Growing Pains

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.”