Growing Pains

I smirked as I faced the bird woman down with her own weapon. But the longer I held it the more my expression slipped until I was basically scowling.

I gave the mace a little shake but there was still nothing happening.

I smacked it on the ground.

Still nothing.

I flipped it around in my hands searching for some kind of hidden button or something but I couldn’t find anything.

“What are you doing?” Hawkgirl-woman finally asked.

“How do you make it do the lightning orb thing?”

“Why would I teach you how to use my own weapon against me?”

Well that was no fun. Using a magic – anti-magic? – mace that covered itself in a lightning effect so it looked like a plasma ball was one thing. Using it normally was the same as hitting someone with a metal club.

That was way less cool. I doubted I was going to figure it out on my own in the next couple seconds either.

Oh well.

“I’ll figure it out later then.” I responded to Hawkie and tossed the mace over my shoulder. She looked pretty pissed off that I just casually tossed it away like that but that didn’t last long since I charged her soon after.

She blocked the first punch with ease because I wasn’t entirely sure if the durability thing was somehow because of the mace, but Hawkie was clearly superhuman in the ways that mattered. She was faster, more durable, and actually stronger than I was expecting.

She was also a really good fighter too.

The two of us traded punches, kicks, and holds as we tried to beat the other into submission and I wasn’t afraid to admit she was much better than me. I was getting hit two or three times for every one I landed and only my smaller size and Ki assisted strength were letting me escape most of the holds.

I really needed more technique training. I was already being forced to abandon the Tai Chi I was taught as Hawkie started throwing things at me I hadn’t learned how to respond to, like what to do when your opponent smacks you in the head with their wings before uppercutting you in the chin.

After that particular combo I decided to take the fight to the sky. I had better maneuverability to offset her experience and she couldn’t pull off the weirder wing attacks anymore. Which was a good thing because my vision had gone kinda blurry from that last uppercut.

Both of us were in pretty rough shape actually. I had several cuts bleeding freely and my armor was cracked in a few places. Hawkie was bleeding too and she was keeping her left arm further away from me. I think I might have broken something there.

I needed to beat her soon though. I was starting to get to the point I would be running on fumes. I was having fun, but losing the fight because I ran out of energy just to keep it going was stupid.

“Running out of steam, kid? You can give up whenever you want.” Hawkie said, blatantly ignoring her own state.

“Kinda,” I replied honestly. “But I’m still gonna win.”

“Like hell you are…”

Hawkie flapped her wings and I braced for the incoming attack, only to get caught off guard when she flew right over me. A quick check made me realize this wasn’t some mistake, she was going for the mace!

“Oh no you don’t!”

I took off after her and tried to scare her off with a few Ki blasts, but Hawkie dodged all of them until she managed to snag her fancy metal stick off the ground and deflect the last two. I gave up shooting at her then. All it was doing was tiring me out.

Then Hawkie caught me in the shoulder with her mace.

I cried out in pain as the spiked end shattered my armor there and sent me crashing back into the ground.

Hawkgirl-woman must have figured that was her chance to end the fight because when I looked up I saw her descending fast, mace raised overhead, ready to crush me further.

Time seemed to slow down as my adrenaline surged at the sight and I frantically thought of a way to win. In the end I realized there was no way I was getting out of the hit so I was determined to make it cost Hawkie.

A weak Ki blast at her face was predictably swatted away, but that meant instead of a devastating hammer blow, Hawkie was forced to settle for a much weaker backhand to my ribs. Even that was more than enough to crack a few of them, but before she finished the attack I blasted her in the chest with the rest of my Ki.

Both of us were sent skidding over the pavement as a result. And both of us were struggling to stand afterwards.

I took a second to judge my remaining energy levels and was disappointed to find I barely had enough to get out of the city. I guess that meant the fight was over.

“We-well this was really fun,” I complimented my sparring partner, wincing a bit as talking made my ribs shift. “But I’m done for today. We’ll call it a draw and pick this up some other time.”

“And…what makes you think…I’m letting you leave?” Hawkgirl-woman was having an even harder time speaking. I think my last attack did some real damage.

“Well, neither one of us have the strength to keep fighting. And you don’t look like you can follow me.” I pointed out.

“You aren’t in shape…to run away either. The local officials shouldn’t have much…trouble dealing with you now.”

I grinned and fanned my fingers in front of my face.

“You know what I have to say to that? SOLAR FLARE!”

The amount of cursing from both Hawkgirl-woman and the remaining humans in the area was hilarious. I could barely stop laughing the entire way out of the city even though my ribs were aching the whole time. That was annoying. I couldn’t wait to get back to my cave so I could take a nap in the Attack Ball. Its medical functions kinda sucked compared to a healing pod, but it was better than nothing.

-o-

A couple days later I was still a mess of bruises but I was feeling much better than before.

I didn’t do much during those days other than lounge around the cave and sleep or look myself up on the internet.

It was actually really interesting to see how people were reacting to my presence, especially as my self-proclaimed mission to take over the planet became more widespread.

Initially there were a lot of calls for the government to step in and do something about me, but that set off a bunch of people that didn’t like the idea of a government holding a child, even an alien child, in some prison or lab because of something I was ‘ordered’ to do.

Then there was a whole movement to have one of the heroes step up and take me under their wing similar to how Batman was doing for Bird-brain, Flash was doing for Kid Flash, or Green Arrow was doing for Speedy. That then splintered into several sub arguments ranging from trying to decide who could even manage that given my strength to whether or not it was any better trusting someone in a mask to keep an eye on an impressionable young girl than the government.

I did get a kick out of the flame war that erupted when someone suggested Hawkwoman – which still didn’t clear up if she was the secretly evil one for me – take me under her wing(ha!) because she was at least willing and capable of putting me in my place when needed and pissed off a bunch of soccer moms who thought anything more than a timeout was child abuse.

That did remind me that I needed to go talk with Batman about more training since while the Tai Chi forms were really useful when I knew I could apply them, I still wasn’t able to use them for everything. I needed either more forms and practice or I needed another style to use.

-o-

Unfortunately for me, Batman wasn’t around for training. So I was just wandering the city looking for something to do. Which turned out to be harder than expected because Gotham was kinda awful. Tourists weren’t exactly rolling through so anything fun was meant for the locals, which meant things that were fun for corrupt business people or criminals. Or corrupt business people that were criminals.

The point was, even after wandering around for a while I was still bored with nothing to do.

“Hey…” Some random guy called out and ran up to me. “Hey kid. You’re that alien that touched down in Metropolis, yeah? The one with the tail?” I wasn’t too put out by him not fully recognising me. My armor was pretty beat up from my last fight so I was just wandering around in an oversized blue and gray hoodie I snagged off a clothesline somewhere. Actually considering no one else seemed to notice I had to give the guy a thumbs up for even making the connection.

“Yeah, I’m Califa. Why, did you want to fight?” The guy probably wasn’t a hero considering Batman didn’t let ones he didn’t like hang out in his city and he didn’t look like much, but he still might be a fun distraction…

“No, no, no. I’m not a fighter.” …or not. The man quickly waved his hands in denial. “I’m a recruiter. See, the bosses are always on the lookout for interesting fighters. It’s up to guys like me to try bringing them in.”

Oh? A place where fighters ended up? That sounded fun.

“So your boss thought I was really impressive and wanted to offer me a spot?!” I asked, excited.

“Well…no.” The man instantly shot down my enthusiasm. “We just keep an eye out for anyone that looks like they could put up a fight and would be willing for a couple thousand in cash. I just happened to see you and thought you could use the money since Hawkwoman stopped your bank gig the other day.”

“Oh…” I slumped down a bit. Guess I still wasn’t a big enough villain for people to be coming after me specifically. “Well, I guess it could be fun…”

“Fun, yeah. I’m sure it’ll be fun for someone.” The recruiter handed me a card with an address on it. “Head to this place and tell them Carl sent you. And do me a favor and try and last a few rounds? I get paid on commission, ya’know.”

I watched the man walk off when something finally hit me.

He said Hawkwoman stopped my bank robbery.

In all the excitement of the fight I forgot to go back and pick up the money I took!

Grrrrr, my bank robbery was totally messed up again!