Risk It All: Trap Card (ch. 17) (Patreon)

“Who was that?” I asked, throwing myself off the building,  and I only realized my mistake after I made it. It wasn’t so easy to restrain yourself from techniques that you’ve been using for a month now to get around. Especially when there wasn’t a replacement for them. Practice made habits and all that jazz.

I fell down two stories, double jumping to break my fall and roll to my feet while Robin used a very handy grappling hook to swing over to the building. Guppy seemed to sense the tension because he began to eagerly swim around in the coil of water around my body.

While I ran across the street, Robin didn't just not answer, he took one look at the controller in his hand before he threw himself into the building. I cursed, fighting the urge to flash step forward and ran as fast as I could -- I had to keep the identities separate. I couldn't use abilities that were connected with Koi.

I really needed mobility, I thought to myself as I followed after Robin, nearly tripping over the controller he dropped by the door as it swung open to reveal Robin and the murderer fighting. It was a woman in a lime green kimono that only went down to about mid-thigh, her legs covered by what looked to be thigh-high stockings. Two sais were in her hands. One of her arms was covered by a sleeve, while the other had been ripped off. She had a white mask covering her face that might have been connected to her mane of black hair.

The murderer looked at me, kicking Robin in the gut in the same motion, before she spun one of her sai in one hand. She flung it at me, the sai spinning through the air like a makeshift shuriken. I lashed out with the water that coiled around my body, the liquid snapping out like a whip. Only I misjudged where she was aiming. I thought she was going for my chest since it was center mass, but instead, I felt a tug at my clothing as the long Hanfu was pinned to the ground.

"Stop where you are," Robin said, springing back to his feet as he flung a batarang at her, the slivers of metal arcing around a pillar in the lobby of a small bar, chasing after the murderer that was attempting to flee.

"Son of a-" I cursed, going to give chase as well, only for the Hanfu to rip. "How did my ancestors fight in this thing?" I muttered in Chinese, choosing to abandon it entirely. The murderer slammed through a window, fleeing the scene of the crime while Robin, once again, left in pursuit. At the same time, I ripped off my coat, leaving me in poofy white pants and a sky blue folded tunic with white sleeves, leaving the top half of my costume on the floor.

Instead of pursuing, I pivoted to grab the controller that Robin had dropped. Either he had tossed it aside, or in the more likely case, he had been forced to. Scooping it up as I ran through the door, I changed the directives to my drones. The screen shifted before zeroing in on Robin and the murderer, both of whom had entirely left me behind to run up fire escapes.

"Sorry," I told whoever was going to have to fix this mess, but I slammed my foot onto the ground and willed the stone to rise beneath me. A section of the sidewalk shot up, carrying me up at speeds so high that my legs nearly buckled, but a split second later, I was three stories up on the rooftop. The murderer and Robin clashed, both proving that they were far beyond me in terms of martial arts. In a way, it was almost like a dance. One that had been well-rehearsed, so both participants not only knew their moves, but the moves of their enemy.

Choosing to be a third wheel, I reached back and grabbed hold of the top of the stone pillar I had erected. Grabbing it with my Earthbending, the top broke off, hovering in the air for a moment before I thrust a fist in the murderer's direction, sending it flying at her. I realized my mistake a moment too late when the murderer's gaze snapped in my direction. I couldn't see her face, but she reacted instantly.

Robin was oblivious, launching himself forward to deliver a high kick to the side of her head, only for the blow to be diverted when she grabbed hold of his ankle as she dipped low. Robin slammed into the chunk of rock, avoiding a direct hit, but he hit it hard enough that it saved the murderer from a direct strike. The rock hit the ledge, and Robin hit the ground with a pained groan. For a split second, I had no clue what I should do. Robin wasn't supposed to jump in front of my attack.

"You two do not go well together," the murderer remarked, sounding thoroughly amused as she flipped onto the ledge of the building.

""We know,"" both I and Robin responded at the same time. I closed in, reaching out to the stone I had sent flying while Robin rose to his feet.

"Hm. Boys will be boys," she said, her tone mocking. Robin growled before he grabbed two batarangs and flung them at her, while I did the same with the broken pieces of stone. Both attacks sailed harmlessly by her when she did the unexpected thing and threw herself off the top of the building. Robin sprinted forward, immediately following after her, leaving me behind to see that they had leaped to a lower building next door.

"Dude," I muttered the word like a curse. My drones flew overhead, tracking them both, but that didn't mean much if we couldn't catch her. I eyed the jump across the alley and the solid ten-foot drop. Either I risk breaking my legs, or I cause shit loads of property damage in my hometown.

Or, I go with option number three.

"Fuck it," I cursed, frustrated that I was getting left behind for a third time in about as many minutes. I bit the bullet and made a purchase -- Airbending. It was Tier 1 Rank 1, giving me the ability only, but even that seemed to be worth the price tag of fifteen thousand points. Throwing myself forward, I sailed through the air, bending it around me.

Airbending was more like Waterbending than Earthbending. It was shapeless, formless, and weightless. However, it carried its own power. I couldn't fly, but it felt like I suddenly weighed about as much as a plastic bag floating in the wind.

I landed on the edge of the building. The far edge. I cleared a solid fifty yards with a single jump, surpassing what I could do with the Flash Step. Beneath my mask, I smiled broadly -- this was mobility. I couldn't wait until I could render walking and running obsolete. I honestly didn't know if I could put up with such slow methods of transportation after getting a taste of this.

Leaping again, I sailed upwards a solid fifteen feet, easily clearing the distance up that I needed to reach the top of the building that was in front of me. Sprinting forward, I looked at the controller to see that Robin and the murderer were fighting again in the alleyway below, trading blows on the fire escape as both descended. Trusting my newfound power, I jumped off the building, Airbending to slow my descent enough that it was easy to flip and grab hold of the fire escape.

Latching onto the floor above the murderer, she turned to look at me just in time for my feet to shoot out and catch her in the chest. She slammed against the wall, the breath knocked from her lungs. Robin caught up a second later, eyeing me for a split second, and that's all the murderer needed. She threw herself to the side, grabbing hold of the ladder and freeing it by threading her sai into the lock and using her weight to pop it open.

I followed, just as Robin lunged forward, intent to take the ladder as well. He bumped into me, knocking me off my balance enough that I fell from the fire escape, my heart pounding in my throat before I slowed my descent enough that I landed lightly on my feet.

I crushed my sense of annoyance, choosing the focus on the murderer. Slamming my foot down, I raised the earth up, intent on trapping her, but she responded instantly by leaping up into the air, using the rising earth as a platform. She launched herself back, touching down on the ground only once to perform a back handspring until she landed on a car lightly enough that its alarm didn't go off.

"I do love it when boys fight over me, but this is getting a bit tedious," she said, a hand going to her belt. I lashed out with the water, attempting to catch her hand, only for my whip to smack into a batarang that had attempted to do the same exact thing, making sure that neither of us managed to accomplish our goal.

The murderer laughed when she slammed a smoke bomb onto the ground, filling the street with thick black smoke. My drones flew high, to let me see which direction that she chose to escape in.

Robin dove into the smoke, searching for her, only for it to immediately be cleared by a gust of wind from the palm of my hand. But when we both emerged on the other side, he rounded on me when there was no sign of her. "You let her get away!" He snapped at me.

Look, we had tried to work together. We really had, but this just wasn't working out. The accusation finally roused the anger that I had been trying to ignore simmering in the back of my mind.

"I let her get away?! You kept getting in my way!" I snapped right back at him, jabbing a finger in his face. "I had her on the fire escape until you knocked me off!" This wasn't productive. I knew it. Especially after we had both decided to attempt to have a clean slate.

"I had her on the roof until you started throwing rocks around!" Robin pointed out, just as pissed as I was.

"Did you? I couldn't see that because you left me behind!" I retorted, throwing my hands up into the air. Guppy swam in the water stream, every bit as annoyed as I was. It wasn't just this  -- I was following her with my drones. She hadn't gotten away.

But the fact of the matter was, we just got in each other's way. Our trial by fire ended in disaster. And above all else, I was annoyed that the fresh start we had been going for lasted all of five minutes before we were at each other's throats again. A fresh start wasn't something that you could so easily have.

"Don't blame me if you can't keep up! And how am I supposed to plan around powers that you keep pulling from your butt?!" Robin shot right back, and that was a  good enough point that I had to give it to him but that wasn’t something I was in the mood to admit. “I’m going after her. You stay here,” Robin ordered,  and it sounded like he honestly expected me to go ‘oh, well Robin told me so, so I gotta do it.’

I scoffed, “No way-”

“Ko- Beifong, you’re a rookie. You’ve been doing this like, for a week. I’ve been doing this for years at this point. That girl fought like a member of the League of Shadows, so she’s way out of your league,” he stressed. Any other time, I might take a step back and mull over what he was saying. It was a valid criticism. I had no clue what the League of Shadows even was. And Robin did have several years worth of experience over me, even if he was at least a few years younger.

However, that valid point of his was said in such a way that I really wanted to punch him in the face for it instead of conceding.

“Stay here,” Robin said, taking out his grappling hook and shooting off to the top of a building. And then he started going the wrong way.

I waited for a long minute, almost as if I was going to listen to him, then I promptly turned around and started going in the correct direction. I grit my teeth the entire way, making huge jumps thanks to my airbending. Using it to hop onto a building, I made my way to the murderer. My drones trailed her from above, following her as she made her way to the edges of the city. Gotham had one major dock for international shipping, but there were plenty of smaller ones dotted about for personal use.

It seemed that she was heading towards one to make her escape from the city. Not if I had anything to say about it.

Robin got in my way just as much as I got in his. And I could absolutely handle one girl from the League of Whatever. Before, I might have listened, but… I was done toeing the line and trying to appease people that didn’t like me. I was going to do what I thought was right, and that was the end of it. Right now, the very last thing I wanted to do was go home and twiddle my thumbs and wait for Robin to save the day.

As I thought, she arrived at a private dock and headed towards a jet back boat. I didn’t know a thing about boats, but it was sleek looking and I’m betting that it was also fast. My drones circled around as she hopped on. I took in a deep breath before I stretched out a hand, reaching out to the water. Some of the water coiled my body slipped out of my control and splashed around me as I had to trade off about half of my limit to pull off what I wanted to do , but the water rose up in a giant wave near the boat.

With a flick of my wrist, I sent it slamming into the murderer, dousing her and sending her flying back onto the dock. The issue with water was that it wasn’t particularly good at binding people, so in a moment she was back on her feet. A sai spun in her hand as she zeroed in on me, so I jumped down off the building. “Looks like I have an admirer  -- I’m sure that you’re very cute under that mask, but I’m afraid I don’t date on the job.” She called out to me.

“And I don’t date murderers. Wonderful how that works out, huh?” I snarked right back at her, not even remotely interested. Sure, she was fit, but also a murderer. Kind of a deal-breaker for me. “Don’t suppose you’ll just surrender?”

To that, she chuckled, “Oh, I don’t think either of us would like that.” She said, striding forward, unafraid. My eyes narrowed, my body tensing as I recognized the move for what it was -- I controlled earth, water, and air. Three things that were in abundance around us at the moment. So, either she realized that there was no escaping until she defeated me, or she was unafraid.

As if to answer my unspoken question, something fell from above. My eyes darted to it and I saw a sparking pigeon, a kunai knife buried in its side.

I had just walked into a trap.

My mind turned over the situation, rapidly coming to a conclusion, “You murdered a man just to get my attention?” I asked, an edge in my voice. Guppy eyed the murderer along with me before his attention shifted and out of the corner of my eyes, I saw men in black suits approach, seemingly materializing from the shadows. So… ninjas. I was getting ambushed by ninjas?

“How very arrogant! I'm afraid that I don't even know who you are. Unless you happen to be Koi?” She said, making me go very still. She was here to lay a trap for Koi? Had I done something to deserve having a trap laid out for me? Not unless she had connections to Black Mask, maybe?

She didn't know Koi's secret identity, though. That much was clear when she was asking me. Unless it was a trap?

"No, I'm not. But I'd happily pass a message along to him," I said, trying to get the reason the trap was laid while I carefully watched her reaction. Masks made it difficult to read people in general, and I imagine that went doubly so for ninjas, so I couldn't tell if her lack of a reaction was telling or not. At the very least, she didn't seem to dismiss the idea that I would pass the message to myself. So, it seemed that she didn't know that Beifong and Koi were the same person.

And, if she didn't know that, it seemed unlikely that she knew Ren Song was both. So, my secret identity was safe. Hopefully.

"No need. After we dispose of you, I'll be sure to tell him myself," She said, the threat clear in her tone. So, they were going to kill me, but they had a message to pass a long to Koi?

“I don't suppose you could at least tell me what you want with him?” I questioned, and it was weird talking about myself like this, my breathing deepening as I spoke. There was moisture in the air that I drew upon, filling my reservoir of water back to its limit, or close enough to it. Talking let me stall a bit to fill back up.

To that, the murderer shrugged. “I wasn’t told. Nor do I really care,” she decided. That proved to be the cue for the battle to begin. She launched her sai at me and I responded instantly by pulling up at the stone around me. Two walls forming a wedge appeared in front of me, the sai bouncing off of it before I pushed the walls away. They broke in half, two pieces of them flying towards the ninjas at my sides before I kicked the rest of the wedge towards the girl.

Dipping low, I widened the water coiled around me, acting as a shield that diverted the shuriken that were being thrown at me from behind. The water current shifted, dropping the metal to the ground, before the big glob of water thinned. The tip of it lashed out to the ninja that had been behind me, striking him in the chest with enough force that he was sent flying. He landed heavily, but I didn’t have time to check how hard I hit him.

Stomping, a rock erupted from the ground, one about the size of a bowling ball, before I sent it flying at the ninja to my left, who had managed to avoid the wall of stone. As he flipped over, it caught him in the stomach, stopping him cold.

The murderer closed the distance between us, a katana in her hands now that her sai were gone. Shifting my foot, I tried to break her footing by sending a stone up and breaking the concrete, but the concrete was too thick and beneath it was just sand. She took a swipe at me that I avoided, though her blade carved a line through my straw hat. The water coiled around my hand, a feint before I hit her with a blast of air in the gut. She folded around the blow, but before I could press the attack, a bola wrapped itself around one of my legs, my wide stance preventing me from being captured.

Another set was on it way, but I diverted it with a gust of wind before I leaped into the air, sailing over the murderer and landing on the pier. Not only was I now not surrounded, but the concrete wouldn’t interfere with my Earthbending. Water flowed down my leg, sliding underneath the bola, and I tried cutting the rope. Water could cut diamonds with enough pressure, but I wasn’t sure how to best generate that pressure. In the end, I just pushed it out enough that the boa fell off.

“I just realized, I never got your name,” I said, settling in a stance that just dared them to come. Out of the five ninjas, only three of them were behind the murderer, none of them eager to challenge me now that I wasn’t surrounded.

"Cheshire," the murderer answered. "I don't even think that this lot have names."

I took in a deep breath as Guppy zeroed in on Cheshire. Then it looked behind me. It might be a stupid thing, but I trusted Guppy and reacted on instinct. Turning around, I sent a blast of air that sent a… web back to the person that arrived from nowhere behind me. He wore a black and purple form-fitting suit with a black spider over a purple mask that had yellow eyepieces to look through.  He managed to avoid getting caught in the web, but Cheshire took action.

Lashing out at Spider-Guy with a water whip, he narrowly avoided it by leaping into a boat to take cover. Pivoting sharply, I turned to the approaching ninjas and lashed out to drive them back. Cheshire flipped over the water whip, but the others failed to, knocking them back and sending them into the water.

Stomping lightly with my feet, I heaved at the stone underneath the support pillars to the dock, making them lurch up to break the old wood. Cheshire seemed to be a cut above the rest, because she flipped over the damage, only realizing her mistake a second later when I sent a powerful burst of wind at her, knocking her off course.

Spider-Guy poked his head up and shot another web at me, and water coiled to act as a shield, but it proved unnecessary. A batarang flew forward, slicing into the edge of the string of web, sending the half that got cut off wildly off course,  and the part that was still attached to him into the water. I looked out, spotting Robin throwing himself at the ninjas at the front of the docks, leaving me with Spider-Guy and Cheshire.

For a moment, our eyes seemed to meet and an unspoken message passed between us.

We would stay out of each other's way because our actual teamwork was garbage.

"Oh great, it's Boy Wonder again," Cheshire noted, standing on a boat while I turned my attention fully to her and Spider-Guy. "I thought you two broke up."

"You're trying to kidnap Koi," I returned, ignoring what she said. Webs and boas. Those were tools for restraining someone. Cheshire tilted her head, and I chose to take that as a confirmation. My mind raced, water surging from the ocean that surrounded us. More than I should be able to bend. Eighty gallons was enough to fill a bathtub, but what rose from the ocean was… more. Hundreds of gallons. Enough that the boats that they stood on began to shift, rising up as the rope that tied them to the pier went taut.

I came to a conclusion. Two conclusions, really.

Guppy had just picked up waterbending. Secondly, the League of Shadows were trying to kidnap me. Koi. Same difference. Koi was a fresh face, barely a blip in Gotham. Yet, assassin's were being sent after him. Me. So, either so wine I didn't know about was sending them, which was possible… or, it was someone I knew.

My grandparents.

The Mainland can kiss my ass, I swore to myself, my temper flaring up as the boat under Cheshire lurched up with explosive force, sending the boat flying through the air. She flipped onto the one that Spider-Guy was on and that's what I wanted. The boat crashed onto the dock, splintering the wood and totaling a few other boats.

The torrent of water froze in the air for a moment as I guided it -- Guppy was providing the power, while I provided the finesse. He was so fucking cool and I'm never going to eat fish again out of respect for him. Cheshire and Spider-Guy realized their mistake a second later when I turned the torrent of water down upon them, pounding down with a ton of water. The weight of it sank the boat nearly instantly, and once it was underwater I grabbed hold of the boat itself, along with Cheshire and Spider-Guy, and lifted them back out.

The boat was smashed to pieces, floating in the filthy bay water. Water that I then turned on the ninjas. Sending the wall of water forward, it splashed over the ninjas, thankfully missing Robin by a wide margin so he wouldn't think I had forgotten that he was there. The ninjas were washed out all over the pier, my control over the water slipping on impact. But, that didn't matter. Getting hit by a fuckton of water would knock the wind out of you.

Running forward and jumping over the dock I had broken, I needed a way to restrain them. And it wasn't me who did so. The water around the ninjas frosted over, turning into ice that pinned them all to the ground. I nearly missed a step when I saw that all the ninjas were pinned to the ground where they had landed, a feeling that was shared by Robin.

"Ice too?" He questioned, sounding absolutely exasperated.

I smirked, though he couldn't see it under the mask. "Not me. That's all Guppy," I said, eying the fallen ninjas. I had the greatest fish of all time. Wasn't even a competition. Every other fish on the planet just floated around in the ocean or an aquarium. Mine just bent the elements. My level one fish could probably kick my ass in a fight.

Guppy seemed to know exactly how proud I was of him because he swam around in happy circles, almost like a dog that was so excited that he didn't know what to do with himself.

Robin looked at Guppy, "So, even your goldfish has superpowers." There was an odd note in his tone, but I ignored it.

"How'd you find me?" I asked, approaching Cheshire, who was pinned to the wreckage of the boat in a seated position. Her mask was still affixed to her face, and it was clear to see that she was trying to break out of the thick ice that restrained her.

Robin shrugged, "I realized that you had the controller, so you would be able to follow her." He said, shooting me a look. "What were you thinking fighting the League of Shadows alone? Batman won't even let me do that. These people are all cold-blooded killers." He pointed out, jabbing a finger at Cheshire, who chuckled at the condemnation.

I crouched in front of Cheshire, "They weren't here to kill me. They were here to kidnap Koi. I just got caught in a trap for him," I said, stressing the message so he would get the hint while I reached out and took off Cheshire's mask.

She wasn't my cousin. She was of asian descent, but that was a huge range of cultures. She didn't have the features of a Chinese woman, which I imagined that my cousin would given how up their own asses my non-immediate family were. "How rude," she remarked, but I cut her off.

"Not as rude as murdering a man," I returned, my tone flat.

"If the League of Shadows is after Koi, then we need to tell Batman. Now," Robin said, getting the hint. A deep frown tugged at his lips before he turned off to the side to give the call himself. I didn't have a direct line to the Dark Knight, after all.

I agreed with him there, but I removed my straw hat so she could see my eyes. "I’m going to ask you this once -- is Koi's family in danger?" I asked her, and there was a glimmer of something in her eyes. Maybe that was too much of a tip off, but if they thought that I was close to Koi, then that was fine. I didn't care. I just wanted to know if my family was in danger.

However, she just smiled coyly, "And if they were?" She questioned lightly, trying to push my buttons.

"Then they won't find your body at the bottom of the ocean," I growled the threat out, making Robin's lips thin. Cheshire searched my eyes for a long moment and that smile slipped.

"I believe you. Not particularly heroic, I have to say, but I believe you," she said, and there was an edge of unease in her tone. Almost as if she realized that this wasn't all fun and games. It was hard to put it into words, but…

The Justice League was the Justice League because of the lines they drew in the sand. They had all the power in the world, but they chose to submit themselves to the peer review of the UN. They voluntarily gave up power, and they asked for nothing in return beyond that the evidence they submit be permissible in court -- they did good for goodness'  sake.

The villains in the world saw the lines that the Justice League never crossed. They saw the things that they wouldn't do.

And, just now, it seemed to click into place in Cheshire's mind that she was not dealing with the Justice League.

She was dealing with me. A complete unknown. The only reassurance she had was Robin being here, but as far as she knew, we didn't like each other. And she was left to wonder why we didn't like each other.

"His family isn't in danger. Our target was to kidnap the guy, if we could. And a message to pass along if we failed. So, I guess you will be a message boy," Cheshire said, trying to affect boredom.

My lips thinned. "What's the message?"

"Well done, Nephew."