This…was not how I expected to spend my day, I mused as I sat hunched on a bare bench, staring through the bars on my cell.
Not how I expected my first time in a jail cell to be either.
But then again, how was I supposed to know I still had an active warrant for my arrest because of the bank thing?
Or that some random police officer was going to actually attempt to arrest me because of it?!
Either the guy was too stupid to live or was the bravest person on this planet, because he literally demanded I surrender while brandishing nothing more than a normal pair of handcuffs. Either way I went along with it because that level of audacity demanded some kind of respect.
Of course I didn't think things through entirely and wound up in a holding cell within ten minutes. I mean, sure I could just blast my way out a window. But that seemed…kinda boring? Like, this was just a normal holding cell for humans. I felt like I should—
"Okay kid, time to go." My train of thought was derailed by a police officer opening the door and waving me out.
"Huh?"
"You're free to go. Come on, your ride's here, get out." The officer just waved at me impatiently.
I was confused. My ride? I hadn't even called anyone yet, how could I already have a ride!? Why would I get a ride when I can fly?! Also why were they just letting me go?!!
I wasn't getting answers just sitting here though, so I hopped off the bench and followed the officer through the building until we reached the main lobby where a familiar black haired reporter was waiting for me talking with an older man in uniform.
"...Lois? What are you doing here?"
"Springing you from the clink, twerp. What does it look like? Come on, we can talk more in the car." Lois Lane said brusquely. "That is if she's free to go?" She looked back at the man she was talking with.
"She's free to go." He confirmed. "And I appreciate you keeping this quiet, Ms Lane. The last thing this department needs is a scandal because of an out of date database and an overeager rookie."
"You might want to look into that." Lois pointed out. "I'll keep my end of the deal, Chief, as long as this isn't a habit. And remember–"
"–I owe you a favor, I won't forget Ms Lane." The apparent Chief finished for her. "Now if you'll excuse me."
I would have watched him stalk off into the building, but Lois was apparently in a hurry to leave and grabbed me by the shoulder before dragging me out into the parking lot.
"This is not how I thought my day would go." I commented casually as the two of us got in Lois' car.
"That goes for both of us." Lois said sarcastically. "What I want to know is how you ended up in there in the first place. Both of us know you could have gone through a wall if you felt like it, let alone the handcuffs that cop put you in."
I shrugged. "I wanted to see where things would go. By the way, how did you get involved?"
"I was there to interview a friend on the force about an investigation into a Lexcorp subsidy and saw you getting marched in. Since anyone with a drop of common sense would know you were playing along, I had him run your name to see what you were brought in for."
"Yeah, it was the warrant for the bank thing a few years ago."
She nodded. "A warrant that should have been deleted for helping out with the Imperium invasion according to the White House. The Chief got involved because the last thing the MCPD wants is a member of the Justice League stopping by to pick you up after an illegal arrest. I offered to help out if he would do me a favor in the future."
Huh, yeah I guess that would look bad for them. "So what now? Cause if it was just about getting me out of the police station you would have just told me to buzz off after we got out of there."
"Yes, but…look, I'm not normally on this side of the conversation…" Lois grimaced.
I blinked.
"Am I being kidnapped right now?"
"What?! NO! Look, I don't know how Supers deal with everything or if you have someone you can talk to. But if you did need to talk to someone about the whole thing with Bizarro…"
I blinked again because I had gotten over that almost two weeks ago by now…before remembering that a non-Saiyan watching someone die saving them could mess people up for a bit longer than that, and Lois was just awkwardly trying to be supportive of a teenager that went through a potentially traumatizing situation.
That was really cool of her.
Not exactly needed, but still cool.
"Don't worry about it, I'm good. Took a few days for myself, went wandering around the Rockies for a bit and found a secret alien outpost, beat them up. Then I went down to Florida with a friend and fought the Avatar of Plant God." I winced a little remembering how that little adventure turned out. "Spent yesterday meeting up with some friends and their friends when I was reminded I had an IOU for a full day of sparring with–" "SUPERMAN!"
"Yeah, him." I muttered grumpily, rubbing my aching ear from the reporter's sudden and unnecessary shout.
"No! Look up there!"
I followed her pointed finger and sure enough, there was Superman up in the sky…fighting a white-skinned alien that looked like some kind of heavy metal themed biker from the back of a rocketbike with a skull on it.
I could only watch in stunned silence as the two of them crashed into the side of the LexCorp building and presumably through the other side going by the smoke rising up behind it.
Did I really just see that?
Lois didn't hesitate. She just threw the car in gear and started driving towards the building. For a baseline human, she really had no fear about running towards the explosions.
-o-
It didn't take us long to find where the fight was going on.
A large explosion had really helped us out with that combined with me being close enough to give directions based on the Ki signatures I was sensing. The fact that they both seemed to be back on the ground and not moving around much for now was also a help.
When we got there it looked like the fight wasn't going so great for Superman. The biker had his back to us twirling what looked like a crowbar in his hands and Superman was lying in a crater in the middle of the road. We showed up just in time for me to catch the biker saying, "Now, the more you move, the worse this will hurt. So feel free to go crazy."
Okay, I had enough of this.
"Hey! Jerk with the bike, back off! I'm fighting him first!"
He turned to look at me. "Wassat? A kid? Look, if you want a piece of the Main Man come back in a few years. Till then? Piss off…but hey, the little lady behind you…Lobo likes!" he said, licking his lips.
"Lois, move away! Califa, get her out of here!" Superman cried out, only to get kicked in the chest by Lobo because of it.
"Pipe down, junior!" Lobo snapped. "Lois, huh? Guess that means you know this loser?"
"Don't ignore me!" I got right in between the two of them and stared Lobo down. I only vaguely knew anything about him. Strong, tough, last of his kind just like Superman, and some kind of bounty hunter…but that was about it.
But I was tired of having my promised sparring session getting interrupted, so unless he backed off I was going to go through him first.
"Eh, why shouldn't I, pipsqueak?"
I pointed at Superman. "Cause I had dibs. I've been trying to get a fight with him for like four days now but he was in space the last time I dropped by! Now some greasy bounty hunter shows up out of nowhere and skips the line!"
"Dibs, huh?" Lobo muttered, rubbing his chin. "That is a big deal, but the Main Man doesn't have time to sit around waiting for you two wimps to throw down so I'll tell you what, I'll give you a free shot as compensation." He closed his eyes and leaned forward, pointing at his face. "C'mon, right here. Hard as you can, pipsqueak. Who knows, it might even tickle!"
I grit my teeth. I was being patronized…mocked…fine, he asked for it.
I pulled my arm back and focused all the Ki I could into my fist. A slight wind kicked up as my aura flared.
Lobo must have felt it because he drew back a little and started to open his eyes. "Wha' th–" He started to say before I punched him in the nose with a very satisfying crunch.
I smirked at the stream of curses that came from the alien bounty hunter but kept my guard up. Because I just hit him as hard as I could without a larger 'charge' time and he barely moved.
The curses came to a stop and Lobo moved his hands away from his face to glare at me. "Alright brat, that wasn't half bad. Too bad for you, the Main Man has his sights on another lady right now." He raised a clenched fist. "We'll tangle next time, if you're lucky."
I needed to–
Pain
Impact
I groaned as I pulled myself up a little bit. A quick glance around confirmed what I didn't want to admit.
Lobo had casually backhanded me through a car…and I'd barely seen him move…
…he might be out of my league…
I clenched a fist and shoved that thought aside, the fight was moving somewhere else. Superman had gotten up and punched Lobo hard enough that the Biker had gone flying through the LexCorp building once again and just kept going before he flew after him. If I was going to stay involved I needed to move now.
So I shoved the remains of the car out of my way and took off after the Man of Steel. Something he didn't like so much when I caught up with them.
"Califa, what are you doing?! You shouldn't be here!"
"Much as I don't wanna agree with the creampuff here, he's got a point. Get lost, pipsqueak. I ain't gonna ask again."
"Not. Happening." I growled out, Ki aura flaring. "I've been trying to cash in my IOU for almost a week. If I have to play backup so we can kick this loser off the planet before that happens? Fine by me."
Lobo grinned. "Alright, I take it back. You got spunk kid, even for a Saiyan. Now that I think about it I got an open bounty for one of you monkeys that you'd be perfect for."
"Yeah? Then come try it." I said, right before blasting him with a Ki beam.
The blast only staggered him, but it opened him up for Superman to nail him across the face with a right hook.
"Gah, no fair!" Neither one of us stopped to acknowledge Lobo's complaint. Superman went in fast and hard, raining punches down on the bounty hunter in a way that made sure he wouldn't go flying again. Keeping the fight to the small section of the docks we had landed in after Lobo got punched across the city.
I already knew that getting close was a good way to get taken out of the fight or even used as a meatshield if I was careless enough, so I flew around the edges doing my best to distract or disorient. Actual damage seemed out of the picture when anything less than a fully charged Kamehameha just pushed Lobo around, but even if they didn't damage him they still hurt. And that was enough for me.
"All right, nuts to this!" was the eventual annoyed cry from the bounty hunter after a lucky Ki blast caught him in the eye. "You wanna play dirty? I'll show you dirty!"
He suddenly juked towards me which caused Superman to try and get between us, which turned out to be a fake out when Lobo grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into a vicious headbutt. While Superman was reeling from that, the bounty hunter swung him around and threw the hero at me fast enough that I was hit out of the sky and sent crashing into one of the buildings nearby.
"Gotta say, you two are the first real scrap I've had in ages." Lobo said as he walked a little closer. "Be a real shame to end it so fast. So I'm gonna take five until I'm ready to resume kicking the collective butts of you and everyone else on this dungheap." He brought his hand up to his mouth and let out a loud whistle that summoned his rocket bike. "Get ready cause the next time you see the Main Man it's gonna be…a bang! Ciao!"
With that his bike roared and went almost vertical, heading off towards space.
"Come on," Superman said, helping me to my feet. "If he gets away now, the next time he shows up people are going to get hurt. Think you can keep up?"
I grinned shakily back. "For a little bit. I, uh, can't breathe in space." And to be honest, I was a little scared of going up that high.
"You can stay here if you want. You've already helped a lot." There was no judgement in Superman's voice either way, but I already made my decision.
"I'm not backing out of this fight now. Not until we win!"
Superman shot me a grin, "Then let's go take that maniac down."
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