As I touched down on the sidewalk near my destination I reflected that it was a nice night.
Clear sky, perfect temperature, and only a few people still moving around the streets.
Hopefully it stayed that way.
A man inside looked up as I pushed open the door and paled when he saw the look on my face and his eyes darted to my tail.
Ah, he recognized me.
“Boss, she’s here!” He shouted into the back before making himself scarce. Not even waiting for the big man to come to the front before he ducked out of the room entirely.
I didn’t pay much attention to him after that. He wasn’t the one I was here to see.
“Told ya you’d be back afta gettin a taste, girlie.” The guy walking out of the back said. “They always do.”
He was a big man in multiple meanings of the word. Tall, broad shouldered, with a large gut to match. All which offset his beady little eyes, which looked even smaller with the way his face would scrunch up and his massive chin.
I’d underestimated him the first time we met. It was a mistake, and now he had me by the tail.
“You have what I want?” I demanded instead of acknowledging what he said.
“Depends, you have the dough?”
I wordlessly pulled out a roll of bills and showed it to him.
He grinned and moved to take it, but I pulled the roll back.
“I want to see it first.”
“Bah, you kids ‘re so untrusting. When I say I got tha’ goods, I got tha’ goods!” He complained but waved at me to follow him into the back. I followed and sure enough – six massive cooking pots were sitting on an industrial stove, a low flame keeping all of them warm.
I felt drool start pooling in my mouth at the sight of them, but otherwise did my best to look stoic and unaffected.
Then the bastard opened one of the lids and the scent of meat and spices simmering together filled the room and I had to loudly swallow or let it leak out my mouth.
“I’ll take ‘em.” I shoved the roll of bills into his hand and grabbed the first pot.
The man laughed. “Knew ya would, ol’ Bibbo Bibbowski ain’t never disappoints tha’ customer! Just calls ahead next time you want more, an’ I’ll ‘ave another batch ready to goes.”
I just nodded at him without turning around.
-o-
As I made my way out of the Ace o' Clubs bar with my goods packed away I was intercepted by a man in a dark suit and sunglasses. Perfect for unnamed stooge number 3 hanging around some office building, but just about the last thing that would let him blend in around a blue-collar bar by the docks.
His appearance instantly had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.
Either someone had staked out the Ace o' Clubs on the chance that I would be coming around again or they had the ability to send someone here within minutes of me showing up. Both scenarios meant someone with connections and in Metropolis that usually meant Luthor.
Except Luthor had always been careful to never contact me directly. If this really was him, this was surprisingly blatant and that had me cautious.
When Luthor dropped his safety net and acted directly it was usually because he was confident he couldn’t be held accountable even if his plan went wrong… or because he went crazy because he did something stupid with the confidence he would be fine.
Like injecting himself with practically untested kryptonite-based steroids levels of stupid.
“Califa? The Saiyan mercenary, right?” The suit asked like he didn’t know exactly who I was. Last I checked there weren’t a lot of people with tails walking around the city.
“Obviously.”
“I represent a certain company that would like to hire you to test one of our new prototypes before we approach the military and see how it compares to the current IR-0n system.”
Oh, so that was why the approach was so obvious. This might actually be a legit job.
“Sure? Just gotta warn you though, it’s been a bit since I fought one of those so I’m not sure how much I’d be able to tell if me breaking it is just because it sucks or if it's just cause I’m stronger.”
If the suit was bothered by me just assuming whatever robot they put in front of me was going to lose, he didn’t show it. Then again, he might just not care. It’s not like how good of a fight the prototype put up affected him after all.
“We have systems in place to observe the prototype’s performance. You don’t need to worry about that.” He replied.
“Neat, then I’ll stop by tomorrow sometime to do that. Just let me know the place.”
The suit tensed for the first time in our conversation. “Ah, actually we had already started making preparations for the battle when we managed to make contact with you. The prototype–”
“Can wait until tomorrow.” I interrupted bluntly. “I’m busy.”
For some reason my refusal really seemed to throw the man, but like I said, I had plans. I eventually got him to write down where his boss wanted me to be and grabbed the paper before leaping up into the sky and flying off.
If I moved fast enough, I could get back to my camp before the pots cooled down too much.
Lunch was almost served!
-o-
I wasn’t even halfway through my meal when the next person to bother me showed up.
“You, my dear, are much more annoying to track down than I would have expected.” The man in fancy blue robes and headdress held in place by a thick bronze band said as he walked into my camp. “But now I finally have you!”
I paused midbite and tilted my head at him. “Sorry, am I supposed to know you?”
“Hmm, I doubt a barbarian child like you would have heard of me though I’m rather famous in certain circles. It doesn’t matter, all I need you to do is assist me in opening the path.”
“Riiiiight, and why would I do that exactly?” I drawled, but didn’t let my guard down. This guy didn’t seem strong, but there was something about him that felt dangerous.
“Oh, I didn’t say you had a choice in the matter.”
My thoughts about him being dangerous were instantly proven right as three magic circles briefly appeared on the ground before erupting into lava filled pits that spat out several demonic things.
“Alright, that’s new. But, uh, can you come back in like an hour? I’m in the middle of lunch.” I bantered lightly.
They responded by vomiting some kind of fire at me that I instinctively dodged only to realise my mistake half a second too late to do anything about it. The fire splashed over the remaining pots containing my lunch and almost instantly melted them into a glowing puddle.
…
Okay, I was already a little annoyed a random wizard decided to drop by and interrupt my lunch. Now? Now I was going to revoke his kneecap privileges after I shoved that stupid headband somewhere really uncomfortable.
I didn’t say anything as I pointed a palm at the wizard, a glowing orb of ki already waiting to be shot out, but I did enjoy his face going slightly pale at the threat. Too bad one of the demons jumped in front of the blast before it could hit him.
The fact that I was surprised I didn’t vaporize the demon’s upper half when the blast connected told me two things. One, I was more pissed than I thought if I forgot to hold back without confirming my target could take a higher power shot. And two, those demons were tough. I’d have to be pretty serious from the beginning.
“More dangerous than I expected of a child.” I heard the wizard mutter before he threw out a hand. “Go, capture her immediately! She is key to your master’s plans!” And then he fired several bolts of magenta energy at me.
The demons also rushed to obey his command even as I filed away the fact the wizard wasn’t their boss away for later. Most of my attention was focused on keeping them from grabbing me while keeping one eye on the wizard.
I dodged the incoming energy attacks until the demons got close enough to fight and I was sure they weren’t going to suddenly spew fire all over the place again.
One of them lunged for me out ahead of the others and I slapped it’s hand away before shoving it into the path of the second. While those two collided and got tangled up, I turned to the third demon and punched it across the jaw. Then I punched it several times more when that barely seemed to have an effect.
The other two started to recover by that point so I grabbed the demon I’d been beating on and hurled it in the general direction of the wizard. I wasn’t expecting to hit him, but leaving a hostile magic user chanting in the background alone was just a bad idea. He also proved my hunch right by just dodging to the side using some kind of disk made of magic.
He didn’t even stop chanting. I should probably do something about that.
But first I had two more demons to deal with.
Luckily for me, they all seemed to be the tough but stupid variety. Even after I had shown them I was more than capable of tossing them around if they gave me an opening, they didn’t change their approach. Maybe because they thought I couldn’t hurt them?
Well, I was going to prove them wrong there.
One of the demons swiped at me and I ducked under the arm, only to grab its wrist on the way by and let it yank me along. I twisted around the limb until I was facing the outside of its elbow with a solid grip on its wrist. Then with a bit of Ki to anchor me, I sent a kick right at its joint that brutally snapped it the wrong way with a wet pop.
The demon immediately began to scream in agony and collapsed to the ground. I buried it with a ki blast straight downward and turned to the other one.
It was already midleap with its arms outstretched, but I managed to catch them before it could wrap me up in a tackle even if that meant it ended up pushing me backwards a bit.
It would have been completely manageable if it wasn’t for the fact the magician completed whatever he was doing along with the first demon returning to the fight by jumping on my back. The bigger problem was the glowing circle that suddenly appeared underneath me, I really didn’t want to figure out what that did.
Since I was stuck anyways, I focused on hardening my Ki like I’d practiced. It still wasn’t instant, but going by the way the demon’s face deformed under my punches it was worth it to hit that much harder.
Of course that was when things went wrong and I found out what the magic circle was for. Ghostly chains burst out of the ground and began wrapping around my legs and arms before pulling me down to the ground.
“Definitely more troublesome than expected.” The wizard mused while I did my best to break free. Unfortunately magic chains were a bit harder to just break than regular ones. “But in the end no match for the magical might of Felix Faust. Now then, just sit still and this will be over in a moment.”
“What do you want with me, you bastard?” I snapped at him, partially to get some idea of why he was attacking me, partially because I was trying to buy time until I figured out how to get out of these chains.
“You? Oh, I don’t want anything to do with you. I just need your assistance accessing a certain magical Isle of Women.” Felix Faust said smugly, walking up to me and leaning down close to my face.
At least he was until I surged forward as far as I could and headbutted him in the face.
“Gah!”
“You think I’m going to help you? That stupid headband must be on too tight, moron.” Even if Felix hadn’t attacked me, I wasn’t going to just help someone cause trouble for Wonder Mom or Mel in their home. They’d helped me out way too much for me to even consider it.
Felix Faust rubbed his nose and glared down at me. “Then it’s lucky for me that as I said, I do not need your assistance. I just need someone keyed into the island’s defenses and with a bit of the right magic…” He trailed off a bit as a bright blue portal appeared nearby. “The way is open.”
I increased my struggles while he just walked over to the portal and waved his demons through. They were all in pretty bad shape, but I guess he would rather test if his portal worked on them than himself. And going by his smile when the three of them walked through with no issue, it definitely worked.
“Finally, the pieces are all coming together.” He said and walked through even as I yelled at him to stop.
Naturally, he didn’t and the portal closed behind him leaving me alone in the destroyed clearing, still chained by his magic.
At that point I knew I had to do two things.
Break free, find Wonder Woman.
Themyscira was in danger.