章節 268: Symbiote 0268: Suiting Up

"Can you give me some time to think about this?" Ying Nan asked, defeated.

"Sure," Alex nodded.

"Please wait here," She stood up, "I will prepare your accommodations and send someone to fetch you." She seemed to make an active effort not to look at her niece.

[Did you hypnotize her?] Natasha asked, holding Xialing in her arms as the girl kept looking at the lake distractedly.

[Only enough to make her feel shaken up by my words. Implanting thoughts in her mind isn't the best move if I want to get the allegiance of the dragon that's protecting them.]

[The Great Protector, huh?]

[I could try to take control of it forcefully, but I would rather have it follow me willingly. Wouldn't it be cool? Flying on top of a living dragon?]

Natasha leaned toward him a little, hugging his arm, "You can be so polar, Alex …" She mumbled, "Sometimes you talk about things like the overflow and stuff beyond the universe that make me feel so detached from you — cementing your immortal slime alien origin, other times I feel that you are just a child at heart."

"What can I say …" Alex smiled, "I guess I'm a complicated slime. And it's the Superflow."

[Can you put her to sleep?] Natasha suddenly asked him.

He met her eyes before nodding. Putting his free hand on Xialing's head, he put the girl to sleep, "What is it?" He asked her.

"You're maintaining a sense of distance from her," Natasha said. "Why is that?"

"What are you talking about?" Alex scoffed.

"Alex …" She emphasized.

"What? I'm not trying to be mean to her," He said. "It's just I'm not really sure how to work with her."

"Expound," Natasha pulled away from him and looked at him with eyes that were ready to spit fire.

"It's nothing like that. Fuck's sake, she's twelve, Natasha," Alex said with a slightly frustrated sigh. "It's just that you've so quickly settled yourself into playing the role of her mother that I haven't had the time to come to terms with the situation yet. I can't instantly take up the role of her father if that's what you're expecting from me."

Her expression softened at his words, "I see," She said, leaning her shoulder against his, "Take your time. I just wanted to ask about your thoughts. And I'm not taking up the role of her mother. I'm just mentoring her."

"Keep telling yourself that."

…

The three were provided their separate residence in the form of a two-bedroom hut. While Ying Nan attempted to get Xialing to stay with her, the girl didn't have any plans to be separated from her teacher.

In the morning, the leader of Ta Lo had come to a decision.

"I have discussed it with the other elders in the village, and we have decided to accept your goodwill," The woman spoke to Alex and Natasha, who were sitting in the living room of their residence.

"Great," Alex nodded, "What is it that you want?"

"Nothing," She said. "As of now, at least. I don't think that you will even be compatible with our methods of harnessing Qi, considering they require at least a trace of our lineage."

"You can let me worry about that," Alex said with a smile. "How about you teach all three of us together? I'm sure that you plan to train Xialing in your ways as well."

"I do," She nodded. "But I was thinking of something more along the lines of a one-to-one mentorship for her. Since she's young, before harnessing Qi, she must be taught the basics of our martial arts first."

"I can take care of that," The woman's attempt to separate Xialing from them wasn't lost on Natasha. "I believe that I am more than qualified to teach her any form of martial arts under my supervision."

"Nat," Alex said with a gentle tone. "You can't teach her a form of martial arts that you don't even know."

[You remember the forms that Shang-Chi used, right? While he used the common Shaolin and Wing Chun movements, his Tai Chi and Bajiquan had deep influence from Baquazhang. Ultimately, the overarching discipline he follows is unfamiliar to us.]

The woman didn't say anything and only looked imploringly at Natasha, who snorted and spoke, "My student will study with me," Her tone left no room for argument.

[Are you still going to say you aren't trying to play the role of her overprotective mother?]

[Shut it.]

"Fine," Ying Nan sighed helplessly, knowing that she was in a position of weakness and had to accommodate her guests. "The first step of harnessing Qi does involve learning a specific discipline of martial arts."

"Good," Natasha nodded in satisfaction.

"We start training in one hour. Please be ready and meet me here then. You can collect a change of clothes from the armory," Ying Nan spoke before turning around and leaving.

"How about you go collect the clothes from the armory?" Natasha said. "I'll wake Xialing up and get her ready for the day."

At her words, Alex nodded and left.

At the same time, Natasha went into the second bedroom and saw Xialing still asleep while tightly hugging her pillow. Her expression wasn't the most peaceful, but she had been too tired during the journey and couldn't help but fall into a deep sleep.

"Xialing," Natasha knelt beside the girl's bed, "Wake up, honey." She combed the girl's hair with her fingers while trying to wake her up. A few more attempts later, she was groaning and awake.

"Morning shifu," She spoke lazily after coming to her senses. "Can't we sleep in?" She asked.

"Good morning," Natasha smiled warmly. "Come on, get out of bed. I'll make breakfast for you while you take a bath, okay?"

"I didn't bring a change of clothes," The girl said before hesitating as she spoke embarrassedly. "I didn't bring anything else either … I'll need some things in a few days."

"Don't worry about any of that," Natasha said. "I have everything prepared for you. But before all of that, you have to answer my question."

The girl perked up at Natasha's serious tone, "Mhm …"

"Do you want to wear a special suit like mine, or do you want to work in normal clothes like usual?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" Xialing asked confusedly.

"Do you remember my fight against your father?" Natasha asked Xialing, who shook her head.

"Mr. Apex only woke me up when you two had already stopped fighting. Daddy was trying very hard to take me back with him," She spoke softly as her eyes glazed a little.

Natasha pulled her into a hug and shushed her, "Don't worry. You're with your shifu now, right? You will love training with me."

"What about the special outfit?" Xialing asked after remembering the main line of conversation.

"I'll show you," Natasha said before stepping back from the bed. "This combat suit that I'm wearing is made of a very special material that can mold itself according to the wearer's will," Natasha said. "It is something created by Apex. I'll show you." Natasha's combat suit instantly morphed into Ta Lo's usual outfit. "You can make it change into any kind of outfit that you want." To demonstrate, she morphed between multiple different outfits before settling back into her combat suit. "Do you want it? It will be really convenient for you later on."

"I want it!" In her excitement, Xialing didn't even bother asking about any of the cons and agreed instantly.

Natasha sighed. "At least ask me for any possible drawbacks with the suit …"

"I trust you, shifu," The little girl's words made Narasha feel a warm feeling in her chest. "And it sounds really cool."

"Cheeky," Natasha smiled at Xialing's excited state. "You can go wash up and get ready. I'll talk to Apex about getting you your Apexsuit once he returns."

[That sounds horrible.] Natasha ignored Alex's snide remark at her term for the suit.

"Okay," Xialing nodded and quickly got out of bed. The exciting offer had completely woken her up. Now, all she could think about was what she was going to do with the suit when she got it.

…

"Shifu," Soon, Xialing called Natasha to her room.

"Coming," she went to Xialing's room before knocking once. "I'm coming in, Xialing," She entered the room.

"Did you talk to Mr. Apex about my suit?" Xialing asked excitedly, still wrapped in a towel.

"I did," Natasha nodded. He's sitting downstairs, waiting for you to come down so that we can all eat breakfast together.

"Quickly!" She spoke excitedly before looking around. "Where is it?"

"Right here," Natasha raised her hand. "Show me your hand," She brought her hand toward Xialing's hand as the same black mass as her combat suit moved along the girl's skin and crawled up to her wrist before forming a familiar-looking bracelet around her wrist. At Natasha's behest, Alex chose to use a bracelet instead of the usual choker. As the girl was still admiring the state of her arm, which was rapidly getting covered by the black material, the suit had extended all the way to her torso, destroying the towel in the process.

Moments later, Xialing was wearing the same combat suit as all Widows, but it had a single red line going through the choker that represented the trainee Widows. The outline extended from the choker to the sides of her body and limbs, forming a rough outline with cuffs on her wrists and ankles, similar to all widow outfits. The only difference was that when Xialing tried to recall it, instead of a choker, what would be left was a black bracelet with a horizontal red line going through the center.

Natasha couldn't help but admire Xialing's outfit, where the girl looked like a cute Black Widow cosplayer instead of a widow-in-training.

"Do you like the suit?" She asked Xialing.

"It's so comfortable," Xialing said while admiring herself. She then looked at Natasha "And I look the same as you … But why do you have one … two … three … six red lines, and I only have one?" Xialing was quick to notice the discrepancy between Natasha's outfit and hers. She audibly counted the lines on Natasha's suit and suit before asking her question.

"Come down, I'll tell you while we eat breakfast."

"Tell me …" Xialing shook Natasha's hand.

"That's because I am the leader of the Widows," Natasha satisfied her student's curiosities. "They are a small spy organization of a hundred or so elite women who are all like me. I lead them and give them directives to make a positive difference in the world."

"So it's like the Ten Rings?" Xialing asked.

"Something like that, yes," Natasha nodded.

"Oh, then I can't become a widow," Xialing shook her head without a second of thought.

"Why is that?" Natasha didn't take Xialing's words to heart. Even if the girl didn't want to become a widow, she didn't mind.

"Because I want to become the leader of the Ten Rings in the future when I'm strong enough. I want to take over and lead them," Her words had a conviction that was rare in a child of her age.

***

If you like the story, follow it and leave a review and whatever else, it motivates me a lot. I try not to leave any mistakes in the chapters, but if you find something glaring, let me know, and I'll try to fix it.

If you want to support me, check out my Patréon. I post advanced chapters there and do weekly polls to decide the stories that I will be posting for the week. No pressure though, I'm eventually going to post my content publicly regardless.

www.patrèon.com/addyctive

(Replace the è with e)