thing a secret. And without someone telling him, how was he supposed to know?

Wait, didn't that make my plan even stupider?! They must never know…

While I was shoving the memories of my kidnapping plan into the deepest darkest hole I could (telepaths are a thing!) Superman and Lois went back and forth a bit about getting her something to immediately let him know if something like that happened again with Lois vehemently refusing to 'wear a leash' because the world could be dangerous.

Thankfully, the other two heroes stepped in before things could get too awkward and brought up the reason the three of them were here in the first place. They needed to talk to me.

"Sure, I guess. What do you need? And could someone untie me?" I asked reasonably, but was ignored.

"Two things really." Green Lantern said. "We finally got word back from Lantern Jordan a little while ago. He's on Oa because when he asked about your species he ran into an information block."

"Okay?" I was confused and more than a little surprised. The Lanterns knew about other Saiyans? There was an info block on us?

"I won't bore you with too many of the details," Hey, hold on! I wanted those details! "But we discovered the sector your people live in is actually under a severe quarantine after they almost depopulated five sectors and basically declared war on the universe. No one in or out without good reason. Of course we miss a few now and then, but they are usually found quickly and written off as pirates so we don't have another sector wide war on our hands. Which made us wonder how you got all the way to Earth with no one noticing. Lantern Gardner backtracked your pod's trail and found traces of Bleed radiation." Green Lantern loomed over me. "What we need to know is; do the Saiyans have access to Bleed tech? Can your pod open a portal?"

"Not that I know of, and my pod uses a gravitic engine." I replied immediately, which surprised me. Until I glanced down and remembered what I was wrapped in.

The Lasso of Truth…Ah.

"Were you the only one sent out for your mission? Is anyone waiting to hear from you?"

"I was the only one sent to this planet but I was just one of a bunch of us being sent out all at once." I said and even though I really wanted to stop there, my mouth kept moving. "And no, Saiyans sent out on suicide missions don't have anyone listening for them. We either complete the mission or are forgotten about."

"Suicide missions?!" Thankfully, Superman's outburst was taken as a rhetorical statement so I didn't have to answer him. The heroes shared another round of glances before Green Lantern finally nodded and backed away. Wonder Woman waved her hand and the lasso magically loosened and fell away.

I quickly hopped away from the magic rope and made a note to do everything I could to avoid getting caught by it again.

"So was that it?"

"No, that was just the first thing." Wonder Woman said apologetically. "The second, which seems even more necessary after hearing about your latest stunt and your mission, is that we need to do something about your law breaking."

Oh, crap. Was I actually going to go to prison?!

"There was no real way to properly deal with you before the formation of the League since very few heroes could give you an environment to help you integrate with Earth, but we believe that's changed. Between myself, Manhunter, and the other members of the League when time allows them, we can teach you more about Man's World…if you will let us."

So not prison. But were they seriously asking what I think they were?

"Are…are you asking me to be your sidekick?!"

"No, but since it would be a mistake to try sending you back to your sector we are hoping to help make Earth your new home." Superman explained. "And none of us think the normal programs will work for you."

"I've been training with Batman and Flash…" I tried objecting, but was quickly overruled by Wonder Woman.

"Yes, you have been training," She emphasized. "But both of them agree that's not enough for a childhood or healthy mental development."

I scoffed. "I've been doing fine so far."

"Picking a fight with the Army and getting pressured into kidnapping doesn't sound fine to me." Green Lantern grumbled and I tried not to blush.

"You don't have to be a villain, Califa." Wonder Woman continued. "Come with me to Themyscira. Give up the mission you were sent on and we can teach you to be better than that…"

I had to stop myself from laughing at that. It was hilarious that they thought I cared about my 'mission' for as long as they did. Especially because the Green Lanterns should have been able to tell I made the whole thing up by now if they had records of other Saiyans.

Other than that, I was actually a little torn about the offer.

On the one hand, I really liked running around doing my own thing and occasionally dropping in to find a sparring partner somewhere. I'd probably be giving up a lot of my ability to do things like that. But since the formation of the Justice League it wasn't guaranteed that a hero would be in any one city anymore and most of the villains were still in hiding. Not to mention training on my own was getting boring.

On the other hand, I'd get to visit a magical island filled with immortal warrior women that have been training for dozens of years at least. Themyscira was also one of two places I wanted to explore the most, with the other being Atlantis, even if I did have to listen to their rules or get kicked off.

…Which meant if I got bored of Themyscira I could make them let me leave at any time…

I guess I wasn't all that torn about an answer after all.

"Okay then. When do we leave?"

 

[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 24

"So you're going to be training with the Amazons?" Robin asked from his perch.

Stupid birdbrain always seemed to be trying to get above me whenever he could.

"For a bit. Seems like it will be fun." I replied as I swiped one of Kid Flash's nuggets.

"Hey!"

Heh "Too slow."

Apparently there were still some things Wonder Woman needed to take care of before we could leave, but I didn't really want to sit and do nothing until that happened. So I snuck off at the first opportunity to pester Flash into another race after a quick detour. Too bad for me he was busy somewhere else.

I did find the Sidekick Squad instead so it wasn't all that bad.

I dealt with Birdbrain enough to tolerate him and Kid Flash was just a less cool Flash. Aqualad was a new addition since the king of Atlantis joined the Justice League, but he was quite enough that sometimes I barely noticed him.

I could've done without Speedy being there, though.

He was a hot headed idiot.

"I guess that means we won't need to put up with you for a while." Robin had an edge in his voice I couldn't quite place. "It'll be nice to get back to one on one training without you slowing me down going over the basics."

What was that!?

"Better train fast then. Cause when I come to visit I plan to kick your ass across the city!" I bristled.

"Come to visit?"

"What, gonna say I can't?" I scoffed. "You don't own Gotham. Even if you did, I don't have to listen to your stupid human rules."

"I think Robin was just confused that you mentioned returning." Aqualad cut in. "If Themyscira is anything like Atlantis, travel to the outside world is difficult. You made it sound like you would be gone for years."

I rolled my eyes at him. "If you can't fly, maybe. For me it's just getting on and off the island and then flying for a couple hours."

"Hear that, Robin?." Speedy laughed annoyingly. "Your girlfriend is saying she'll still come to visit."

He looked between us and pouted when neither of us had much of a reaction.

"Nothing? Seriously?"

Robin shrugged. "I'm eleven." He said like that explained everything. Which it kinda did.

I, on the other hand, saw a perfect opportunity to mess with the archer.

"Was that supposed to be funny somehow? What's a girlfriend?"

"Ah…" Speedy trailed off, but I wasn't the only one that smelled blood in the water.

"Yeah, Speedy. Explain to the class what a girlfriend is." Kid Flash jumped in.

"Something you'll never have, KF."

I grinned and sat back to enjoy watching the sparks fly as the two redheads started trading insults, which eventually spread to include Birdbrain because he couldn't control his mouth and Aqualad futilely trying to calm things down.

Unity among the heroes was broken, chaos reigned, and I was victorious. All was right with the world.

At least for a little, until the boys decided to call a temporary ceasefire to keep pestering me about what I would be doing. Not that I had a whole lot to give them.

"I don't know what I'll be doing!" I threw my hands in the air after they started rapid firing questions. "They didn't give me a list or anything!"

"Heh, the struggle of sidekicks continues." Speedy laughed. "Guess you aren't immune to the mushroom treatment either."

"Mushroom treatment?" Kaldur asked. He was pretty good with surface expressions, but every once in a while he got stumped. I guess that one didn't translate well.

"Being kept in the dark and fed bullcrap." Kid Flash explained and then frowned at the archer. "And you really think our mentors do that?"

"Nah, but it feels that way sometimes." Speedy waved him off. "I'm sure the monkey will learn."

Okay, I needed to stop a misunderstanding.

"You guys know I'm not gonna be a sidekick, right?" I stated bluntly, and based on the surprised expressions on all of them, no, no they didn't know that.

"Huh? I thought you said Wonder Woman was going to be training you?" Kid Flash looked at me in shock.

"Yeah, so? That doesn't mean I have to be a hero."

"I do not believe Wonder Woman or the League would allow you to continue any criminal activities either." Aqualad pointed out.

I slumped at that. "Yeah probably not. It was bad enough when I just had Batman's rules, but since I can't just have fun after tomorrow –"

Robin rolled his eyes. "You only listened to half of those anyway."

I rolled mine right back. He was just jealous. "– I decided to end tonight with a bang! A classic crime any self respecting villain has pulled off at least once, a jewel heist!"

The kiddie heroes all stiffened and looked at me.

"...You know…we can't just…let you rob a store, right?" Kid Flash said slowly.

"You'd be pretty bad heroes if you did." I agreed.

"And now that you admitted to planning a crime, we aren't going to just let you take off." Speedy adjusted the grip on his bow.

"I mean, you can't stop me from just flying away." A smirk split my face.

Kadur stood and pulled out the hilts to his magic water weapon things. "You wouldn't have told us your plans if you were just going to run away. You want us to try and stop you."

I tried to reign in the feelings of excitement and started shaking out my arms and legs. "If you want a handicap I can stay on the ground. No way you could stop me though."

"Four v one, Cali'." Kid Flash pointed out. "Pretty good odds, I'd say."

My grin widened and Robin groaned.

"You already stole something, didn't you? Stupid monkey." Batman really was an amazing teacher. He even managed to get Birdbrain to stop being completely stupid.

I pulled a clear gem the size of my fist from behind my back and waved it tauntingly. "Yep. And not one of you noticed. Better luck next time!"

Then – just because I could – I backflipped off the roof and cackled the whole way down as I listened to them scramble to chase after me.

-o-

"Well the kids are getting along. I was worried news of Califa going to Themyscira would make some of them pull away." Superman commented as they watched the quartet of sidekicks chase after the Saiyan girl.

"She has a way of pulling you into her pace. Once she got them to sit down and talk it was unlikely any of them could ignore her." Batman pointed out. "And I've never seen her hold much of a grudge for long. Makes me wonder what you did that she dislikes you so much."

"Ahem…er, yeah…who knows?" Superman coughed and deliberately turned away.

"It's good for her to have ties to others her age." Wonder Woman commented. "The main point of taking her under our wing was to give her a safe place to learn to integrate with Man's World. Not isolate her on Themyscira."

That was something that had worried all three heroes.

Califa wasn't the kind of person to stay in one place for very long. Her jaunts across North America made that obvious. And while she had met and somewhat befriended several heroes in that time, she had also made contact with criminal organizations that wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of her thrill-seeking personality for their own gain, as seen by her involvement with an underground fight ring.

Batman had already confirmed Lex Luthor was interested in the young Saiyan. And if Luthor was involved that no doubt meant several others were looking to exploit the girl as well.

Some of which might be attached to various governments.

Even though the US Army had tried to keep the incident quiet, many other organizations had heard about the destroyed prototype. A few people were using that incident to secure more funding for their own projects while others were using it to call for harsher responses to alien threats.

Not to mention that several news outlets were starting to float anti-alien rhetoric as fronts for groups like Humanity First, CADMUS, Blue Cosmos, and others like them. It was lucky that Califa had almost immediately taken down a H.I.V.E. cell which took a lot of wind out of the sails of many of the more aggressive of them, but it still highlighted the need to teach the Saiyan at least how to identify the common sense others expected from her.

"Your mother didn't have an issue with allowing Califa to leave the island?" Batman already knew the answer, but Themyscira had been heavily isolationist for hundreds of years. It didn't hurt to clarify.

Wonder Woman shook her head. "Mother has decided we cannot shut ourselves away from the rest of the world anymore. I doubt many of my sisters will be interested in leaving for quite some time but Califa will be free to come and go…provided she listens to her teachers, of course."

Considering the martial nature of the Amazons, Califa would either be the best student they ever had or would be too busy challenging her teachers to fights to learn anything.

"Well, give me a heads up when she does leave. It'll be nice to have some warning before she demands a rematch for once." Superman joked before looking back in the direction of the kids. "Though, don't you think we should step in? A jewelry heist right before she leaves won't be a good look."

"It's fake." Batman said bluntly, pulling out a small screen. On it was footage from a security camera at a themed mini-golf course, large glass decorations made to look like gemstones dotted the walls. Suddenly a familiar monkey tailed girl entered the frame and plucked one of the decorations out of the wall before flying off. "I'll take care of the damages."

"Oh, alright then."

Wonder Woman frowned. "Are you sure? Even if the gem is fake, Califa doesn't have much regard for property damage. It could get out of hand."

"Califa tends to limit herself to match whoever she is fighting." Batman disagreed. "As long as the sidekicks control themselves there won't be an issue."

Superman nodded. "You're right. They're young, but all of them have a good head on their shoulders. Maybe we–"

At that precise moment, several explosions rang out in the background.

The three heroes exchanged looks. Batman silently turned on a heel and power walked towards the edge of the building, pulling a grapple gun on the way.

"On second thought, they are all children. We should check on them and make sure they don't level the city."

Superman and Wonder Woman chuckled, but rushed after the Caped Crusader just the same.

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[Azura]

AN:
Moving sucks and that is all I have to say about that...
Have a bunch of words

Growing Pains - Chapter 25

I was kinda surprised that Wonder Woman insisted on using a plane to fly to Themyscira rather than just flying ourselves, but once we started passing through the magical hurricane barrier that separated the island from the rest of the world I fully understood why.

Flying through rain sucked.

Flying through magical rain for over twenty minutes would have been terrible. Even if it didn't do anything it would have been cold, wet, and annoying.

Putting the hull of the VTOL plane thing Batman loaned us while I demolished investigated the snack cabinet was a much better way to travel.

It also meant that we would be meeting the small welcome party without being soaking wet, which was nice.

The ramp dropped and Wonder Woman and I made our way off the ship while one of the Amazons walked forward with her arms spread open.

"Diana! Welcome home, daughter. I hope the journey was a pleasant one?"

"Thank you, Mother. And yes, but it's good to be home." Wonder Woman replied, stepping into the hug.

While those two were talking, I took the chance to look around at the surroundings. Which were pretty much what I expected for an isolated tropical island. Clean, white beaches, crystal clear ocean, and a thick forest that blocked the rest of the island from view. Pretty, but not what I was interested in.

No, my focus was on the six Amazons that had been waiting with Wonder Woman's mom – Wonder Mom? Probably shouldn't say that out loud though – that were either looking at the surroundings, watching me, or glancing at the hugging pair.

They didn't exactly look like I was expecting. The armor they had on was more similar to Wonder Woman's outfit than the classical Greek stuff I had seen. A lot less metal protection than I was expecting, though maybe they didn't need it?

"...but enough of that for now, we are being rude to our guest." Wonder Mom interrupted my thoughts and walked over to me. "Welcome to Themyscira, Califa of the Saiyans. I am Queen Hippolyta." Despite looking like Wonder Woman's older sister, Wonder Mom really nailed the mom tone. Calm, patient, and just the slightest hint of an iron will of control hiding under the surface…she was pretty cool.

"I'm sure you are itching to explore the island and meet your teachers," She continued, "but first I would like to learn more about you and the circumstances regarding your stay on my island. To that end we've prepared a feast…"

Her welcoming speech was interrupted when my stomach decided to announce itself. Loudly.

"Hehe, sorry." I awkwardly rubbed at my traitorous midsection. "I'm still a little hungry."

"How? You ate enough emergency rations for three people on the flight over." Wonder Woman muttered, drawing some interested looks from the guards.

The Queen just smiled. "Well then, let's not waste time. We can continue our discussion after we eat."

-o-

I had to give the Amazons one thing, their cooks certainly knew what they were doing.

The goat was soft and juicy and the sauce matched it perfectly. I needed some more of that. The bread was nice and fluffy with a crunchy exterior and a bunch of things baked into it that made it more interesting than just being flour. There was some kind of leaf thing that was stuffed with meat that was pretty tasty, too small though. I had to eat two or three at a time to really enjoy them. But that was fine, it went really well with a salad that was basically just rough cut veggies and cheese. Good cheese too. Though it didn't mix super well with the fish thing they brought out. Oooh, they had a lamb dish too. And a whole cow! Man, I should have come to Themyscira earlier, they really knew how to welcome someone!

And the food just kept coming!

"Dear Gods, where does she even put it all?"

"I have no idea, her stomach is like a bottomless pit!"

"Does she have no manners at all?!"

"I hope the kitchens can keep up with her…"

"Stop standing around and get the next course!"

There was some muttering from where some of the servants were huddling but I wasn't really paying attention to them. Unless they decided to talk to me directly I was just going to focus on my food.

"Ah, ahem, Califa…"

Though I should probably listen to what Wonder Mom wanted.

"...I take it you are enjoying the food?"

"Mhmm!" I energetically nodded before making sure to swallow everything. "It's really good! It's like when I eat with the Flash, but this stuff is way better."

She smiled while Wonder Woman was mumbling something next to her, looking annoyed. "I'm glad, but perhaps we should have that discussion now. I'd planned to have it after you finished but," her eyes shifted to the pile of empty plates next to me that was slowly being taken away by a servant, "I think we might be waiting longer than anticipated if we did that."

"Sure?" I shrugged, it didn't really matter to me one way or the other. I just went back to picking at the food in front of me.

The queen nodded. "Has my daughter explained what you will be doing here yet?"

"Not really? She mentioned learning how to fit in on Earth better but that was kinda it."

"That will be one aspect of your time, but you will also be learning from us about several subjects. History, Mathematics, Languages just to name a few as well as continuing your martial training since Diana mentioned you were studying under a mentor before."

I groaned.

School. Wonder Woman tricked me into going to a magical island just for school! First Superman, now her. Was the entire Justice League just filled with people that were secretly evil?

I better keep a real close eye on Batman. Things usually get really bad when he turns evil.

-o-

The next few days were torture as all my new teachers tried to find out where I stood in their respective subject.

Some of them, like math oddly enough and a few sciences, weren't terrible because one or both sets of memories remembered enough to get by or the information was burned into my brain by either a Saiyan gestation pod or the public school system.

I might not know how to calculate the derivative of X, but mitochondria was the powerhouse of a cell!

None of that mattered though because it was finally time for the one class I was actually excited to attend.

Combat class.

I was actually excited enough that I was already in the open-aired 'classroom' already changed into the new outfit the Amazons gave me (basically the same thing everyone else was wearing, but smaller) without anyone needing to drag me there. And I was actually early for once because no one was there to meet me.

Oh well, might as well get some stretches done.

…

Alright this is getting boring, where the heck is she?!

…

Another few minutes pass by before the dark haired Amazon I assume is my teacher finally decided to show up, looking both surprised and annoyed that I was still here.

Well guess what, the feeling is mutual.

"You're still here… well I suppose I should at least introduce myself." The Amazon sighed. "I am Melanippe, and I have nothing to teach an outsider like you. Now leave."

…what? No seriously, what?!

She couldn't do that!

I put up with all the boring stuff just for this class, she couldn't just tell me to leave and expect me to listen.

"Your queen said you had to."

"My queen is so twisted around her daughter's finger that she is blinded to the fact that interacting with the outside world will just lead us to ruin." Melanippe snorted. "I spent years training Diana to be a protector for this island. Not for her to abandon her duties and run around playing…what were they called? Ah, yes, superhero with a bunch of savages."

Oh great, Meli-, Melana-...Mel was the same person to train Wonder Woman. Yeah, I wasn't going to let her dangle that bit of information in front of me and then just walk away.

"Okay, then how bout a bet?" I pointed at the circular ring not too far from us. "First one to knock the other out of that ring wins. I win, you have to teach me. You win, and I'll leave the island."

Mel raised an eyebrow. "You expect me to fall for such a cheap trick? Why would I bother when I told you I have no intention of teaching you anything?"

I shrugged. "I mean, if Wonder Woman had to leave just to find something better to do you can't be all that good. But Wonder Mom has been pretty nice so I figured I'd give you a chance to not be a weakling before I go find someone worth my time. Maybe I could see if Atlantis has anyone decent?"

"...this will be worth it just to beat some manners into you." Mel growled before walking over to the ring. I didn't waste time flying over across from her.

"Begin."

There was no countdown, no tell that she was going to move. It was only by instinct and luck that I managed to dodge her first attack and then start blocking the next.

Not that I managed it that well. Mel was like a slightly stronger, faster Batman. Definitely superhuman, but not by a huge amount. But she made up for that with pure skill. She knew exactly how to move to control the pace of the fight, and she wanted it to end fast but also to make it hurt.

Unless I wanted to cheat and just start moving faster than her, I was going to keep getting pummeled without being able to do anything back.

She was going to be so much fun to fight later, but first I had a bet to win.

I dove out of the way of a grapple and turned to see Mel standing there with a smug look on her face.

That was fine, I thought, settling into a stance. I already won.

"What's the matter? Running away won't help - guh!" Mel's taunt was cut off when my Ki flared up into a visible aura. The ground shook lightly and the sudden wind made her stumble half a step.

Then I pushed my Ki higher.

"A little wind won't be enough!" Mel shouted, slowly stepping closer and raising an arm to shield her eyes and stop her hair from whipping her face.

I said nothing. I just focused on collapsing all my Ki into a little point centered on my chest and then with a mighty yell, forced it all out again in a bright flash that caught Mel by surprise, and more importantly, sent her flying out of the ring.

Victory!

Now to get her to teach me how to move like that…

-o-

From a distant lookout, Queen Hippolyta and Diana watched as the Saiyan girl began to pester Melanippe until the Amazon gave up and started showing her and correcting a handful of strikes and stances she had used in the brief fight.

"It seems that matter is settled then." Hippolyta murmured.

"I don't understand why you assigned Melanippe as Califa's teacher if she was so against it." Diana commented. "There were plenty of others that were willing to take her as a student."

The Queen hummed. "There were others, yes. But aside from Melanippe being as good or better than all of them, there was another reason."

"Another reason?"

"There is a small but very vocal group of Amazons that feel that we should remain isolated from Man's World. Melanippe is one of them."

"Isn't that all the more reason another should teach Califa?" Diana frowned. "I wouldn't want a small part of our Sisters to drive her off."

Hippolyta chuckled, "I'd be rather surprised if an unwelcoming attitude was enough to drive the girl off. In fact I believe Melanippe may have done the opposite and will have to spend a considerable amount of effort avoiding or distracting her new student.

Diana thought about the reports Bruce had made about Califa's determination to have him train her and her own few interactions with the young Saiyan. And she had to admit her mother probably had a point. Still…

"That can't have been your only reason." She pressed, getting a nod in return.

"Indeed. I'm hoping that by interacting with the girl some of those vocal dissenters will realize something very important." Hippolyta said seriously, causing Diana to look at her in alarm and confusion.

"Mother?"

"You know what I speak of, Daughter. You and your friends dealt with it not long ago."

There were several things Diana had written or spoken to her mother of, but only one that stood out recently.

"The invasion?"

Hippolyta nodded. "Yes, a horde of invaders from beyond the stars. One that infiltrated, suborned, sabotaged, and almost flat out conquered Man's World in a week once they revealed themselves." She paused and watched as Melanippe corrected some flaw in the Saiyan girl's technique. "If it had not been for you and the others only the Gods know what might have happened. And we knew nothing about it until it was all over."

"The Imperium was crafty, it's no surprise they managed to hide so well." Diana offered but her mother waved it off.

"That wasn't my point." She denied. "The world is changing again, Diana. Califa is by her own admission young and weak for her species, yet she wields strength similar to a lesser demigod in the old days. If an army of her manages to find its way to Themyscira? We would fall."

"I won't let that happen."

"Of course not, if you knew about it." Hippolyta agreed. "But that is the key of it, is it not? If we remain isolated, hidden from the rest of the world, who will we call for aid when the next invaders come for us? How will we know to prepare for war at the gates if the invaders land elsewhere?" She sighed. "No, we cannot remain isolated as we have been. I just hope the more stubborn of our Sisters realize that before it is too late."

Diana had nothing to say to that, since she also wanted more interaction between her home and Man's World. In the end the mother-daughter pair simply watched the training below in silence, contemplating what the future could hold for them.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
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[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 26

It was another perfect day in Themyscira.

The skies were clear, the water was calm, the kangaroos were frolicking in the fields, and several women could be seen trading at some street stall dotting the city of Amazons.

It was the very picture of paradise.

"Find her, sisters! And tell that brat when I get my hands on her, she'll be polishing the floors till her arms fall off!" An enraged shout shattered the idyllic atmosphere.

Over a dozen Amazons in full armor could be seen running through the streets, hunting down the focus of their leader's ire. Yet despite the armed warriors prowling the city and inspecting every nook and cranny, none of the bystanders seemed nervous about the behavior.

In fact some of them seemed greatly entertained by the whole thing.

"What do you think it is this time?" One of the shop vendors asked her customer.

"None of this batch have bows with them but they still have their quivers. My guess is that some weaponry has been 'relocated for training purposes'."

"Idmoroe wouldn't be so angry if that was the case." the vendor countered. "My guess is another artwork was 'accidentally' destroyed after a history lesson ran too long."

"Hmm, it has been a while since that happened, but no, if something was destroyed Idmoroe wouldn't be threatening polishing the floors. She would be keeping the girl as far from anything fragile as possible." The other woman mused. "Or perhaps not. I think we would all prefer if there was never another Horse/Kangaroo war. It took forever to get the hoofprints off the walls."

Several amazons listening in on the conversation shivered at the reminder of that particular incident.

Any further speculation was put on hold as one of the armored seekers jogged up to the stand. "Excuse me, sisters, have any of you seen the Outsider recently?" She asked, either oblivious to or deliberately ignoring the several disapproving frowns that formed in the gathering crowd.

"Not recently. Why, what's she done this time?"

The seeker looked mad enough to spit. "The Outsider convinced the Queen to put on one of those recorded plays from Man's World, some drivel by someone named Disney, to show us how the rest of the Outsiders remember our history." She explained. "It was the most ridiculous, inaccurate, and downright insulting bit of theater I have ever witnessed. Hardly any of the Gods were depicted accurately, the tone was all over the place, mighty trials, feats and deeds passed over as mere footnotes, and they even managed to get Herakles's name wrong!"

She shifted awkwardly. "The music was decent however."

"But! That wasn't all the Outsider did! While we were distracted she broke into the Pantheon and painted the visages of the Olympians to match the play! Lord Zeus is orange. Great Hera is reddish-pink!"

Several Amazons sucked in a breath and looked nervously to the skies, half expecting to see thick thunderclouds rolling across the skies, but there was no such thing in sight. Many of them decided the King of the Gods was either not offended by what had happened, or more likely had determined the Amazons themselves would have to deal with the matter.

"I see…" The vendor said slowly as she moved to close down her stall. "Well in that case perhaps it would be best if we all lended a hand to find our troublemaker and make sure she is properly punished for what she's done."

-o-

There was a large crash as an Amazon kicked in a door. The assailant swiftly strode into the room, spotted the single occupant, and pointed a sword at her.

"Where is she, Melanippe?!"

"Captain Idmoroe. Was that truly necessary?" The other woman sighed.

"I believe so. You've been growing closer to the Outsider despite our sisters' warnings. Obviously your judgment has been impaired." Idmoroe sniffed.

"The girl has been here for two years, you can say her name by now." Melanippe said, rolling her eyes. "I think it's become very clear Califa does not care if we consider her part of our community or not."

"We can have this debate later, we've already wasted enough time. Now tell me where she is hiding."

"I think you're misunderstanding our relationship, I'm her teacher not her minder." Melanippe huffed.

"Our faction allowed you to teach the Outsider specifically so you would be her minder!" Idmoroe snapped. "Have you abandoned your loyalty to your sisters because of one girl?"

There was a sudden blur of motion, a clang of metal, and Idmoroe's sword was ripped from her hand. Melanippe's own blade rested lightly on the guard captain's cuirass.

"Mind your tongue, captain." Melanippe whispered dangerously. "It's true I had similar feelings about the outside world as you and your circle, but it was the Queen that gave me my orders. Not any of you."

"T-that may be, but we still need to find the Outsider." Idmoroe stuttered. "She's gone too far this time and has defaced the Main Temple. We cannot allow her to escape punishment."

The combat instructor was stunned into silence. While Melanippe was no longer willing to alienate Califa simply because of her background or because of internal politics, that in no way translated into allowing the young Saiyan to have free reign on the island.

"Well that is important enough to go find her." Melanippe eventually said, moving about the room and gathering up her armor. "You said that no one knows where she is?"

"No one." The Guard Captain confirmed. "Not since before the incident."

"Gods damn it all, that means she has something else planned." Melanippe cursed. "Califa has never hidden away from one of her stunts, she must be using the chaos of the guards searching for her as a distraction for something."

-o-

It wasn't long before most of the island heard about what Califa had done and either joined in the hunt for the Saiyan or went on alert for the next act of chaos the girl had planned.

But as the day went on and there was no sign of the girl or what she had planned many of the Amazons were beginning to grow paranoid.

Subtle was not a word that could often be associated with the tailed menace, so when they didn't find her cackling in an open field daring the guards to fight her like she had when she had stolen Hippolyta's crown, most of the island realized whatever she had planned was going to be big.

Horse/kangaroo War big.

And at the thought of that, efforts to find the Saiyan and stop her redoubled. Themyscira moved almost to war footing in an attempt to find and stop whatever was going to happen, but no one could find any sign of her.

Hunting parties formed and started scouring the forests and countryside, guards started poking through vaults and storage rooms that had been undisturbed for years, and several Amazons debated interrupting the Queen's personal time with her daughter to ask Diana to assist them in the search.

Because while they found evidence that several malicious artifacts had been moved or started influencing their surroundings, a small cabal of Amazons conspiring with a coven of witches to engineer a plague targeting only men, and even a demonic summoning circle hidden in some of the more secluded areas of the island, there still was no sign of the Saiyan.

-o-

Eventually a group of guards conceded defeat and decided that admitting they were not good enough to track down a teenager was more important than letting whatever scheme she was in the middle of take them by surprise.

Lots were drawn and not long after one of them was chosen as the sacrificial goat, and left waiting for her queen in a secure room.

Unfortunately for the poor guard, she was left on her own for several minutes stewing in her own thoughts while the Queen finished whatever she was just doing.

"Hello Seda, I've managed to clear some time for this." Queen Hippolyta greeted the guard. "What emergency are we dealing with?"

"It's the girl, Califa, your Majesty." Seda replied. "I don't suppose you've heard about her latest stunt?"

"The 'movie' she wanted to show everyone?" Hippolyta asked. "Yes, I approved it even though I'm sure some of our stauncher traditionalists are foaming at the decision."

Seda winced. "I'm sure they are not pleased, but compared to what she did afterward I don't think many will mention it."

"What she did afterward?"

Seda described what Califa had done to the statues of their gods and the ongoing hunt for the Saiyan teen. She also brought up Melanippe's theory that that was just a distraction for some other disaster and the guard's inability to find her anywhere.

"...so that's why I found her outside the Temple." Hippolyta sighed and rubbed her brow. " I suppose it was too much to hope for that she was actually behaving for once. I'd hoped Diana's presence would influence her some more but it seems she is still acting like a child."

Seda very carefully did not mention that the queen seemed abnormally tolerant of Califa and that her behavior towards the girl had caused rumors that 'Wonder Mom' was looking for a second child. Instead she tried to move the conversation back to safer topics. "None of the priestesses have reported anything amiss, but if what she did angered the gods…"

Hippolyta huffed. "Considering I caught Califa with who I am now certain was Lord Hermes I doubt the gods will be angry. I assume the Temple's caretakers are already removing what she's done? Oh, when I get my hands on that girl…"

"You know where she is?!" Seda exclaimed, interrupting the queen's building tirade.

"I just said farewell to both her and my daughter not ten minutes ago. Both of them are heading back to the outside world for some time." The Queen confirmed. "Which makes the letter Califa left behind suddenly feel much more foreboding."

"A letter?"

"Yes, for her combat instructor apparently since she did not tell her she was leaving the island. Normally I'd call Melanippe here but if Califa really does have something brewing…" She trailed off as she unfolded the paper.

'Hey Mel,
I'm catching a ride back to the States with Wonder Woman. Planning on dropping in on the Sidekick Squad for a bit so I won't be around for lessons. Sorry for not giving you a headsup but it was kinda last minute.

P.S. Enjoy the surprise I left you. I was told both of them go really well together.'

Both Queen and Royal Guard sighed at the confirmation that there was a surprise waiting for them. One that apparently didn't need Califa there in person to set off.

And with the culprit having already made her escape, they had no clues to go on.

They just had to hope they stumbled across whatever surprise she had left behind before it was too late.

-o-

I idly hummed a song from the Hercules movie soundtrack as the Javelin left Themyscira behind us. I had forgotten how catchy some of those were.

"You seem like you're in a good mood." Wonder Woman commented from where she was piloting the ship. "Eager to meet up with the others?"

"A little bit." I shrugged. It had been a while since the last time I visited the Sidekicks but honestly I was more excited to put all my time training to the test. I had improved a lot over the past two years, I couldn't wait to see where I stood now.

I was so excited in fact that I had decided to only pull a minor prank on the Amazons before I left. Painting the gods to match the color scheme they had in the movie would annoy a few of them for sure but they could clean it up pretty quickly.

I just hoped that Mel enjoyed the two fish I had left in her kitchen before I left. Apparently they tasted really good but were hard to find.

I'd have to snag a couple for myself the next time I visited to see if they were really that good.

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[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 27

"I really missed this…" I sighed as I took another bite of my el Fuego Inferno Fire Burger.

Amazon cooking was great, but they had a severe lack of certain spices I had taken a liking too. So every time I left the island I made a point to stop at Central City and visit a local burger joint the Flash had taken me to a couple times.

They also didn't really do 'fried' foods very often…or even all that well. I blamed the lack of potatoes.

"Hey, Kid. Back from your tropical island vacation house?" A red blur whooshed into the other side of the booth which, unsurprisingly, turned out to be the Flash. Who immediately stole one of my fries.

"Hey! Those are mine!" I protested, doing my best to simultaneously cram the rest of my burger in my mouth, guard my fries, and glare at the evil speedster. Seriously, why were all the members of the Justice League secretly evil?!

"Didn't see your name on it." Flash said smugly, casually stealing another fry and ignoring my glare.

"Hah, serves you right for stealing my food all the time." his sidekick sniped from the side as he zipped over with two other platters of food.

"Shut up, Speedy!"

"It's Kid Flash! Kid. Flash. Why is that so hard to remember?!" the redhead complained but I just rolled my eyes at him. It was his fault for picking such a dumb name.

"Whatever. So what's up? Unless you just came by to steal my food." I directed my attention back to the Flash.

"What, I can't just swing by to say hello? What happened to the cute little alien girl that just wanted to play tag with me all day?" Flash faked a sniffle.

I just grumbled under my breath about cheating speedsters and their unfair amount of stamina. Yes, I was much faster thanks to my workouts with the Flash and his sidekick, but that didn't mean I was any closer to matching his speed without flying and even then he left me in the dust.

"Anyway," The Scarlet Speedster continued slightly more seriously. "We were on our way to grab a bite and I saw you in the window. You split with Wonder Woman for the day?"

I shrugged, casually scratching at my shins. They had been really bugging me lately along with some other places. "She has some sort of meeting between ambassadors going on so I decided to explore by myself for a few weeks."

"A few weeks? Wait, does that mean you aren't going back to Themyscira for a while?!" Kid Flash jumped in.

"Wasn't planning on it." Not that I actually had much planned for my trip away from the island. And most of the things I did have planned boiled down to 'go to X city and poke around for something interesting to do'.

"Cool, Rob's been waiting to surprise you for weeks. Let me know when you head to Gotham because I have to see the look on your face." Kid Flash said excitedly.

Birdbrain had a surprise for me? That was ominous.

But before I could interrogate ask him about that, Flash raised a hand to his ear as some kind of alert came in on what I assumed was an earbud under his mask.

In less than a blink of an eye Flash had gathered up his food and was out of his seat. "Sorry kids, there's a chemical fire on the other side of town. I've gotta run."

"Whoa, hold up!" Kid Flash cried. "What about me? I'll come too!"

"No way," Flash shook his head. "This is too dangerous to take kids into, your parents would kill me. But hey, if you're looking for something to do, a silent alarm just went off in a jewelry store on 4th and Jefferson. Think you can handle that? Yes? Cool, I'll meet up with you later. Catch you later, shortstuff."

And just like that he was gone.

I watched with amusement as Kid Flash slouched on the table and used superspeed just so he could keep pouting without taking a long time to finish his food.

Once he was done, he grabbed all the trash and started leaving. "Alright, I've gotta run. Bad guys to catch and all that. I'll see you around Cali."

"Ah! Wait!" I called after him, gathering up my own stuff. "I wanna play with you when you're done!"

For some reason he started moving faster when I said that.

-o-

In the end it didn't matter if Kid Flash ran off on me. I knew where he was going and I could fly while he had to run around buildings and cars and stuff. I ended up meeting him just as he showed up with a smug smile plastered on my face.

"I wiiin~" I taunted even as he ignored me and pretended to focus on the store.

"Looks like just one robber and no hostages." He said, mostly to himself. "Guess that means I'll have this taken care of in a flash."

"Boo." I complained at Kid Flash's pun. He tried ignoring me again and threw open the door to the store.

"Alright, hold it right there–" Kid Flash cut off and I floated over his shoulder to see why. Instead of a normal thief like either of us was probably expecting, there was a man in a weird green and orange suit. And I say weird because the orange parts were somehow translucent so you could see the shadows of the green parts right through him!

"– Mirror Master." KF finished, shifting position so he was ready to move in any direction.

"Well now, if it isn't the sidekick and the alien girl." Mirror Master drawled. "Is Flash running late?"

"Hah, I'm more than enough to take you down." Kid Flash boasted. "Besides, a jewelry store? Seems a little low end for you, Mirror Master. But I guess crime doesn't pay as well as it used to."

"I'm just tagging along." I added, not really paying attention to the whole thing. While Flash was fun to hang around, most of his villains tended to be on the 'techy and clever' side of things. They usually had some neat stuff, but a solid hit would put them down for the count like what happened with Captain Popsicle.

Since then I'd seen Flash fight the Trickster and Australiaman and neither one of them changed my mind about that. They had cool gadgets and skills…but were still just human.

"Crime pays very well actually." Mirror Master replied to KF. "But every once and a while you just have to respect the classics." Ah, another villain who paid attention to the type of job they did instead of something stupid like how big a payday they would get or how useful it was to them.I could respect that. "Of course I can never get enough diamond focusing lenses. So, two birds, one stone."

Ah, nevermind then.

Mirror Master took a step to the side and suddenly there were two of him. Then those took a step and there were four.

I blinked as the store was suddenly flooded with copies of the villain. That was actually pretty cool. I wished I could do that – wait! The multiform technique was a thing, I could do that! The only question was how…

"Sorry kids, I don't have time to play around. But hey, I'm a fair guy. I'll give you a chance to hit the real me. What do ya say?"

Kid Flash shifted to a more aggressive stance. "I say bring it on!" And then he rushed the first group of clones. Predictably his fist went through all of them before they faded to nothing.

"Oooh, sorry sidekick. Tough luck, maybe next time. Now it's my turn." Every clone said at once and pulled out a pair of high-tech looking pistols. Since Mirror Master's whole thing seemed to be holograms and stuff I was only expecting the two guns the real one had to actually do anything but as I watched Kid Flash duck and dive through an onslaught of laserbeams I was surprised to see every single beam did damage to what they hit.

Remembering the lessons Mel beat into me every chance she got, I made sure to dodge any beams that looked like they were going to hit me even though I was pretty sure I'd be fine even if they did and watched KF flail around at all the clones.

None of the Mirror Masters seemed concerned about what he was doing at all so I guessed he wasn't close to hitting the real one.

"Need to do better than that, sidekick." Mirror Master taunted as Kid Flash punched another clone. He must have been getting frustrated, cause he overcommitted to the punch and left himself open to a shot that hit him in the side, knocking him over and practically through a display stand.

"You okay, KF?" I couldn't help but call out. Yeah, he was a little annoying but I didn't want him dead or something.

"...Yeah…gonna feel that one in the morning." The redhead called back, flinching and holding his side as he tried to get back on his feet. "...A little help?"

"Oh, is it the alien girl's turn now?" The Mirror Masters all turned to face me. "Think you can find the real one when your friend couldn't?"

I shrugged. "Don't have to find the real one if I just hit all of them." I cupped my hands together in front of me and focused. A sphere of Ki formed and before any of the clones could react, I started shooting smaller Ki blasts at each of them like a machine gun.

"How's that?!" I cheered as the dust settled. None of the blasts were all that powerful, but that many had to have hit the real…one…

"...huh?"

I looked around at the empty store in confusion. I definitely hit all of them so how come…?

"That was dangerous…" My head snapped towards the side of the store where I saw Mirror Master casually sitting on what was left of a counter. Considering he looked completely fine and not even a little nervous about the fact I had shot a few hundred Ki blasts at him I was pretty sure this was another clone. "Still, it was better than what your friend tried, but I'm afraid I don't have time to play with you kids anymore. Who knows? Maybe next time you'll be good enough to play with the big leagues…"

I cut him off with another Ki blast through the chest and just like I thought it went right through him. I snarled as more clones appeared and began shooting at not only me, but Kid Flash as well.

Kid Flash was able to zip around dozens of lasers and punch out a few clones before running back to my side. I managed to dodge most of them but got hit with a couple when I slowed down to fire back at the copies. They didn't do much beyond burning some holes in my clothes, which was sure to get me in trouble with Wonder Woman later – I didn't have too many spares that weren't my armor and she preferred me to wear the outfits the Amazons gave me when out in public. Whatever, I'd deal with that later.

"This guy is a serious pain in the tail!" Another three copies faded to nothing, only to be replaced seconds later.

"Yeah, this would be a whole lot easier if we could just sense where the real one was." KF complained as he ducked another laser.

I froze in midair after he said that. A few more lasers hit me but I didn't react to them. I was too busy facepalming with embarrassment.

"STUPID!"

"Whaah!"

I ignored Kid Flash's shout of surprise and focused on my Ki sense that I hadn't been paying attention to like an idiot.

Unsurprisingly, there were a bunch of people in the area even though the fight had been going on for a few minutes now. I could ignore the ones in the surrounding buildings or too far away, but there were two Ki signatures nearby and one of them was Kid Flash.

The other one was right behind me, and even though I couldn't see anything I trusted my Ki sense and shot a blast at the seemingly empty area.

The little yellow orb exploded on something and another Mirror Master was thrown to the ground. It didn't take a genius to figure out this was the real one. It just took a stupid Saiyan that literally forgot she could sense people. Ugh, if anyone knew about this, I'd never live it down.

"Woah, you got him?!" KF exclaimed. "How'd you know he was there?"

"I don't wanna talk about it." I grumped. "C'mon let's tie him up and get going. You owe me a game of tag."

"You can't just leave me hanging like that, Cali. Come on, tell me! Cali? Cali!"

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[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 28

Even several days after splitting up with the Flashes I was still annoyed that Mirror Master almost slipped by me.

I knew part of it was because I wasn't really taking him seriously but most of it was because I had gotten used to only paying attention to my Ki sense when I was training with it or specifically thinking about it. Probably a bad habit I should break before I messed up with someone more threatening than a guy that used illusions to rob jewelry stores.

Which meant I needed to find a way of training myself to think of Ki sense just like my sight or hearing including how to react to what that sense was telling me in combat.

Which meant I couldn't know someone was coming to fight me or it'd defeat the purpose. Like learning to fight in the dark by waiting until your eyes adjusted and then training. I mean, yeah, eventually you would learn how to do it, but you'd waste so much time. And it wouldn't even train you for sudden changes like if someone turned the lights off suddenly.

And I've spent way too much time thinking about that metaphor.

What was worse is that I couldn't really figure out a way for any of the heroes I knew to help with that part of my training. None of them would have the free time to ambush me randomly throughout the day to make sure I was paying attention and that was assuming that they agreed to do that in the first place.

That left either villains or normal thugs. And coming up with a way to make them come to me first…

Actually, that gave me an idea.

-o-

"Miss Califa, this is a surprise. I hadn't expected to hear from you after losing contact for a couple years." the distorted voice of TotallyNot!Luthor said through a screen. "I heard a rumor that you were joining the more heroic side?" He let the question hang, clearly expecting a response.

"Wonder Woman agreed to train me and teach me a couple things." I shrugged.

"And she is okay with you searching for this kind of work?"

"I mean, I'm not allowed to go looking for anything villainous anymore," I pouted said, "but she never said anything about honest mercenary work." Kinda an oversight on her part, but I wasn't complaining. Much.

"...I see. If her restrictions bother you that much I'm sure that we could find some alternate trainers that meet your needs."

I raised an eyebrow. "You can find someone as strong and skilled as Wonder Woman and an island full of Amazons…Amazonians?...and just as willing to teach me as much as I want?"

"...no." TotallyNot!Luthor said reluctantly. "But I'm sure we could arrange something in the future if it comes to it. Now then, you were interested in some other work?"

"Sure, I was looking for something where people would come to fight me." I explained. "But not in a way where it's super obvious they're going to fight me."

"That's…not really a job we could offer, or that anyone offers as far as I'm aware." TotallyNot!Luthor sounded perplexed. "But perhaps guard detail on some merchandise that has a high likelihood of being stolen? It would fit you're restriction of keeping to less…unsavory activity and is something you have done for us before."

I shrugged again. "Sure, that'll work."

"Excellent. We will contact you in a moment once we have a job." TotallyNot!Luthor said. "Keep in mind, we will be expecting some cooperation on your end in the future if you want more of these special considerations."

"Yeah, that's fine." I could always just ignore them if they asked me to do something I didn't want to.

-o-

I had to give Luthor – or the team he had that actually ran the mercenary work – some credit. They actually did manage to find a way to get me what I wanted.

Usually it meant guarding some kind of crate or warehouse in really rundown areas where the local gangs were willing to try stealing whatever I was protecting despite me just hanging out in the open.

On a related note, I was getting really good at dodging when someone tried shooting me in the back of the head.

Of course that couldn't last forever, and after like a week I started getting a reputation so less people tried stealing the stuff I was looking after, which meant I moved on to slightly bigger, more valuable things. Pretty sure at one point I was ambushed by the Russian Mafia, though that was mostly because they tried to hit me with a molotov cocktail and shot at me with a bunch of AK-47s.

Now I was back on the West Coast sitting on a crate full of chemicals in what I was sure was a Triad controlled dock waiting to see if they were actually going to try something this time instead of just poking around and running off when I caught them looking.

I was tempted to just leave and wait for them to actually try something before coming back to beat them because I had mostly gotten the hang of using my Ki sense but not paying attention to it and I was getting bored doing the same thing over and over again.

Maybe it was time to–

"This is who has my men running scared? Some little girl?" A heavily accented voice cut through my musing.

I looked over to see a pretty short guy in a suit walking up with two more goons at his back. Besides the scar over one eye he looked like a lot of the Triad guys I had chased off lately. Slicked back hair, super gaudy shirt opened so you could see his chest, and walked like he was being held up by one shoulder.

The aviator glasses were kinda cool though.

"When my boys told me this stash was being watched by some kinda super I was expectin' someone like the Archer, but you're just a brat, ain't ya?"

"Uhm, can I help you?"

He nodded in an overly exaggerated way. "You could move outta the way and let my boys through. Do that and we won't have problems. Or you can try and stop us and I'll have to rough you up."

Well today had been pretty boring anyway.

"Counteroffer, if you can beat me you can take whatever you want." I said as a smile started to grow on my face. "I beat you, your goons leave this stuff alone until my job's done."

The guy laughed followed by the two following him. "Hoh? You think you can take on Tatsu the 'Immortal Dragon' all by yourself? You've got guts if nothing else kid."

"Thanks?" I replied, settling into a stance. I was pretty sure this guy was just a normal human though, so I wasn't going to get my hopes up.

"Haaah!" Tatsu roared and rushed me.

He wasn't bad.

Very aggressive, but not sloppy about it. I ducked one punch and had to block another, then I had to jump over a foot sweep and catch a roundhouse punch follow up with the back of my forearm.

I swapped the block to a grab and used that to pull myself close enough that I could springboard off his chest and gain some distance. He staggered a bit, but recovered easily.

"She stopped Tatsu's 'Dragon Rush'! Unbelievable!" One of the goons whispered in a way that everyone on the street heard him anyway.

"It doesn't matter. Tatsu has more than that up his sleeve." his friend replied.

"Heh, not bad, kid. You have skills." Tatsu smirked. "But I have more than that up my sleeve."

I sighed. Did he not hear his buddy already say that?

"If you say so. But now it's my turn!"

I kicked off the ground and ran towards his left side before sliding under a kick that would have caught me in the face. Tatsu was already moving to recover from the miss when I heard him make a sound of confusion.

I grinned.

He wasn't expecting me to hook his leg with my tail and use it to pull myself back to where I started. Now I was at his back and he must be thinking I had just disappeared. Up until I jumped up and kicked him in the back of the head, anyway.

""Boss!"" Tatsu's two goons cried out as he hit the pavement.

"Well, that was fun." I said, brushing off my hands and looking at the other gangsters. "Now take him and get out of here and don't come back, kay? Shoo, shoo."

"Heh, celebrating your victory a little early aint ya, brat?" ""Boss!"" "I'm not called the Immortal Dragon for nothing, gonna take more than a love tap to take me out."

I turned back to Tatsu, actually a little impressed he was still conscious after that hit. The fact that he managed to stand up without swaying was even more amazing.

"Huh, you're not bad, old man." I complimented him.

"You gotta respect your elders, brat." Tatsu scowled. "And I'm not old, I'm only twenty seven."

Really? Huh, I thought he was at least in his thirties.

"Enough of that though." He continued. "I think we've tested each other enough now. You ready to end it?"

"Sure thing," I got back in my stance. "And since you made it this far I'll show you the new technique I just picked up."

"A new technique, huh? Alright, let's see it…"

Both of us stared at each other, waiting for someone to make the first move. One wrong twitch could be the difference between victory and defeat. The asphalt crunched as one of the goons shifted his feet and both of us took that as the start signal.

I tensed and prepared to unleash my new technique as Tatsu fell forward to rush me–

–And then kept falling as a bright red boxing glove arrow cracked him across the jaw and knocked him out.

I used a foot to stop the gangster from sliding into me and looked up just in time to see the two goons get caught in an electrified green bolas arrow that knocked them out too and for another two figures to drop down from one of the nearby crate towers.

"Yo, Califa!" The red one called as they walked up. "I heard from KF you were back in the States. What are you doing all the way out here?"

I looked back down to the unconscious gang member I was fighting and sighed. "Not having a fun fight with the local Triad member, apparently. What's up, Red Arrow?"

"That's not my name." He scowled. Good, now he was just as annoyed as I was for having my fight interrupted.

"I dunno, I kinda like it." His mentor commented, giving his sidekick a nudge with his elbow. "It's got a good ring to it if you ever want to rebrand from Speedy."

I smirked. "See? Arrowman likes it."

"Yea–Hey!"

"Alright, that was kinda funny." Speedy begrudgingly admitted. "But seriously, why are you out here picking fights with Triad members?"

"Cause it's fun?" I looked at him like he was being stupid. I mean, why else would I pick a fight with normal humans. They usually weren't all that interesting otherwise.

"Tsk, right. Forgot who I was talking to."

And what was that supposed to mean!

"Whoa, whoa, calm down you two." Green Arrow interrupted before I could do more than bristle at Speedy's comment. "We're still on the job here. You two can fight later if you want."

"Job?" I asked.

"Yeah, someone's been smuggling some nasty chemicals lately and we got a lead that they might be coming through the docks here." Green Arrow explained. "Just need to find the right crate…" he said, before walking away looking at the shipping containers as he went, Speedy following after.

"That's cool, just stay away from the one marked Medtech." I called after them.

Both of them stopped and turned to me.

"Medtech is the one we're here to investigate. Why are you saying we should stay away from that one?" Speedy demanded.

I shrugged. "Cause I was hired to make sure no one goes through it when they shouldn't."

"Califa, that container could be smuggling things to make all kinds of illegal drugs!" Speedy snapped. "Why are you protecting it?!"

"Cause I was hired to, stupid."

"Okay Speedy, chill. This is a good thing." Green Arrow tried calming his sidekick down. "Califa, right? Mind showing us the container?"

"Are you going to go through it?"

"Well, it'd be hard to tell if they were smuggling things otherwise."

"Then nope. Can't let you investigate private property without a warrant." I smirked.

Speedy groaned and Green Arrow looked flabbergasted that I was stopping them.

"Wha? – Come on, kid. We're heroes!"

I shrugged. "Sorry, job's a job. Wonder Woman told me I needed to take pride in my work."

"This is because I knocked out that gang member, isn't it?" Speedy questioned, dragging a hand down his face.

I mean, he wasn't totally wrong.

"So, what's it going to be?" I asked, shaking out my hands and hopping from foot to foot. "You going to leave or are we going to have some fun?"

The two archers shared a look and simultaneously pulled an arrow from their quivers and aimed at me.

"I was hoping you'd say that."

----------------------------------------------------------------------
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[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 29

"You know you guys are going to need to kick it up a notch if you actually want to beat me!" I taunted as I flipped over another trick arrow.

Of course as soon as I said that a green arrow sparking with electricity almost hit me in the chest and only a quick twitch let me pluck it out of the air and throw it back toward the Emerald Archer's sidekick.

"Stop doing that!" Speedy shouted as he dove out of the way.

"No!" I called back.

In order to make the fight more interesting I decided I was only going to use their own arrows to attack.

It was actually really fun because I didn't always know what was going to pop out of each arrow. So far I'd seen boxing gloves, bolas, tasers, and some sort of glue arrows, not to mention some more explosive ones.

Both of them stopped using the last type pretty quickly after I managed to snag one and almost hit Green Arrow in the face with it.

And then there were the trick shots!

Sometimes it was something simple like an arrow curving instead of going straight, or ricocheting off the ground or a storage container. And then sometimes they got weird.

I wasn't even talking about how they sometimes randomly shot straight up and then herded me into its path by predicting my dodges. Those failed spectacularly more times than they worked. I was talking about the times they would ricochet an arrow off three surfaces so it was coming at me from the opposite side they shot from and then shoot that with another arrow that had some crazy combination effects.

The two part expanding foam was particularly nasty. The stuff hardened almost instantly and looked really sticky on top of that. They were both lucky I didn't get my tail stuck in it or I was going to hang them from a flagpole by thier underwear.

"C'mon Kid, you could be helping the bad guys here!" Green Arrow tried again, even as he shot another arrow.

"I still don't see a warrant, Arrowman!"

"The judge is so far in everyone's pocket he golfs with the biggest crime names in the area! No way is anyone getting a warrant without tipping everyone off!"

"Sounds like a 'you' problem."

"..."

"She makes it a lot easier to kick her ass when she acts like that, huh?" Speedy snarked from the side.

I smirked at him. "Is that what you're trying to do? Cause you suck at it."

Yeah that wiped that annoying smirk off his face. Good.

He reached back for another arrow only to come up short when it turned out he had nothing left. Guess that means our game was pretty much over.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

"Out of arrows then? Guess that means I win. Better luck next time, or when you have a warrant I guess."

Speedy scowled harder. "I can still hit you with my bow." He said, gripping the weapon like a staff and stomping forward.

I was actually tempted to let him try, just to see what would happen when Green Arrow pulled him back by his shoulder.

"Whoa, hey, calm down, Speedy" The archer waved down his sidekick. Not that the redhead was following his suggestion.

"Calm down? For all we know everything we need to prove Medtech is smuggling drugs into the city is in that crate, and we're being stonewalled by a muscle brained idot with a tail!" he raged. "Why aren't YOU more upset about this?!"

"Hey!"

"I mean, if we were trying to get into that crate then, yeah, I'd be upset." Green Arrow shrugged. "But! This time we're just the distraction. So its all good."

Wait, what?
"Wait, what?!"

Both Speedy and I stared at the blonde haired man with the same thought, even if Speedy was the one to actually blurt it out loud, and then my head snapped over to the shipping container I was supposed to be guarding.

At some point during the fight, the door had been opened enough for someone to slip into the container. That by itself was probably enough to make me fail the job.

The fact that Batman was standing next to it with a bunch of papers and what I suspected was a sample of whatever Green Arrow thought they were smuggling?

Yeah, I wasn't getting paid for this job.

"We were a distraction?! Why didn't you tell me?" Speedy demanded while I was mourning the loss of a paycheck and the trip to a Brazilian steakhouse I had planned for it.

All that delicious meat…lost because I didn't expect the goddamn Batman on the other side of the country working with another hero.

"Relax, Speedy. Bats was out here getting my reply on joining their little club. When I told him about the drug smuggling issue, he decided to help out."

"Wait, we're joining the Justice League?!"

Green Arrow rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "I'm joining the League – we talked about it and everyone agrees. You and your friends are a little too young for that yet."

"I– you– I can't believe this…" Speedy snapped. "I'm out of here!"

And on that note the hot-headed archer stormed off leaving me with the two older heroes.

"You should go after him." Batman suggested after he stalked over and handed Green Arrow the things he took out of the container.

"It's fine. He just needs some time to cool off." The Archer waved it off. "Besides, I need to get these to the right people if we want them to be worth anything." He said, raising the papers a bit before turning to me. "Uh, we're not going to have an issue with that, are we?"

"No, you won't." Batman said like it was a fact.

And he wasn't exactly wrong. Even if I felt like taking the stuff Green Arrow had back, Batman probably had a copy somewhere anyway.

"Great." Green Arrow started walking away. "Then I'll catch you later, Bats. Oh, and Kid, try not taking jobs for the bad guys okay? Cause the idea of fighting you for real one day is really, really scary."

"No promises." I quipped. "Besides, I wanna fight you and Speedy again sometime. I'll count this time as a draw because you got to the container so we'll settle it next time."

Green Arrow shuddered. "Really, really scary." he repeated and slipped between two containers leaving me alone with Batman.

…I'm in danger.

"Right! So I'm just gonna go–"

"Follow me."

I slumped forward. "–follow you, yeah…that…"

-o-

I was fully expecting a lecture about what I was doing delivered at the end of a Batglare, but to my surprise I was quietly herded into the Batmobile instead.

Ten silent minutes later, followed by probably the funniest trip through a drive through I've ever seen, we were sitting at a park bench going through a small mountain of food.

And Batman still hadn't called me out on what I'd been doing.

Weird.

This was weird.

And for some reason I really didn't want to ask why he wasn't saying anything.

"...So…not that I mind the food or anything," I finally cracked. "But what are you doing?"

"You've been taking security jobs on the black market." He said instead.

Dammit.

"I mean, yeah, I kinda needed it for training…and they were legit jobs! Just, you know, through the black market…" I rambled.

Batman nodded once.

"And it's not like I could just–"

"Califa."

That one word shut me up.

"I'm not mad." Oh great Oozaru, it's the 'I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed' speech! WHY? He's not my dad! "You had a problem and found a solution." He continued. "And you did so while respecting most of the rules Wonder Woman and I asked you to agree to."

"...Okay?" So he wasn't disappointed? Now I'm confused.

"You're bored. So you're looking for ways to fix that while respecting the boundaries the League decided on. That you chose to do it in a way that didn't hurt innocents and got you what you wanted shows your growth in maturity over the past few years."

And now there were compliments?! "I– uh..." I squirmed.

"In the future, try not to hinder other heroes. If it becomes an issue, contact me. We'll set something up."

"Okay…?" I was so freaking lost.

Batman just nodded again, stood, and jumped back into the Batmobile, leaving me with a pile of food, a bigger pile of questions, and the feeling that my brain was overheating.

-o-

"So you talked to her?" Wonder Woman's voice asked over the hum of the Batmobile's powerful engine.

"I did."

"And you didn't say anything about her working for criminals? That seems unlike you."

Batman scowled. He didn't like that Califa was working with the underworld even through the mostly harmless 'gray-zone' security jobs. Unfortunately the Green Lantern's info suggested young Saiyans would nearly always search out ways to test themselves, usually through violence, and trying to restrict those activities when they had no alternative to offer might end up pushing the girl away.

The training with the Amazons had obviously done wonders for the Saiyan's self-control but while most of them were still clearly more skilled than the young teen, few of them could match her in power.

Too many restrictions – too many rules – might have her looking at crossing a line none of the heroes wanted for her.

"She followed the guidelines we set when we asked her to trust us." He deflected. "Changing them just because she found an interpretation we didn't like and punishing her wouldn't help."

"I agree." Wonder Woman said unsurprisingly. "I just thought you would push her to work with the heroes more."

"We don't have the infrastructure yet. Or the time to set it up. The fact you are letting Califa run around the country while you're doing your ambassador duties is proof of that."

Besides, Batman didn't want Califa to be a hero.

If she reigned in her more chaotic, childish side, she would probably be a fantastic one, but this job took a toll. He didn't want to see another child dragged into the fight against crime when they had the chance to live a more normal life.

He already felt like a failure for being unable to stop Dick from dedicating his life to the fight. Not after he lost his parents to a gangster and vowed not to let it happen to anyone else. He didn't want to push another into that hell just because she was powerful.

"You think it was a mistake?"

"No, she'd have run off on her own anyway."

"But you think I should have done something."

If possible Batman would have liked her to assign Califa someone who could come with her on her jaunts off the island. It would give the girl someone that could keep up with her. But from what he understood the list of Amazons that could really push Califa in strength was already small. The list of those willing to leave the Island was limited to just Wonder Woman.

"The Watchtower is going to be completed tomorrow. Will you be able to step away from your responsibilities?" He changed the subject.

"...yes, I'll be there." Wonder Woman sighed.

"Truthfully I'm a little excited to see what you've been building. It sounds incredibly impressive." She continued with a more upbeat tone. "I'm also looking forward to seeing our friends in one place again. It's been a while."

"Mhmm." Batman hummed as a notice beeped on his dash. "I've got to go. A silent alarm just tripped on a robbery."

"Of course. I'll see you tomorrow then." There was a small click as the call disconnected.

The Batmobile's engine roared louder as the Dark Knight sped through the city streets.

It might not be Gotham but as long as he was nearby, criminals would learn they weren't beyond the reach of Justice.

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[Azura]

Growing Pains - Chapter 30

"...it was just really uncomfortable, you know? Like I kept waiting for some super strict lecture or arguments I wouldn't be able to say anything against, but just never happened." I whispered to Birdbrain from where I was sitting. Didn't want the people nearby overhearing this.

"Nmhmm." Robin hummed, stretching weirdly like he was trying to fly without actually leaving the ground.

"I mean, that's not a bad thing." I continued. "I'd take being told I did a good job over getting yelled at any day of the week. But I, like, spent so much time expecting it that when it didn't happen I actually felt disappointed. Is that weird?"

Birdbrain kept doing his stretching thing. To the point he was actually looking down his nose at me now. "Nah, I get it. You got worked up to defend yourself, and it was all for nothing. Been there before." He said, stepping closer and clearing his throat.

"...maybe. Still, it beats getting glared at like that guy." I looked over to where Batman was interrogating a man by hanging him one handed over the side of a building by the man's foot and demanding answers with a really scary look on his face.

I shivered.

Yeah, I'd prefer awkward and confusing talks over the batglare.

"Most things do." Birdbrain shrugged while staring down his nose at me.

Okay, this was getting annoying.

"What are you doing?" I finally asked. "Cause it looks really weird and you're starting to freak me out. Is this some weird sickness I haven't heard about?"

Robin glared at me. "No, stupid. Look closely, notice anything different about me?"

I gave him a quick lookover. Besides his weird posture he looked exactly the same as the last time I saw him a few months ago. But obviously there was something important I was missing if he was bringing it up.

"You got…a new…cape?" I guessed uncertainly.

"...seriously?"

"Uh, I mean, new belt! Yeah, looks much better than your old one…"

"..."

"...new haircut?"

That wasn't the right thing to say either because he slumped in on himself and let out a really long sigh.

"No you monkey-brained – anyway, since you couldn't tell on your own, I'll just have to clue you in." He straightened up and smiled in a way that immediately made me want to punch him. "For your information, I'm now taller than you."

Huh?

I looked him over again but it was kinda hard to judge while I was sitting down, so I got up and stood next to him. And yeah, he was now a solid inch, inch-and-a-half taller than me now.

Okay, I saw what he was doing now.

"That's cool I guess?" I replied lightly and tilted my head. "So what?"

"..."

I almost ruined the whole thing by bursting into laughter at the sight of Birdbrain trying to figure out if I was being serious about not knowing what he meant, especially because he didn't really seem to know how to explain why I should be mad about it. Totally worth playing dumb for.

Best part was, when he tried to explain I just raised an eyebrow and flew a couple inches higher than him. Turning him into a spluttering mess and me into a cackling hyena. Flying really does make the whole 'I'm taller than you' card completely worthless.

An impatient cough from behind me instantly stopped that though.

I turned to face Batman, who was apparently done with his interrogation and standing right behind us, and snapped to attention. I was mildly amused to see Birdbrain do the same thing next to me.

"I have the location. Let's go." Was all he said before turning on a heel and stalking off.

Robin scampered after him while I moved a bit slower. The only reason Batman was letting me tag along was because I promised to hang back and not draw attention to myself, which was a bit boring. But on the other hand I got to watch him do his whole stealthy ninja thing.

It was always fun learning more of that.

But anyway, the whole reason for the interrogation was because Batman had heard from one of his League friends that a bunch of thieves had stolen something from an out of town museum. Not normally the kind of thing that would be a big deal, but apparently the thing the thieves had run off with was actually a magical artifact from somewhere that could rip open dimensional portals or something.

You didn't need to be a genius to figure out that letting a bunch of thieves hold onto that was a bad idea at best, Apokoliptic at worst. Literally.

I didn't want some random person summoning Darkseid to Earth until I got waaaay stronger.

-o-

As it turned out, the thieves had holed up in a safehouse of one of the local crime bosses, though 'safehouse' was stretching it a little. The place was a mansion!

And they were definitely expecting trouble because I could sense guards moving all over the place.

Of course none of them would be able to stop me, especially since I could just fly up to the roof or a window. Didn't seem to stop Batman much either, because he guided the two of us through their security like it almost wasn't even there.

It was actually pretty neat to see because I thought it would all be about sticking to the darkest shadows and stuff, but he hid us in places where lights would mess up the guards' night vision so even if they looked right at us, they couldn't see us.

Between that and just generally sneaking around, it took the three of us all of five minutes to find a door and slip inside without anyone knowing we were here. And that included the thirty seconds it took Birdbrain to pick the lock.

Once we were inside it was much less about slipping around unnoticed and more about searching the mansion fast enough that no one could sound the alarm and run. According to Batman's source there were three places the stolen artifact would probably be. Inside the main office, because the owner had a hidden safe in there, somewhere. The garage, because they could easily move their stuff if needed. Or on the thieves themselves, cause they didn't trust the people they were hiding with to not just take the artifact for themselves.

My bet was on that last one but we had to search everywhere anyway.

Well, Batman and Robin did.

I had no clue how to go around searching for hidden treasure without just blowing the place up and hoping I found it, and randomly blowing up magical things I knew nothing about was probably a bad idea. So I just stayed out of the way while they worked while keeping an eye out for any guards coming to check the areas we were in.

Sure enough while we did find a bunch of stuff I'm sure Batman was going to enjoy handing over to his police friends later, we didn't find the thing we were here for in the garage or office. So that meant it was up to me to find out which of the people in the mansion were the ones we were after. And turns out? Wasn't that hard.

All I had to do was point out each group of ki signatures not obviously on patrol and check to see if they were who we were looking for.

We were three groups down before I realized there was a group hiding in an area that didn't seem to have a door to it. Then it was just a matter of time before Batman found a secret entrance that let us sneak up on them without much trouble.

"...guys sure it's supposed to glow when you touch this?"

"It's some ancient Greek doodad. Who knows what it's supposed to do."

"Yeah, for all we know it's Wonder Woman's diary. The important thing is that it's worth millions. As soon as we get a hold of our buyer? We're set for life."

While the crime fighting duo prepared to enter the room, I heard the thieves talking. So they didn't actually know what they stole? That seemed stupid. That's how you ended up getting cursed or releasing sealed up demons.

"I dunno, why'd we have to pick Gotham as the handover point anyway? What's gonna happen if the Batman shows up?" The nervous one said. "And you sure this won't give us, like, super-cancer or something?"

"He won't show up." one of the thieves said confidently. "The Bat is good, but we did this out of town and kept our heads down the whole time. No one's gonna know where we are or what we have until we're long gone. And really? Super-cancer? That's not a thing."

I grinned at the timing, because the looks on their faces when Batman walked around the corner with me and Birdbrain right behind him were priceless.

"You have something that doesn't belong to you."

Even funnier than the 'we-are-so-screwed' faces all of them had were the desperate scrambles by two of the thieves to pull some kind of handgun, only for Batman and Birdbrain to knock it out of their hands immediately with one of their boomerang things.

The third guy, the one holding what I assumed was the artifact, was a little smarter because he didn't move when I pointed a finger at him, a tiny ball of yellow Ki sitting menacingly on the tip.

"...no one's gonna know, huh?" one of them muttered, rubbing his sore hand.

"Shut up, Perry."

"Sorry guys, better luck never." Birdbrain mocked. "Now, you wanna give up nice and easy or do we have to beat you up first."

The smart one looked between us, his two buddies, and the artifact. "...nah, you got us. Don't really feel like getting my teeth knocked out right now." and tossed the artifact to me.

He really was the smart one of the bunch.

I caught the thing and looked it over. Thanks to all the time on Themyscira I had a pretty good idea of what their stuff looked like and this definitely would have fit right in.

At first glance it was a flat bronze disk with some really intricate night themed carvings on it. Two girls standing under a tree looking up at the night sky. The use of sapphires as stars was also a pretty neat touch too, especially since they seemed to glow on their own.

I guess that was what the guy was talking about.

Turning it over I saw it was actually a mirror. Of course instead of glass it looked like someone had taken a bunch of silver and pounded it really flat. Oh hey, this side was glowing t—

-Robin POV-

Robin's jaw dropped open as he watched the annoying Saiyan girl who had been following them all night get swallowed up by a bright silver beam coming from the face of what was apparently an ancient Greek doom laser masquerading as a mirror.

It was only when the beam dissipated and the mirror fell to the ground with a heavy thunk that he broke out of his stupor and rushed to where Califa had been standing.

Absolutely nothing remained to show the girl had been there.

No soot, blood, or even little meat chunks.

The mirror was no help either.

The small glow he had noticed when it was being tossed over was completely gone and the only thing being reflected on it was the ceiling.

Califa was just…gone.

Robin hesitantly reached out to touch the mirror, only for the iron handed grip of his mentor to hold him back.

He almost wanted to argue, but one glance at the absolutely intense glare on Bru- Batman's face made the Boy Wonder keep quiet.

Batman gave him an almost imperceptible nod and turned his attention to the three thieves they had cornered. Three thieves that suddenly looked like they wanted to be anywhere else.

"I want answers." The Dark Knight growled. "Talk…"
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AN: And there you go. The end of Growing Pains...
Just Kidding...but could you imagine if I left it there?

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