Growing Pains

“So do you think he tastes like cow or human?” I asked Donna as I wiped some blood out of my eye. “Or do you think he tastes like a mix of both?”

“Are you seriously asking me that right now!?” The Amazon panted as she pulled herself off the ground. “And it’s still a conjured monster, it will taste the same as everything else.”

Like crap then. That sucked.

“I meant the real one. Besides, he's still digging himself out of the rubble.” I looked at the shifting pile of rocks that had covered the Minotaur right after he had punted the both of us through another wall.

“I don’t believe you. And would you really eat something that looks like a person?” Donna sounded vaguely disgusted.

I shrugged, keeping my eyes where the Minotaur was. He was almost free again. “I mean if it was that or starve then yeah. And with how many different aliens there are out there, body shape is a weird line to draw. I think it’s easier to limit myself to things that can’t think for themselves.”

“Why not something easier to prove? Like if they can talk.”

“Being able to talk doesn’t mean something is intelligent.” I scoffed. “Politicians exist, you know?” There was an explosion of dust as our opponent managed to break free of his rocky prison. He looked around briefly before spotting us and roaring a challenge. “Looks like break time is over. Ready for round four?”

“Do I have much of a choice?”

Donna wasn’t fooling me. She might sound reluctant, but she was smiling just as much as I was!

“Nope!”

And that was all the time for conversation we had before a giant bull-man crash landed in front of us and tried to punch my head through the floor.

But I had gotten a lot of practice fighting things bigger and stronger than me at this point. And this was the third time the Minotaur had tried this exact attack.

This time instead of trying to block or deflect it, I threw myself forward under the punch.

His fist passed by close enough that I could feel it pass through my hair but it put me right under his armpit. A nice soft target I couldn’t resist punching as hard as I could at the same time Donna kicked him in the back of the knee.

We were a pretty good team by now and our timing was perfect, but we still barely managed to do more than bruise our opponent despite how hard we hit.

It was a bit of a problem.

But with him off balance, we took the opportunity to get several quick hits in before he recovered. I went hard at his face, neck, torso, and arm joints where I could while Donna focused on going at his ribs or trying to break his kneecaps. Pretty much anything we could do to not let him build up momentum.

But after a bit the bull-man managed to recover enough to swipe at Donna and clip her almost hard enough to send her through another wall. At her startled cry, I buried my fist in his gut and blasted him with another Ki attack that sent him flying across the room again.

“Any new ideas?” I asked while rubbing my now sore hand. I think I might have broken a finger punching him that time.

“Nothing that tops you dropping the ceiling on top of him. What about you?” Donna winced as she rolled a shoulder.

“Still trying. Haven’t gotten it yet.” I said as I tried and failed to form my Ki into a cutting edge.

Ever since the Manticore I had been putting a lot more effort into trying to recreate a cutting technique like the Destructo Disk or Spirit Sword. So far it resulted in a whole lot of nothing besides the realization that either Krillin was one heck of a genius or Humans were just naturally better than Saiyans at fine Ki manipulation. Possibly both.

“Well try harder, cause we’re going to be the ones beaten at this rate.”

I didn’t get a chance to respond as the Minotaur roared again and came charging at us.

-o-

“This doesn’t make any sense! Everything matches! So. Why. Won’t. You. WORK?!” The scream was followed by the sound of clay breaking as Circe presumably threw a bowl or pot against a wall.

The Sorceress had taken the mirror’s rejection as a personal affront and had thrown herself into discovering why something supposedly made by herself didn’t consider her its creator.

And despite the several rants she had shouted out after each failure, Batman felt satisfied that they were at least getting closer to finding a way to reach Califa. None of the other experts he had talked to had gotten even this far and the only magic user he could think of more knowledgeable than Circe and willing to help without issue was Dr. Fate, who was still unavailable.

So, slow as it was going, progress was progress.

“You seem happy.”

Batman turned to face his two friends with a raised eyebrow. ‘Happy’ was a description that others rarely applied to him, afterall.

“Seriously, once Circe told us she could get Califa out once she figures out why the mirror doesn’t think she’s her, it was like a weight dropped off you.” Superman defended himself, throwing his hands up a little. “It’s good to see you relax a bit.”

“Not that we are any different.” Wonder Woman added. “Circe is stubborn and prideful enough that she will keep trying until she succeeds even if my Mother didn’t offer a reward. At this point it’s only a matter of time until Califa is returned to us.”

There was another frustrated scream and the sound of more breaking pottery.

“...though I will admit, hearing Circe so frustrated after all the headaches her plans have caused is a bit enjoyable.”

It was probably a bit vindictive of the Amazon, but Batman wasn’t a stranger to taking enjoyment from the frustration of several of his own Rogues gallery. The more irredeemable and less tragic members, anyway.

But when a scowling and slightly disheveled Circe shoved her way out of her workshop any amusement was pushed aside for the moment.

“Well I’ve got good news, bad news, and worse news.” The Sorceress announced tersely as Batman’s stomach fell to somewhere around his ankles. “Which do you want first?”

“What’s the worst news?” He demanded.

“I found out why the mirror is refusing to work for me. It probably comes from another plane of reality and that me decided to use a karma link to determine who could control it. I’m guessing she is a bit more of a goody-goody than I am and unless I manage to change my karma quite a bit the mirror will keep rejecting me.”

Another plane of reality, or in other words, an alternate dimension. That would explain where the mirror came from and how so many prestigious magic users were ignorant of it and its function. Unfortunately it meant it would be nearly impossible to track down the actual creator without more information to go on, let alone the challenges of dimensional travel by themselves.

“And the bad news?” Wonder Woman asked.

“I tripped a safeguard that did something to the mirror. I have no idea what it did either.” Circe scowled, “And before Big Blue over there asks, the good news is that the release condition changed while I was poking around. As long as the girl inside can survive whatever that safeguard did, then she should be released on the next magical convergence. Dawn in other words.”

“Heh, I guess that was a little predictable.” Superman chuckled and awkwardly rubbed the back of his head.

Hope and dread warred unpleasantly in Batman’s gut at the news. As long as Califa could keep safe for a little bit longer, she would be freed. Dawn was only a few hours away.

And while waiting was excruciating for all three heroes, there was simply nothing more for them to do. So when Circe moved the mirror to a wide open space, all four of them watched the magical object with varying degrees of intensity.

True to the sorceress’s word, just as dawn broke over the horizon the mirror glowed silver and a bright flash forced Batman to shield his eyes. One thing that he noticed immediately though was the figure that appeared was much bigger than the missing Saiyan child.

“AHAHAHAHA! After ten thousand years I’m free! Time to conquer Earth!”

-o-

“Hah, hah, haaa…think we got him?” I panted and gripped my almost definitely broken arm.

“Why do you keep…keep asking?” Donna grit out, holding her own injured shoulder. “He wouldn’t be moving…if we did.”

“I’m an optimist.”

Sure enough, the Minotaur shoved the new bits of rubble of himself and roared again. But he wasn’t looking too much better than we were. He was covered in a bunch of his own wounds and was missing a horn. Too bad that while he looked just as bad as we did, he didn’t seem to have any as bad as we did. I was down an arm and a few more punches would probably be the end for my other fist too, and Donna was forced to keep flying to compensate for her broken foot in addition to her shoulder.

“Well, miss optimist, did you figure out how you did that trick yet?”

“Kinda, but I need to practice more. I got lucky cutting off his horn and I don’t think I can reliably pull it off before one of us gets really hurt.” I had managed to pull off something like a Spirit Sword to cut off the Minotaur’s horn, but even I had to admit it was mostly luck. “We’re going to have to try something else.” I replied and then explained my plan.

Donna sighed but began looking around the ruined arena we were fighting in for what we were looking for. “You come up with the weirdest ideas.”

“It’s not weird, I read it in a book!”

Donna looked at me skeptically. “...You read?”

“Rude!”

I read all the time!

Kinda.

I had the memories of doing so, anyway. It was how I got some of my best ideas!

But this wasn’t the time to argue about that. We still had a Minotaur to deal with and as the least injured of the two, it was my job to hold him off until Donna could complete the Plan.

I fired off a Ki beam that was little more than a lightshow at this point. I was simply too tired to put more energy into it, but it did its job of getting the Minotaur’s attention on me. He roared again and char- well, more like limped towards me while ignoring Donna. I guess all of us were on our last legs.

The fight…was honestly not super impressive compared to what we had been doing even a few minutes ago. I wasn’t flying around blasting him with Ki attacks or darting in and showering him with punches or kicks and he wasn’t leaping forward and shaking the whole room with the force of his attacks.

I was mostly just taunting him by poking at his wounds while dodging out of the way of his tired swings. At least I was until the bit of rubble I was standing on shifted and I found myself falling painfully on my tail right in front of him. Putting me in the perfect position for him to grab and try squeezing the life out of me.

“Don’t want to rush you Donna, but I could use a hand!” I yelled, letting out a pained squeak when the Minotaur put pressure on my bad arm. Nothing I could do about it besides grit my teeth and push through the pain though.

Luckily for me, Donna didn’t take much longer. Just when I was about to yell for her again, the minotaur jerked forward with a pained grunt. It almost immediately dropped me and swung a hand at the Amazon. Going by the pained yelp, I guessed he managed to hit her.

But if the Minotaur wasn’t dead yet, that meant the Plan hadn’t fully worked. I picked myself off the ground and looked at the bull-man. Sure enough, Donna had stabbed the broken off horn into his side, but it looked like it got stuck before it got deep enough. Neither one of us were in any shape to try again either.

Well, time to gamble then.

I dragged up the last bit of Ki I could muster and shot the horn. It barely did more than give the sharp bone a bit of a shove, but it was enough. The Minotaur staggered one more time before falling to the floor and turning the solid black all monsters did when they died.

I collapsed, completely spent, but with a huge smile on my face. “Heh, we won! The Plan worked perfectly!”

Donna just groaned and rolled onto her back. “Great Hera, I am so done with this place. Whatever is at the end better be worth it.”

Meh, she sounded grumpy but I could see a smile on her face anyway. She wasn’t fooling me.

Now just to rest up a bit and see what was next for us…