Marvel Martial Artist

Chapter 2

Illyana's life past two months was weird, to say the least.

It was a complete change from her previous one, now she has a massive amount of freedom to do whatever she wants.

And of course, she now had clothes, food, shelter over her head, and an extremely adoring adopted mother who just wanted to pamper her.

It was a complete change from her previous life, she is still wondering how on Earth they so easily adopted her.

Wasn't that secret organisation chasing after her? Yet no one attacked them, she didn't even see anyone trying to sneak around their neighbourhood.

It's as if they stopped caring about her, which should not be the case she knows her ability to create teleportation disks is something they wanted to replicate.

Yet, now they stopped caring about her?

Or it's just they have no means to approach her anymore?

The blonde could only think about her 'brother' who is a monster in human flesh.

By monster, she means his power… and it's not some incredible power he is born with... but, as he said...

A power which came from hard work! That's right! hard physical training like how similarly Shaolin monks practise their martial artist so is her 'brother'.

And she know that he is a hard worker, she already saw him working out the next morning when he freed her from her prison.

It was surreal seeing someone using one finger to do push-ups…

Was that even physically possible? At that point, she didn't care, as she saw his naked top and it was enough for her.

As if she could forget about it after seeing it…

After seeing that she would continue to do so when she had time, it was art in her eyes.

Eventually, after getting herself into this new surreal life Illyana was ready to start practising her inborn power.

Mostly because she was motivated by Ray her adopted brother. Yes, that's how she calls because he insisted.

~~~

"You want me to train you?" Ray asked with a slightly raised eyebrow.

He just finished his casual workout sessions of 'ten thousand'...

Ten thousand of everything, and then a couple of hours of KI control practice.

"Yes, maybe you can help me learn how to control the teleportation disks." She said that with a slightly hopeful voice.

The girl is tired of accidentally opening portals to God's nowhere.

"Hmm, I suppose you open them when you're experiencing high emotions?" He asked thoughtfully.

Her eyes slightly widened for a second, connecting several dots at that moment.

"...Yes I think so."

"Hmm, then I could teach you some meditation techniques."

She had a sceptical look when she heard that.

"You think that can help me?" She asked him that, while not believing that something like meditation could help her.

"You wouldn't be here if it didn't work." He answered that with a shrug.

Illyana that moment realised that yes, if it didn't work she wouldn't be as free as she is right now.

"Know this, it will take alot of time to feel the effects of it." Ray seriously said to her.

It took him years to feel any sort of changes, no regular person would do that. He even has this feeling that he achieved his KI like that because he started training at an extremely young age as well.

"Well, I don't have anything else to do, so I guess I will give this a try." She said that with a shrug.

The black-haired teen snorted hearing that, with such attitude, she wouldn't last long.

And so the next day when Ray was training he did instruct Illyana how to meditate, and just as he had suspected she got very bored after a few hours, then she got motivated once more when she saw him meditate.

Let's just say seeing a guy floating a few inches above ground with a thin white layer of energy and sparks of lightning crackling from time to time made her realise that meditation is very much a real deal and that it takes time and dedication.

And so she tried to do it again with mixed results.

After watching her try for a couple of weeks Ray decided to alter slightly.

Let's just say that he started to experiment, he decided to teach her martial arts, since he knows the girl will probably, possibly wield a sword later, learning martial arts related to swordsmanship would be even better.

"While meditation originated from Buddhism, it was expanded upon by Taoists which branched off from the Shaolin monks."

"There are different ways of meditation, have you ever heard about the active style of meditation? Since you can't stay still for a long time there are different ways of falling into the 'Zen' state."

She raised her eyebrow upon hearing that.

"You mean...that yoga thing?" She asked with uncertainty. Yoga looked weird to her.

"Predecessor to that one, Taoism is more active than Buddhism, and its martial arts are more lethal.

Now observe I will give you a demonstration."

Once he said that he took a stance that Illyana can only say that was ripped off from those Kung Fu movies.

It was slightly amusing for her, but that amusement disappeared soon enough when he saw him move.

It was not some sort of martial arts stance but more like moving body, hands and feet in a specific manner and very fluidly.

Soon enough the blond realised that Ray was 'gone' yet his body was still moving in a specific manner…

It lasted for an hour or so until her 'brother' remembered that he was supposed to teach someone and not train himself…

"Well... that's how you do it." He said to her completely ignoring the deadpan look he was receiving from her.

"Yeah...okay…" She said that with crossed arms.

"Right… took the stance like this, it's originally was developed with Tai Chi in mind."

"...Where did you even learn this Chinese stuff?" She asked curiously, they were on the other side of the continent after all.

"I had a Chinese martial arts instructor for a week, my parents hired one as a birthday present." He explained that quite casually.

Her mouth slightly opened upon hearing that, how much money did that cost!?

"I could get over the details all about balance and stuff, but I doubt you are interested in the spiritual side of this." He explained to her before helping her take the right stance.

The teen completely ignored her blushing face, and instead focused on making sure she did everything properly.

Nonetheless, they finally were able to start doing it, and Ray was quite ruthless with her, to make sure she didn't make any mistakes with her movements.

While the blonde was happy that he wasn't treating her like some porcelain doll, she did wish him not to go so hard on her.

Well, that changed when she saw how insanely he treated himself in these training sessions, so she held her tongue and didn't want to look weak.

As she already saw how he treats 'weak' people…

~~~~~~Year Later~~~~~~

A year later, the training results were mixed, Ray knew that his 'sister' needed alot of work to even reach some level of 'understanding'.

Nonetheless, they had good results in her ability to summon and control her teleportation disks, since it was an inborn ability of hers Ray quickly worked way for her to use her ability to a usable level.

From what he remembers from the wiki he read about her is that she has some sort of connection to the 'Limbo' dimension.

As that reality serves as a midpoint for the teleportation.

Now Ray has no idea how to master reality hoping power, as Illyana's teleportation works with knowing where she wants to open her portal.

So, she needs to end up in that dimension, once she does that she will be able to teleport anywhere…

Not that it's easy, but as far as he remembers she was kidnapped by some demon dude in that reality. So Ray doesn't want her anywhere near this thing until she can punch that thing to the death.

After learning to use her disks to a respectable level, the blonde continued to train as now she wanted to unlock KI.

Flying was something she wanted to do herself since the very moment she saw him do that.

And of course, she is quite jealous when she sees him float around just for shits and giggles.

"You know it took me four years just to feel my KI, I don't think you have the patience for that," Ray explained bluntly to her.

The blonde had already gotten used to his bluntness that she didn't care about that anymore.

"Not that there is anything else to do." Illyana shrugged at him.

Her whole adopted family are exercising nuts in some way, and that just rubbed off on her.

"Well, I suppose I can tell you how I did it." He crossed his hands and started to explain.

"You could say that it's like one's lifeforce only on fire…" He then lifted one of his hands and showed her his arm glowing white, looking like it was on fire.

"Training, exercising, and doing some sort of physical activity douse the flames, eventually one can start feeling it because of how strong the fire is inside one's body."

The blonde seriously listened to him, this was the first time he actively talked about KI like this.

"W-What will happen when you run out of KI?" She asked that with a gulp she wanted to check on something.

"You die obviously." He said that with a deadpan look, it was a silly question for him.

"You simply take your life into your hands, you actively control it." He explained with an eye roll, he should control something instead of allowing it to run on its own.

The girl gulped down once more, she didn't know how to feel about this.

"The two hardest parts are to sense and control KI." Ray pointed that out.

"Once you can feel it, then the true work begins, lots of meditation." He said that with a smirk and he enjoyed seeing Illyana's facial expression.

"...Guess… I will have to deal with it if I want to fly." She said with a resigned sigh.

Ray chuckled hearing that he didn't tell her that it would take up to another year just to fly as well.

And so more serious training for the blonde has started, while she took it quite splendidly, she didn't feel any true changes…

A couple of months later Ray decided to test something out…

"Let's me try channelling some of my KI into you and you try to sense your energy through mine." The black-haired teen said with a thoughtful look.

The blonde simply shrugged at him, there was nothing to lose if he tried to do that.

Seeing that she agreed, he put his hand on her back and started channelling his energy.

At that moment Illyana felt warm energy wash her up, for a few moments she just enjoyed the feeling of this energy, it was like a warm blanket wrapping around her.

Eventually, she started trying to sense her KI through this warm energy…

5 minutes…

10 minutes...

30 minutes… later…


"...Nothing…" The blonde said with a disappointed voice.

"Hmm, maybe it works like the concept of fire, now you need to exercise… let those muscles burn?" Ray suggested to her.

"Well, worth trying…" She gladly accepted any shortcut to this…"

~~~~~~Somewhere Else~~~~~~

"Sir you should see this…" One of the personnel responsible for observing space showed a picture to his boss through his computer screen.

"Hmm? What this?" He asked curiously, as he saw something weird floating in Earth's orbit.

"I think it's a... car, a van more precisely." The guy said while fixing his glasses.

"A van… in space?" His superior asked him for confirmation, making sure he didn't mishear.

"Yes… let me zoom in more…" The guy zoomed in and showed a picture of a Volkswagen Transporter.

"What the fuck a van is doing in Earth's orbit!?" The guy shouted seeing that it was a black van in space!