The surroundings were humming from the machines working tirelessly. I could feel the pressure around me increase incessantly. I glanced at the display showing the current active gravity of 120G.
It wasn't much higher than before but now that Dr. Theodore Knight was working for the gravity department it would only be a matter of time until the artificial gravity range would increase into the mid-hundreds and hopefully even higher.
I was quite excited to see my gravity chamber evolve, though soon it wouldn't be appropriate to call it just a 'gravity' chamber. It got so much more extensive in the past few weeks that it was so much more than just a chamber that could increase gravity.
There were a dozen of anti-gravity androids that could reflect weak ki attacks or could attack themselves with the incorporated plasma weapons that I had snatched up from Intergang while being virtually silent.
It was all in preparation to try to learn Ultra Instinct without my ki senses getting in the way by accidentally predicting my opponent's moves, but besides the androids what would truly transform my gravity chamber into something more was that device in the middle of the room.
I glanced at the glass section of the control panel in the middle of the chamber. Inside was the time-slowing prototype that Dr. Wakati recreated from his younger days. The rate was only two times faster than the outside, but that was more than enough to speed up my training considerably.
Still, I wasn't sure why he called it a time-slowing device, which was already a rather uncreative name, when it didn't just slow down time but could also accelerate a certain target, but I didn't want to argue with the man. It was his device and he could name it, however, he wanted to.
The current range was just enough to encapsulate the entire chamber instead of just the person holding it like it was with his older models. There were plans to make the range even bigger, but that would take some time until it could be realized.
He had already theorized that I would probably need to 'acquire' a bigger piece of plutonium before we could achieve something like that. Though I was reluctant to get him something like that. It was already risky to get the plutonium.
I had already asked him to look for an alternative, not only because of the risk but because of the nuclear waste the chamber would produce. So for now I would have to wait for any news he would bring after researching it.
Though if he managed to do it in the end, I could truly turn it into my very own Hyperbolic Time Chamber. There were already ideas on how to incorporate a ginormous fridge beneath the gravity chamber and a sleeping area on the side in case I wanted to spend several weeks or months inside.
I had already excavated the ground, but I still needed the specifics of how the time-slowing device would extend its influence to the other rooms before I could truly start building the facilities.
Dr. Wakati also said that there were some side-effects when the sped-up-time-zone was exceeding an acceleration of 10 times. It would be detrimental for the health of any living beings, though I wasn't sure how true his description was for someone who was as powerful as I was.
He said that I would notice something wrong, so I could just stop using it then, but I couldn't completely disregard and forget his warnings. In Dragon Ball, before the room was improved by Dende, it had been mentioned that a person could only enter the gravity chamber for two years at a time or rather only twice in the person's life if one stayed inside for one year each visit.
Though it had to be said that they just mentioned that they wouldn't be able to exit the Hyperbolic Time Chamber if they truly spend that much time inside.
Maybe it was like the series mentioned and it was just particular that the exit disappeared after a certain amount of time, which I always found weird since someone else could just open the door from the other side, no?
Maybe Toriyama was just lazy to explain the scientific portion of it negatively affecting the body or something. Either way, I wouldn't completely disregard the possibility of harm when using it excessively.
It was rather unfortunate that he wasn't exactly sure about the exact consequences since the effects on an organism weren't quite his field of expertise. With an unprecedented case of accelerated time, it was no wonder he had difficulties assessing the exact dangers.
He had already urged me on to find a biomedical scientist to help him out in that regard if I wanted to find out more, but it was hard to find someone that would meet his criteria.
It would take some time until we found someone suitable and only afterward we would make some additional progress in that direction, but I was already quite satisfied with what he had achieved.
I was also excited to hear that he should be able to achieve another breakthrough now with the plutonium that I gave him. Maybe a week from now I could accelerate the time by 4x.
All these thoughts only came up in a split second but it was enough to distract me from what I was trying to accomplish, turning my efforts of another 30 minutes and half of my ki into nothingness.
I looked at the outline of ki that somewhat resembled a humanoid shape, but just like my previous attempts, it had crumbled after I got distracted. I reached out and absorbed a portion of my ki back into my body before I slowly floated down until I sat on the ground.
I stood up and turned off the gravity chamber and the time-slowing device. I walked out of my training chamber and rotated my stiff shoulders. I had just completed a ten-hour training session in which I spent almost all the time floating cross-legged in the air.
It wasn't without success, in fact, this session could be described as a massive improvement. I was able to create four clones, each having one-tenth of my strength. They were able to withstand about 50G and could take a 'decent' beating before the clones crumbled.
With just one clone, I could grant it half of my strength and theoretically, it should be just enough to withstand 120G but I hadn't made enough success in increasing its tenacity. About 90G were its current limits.
So, all in all, creating a cloning technique could be said to be a decent success, though there were some obvious flaws with my [Multiform] that were quickly unfolded besides its lacking tenacity.
When I created a clone it wasn't a living being. It was ki given form and intent, maybe some of my memories too, but in the end, it wasn't truly alive since they were just an extension of myself. Their thoughts were only intent-based and heavily relied on me to do the heavy lifting.
They couldn't truly think for themselves and required me to divert a lot of my attention to them. It would take a lot more time to refine the technique until they were able to learn some things by themselves.
Another problem with them just being ki given form was the fact that they didn't regenerate lost ki. The amount of ki I used to create them would be the amount they had until they expired.
They lost next to nothing when they just existed or even fought with their bodies, but once they used a ki attack, it would reduce the amount they had, making their time shorter but also reducing their strength.
I had to make sure that they could somehow regenerate their ki, but that wasn't something I could master in a single night.
Another thing was the return of my ki. After my clone dissipated, my ki would dissipate with it. I didn't quite get the trick of getting all my ki back or even further my memories/experience as a clone. That would probably be the toughest nut to crack.
After stepping out of the chamber I walked up and directly into the kitchen to get something to eat. I looked over and saw Raven talk to Kara with a smile on her face. There seemed to be a flicker of dissatisfaction when she saw me but otherwise ignored me for Kara.
It was only time for lunch after having used the chamber for 10 sped-up hours since the morning, so I decided to go for a sandwich.
I sighed out before I sat down next to Kara, wanting to relax, but I had to remember something at that moment. I groaned before standing up again, getting inquiring looks. I pressed my made two sandwiches in their hands before putting the rest in a lunch box.
"I forgot that I was to take over a shift at the Watchtower. Hawkgirl and I were supposed to keep watch today." I answered their unspoken questions as I went to grab the Justice League's communication earbud before making my way to the door.
I put the earbud inside and noticed that there was a missed communication attempt during the time I went out with Kara to San Francisco.
"Hopefully I didn't miss anything important." With a jump, I tore through the air heading for the stratosphere. After a short flight, I entered the Watchtower. There was only one other life force inside in front of the monitors.
"Hey, Hawkgirl." She looked away from the screens to me. Her eyes were rather striking in contrast to her black golden helmet that she never took off.
"Shallot. You are late, again." She curtly responded.
"I was kind of busy. Know something about that emergency request a few hours ago?" I said as I looked at the screens that were showing some mild storms and news, but nothing that screamed for Justice League's full attention.
"No, I arrived just afterward, but it seemed everyone except for Green Lantern and Zatara is out working on the same case."
"Where are they?" I looked over the screens again and then to another on the side that usually showed which communication device was connected to the Watchtower, but found nothing. They seemed to be out of range for the Watchtower. Maybe they were in a different dimension?
"I don't know. I can't track them and they only left a message behind, saying that they were gathering artifacts to help Wonder Woman against someone called Felix Faust."
"Hmm. Sounds like they ought to have some magical support. Any news from Zatara?"
"He was inspecting a ruin left behind by some ancient civilization in south Iraq. Mesopotamian, I think. He didn't leave a message behind after saying he would go there with a friend to have a look around."
"Great..." I cracked my neck. "You wanna go for around?" I pointed with my thumb over my shoulder in the direction of the Watchtower training room.
I Imagined that she raised an eyebrow to that, but couldn't really tell because of her helmet. I rolled my eyes, "Just take your earbud with you and connect it with the computer. We will be informed if someone pinged the Watchtower."
"You want to spar when we don't know the current situation? If they ask for our help but we were too exhausted to be of any use their lives might be at stake." She said that but she seemed eager to do something as well.
"We won't be going too hard, don't worry. Of course, if you are afraid to lose just say that." I exaggeratedly shrugged which created the exact response I knew she would have.
She smiled ferociously, "Kiddo, you are really asking for a beating."
"Please. As if an old lady like you could keep up with me." Although she looked in her early to mid-twenties, she was a decade older. Although I didn't think that was old, she seemed to be rather sensitive about her age. She had mentioned that Thanagarian's life span was significantly greater than that of a normal human being.
Her eyes widened and she appeared to be angry at that comment as she took out her mace, "Seemed like your parents didn't teach you any manners. How about I teach you in their stead?"
"Well, you are probably old enough to be my mommy."
She gritted her teeth and gave her mace a test swing, "You will be screaming for your mommy, alright!"
We bantered a bit more before we finally entered the training room. She looked determined to teach me a lesson. I was still drained from the ten-hour session of ki wastage, but I wasn't like my clones and could urge my body to exhaust itself even further.
"We can finally finish our spar that we had started like 3 weeks ago! We can finally see who the better warrior is!"
"You make it sound like our previous spar was a draw. Bitch, I folded you like an omelet!"
"Hmph. That was only because I hadn't used my mace. This time I won't hold back."
"Hawkgirl... I don't think that would be wise."
She snorted at my words, "Oh? And why is that? Scared?"
"No? If we upped our strength too much I don't think the Watchtower will handle it..." Her hostile stance dropped a bit when she thought about it.
"I think Batman said something about the walls getting better supported by the light constructs and force fields. So I think it should be fine."
"Or should we head down to a wasteland and spar there?"
I suggested but it might not be the best idea which she directly pointed out, "No. We have to be ready in case they send out a distress signal or want us to investigate something with the Watchtower."
"Yeah, we should avoid any delays if there was something that could cause them trouble." I scratched my cheek.
"..."
"..."
"You whiny baby, let me teach you a lesson!"
"Show me what you got, you old hag!"
We directly entered our combat stance again. She pushed herself off the floor and directly charged at me.
I instinctively blocked her overhead mace strike with my forearm and instantly realized why I shouldn't do that. I stepped to the side and pushed her mace away before kicking her back.
She blocked with her wing before she counterattacked with an upward swing of her mace. I leaned back and barely avoided the strike. The mace brushed against my nose. I retaliated with a kick which she promptly blocked with her forearm. I used her as a springboard and pushed myself back.
I could still feel a prickle in my forearm with which I had blocked her strike. I hadn't specifically used my ki to encase my skin but it was rare for anything to directly ignore my natural resilience.
Nth metal, shit was op.
She headed for me and swung at my head with a power strike leaving her guard open. I dodged with minimal distance and immediately slipped inside her guard. Her weapon shot over my head, her other hand slightly to the side as she had used it to gain momentum.
I gave her a quick one-two in the face before blocking her retaliating hook with my arm. A right hook to her open body before I slipped to the side dodging her wing's sweep.
"Oh, now you have done it!" Her mace spewed out lightning. She jumped high in the air, leaving herself wide open. I raised my hand and fired a ki blast at her.
I saw her grin before smacking my ki blast. Unexpectedly it didn't explode, instead was reflected like it was a baseball being hit by a bat.
The ki blast even seemed to have picked up some of her lightning. "Is this supposed to impress me?" I said before taking a step back, slightly twisting my body before my leg kicked out.
I returned the ki blast right at her. The lightning lingered on my leg, but it only felt like a small tingle. She looked surprised as she saw the ki ball come back. She raised her mace and hit it again, once again returning it to me.
"Seriously?" I asked before backhanding the blast back at her.
...
Diana was downtrodden. The jet was awfully quiet. Even Flash was silent. She would have never imagined that this would happen. She had just wanted to visit her home but because of Felix Faust, she had almost lost her family.
Even after saving Themyscira from Faust's and Hades' destruction she was exiled from her home for letting men step onto the island. In the end, she still had lost her family.
The jet exited the atmosphere and headed straight for the Watchtower. The members stepped outside while Batman shut down the jet and typed in some commands for it to be refueled and repaired.
Just after Diana stepped into the hallway just out of the hangar and was about to head towards her room, the space station suddenly trembled lightly.
"Hmm?" Diana looked at Superman who was frowning as well. Seemed like she didn't imagine it. She quickly ran to the control center with the others. Flash, being the fastest, was already sitting at the computer typing something into it.
"The tremors come from the training room."
"Can you see what is causing it?" Batman's voice suddenly sounded out from behind her.
"I can't. The cameras are busted." Flash said showing the static view of the footage.
"Is one of the others here?"
"Only Hawkgirl and Shallot had entered the Watchtower dozens of minutes ago." It was possible that they were fighting an intruder there.
Diana didn't need to equip herself. She was already holding her trusty sword and shield with her as she made her way towards the training room.
The tremors weren't continuous but began anew for just a moment before everything calmed down only for it to shake again.
They weren't too strong either, but it was nonetheless concerning that they were noticeable. The training room was designed to prevent any of the shocks to influence the rest of the space station, so having it being the cause was a good sign that someone was actively trying to destroy it.
Diana was already in a bad mood because of what had happened today and now she had somewhere to vent her frustration.
Flash sprinted past her while Superman and Martian Manhunter were by her side as they turned the corner. Batman was somehow already in front of the door and opened it. The League members directly entered the room.
Just as they entered, Diana's balance was disturbed by the intense shaking that was barely contained by the room. Of course, she didn't fall down because of it. She steadied herself and looked across the room in search of danger. Her shield held up, covering her torso while her sword was on the edge of the shield, pointing straight ahead.
The floor, walls, and even ceilings seemed to have seen a tough day. The hard light constructs and force fields were defectively sparking while several areas were burned black. Several holes and pieces of scrap all over the place. It was clear that an intense fight had been going on here.
"How the fuck is that your point?? It clearly landed behind the line!" Shallot's angry voice resounded in the messy room.
"You brat. You need some glasses! How was that behind the line?! It was clearly in the field!" Hawkgirl shouted as she growled at the younger man.
Diana followed where they pointed at and saw a crooked line burned into the ground, covering three-quarters of the entire training room. In the middle, a hard light constructed net was hung up, dividing the field into two halves.
"You need glasses! It's nothing to be ashamed of, grandma. Older people often need glasses!"
"You little insolent shit."
"Oh my, calm down! it's not good for your heart to stress out like this."
"I didn't know monkey could talk! How about you stop shitting with your mouth and throw the next ball!"
The other members of the league were too stunned to speak. Diana felt very much the same. They looked at Shallot who condensed a ball in his hand before jumping up and throwing a curveball. Hawkgirl flew towards where it would land and hit the ball with her mace.
The ball shot against the ceiling before bouncing back to the corner of the field. Shallot's body shot after the ball towards the corner. His body was encased like a flame by the energy he had named ki.
Just in time he reached the ground and did a bicycle kick. The ball was kicked over the net and into the ceiling. The angle was a bit too steep and after it reflected off the ceiling it landed right on the line.
"Ha! Suck it, brat! Out of bounds!"
"Shut up, it was clearly inside the field!"
Debatable.
"No, it wasn't. Stop cheating and accept your defeat-"
"Ahem." Superman coughed as he saw that they were about to enter another shouting match.
The two looked over to them only now realizing that they were watching them.
"Wonder Woman is on my team!" Hawkgirl immediately called out, surprising the Amazonian.
"Superman, get over here, you are with the winning team."
"yOu aRe wItH ThE WiNnInG TeAm." Hawkgirl mocked right after he said that.
"Really? Grow up!"
"rEaLlY? gRoW Up!"
Superman smiled wryly and looked just as helpless as Diana.
"I don't think it's a good idea right now-" Superman started but was quickly interrupted by Flash who stepped forward, looking expectantly at the two, "Sounds like fun. Who's team am I joining?"
Shallot and Hawkgirl looked at each other for a moment. Shallot gestured with his palm 'go ahead' to Hawkgirl, who directly turned to Flash and said, "You can join Shallot's team."
"...Right. I could need the handicap otherwise I am stomping you in the ground-"
"On second thought you can join my team. You can touch a ki ball, right?!"
"E-eh? No?"
"I could scale its power down, but I don't think it would be as fun anymore." Shallot injected.
"Right, this game is fun because of the possible heavy injuries-"
"'Heavy' injuries for you maybe." Shallot scoffed at Hawkgirl, causing the woman to flare up again.
The two continued to banter with each other completely ignoring the stunned Flash. A moment later Flash dejectedly walked to the side.
Diana looked at the two and somehow felt at ease. The two looked like two best friends or even siblings quarreling with each other. It was a comforting sight, especially after having been exiled from her family and friends today. She felt at home.
She pulled the strap of the shield tighter and gave her sword a swing before walking towards Hawkgirl's side of the field. She raised an eyebrow at Superman who looked bewildered at her. He sighed out in defeat before stepping on Shallot's side.
Batman, Martian Manhunter, and Flash stood on the side. It was probably for the best, they weren't able to touch this ki ball of Shallot. She had already witnessed what kind of damage it would do.
J'onn would be able to withstand them if it weren't for the heat it generated if Shallot put enough power into and since the two didn't seem keen on scaling the power down, it was best that J'onn didn't participate.
Shallot created another ki ball in his hands, "Shayera, don't cry once you lose!"
"Shut up and throw it already!"
...
Diana sat on the chair, beat. She knew that her muscles would be sore for the next few days. She looked over at Hawkgirl and Shallot who had some of their limbs in a cast.
Shallot seemed to be rather happy. They had played out to a debatable 'draw', but that wasn't what Shallot was happy about. It was something Diana had noticed before, but it seemed the harder the beat down he experienced the happier he was.
As a warrior herself, she could understand the joys of experiencing a challenge and pushing oneself to meet it, but Shallot went for the extra mile. He actively sought to push him to his absolute limit until death was ever so close. It was something Diana admired in the young man but also worried her.
She had to admit that during this team's founding she was initially worried since he hadn't even turned 19 yet. To some countries, he wasn't even an adult yet! Despite this, they had readily accepted his presence. Not only because of his strength but because of his decisiveness.
Having a no-bullshit attitude had eased the battle for anyone on their side, though she worried that he indulged in the brutality a bit too much. No, maybe not indulge, but he seemed to either forget how strong he was or not care about his weaker opponents.
Both possibilities were a source of concern. Usually, when he wasn't training and helped out at the tower, he was always serious, and from time to time certainly provocative as well, but seeing him grin happily while being heavily injured made her question about how he had been raised. Even for Amazons injuries weren't that celebrated like he seemed to do. Was it something cultural?
Diana thought that might be a possibility, but if he wasn't prompted Shallot hadn't talked much about his race or his past in general, so she couldn't be sure.
The Justice League just didn't know much about Saiyans. A warrior race that loved the battle, which he had confirmed not too rarely. Superman had already gotten annoyed from getting asked to spar with him.
Diana guessed that Shallot would only stop asking him when he accepted to spar with him at least once, at least the possibility seemed likely.
He also admitted that he turned into a rage-filled giant monkey, or Oozaru as he had called it when he looked at the full moon. Though he also emphasized that he could control it.
She remembered that Batman had asked him what would happen if he did lose control. The answer that they would need to either knock him out or destroy the moon were concerning answers.
The surroundings were humming from the machines working tirelessly. I could feel the pressure around me increase incessantly. I glanced at the display showing the current active gravity of 120G.
It wasn't much higher than before but now that Dr. Theodore Knight was working for the gravity department it would only be a matter of time until the artificial gravity range would increase into the mid-hundreds and hopefully even higher.
I was quite excited to see my gravity chamber evolve, though soon it wouldn't be appropriate to call it just a 'gravity' chamber. It got so much more extensive in the past few weeks that it was so much more than just a chamber that could increase gravity.
There were a dozen of anti-gravity androids that could reflect weak ki attacks or could attack themselves with the incorporated plasma weapons that I had snatched up from Intergang while being virtually silent.
It was all in preparation to try to learn Ultra Instinct without my ki senses getting in the way by accidentally predicting my opponent's moves, but besides the androids what would truly transform my gravity chamber into something more was that device in the middle of the room.
I glanced at the glass section of the control panel in the middle of the chamber. Inside was the time-slowing prototype that Dr. Wakati recreated from his younger days. The rate was only two times faster than the outside, but that was more than enough to speed up my training considerably.
Still, I wasn't sure why he called it a time-slowing device, which was already a rather uncreative name, when it didn't just slow down time but could also accelerate a certain target, but I didn't want to argue with the man. It was his device and he could name it, however, he wanted to.
The current range was just enough to encapsulate the entire chamber instead of just the person holding it like it was with his older models. There were plans to make the range even bigger, but that would take some time until it could be realized.
He had already theorized that I would probably need to 'acquire' a bigger piece of plutonium before we could achieve something like that. Though I was reluctant to get him something like that. It was already risky to get the plutonium.
I had already asked him to look for an alternative, not only because of the risk but because of the nuclear waste the chamber would produce. So for now I would have to wait for any news he would bring after researching it.
Though if he managed to do it in the end, I could truly turn it into my very own Hyperbolic Time Chamber. There were already ideas on how to incorporate a ginormous fridge beneath the gravity chamber and a sleeping area on the side in case I wanted to spend several weeks or months inside.
I had already excavated the ground, but I still needed the specifics of how the time-slowing device would extend its influence to the other rooms before I could truly start building the facilities.
Dr. Wakati also said that there were some side-effects when the sped-up-time-zone was exceeding an acceleration of 10 times. It would be detrimental for the health of any living beings, though I wasn't sure how true his description was for someone who was as powerful as I was.
He said that I would notice something wrong, so I could just stop using it then, but I couldn't completely disregard and forget his warnings. In Dragon Ball, before the room was improved by Dende, it had been mentioned that a person could only enter the gravity chamber for two years at a time or rather only twice in the person's life if one stayed inside for one year each visit.
Though it had to be said that they just mentioned that they wouldn't be able to exit the Hyperbolic Time Chamber if they truly spend that much time inside.
Maybe it was like the series mentioned and it was just particular that the exit disappeared after a certain amount of time, which I always found weird since someone else could just open the door from the other side, no?
Maybe Toriyama was just lazy to explain the scientific portion of it negatively affecting the body or something. Either way, I wouldn't completely disregard the possibility of harm when using it excessively.
It was rather unfortunate that he wasn't exactly sure about the exact consequences since the effects on an organism weren't quite his field of expertise. With an unprecedented case of accelerated time, it was no wonder he had difficulties assessing the exact dangers.
He had already urged me on to find a biomedical scientist to help him out in that regard if I wanted to find out more, but it was hard to find someone that would meet his criteria.
It would take some time until we found someone suitable and only afterward we would make some additional progress in that direction, but I was already quite satisfied with what he had achieved.
I was also excited to hear that he should be able to achieve another breakthrough now with the plutonium that I gave him. Maybe a week from now I could accelerate the time by 4x.
All these thoughts only came up in a split second but it was enough to distract me from what I was trying to accomplish, turning my efforts of another 30 minutes and half of my ki into nothingness.
I looked at the outline of ki that somewhat resembled a humanoid shape, but just like my previous attempts, it had crumbled after I got distracted. I reached out and absorbed a portion of my ki back into my body before I slowly floated down until I sat on the ground.
I stood up and turned off the gravity chamber and the time-slowing device. I walked out of my training chamber and rotated my stiff shoulders. I had just completed a ten-hour training session in which I spent almost all the time floating cross-legged in the air.
It wasn't without success, in fact, this session could be described as a massive improvement. I was able to create four clones, each having one-tenth of my strength. They were able to withstand about 50G and could take a 'decent' beating before the clones crumbled.
With just one clone, I could grant it half of my strength and theoretically, it should be just enough to withstand 120G but I hadn't made enough success in increasing its tenacity. About 90G were its current limits.
So, all in all, creating a cloning technique could be said to be a decent success, though there were some obvious flaws with my [Multiform] that were quickly unfolded besides its lacking tenacity.
When I created a clone it wasn't a living being. It was ki given form and intent, maybe some of my memories too, but in the end, it wasn't truly alive since they were just an extension of myself. Their thoughts were only intent-based and heavily relied on me to do the heavy lifting.
They couldn't truly think for themselves and required me to divert a lot of my attention to them. It would take a lot more time to refine the technique until they were able to learn some things by themselves.
Another problem with them just being ki given form was the fact that they didn't regenerate lost ki. The amount of ki I used to create them would be the amount they had until they expired.
They lost next to nothing when they just existed or even fought with their bodies, but once they used a ki attack, it would reduce the amount they had, making their time shorter but also reducing their strength.
I had to make sure that they could somehow regenerate their ki, but that wasn't something I could master in a single night.
Another thing was the return of my ki. After my clone dissipated, my ki would dissipate with it. I didn't quite get the trick of getting all my ki back or even further my memories/experience as a clone. That would probably be the toughest nut to crack.
After stepping out of the chamber I walked up and directly into the kitchen to get something to eat. I looked over and saw Raven talk to Kara with a smile on her face. There seemed to be a flicker of dissatisfaction when she saw me but otherwise ignored me for Kara.
It was only time for lunch after having used the chamber for 10 sped-up hours since the morning, so I decided to go for a sandwich.
I sighed out before I sat down next to Kara, wanting to relax, but I had to remember something at that moment. I groaned before standing up again, getting inquiring looks. I pressed my made two sandwiches in their hands before putting the rest in a lunch box.
"I forgot that I was to take over a shift at the Watchtower. Hawkgirl and I were supposed to keep watch today." I answered their unspoken questions as I went to grab the Justice League's communication earbud before making my way to the door.
I put the earbud inside and noticed that there was a missed communication attempt during the time I went out with Kara to San Francisco.
"Hopefully I didn't miss anything important." With a jump, I tore through the air heading for the stratosphere. After a short flight, I entered the Watchtower. There was only one other life force inside in front of the monitors.
"Hey, Hawkgirl." She looked away from the screens to me. Her eyes were rather striking in contrast to her black golden helmet that she never took off.
"Shallot. You are late, again." She curtly responded.
"I was kind of busy. Know something about that emergency request a few hours ago?" I said as I looked at the screens that were showing some mild storms and news, but nothing that screamed for Justice League's full attention.
"No, I arrived just afterward, but it seemed everyone except for Green Lantern and Zatara is out working on the same case."
"Where are they?" I looked over the screens again and then to another on the side that usually showed which communication device was connected to the Watchtower, but found nothing. They seemed to be out of range for the Watchtower. Maybe they were in a different dimension?
"I don't know. I can't track them and they only left a message behind, saying that they were gathering artifacts to help Wonder Woman against someone called Felix Faust."
"Hmm. Sounds like they ought to have some magical support. Any news from Zatara?"
"He was inspecting a ruin left behind by some ancient civilization in south Iraq. Mesopotamian, I think. He didn't leave a message behind after saying he would go there with a friend to have a look around."
"Great..." I cracked my neck. "You wanna go for around?" I pointed with my thumb over my shoulder in the direction of the Watchtower training room.
I Imagined that she raised an eyebrow to that, but couldn't really tell because of her helmet. I rolled my eyes, "Just take your earbud with you and connect it with the computer. We will be informed if someone pinged the Watchtower."
"You want to spar when we don't know the current situation? If they ask for our help but we were too exhausted to be of any use their lives might be at stake." She said that but she seemed eager to do something as well.
"We won't be going too hard, don't worry. Of course, if you are afraid to lose just say that." I exaggeratedly shrugged which created the exact response I knew she would have.
She smiled ferociously, "Kiddo, you are really asking for a beating."
"Please. As if an old lady like you could keep up with me." Although she looked in her early to mid-twenties, she was a decade older. Although I didn't think that was old, she seemed to be rather sensitive about her age. She had mentioned that Thanagarian's life span was significantly greater than that of a normal human being.
Her eyes widened and she appeared to be angry at that comment as she took out her mace, "Seemed like your parents didn't teach you any manners. How about I teach you in their stead?"
"Well, you are probably old enough to be my mommy."
She gritted her teeth and gave her mace a test swing, "You will be screaming for your mommy, alright!"
We bantered a bit more before we finally entered the training room. She looked determined to teach me a lesson. I was still drained from the ten-hour session of ki wastage, but I wasn't like my clones and could urge my body to exhaust itself even further.
"We can finally finish our spar that we had started like 3 weeks ago! We can finally see who the better warrior is!"
"You make it sound like our previous spar was a draw. Bitch, I folded you like an omelet!"
"Hmph. That was only because I hadn't used my mace. This time I won't hold back."
"Hawkgirl... I don't think that would be wise."
She snorted at my words, "Oh? And why is that? Scared?"
"No? If we upped our strength too much I don't think the Watchtower will handle it..." Her hostile stance dropped a bit when she thought about it.
"I think Batman said something about the walls getting better supported by the light constructs and force fields. So I think it should be fine."
"Or should we head down to a wasteland and spar there?"
I suggested but it might not be the best idea which she directly pointed out, "No. We have to be ready in case they send out a distress signal or want us to investigate something with the Watchtower."
"Yeah, we should avoid any delays if there was something that could cause them trouble." I scratched my cheek.
"..."
"..."
"You whiny baby, let me teach you a lesson!"
"Show me what you got, you old hag!"
We directly entered our combat stance again. She pushed herself off the floor and directly charged at me.
I instinctively blocked her overhead mace strike with my forearm and instantly realized why I shouldn't do that. I stepped to the side and pushed her mace away before kicking her back.
She blocked with her wing before she counterattacked with an upward swing of her mace. I leaned back and barely avoided the strike. The mace brushed against my nose. I retaliated with a kick which she promptly blocked with her forearm. I used her as a springboard and pushed myself back.
I could still feel a prickle in my forearm with which I had blocked her strike. I hadn't specifically used my ki to encase my skin but it was rare for anything to directly ignore my natural resilience.
Nth metal, shit was op.
She headed for me and swung at my head with a power strike leaving her guard open. I dodged with minimal distance and immediately slipped inside her guard. Her weapon shot over my head, her other hand slightly to the side as she had used it to gain momentum.
I gave her a quick one-two in the face before blocking her retaliating hook with my arm. A right hook to her open body before I slipped to the side dodging her wing's sweep.
"Oh, now you have done it!" Her mace spewed out lightning. She jumped high in the air, leaving herself wide open. I raised my hand and fired a ki blast at her.
I saw her grin before smacking my ki blast. Unexpectedly it didn't explode, instead was reflected like it was a baseball being hit by a bat.
The ki blast even seemed to have picked up some of her lightning. "Is this supposed to impress me?" I said before taking a step back, slightly twisting my body before my leg kicked out.
I returned the ki blast right at her. The lightning lingered on my leg, but it only felt like a small tingle. She looked surprised as she saw the ki ball come back. She raised her mace and hit it again, once again returning it to me.
"Seriously?" I asked before backhanding the blast back at her.
...
Diana was downtrodden. The jet was awfully quiet. Even Flash was silent. She would have never imagined that this would happen. She had just wanted to visit her home but because of Felix Faust, she had almost lost her family.
Even after saving Themyscira from Faust's and Hades' destruction she was exiled from her home for letting men step onto the island. In the end, she still had lost her family.
The jet exited the atmosphere and headed straight for the Watchtower. The members stepped outside while Batman shut down the jet and typed in some commands for it to be refueled and repaired.
Just after Diana stepped into the hallway just out of the hangar and was about to head towards her room, the space station suddenly trembled lightly.
"Hmm?" Diana looked at Superman who was frowning as well. Seemed like she didn't imagine it. She quickly ran to the control center with the others. Flash, being the fastest, was already sitting at the computer typing something into it.
"The tremors come from the training room."
"Can you see what is causing it?" Batman's voice suddenly sounded out from behind her.
"I can't. The cameras are busted." Flash said showing the static view of the footage.
"Is one of the others here?"
"Only Hawkgirl and Shallot had entered the Watchtower dozens of minutes ago." It was possible that they were fighting an intruder there.
Diana didn't need to equip herself. She was already holding her trusty sword and shield with her as she made her way towards the training room.
The tremors weren't continuous but began anew for just a moment before everything calmed down only for it to shake again.
They weren't too strong either, but it was nonetheless concerning that they were noticeable. The training room was designed to prevent any of the shocks to influence the rest of the space station, so having it being the cause was a good sign that someone was actively trying to destroy it.
Diana was already in a bad mood because of what had happened today and now she had somewhere to vent her frustration.
Flash sprinted past her while Superman and Martian Manhunter were by her side as they turned the corner. Batman was somehow already in front of the door and opened it. The League members directly entered the room.
Just as they entered, Diana's balance was disturbed by the intense shaking that was barely contained by the room. Of course, she didn't fall down because of it. She steadied herself and looked across the room in search of danger. Her shield held up, covering her torso while her sword was on the edge of the shield, pointing straight ahead.
The floor, walls, and even ceilings seemed to have seen a tough day. The hard light constructs and force fields were defectively sparking while several areas were burned black. Several holes and pieces of scrap all over the place. It was clear that an intense fight had been going on here.
"How the fuck is that your point?? It clearly landed behind the line!" Shallot's angry voice resounded in the messy room.
"You brat. You need some glasses! How was that behind the line?! It was clearly in the field!" Hawkgirl shouted as she growled at the younger man.
Diana followed where they pointed at and saw a crooked line burned into the ground, covering three-quarters of the entire training room. In the middle, a hard light constructed net was hung up, dividing the field into two halves.
"You need glasses! It's nothing to be ashamed of, grandma. Older people often need glasses!"
"You little insolent shit."
"Oh my, calm down! it's not good for your heart to stress out like this."
"I didn't know monkey could talk! How about you stop shitting with your mouth and throw the next ball!"
The other members of the league were too stunned to speak. Diana felt very much the same. They looked at Shallot who condensed a ball in his hand before jumping up and throwing a curveball. Hawkgirl flew towards where it would land and hit the ball with her mace.
The ball shot against the ceiling before bouncing back to the corner of the field. Shallot's body shot after the ball towards the corner. His body was encased like a flame by the energy he had named ki.
Just in time he reached the ground and did a bicycle kick. The ball was kicked over the net and into the ceiling. The angle was a bit too steep and after it reflected off the ceiling it landed right on the line.
"Ha! Suck it, brat! Out of bounds!"
"Shut up, it was clearly inside the field!"
Debatable.
"No, it wasn't. Stop cheating and accept your defeat-"
"Ahem." Superman coughed as he saw that they were about to enter another shouting match.
The two looked over to them only now realizing that they were watching them.
"Wonder Woman is on my team!" Hawkgirl immediately called out, surprising the Amazonian.
"Superman, get over here, you are with the winning team."
"yOu aRe wItH ThE WiNnInG TeAm." Hawkgirl mocked right after he said that.
"Really? Grow up!"
"rEaLlY? gRoW Up!"
Superman smiled wryly and looked just as helpless as Diana.
"I don't think it's a good idea right now-" Superman started but was quickly interrupted by Flash who stepped forward, looking expectantly at the two, "Sounds like fun. Who's team am I joining?"
Shallot and Hawkgirl looked at each other for a moment. Shallot gestured with his palm 'go ahead' to Hawkgirl, who directly turned to Flash and said, "You can join Shallot's team."
"...Right. I could need the handicap otherwise I am stomping you in the ground-"
"On second thought you can join my team. You can touch a ki ball, right?!"
"E-eh? No?"
"I could scale its power down, but I don't think it would be as fun anymore." Shallot injected.
"Right, this game is fun because of the possible heavy injuries-"
"'Heavy' injuries for you maybe." Shallot scoffed at Hawkgirl, causing the woman to flare up again.
The two continued to banter with each other completely ignoring the stunned Flash. A moment later Flash dejectedly walked to the side.
Diana looked at the two and somehow felt at ease. The two looked like two best friends or even siblings quarreling with each other. It was a comforting sight, especially after having been exiled from her family and friends today. She felt at home.
She pulled the strap of the shield tighter and gave her sword a swing before walking towards Hawkgirl's side of the field. She raised an eyebrow at Superman who looked bewildered at her. He sighed out in defeat before stepping on Shallot's side.
Batman, Martian Manhunter, and Flash stood on the side. It was probably for the best, they weren't able to touch this ki ball of Shallot. She had already witnessed what kind of damage it would do.
J'onn would be able to withstand them if it weren't for the heat it generated if Shallot put enough power into and since the two didn't seem keen on scaling the power down, it was best that J'onn didn't participate.
Shallot created another ki ball in his hands, "Shayera, don't cry once you lose!"
"Shut up and throw it already!"
...
Diana sat on the chair, beat. She knew that her muscles would be sore for the next few days. She looked over at Hawkgirl and Shallot who had some of their limbs in a cast.
Shallot seemed to be rather happy. They had played out to a debatable 'draw', but that wasn't what Shallot was happy about. It was something Diana had noticed before, but it seemed the harder the beat down he experienced the happier he was.
As a warrior herself, she could understand the joys of experiencing a challenge and pushing oneself to meet it, but Shallot went for the extra mile. He actively sought to push him to his absolute limit until death was ever so close. It was something Diana admired in the young man but also worried her.
She had to admit that during this team's founding she was initially worried since he hadn't even turned 19 yet. To some countries, he wasn't even an adult yet! Despite this, they had readily accepted his presence. Not only because of his strength but because of his decisiveness.
Having a no-bullshit attitude had eased the battle for anyone on their side, though she worried that he indulged in the brutality a bit too much. No, maybe not indulge, but he seemed to either forget how strong he was or not care about his weaker opponents.
Both possibilities were a source of concern. Usually, when he wasn't training and helped out at the tower, he was always serious, and from time to time certainly provocative as well, but seeing him grin happily while being heavily injured made her question about how he had been raised. Even for Amazons injuries weren't that celebrated like he seemed to do. Was it something cultural?
Diana thought that might be a possibility, but if he wasn't prompted Shallot hadn't talked much about his race or his past in general, so she couldn't be sure.
The Justice League just didn't know much about Saiyans. A warrior race that loved the battle, which he had confirmed not too rarely. Superman had already gotten annoyed from getting asked to spar with him.
Diana guessed that Shallot would only stop asking him when he accepted to spar with him at least once, at least the possibility seemed likely.
He also admitted that he turned into a rage-filled giant monkey, or Oozaru as he had called it when he looked at the full moon. Though he also emphasized that he could control it.
She remembered that Batman had asked him what would happen if he did lose control. The answer that they would need to either knock him out or destroy the moon were concerning answers.
