13618/Not Yet Strong Enough

Not Yet Strong Enough
Date of Scene:	22 December 2022
Location:	Chikara Dojo
Synopsis:	Bakuto pays a visit to Colleen's dojo to 'chat'. In his usual indirect way he lets her know a few things that he feels she needs to be aware of, now that she's a better Colleen than before.
Cast of Characters:	Colleen Wing, Gwen Stacy

---

Colleen Wing has posed:
:: > I need to talk
:: < See you soon -B

The dojo is quiet. The doors have been shuttered since Colleen took off with Elektra to Gotham. Now coming back it feels strange, like another life had come and gone. She's sneaking in from the roof top.

Grabbing the edge of the roof, flipping down and in through the window she always keeps open. A fire escape with no ladder. The lights are off and even the moon is hidden behind other buildings in the Manhattan skyline tonight. But her eyes have adjusted and she's not going to turn them on now.

She's here for some essential things before she hunts down Bakuto. She needs answers and a way to end this war. After all, he did warn her it would come to this. She kept pushing, they all did, and now here they were.

The backpack is found and she quickly checks her go-bag contents are all there. Satisfied, she grabs some bottled water from the carton and slides it in to the side pockets of the bag, then tosses the whole thing on her back. It's time to leave but she gets this strange sensation that something isn't quite right.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
That something isn't quite right it all depends on the point of view. For Bakuto? Things are just right.

His voice is heard echoing in the Dojo. "You are always so dramatic." the lights flip on all of a sudden which may or may not cause momentary blindness with the sudden flash. Regardless, Bakuto will be there, hands relaxed behind his back in a solemn posture, his eyes on Colleen. A tsk comes out and he finally smiles that smug smile of his.

"But you have always been my best student."

Colleen Wing has posed:
The backpack slides off of Colleen's shoulder as she hears his voice. The momentary loss of vision is an annoyance. Blobs dancing in her eyes until they settle down. She steps out of the backroom and in to the dojo. There he is, her false master, Bakuto.

Her eyes travel up and down him and she frowns, "We're a bit beyond dramatic. Dramatic is sending a letter signed in blood telling me and my friends you've declared war on us. Your weapon - black sky - is dead. It's time to end this fight before more people get hurt."

She knows one of the five voted against the war. She wants to believe it was him but she isn't so sure. Still, the white hoodie is lowered and she notes his casual calmness. He's always had great command of his presence though. Much like her grandfather who was her first, and true, master.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
The man takes a few steps further in, one of his hands coming into sight (without weapons) and Bakuto gestures to the surroundings. "Like what you did with the new place." after the burning. "But it was a necessary lesson." his tone has hardened somewhat.

"The same way what happened was necessary for what is to come. Much to my regret." A brief sigh escaping his lips. Is he saying he was the one voting against the war? Or that he voted for it? As usual the man is elusive in his answers.

"But Black Sky was never my weapon, Colleen." the corner of his lips curling up briefly.

Colleen Wing has posed:
The central beam of the dojo is charred yet somehow survived. The build was rebuilt though thanks to Danny's money. She wants to fold her arms and give him a look but she knows that'd be foolish - to let her guard down right now. But he's doing the thing again where he speaks in half truths and vagaries.

"What is to come?," she frowns though. "Bakuto this is senseless. You sieged us in Gotham and failed. You chased us on the hyperloop and failed. There's no version of this where you win, even if I die. The Defenders will live on and hunt you to the ends of the Earth."

Gwen Stacy has posed:
"That would be telling." Bakuto shakes his head at that direct question, then another tsk. "I taught you better than ask things so directly. But then again, there was only so much I could do considering the state you arrived in my hands.." a sigh. "Old grandfather taught you well, but not for what you had to be ready for." for some reason his words don't even sound like a jab to the old master, just resignation.

"You may come to regret that we failed." He then finally says, "Perhaps you should take more attention to your old friend Elektra. Now she will become trouble sooner than later." he smiling faintly at Colleen.

Colleen Wing has posed:
Colleen's mind flows back to that moment just after black sky is killed. Elektra has blood over her, she has killed, but they all knew she had before and would again. For Colleen, it was a necessary evil even if Matt didn't agree. But it's that moment when the darkness flowed in to her that was burned in to her mind.

"What about Elektra?," Colleen snaps back at him. A nerve. She cares about her friend. She put her life on the line to get her friend out of New York and away from the Hand.

"I have bad news for you Bakuto. Everything you taught me was poison. You improved on nothing my grandfather taught me, you merely attempted to taint me with your dark ideas. Murder and Power.. they aren't the path of a samurai. You tried to turn me in to your killer and when I said no, you responded with violence."

Gwen Stacy has posed:
"You were never a samurai." This time Bakuto is direct, his eyes gaining a hardness to them. As if he was remembering memories that angered him. "You were taught what was -needed- for who you are. No matter how much your grandfather tried to keep things from you." he shakes his head as if he had already spoken too much.

Or maybe it's all part of the show.

"Even now you are still learning. The old Colleen could never had done what she does now. What she knows needs to be done. And will be needed in the future." he gestures.

"But time is ticking now. There is little more time left for lessons. Now it's time for you to do."

Colleen Wing has posed:
Colleen's eyebrows furrow with annoyance, "What do you mean, kept things from me?" Doubt crosses her face though and she is puzzled. A frown again. "Do?" It's true though, she was far stronger now, far more skilled than when she first came to America.

But she puts that advancement not to Bakuto, but to Elektra, Matt, and Danny who opened her eyes to a bigger world of martial arts than her grandfather could teach her. From Bakuto she learnt the honied words of the enemy. She learnt what it felt like to be used.

"You're going to make me jump through hoops for a peace - don't mess with me Bakuto. Not every one of my friends believes in pacifism. As skilled as you are I'm not sure you can survive the ghost rider." The word of that one whose head turns to flame must have made it back to the heads of the Hand by now.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
"What, you thought your grandfather a saint?" Bakuto scoffs at that and shakes his head. "We all lie for what is more convenient to us." but then he just shifts subjects, perhaps done with that particular topic.

To Ghost Rider.

He just laughs at that, "Worried about that one?" he is amused for some reason. "You should be more worried about your friend Elektra meeting with him again than us. That one ..." he hmmmms, ".... has so many sins to atone for. Or to be judged for."

"Yet maybe that would be for the best. Take her out of her misery. She may come begging for it in the future." And with that he turns to the exit to start walking away.

Colleen Wing has posed:
Colleen reaches behind to the scabbard as Bakuto turns his back to her. She could take him out right now.. heck it might even do the world a bunch of good if she did. But then she'd be killing a man in cold blood. Sure, he deserved it, of all people he really deserved it - but this was not the way. This was not in self defence and even then the Defenders would be disappointed.

As he disappears through the door frame and around the corner, she lets her hand relax. Her mind replaying his words - Bakuto had a way of slipping in relevant information, but he touched in many things. Elektra is in trouble, that much is clear. But her grandfather keeping things from her? she has only fond memories of the old man.

Scooping up her backpack she leaves the way she came in. Her mind alert for dangers but also thinking on what Bakuto wanted her to know. She has to -do- something now, something she couldn't have done when she first met him. Perhaps now she has a new perspective on the world and will see things she couldn't before.

Either way, she needs to get Elektra farther away from the Hand. She texts on her phone through the Birds app so that it'll end up with Elektra, <<"Need to head to Japan. Come with?">>