Ch05 Charlotte Reborn. Alex's Leaping Monkey!

Readers beware. Red X Japan contains violence, sexual content and other crap that some readers may find offensive. Discretion is advised.
Red X, Johnny Rancid and other characters are property of their respective creators and DC comics and have only been modified by Human X to fit the story. This is a work of fiction and any resemblance these characters or situations have to anyone in your own life are purely coincidental…maybe.

Note: (HumanX made a mistake in earlier chapters and miss-spelt Bangong Fang She which will now be written as Bangong Mang She, the right one. Sorry about that.)

Charlotte stares longingly, her cheeks grow rose red with guilty passion. "I've wanted to do this for a long time, but I've held back."

She shifts around uncomfortably, trying to work up the courage to say what is in her heart. "I-I want you inside me!"

Alex briskly skips into the room but his jolliness fades when he sees Charlotte kneeling down to a cupcake on the counter. He takes his earphones out and asks "What are you doing?"

"Shove it! I've been on a diet for the last month!" Charlotte yells back at him. "I deserve this cupcake!"

"Cupcakes have about 133.9 calories per serving. The fat calories alone are around 35.8." Alex cheerfully informs Charlotte as she eyes the cupcake with a longing deeper than the darkest seas. "And knowing you it's going straight to your thigh-"

Alex ducks back into a matrix-like dodge, narrowly avoiding a chair Charlotte tosses at him and stands back up straight as if it didn't happen.

"-s and butt." Alex finishes.

"My butt is none of your business!" Charlotte heaves in gasps of angry breaths but his talk about calories gets to her and she gives him the cupcake. "You can have it anyway since I want the sweet taste but not the extra calories."

"Cool." Alex munches down and makes certain to finish it before he starts talking again. "By the way I wanted to start you up on a new training program."

"Tell me that before you eat the cupcake!" Charlotte growls at him and starts mourning for her lost desert.

---

Charlotte sits across from Alex on the floor of the dojo she had built in the apartment. They had both changed into their gi before meeting back up with each other. Alex sets three scrolls out in front of himself and looks up at Charlotte. She hasn't seen him act this seriously in…He barely ever acts this seriously. It makes her uneasy, seeing him like this but at the same time she can't help but feel as if she is sitting with a real master devoted to her training and she can't help but feel a little excited.

"Charlotte." Alex snaps her away from her thoughts and back to reality. He folds his arms over his chest and grins sweetly. "You have no chance of mastering the Bangong Mang She."

Charlotte whacks him over the head with a bow staff that was lying on the floor. "I already know that!"

Alex ignores the attack and doesn't break his serious act. "As I was saying, you can never master the Bangong Mang She"

Charlotte winds up for another hit.

"But! You may have other options." Alex tells her before she can land the blow.

"Other options?" Charlotte sits back down but places the bow staff close enough to grab if she needs it again.

"As you know, when I was younger I mastered a ton of martial arts and travelled the world." Alex reminisces about the past, rubbing his chin as if it was a beard. "I've visited many countries and met many different people. Mostly cute women."

Charlotte smacks him again and Alex ignores the pain throbbing in his head.

"In my travels I learned of a great and powerful warrior known as "The True Master", a person who has mastered all forms of martial arts and attained a level of power above what most humans can achieve."

"And that's the person who taught you the Bangong Mang She." Charlotte beats him to the punch. "Your master."

"That's right." Alex grins his real grin and unfolds his arms, leaning back on them in a more relaxed position. "You've seen me use each one before. Do you remember there names?"

"Let's see." Charlotte thinks it over as she tries to remember. "They where Bangong Mang She the Strike of the Blind Serpent, Tiaoyue de Houzi de Juedou the Duel of the Leaping Monkey and Juedou de Tie Xiong Zhao the Claws of the Iron Bear. Does this have something to do with those scrolls?"

Charlotte notices that each of the scrolls has a Chinese symbol on it 蛇 (Snake), 熊 (Bear) and 猴子 (Monkey).

"Yup." Alex nods. "Inside of each scroll is the instructions on how to learn each art. I was impressed by how you handled yourself during the Brainiac incident."

"So, does that mean you're going to teach me how to use the real Bangong Mang She!?" Charlotte leans forwards as the excitement bubbles up inside of her.

"Nope. You're completely hopeless for that." Alex delivers the crushing line with a tone so sweet it's almost misleading.

"So you're telling me to give up?" Charlotte asks.

"Yes. You'll never be able to master it." Alex confirms and balances the scroll with "Snake" written on it, on the tip of his finger. "You don't know what this technique's true purpose is do you?"

Charlotte shakes her head. "It could be fore sneaking up on an enemy, closing the distance between them before they can move, or turn invisible like you do and catching them off guard."

"It's an art of assassination." Alex's eyes go cold as the words leave his lips. "At the highest form of the Bangong Mang She one can rip the heart out of their target before anyone notices. In some certain cases one can move so quick that the heart will still be beating in the users hand."

Charlotte feels an icy chill deep inside of her chest. It's hard for her to imagine how someone could do something like that. It makes her wonder if Alex has ever done it.

"It's a technique based completely around speed and precision. At its highest form ones hands become like blades, or maybe it's more fitting to say they become like fangs and pierce the target. The assassin has taken the targets life and disappeared before anyone knew he'd even arrived. Its weaknesses are that one cannot turn and keep up the speed, it is taxing on the body when overused and it becomes weaker the heavier the user is. So if someone like Johnny used it he wouldn't be able to break the speed I can. Aside from its weaknesses it provides blinding speed, deadly impact and an incredible surprise advantage over the enemy. It's the ultimate in shinobi killing techniques."

Alex looks at Charlotte who is clenching her pant legs and looking down at her lap. He can see her shaking.

"So, do you see why I don't think you should continue learning this technique?" Alex asks her. "It doesn't suit you at all."

Charlotte doesn't say a word.

Concern overtakes Alex's face for a moment before he pulls himself back into a more happy tone and tries to do the same for her. "But, like I said, you have options."

Charlotte looks up at Alex her emotions still not completely subsided. She watches as Alex grabs the "Bear" Scroll.

"Tie Xiong Zhao is one of these options, but I don't think you should choose this one either." Alex smirks. "Its definitely not for you."

"Why not?" Charlotte pouts angrily, once again being turned down for one of Alex's secret techniques. "That's the one you used to seal the Agent's powers when I was kidnapped."

"There's a reason these three animals are together in a set." Alex ignores her question and moves on. "It's because each one masters a certain aspect of battle. Where Bangong Mang She has speed Tie Xiong Zhao has Power."

Charlotte watches as Alex unfolds the scroll. It is covered in shapes resembling the human body and symbols all in Chinese. It's so detailed that it could take a team of medical doctors ages to memorize even the one body Alex shows Charlotte.

"I've said before that Tie Xiong Zhao is pretty much just a pressure point chart, but actually it's a bit more complicated than that." Alex holds the chart up so she can see. "It's mostly a therapeutic technique which utilizes pressure points around the body to cause different effects. You could use it to seal an enemies abilities like I did with the agent but you could also do the opposite. For instance one could use the pressure points on their own body to cause a rush of adrenaline and reach levels of strength they didn't have before. Of course, this is then counteracted to stop the rush and return the body to its original working order."

"So you can supercharge yourself." Charlotte lifts up her hair. "Like a super saiyan?"

"Kind of, except that if you release too much or too frequently then you could do permanent damage to your body." Alex points to the forehead of the body on the page and looks up at Charlotte. "Do you know what this character on the face means?"

"I don't know very much Chinese." Charlotte looks it over.

Alex crawls closer to her and places his finger on her forehead. His grin becomes sadistic.

"It's the character of death."

Charlotte jerks back when he tells her what the deadly character means.

"Don't worry." Alex chuckles at her. "It wont kill you just like that. It requires a few more points to be pressed at once in order to have an effect. But this is the next point I wanted to show you. Pressure points are used for therapeutic reasons or to enhance ones own abilities but this is the true strength of Tie Xiong Zhao. The Breaking Point."

"Like Bakusai Tenketsu?" Charlotte points out her finger like Ryoga Hibiki from Ranma 1/2.

"Pretty much." Alex nods. "This technique is the ability to find the point in all things where they are the weakest. The weakest point is the breaking point. You then utilize that point to bring your opponent down with minimal effort. For instance, if someone throws a punch you can place your hand in the pit of the elbow and redirect their punches force. Even if it hits it will be weakened. Since you know where to hit to cause the most damage and to reduce the enemies damage you seem more powerful."

"I don't get how this is as good as Bangong Mang She." Charlotte complains.

Alex gets up and walks up to the wall. "These walls are mad out of stone."

"Yeah?"

Alex feels the wall until he finds the perfect spot. "We both know a person can't punch through solid stone with one finger, at least no one normal anyway."

"Uh huh." Charlotte nods. She has no clue where he's going with this.

"Bakusai Tenketsu!" Alex shoves his finger through the wall as if it where paper. After that he turns around and starts talking again. "You find the weakest point in anything and you can disrupt its integrity."

Alex stomps on the ground and the entire wall crumbles away to dust.

"If you find the breaking point even steel can be like paper." Alex grins and makes a fist. "Now imagine if that's a person."

"So that's why its power?" Charlotte grins. "I want to learn it."

"Not for you." Alex tells her. "The principle here is strength beyond strength. Reducing the enemy down to their weakest state and moving yourself up to your strongest."

"So, why can't I learn it?" Charlotte mopes.

"It is an ability which involves rushing in head on and hitting the points. From the beginning of the battle you have to be ready to take damage in order to prevent damage later on." Alex sits back down in his spot. "You would never rush in blindly, searching for a spot to attack. You also have a terrible sense of finding other weaknesses. That's why you made that computer program to do it for you."

Charlotte grumbles but realizes he's right.

"You're a lot like me." Alex's smile becomes warmer and he watches her surprised face. "You like to think things through but at the same time you want to act immediately. You also have that boundless energy which you let off by attacking me."

"I just do that because you're a jerk." Charlotte snarls at him.

"After watching the Brainiac battle I realized it." Alex picks up the "Monkey" scroll. "You're just like me. That's why I'm going to start teaching you about the third aspect of combat. Tactical."

"Tiaoyue de Houzi de Juedou?" Charlotte eyes the scroll sceptically.

"Tactical combat. That's what this technique is all about." Alex smirks. "It is constant movement along the opponents flow and attacking with the opponents body."

"I don't get it." Charlotte sighs.

"That's too bad." Alex gets up. "Because this is the one I'm going to teach you."

---

Alex begins the lesson by setting Charlotte up to attack him as a demonstration.

"The first element in the Tiaoyue de Houzi de Juedou is wind." Alex tosses Charlotte a sword and stands at the ready. "Now cut through my heart."

"Okay." Charlotte gets ready and Alex pretends to be shocked and hurt.

"You agreed so easily without knowing I'll be okay." Alex pretends to cry. "Such a cruel woman. So heartless. Like ice."

"You told me to attack you!" Charlotte snaps at him.

"Great!" Alex jumps back into teaching mode. "Now put that energy into cutting me open. You can't hit me so just try as if you want to kill me."

"That shouldn't be hard." Charlotte grumbles and grips her sword. She runs in at top speed and with nearly perfect form plunges the blade towards his chest.

Next things she knows the sword is in Alex's hand and she is upside down with a splitting headache.

"Ughawha?" Her brain takes a second to process.

Alex flips the sword around in his hand. "You're wondering why I'm not cut when you know the sword touched me."

She flips back onto her feet and nods.

"Well, you are right. The sword did touch me." He pulls out his shirt so she can see the imprint of the blade on the fabric. "But it didn't cut. Now figure out what I did."

Charlotte thinks back. She remembers the blade touching Alex's chest but the rest is hazy from falling back. She knows that he moved but the blade touched him.

"Come on!" Alex gets excited and starts bouncing. "I know you're smart enough to figure this out!"

"Just give me a minute!" The answer practically slaps her across the face and she yells it out. "You moved with my attack! Instead of dodging with your own power you side step the attack using its force instead!"

"Ding ding ding!" Alex smiles practically from ear to ear. "That's exactly it. By using the force behind an enemies attack instead of dodging you flow along with it and gain a fluid movement. It's like you simply fall out of the way. Not only do you receive no damage because you where never hit but you also end up in a perfect position to attack an opponent who can no longer defend themselves."

"That's why this half of the technique is like wind!" Charlotte gets equally excited and their faces come close together as she relays what she learned. "You can't punch the wind because it flows around your fist! So I need to become like the wind and flow around the enemies attack!"

Alex straightens himself up and makes a gratified smile as he folds his arms over his chest. "Excellent. You understand the first half perfectly."

"Yeah." Charlotte bobs her head back and forth. "But that's easier said then done. I can sense the enemies attacks but dodging them in time will take practice."

"You didn't think the worlds most powerful marital arts would be as easy as one day of tutorials did you?" Alex teases her by ruffling her hair. "What I teach you today is only level one and it is up to you to master these parts yourself. Just because you have an amazingly talented, genius, incredibly good looking master doesn't mean you don't have to put forth any effort."

"Yeah yeah." Charlotte grabs his hand off of her head. "So I get why it's like wind but that whole idea can be attributed to water too."

"Water can be blocked easily by human hands and captured through freezing." Alex explains. "But you can't truly stop air without the use of a machine or tool. You need to become like air and move around the opponent. The other reason is that air is the element used to detect the attacks. You will feel an amount of force when someone comes to attack you before the punch."

Alex punches at Charlotte's face, shocking her back into attention.

"You reacted before my punch or the breeze fallowing it would hit you." Alex tells her. "When you are capable of feeling the air moving around the enemies attacking touch you then you will be able to react to it and dodge the enemy."

Charlotte stares at the thing which could have messed up her looks for good and swallows hard, but she understands what Alex is saying and processes it as best she can.

---

The second half of the training begins and Alex has Charlotte within arms reach now.

"The second element of this technique is fire." Alex places his hand on her heart and she slaps him across the face. "Why did you do that?"

"Trying to grope me during practice?" Charlotte eyes him suspiciously.

Alex doesn't remove his hand and continues explaining. "Actually, I'm showing you that fire comes from the heart where wind comes from the mouth."

"And you have to cop a feel to do that?" Charlotte asks him.

"I'm not touching anything." Alex tells her.

"Just watch it." Charlotte gives him an evil eye. "Your fingers drop any lower and you're dead."

"Anyway." Alex moves on and takes his hand off her chest. "In this case fire represents constant movement. While in battle the user of this technique doesn't stop moving and no attack lands only one hit. You attack in bursts like an explosion and never give the enemy time to rest."

Charlotte watches carefully now.

"To do this you need to develop high end acrobatic skills as well as your endurance since constant movement requires a lot of energy. But you're not low on that last one." Alex casually goes on about it. "This will require a lot of training in itself. The scroll I gave you contains certain moves which you will find all flow together. You can reach any one move through another and they are all interchangeable so that you can change up your game depending on the situation. It's complex and any moment of hesitation or distraction can end in a complete failure. At higher levels it wouldn't be surprising if you died messing up."

Charlotte stares down the ominous thought of being killed using one of these techniques.

"At your level you should be able to pull off a few of the maneuverers. At least enough that reading through the beginners scroll will drastically increase your ability to fight but from this point on your training is your own responsibility and you need to keep up a regular schedule which will allow you to preform the moves correctly. That includes planned meals which I will be making for you, since you can't cook, so be greatful."

"Right." Charlotte ignores the comment about her culinary skills and agrees to the plan.

---

The fallowing week was made up of nothing but training and school for Charlotte. She fallows Alex's training regime to the letter and pushes herself far beyond her normal limits. The training itself is tough but she keeps to it and continues trying to master the Tiaoyue de Houzi de Juedou. Johnny and Mary bring snacks which are usually snatched away by Alex and eaten before they can interfere with his meal plan for her. Alex watches her training closely, even when she doesn't know he is there. As he watches her train he can't help but feel a little nostalgic for his own training days. It was one of those rare times he looks back on fondly.

The week goes on like this until one particular afternoon.

Like usual Charlotte is training and today is endurance training. She's been running around the city since school let out and it's nearly dark. She pauses for a scheduled break and goes to a fountain to grab a drink of water when she notices an all to familiar sight.

Alex, who is supposed to be fallowing behind her to make sure she doesn't loosen her focus and fall behind is casually flirting with some jogger chicks in the park.

"So you walk your dogs while you jog?" Alex pets the girls puppies who take to him instantly. "I'm kind of doing the same thing."

"You have a dog?" One of the girls asks.

"Sort of." Alex sends off his winning smile. "But mine's a noisy little mutt. She's always barking about something and never gives me any space. But I guess that's just how pets are."

"Pet, huh?" Alex's face looses all colour as he senses Charlotte's presence looming behind him. "So, first I'm a brat, then I'm your student and now I'm a dog? I'm starting to loose track."

"Oh shi-" Charlotte cuts him off when she grabs his collar and starts pulling him away.

"I'm sorry he bothered you." Charlotte apologizes to the two women. "I'm thinking of keeping him on a leash."

"No problem at all." One of the women tell her and the other one joins in. "We don't mind."

Charlotte tosses Alex up against a tree and stares him in the eyes. She looks like a bully trying to get his money. "I can't believe you'd do that to me after all the work I've been putting into this regime. I've been out here every day sweating like a pig for this and I haven't seen any improvement."

"I've been out here with you, ya know." Alex takes her hand off of him and returns her stare. He may have been wrong for leaving her in the middle of training but that doesn't mean he wont defend himself. "And besides, you are improving."

"I am?" Charlotte backs down at the unexpected comment.

"Of course. I've seen an incredible improvement." Charlotte blushes at Alex's compliments, but like most of his kind words they are either hollow or soon turn sour. "Since you've been busy with training you haven't been pigging out on food, resulting in an improvement in our food budget. You haven't been at home much too, so that gives us an improvement in the atmosphere. There have been lots of improvements."

"Don't mess with me!" Charlotte flips back onto her palms and swings her legs around to kick Alex in the face but he uses Bangong Mang She to disappear right on time to avoid her leg as it plants itself in the tree behind him.

Ale claps, patronizingly. "Very good. You nearly cut one quarter of the way through that tree. In the beginning you couldn't even scratch it without armour on and now you can do that without anything to help at all. And you said you didn't improve."

"But it's still nothing, right? I've been able to memorize how most of the moves in the Monkey Scroll work but I still can't seem to master the basics." Charlotte looks at the tree and for a moment, lets her frustration show through as she clenches her hands and feels tears start to well up behind her eyes. "It's pathetic."

Alex's fist presses up against her cheek as he lets out a sigh and smiles at her. "It's more like impressive. You have to remember that these aren't your regular martial arts. You can't learn them over night, and it was unlikely for you to even master a single attack."

"I'm sure you could do it." Charlotte pouts and lets herself act like a spoiled brat.

"Yeah. By this point I already mastered the basics of the Iron Bear and started on the Blind Serpent. But the monkey is different. It requires a completely different level of ability. It's not easy to complete such complicated moves and not stop moving even for a second. It takes mastery of body and mind as well as a spirit to continue on." Alex holds out his left arm towards the tree and in a blinding flash of skill and power he flips onto it and uses his index finger as support while spinning his legs like a top. As soon as he gets back to his feet the tree falls. "But if your are capable of achieving this enlightened state the results are more than satisfying. And I have absolute faith that you can do it."

"Wow!" Charlotte cries out happily at the feat Alex just preformed. "That was so coooool! I can't wait to learn it!"

"I admit, that this small level of skill may be impressive to a beginner." Alex flips his hair out of his face and smiles smugly.

A police officer runs towards the two, waving his baton in the air. "Hey! What did you do to that tree!?"

"…Crap baskets" Alex grabs Charlotte by the arm and takes off with Bangong Mang She.

---

A little further away in a less populated part of the park, Alex and Charlotte reappear. Even though Alex lands on his feet, Charlotte flies through the air and lands more ungracefully, in a sand box.

"Do you want to blow our cover?" Charlotte asks him sarcastically as he helps her to her feet.

"At this time of day no one should be around here so we shouldn't have been seen leaving Bangong Mang She." Alex tells her.

"And what about the cop?" Charlotte slaps the sand off of her clothing.

"For all he knows, we're Depraved remnants who have powers."

"Great. I love being compared to those junkie morons."

"Anyway, he didn't get a good look at our faces from that angle." Alex pats some sand out of her hair, which she grudgingly allows. "And since this place is completely deserted we should be fine."

"Not completely deserted darling!" Alex feels a sudden pressure on his back, fallowed by two soft cushioning sensations.

"What the hell?" Alex knocks the sudden intruder back and spins around on his toes, ready to fend off any attacks. He's more than a little put off to see a black haired girl with humungous boobs looking up at him.

"That's so cruel." Her eyes fill up with tears as she cries into her oversized sleeves. "And after I searched so long for you."

"Uh…Who?" Alex starts but the girl switches from crying to happy as quick as a light switch. She leaps up and plants his head in her arms, snuggling him like a teddy bear.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!?" Charlotte yells at the intruder.

"I'n uffnoaing." Alex tries to say he's suffocating but his memory suddenly sparks into action and he pulls himself away from marshmallowy death. "I know these knockers."

"You remember me!?" The girl chimes happily.

"Name…Name…" Alex tries to think as the girl cheers him on.

She cuddles up behind him and wishers in his ear. "If you remember in the first three tries I'll give you a nice reward."

Alex swings around, remembering instantly now that he has incentive. "Katrina!"

"You did it!" Katrina jumps with joy.

"I can't believe you some times." Charlotte looks at Alex like he's a piece of rotting garbage.

"Kehehe." Alex laughs it off. "It just takes the right touch to get my memory for names going again."

"Speaking of which." Katrina grabs onto his arm and pulls him towards her. "Time for your reward darling."

Charlotte immediately jumps between them and pushes her away.

"Back off!" Katrina snarls at Charlotte. "What's the idea getting between me and my darling?"

"You're darling?" Charlotte asks her and smirks. "You clearly have him confused with someone else. This guy is a flirty playboy who would never settle down with just one girl. He's the kind of guy who wont settle for anything but the harem end. And even then he'd be a cheater."

"It's nice to know the people you care about think of you highly." Alex grumbles under his breath.

"He may look hot but he's a total looser. He's an anime fanatic who plays dirty video games and looks down on everyone around him. He never cleans up after himself, he spends money like crazy, he's a perverted egomaniac and a psychotic sadist." Charlotte heartlessly starts listing faults like it's nothing.

"At least I'm not a selfish heiress with anger management issues." Alex mumbles but Charlotte hears him.

"What was that!?" Charlotte snarls back at him.

"What!?" Alex sneers at her childishly. "You gonna throw a desk at me you tsundere side quest?"

"Who's a side quest!?" Charlotte grabs him by the collar. "You perverted friend character!"

"Speaking of which, I got Sunohara in Kannon the other day." Alex totally forgets the subject of conversation and moves right to games. "It was hilarious."

"Thats' awesome." Charlotte forgets too. "I always though those two would make a cute couple."

"Ha!" Alex turns straight back into bully mode. "Now who's the pervert!? Charlotte's a fujioshi! Charlotte's a fujioshi!"

Charlotte blushes. "Sh-Shut up!"

Katrina get tired of watching this and her arm turns into tentacles which spring out and pull Alex over to her side.

"W-Wow." Charlotte double takes that. "What was that?"

"What is your relationship with my darling?" Katrina asks, giving Charlotte a murderous glare.

"Relationship?" Charlotte laughs. "We're just good friends. Like I could be with something like that."

"You're lying." Katrina sneers. "You've been running around with him every day and you even live together! Who the hell do you think you are, trying to keep someone else's man all to yourself!?"

"This situation feels familiar." Alex remembers exactly who the girl is as he is being flung around by the tentacles.

"How do you know we live together?" Charlotte asks.

"Ha!" Katrina pumps out her chest proudly and smiles. "It's easy to know things like that when you have my transformation abilities. I can become anything I want, so tracking my beloved darling down was easy."

"And exactly how long have you been watching us?" Charlotte asks against her better judgement.

"Since before you started your silly little training." Katrina laughs. "You didn't even notice me once!"

"You mean you've been stalking us for over a week?" Charlotte starts to wonder about this girls sanity, let alone her common sense. You never tell a person you're stalking that you are stalking them.

"So what?" Katrina asks, lowering Alex down so that she can snuggle him closer to her. "It's not stalking if it's love."

"Alex. You're a psychiatrist. Explain this to her." Charlotte give him the floor since she has no idea how to deal with this space case.

"You're nuts." Alex smiles at Katrina as sparkles light up his kind expression.

"I know I'm a little different." Katrina bobs back and forth as she cuddles Alex in her arms. "But that's just because of all the experimentation that was done on my body. It kinda messes with your mind. That's why they put me in the institution and gave me those injections, but I escaped when I saw your picture in the paper. I really wanted to meet you for some reason and when I found you I just couldn't help myself. So if I am mad then I'm madly in love with you!"

"Sounds legit." Alex looks to Charlotte like everything is all cleared up and they can go on like nothing happened.

Charlotte isn't so sure. "Like we can trust this chick. She's a total whack job and-"

Charlotte goes quiet when Katrina's free arm becomes a blade and she points it against Charlotte's throat.

"You wouldn't be trying to get in between me and my darling would you?" Katrina asks. Madness burns behind her glistening blue eye as she prepares to slice Charlotte's head off of her neck.

"I'm not trying to get between anyone. I don't care who that flake dates, insane or otherwise." Charlotte glares back at Katrina with the same dark gaze. "But if you keep me away from my training any longer I'm going to have to remove you."

Katrina smirks. "I don't care about your training. I just want my darling, so there."

"That wont work. I still need him for my training." Charlotte gets more hostile.

"Then come and get him." Katrina gets ready to attacks but Charlotte falls along with it, pushing herself onto her hands and pumping her feet into the air, kicking the blade up and knocking Katrina off balance.

While Katrina is shocked by her blade being knocked away Charlotte moves in for an attack. She pushes in close and goes for a spinning kick but Katrina's chest forms a shield and blocks the attack.

Alex, who has been released in Katrina's confusion jumps up onto a nearby jungle gym, grabs some snacks out of his jacket and watches the whole thing from there.

---

Charlotte takes a stance she memorized from the Monkey Scroll and Katrina returns her transformed body parts to normal.

"Are you trying to embarrass me in front of my darling?" Katrina asks Charlotte, twitching her fingers as she gets ready to defend against another attack.

"Like I said, I have to get on with my training, and you're in the way." Charlotte decides on her plan of attack and takes a new stance. She moves the right side of her body out in front of the left and raises her right hand forwards. "Besides, I just remembered who you are. I've got a score to settle with you for when you beat me that last time."

Katrina tries to remember and it suddenly comes to her. "You're that blonde girl who was with darling the first time I met him. So, you're trying to get in my way again? I'll have to cut you n to little ribbons, so you can't interfere."

Katrina's arms separate into four blades each. The blades bend and twist like snakes. Katrina pushes them forwards and they all fly at Charlotte from different directions.

"An attack from multiple angles." Alex watches carefully from the sidelines as he grabs a mouthful of gummy bears from his pocket and pops them into his mouth. "How is my first student going to handle that?"

Charlotte remains motionless and waits for the time to act. The blades come down on her and converge towards he chest. The blade sinks into her shirt and Charlotte falls back as soon as she feels the point against her skin. She steps to the side where the blades are dull and they pass by without cutting her. they do make a mess of her shirt though.

"Sloppy." Alex tosses a gummy bear at Charlotte's head. "now you have to fight with half a shirt."

"Shut up." Charlotte doesn't let Alex distract her but instead keeps her eyes fixed on her target. "At least it didn't cut me."

Katrina returns the blades to her arm and transforms them into a blaster cannon. Light pours into the cannon and converges in the centre.

"Oh crud." Charlotte starts running as Katrina fallows her. The blast from the weapon is enormous but Charlotte manages to avoid it by flipping over the powerful force. As soon as she hits the ground, Charlotte falls out her hands and attempts to kick Katrina with her raised legs. Katrina jumps back but is overwhelmed by Charlotte's speed as she goes from spinning to flipping by pushing herself off of the ground with her arms and cartwheels towards her. The cartwheel is fallowed by Charlotte spinning around her arms come down at Katrina so that that she has to grow an extra pair of arms to block all of the hits, but she isn't ready for a sudden flip and kick which sends her flying back.

Charlotte pumps her arm into the air, proud of finally getting the upper hand.

"Idiot." Alex calls out. "Remember to be in constant motion."

Now that Charlotte has paused to feel good about herself Katrina has been given the chance to attack. She fires her fingernails like bullets. Charlotte's hit but not badly wounded. She barely has the time to move when Katrina's blade arm tries to cut open her stomach. Charlotte spins around the blade and elbows Katrina in the face. The attack doesn't do her any harm because she turned her body into water and reforms behind Charlotte. Her liquid arm takes on a blade form again and tries to hit Charlotte from behind. Charlotte feels the point on her back and falls flat not the ground just in time to avoid being run through. She roles back onto her feet and kicks the blade away from the rest of Katrina's body then uses that opportunity to make some distance between them and takes cover behind the playground slide.

"I can't keep going on like this." Charlotte tells herself. "I need to be like wind and fire…But this girl can become anything including wind and fire. She can become water too. Come to think of it, her body is a lot like water, taking on any shape it needs to complete the task. But water can't catch wind. The only way to fight her is to avoid her attacks and wear her down, but since I'm a beginner my body isn't use to these techniques. I'm going to get tired out before she does. I need a plan of attack."

"Why are you talking to yourself?" Katrina asks, standing over the slide and looking down at Charlotte from above. "You'll end up getting your head cut off if you don't keep focused."

Charlotte dives out from under the slide just in time to avoid being cut. Without wasting a movement she spins around and gets to her feet, grabbing Katrina's next blade attack and letting the force of it knock her back. She lands so that the blade will hit the ground before her and grabs it with her feet, swiping off of that she plants her hands on the ground and pinwheel kicks, cutting through Katrina's liquid stomach.

While Katrina reforms her body, Charlotte jumps up to talk to Alex. "Please tell me you have something I can use against her."

"Think she likes gummy bears?" Alex asks.

"Be serious." Charlotte pushes him. "She's trying to kill me."

"Alright." Alex gives her one of his X's. "It's a freeze X. I've only got one though."

"Thanks." Charlotte jumps back down before Katrina's blade can run her through.

"Are you trying to hit on my darling in the middle of a fight!?" Katrina yells at her.

"I'm not hitting on anyone." Charlotte slips the X into her pocket so Katrina wont notice it.

Katrina turns her fist to stone and fires it like a cannon. Charlotte dodges it and moves forward. Katrina turns her arms into blades again and runs in at Charlotte who ducks under the first attack then jumps over the next, landing on the tips of her toes and palms of her hands. Katrina tries to kick her but Charlotte pushes herself back up with her hands and goes right into a spin kick. Anticipating the coming punch after Charlotte's last spin kick Katrina turns to water and Charlotte's hand goes right into her stomach. Charlotte flips back and avoids the coming blades.

"You can't hit me." Katrina tells Charlotte as she prepares for the final attack.

"I admit it. I can't hit you." Charlotte grins back at her. "But I can freeze you."

Katrina looks down and sees the freeze X in her liquid stomach just before it explodes and freezes her from the inside out.

Charlotte watches for a bit, not certain she believes it herself but finally she jumps into the air. "I won!"

Alex jumps down form his watching place and claps. "Great. You demonstrated a decent skill in using the techniques in battle, but you still needed to use the freeze X."

"Who cares?" Charlotte laughs. "I kicked her butt! I got my revenge and I'll never have to see that creepy stalker witch again!"

---

Charlotte sits at the breakfast table with a truly pathetic look on her face as mountains of food are passed back and forth.

"Can you pass the pancakes?" Mary asks Alex who goes to pick them up but Katrina stretches her arm out and grabs the plate before he does.

"I'll do that for you darling." Katrina stretches them over to Mary who grabs the ones she wants with her fork.

"Send sow of those my way." Johnny calls over.

"You're so useful." Alex pats her on the head and she gleams like this is the greatest day of her life.

"Why!?" Charlotte slams her hands against the table and pouts at Katrina. "Why is SHE still here!?"

"Duh." Katrina points to the kitchen where strands of her hair are preparing food. "I'm making breakfast."

"I can see that but why are you here!?" Charlotte grinds her teeth. "Shouldn't you be in a mental hospital somewhere?"

"I go wherever my darling is." Katrina smugly cuddles in to Alex's arm. "Besides, darling said I can live here from now on."

"Did he now…" Charlotte stares at Alex menacingly.

"She's a great cook." Alex grins and tries to talk her away from killing him. "Besides, she promised not to attack you like yesterday again."

"Mmhmm." Katrina reaches out and grabs some more food to pile onto Alex's plate. "But if you try anything on darling I wont be held responsible for my actions."

"Great." Charlotte stabs one of the sausages in front of her violently while looking directly at Alex. "Considering this is my house and all, why not just invite any psychopath in. Sure you can stay. Why the hell not."

"Yay!" Katrina runs over and gives Charlotte a big hug. "We're going to be such good friends now that I don't want to kill you."

"Yippie…" Charlotte grumbles.

---

Hello everyone. Paul again. I'm so happy to be free to walk around again but now I'm not sure where to go. I was able to find a small room filled with food but I can't find the exit. My wounds from the rats have healed over too. I guess things are looking up. If only I could find my way to the surface.

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