Growing Pains Novel Growing Pains - Chapter 28

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

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 ssed up with soone more threatening than a guy that used illusions to rob jewelry stores.

Which ant 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

in combat.

Which ant I couldn’t know soone was coming to fight

or it’d defeat the purpose. Like learning to fight in the dark by waiting until your eyes adjusted and then training. I an, yeah, eventually you would learn how to do it, but you’d waste so much ti. And it wouldn’t even train you for sudden changes like if soone turned the lights off suddenly.

And I’ve spent way too much ti thinking about that taphor.

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 ti to ambush

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 co to

first…

Actually, that gave

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

and teach

a couple things.” I shrugged.

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

“I an, I’m not allowed to go looking for anything villainous anymore,” I pouted said, “but she never said anything about honest rcenary 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 so alternate trainers that et your needs.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You can find soone as strong and skilled as Wonder Woman and an island full of Amazons…Amazonians?...and just as willing to teach

as much as I want?”

“...no.” TotallyNot!Luthor said reluctantly. “But I’m sure we could arrange sothing in the future if it cos to it. Now then, you were interested in so other work?”

“Sure, I was looking for sothing where people would co to fight .” I explained. “But not in a way where it's super obvious they’re going to fight .”

“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 so rchandise that has a high likelihood of being stolen? It would fit you’re restriction of keeping to less…unsavory activity and is sothing you have done for us before.”

I shrugged again. “Sure, that’ll work.”

“Excellent. We will contact you in a mont once we have a job.” TotallyNot!Luthor said. “Keep in mind, we will be expecting so 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

to do sothing I didn’t want to.

-o-

I had to give Luthor – or the team he had that actually ran the rcenary work – so credit. They actually did manage to find a way to get

what I wanted.

Usually it ant guarding so kind of crate or warehouse in really rundown areas where the local gangs were willing to try stealing whatever I was protecting despite

just hanging out in the open.

On a related note, I was getting really good at dodging when soone tried shooting

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 ant 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

with a molotov cocktail and shot at

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 sothing this ti instead of just poking around and running off when I caught them looking.

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I was tempted to just leave and wait for them to actually try sothing 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 sa thing over and over again.

Maybe it was ti to–

“This is who has my n running scared? So 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

this stash was being watched by so kinda super I was expectin’ soone 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

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 .

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 so 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

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

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 pavent.

“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 co 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

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 complinted 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 soone 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 –

–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

and looked up just in ti 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 mber I was fighting and sighed. “Not having a fun fight with the local Triad mber, apparently. What’s up, Red Arrow?”

“That’s not my na.” He scowled. Good, now he was just as annoyed as I was for having my fight interrupted.

“I dunno, I kinda like it.” His ntor comnted, 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 mbers?”

“Cause it’s fun?” I looked at him like he was being stupid. I an, 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 an!

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

“Job?” I asked.

“Yeah, soone’s been smuggling so 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 dtech.” I called after them.

Both of them stopped and turned to .

“dtech 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? – Co on, kid. We’re heroes!”

I shrugged. “Sorry, job’s a job. Wonder Woman told

I needed to take pride in my work.”

“This is because I knocked out that gang mber, isn’t it?” Speedy questioned, dragging a hand down his face.

I an, 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 so fun?”

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

“I was hoping you’d say that.”