Growing Pains

I slowly breathed in and focused on my Ki, trying to feel how it responded to various pokes and prods as I tried to get it to do what I wanted. I had been doing this kind of thing for a while, but I was still mostly making it up as I went. This was something very different from the techniques I normally used.

Instead of gathering it all to one point and letting it burst out, I focused on spreading it evenly throughout my body. Then once I felt that was good enough, I focused on raising my Ki as smoothly as I could.

In theory this should–

Almost instantly the Ki destabilized and erupted outward in every direction. I opened my eyes and frowned at the small crater I was sitting in.

Failed again.

“AAAAHHHH, I don’t get it!” I complained, flopping on my back and rolling around while I pulled at my hair. Why were techniques that didn’t involve blasting something so much harder?! And to make things worse I couldn’t just go find someone and pester them into teaching me what I was doing wrong, no one I knew of used Ki!

Maybe I should just wander around China for a bit and see if I could stumble across a Cultivator sect or something? Were those even a thing here?

I stretched out on the ground and sighed, taking a moment to just watch the clouds go by.

China could be interesting, but they didn’t advertise superhumans like America did. I would have to actually search the whole country for who I was looking for. And that was assuming they weren’t hiding out in some pocket dimension or something that would make me walk right by them. My scouter couldn’t find anything at least, which was really annoying because that was supposed to be the one thing it was good for and it was useless when I needed it.

Which meant I was probably just going to waste more time wandering around the Chinese mountains without anything to show for it. Not exactly my idea of fun. Though maybe if I brought Donna or some of the Sidekick Squad?

We could make a whole training journey of it! I could find someone to teach me how to do the weirder things with Ki. Donna and I could try out all the different types of food, Kid Flash would probably enjoy that too. Speedy and Birdbrain would probably like the chance to see magical bows and bo staves. And Aqualad…

Well, there would probably be something interesting to him somewhere. I didn’t really know the guy yet.

No, Donna was still on Themyscira and it was the middle of the week so the Sidekicks were probably still in school…

And sitting in the woods trying to get this technique to work was pretty much a waste of time right now. So training was kind of a bust.

There were other things I could do, speed and strength training, Ki control, finishing up the Destructo Disk…but none of that really sounded like fun at the moment.

I needed something to do that would let me unwind and clear my head so I could get back to training later.

Welp, time to go bother Superman then.

-o-

The problem with reporters was that they tended to leave looking for things to report on. They didn’t just conveniently wait in the Daily Planet building for me to swing by.

I spent the better part of the morning crisscrossing Metropolis looking for Superman which was a lot harder to do when he wasn’t flying around and I wasn’t even sure he was in the city. I did eventually find him driving in a car along the coast with Lois and some fat old guy.

Guess that meant more waiting. Couldn’t exactly call out Superman now and blow his secret identity. He was a jerk and probably evil, but you had to respect the identity rules. Besides I liked Lois, I wouldn’t want her mad at me because I blew her boyfriend’s secret to some random old guy.

Actually, did Lois know Superman and Clark Kent were the same person yet? I don’t think I ever asked…

A loud bang interrupted my thoughts and I looked down to see a truck careening towards the car. One of its tires had blown out and the driver lost control and I could only curse at the situation because I was too far away to actually help.

Lois was down there so Superman wouldn’t let anything actually bad happen, but explaining things would be really awkward.

The truck driver fought to avoid hitting the much smaller car, and for the most part he did, but there was simply no room for even Superman’s reflexes to make it so the two vehicles didn’t collide. The front left bumper of the truck hit the back left of the car and sent it into a spin before it smashed into the guard rail and stopped. The car only went a little bit further before it also hit the rail, pinning the driver side and almost going off the side of the cliff.

But it didn’t look like anyone was hurt, Lois and the old guy were getting out of the car and the truck driver seemed fine. So that was good. Now, how to show up and call out Superman without blowing his identity and–

*BOOM!*

“Oh come on!” I screamed as the truck suddenly exploded. The three people were fine, just pushed to the ground. But the explosion was enough to send the car over the edge of the cliff.

With Superman still inside.

That wasn’t a big deal. A little drop wasn’t going to hurt him, but it probably would a normal squishy human. And because I had stopped to think after the crash, I was still too far away to do anything! Maybe just get there as fast as possible and have us both pretend I caught him so we could avoid awkward questions and he could repay me with a more serious spar.

With how fast I was going now it wouldn’t be too obvious that I didn’t catch–

A red and blue blur whizzed past me and my brain stalled out as I saw Superman come up over the cliff with a slightly disheveled Clark Kent.

…What?

I wasn’t the only one confused. Lois was looking between the two and Clark obviously looked a bit shaken up.

“There you go, maybe next time just watch your step. Right Mr. Kent?” Superman said with a smile as he set the other man down on solid ground.

“Uh, yeah. I’ll do my best.” The reporter chuckled awkwardly.

…What?

“And everyone else here is alright? I saw the explosion. No cuts or anything?” Superman asked, looking over everyone, eyes briefly flicking up to me floating over them but quickly dismissing me for the moment.

The other four quickly confirmed that the worst injury among them was a sprained wrist from when the old guy – who turned out to be Lois’s boss – fell during the boom. Nothing that needed an immediate trip to the hospital or an ambulance.

Then it was my turn.

I tensed as Superman looked at me, because now that he and Clark Kent were a little apart I could tell they had the exact same Ki signature.

That wasn’t normal.

“And lastly we have you.” He said. “Though I don’t think I know your name.”

I stared blankly at him. That confirmed something weird was going on with this Superman. “Uh, it’s me. Califa. You know, the Saiyan you fight with sometimes?”

Superman froze and looked like he was processing that statement.

“Right, right. Sorry about that, it’s been a while and I didn’t recognize you. You grew up a lot!” He said before I could call him out on the pause. “I saw you trying to help. That was very brave of you but you should probably leave dangerous things like that to the experts.”

“...Riiiiiiight.” I drawled.

Yeah this guy was a fake.

We literally saw each other a few days ago.

“Anyway, I’ve got to go. Stay safe and Lois! I’d be happy to see you sometime outside of a disaster. Maybe for dinner one night?”

“That so? Perhaps we should.” Lois mused, still giving him and Clark some looks.

“Great! If you have time I’ll pick you up on the roof of the Planet. Around eight sound good?”

“If I can make it.”

I watched as the fake flew off towards the city. Nothing about the quick conversation was wrong compared to the other times. But this one definitely felt different. Like he had to stop and think about certain responses that most people would just do naturally.

The bit where he didn’t recognise me? Even if he hadn’t lied saying that we hadn’t seen each other for a while, practically anyone else would have looked like they were trying to recall something or had their eyes light up when they remembered.

The fake had paused completely. Almost like a computer program stalling out while it waited for a response to load or maybe like a record needle jumping out of the groove.

There was really only one thing I could say about the whole thing.

“That was bizarre.”