Risk It All: Dirty Dealing (ch. 25) (Patreon)

There was a nagging doubt in the back of my mind as I darted forward in a blur, closing the distance between me and Jin in an instant. I pushed it aside, focusing all of my attention on the fight in front of me.

My blood felt hot in my veins, a familiar ache starting to build as we clashed. Sparks of light and darkness filled the space between us as our swords ground against each other, before both of our attacks were diverted by the other, a scene that repeated itself again and again. However it refused to be ignored, and even as I fought with my life on the line I felt that nagging doubt tugging at my attention, pulling at the loose threads of my mind until my focus, honed to a razor edge by the intensity of the battle, threatened to unravel.

The mission was not going to plan. The Justice League had said that they implemented several fail safes, both technical and magical, but in no time at all, the Android had been reactivated. I could only hope that Gluttony managed to eat it before it could do any damage, but even with that failsafe … it felt like I was leaving them on their own to face a threat that even the Justice League struggled with. It felt like I was abandoning them, even though I knew that I was making the best decision I could.

The Android absolutely could not get its hands on my power.

My lack of focus cost me when I felt the sharp sting in my cheek as Jin's blade cut me when I failed to properly deflect it away. Jin smiled, "First blood to me, Cousin!" She laughed, sounding absolutely delighted as she fell back half a step, the red of my blood standing out on the glowing white blade. I didn't give her any time to savor her victory and pressed the attack, ignoring the hot feeling of blood dripping down my cheek and jaw.

I swung my sword low in a fast feint, only to turn it into a sideways slash as I flash stepped to the side, intent on scoring a wound of my own. Jin just laughed again as she fell back, retreating and giving ground as we neared the edge of the road. I felt the urge to Earthbend, to catch her by the foot to end this now, but I wasn't eager to expose the cards I was hiding up my sleeve just yet. I wasn't sure if she knew that I was Beinfong, but if she didn't then I didn't think it was worth it to reveal it just yet.

Gritting my teeth, I continued to press the attack, my arms moving about in a blur along with my body as I pressed down on her from all sides, but my blade never found any purchase. All I managed to do was push Jin back towards the cornfield that the trucks had been using as cover. Just as the monkeys had.

My foot lashed out, catching Jin near the torso at the end of one of her swings, but she reacted fast enough to block the blow with the flat of her blade. It still sent her flying backward, into the cornfield. I expected her to immediately leap back out to continue the fight, but, instead, I heard the sound of the corn stalks rustling as she moved further inside, getting further away by the second.

"Get out of there and fight. I'm not interested in playing cat and mouse with you," I said, mostly because I didn't think I would win without my maneuverability.

"Who would be the cat and whom the mouse, I wonder?" Jin called out some distance away, but it didn't sound like she was getting any further. "Will you turn tail and flee? Shall you use an excuse that your friends need you to justify your cowardice?"

I really didn't care about her taunts, but I also didn't think I could let her get away. She sent someone named Shiva to recover the robot, who was being dealt with by the team. I had to have faith that they could handle it. But, if I let Jin get away and allowed her to head to that fight, then I was risking giving the Android another power-up and leading Jin to the rest of the team.

Looking down at my blade, which was filled with nicks, but no cracks yet, I deliberated for a moment before I made my decision. As I stepped forward into the cornfield, I opened my Market -- I had spent a huge chunk of my earnings before, but I had still doubled what I previously had with what was leftover. I still had fifty thousand points to spend on emergencies. And this counted as an emergency.

My bouts with Jin were showing me my weaknesses. I had my mobility, and I had my staying power, but I lacked anything that I could use to break through someone's guard if I couldn't slip past it. My swordplay was fine, and I had some techniques in my back pocket if I needed it, but I needed something more specialized. With a thought, I made my choices.

Reinforcement

T3R1

By imbuing your energy into an object, it becomes more resilient and effective.

Rank up benefits:

T2R2: More energy can be imbued into an object without destroying the object.

T2R3: More energy can be imbued into an object without destroying the object.

T2R4: More energy can be imbued into an object without destroying the object.

T3R1: Objects imbued with energy will have greater effectiveness.

My current rank of Reinforcement simply wouldn't do. I needed to make my blades even stronger, and the rank up would pay dividends when I received a stronger sword. Then I bought two other skills -- a punch and a kick.

Tekken

T2R1

A straight jab that delivers an overwhelming impact.

Focus Stomp

T3R1

A technique based on the Soul Crushing Blow, but fine-tuned to be a more precise attack, focused on a single point of impact to deliver devastating damage.

My current rank of Reinforcement simply wouldn't do. I needed to make my blades even stronger, and the rank up would pay dividends when I received a stronger sword. Then I bought two other skills -- a punch and a kick.

Tekken

TR

A straight jab that delivers an overwhelming impact.

Focus Stomp

TR

A technique based on the Soul Crushing Blow, but fine-tuned to be a more precise attack, focused on a single point of impact to deliver devastating damage.

The three skills cost me the bulk of my points, but the rest I dumped into two stats. Endurance and Strength. It pushed Endurance up to two hundred, while strength was increased to a hundred and fifty. I felt the familiar pain of my body shifting as the changes took effect, but the jump wasn't so huge this time. The pain wasn't intense enough that it caused any issues. I rolled my shoulders, before pushing through the stalks of corn. I readied my blade, more energy flowing into it, but the drain was offset by my increase to Endurance. My free hand clenched into a fist, and I was ready to continue the fight.

"So, you aren't a coward. But facing me at a disadvantage does make you a fool," Jin remarked, and she sounded close. Too close considering I didn't hear her footsteps or the sound of the corn rustling. I looked around me, and I could feel her gaze on me, but she was nowhere to be seen. It was like an itch on the back of my neck, a deep primal instinct warning me 6that there was a predator nearby and that I was being sized up for dinner.

I deepened my breathing, and the night sky gathered at the edge of my blade. There was no real reason why I was able to react to the blow that came behind me. There was no evidence of it coming, but all the same, I somehow knew and 6pivoted sharply, my blade effortlessly slicing through the stalks around me 6to meet Jin's blade. A sharp clang rang out as our swords crossed. I laid eyes on her again to see her looking back at me, her dark eyes slightly widened in surprise. I was just as surprised that I had managed to block her attack. 6It was pure instinct. People always talked about humanity having a sixth sense, but I don't think I ever fully believed it until now.

The crescent moons that followed my blade continued onward, slicing through more stalks as Jin backed off, but I didn't let her go far. Ears of corn fell around us as we traded blows in the field and it was only when we carved a winding trail in it that I started to feel bad about all the damage we were causing. But, all the same, I pressed the attack.

My sword flashed out as I dogged her, refusing to let Jin get far enough away for another disappearing act, because I doubted I could block another sneak attack. As I did so, and our blades clashed in showers of sparks, I realized something. I had bumped my strength up another fifty points, and I was using the Black Heaven and Earth Technique on top of the Moon Breathing style, which made me even stronger. But, blow for blow, Jin was able to match me.

She had been holding back. And she might still be.

My eyes narrowed into slits as I lashed out with a Tekken fist strike, the punch catching Jin as she once again blocked the blow with the flat of her blade. Her eyes widened as she was flung backward a good ten feet, kicking up a deep furrow in the ground where her own feet had dug into the soft dirt to slow her momentum. Her dark eyes narrowed into a glare, her white blade shining brightly as if to overtake the night sky that surrounded mine.

"Your father hasn't taught you any of our family techniques, but you do seem to have a talent for creating knock-offs," Jin stated, shifting into an unfamiliar stance. I clenched and unclenched my free hand, feeling my knuckles sting.

"I made those all up myself, so your family doesn't get any credit," I refuted. Well, I didn't exactly create them, but the point still stood, and I would rather pull teeth than give the family on the Mainland even a smidgen of credit. Not even inspiration acknowledgment, because they had nothing to do with it.

Jin started to approach, shifting as she maintained her stance. "Our family, cousin." Jin corrected, "Your father was a talentless loser, but the same can't be said for you."

"Talk shit about my dad one more time," I growled a warning, and Jin's smile widened when she realized she had hit a nerve.

She chuckled lightly, "Then how about a compliment to soothe it over? Your father was a pathetic weakling, but he was creative with his weakness. Oh, how our grandparents raged when he burnt down our family estate. Thousands of years of history gone up in smoke. I wasn't born yet, but to this day, the word napalm has our grandparents going into fits of rage."

Napalm? Way to go, Dad.

"I actually admire your father," Jin continued, still moving closer, inch by inch. "He's an inspiration. Our family clings to a dead legacy. Who cares how powerful we were thousands of years ago if we aren't powerful today? Your father, my Uncle, a talentless hack unfit to be the heir to that legacy, spat on it with the tactics of the modern era. Of the weak. It just goes to show how far we've fallen."

My guard didn't drop, but she did have my curiosity. "You sound like you hate the family," I pointed out, deepening my breathing and drawing on the power of Moon Breathing to the point that my lungs began to ache.

"I love my father. I respect my uncle. I even find you amusing," Jin continued, still inching forward. "Everyone else can die in a fire for all I care. I see no value in carrying the dead weight of old fools that can't bring themselves to look at anything but the past. I intend to forge my own power rather than restore a fallen legacy."

Then she chuckled, "That being said… our martial arts is worth keeping." And with that, Jin blurred forward in the blink of an eye. The only person whose speed that I could compare it to was Kid Flash's, though not at his higher speeds. I saw a glimpse of blinding white light race towards me, the tip of her blade.

But I was ready. It was nothing but a blind guess, but her stance resembled my own when I used flash step. Nothing too much, but you can only prepare for a burst of speed in so many ways -- an arched heel, like a runner. And throughout the fight, Jin favored thrusting techniques over slashes, of which, she also favored my heart, my throat, and stomach as targets.

In the small clearing, I leaped up ever so slightly before I flashed stepped to the side, bypassing her thrust at my stomach. As I did, I raised my leg high, fully displaying my new flexibility before I slammed my foot down on her blade.

Only for it to not be there.

My foot slammed into the ground, and it warped underneath my foot, sending dirt flying up with explosive force. The bright white light of her blade shining through the thick curtain of dirt was the only hint of what was coming. It moved in a blur, racing towards me. My gambit didn't pay off. There was no avoiding it.

So I didn't.

Shifting to the side, I angled my sword in an attempt to catch the tip of her blade with the flat of mine. Relying on my improved reinforcement to give my battered sword enough durability to weather the storm, but the angle was off. The tip of her Jian dug into the flat of my sword, cutting a horizontal line in it before it inevitably ran out of blade. It was only dumb luck that the direction it went to was the side towards my side instead of dead center in my gut. I felt a pinch in my side, my angled body helping some but not enough to avoid the attack.

I saw Jin's face for the briefest of seconds -- a smug and joyful smile on her face. I really wanted to punch it off.

So, I did.

As her blade sank deeper into my side, I used her momentum and the fact that she was fully committed to her attack against her and delivered a Tekken punch square to her nose, flattening it with a jet of blood. That wiped the smirk off of her face, though it did mean that she plowed into me when she lost her footing. On instinct, I let go of my blade to grab hold of hers as she slammed into me like a wrecking ball. I felt white-hot agony in my side when we hit the ground, the sword catching on the dirt, but I held it still to the best of my ability, wrenching it out of her hands.

A second later, the two of us were sprawled out, Jin behind me as I clutched the blade that was now free of her hands.

"Ugh- you broke my nose!" Jin protested nasally, sounding more annoyed than anything as she started to get up. Blood covered the bottom half of her face -- over her mouth and dripping down her chin while it dripped over her nose from a cut in the bridge of her nose between her eyes.

Really? "You stabbed me!" I shot back, looking down at the sword that had skewered me. There was blood. A fair bit of it. It hurt a lot less than I thought it would, but that was probably because of the Black Heaven and Earth Technique dulling my pain. The blade wasn't glowing white anymore, but it was distinctly uncomfortable looking at an object sticking out of me. Especially when I knew that it must be protruding out the other side.

This armor sucked ass.

"Just a little bit -- you'll be fine," she dismissed with an uncaring shrug before she held out a hand expectantly. "Give me back my sword," she demanded.

I glared at her, "Fuck off! You stabbed me in the gut! I can't take it out," I argued, and it started to sink in that I had bit off more than I could chew and I was in a really bad spot. "I'll die."

Jin looked a bit put out, like she hadn't just fucking stabbed me in the stomach, "Did you not move your organs out the way in time?" She asked and I could only gap at her.

What the fuck? "How- no! I didn't know that was an option!" I exclaimed, torn between disbelief and anger. I was leaning towards anger when Jin looked a bit surprised, like she fully expected me to just move my organs out of the way of a sword thrust. How was that even-...!

"Oh… right, I forgot that you're self-taught," Jin muttered to herself and I wanted to punch her again. "It's pretty easy to pull off -- you just have to make your muscles twitch in the right way." She said as if that was perfectly normal.

"I'll remember that for next time," I bit out between clenched teeth. I glared at her and I was so pissed that I couldn't even be relieved by the fact that it seemed that she had no intention of continuing the fight. Was this what it was like to have a sibling?

Because it was awful. I hated it.

"Well, it should be fine. Your block was good enough that it's not a fatal stab," Jin said, leaning on her knees as she inspected her handy work. She completely ignored my look as she straightened up. Then she tilted her head as if she was listening to something. Blowing out a sigh, Jin looked at me, "Our mission was a failure, but it was fun, Ren. I'll stop by sometime."

"Please don't."

"You can keep the sword! Bye!" Jin said, giving a wave as she walked back into the cornfield behind her. She disappeared inside of it and almost as soon as she was out of sight, I stopped hearing her footsteps. I would have thought that she was standing still or something and just pretending that she had vanished into thin air, but I knew better. She must have used a foot technique.

I let out a hiss, looking down at my bloodstained hands, still clenching the blade lodged in my side. Keeping up both my breathing rhythm and the Black Heaven and Earth Technique to make sure I didn't pass out, I spared a thought for the girl who had strolled into and out of my life like a whirlwind.

Jin… was crazy, there was no doubt about that, but she didn't feel malicious. It was almost like it was all a game to her. Like two kids play fighting, only with real swords, and a very real risk of death. But, at the same time, I also don't think she would have been particularly bothered if it was a fatal wound she inflicted on me. And I'm not sure if she would even have cared if it had been the other way around -- if I had been the one to inflict a fatal wound on her, not that I could.

It was a stark reminder of world I found myself in. It wasn't my first brush with that side of my family, but it was the first time we had fought. With my Uncle, he was just… testing the waters, more or less. Yeah, he did that by throwing me into the deep end, but it wasn't anything that I couldn't handle, and I had a team to back me up if I couldn't.

This time, however, I saw that side of the world in all of its glory. The pure pursuit of strength, and the single-minded drive to attain it. The price didn’t matter. Anything and everything else, up to and including your own life, was considered non-important in comparison to that goal. It was… frightening. And frustrating, and a little daunting.

“This… is what I get for holding back,” I muttered under my breath. Should have hit her with absolutely everything. I’d much rather blow Beifong’s identity than fucking die. Or get stabbed. Again.

Lesson learned.

My attention was stolen away from my inspection of my new flesh wound by the sound of rustling corn. For a split second, I thought it might be Jin coming to finish me off, regardless of how irrational the thought was. Then again, what did I know about cultivators? Maybe she had changed her mind decided she wanted to refine my heart into an elixir or something. But, as the sound got nearer, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw who arrived.

“Guppy?” I questioned, blinking slowly at my pet fish as he pushed through stalks of corn with his ball of water. Guppy opened and closed his mouth as if to answer me and tell me how the hell he had gotten here. Last I knew, he was in his tank. At my house. In another state. Did… did he figure out how to use the teleporter? I didn’t know what more baffling -- the idea that Guppy knew how to operate a Zeta Tube, or the thought that he might have somehow developed the ability to teleport all by himself.

Guppy neared, pushing stalks of corn aside with his water ball as he went, entering the clearing Jin and I had cut out in the cornfield. Normally he was pretty keen on exploring his surroundings, but this time he only had eyes for me. He rolled up, looking at the sword skewered through me like some kind of human shishkabab. I offered him a feeble smile, not exactly sure why I was putting on a brave front for my fish, but learning the answer when … I felt the moisture being drawn from the air. It wasn’t something you typically noticed, except for when it was particularly humid, but all of a sudden the air all around us became incredibly dry.

More than that, I watched in awe and a little trepidation as water began to rise up from within the corn stalks and husks, leaving them dried and withered as the moisture they contained flowed into Guppy’s ball of water, increasing its size. After gaining what seemed to be a satisfactory amount, the water moved forward, creeping up on me like molasses, and I watched in confusion as the water was pressed over my injury. My confusion only grew when I felt it instantly vanish. Like water on a fire, instantly dousing what pain I was feeling through the buffer of my techniques.

Guppy looked up at me, his golden scales glistening in the sun as it shone down through the withered cornstalks around us and played over the surface of his waterball. And I… felt something.

It wasn’t a knock on the door to my brain, like Megan tried to use her telepathy on me. It was something else. If I had to put it into words, it was like someone was slipping a note under the door instead. There weren’t any words written on the note, but even still, I somehow understood its meaning.

“Alright, Guppy. I trust you,” I told my pet fish, and with a quick yank, I pulled out the sword. Blood flowed into the water and quickly faded as it spread out. I felt something pleasant and cool wash over my wound as soon as the sword was free, and when I looked down at the gap in my armor, I saw… nothing. The incision had been smoothed over, leaving behind unblemished skin. Just like that, I was healed. With magic water, from my possibly teleporting pet fish. The water retreated, even taking the wet sticky feeling that had formed from the coagulating blood, leaving my skin completely dry. Testing the wound with a quick stretch, I found no pain.

Guppy was so much cooler than me.

“Thanks, Guppy,” I said. So, in addition to possibly being able to teleport, Guppy had healing powers on top of his macro water bending. He was becoming an absolute powerhouse. I pressed a hand to my earpiece, "My target got away -- do you need reinforcements?" I asked through the com since I didn't feel Megan's connection to my mind anymore. There was a long stretch of silence, and despite my faith in their ability, I started to feel nervous.

"The rest of the team is fine," I heard a voice say, but it wasn't from my com. Looking up, I saw Superman descending from the sky, his cape fluttering in the wind. "They dealt with Amazo, but there were complications. Did you… send your pocket dimension with the team?" Superman asked as he touched down, sparing a long look at Guppy. "And teach your fish how to use the Zeta Tube?

So Guppy couldn't teleport on his own? I was mildly disappointed but equally impressed.

"I sent Gluttony with them as a safety measure in case the fail-safes failed," I answered. Which they had. "Did it do any good?"

Superman nodded, "It did. There will be a full debriefing back at the base, but… Gluttony might have made all the difference. And I heard that your cousin got away?" He asked, his gaze sliding to where I had been injured as if it was drawn by a magnet.

My lips thinned, "Yeah, she did. But I'm fine," I offered, not making any excuse for my failure.

But Superman didn't seem to want one. "I'm glad. Let's get you back to the mountain."

…

The debriefing was a long one. We had to split our accounts since we had split up the team, and Batman ruthlessly poked at every decision that was made. He grilled me about my fight with Jin, why I didn't reinforce the team, how she got away, and so on. And if the rest of the team took any pleasure in me getting grilled, they quickly lost it when it was their turn

But it gave me an account of what happened with the Amazo Android -- the creator, T.O. Morrow was confirmed to be alive and he was the one that sent the monkeys. He disabled the fail-safes in a very small window, reactivated the robot, and then he had it fight the team. Any satisfaction was ripped away at their victory because Batman made it abundantly clear that the only reason they were alive was because Morrow was toying with them.

Gluttony had done good work by eating an arm and a leg from the robot, hobbling its fighting power. Zatanna got her licks in, but when Amazo gained her powers, the battle took a turn for the worse. They were only saved by a stray arrow, which Wally and Robin seemed to take issue with.

"You were shadowing us the entire time!" Wally pointed out while Robin held up the arrow as irrefutable proof. Batman looked at it, then at Green Arrow, who stood behind him.

"You said you were going to trust us, but you're still babysitting us," Robin pitched in and both Kaldur and Conner nodded in agreement. "You- oh… that's not your arrow," Robin immediately lost steam when Green Arrow pulled out one from his quiver and showed that they had different arrowheads.

"Trust," Batman began, his voice cold, "must be earned, nor is it unconditional. This mission faced unexpected difficulties -- some of them were caused by the League. The fail-safes that we implemented clearly weren't enough and that failing is on us. In the future, we will learn from this mistake to ensure that it doesn't happen again. I expect all of you to do the same."

Green Arrow offered a lopsided smile, "There's nothing wrong with asking for help, kids. It's why we put on tights. I understand you all feel like you need to prove yourselves, but one of the most important lessons that we can teach is to know when to ask for help. And in this case, you should have. We're not diminishing the good work you did -- this mission was a success." He said, gesturing to the holograms above him.

T.O. Morrow was in custody because of Zatanna tying his shoelaces together. The Amazo robot was in Star Labs for research. There were several names of security guards and a scientist that were marked as the leaks.

"But don't be so afraid to swallow your pride that it gets you and possibly other people killed," Green Arrow continued. "Pride isn't worth a life, much less your own or a civilians."

That struck home and I think all of us were properly ashamed. I should have informed the League as soon as I heard that Amazo was back online. But, I didn't. I was too focused on Jin. If I had just called for help then Superman could have handled her. I wouldn't have gotten stabbed in the gut and she wouldn't have gotten away.

"Green Arrow is correct. Overall, this mission was a success. Take pride in it. But not so much that you repeat the mistakes you made today because, in the future, there will be times when we can't help you," Batman finished. "You're all dismissed."

There was a sullen silence as we all left the briefing room. I couldn't speak for the others, but I was remembering every step of the mission. Every decision that I had made. I felt Gluttony coil around my waist as Guppy rolled at my feet. I headed to a dressing room in silence to get changed and by that time, I saw that everyone had cleared out. Conner was hanging out in front of the TV in the living room, watching static on the screen. I wasn't sure where Megan was, but everyone else seemed to have went home.

I decided to follow suit, using the Zeta Tube to bring me home. A minute later, I was stepping into my kitchen to make myself a late-night snack.

"Did your mission go well?" I heard Dad ask me, seeming to appear from thin air behind me. I fought back a flinch at the sudden sound of his voice -- after getting stabbed, I was still firing on all cylinders.

I grabbed a package of cookies as I thought about how to answer. "Sorta. But… I ran into my cousin," I said, giving Dad a careful look. He seemed to still ever so slightly, but he quickly recovered.

"Oh?" He asked, grabbing two glasses and filling them with milk. "How was my niece?"

"Crazy. Strong. Crazily strong," I muttered, taking a seat at the counter and peeling the case open. "She was working with the League of Shadows, but she blew off the mission to fight me." I explained, soaking my cookie in milk until it was nice and soft.

Dad sat next to me, taking one of his own. "Did you win?" He asked and I scowled.

"I broke her nose, but she stabbed me," I said, patting my side. "But Guppy healed it, so I'm good." Dad didn't so much as miss a beat and he nibbled on his own cookie.

"The abilities of Spirit Beasts are as expansive as legends say," he remarked. "And I did not expect for you to encounter your cousin so soon. The fact that you were able to fight back at all means you have also wildly exceeded my expectations."

"Didn't stop me from getting my ass kicked," I pointed out.

"That entirely depends on how you look at it. You've been learning for little more than a month, Ren. Jin, on the other hand, has been training since birth," he stated. "She will not savor this victory because it will taste too much like defeat." He said, and that did make me feel a little better. I might not have won, but so long as Jin wasn't enjoying herself, I could live with that.

Then Dad rested a hand on my back, "I wanted to wait a bit longer -- not just so you would be ready, but to brush off the rust on my own skills… but I believe it is time for you to learn our family's style -- the Heavenly White Tiger Fist."

I paused soaking another cookie and I felt the bottom half break off to sink to the bottom of the cup of milk.

"Finally!" I couldn't wait to wipe that smile off of Jin's face with her own techniques the next time I saw her. "When do we start?"

Dad smiled in return. It almost looked odd on his face. I was so unused to seeing it.

"Right now."