Author's Note:
I have watched the third season (up to episode 9) of My Adventures with Superman. I love the series and I like this new version of Kara, but I detest Jimmy.
I have also watched the second season of Batman: Caped Crusader. It is not my favorite Batman cartoon, but I admit it is a pretty good series; I appreciate the dark, noir detective-movie atmosphere. I admit it is a bit strange, but in a good way, to see Batman with more limited technology.
XXX
Story Arc: A journey aboard a dragon
Episode 1: The hero dressed in red and fire (II)
Chapter 2: Fire against nuclear
Plot: Jingwei appears on the scene to help Power Girl fight against an upgraded Atomic Skull.
XXX
Narrator POV
New York City's Central Park is normally the beating heart of the metropolis. A continuous hustle and bustle of passersby, tourists, and athletes crowds it at every hour of the day.
At this moment, however, the park has turned into a desolate no-man's-land. The ghostly silence is interrupted only by two figures ready to destroy each other: Power Girl and Atomic Skull.
Power Girl stands tall at thirty-two years old with a striking, powerful physicality. Standing one meter and seventy-three centimeters tall and weighing eighty kilograms of muscles of steel, her proportions are statuesque: a proud 101-centimeter bust, a narrow 66-centimeter waist, and solid 96-centimeter hips. Her blonde hair, cut into a short and sassy bob, frames her fair-skinned face, where two intense blue eyes stand out. Her athletic figure shows visibly defined biceps and quadriceps beneath her tight, white bodysuit, which features the famous circular opening on her chest. Blue boots and gloves wrap her limbs, a golden belt cinches her waist, and a scarlet red cape hangs asymmetrically, fastened to her left shoulder, fluttering in the wind.
In front of her stands Atomic Skull. A colossus of 183 centimeters and 84 kilograms, with broad shoulders and an imposing stance. In place of a face, he has his iconic and terrifying signature: a bare skull, completely visible, enveloped by hissing green flames of pure radioactive energy. He wears a containment suit with a minimalist, modern design, dominated by dark green and black tones. On his chest shines the classic radioactive hazard symbol, stylized in a menacing acid yellow-green. Heavy armored black gloves and boots serve as terminals to channel his nuclear blasts. Around his neck, however, a new feature stands out: a heavy High-Tech collar connected to a compact machine on his back, resembling a small backpack.
The frightening prospect of a nuclear clash has put the entire population to flight. The New York Police Department has sealed off the park's borders to keep onlookers and fools away; Lois Lane is fighting against the police cordon, falling behind schedule. In the leaden sky, a police helicopter and a news helicopter hover at a safe distance: the first monitors the threat, while the second broadcasts the footage live worldwide.
At ground level, the tension breaks.
Power Girl floats a few meters above the beaten earth. Her pupils light up glowing red. An instant later, two intense beams of crimson energy pierce the air, directed at the criminal's chest. Atomic Skull reacts instantly: he raises his armored hands and unleashes a violent green blast of radioactive plasma.
The two energy streams clash midway with a dull roar, releasing shockwaves that pulverize the surrounding grass. It looks like a titanic Dragon Ball-style energy clash. Initially, Power Girl's kinetic drive seems to prevail, piercing through her opponent's blast. Then, Atomic Skull grinds his skull's teeth, takes a step forward, and increases the power. The green flow swells immeasurably.
Power Girl's thermal vision is overwhelmed and shattered.
BOOM!
The explosion hits the Kryptonian dead-on. The blast hurls her backward at supersonic speed, making her impact violently against the ground. The terrain gives way beneath her, kicking up a cloud of dust and debris inside a small crater.
'He has grown stronger since the last time we fought,' Power Girl thinks. A wave of nausea grips her stomach; she does not feel well at all.
"What's the matter, out of breath, Power Girl?" Atomic Skull taunts. He strides forward, stepping on the scorched turf, while the flames on his skull glow with an even brighter and more unnatural green shade.
'I feel as if there is Kryptonite, but I don't see it anywhere,' the heroine thinks. Her body feels heavy as lead, her strength is leaving her, and even the act of straightening her back costs her an immense effort.
Atomic Skull raises his hands again, accumulating unstable particles for the death blow.
In that precise millisecond, the space between the two contenders tears open. A purple and black rift cuts through reality, like a feline's claw mark impressed on the fabric of the universe.
'What is happening?' Atomic Skull thinks, halting the discharge. He shifts his gaze to the anomalous portal, ready to incinerate whatever threat emerges from it.
'Please, let it not be a tentacle monster or a slime monster. Those ruin my costume in the worst possible way, and I have to take ten showers in a row to feel clean,' Power Girl mentally prays, as she vastly prefers a clean interdimensional invasion over alien fluids.
The action shifts in a flash. A lightning-fast streak of black, gold, and a touch of green shoots out of the portal. The impact on Atomic Skull is devastating: the criminal is struck with such force that he flies away, demolishing trees and crossing half of Central Park before stopping.
"Without a shadow of a doubt, they belong to Rank-A among Supers," the colorful figure comments, braking his run and revealing himself as Jingwei.
"Who are you?" Power Girl asks. The proximity of the newcomer seems to alleviate her discomfort; the Kryptonian begins to breathe better. She has never crossed paths with that face before, despite knowing the planet's heavyweights.
"Jingwei," the white-haired hero replies, turning toward her calmly. He looks down at the woman and extends his hand: "Can you get up, or do you need help?"
"I can manage on my own," Power Girl declares, ignoring the support. She leverages her legs and stands back up by herself, proud, brushing the dust off her suit.
'Kiddo, it's not nice to look at the chest of a woman who isn't your wife, though I admit it's hard not to when they are this huge,' Da Vinci's mischievous and amused voice echoes via telepathy in Jingwei's mind. Through the hero's High-Tech contact lenses, a remote camera frantically snaps detailed photos of Power Girl. It is the woman in the chair managing the interface from a distance.
'Power Girl is an exhibitionist, she has a huge cleavage, it's impossible not to look,' Jingwei replies in the private mental channel.
"I've never heard of you," Power Girl states, sizing him up and tilting her chin up just a bit to meet his eyes.
"I prefer to keep a low profile," Jingwei retorts, positioning himself sideways. "But when one of the five most powerful women in the world fights a man who is practically a living nuclear power plant, stepping in is a must." He keeps one eye on the Kryptonian and the other on the trail of destruction left by Atomic Skull.
Power Girl scrutinizes him from head to toe, activating her advanced visual spectra. X-rays, thermal, and microscopic spectra confirm to her that the man in front of her possesses a completely extraordinary biology.
"What do you have around your neck, a snake?" she asks, feigning a slight indifference. Power Girl, after all, is the black sheep of the Super Family: less idealistic than her cousins and decidedly more pragmatic.
Dojo is about to dart forward and clarify that it is not a commonplace reptile, but time runs out.
Atomic Skull is already back. Utilizing his radioactive flames as thrusters from his hands, he launched himself into the sky, covering the distance in a single, angry ballistic leap. He lands, kicking up a storm of dirt.
"Power Girl, did you call for backup? It doesn't matter, I will destroy you both!" the villain roars, furious at the interruption.
"I'll handle him, you stay out of this," Power Girl cuts him off. She lifts off the ground and, gathering every single ounce of her returned strength, hurls herself at Atomic Skull with the speed of a human missile.
"You know, maybe we should let the woman solve the situation on her own, she seems capable," Dojo suggests, coiling around Jingwei's neck and vastly preferring to stay far away from that gratuitous violence.
"Dojo, if you want, you can climb up a tree and watch the situation. But when I call you, you come to me, understood?" Jingwei replies firmly. He knows the old dragon's character well and knows exactly how to handle him.
"Understood!" Dojo exclaims. He mimics a funny military salute with his paw, then takes a lightning-fast leap off the boy's shoulders. He lands on a leafy branch, camouflaging himself among the park's foliage.
Jingwei shifts his gaze to the core of the fight. Power Girl is peppering Atomic Skull with blows. At first glance, she seems to have the upper hand, but the hero's clinical eye perceives an alarming detail: with every punch thrown or taken, the Kryptonian loses milliseconds. She is becoming imperceptibly weaker, slower.
'I must admit that Power Girl is an excellent specimen of a woman. But I don't like her costume. The one-piece bodysuit with the huge cleavage is nice, but the rest doesn't convince me: white, blue, red... too much like the American flag,' Da Vinci sentences via telepathy. Her innate artistic sense is fully at work. She considers the heroine an excellent muse, but deems the costume design highly improvable.
'I'm sure you could fix the costume, you're good at those things,' Jingwei replies mentally. He continues to study the clash while Da Vinci does the same from her terminal, analyzing the visual data transmitted by the contact lenses.
On the field, Power Girl winds up yet another deadly punch. Her arm cuts through the air with a dull hiss, but Atomic Skull anticipates the trajectory. With a brutal reflex, he blocks the attack by squeezing the woman's wrist and, exploiting her open guard, delivers a left upper-cut straight under the heroine's chin.
THWACK!
The impact releases a devastating shockwave. The blow hurls Power Girl backward in a flat trajectory, turning her into a cannonball. The woman impacts the ground, bounces, and uproots turf and asphalt for dozens of meters, kicking up a dense shroud of debris.
In a bizarre twist of fate, her slide stops right at Jingwei's feet.
"I'm no genius, but I think you need help," Jingwei comments, bending his back forward to look at the Kryptonian lying at his feet.
'Kiddo, I just realized something that happened a few moments ago... are you telling me you'd like to see me wearing Power Girl's costume?', Da Vinci's mischievous voice intrudes. The scientist loves to tease her adorable Master, Husband, Pupil, and Field Agent at the least appropriate moments. After all, theirs is a highly complex relationship.
"Fine, you can help me, but you will have to do what I say," Power Girl answers. She accepts the help reluctantly, gritting her teeth due to her pride being wounded by having to rely on a rookie.
"NO!" Jingwei exclaims out loud, suddenly replying to Da Vinci. In his mind, the image of Mona Lisa's Renaissance beauty tightly wrapped in Power Girl's skimpy white bodysuit had just flashed by.
'But you are thinking about it,' Da Vinci giggles from her remote office, basking in how predictable and transparent her Master is.
"A hothead," Power Girl comments to herself, shaking her head. She has no idea about the chaotic telepathic discussion taking place between husband and wife.
Atomic Skull does not just stand there looking like an idiot. He joins his armored hands in front of his chest, concentrating the radioactive plasma into an unstable, hissing fireball. Without a shred of hesitation, he launches the energy projectile at the two heroes.
BOOM!
Jingwei shows a slightly annoyed expression for reasons none of those present can guess. With a fluid and disdainful movement, he delivers a sharp backhand strike with his bare hand. Incredibly, the impact deflects the trajectory of the radioactive sphere, reversing its kinetic energy.
BOOM!
The projectile impacts a short distance away, instantly incinerating a park iron bench. Just above, Dojo watches the scene, happy to have chosen the top of a safe branch, quietly chewing on some peanuts.
'I only pictured you in such an outfit because you put the idea in my head!', Jingwei replies in the mental channel, trying to refocus on the supervillain.
"Let's see if you can stop this attack too!" Atomic Skull roars. The green flame enveloping his skull expands immeasurably, fueled by rage.
The nuclear monster spreads his arms wide and releases a frightening wave of radioactive fire, channeled simultaneously from his hands and his head. The wall of green flames advances implacably, threatening to engulf Jingwei and Power Girl.
'If you do a good job, we might find out what's better... your fantasy or reality?', Da Vinci whispers in a playful tone. She seems to be taking it far too easy, but she knows her partner's potential perfectly.
"Golden Tiger Claws!" Jingwei declares. He wields the mystical artifact and slashes the air, instantly opening a dimensional portal in front of himself.
Atomic Skull's entire wave of green fire pours into the rift, disappearing from the park. A millisecond later, a second portal snaps open right behind the supervillain's neck. The radioactive stream erupts from the rift, striking him from behind. The attack inflicts no biological damage, as he himself is a living power plant, but the kinetic impact hits him full-force, throwing him off balance forward.
"Your portals can come in handy for us," Power Girl comments, recognizing the boy's tactical cleverness.
"I don't need your encouragement!" Jingwei exclaims, likely speaking to Da Vinci. He makes the dimensional rifts vanish and dashes forward at lightning speed.
Before Atomic Skull can regain his balance, Jingwei's heel comes down on his skull with a devastating kick. The impact sends the radioactive colossus blasting off toward the sky like a rocket in a straight line.
'A docile lamb at home, a fierce stag in the park,' Da Vinci comments, while her fingers fly swiftly across the keys of the remote control station to monitor the biological parameters.
"Golden Tiger Claws!" Jingwei exclaims again. He cuts through the space beneath his own feet with the golden claw and drops into the portal.
A hundred meters above Atomic Skull's trajectory, space tears open. Jingwei emerges from the rift, plunging in free fall. The golden claw vanishes in a flash of light; in its place, heavy red and black combat gauntlets materialize, reinforced by golden knuckles. The hero strikes his fists together with a metallic clang. The metal instantly overheats, unleashing intense flames behind his back that act as thrusters, accelerating his steep descent.
"Shit," Atomic Skull mutters, seeing the meteor of fire plunging down toward him.
KRUNCH!
A devastating double-fist strike slams down on Atomic Skull's armored chest. The impact instantly halts his ascent and reverses his momentum, hurtling him downward at an insane speed.
"Now you're mine!" Power Girl exclaims. Taking advantage of the moving target, she launches herself into flight toward the falling villain. Without hesitating, she throws all her body weight into a powerful right hook.
SOCK!
The Kryptonian's punch intercepts Atomic Skull mid-air, deflecting his trajectory sideways. If physics takes its course, the colossus will overshoot the borders of Central Park, smashing into the deployed police cars. Fortunately for the officers...
SWOOSH!
Jingwei swoops down from above like a hawk. He delivers a two-footed kick directly to the villain's stomach, pinning him to the ground. The impact carves a deep crater into the beaten earth. The radioactive flames around Atomic Skull's face fade until they are almost entirely extinguished. Jingwei lands squarely on his chest, motionless and triumphant.
"I must admit, you are more capable than I thought," Power Girl comments, landing lightly right at the edge of the crater, sizing him up with a newfound shred of respect.
"I'm good at three things: fighting and flames," Jingwei declares, sporting a proud little smile.
"And the third thing?" the blonde heroine asks, genuinely intrigued by the mysterious warrior.
"Secret," Jingwei cuts her off without a single hesitation.
'Darling, don't flirt with other women, not even as a joke,' Da Vinci comments via telepathy, with a hint of jealous disapproval that breaks the proud atmosphere.
Before Jingwei can reply, the High-Tech collar around Atomic Skull's neck emits a violent, light-blue electrical discharge. Instantly, the green flames on his skull, which had just been snuffed out, begin to flare up again with geometrical fury.
'Move, Master! The radiation level is spiking out of nowhere!', Da Vinci shouts. The contact lenses' biometric sensors have just detected a thermal and nuclear spike invisible to the naked eye.
Jingwei takes an acrobatic leap out of the crater...
FWOOOOOOSH!
...just in time to avoid a frightening eruption of highly toxic green flames that saturates the hollow like a geyser.
'Thanks for the warning, Da Vinci,' Jingwei replies coolly, landing on the grass and sparking new live flames between his fingers to counterbalance the surrounding energy.
At the same time, a few meters away, Power Girl collapses heavily to her knees. The Kryptonian loses almost all her strength, clutching her chest as her breath becomes short and painful.
'The radiation Atomic Skull is emitting isn't simple nuclear emissions; it touches a unique spectrum,' Da Vinci analyzes, processing the graphs scrolling across the hero's lenses.
'It's obvious that Atomic Skull is somehow managing to mimic Kryptonite radiation, just look at the state Power Girl is in,' Jingwei observes. Without hesitating, he dashes toward the woman, nimbly lifts her into his arms bridal-style, and carries her away at super speed to remove her from the enemy's range.
'I'll let it slide this time, but hurry, the radiation level is rising,' declares Da Vinci, whose note of jealousy quickly transforms into real concern.
"Since when can Atomic Skull mimic Kryptonite?" a breathless Power Girl asks. With every meter of distance Jingwei gains as he moves away from the monster, her solar cells begin to breathe again, restoring a shred of clarity to her.
"Good question, but I don't think he's in the mood to give you an answer," Jingwei comments dryly. His priority is closing out the fight; the details can come later.
"You two won't escape me!" Atomic Skull roars. The villain emerges from the crater enveloped in green fire, resembling a skeletal corpse brought back to life by atomic energy. He clenches his fists and generates a violent retrograde blast of fire from his hands to catapult himself forward like a rocket.
"And who's escaping?" Jingwei asks.
With a fluid motion, he launches Power Girl upward to remove her from the line of fire. He executes a perfect 180-degree spin, extends his arms, and spreads his palms wide toward his targets. Atomic Skull is plunging down upon him, but the countermove is already prepared.
"Energy Push!" Jingwei exclaims.
His eyes glow a vivid orange. No flames emerge from his hands, but rather two distinct waves of pure psionic energy. The push from his right hand is calm, fluid, and precise: it acts like a controlled wave of water that cradles and guides Power Girl to safety, far from the trajectory of the clash. The discharge from his left hand, however, is violent, wild, and brutal. The psionic impact hits Atomic Skull full-force mid-air. The atomic colossus grinds to a sudden halt, emitting a metallic crunch, like a machine crashing at full speed into another vehicle.
'Give me a closer view of the device he's wearing around his neck; it must be responsible for Atomic Skull's new capabilities,' Da Vinci orders, narrowing down the problem.
"Let's see if Kung Fu can beat nuclear power," Jingwei comments.
An instant later, he dashes forward. Flames erupt from his expressive shoulders and heels like afterburners, projecting him at supersonic speed toward the target.
KRUNCH!
A powerful right hook from Jingwei plants itself straight onto Atomic Skull's skeletal jaw.
KRUNCH!
Without granting a single moment of respite, the hero follows up with a lightning-fast, penetrating left straight to the liver. The blow lands so deeply that Atomic Skull spits dense, greenish smoke from his wide-open mouth. Jingwei grabs his head with both armored hands and, leveraging his torso, delivers a devastating knee strike straight to his face.
"Mind Thrust," Jingwei whispers.
His eyes and hands emit a powerful orange light, injecting a massive discharge of mental damage directly into the villain's brain. For a heartbeat, Atomic Skull's perception shatters: reality vanishes, replaced by an endless storm of red and orange bird feathers that short-circuits his senses.
'I hope this little extra helps you,' Jingwei thinks, taking advantage of the moment of disorientation to sink his hands into the High-Tech device anchored to the supervillain's neck.
"Structural Analysis," he recites under his breath.
Complex, neon-red geometric circuits light up around his arms. It is the unmistakable sign that he is activating his Magic Circuits to execute the sophisticated magic learned from his wife, Leonardo Da Vinci. A perfect three-dimensional model materializes in Jingwei's mind, X-rayed down to the smallest detail and accompanied by streams of structural data. He understands many details instantly and deduces others, though some purely technological schematics remain outside his expertise.
But Jingwei's eyes flash orange: the holographic blueprint projected in his mind is instantly transmitted through the mental link to Da Vinci. She has the skills to decipher the impossible.
'I have such a sweet husband... besides giving me a good view of what I want, he even sends me structural diagrams,' Da Vinci notes from her terminal, pleased with her Master's gift.
'Da Vinci, do your job and use that great brain of yours,' Jingwei replies, extending the Structural Analysis to the backpack on Atomic Skull's back as well.
'The device is quite complex, but its purpose is simple: to alter the radiation naturally produced by Atomic Skull's body so that it simulates the wave frequency of Kryptonite. However, the collar...' Da Vinci starts to explain the nature of the second element.
'A collar is used to transmit direct commands to the brain,' Jingwei cuts in, deciphering the substructure. 'Through simple active impulses like the directive to stand up and fight, or subconscious commands to regulate bodily functions that the human nervous system wouldn't normally control. Crude, but bloody effective.'
'Human-machine interfaces and related technologies are your field, after all. It's pleasant to see you playing the little genius; you should do it more often,' Da Vinci comments, sincerely appreciative of her husband's analytical skills.
Suddenly, the collar emits a violent, light-blue spark. The discharge jolts Atomic Skull, abruptly ripping him away from the mental illusion of orange feathers.
"ENOUGH!" the villain exclaims, blinded by rage. He pushes his internal cores to the maximum and releases an immense, omnidirectional wave of radioactive fire.
SHOOOOOOSH!
This time, Jingwei does not shield himself or attempt to retreat. Instead, he extends his right hand, enveloped in orange light, directly toward the backpack on Atomic Skull's back, locking his fingers in a steel telekinetic grip.
The green blast hits Jingwei dead-on, forcing him backward with brutal violence, but the psionic yank is implacable: the device is literally ripped away from the villain's back along with a tangle of torn wires.
'Perhaps we should have separated the device from the subject first and then analyzed it,' Da Vinci comments with academic detachment, analyzing the telemetry as if they were safe inside a laboratory.
Jingwei lands, flexing the fingers of his right hand like claws and digging them deep into the park's ground, kicking up turf to break his kinetic momentum and avoid being thrown too far.
"I agree with you," Jingwei replies, short of breath, as he returns to his guard stance.
"Then, DIE!" Atomic Skull roars. He opens his skeletal jaws and vomits a literal, torrential avalanche of acid-green fire straight at him.
"I don't think so," Jingwei retorts.
With a sudden movement of his arms, he generates two immense, crimson flames from his hands and hurls them straight at the radioactive supervillain. This clash turns into a scorching chromatic spectacle: Scarlet Fire against Green Flames. For a moment, the two streams seem equally matched in a wall of pure energy. Then, it becomes evident that Jingwei's crimson fire is literally devouring and consuming Atomic Skull's radioactive flames.
"It seems my fire is more powerful than radiation," Jingwei comments, a proud little smile printing across his face.
The flames generated by Atomic Skull are radioactive energy manifesting in the form of green fire. Powerful and lethal to ordinary mortals, it remains a phenomenon born of human science, forced to obey the strict laws of physics. Jingwei, by contrast, embodies something far more esoteric. He is the artificial reincarnation of the demigod Karna combined with the complex physiology of a MANTIS. The fire he emits is the product of magical energy infused with divine influence, blended with a purified and harmless form of Honkai energy.
In short: Atomic Skull and his green flames belong to science and to Earth. Jingwei is shaped by elements foreign to this universe; he and his scarlet fire do not have to obey humanity's laws.
"You are more irritating than Superman!" Atomic Skull roars. He grinds his teeth and increases the volume of the jet, acting like an athlete giving every single ounce of energy in the final meters of a desperate race.
"Thanks for the compliment!" Jingwei answers, drastically raising the temperature of his fire.
The surrounding terrain begins to overheat to critical levels. The green grass is instantly pulverized into gray ash, the air becomes dry and suffocating, and every fragment of metal nearby grows red-hot. Beyond the temperature, the crimson flames absorb the nuclear radiation itself, becoming denser, stronger, and more direct. Atomic Skull takes a step back, visibly overwhelmed. He cannot sustain such a rhythm for long. By now, the villain is completely focused on the opponent before him, ignoring everything else.
"Power Girl, I've neutralized Atomic Skull's Kryptonite upgrade, hit him with everything you've got!" Jingwei shouts out loud, taking advantage of the Kryptonian's super-hearing.
A millisecond later, a white streak plunges from the sky at the speed of sound, landing straight on Atomic Skull's exposed back.
SMASH!
The impact makes the entire island of Manhattan tremble, carving a crater so deep it looks as though it was generated by a meteorite.
"Power Girl, you'd better rip off that collar he's wearing, or there's a risk he might get back up," Jingwei suggests, walking calmly toward the edge of yet another chasm.
'Central Park will need a massive renovation and a radical cleanup against radiation,' Da Vinci chips in, noting the massive damage to public property.
A few moments later, Power Girl emerges from the crater, floating lightly. Crushed and smoking in her hands are the metallic wreckage of the device that had been gripping Atomic Skull's neck.
"I must admit you were helpful to me, Jingwei," Power Girl says, reluctantly recognizing the value of the support she received.
"Nothing to it, but don't get used to it. I'm a bit of a nomad, always on the move," Jingwei replies. He is not the type to take root in one place for very long.
Especially when the business of FL MediaCompany forces him to travel to different corners of the world, though much more often he plays the role of Lisa Medici's escort rather than that of the artist Woz.
"I'll leave you to handle the police and lock up Atomic Skull. I'm taking my pet and heading out," the boy declares. With a fluid gesture, he makes the red and black gauntlets vanish, causing the golden claw to reappear. "Dojo, come out from wherever you're hiding, the battle is over, we're leaving!" he then shouts toward the canopy.
"Advanced technology, alien tech, or magic?" Power Girl asks curiously, eyeing the Golden Tiger Claws. She recognizes it as an object of immense power, but cannot grasp its nature.
After all, she belongs to a world where some heroes use a ring to fly through space and materialize constructs of pure green energy simply by using their will; many call it advanced science, but to the majority, it remains indistinguishable from magic.
"If you want, the story of my origins is simple," Jingwei explains, rattling off the cover story he had prepared for such occasions. "I was an ordinary man who decided to become the greatest Kung Fu master of all time. So, I went to China. During my journey, I got lost in the mountains and, after overcoming various obstacles, I found an ancient Shaolin temple protected by a dragon, with a vault full of ancient magical artifacts. You can guess the rest."
"So, instead of becoming the next Jackie Chan, you decided to become some kind of hero?" Power Girl asks, just to ensure she understood the bizarre dynamic.
"In a way, I'm the Jackie Chan from the Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon, just with a lot more artifacts compared to the twelve magical talismans of the Chinese zodiac," Jingwei jokes, having always been a fan of martial arts movies.
At that moment, Dojo pops out from a bush. The little dragon wisely decides to remain silent to prevent Power Girl from asking him too many uncomfortable questions. Jingwei nimbly grabs him and positions him around his neck, letting him coil comfortably as if he were a green scarf.
"If you're ever in town, drop me a line sometime. I could use a hand," Power Girl says, opting for a polite and collaborative tone before saying goodbye.
Jingwei lifts the golden claw to open the rift, but...
"Power Girl, can you tell us what happened?!" a familiar voice shouts.
Lois Lane makes her appearance on the scene. Her business suit is slightly wrinkled and damaged; she must have pulled off real acrobatics to bypass the New York Police Department's security blockade.
'That woman has guts,' Da Vinci comments, almost tempted to pull out popcorn or peanuts to enjoy the show.
'Or suicidal tendencies fueled by having Superman as a husband and Superboy as a son,' Jingwei thinks in response, not harboring an exceptional liking for the journalist's ruthless resourcefulness.
"His name is Jingwei. He gave me a hand defeating Atomic Skull," Power Girl explains briefly, shrugging her shoulders.
"Any statement to make, Jingwei?" Lois Lane presses him. She quickly pulls a pocket recorder out of her jacket and holds it out toward the new hero as if it were a press conference microphone.
"I don't like journalists or being recorded," Jingwei states coldly.
He snaps the fingers of his free hand. An instant later, both Lois's smartphone and recorder mysteriously catch fire, forcing her to drop them to the ground with a small shriek of frustration.
"Golden Tiger Claws!" Jingwei exclaims, flashing a visibly amused smile at the little prank he just pulled off.
He slashes the air with the artifact and leaps inside the purple and black portal. The dimensional rift snaps shut instantly behind him, leaving Power Girl alone to handle a thoroughly infuriated Lois Lane.
To be continued...
XXX
Author's Note:
It took me a while, but I have finally finished writing this new chapter for the story, which is receiving much more attention than I initially imagined.
PS: I am really excited, there is less than a day left before I can finally explore Snezhnaya on Genshin Impact!