Tea and Synergy

September 30^th, 2006

Suzana Hagarty casually checked the mail and was surprised to find there was actually something there, an unstamped envelope addressed to her. Giving it a quick careful shake to check for letter bombs, (yes, such things had happened to her), she opened it and pulled out a single piece of unbleached rice paper. Carefully hand printed with a fountain pen was written,

Suzana raised her eyebrows, then pulled out the WhateleyAcademy directory. Hmm.. Amanda Tolman was listed as one of the school’s Martial Arts instructors. Well, she should have expected it, once Wade had insisted on putting down roots to mentor that O’Reilly girl and had talked Suzana into giving Nikki Martial Arts instruction. Well, it would be a nice way to get to know some of the Whateley faculty on her own merits.

Come Saturday afternoon, Suzana showed up at one of the houses on the periphery of the school. She was wearing a conservative tweed blazer and slacks, a light beige turtleneck sweater, and a pewter pin with the Hagarty clan emblem on her lapel. She knocked briskly on the door, then waited, valiantly fighting down a well-entrenched reflex to reconnoiter the house; check the place for booby-traps; vans from mysterious out-of-town ‘cleaning services’ parked in the back; odd mystic sigils etched in the wood in hellfire; and that sort of thing. Her career hadn’t been the sort that engendered a naive trusting nature.

Suzana’s atypical show of trust was rewarded when a tall, athletic African American woman opened the door. “Hello, you must be Miss Hagarty.”

“Yes, I assume that you must be Amanda Tolman, the Martial Arts instructor?”

“Well, one of them, anyway. That’s what this is all about, really. Do come in.”

The house was just small enought to suggest that the occupant wasn’t overpaid, but not small enough to nurture a craving for a raise. The furnishings showed a heavy Japanese influence, including several pieces that, while not costly, showed first rate workmanship and excellent taste. “You have a lovely home, Miss Tolman.”

“I appreciate the compliment, but it’s not my house. It belongs to my sensei, Ito-sama. We’re all in here,” Amanda replied, as she led  Suzana past the living room into a large room that opened through French doors into the back yard.The room was dominated by a large round table around which seven people were arranged, sitting seizen. “Everyone, as you know, this is Suzana Hagarty, she’s going to be giving one of our more ... ‘problematic’ students ‘individual instruction.’ Miss Hagarty, this is Wong Ah Lam, our Advanced Instructor in Wing Chung style kung fu.”

Wong Ah Lam, a compact looking Chinese woman in maybe her mid-forties, who wore her hair pulled back in a knot, gave a shallow bow that never let her eyes leave Suzana’s center of balance.

“Proceeding around the table, we have Chester Fitzgibbon, formerly of the SAS, our instructor in Shao-Lin Dragon-style kung fu.” Fitzgibbon, a rangy man with a long narrow face and a prominent nose, nodded, saying, “Charmed,” in a voice that Suzana pegged as being from the Midlands of England.

“Next is Gunnery Sergeant Oscar Bardue, USMC (ret.), our Firearms instructor and co-coordinator of the Group Crisis Situation Simulation sessions.” Bardue, a stocky but very fit-looking African American man in maybe his mid-sixties, wearing a golf shirt, sketched a salute to Suzana.

“To his left is his partner in crime, Kasai Tetsuko, our Kempo instructor. Beside teaching Kempo, she also teaches stealth technique, Kyudo [Translation: Japanese Archery, literally, ‘the Way of the Bow’] and helps the Gunny with the Group Crisis Situation Simulation drills.” Kasai, a slender Japanese woman in maybe her mid-thirties, silently sketched a bow similar to Wong Ah Lam’s.

“Next is Genevive Beaumont, our Karate and Kendo instructor.”

Beaumont was a willowy blonde woman. Her long angular face made it hard to place her age, which could have fallen anywhere from the mid-thirties to the early sixties. Looking up, she smiled, saying, “Enchante, M’mselle.” Her mild French accent verified Suzana’s guess that she was European.

“Harry Junzo is the first of our ‘specialty instructors’. Besides teaching Advanced Aikido, he also instructs the telepaths and empaths.”

Junzo, an extremely fit looking Japanese man in his late twenties or early thirties, gave a smile and a brisk bow, but said nothing.

“Our next ‘specialty instructor,’ Lillian Dennon, teaches Judo, and instructs the Bricks and Ultra-Dense types.”

Dennon  who looked to be in her fifties said, “By ‘Ultra-Dense’, Amanda means that those students can shift their molecular density to nearly that of lead, not that they’re dense between the ears.” She was a rather wispy looking woman with short auburn hair. She giggled, “We ALL get the second kind.” That brought a general chuckle at what was obviously an old joke.

Amanda gestured at a small Japanese man of maybe sixty or so. “And lastly, your host and my sensei, Ito Tatsuo-sama. Together, we teach introductory Aikido, and attempt to drum into the heads of the new kids that having a ‘super-power’, doesn’t make them invulnerable. All the students have to go through our class. If they want to, they can take more advanced courses with the other instructors, but we make sure that everyone has at least a working notion of how to take care of themselves.”

After a bit of mandatory small talk, Tolman mentioned, “We Martial Arts instructors get together and talk over any problems that we’re having with our students. It helps to have differing viewpoints from different schools. I understand that you’re going to be tutoring Nichole Reilly?”

Suzana sipped her tea, and then replied. “Yes, it’s no secret. Westmont’s father asked her to get Nikki started in her studies in the various Arcane Arts. He volunteered my services as a Martial Arts instructor- without asking me first, as usual- since she seems to be having real problems in your self-defense class.”

Ito-sensei made an amused noise. “ ‘Problems?’ Is this the famous ‘British Understatement’, maybe?” He held up a remote control and pointed it at the flat screen hanging on one wall. The screen lit up, displaying a three-quarters overhead shot of two teenage girls grappling. The only problem the girl with dirty blonde hair seemed to be having was in not hurting her red-haired opponent. Time and again, the redhead went down with a squeal or a squeak.

Fitzgibbon muttered disgustedly, “Oh, that is bloody pathetic.”

“Indeed,” Suzana agreed quietly. “And particularly baffling, since she has a lot of natural grace and control. And from what I’ve heard, she isn’t a coward. I heard she went after those Ninjas without so much as a pause. Which just makes her lack of hand to hand prowess that much more mysterious.”

“Maybe. . .” Junzo corrected him, “maybe not. Ito-sensei, would you go back two sets?” The sequence reversed itself. “Stop. Pause. See her expression? I’ve seen that expression several times.”

“Oh?” Tolman prompted.”

“I usually see it in Psi who have a particularly effective defense mechanism, which they can’t use for one reason or another. See? It’s a combination of frustration, worry, and – for want of anything better to call it – ‘what the hell do I do now?’ I think that on some level she’s thinking she should be doing something completely different, but the situation won’t allow her to do it.”

“Such as?” Kasai asked. “What you’re talking about would only develop if she’d had this defense mechanism long enough to know and come to rely on it. And what might that mechanism be, that she relies on it so completely, so soon?”

The penny dropped for Suzana. “Glamour.”

There was a general ‘Hunh?’ around the table.

“Westmont told me that the girl projects a ‘glamour’, a sort of mental projection, one that makes her seem more attractive ... more compelling ... more desirable. Now, aside from pure vanity, what value might such a compulsion have? Well, it strikes me that it would gather protectors around her, the more macho and aggressive, the better. Her reactions seem to be equal parts frustration and instinctive calling out for protectors.”

Junzo nodded. “Oh, this is bad. If that’s the case, then teaching her to defend herself will not only be counter-intuitive for her, but might actually undermine a very effective defense mechanism.”

Suzana gave a confident, ‘There will always be an England’ smile. “No, we just need to tweak it in another direction. Change it from ‘Protect the delicate little princess’ to ‘Serve the Warrior Queen’.

Besides being Politically Incorrect, depending on valiant knights to protect you is a good way to become dead.” Then Suzana gave an amused snort, “Though it does give me a rather unique problem.”

“Such as?” Ito-sama cradled his cup of tea.

“Well, I have to devise a martial arts style that is both graceful enough and flamboyant enough, so that that ‘inner tuition’ will feel that it is attracting champions, while maintaining decorum.” 

She placed her cup to her lips. “Speaking of champions, I understand that she’s  already gathered a rather formidable body of them. What can you tell me about them?”

“Ah, yes ...” Ito-sama sighed, “ ‘Team Kimba’. We would have had to talk about them at length, anyway. He keyed the remote, and the scene on the screen changed. “First, the most obvious ‘champion’, Hank Declan. Age 15, five-foot- six, one hundred and thirty-five pounds. A level Three Exemplar, and a non-ranged psychokinetic capable of lifting five tons with effort. He can levitate, fly at speeds of up to 45 miles per hour, and he projects a force field that, it is reported, will completely protect him from the near miss explosion of a tank cannon’s round.”

“Your basic ‘superman’ package,” Sergeant Bardue murmured. “Army brat, grew up with lots of environmental cues as to how to handle himself, and a hodge-podge of introductory Karate, Aikido, Boxing, Mhuy Thai, Judo, Combato, and generalized Self Defense classes. Grew up watching dogfaces get drilled, too.”

Lillian Dennon, the ‘brick’ instructor, gave a low groan. “Oh, like it isn’t hard enough teaching these girder-benders. This one, I gotta un-teach all that garbage, and start from scratch ”

Suzana nodded. “I can imagine. And he’s a flier, too. After all, how do you throw someone who can just float away from it?”

Wong Ah Lam grunted a laugh. “Simple! You don’t throw them TO the ground, you throw them INTO the ground! You don’t release your hold until you feel contact. It’s my personal favorite technique for dealing with fliers. It really knocks the starch out of them.”

The assembled teachers watched the footage of Ito-sensei’s sessions with young Declan, and made various comments.

        Suzana was agreeably impressed with the way that the Whateley instructors went at their analysis, with each teacher offering decidedly different approaches, from Junzo’s rather esthetic Aikido approach to Bardue’s ‘kick ‘em in the nuts’ way of combat.

Finally, they finished with young Mister Declan. Ito-sama keyed the remote again. “Next, is Ayla Goodkind. Of the lot of them, she will doubtlessly be the least troublesome for us. She has the ability to shift the molecular density of her body and certain other objects. She can become completely intangible, or achieve the density of lead. So, her powers aren’t particularly problematic. And, best of all, she has had absolutely ‘NO’ previous Martial Arts training, and precious little experience fighting.”

Dennon gave a sigh and relaxed as she watched Ayla Goodkind being thrown around the mat. In a job over-loaded with challenges, it was nice to have a break or two.

“Goodkind?” Fitzgibbon asked. “Any relation to Herbert Goodkind, the git who assembled those idiotic ‘Knights of Purity’ a few years back?”

“Her uncle. Her family disowned and disinherited her when her mutant trait manifested itself.”

“Oh, wonderful ...”

“Any chance that she can fine tune herself so that she’s transparent to light?” Bardue asked. “If she can shift herself so that light passes right through her, while she otherwise remains solid, well, bein’ invisible is a ‘DAMN’ good way to kick some serious patootey ”

“First, catch your rabbit. Pass the suggestions along to her Powers Theory instructor,”Junzo replied.  “If she can pull it off, I’ll make room in my ‘Invisibles’ specialty class.”

Ito-sama keyed the remote again. “Next, we have Jade Sinclair.”

This time the image showed a delicate Japanese girl even smaller than the girl facing her, who was obviously no titan herself. She moved with the studied precision of a practiced newcomer to Aikido. “Jade herself offers few problems. She studied Aikido, and is mildly proficient with it. The problem is called ‘Jinn’.”

Ito-sama keyed the remote again. The blonde girl sparring on a mat with a boy looked vaguely familiar. Her moves had the same studied precision as Jade’s, but there was something about the way she moved ...

“Contrary to appearances, there is only one person on the mat in this shot- the boy. What appears to be a blonde girl wearing a black bodystocking under her gi, is actually a self-aware packet of psychokinetic energy that Miss Sinclair imprints with her psychic template, thereby ‘budding’ herself. The PK being refers to herself as ‘Jinn’ and shows all the signs of being self-aware during her time apart from Jade. ‘Jinn’ is as strong as a full-grown man, can levitate, doesn’t tire and can’t be hurt by physical means. This ‘Jinn’ wishes to be instructed separately from Miss Sinclair, but I won’t, for two reasons. First of all, she learns whatever Miss Sinclair learns as soon as they merge again, and secondly she has no Ki, so I have nothing to work with.”

“Maybe..Junzo said. “ ‘Can’t be hurt by physical means’, eh? Well, I think that I have a few tricks to show her. I wonder why she manifests as an Anglo?”

“She doesn’t. That ‘face’ is a mask and wig. Jinn herself is quite invisible to the unaided eye.”

“Interesting. And she wears the outfit in order to ‘play fair’? We’re going to have to wean her from that.”

“You’ll have to take the matter up with Miss Sinclair.”

Ito-sama keyed the remote again. The image of a rather odd looking Asian girl with oversized ears, feline looking eyes appeared. Her very strange looking blue bluish hair swept back from her brow in wave-like spikes. She was doing Aikido throws with another girl, and seemed to have a distinct advantage; when the other girl threw her, the blue haired girl just floated in the air and settled to the ground.

“This is Billie Wilson, who prefers to be called ‘Tennyo’. Her mutant profile defies analysis. She is very strong, and has a healing factor that rivals some comic book characters that I don’t care to name, and she out-guns some TV starships in the energy projection department. She has a firm grounding in Aikido. I also understand she has a rather short fuse. I am informed that after the match between her teammate and the boy ‘Montana’, she had to be physically restrained from attacking him with the intent of killing him.”

Ito-sama paused the picture. “I think that Amanda and I should handle this one. There is a fire inside this one, a fire she doesn’t know how to control. The fire must be mastered, but not quenched.”

Dennon shook her head. “No, Ito-sama, I think that she should be moved over to my class as soon as possible. My gym is triple-reinforced and fireproof, and the students- well, let’s just say that the students aren’t delicate.”

Ito-sama shook his head in return. “No. I don’t doubt your abilities, Lillian, but simple damage control isn’t what’s called for here. This girl needs to be reminded, several times, that raw power doesn’t solve problems. That is my specialty. After all, why found an entire school of Martial Arts theory, if you don’t test it out completely?”

Dennon shrugged. “Maybe. But remember, Ito-sama- she’s a student, not a guinea pig.”

“English makes such ‘trivial’ distinctions.” Ito keyed the remote again. The TV showed a lovely young Asian girl moving with the sure grace of either a dancer, a gymnast --- or an experienced martial artist. She was practicing with a simple, unadorned blade in the Chinese style. The blade still showed all the signs of being an exquisite piece of craftsmanship. “This is Chou Li, a.k.a. ‘Blade Dancer’.”

Wong Ah Lam made an amused snort. “Did you say ‘Chou Li’?”

“Yes, I know. It’s obviously an alias. But the girl refuses to elaborate any further, though, she did mention something about her father being ripped apart by a Demon.

“Blade Dancer is not a mutant. She appears to be a remarkably fit young woman for her age, and her control of her Ki is even more remarkable for her age. She has a noteworthy magical talent, and she appears to have the beginnings of true discipline. Administration has tacked on a few classifications that don’t really mean anything. What is remarkable about her, lies mostly in the realm of the mystical.”

“Oh,” Lord Fitzgibbon moaned, “I HATE it when things get mystical. Aren’t things complex enough around here without bringing in the mumbo-jumbo?”

“The, ah, ‘Mumbo- jumbo’, as you put it came in all by itself, Chet, as it has a habit of doing,” Ito-sensei calmly informed him.

“She has lovely form,” Beaumont murmured. “Pity her style doesn’t mesh very well with Kendo. Maybe we could wean her away from the Chinese blade?”

“That would be a remarkably BAD idea, Genevive,” Ito-sensei informed her. “According to Miss Chou, the sword she is carrying is a rather famous blade called ‘Destiny’s Wave’.”

Wong Ah Lam blurted out something in Chinese. Then she whispered, “Destiny’s Wave?” Her eyes were wide in equal parts wonder and fear.

“You’ve heard of this sword, Miss Wong?” Suzanah asked curiously.

“Have YOU heard of Excalibur?”

“It’s that famous?”

“It is said the blade was made from the heart of a metal dragon, then imbued with living spirit of one of the greatest Taoist swordsman- a sage of the Warring States period. It is said to have been carried by a mysterious Taoist sage, who gives it, or rather, loans it, to one who is chosen to the Handmaid of Balance.”

“Oh? Does this Handmaid do windows?” Beaumont quipped lightly.

Wong Ah Lam pierced Genevive with an icy glare. “The Handmaid of Balance is a virgin girl, who becomes the means by which the Tao preserves itself. She is a slayer of Demons, Emperors, Armies and even Gods on occasion. She holds no life as sacred if it threatens the balance of the Tao.

When the Handmaid of Balance appears, the Tao is safe- but nothing else is. When the Handmaid of Balance has fulfilled her mission, Destiny’s Wave disappears into the obscurity that is its haven.

If Destiny’s Wave has returned to the world, it means that the Balance of the Tao is imperiled. If the Sage has chosen a girl who would come to Whateley, then it means that the balance of Tao is threatened here. And to safeguard the Balance, Destiny’s Wave would level this school down to the foundation and kill anyone- even, EVERYONE.”

Fitzgibbon cocked an eyebrow at her. “So, you’re saying that when this ‘Destiny’s Wave’ appears, a major crisis is in the offing?”

Wong Ah Lam shook her head. “No. Only that the Balance is in peril, and it will be remedied. The Handmaid has come forth before and the only ones who died were monsters, either human or inhuman.

But Destiny’s Wave has also struck down the pure of heart, the saintly. Good and Evil are irrelevant. Only the Balance of the Tao is important.

Once, during the Han Dynasty, Destiny’s Wave devastated the entire state of Yueh. Liu Pang, the First Han Emperor, who was afraid that he was being too soft and forgiving, took the credit, and deported the populace, but it is known by those who would know, that it was Destiny’s Wave.”

“And it’s always big?” Bardue asked.

“No. Sometimes, the Handmaid appears, and only a few people die before she fades back into obscurity. But who knows the perspective of the Tao?” She looked around her with frightened eyes. “Think of the power that flows so carelessly around this school! When the Balancing comes, there could be nothing of this school left but rubble!”

The others turned their eyes toward Ito-sensei, who bowed his head slightly. “It is even more complex than that. Our esteemed Headmistress informs me that this Chou Li’s tuition is being paid by no less than the Eight Taoist Immortals.”

“And the Eight Taoist Immortals are?” Bardue asked.

“The Eight Taoist Immortals are eight mortals, seven men and a woman, who, by following the path of the Tao, have reached a form of immortality. Classically, they each embody a principle of one of the Eight Permutations of Tao, but they were definitely originally historical personages. Whether these eight beings are indeed those historical persons, I can’t say. With such beings, such things become unclear.”

“I don’t remember the legends of Destiny’s Wave saying exactly how the sword was connected with the Eight,” Wong Ah Lam mused. “Exactly which of the Immortals are interested in this Chou Li?”

“From what I’ve heard, all eight,” Ito-sensei responded. Wong Ah Lam visibly flinched. “AND, according to He Xiangu, the Monkey King is also interested.” Wong Ah Lam grimaced and clutched her breast.

“And this particularly knotty problem becomes even knottier on several levels.” The sequence showed a slender pale skinned girl who appeared to be wearing ‘Goth’ makeup, sparring with a rangy boy in a gi. “This is Sara Waite, whom hasn’t chosen a code-name as of yet. Even at this school, she is remarkable, even unique. You see, despite appearances, she isn’t human.”

“What IS she,” Fitzgibbon asked, as tendrils appeared from the girl’s hands to ensnare one foot? “Some devisor’s pet project? Another one of those damn near-human ETs they try to slip in here every so often?”

“No,” Ito-sama said gravely, “she is a demon.”

“A ‘DEMON’?” went around the table.

“I know that this is Whateley,” Beaumont said acidly, “but we DO have STANDARDS!”

Ito-sama waved the noise down. “It is more complex than that. This child is a human-demon hybrid. Her cell structure is closer to cancer cells than anything else. However, there is the question of her Soul.”

“We’re not priests,” Kasai said sharply. “We don’t save souls! We teach ‘human’ children how to defend themselves.”

“But she IS half-human,” Ito responded calmly. “How do we deny the half that is demon, without endangering that half that is human? And, if in saving the half that is human, may we not be bringing the other half out of the darkness?”

“Doing Missionary work?” Bardue asked. “Doesn’t Whateley’s policy of strict neutrality forbid that sort of thing?”

“And doesn’t that exact same policy of neutrality demand that we do what we can for Miss Waite?” Ito said with the air of perfect logic.

“Hold on,” Suzana cut in, “they put a Demon and a demon- ‘HUNTER’ on the same team?”

“Makes perfect sense to me.” Bardue said rationally. “This way, ‘Blade Dancer’ knows the demon’s capabilities, habits and weaknesses. But if this demon-girl goes off the deep end, she won’t be thinking clearly and won’t be able to use what she learned in training with ‘Chou Li’. If anything, if this sword is all that Wong says it is, the big problem is gonna be keeping the demon-girl alive long enough to make up her mind which way she’s gonna flip.”

Ito-sama sighed, “Since we are ethically bound to train her, shall we focus on HOW to train her?”

“What’s the problem, Tetsuo?” Bardue asked. “Aside from the smell of brimstone, that is.”

“Her Ki is unique. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s like one of those ‘black holes’ that astronomers talk of. A great dark maw, sucking in everything. Ki normally flows in cycles and channels. Hers just draws in. We will try to teach her what we can, but I believe that the best we can do is allow her to develop her own style, as we study her progress, just in case. If nothing else, it should be educational.”

“ ‘Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer?’ ” Suzana asked with a wry smile.

“Let us hope that it doesn’t come to that.” Ito-sama keyed the remote again. “And finally, we come to our _real_ problem. . . ‘Team Kimba’.”

“WHAT?”

“You tell us that we have a team with a Faerie Queen, a super-brick, a living ghost, the daughter of a family of mutant-haters, a blaster-monster, a demon-hunter AND her own in-house demon, but THIS girl is the real problem? What does she do, shit anti-matter?”

The scene on the monitor now showed a well attended dojo where a lithe young African-American girl in a gi was faced off against what appeared to be a dirty blonde yeti in blue exercise pants. The hairy boy gave every impression being incredibly strong and his overlong arms apparently gave him a great reach advantage. He was also remarkably fast- not that it helped.

The girl started off by breaking his nose, and the fight didn’t go any better for him. The girl made a jabbing punch at his left shoulder, and his arm went limp. He began jumping around, apparently trying to stay away from her while he recovered, Before that could ahppen, the girl got an unbreakable hold on his good arm and wrestled him to the mat. Unable to use his other arm, she easily pinned him.

“That is Antonia ‘Chaka’ Chandler, the final member of Team Kimba, in action.”

Fitzgibbon made a dismissive noise. “So what? She looks like your average ‘daredevil’ type. She’ll have to train with other ‘daredevils’ in order to learn any decent discipline, but other than that, I don’t see the problem.”

“The problem, is that Toni Chandler’s mutant power is a natural ability to generate and manipulate Ki.”

The table exploded. “WHAT?”

“Are you ‘JOKING’?”

“But that’s IMPOSSIBLE!”

Bardue tried to shout them down. “HOLD ON! C’mon, people, Settle down! Now, would you pajama-types please tell this old leatherneck exactly what is so incredible about this girl bein’ able to control her Ki?”

“I agree.” Suzana’s voice was calmer. “If anything, I’d think that a natural ability to manipulate one’s Ki would be one of the more fundamental mutations. It’s an amplification of a natural ability that anyone should be able to learn, given time and discipline. As a matter of fact, I rather have to wonder why a Ki mutant hasn’t come up before.”

Ito-sama held up a restraining hand. “That is precisely the point, Miss Hagarty. For the nearly forty years that preter-humanmutation has been an accepted scientific fact, scientists and Martial Artists have been wondering why no ‘natural Ki master’ mutants have been discovered. As you pointed out, it is just an amplification of a natural ability, so it should just be a rather minor systemic adjustment. For years we have wondered why no Ki mutants have surfaced.By the 1970’s, when the concept of Ki became more widely known in the West, scientists began fielding theories as to why. The most prevalent school is that for one reason or another, mutations tapped into the flow of energy that would normally be used to develop Ki, to power their effect.”

“Which is complete rubbish,” Wong Ah Lam interjected, “since several quite powerful mutants have also learned Ki skills along with their natural abilities.”

“What about Hiro Kyoji’s ‘Lethal Mutation’ theory?” Genevive Beaumont asked. “Of the various theories, it always made the most sense to me.”

“Yes,” Ito-sama nodded, “there is that.”

Suzana cleared her throat. “Excuse me, would you please inform those among us who haven’t spent years studying Variant Human Genetics, exactly ‘what’ the ‘Lethal Mutation’ theory ‘IS’?”

Ito-sama took a deep breath and began. “In 1986, a Japanese geneticist published a paper in which he claimed to have followed reports of children in Japan, Korea, China and the Philippines who exhibited powers that were remarkably like those of legendary Ki masters. But every time that he managed to track one of the children down, he discovered that the children had all mysteriously died within three months of first manifesting their powers. Mind you, they weren’t ‘killed’ by others or die in accidents, they all just ... died. ... Some died in their sleep; some felt tired, sat down and never got up again; and some literally dropped in their tracks.

From this, Hiro postulated that Ki mutants do arise, possibly on a regular basis, but because Ki is so intimately tied to the basic life processes, the mutation causes deadly disruptions in the flow of Ki, that eventually kill the mutant. He further theorized that Ki mutants in the East are considered great treasures, to be hidden from outsiders, and so they only come to the attention of scientists after they’ve died. In the West, the children have no traditional context for it, and his theory supposes that they panic when the mutation manifests, so they Burn Out.”

Junzo commented, “Depressing as it is, it’s still the most logical theory.”

Suzana gave a gusty sigh. “So, the question really isn’t ‘why only one Ki mutant?’; it’s ‘why hasn’t Toni Chandler died yet?’.”

That seemed to sum it up rather well.

“Maybe she’s ‘Ki Mutant 2.0’,” Kasai Tetsuko fielded the question. “Maybe she has some kind of ‘emergency Ki flow regulator’ that prevents those fatal Ki disruptions.”

Ito-sama pondered this for a while. “OR, maybe it doesn’t prevent them- indeed, they may not be preventable- but externalizes them, so that her own Ki flow isn’t compromised.”

“What do you mean, Ito-sama?” Fitzgibbon asked.

“During that incident with the Yama Dojo ninjas,” Amanda Tolman answered for Ito-sensei, “Chandler was doing very well. She took out the team leader in single combat, and was holding her own by her herself against the other four. Then, she had some sort of fit. It was sort of like she’d thrown a rod or something, and she spun out of control. I asked an Esper who witnessed the scene firsthand, and she said that Chandler exuded a strange invisible darkness as she spun out of control. Given the very Yang oriented moves that she was making, I think that she lost her balance of Yin and Yang.

You see, part of her power is that she can heterodyne her personal energy field with the Earth’s. She spent all of her Yang energy fighting the Ninjas, and kept drawing on the Earth to replenish her reserve of Ki. She wasn’t spending Yin energy anywhere near as quickly as she was Yang energy, so it backed up on her and overloaded her system.

That may be what happened to the other Ki Mutants. But, Chandler somehow expelled her excess Yin energy. Not enough to keep her from crashing, but enough to keep her alive. Her former Aikido sensei reports that this has happened a couple of times. When I spoke with the Ninjas after their capture, the girl mentioned something about a strange chill. I think that they were too focused on their mission and a little too far away to be adversely affected.”

Fitzgibbon nodded. “Yes, until she learns to automatically monitor her balance of Yin and Yang, that’s going to be a problem.”

“No, Chet,” Ito-sama said sadly, “it’s not. We are the problem.”

“Come again?”

“Come again?”

“Miss Chandler is a paradox; one that we must solve or the opportunity of several lifetimes may be lost.”

Bardue scoffed and said, “Heck, Tetsuo, we’ve seen hundreds of kids with lots of potential come and go ...”

“No. Not like this. She poses three levels of problem, each of which seem to make the others impossible. First, she controls Ki. I have learned many Ki skills, but she ... for her ...the things that I must meditate for hours to do, are as simple as picking up a pencil. Every Asian Martial Art is based on discovering one’s Ki, and allowing it to guide one’s movements. All the Katas, all the exercises, all the forms are ways of awakening one’s Ki and putting it to use. But Chandler starts at the end, where great Ki masters wish to go; but she has no foundation for her skill. She must travel backwards, like someone trying to building a house by starting with the roof, and building the house under it. Her reflexes and instincts in combat are exemplary, but we must somehow give her form and context for those reflexes without crippling them.”

“Her Kung Fu is good, but she needs discipline?” Suzana quipped. The instructors around the table gave her an icy glare. “Well, ‘someone’ had to say it!”

Beaumont ignored the joke. “I see what you’re talking about, Ito-sama. It’s like teaching Mozart music. You have to get her to understand the rules without placing artificial limitations on her.”

“I just hope that she doesn’t run into a Salieri,” Junzo grumped.

“And that is the second level of our problem, Harry. There are many ‘Salieris’ out there who are just waiting for their opportunity. You see, my friends, Miss Chandler is unique in yet another way. She is the only one of our students who can TEACH what she does to baseline humans.”

“What? You can’t ‘TEACH’ a mutant trait!”

“You are right- a mutant Telepath couldn’t teach a non-mutant non-telepath how to read minds; nor could an Energizer teach a baseline human how to throw energy bolts, nor any of the other mutant traits. The simple reason is that baseline humans simply don’t have the physical equipment for it. BUT, ‘everyone’ has Ki! She can’t teach them her genius for it, or her ability to tap into the Earth’s field, but she ‘can’ teach them how to manipulate their Ki.”

Fitzgibbon’s eyes went wide and he looked at Bardue and Kasai. “Oh, I do NOT like where this is going.”

“There are many people who will be vitally interested in her. There will be devisers and even mainstream scientists who will want to analyze her to try to isolate, identify, qualify and maybe even synthesize Ki. There will be Mages and Wizards of every tradition who will see her as a power battery. Worst of all, there will be Martial Artists who have studied Ki their entire lives without coming as far as she has already gone. Incredible jealousy aside, there will be those who will want to study her to learn secrets of Ki from her. And there is the unfortunate matter that the schools and societies most interested will be Asian, while Miss Chandler is not only American and Female, but of African descent. The concept of racism being an evil is a comparatively new one, born of the excesses of World War II. I’m afraid that that lesson hasn’t penetrated the more conservative mindsets of Asia. And the Ki schools and Secret Societies are nothing if not conservative, even reactionary. Since she is the descendent of slaves, then most likely they will regard her as not only a slave, but the female slave of barbarians.”

Amanda nodded sadly. “Ito-sama is one of the more ... ‘liberal’ teachers in Japan, and you should have ‘seen’ what I had to go through to get this old goat to look past my skin and actually SEE me!”

Ito gave her an embarrassed apologetic smile. Amanda returned a forgiving smile.

Suzana chewed on this for a while. “What are the chances that these Martial Arts secret societies will have heard of her?”

“ ‘Well ...’ Bardue drawled, “as of this moment, kinda small. But once word gets around campus of what she’s capable of- the stories are already starting- I’d say that the odds of the word leaking out are hover about 100%. Y’see, we don’t have a security problem, only ‘cause we accept that word is gonna slip out as part of doin’ business.”

“What? But your security-”

“Miss Hagarty, Whateley is an open secret to the Police, Intelligence, Criminal and even Terrorist communities,” Wong Ah Lam explained. “And they ALL want to know what’s going on. Every one of our security guards is getting a second paycheck from one Police or Intelligence service or another. We ‘know’ this, and let it happen; after all, it’s one way of letting them know what’s going on here. After all, would YOU want to write a periodic report on this place? Besides, it means that we get top rate security guards at reasonable rates, ones who really want to keep their jobs. Scha, some of them get two or three paychecks, which are paid to offshore bank accounts. And, this way, their reasonable paranoia is soothed so they don’t do anything stupid. But it does mean that keeping someone like your Miss Reilly or Miss Chandler a secret can be a real chore. After all, look at how quickly those ‘Crystal Wavers’ showed up. By the way, I wonder what happened to them?”

Kasai snickered. “I heard that they checked into a private sanitarium  en masse, to ‘work out interpersonal difficulties’.”

Fitzgibbon made a grunting noise. “I’ll talk with Security and have them put a Tell-Tale on the window of Chandler’s room.”

“Don’t bother,” Suzana told him. “According to the report on Nikki Reilly that I read, Nikki and Toni are already roommates. I expect that after that ‘Crystal Waver’ episode, Security put a Tell-Tale on her window, SOP.”

Beaumont shuddered. “I don’t envy the girls who live on either side of THAT room.”

“Hold On!” Suzana interrupted, “What about Chandler’s parents? Shouldn’t they have some kind of security upgrade? After all, grabbing friends and family is one of the oldest tricks in the book!”

“Not to worry,” Bardue assured her. “Our security may be a little odd, but it’s some of the best. All reports are filed under code names, and the files regarding students’ families are under security that the NSA envies. Besides, we got ‘procedures’ for dealing with that kind of thing.” {29}

Genevive Beaumont smiled icily. “The last time that anyone tried to lean on a Whateley student’s family was back in 1987. A bunch of Serbo-Croat Nationalists tried to grab a kid’s parents. They became a Senior Class project.”

“What happened?”

“Let’s just say ... they aren’t around anymore.”

Junzo turned to Ito. “Ito-sensei, you said that there were ‘three’ levels of difficulty. What’s the third?”

Ito sighed. “I wondered when anyone would remember that. ... The third level of difficulty is not what Miss Chandler is, or what she might do, but fear of what she might NOT do.”

Bardue shook his head. “Oh, lovely. ... It’s Zen time again.”

Ito keyed the remote again. This time Chandler was alone, or at least by herself on the practice mat. She was proceeding smoothly through a Tai Chi Chu’an routine.

“So what? She’s doing Tai Chi,” Kasai said.

“Watch again.” He replayed the sequence.

“Again, so what? So she made a mistake in her sequences!”

“No, she didn’t.”

“Hunh? But she went from ‘White Stork Spreads Its Wings’ to something else and then onto the proper sequence and only ...”

“And only a Tai Chi master can alter the sequence to fit changing conditions and expect it to flow properly. Now watch again.” Ito replayed the sequence in slow motion. “You see? It flows. ... Not only does it flow properly, it flows ‘gracefully’. It flows with ‘harmony’. Only a master of Tai Chi can manage that kind of improvisation. She does it four times.”

Ito-sensei took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I fear ... and hope ... that Toni Chandler may be the Soke-no-Do.”

‘Soke of Do’? Suzana puzzled that one over a bit. She knew that a ‘Soke’ was the founder of a school of Martial Arts. But ‘Do’?” Then she looked around the table and saw that most of the instructors were almost dumbfounded.

Bardue asked the question before Suzana could. “Do? What kind of Do? Hapkido? Aikido?”

“No,” Kasai almost whispered, “Not Aikido. Not Hapkido. Not Judo. Not Huarang-Do. Not Tai Kwan Do. Just ... DO. ...”

Wong Ah Lam took over, as Kasai Tetsuko was obviously still reeling from the implications. “In every field of endeavor, there is a great Quest, a sublime height that artists can pursue all of their lives, fail to achieve and still count their lives as being well spent in the pursuit.

In Physics, it would be the Unified Field Theory. In Medicine, it would be the Panacea, the cure for all diseases. In Diplomacy, it would be World Peace. In Music, it would be the ‘Music of the Spheres’. In Painting, it would be ‘The Single Stroke’. In Philosophy, it would be The Truth.

“In Martial Arts, it is ‘Do’. The ‘Sun Source’ Martial Art, of which all other schools are fragments, or pale reflections. Some Xiao-Lin styles mimic the strengths of insects, birds, snakes, cats, monkeys and even dragons. But ... Do ... would flow only from the absolute strength of being human, without wasting strength on puerile imitation. Do would be perfectly flexible in its application and perfectly suitable to the dynamics of the human form. And Do wouldn’t be limited to hand to hand combat ... or even combat. Do would apply to EVERYTHING!

There is a Do of walking, a Do of writing, a Do of taking a bath, a Do of weeding a garden. All forms of Human Endeavor, no matter how exalted or trivial, have a Do, a ‘proper’ way of being done, if we only knew what it was.

“And beyond even THAT, ‘Do’ is believed to be the means of finding by way of the Marital Arts, the Tao. The Tao, the Way of All Things.”

Amanda Tolman sputtered, “Ito-sensei, that can’t be! I’ve ‘MET’ this girl! She’s no philosopher! She’s your basic mediocre kid who’s suddenly good at something! Anything!  She charges into everything without thinking about it, and hopes that her power will take care of everything!”

“Not completely true.” Ito keyed the remote again. The screen replayed the fight with the Little League Bigfoot. “She went into this fight with a carefully laid plan.”

“Yeah- AFTER she walked into a fight with someone bigger and stronger than she was! And I don’t see her changing her spots any time soon. She’s going to be charging into one disaster after another face first, for a long time.”

Ito-sama smiled. “True, but who says that that’s a bad thing? I think an image from the Western Tarot deck is quite illuminating- the ‘Zero’ card of the Major Arcana is called ‘The Fool’. Who would be the one to find Do? The wise man who carefully watches each step, or the Fool who steps off the cliff with his eyes fixed on Heaven? We know that Do cannot be found by rational inquiry, so taking foolish choices might be the only way.”

Bardue fixed Ito-sama with a hard eye. “Tetsuo, you’re making this kid sound like some sort of ‘Chosen One.”

Ito gave a rueful laugh. “You’re right, I am. But there are no prophecies, only potential. She could be the Soke-no-Do. Or she could not. Maybe I’m being selfish, wanting to see the realization of Do in my lifetime.

“And that is the most maddening thing of all. In order for her to have a chance at all of realizing Do, we have to NOT teach her. Any answers that we would give her would only impose our preconceptions of Do on her. The only way that we can help her realize her potential without forcing her to be the ‘Soke-no-Do’ on one hand or shutting her off from that possibility on the other, is just to throw one unexplained exercise after another at her.”

Kasai raised an eyebrow. “You mean, sort of like ‘Zen Loan’ exercises?’

Ito shrugged. “As good an analogy as any. But what I was going to ask you was- Do any of you have old Jackie Chan movies on DVD?”