Chapter 142: Supercar on a Broken Road
—
The training courtyard behind Illyana's guest house was just a square of white stone with a sky drop on one side. Low walls on three edges but nothing on the fourth but clouds. The floor had old scorch marks and claw gouges, so yeah, people and demons had been beating each other up here for a long time.
Psylocke stood across from me, maybe fifteen feet away.
She wore her usual attire, the tight purple superhero outfit that left her legs bare, with her hair tied in a ponytail. She looked relaxed. A bit too relaxed.
To my left, Illyana sat up on the low wall with her legs dangling and the Soulsword across her knees. Hope was next to her with that same "Dark Chi 101" book open on her lap, pretending to read.
Let's see the difference now.
I felt good. Better than good, actually. The furnace in my belly had settled into a soft and steady heat, and when I breathed I could feel chi slide through my arms and legs without even trying. Previously, Psylocke had tried so hard teaching me, just getting me to breathe on rhythm for ten seconds.
Now there was a river where a puddle used to be.
The whole reason I came to China was to build a foundation that worked without the Omnitrix, protect my human body and fight as Ben Tennyson instead of whatever alien the watch picked. Standing here, I was starting to believe that I'd pulled it off.
"Let me make the rules clear, Ben," Psylocke said. "No using your Omnitrix. Chi and human body only."
"Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time."
Her eyes flicked to the watch anyway. "And don't hold back."
You'll be dead if I listen to that. I rolled my shoulders and dropped into what I hoped passed for a stance. "Ready when you are."
She didn't hesitate and moved first. One step forward, weight over her front leg, as she dashed at me. Her right hand came in for a straight palm strike, aiming right for my sternum. The movement was fast, but not too much. It was slow for her, she was obviously just testing.
I tried to push chi into my forearm and blocked. It worked.
The energy surged through my arm like I'd just cranked open a fire hose. My block landed, I felt the hit in her palm, and for a second I thought, okay, I've got this. Then the chi kept going. It shot past my elbow, into my shoulder, bounced around my chest, and slammed into my own ribs from the inside.
My legs wobbled. I nearly sat down right there.
I caught myself with one hand on the stone and looked up. Psylocke had already slid back to her starting spot. Her face was neutral, instructor mode, but her eyes had that look you give when a kid trips over air.
"Again," she said.
I stood, shook my arm out. My ribs ached. Great start.
This time I went in. Quick step, right straight for her face, pushing chi into my fist but trying not to blow myself up. She slid sideways, clearly bored, and tapped two fingers against my wrist as it passed. Lightest touch ever, but it did its work.
It wrecked the flow in my arm like someone kinking a hose. All the chi I'd shoved down that path just scattered into the muscles, and my hand went mostly numb.
"Ow." While I was still dealing with that, she stepped in, put her palm on my chest, and gave a little push. A thin strand of her chi slipped right through my sternum and poked the furnace.
It flared. My whole body seized up for a second. Muscles locked and I couldn't even breathe for a moment.
I stumbled back three steps. She didn't chase. She just watched.
We went back and forth for a bit. I tried jabs, kicks, short bursts and wide bursts. But they didn't help. Every time I really committed, she just slipped just out of reach and tapped some stupid spot. Inside my elbow, along my ribs, and then the side of my neck. It was annoying.
Every single time, my own chi freaked out harder than her actual hit. An arm would go weak, or a leg, or my breath would just get punched out of me by nothing.
Meanwhile, she was barely moving. Just steps and little taps.
Within two minutes I was sweating and breathing hard. She looked like she was waiting in line for coffee.
The gap was embarrassing. I probably had ten times her raw output now and she was still taking me apart because she actually knew how this stuff worked and I was just throwing chi around and praying.
Okay. Then let's rely on what I have.
I decided to end it with one big push.
I dug down into the Dantian or Qi Center, whatever these people called it, grabbed as much chi as I thought I could handle without exploding, and dragged it up into both arms. Everything buzzed. The stones under my feet made this tiny cracking sound. I shoved it all forward and lunged, both fists coming in for her chest.
Psylocke didn't even bother blocking.
She blurred and slipped to my right, grabbing my extended arm and turning her body with mine. Her fingers dug into the inside of my elbow and twisted chi into that spot. My own energy flipped direction, shot back up my arm and punched me in the chest.
My feet left the ground. I hit the floor on my back and slid a little.
I blinked up at the sky, trying to get my lungs to remember how to work.
Psylocke didn't wait. She was there, one knee on my chest, psi-blade humming purple at my throat. She wasn't even breathing hard. "Yield," she said. "You really need to start training. That was embarrassing."
Was it? I am learning. I let my head drop back. "Hey if this was a real fight, I wouldn't have been going easy on you, you know."
The blade disappeared. Her expression went from "instructor" to "you just said what" in half a second. She stood up, stepped off my chest, and turned away with her jaw clenched, eyes flat and dark.
"Going easy," she repeated.
"Well…"
"First of all, you can't always rely on your aliens. You know that. That's why we are training. But even if you were a big alien right now, you think I need you to be gentle with me?" Her voice was calm and somehow sharper for it. "I have trained since I could walk. I have killed men twice your size with my bare hands." She took a step closer. "And you think I need you to hold back even if you're an alien?"
Of course she did. I commended her early training and current strength, but could she defeat Four Arm?
I pushed myself up to sit and rubbed the back of my neck. The annoying part was, I did mean it. If this were real, I'd hit the Omnitrix and end it in four seconds. That was just facts, and she knew it too. But saying it out loud right after she took my chi apart like a toddler's block tower? That was on me, it's a little embarrassing too.
Her other point was also true. I was indeed here to train my human body, not brag about my aliens.
"I'm not apologizing," I said. "I meant what I said. But I also know you just kicked my ass and I'm the one on the floor, so maybe I should shut up."
Her jaw flexed. She looked away for a second and then looked at me again.
"Stand." She continued when I did. "Your meridians are wide open," she said. Her tone had flipped back to instructor mode. "Your reserves are massive. Bigger than mine even after the pill. That is infuriating." Her mouth twitched like she wanted to say more about that and didn't. "But your control is almost zero. The problem before was that you barely had any reserves, so little that controlling it sounds silly. But now, your reserves are so large, it's like trying to guide the ocean with a fan. You push chi like you're swinging a bat. Every time I touched a pressure point, your own energy did more damage than I did."
"Yeah. Felt that."
"That was the point," she said. "The champions in the real tournament will feel it too. They will not be gentle." She glanced up, toward where the main arenas were. "The Prince of Orphans. The Spider representative. And Iron Fist…" She ticked them off on her fingers. "They have spent lifetimes turning chi into weapons. Fight them the way you just fought me?" She shook her head once. "They will use your own power to break you."
I chewed on that. She wasn't wrong. Right now my chi was a fire hose with no nozzle. In Four Arms, I could probably eat the backlash and fight them regardless. However in this body, the furnace would just burn me out from the inside if someone smart enough poked it.
Which basically made the Crane Mother's blessing a really impressive way to kill myself faster. Nice.
"I can train you," Psylocke said. "Teach you the pressure points, flow control, and how to turn that river into something useful. The foundation you wanted when you dragged me to China. If you want…"
"How long are we talking?"
"Honestly, it'll take months." No hesitation. "A year for real stability."
"And the tournament starts…"
She snorted. "Soon. This is a long-term goal. You'll have to manage with the drawbacks and fight the tournament with that."
What advice, I thought. Out loud I just said, "Got it."
****
When I returned to the guest house and took a shower to clean the dust, the air felt warmer and more normal. I walked out of my room into the common room, grabbed one of the water jars, and then collapsed onto a cushion. My chest still ached a little where my own chi had body-slammed me.
Hope glanced up from her book. "That was impressive," she said, and her sarcastic tone was a little annoying.
I shot her a look, and she returned one before going back to pretending to read. Honestly, worse than if she'd cackled.
Luna and Colleen were in a corner with some kind of tile game spread between them. Luna waved at me without looking away from the board. Colleen didn't even bother with that.
Illyana had moved back inside at some point. She sat in that creepy bone chair by the hearth, one boot up on the armrest. I wondered what was up with that throne. Did she have someone move that from the gallery to here, or could she just summon it at will?
She was watching me right now, of course.
[Image Here]
I decisively ignored her and dropped into the chair across from her and took a long drink before she said anything.
"You've been smelling different since you returned," she said. Her tone was light, like we were talking about the weather. "Too much like that old woman. Did something more than chi granting happen in that chamber?"
I lowered the jar. Everyone in the room was listening now, even if they acted like they were busy with their own stuff. I wondered what to say, then realized my reputation didn't really matter much. I could be truthful.
"Her blessing works through chi exchange. That's what last night was."
"Chi exchange," she repeated. Her fingers slid along the flat of the Soulsword. "Exchange is an interesting word. In what manner?"
"Through… four women she prepared for me." I added, "And then through herself, when she realized I could take more. That's how she runs the Furnace. I didn't pick the method."
"No," she said. "You just participated enthusiastically."
Perhaps because I was already a little annoyed, I spoke up fast, "Excuse me, didn't you seem quite excited when I joined the tournament under your name? And you also seemed to know how the chi transfer works when I asked you. So what did you think was going to happen? Why are you acting strange?"
Her eyes narrowed.
The temperature around us dipped immediately. I felt the hairs on my arms rise. Frost started creeping along the edges of the bone chair, and the nearest candle flames shrank down like they were scared.
Her irises darkened, blue going almost black for a second, then her entire skintone did a shift. Horns rose from her head as the Darkchilde looked out at me through Illyana's face.
When she spoke again there was that layered sound to it, like she was talking and something else was leaning on the same words. "I expected a ritual. A transfer of power through others, as in, those four girls you mentioned. That didn't bother me, and knowing your character I knew you'd enjoy it too. I just did not expect her to claim you too. That prudish woman, how dare she touch you?"
"Uhm…"
She rose out of the chair and walked over without any sound. I stayed put, still sitting down and looking up at her. She stood before me and leaned down slightly, and her hand came down to flatten against my chest and then lowered to my abdomen, right above the Dantian. Her fingers were cold, but it didn't feel uncomfortable.
"This mark," she said quietly. "I can feel it. Her chi is threaded through yours now. It is not just power, Ben. It is a tether." Her eyes didn't leave mine. "She will be able to feel you. Find you. Pull you. Wherever you go..."
I hadn't expected that honestly. I glanced down at her hand and back up. "Can she control me?"
"...No. I'd expected her to put mechanics like control too, but surprisingly she hadn't. Don't worry, if she had, I'd have destroyed it. I'm just surprised she hasn't done it."
I smiled. "Then it doesn't sound too bad. So what if she can feel and find me? She's welcome to visit my bedroom whenever she wants."
She scowled at my joke. She didn't seem to enjoy it, because she didn't trust the scheming Crane Mother at all. I could understand why, but I'd seen that cold, calculative woman break down and moan my name all night before. So I had a different conclusion than Illyana.
"Are you really this unbothered?" Her voice dropped lower. The shadows around the room edged closer, like they wanted in. "Even if you are, I am not. I brought you here. I put my name on you." Her grip on my shirt tightened. "And now another queen decided to write hers over mine. That irritates me!"
Her voice grew deeper, demonic, as she growled, glaring at me. Then she yanked me up by the collar until we were eye-level. At this range I could see the faint lines where her horns wanted to push through.
"Ben Tennyson," she said. "Even if you're stupid, you're powerful. So at least, you'll be able to free yourself if you want. Or at least choose what you want to do without being controlled. Basically… I am telling you to remember who found you first."
Well, that's a little crazy. Technically, I was the one who went to find Illyana because I needed her help rescuing Charmcaster. Illyana didn't even want to help me at first. Regardless, she'd chosen to help me out in the end, and even saved us by risking herself when Addwaitya started rampaging.
It was only right to repay her, indeed. I looked right back at her. "I remember."
We held that for a second. Then her fingers unclenched, she stepped back, and the pressure in the room eased. The glow faded from her eyes, her horns vanished, and that human skin tone returned. The frost also stopped spreading.
"Good." She went back to her chair and picked up the cloth like we'd paused a cleaning job, not an argument. "Don't forget."
What was funny was that initially, it was only Darkchilde who was interested in me, be it flirting or anything. Illyana had always acted unbothered. But look at her now.
I opened my mouth, closed it again, and just took another drink of water instead, hiding my smile. This was fun.
I was still chewing on all that when the guest house door opened.
Two crane-masked attendants stepped inside and bowed. One of them carried a scroll sealed in gold wax. They crossed the room and held it out to me without saying anything.
I broke the seal and unrolled it.
– To the Seven Champions of the Heavenly Cities. The Grand Tournament of the Celestial Pavilion will commence at dawn, tomorrow. All champions are to present themselves at the Central Nexus by the third bell of the second morning. Failure to appear forfeits your city's claim for the next cycle.
"Aw, shit."
One day? Really?
The morning was already over, so not even that. This little time to figure out how not to cook myself with my own chi, fight people who'd been training since before I was born, and somehow win a tournament in the hope of meeting the Iron Fist spirit later.
"Oh, hey Sai," I set the scroll down and looked over at Psylocke, who'd just walked in, her hair wet from a shower. "So about that training," I said. "How much can you cram into sixteen hours?"
**
**
**