On the Road to Rhode Island!

In the days following Boston, Ja-Eun Yeong stayed over in New York to rest and recover from the Boston incident. She debriefed with representatives from multiple allied agencies, giving verbal statements as the anomaly had disabled her usual live recordings. Afterward she was granted a leave of five days before she had to report back to Korea.

June hits the gym at the hotel, the facility filled mostly with the hotel’s elderly or celebrity guests. While most shot selfies or workout videos, Ja-Eun focused on her Boxing and Taekwondo forms, practicing with heavy bags and striking dummies. Her training was interrupted by the arrival of a trio of men carrying bags and sticks. One master and two students. June looked at them and determined they were FMA practitioners by their sticks.

The elderly but fit gentleman introduced himself to June. “Good afternoon, miss Yeong? I’m Anton. Anton Mendoza. These are my students, Fernando and Gabriel. I’m sure you’ve met my niece in Los Angeles?”

“Hey. Hello.” The two students greet the lady, unaware of her other personage.

“Yeah, yeah I know Diana. She taught me some basic weapon skills. Are you with the agency?”

“Yeah, very good. Yes, the agency requested I supplement your training for a couple of days. Good, I am happy she has found a peaceful life… But, In my opinion you should have continued your training. I was told about… uh… Las Vegas?” He asked, while directing his students to warm up and prepare their gear.

“Yes, it was terrible.” June simply said, unconsciously rubbing the large scar on her arm.

“I see… The time is past for relying on your abilities alone. It’s time to learn the trade of a warrior. Your skin will appreciate it.” He joked, patting the scar with a straight wooden stick. Then he offers it to her.
“Sticks. Yeah, it’s coming back to me now.” June performs some basic moves to demonstrate her vocabulary, mixing weapons and kicks.

“Okay. Now you remember your twelve strikes, twelve blocks? Block-counters? Two-hit pattern? Three-hit strikes? Three-hit circulars?” Anton asked.

“Uh… it’s familiar.” June begins demonstrating some of the moves enumerated, though she falters with advanced moves.

“That’s okay. GDN told me we have the next two days. So… stand at attention… pugay!” Anton salutes June, and June returns it, and two days of intensive training begins. He drills June relentlessly like any other student of his. Offense, defense, movement, positioning, timing, counter striking, trapping and so forth. June applies herself earnestly. They also study her foe at Las Vegas, Argonath, breaking down his fighting style and trying their best to offer tips. But alas, they knew he had greater skill, and reaching such a level was going to be a long climb.

By the end of it all June was rubbing and shaking her arms and shoulders. “It’s been a long time since I actually got tired from working out. Thank you for the lesson, mister Mendoza.”

“No problem. Oh, we have a parting gift by the way. From my school. To the Dragon Girl.” Anton produces two sheathed blades for June, the short Eskrima fighting swords made of steel. June inspects it and nods, approving of the weapons. The trainers bid their farewells. “Until our paths cross again. Good luck Miss Yeong.”

= = =

Later that evening, after supper, June draws a hot bath in the tub. Finally, she steps in, a chance to relax. Her thoughts drifted to the many accumulated aches and pains, the fighting in Boston and the vicious thrashing she received in Las Vegas. Over a decade of military metahuman service, and she still runs into things far too dangerous for her. She sighed, rubbing her arm. Unlike others who had whole hearted occupations, and even with her psychology degree and practice, June wholeheartedly came to the possibility of accepting her profession, her calling- the way of the warrior, the way of the sword.

She can still remember those fresh wounds, those attacks. How deeply the sword sank, how her impervious skin failed when crushed by a dragon of unbelievably larger scale than her. She had fought what was probably a deity, and, nearly paid for it. Then came Boston, and another Dragon; and an array of mystical enemies that could wound her. A lifetime of fighting and, of course, killing. She had come a long way as the young and idealistic Dragon Girl who washed onto America’s shores. Once she returned home, the idea of serving one’s country was a noble goal she eagerly embraced; what she did not expect was the Geopolitics, the gray morals, the indecision, the compromises. That she would be a premiere navy diver was no surprise, nor destroying hostile sea monsters, nor was the mission to destroy the boats and ships of the ‘enemy’ state.

But, to have to end actual lives, lives of Metahumans who simply called another country home, who simply obeyed orders from someone else, that stuck with June. It stuck with her badly like a stain on one’s skin that could never be washed away. Even worse, the lives of ordinary enemy soldiers. What bothered her most was that, killing came quickly and naturally to her. Outwardly she had professed the need to protect the sanctity of life- but June’s conscience, or apparent lack of it, crept in on her over the years. Was it maybe because, as much as she could deny it, she was only half human – the other half, the part she saw only as a source of power – made her see other sapients as lesser?

Is this what she was born for? Is this what the Almighty intended of her?

= = =

June’s thoughts were interrupted by the muted buzzing of her priority communication of her intelligent watch device. She had fallen asleep in the tub, and reflexively surfaced, gasping for air but throwing up water. Being aquatic was always weird, adjusting one’s lungs to gills consciously when making the transition.

“Voice Call!” June said, preferring not to leave the cozy tub just yet.

“Lieutenant Yeong? It’s the science department… Physics. Dr.Sang-Hoon.” The Korean man on the other side of the line said.

“This is DG. What is it, Sang-Hoon?” June asked, leaning forward to embrace her knees.

“We wanted to inform you we may have a breakthrough in the uh… gravity manipulator device.” The doctor responded, again awaiting June’s say.

“I’ll call again in five minutes.” June said, thinking about it. This bath was really nice though. “…Ten minutes.”

= = =

June has a towel wrapped around her head and had put on her suit, taking a videocall on a laptop with scientists, as she adjusted the gravity device via a screen projected on a table. That portion of her brain that allowed her to decipher the alien language allowed her to process the scientists’ findings better than they could. “Here is the new configuration for the inertia drive. It’s an extension of the gravity drive’s functionality.”

June looked at the code closely and entered it into the device’s control panel. The thing made some noises she’d never heard of before. "I've never heard that make that noise."

“Can you try it now?” They ask.

“Okay… Wait, no that’s not right-” Without warning, the Inertia Drive activates, and June was sent careening out the open balcony doors of her hotel room out to a fair distance, and at very high speed. She saw the ground pass by in a blur, and couldn’t right herself when she crashed into a suburban family’s living room, demolishing their large tv screen while they were having supper.

“Oh my god!” The mother exclaimed, reflexively standing up to shield her children. The kids, one boy and one girl, however, were a lot more excited than scared when they recognized the person lying ontop of their televisions’ remains. “MOOOM! THAT’S DRAAAGON GIIIIRL!” “AAAAAAA!” They said, jumping up and down.

“Are you fighting a monster outside?? Some bad guys??” The girl asked, pantomiming punches and kicks.

“Hey. Can I have your phone number?” The little guy said slyly, thinking he got game.

June looked at them and laughed, picking pieces of wood, drywall and tv out of her hair. “No, no monster tonight, and definitely not. I’m… I’m really sorry, excuse me, this doesn’t usually happen…”  she said, bowing apologetically to the husband and wife, who were positively dumbstruck. Before they’d make insurance claims of try to sue her, June hopped out the way they came, making herself scarce on foot.

= = =

June walks around the chilly night of downtown. she finds a bench outside a closed public park, sitting down. She opens her control panel and thoroughly deactivates her suit’s flight subsystem, feeling her gravity become normal once again. She receives a new message, this time in her email, which was surprising since her email was secured.

Dear Mister/ Miss [heroic personage]
Greetings!

After hearing of the fantastical events that have occurred at Boston, it is my great desire and interest to conduct an interview of those who had bore personal witness to said events. I would like to write a book, A Collection of Boston Tales, from individuals who may be interested in sharing their story. As a man who is not fond of online conversation, and that face-to-face conversation is the most valuable exchange between intelligent beings, I entreat you to join me for brunch on the date of April XX, 20XX, at my estate in Providence, Rhode Island – look for the Green House.

RSVP.
Yours truly,
Rex Stevens, NY Times Best Seller and Multi Award Winning Author

An author? Interesting. June was no big fictional reader and immediately looked it up. “oooh, those movies.” She remarked, and decided a mini-vacation wasn’t so bad. Wait… how did he know though?

so after the kookiness in Boston  Jeannie was happy to have some time to do normal well kinda normal stuff.  she had gotten home had to call a favor from a friend at the museum to get through airport security with her magic sword prize,  claiming it was an artifact she'd been asked to deliver.

which lead to Jeannie wondering how much uses she'd get from it as traveling with a sword in the regular world was kinda a pain. maybe she'll save it for trips to dnd world assuming it was still there. or other special occasions when one might need a sword.

her daddy was quite content with storing it in his lab for her. he found studying it amusing as she told him the interesting tale of where she got it.

teddy was adjusting well to his new life as a dog making friends with Jeannie's other pets and liking the life of luxury being a pet much easier than the woods which could be rough even before the magic nonsense came in.

Jeannie was happy he was doing well with the change.  she was writing notes in her diary about her adventure when teddy came running into her room.   the big dog bounces on the bed with her, Jeannie noticed a piece of paper in his mouth.

what you got boy?

she looks at the paper , oh a letter from some writer guy he wants to do a book on or adventure teddy how exciting! he's invited me to his house to talk about it. huh, guess I should start packing.    Jeannie goes about getting ready for her next trip

Terri gave a long, hard, sigh of relief.

The Saffrons have been busy after their escape from the Boston Realm. Thankfully, Terri had managed to change her attire enough to convince her parents she was not the hero who wore strangely similar pants and hair color. Her dad was passed out during the event thankfully, but... she was worried her mom still had suspicions. What the Jeannie in particular said during that whole skirmish probably ruined things, but it wasn't like she told them to keep herself a secret from her own family. She couldn't really blame anyone.

After being escorted out by the bears -to everyone's confusion-, they tried to find shelter in a nearby hotel. Sadly, at this point, a lot of people had been trying to find nearby places to stay while their homes in the field were fantasized. The Saffron family ended up many miles away from Boston, and decided to stay somewhere around the border, still in Massachusetts, but not far from the state of Rhode Island. Conveniently.

Her family was picky, enhanced by the fact that they had no clue how long the realm was going to be around, so they prepared for the long haul in comfort.

This fact also made it much stranger that she would get a letter. Addressed to her as Blackbelt, no less. There were obviously limits to the sender's... clairvoyance, maybe? Because Blackbelt was not the name she wanted or had-

She needed to have a word with Sage when they meet again. If, they meet again, more accurately. And what would she give for her name anyways, just Mandy? A fake name that wouldn't tie her at all to the event?

That shouldn't be the focus- the focus was that she was contacted by a guy who knew where she and her family lived, knew her identity... and it was an author of multiple books that have been adapted to movies she loved to watch in the past. She honestly should get back into watching movies- she missed a lot in prison.

Oh yea, she was still sort of dealing with the ramifications of that. She managed to get into a program where she could continue schooling in juvie, so she didn't have backed up grades to worry about. What she did have to worry about, was her parents, and how they acted around their daughter who assaulted her principle, and multiple criminals and a-holes when it was more negative to her than anything else. Her dad was fine with that one time she knocked some lady out with a punch in the chin, though he did not know it was aided with her power, but her mother had other concerns. Almost thankfully, if she didn't have those concerns, she may ponder more on whether she wore a mask or not.

She'd need a good excuse to travel that far...

=====

"Hey, there's a concert out around Providence. Could I borrow the car?"

"Eehhh. What kind of concert?"

"Techno."

=====

Thankfully her parents weren't fans of techno music.

Thankfully her destination was not too far, and she would arrive in less than half an hour. However, there were extra stops she had to make.

For one, she needed a costume. She was addressed as Blackbelt, not Terri or Mandy.

She had brought her quarterstaff, as her parents weren't around when she had it. Still, she couldn't go a "music concert" with it, but thankfully it could be dropped from her window without much harm done, to be picked up when she was ready. That just left for her attire...

She had already managed return the gi aspect of what she wore into Boston, but she kept everything else. She didn't want to wear the leather belt, either, though she still had it. She lost the mask somewhere. She was fine with a replacement mask similar to the one she had, but... what for her base costume?

If she went with the karate stuff again, she'd pretty much cement Blackbelt. Which, the fact she didn't know martial arts really bugged her. She just still didn't know if she should try to learn martial arts, or if she should just change the name. The name, and the theme, however, was supposedly easier. But what should she change it to? She could just try a generator... something performed on her phone as she sat in the car, parked, having already driven away from her home.

...The Aqua Saviour, no water theme, so no. The Fearless Princess, definitely no, just on her own principle. The Whispering Watcher, Blue Champion... Master Macho Antman? Dafuq?

Maybe she should just look at other hero names.

Atlas... Eclipse... Mostly one word aliases. There was also Dabbler... she wondered if Jeannie had an alias, though her job didn't really need one. Did Alexis or Sage have one? Was Sage actually her alias, actually?

Grizzly... Rabbit Punch. She liked the idea of having "Punch" in her name. It definitely fit. Punch Girl? Lady Punch? Punch Woman?

She couldn't just spend the rest of the day figuring out a name- how long did it take these people to figure something out?

Whatever- y'know what? She didn't exactly need to wear a costume. Just a mask, she could worry about. It was easy enough- a... normal mask, with a thicker strap to it, maybe a wig. For body attire, she could just wear something formal. Terri is at least pretty sure she brought enough cash to buy something nice on the way. She... didn't have a credit card to her name, sadly. Not yet.

She'll find something on the drive. Terri spent enough time on the side of the road being awkward.

Soon enough, the location of the estate was typed into her GPS, and she went on her way.