Zodiac (DC)

It was a few days later after the Cadmus incident when things had started to finally settle in. Superboy had moved into the mountain base, but was busy brooding over not being given the time of day by Superman. 

Honestly I couldn't blame him and although I understood that Superman felt awkward due to having a clone with his DNA running around. One would think that he would try and at least be a little more considerate to what was essentially a child.

Superboy may have looked like a teenager and had some knowledge implanted into him, but emotionally he was still a child. The kid needed some kind of assurance and not the cold shoulder he had been given. I knew I couldn't expect heroes to be perfect, but I honestly expected a more mature response.

At the very least Superboy should have undergone some kind of check to make sure his cells won't degrade or something. Since, I doubt being grown in a vat was conducive to your health.

My horse talisman had the concept of restoration, but when we were talking about alien biology who knew what that actually meant. I mean, Did the magic affect him on the genetic level? Or did it heal whatever issues it found without affecting his genetics? Was it temporary? Was it permanent? I couldn't just use it and hope for the best, which is why I was planning on bringing it up with Batman as soon as I saw him next time.

Meanwhile, the team had a lot of free time since we weren't assigned any missions.

I decided that since there wasn't that much going on, I was going to use this time to improve my skills. Martial Arts especially was like a blade that needed constant honing to keep it as sharp as possible and like a blade the more you neglect it the duller it became.

For the past few months, I've been only training with Black Canary. Which in hindsight was not the best thing to do when you were training to fight a lot of different people. I wasn't the only one to notice I wasn't getting as much out of our spars in terms of growth.

Lately I was winning a lot more spars that I was losing which made me start to think that part of the powers package I was given had some kind of martial arts talent embedded into my body. It was the only thing that could explain what as Dinah like to call a monstrous level of talent.

Which was why I was making my way down to a gym near Battery Park, in New York City. Despite outward appearances, the gym itself was highly modern, with people of all ages and background honing their bodies and skills with equipment or in rings in an almost warehouse-like structure.

I could see students practicing Judo alongside students perfecting their Kung-Fu, veterans teaching newbies how to disarm weapon drawn on them, and the men and women who spun in a deadly dance of Capoeira kicks and elbows. 

In the center of all the sparing zones, was a boxing ring that looked like it'd been maintained since the 50's and inside the ring was the man I was looking for.

A massively broad-shouldered man stood near a heavy-bag close to the ring, instructing a young man and as he turned, I saw the dark haired (though graying heavily) man turn a scarred and rugged face towards me.

Ted Grant, The Wildcat, looked over to me with a curious glance as I made my way to him. " So, you're the squirt Dinah has been talking about, huh ? I've been hearing her sing your praises for the past few months. So, why don't you come up here and show me what you got."

Seemingly congregating to watch the rookie get his ass handed to him a bunch of people paused their training and were now paying attention, and based on the money changing hands I wasn't expected to win. I could even hear a few of the gym goers excited whispering like they were waiting for a good show.

As we took up stances opposite each other, I seemingly lowered my guard to ask a question and whispered to him. "Before we begin, powers or no powers?"

He quirked a brow and smirked. "Bring it on kid, I could handle whatever you throw at me. " he declared confidently.

With a crack like a gunshot, I launched myself towards him, my legs extended to deliver an explosive kick to the bottom of his jaw, I decided to use only 3% of the Ox talisman power which was something I haven't been able to do until recently. 

After I absorbed the Ox talisman's power I began discovering hidden aspects and nuances that have previously been out of reach, I didn't know if it was a hidden effect of absorbing the power and it becoming a part of me, or if it was changed by ROB to become mine on a deeper level, giving them the ability to grow and change according to how I utilized and trained them. 

Which was good news, since there are universe and multiversal threats out there that could end life as we knew it and I wouldn't be able to do anything about them with my current power level, hell if I went all out I could utmost level a few building blocks or perhaps even a small town if I used my dragon and monkey talisman with abandon.

Ted crossed his forearms and blocked my blow with far more ease than I was expecting, and effortlessly countered my blow with his right leg right into my left guard.

See, what I was just saying here's a normal guy albeit with peak fitness and martial arts who didn't seem fazed by my use of magical superstrength, looks like I'll have to up to 7% if I want him to feel it.

I acrobatically flipped through the air with the momentum and used my right fist to score a shot to his ribs, he seemed to feel that one judging by the slight crinkle of his eyes. His surprise gave me enough time for me to regain my footing and reorient myself for my next attack. 

We continuously charged towards each other with the eagerness of someone who'd finally found a worthy opponent of similar level.

After four brutal rounds Ted had quietly admitted defeat, looking like he'd been in a car accident rather than a simple spar, and had sat down on a nearby bench. 

I was hurt somewhat (anyone that wasn't superhuman would be), but while I Iooked relatively unharmed due to the toughness of my recent usage of Ox talisman's power, I was also still more than capable of continuing to fight.

While I couldn't duplicate a natural healing factor, I could still cheat with the use of the horse talisman to continuously heal me which meant I could just keep coming at my foe until they ran out of energy or were too injured, granted this strategy wouldn't work if they are significantly stronger than me or had more tricks.

Now all that was left was to go and heal Ted and see if he wanted to teach me, because although he lost, he only did so due to exhaustion, frankly the fact I had to use 20% of my strength before he finally gave up showed how much of a badass, he was.

This wasn't comparable to my amateurish and frankly primitive use of the Ox talisman's power when I first started to incorporate it into my fighting style, back then I used a 100% of the ox talisman's strength but couldn't even land a hit on Dinah which in hindsight was understandable.

How to use your strength and when to use it mattered especially at the level we were fighting at, it's what's allowed unpowered humans to compete with superpowered foes. For example, Superman who is more powerful than Superboy would lose if the latter had the level of training Batman had along with his experience in fighting. 

Martial Arts worked like a power multiplier, so the more skilled you were the less you had to rely on brute strength to carry you through a fight. 

(Chapter End)

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