Chapter 116: The Dragon and the Hellion
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The Massachusetts Academy's guest quarters were nicer than most five-star hotels I'd stayed in. Well, technically I'd never stayed in a five-star hotel in this life, but I'd seen enough movies to make the comparison.
Polished mahogany furniture that probably cost more than a car, silk sheets that felt like clouds had been woven into fabric, and a view of the Academy grounds that made me wonder if Emma had specifically chosen this room to impress me.
She definitely chose this room to impress me.
Unlike the snobby X-Men, I had a feeling Emma Frost would love to have me in her school. Not that I planned to enroll here.
I set the Chi manual on the ornate desk, fingers tracing the shifting diagrams one more time. The breathing exercises seemed simple enough in theory. Draw energy from the environment, cycle it through specific pathways in the body, and store it in the dantian. Classic cultivation novel stuff, except this was real, and I had no System or grandfather-in-a-locker to guide me through the process.
The manual described Chi as the bridge between physical and spiritual, the energy that animated all living things. In Chinese philosophy, it was the fundamental force of existence, flowing through everything from mountains to mice. Martial artists learned to harness their internal Chi through years of training, meditation, and discipline.
Years I don't have.
The Omnitrix gave me instant access to alien abilities, but Chi was different. It came from within, from understanding and harmony rather than transformation. The irony wasn't lost on me. I could become a being of pure energy at will, but I couldn't manage a simple breathing exercise without feeling like my lungs were trying to escape through my throat.
Maybe I was approaching it wrong. The manual emphasized wu wei, the concept of effortless action. Stop forcing, start flowing. Like Emma had said on the plane, though I doubted she'd learned that from ancient Chinese philosophy.
I needed to clear my head.
Emma had mentioned she'd be tied up with Academy business for a few hours, something about disciplinary hearings that sounded suspiciously like she was about to destroy someone's entire career. Which meant this was the perfect time to explore without her perfume clouding my judgment.
The hallway outside my room stretched in both directions, all dark wood and expensive carpets that muffled footsteps. "Now, which way do I go?"
Portraits of important people watched from the walls, their painted eyes following me with that trick artists had perfected centuries ago. I recognized Sebastian Shaw in one of them, looking younger and somehow even more punchable.
Through an open doorway, I caught sight of a classroom in session.
A woman with green hair was teaching what appeared to be advanced genetics, holographic DNA strands rotating above her desk, while students took notes on tablets that projected their own mini-holograms. One kid, who couldn't have been older than fourteen, was casually levitating his stylus while writing, multitasking with the ease of someone who'd been doing it since childhood.
Different world, I reminded myself. Powers are just Tuesday here.
Another room held what looked like a chemistry lab, except half the equipment was floating and the periodic table on the wall included elements that perhaps didn't exist in my old world. A student was carefully pipetting something that glowed purple into a beaker that shouldn't have been able to contain it, judging by how it phased in and out of visibility.
The Academy was everything Xavier's school pretended not to be. Where Charles focused on integration and control, Emma had built something that celebrated power. These kids weren't learning to hide. They were learning to excel.
I followed the sound of impacts, the familiar rhythm of combat training drawing me like a magnet. The noise led me through a set of double doors into what had to be the Academy's version of a danger room, though this one felt more like a traditional dojo that had been upgraded with next-century tech.
The floor was polished wood that somehow absorbed impacts without creaking. Mirrors lined one wall, but they shimmered occasionally, suggesting they were actually displays that could show different environments. Training equipment ranged from traditional wooden dummies to holographic opponents that flickered in and out of existence.
And in the center of it all, she moved like water through a river.
The woman was Japanese, or at least Asian, though something about her features suggested mixed heritage. Her purple hair was tied back in a practical ponytail that whipped with each movement. She wore form-fitting training gear that left little to imagination while being completely practical, every line of her body speaking of years of discipline and dedication.
But it was the energy blades that made me stop and stare.
Purple psychic energy extended from her hands in the shape of katanas, but these weren't simple constructs. They hummed with power that made the air itself retreat, leaving visible distortions in their wake. When she moved through her forms, the blades left afterimages that lingered for heartbeats before fading.
Psylocke, my mind supplied, though something felt off.
The Psylocke I remembered from comics was Betsy Braddock, a British telepath in a Japanese assassin's body. But this woman moved with the natural grace of someone who'd been born to this form, trained in it since childhood. The way she held herself, the minute adjustments in her stance, everything screamed of authentic martial arts training rather than downloaded skills.
Kwannon, then. The original.
She flowed from one form to another, each movement precise yet fluid. A high kick that would have taken most people's heads off transitioned into a spinning blade strike that carved through the air with surgical precision. The psychic energy responded to her will like an extension of her soul, growing longer for reach, shorter for speed, sometimes splitting into multiple blades that danced around her in deadly patterns.
This wasn't just a mutant ability, nor was it just martial arts.
It was meditation in motion, where her breathing synchronized with every strike. She'd found that harmony the Chi manual talked about, that perfect balance between mind, body, and spirit.
Interesting, does she use Chi?
If she did, things would get much easier.
I must have made some noise, or maybe she just sensed my presence. Psychics tended to do that. Her next spin brought her facing me, and the psychic blades dissipated like smoke as she straightened from her stance.
"Enjoying the show?" Her voice carried a slight accent I couldn't quite place, cultured but with edges that suggested she'd learned English as a second language.
"Learning from it," I corrected, stepping fully into the dojo. "That's incredible control. Most psychics I've seen treat their constructs like hammers. Yours are scalpels."
Something shifted in her expression, surprise maybe, or approval. "Most people just see purple swords and think 'pretty.' You've got eyes."
"Most people haven't spent the last hour trying to understand Chi manipulation." I held up the manual I'd brought without thinking. "The way you synchronized your breathing with your movements, channeling psychic energy through the same pathways martial artists use for Chi. That's not a coincidence, is it?"
She tilted her head, studying me with dark eyes that held depths I couldn't read. Not that the Omnitrix would have let her read me either.
"You're the one Emma brought from Genosha." Not a question. "The Ben Tennyson."
"Just Ben works. The whole 'the Ben Tennyson' thing makes me sound like a monument."
"Monuments don't usually walk into my training sessions." She moved closer, and I caught the scent of jasmine mixed with clean sweat. "I'm Kwannon, by the way. Though here they call me Psylocke."
"Kwannon's a beautiful name. Why change it?"
"That's a long story with the previous person who wore this name… But let's just say branding for short," she said with a slight smile that transformed her face from dangerous to merely intimidating. "Emma insisted. Said it would play better with Western media when the Hellions go public."
The Hellions. Emma's answer to the X-Men, her personally trained squad of young mutants who'd probably end up running corporations instead of saving the world. Or maybe both.
"You're their combat instructor?"
"Huh? No, I'm part of the team… Vice leader," she corrected, and there was pride there, earned and deserved. "But I guess I do kind of teach them stuff. I teach them that power without discipline is just destruction waiting to happen."
"Sounds like something from the manual." I opened it to a page I'd marked earlier. "The superior warrior wins without fighting, not because they lack the ability, but because they understand that true strength lies in knowing when not to use it."
Kwannon's eyes showed a smile. "Sun Tzu by way of Bruce Lee. You've actually been studying. For a moment I thought you were just hitting on me."
"Hmm, maybe I'm trying both." I flashed a smile, making her lips twitch. "Anyways. The breathing exercises are kicking my ass though. Every time I think I'm getting somewhere, the energy just..." I made a vague gesture of dissipation.
"Show me."
It wasn't a request. She moved to the center of the dojo, sinking into a lotus position with the fluid grace of someone who could probably meditate while doing backflips. I sat across from her, close enough that our knees almost touched.
I hoped she'd manage to help me get through this somewhat, before I leave for China.
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