- Location
- Argentina
Califa eats everything so no problem here.
Growing Pains [DBZ/DC]
- Thread starter Azura
- Start date
Califa eats everything so no problem here.
Broovian
The Patriarch of Oblivion and all it contains.
- Location
- The cesspool of New York and Loving it!
It's telling her off for eating the silverware is where he's fallen to the darkside.
- Location
- Argentina
Eh she only eats food unless she got turned into a goat.
Then Circe would have a very not good, quite terrible and bad day.
Iori_Angel
Kitten lover
This is so funny, that Amazon doesn't know how califa grow on people.
- Location
- Argentina
Like a fungus.
Besides she is a kid and most amazons do want to have children.
I was thinking more moss.
Growing Pains - Chapter 26
- Location
- USA
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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Support the Author at https://ko-fi.com/azurawriting
or over at Azura | Fanfiction and Stories | Patreon
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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or over at Azura | Fanfiction and Stories | Patreon
Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
So the Equivalent of releasing 3 pigs in the building and numbering them as 1, 2 and 4 with paint.
Yeah, that sounds like a Hermes prank, a little easily cleaned paint.
And abject paranoia over absolutely nothing after, a good reintroduction!
And abject paranoia over absolutely nothing after, a good reintroduction!
- Location
- Somewhere
A quick note: while comics get this wrong too, so the author is fine on that front, the Greeks and Romans actually painted their statues. We just see them centuries later when it's all been worn off.
Probably none of them, at least for awhile. Gotta go for a lower level/non-God Ki version first. Since I don't think they would necessarily know how to teach it. Followed by training up to it.
Also gotta be a reason to bring out a stronger transformation.
Their pillars too, from what I remember reading.
Though I'd imagine that the outrage in the story is more the colors chosen for the painting of the statues.
Iori_Angel
Kitten lover
I laughed a lot, so it's good that the Amazon caught the stuff they did before it could harm the planet.
Growing Pains - Chapter 27
- Location
- USA
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 couldinterrogate 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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"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
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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When a character has too many powers, even the writers forget about it, case in point-Superman.
- Location
- USA
The same with Danny phantom. Even Goku, remember early Namek when he could read minds? Never used again.
actually telepathy was introduced in dragon ball classic by master kame and goku used it a few times, it's just that his personality ensures he prefers punching and blowing things up first rather than using mental powers
It's too bad Cali likely can't learn the Devimite? Beam, AKA instant death to anyone not pure of heart from Dragon Ball, or the technique that turns people to stone until the caster dies. Mafufoba or w/e could still be learned, though that requires carrying around a paper seal and a container, so it would be of limited use.
- Location
- Argentina
Seems the growing pains finally showed up.
Fellow Human
Verified Roado Rolla
She's friends with heroes so killing isn't on the menu. Also she's a bit like Goku, maybe letting villains live so she can fight them again.
Devilmite is devil only tehnique, though it could be they just never bothere teaching it to humans.
Last edited:
Growing Pains - Chapter 28
- Location
- USA
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," Ipouted 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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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
"...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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- Location
- Elsewhere
"We don't follow laws!"
- Location
- Soviet Canuckistan
"Not having fun with the local Triads" god I love her. Such a horrible little gremlin.