If it hooked into a power field, this was a working Mercy Bracelet! “A recent addition?” I asked, lifting my fist before I stepped away.

“Yes, and a very popular one!” the attendant agreed with a very wide smile. “It was proposed by one of your local hegemons, and the whole Arena was adjusted to make use of it. The fights have been considerably more... impactful since their inclusion!”

I nodded once. All combats under Mercy would be non-lethal, allowing everyone to fight without needing to worry about killing their opponents. Some would poo-poo the lack of courage it represented, but it also meant the fights were now ALL basically the equal of death-duels, nobody holding back.

Had to be Sama. They probably paid her a damn fortune to put it into place, too. I quirked a smile as I stepped away to wait for the others.

-----

“Mary Jane!” I called out, waving. The redhead who had just come through down the queue looked up at my voice, and only focused on me after I waved and sparked a few times.

Smiling, she skated up to me, hitching the pack over her shoulder as she did so, while Peter standing next to me gawked at her openly... especially seeing her using lightfoot. She’d packed up and headed out West several months ago basically overnight...

--------------

A few months prior...

“This had better be good.”

Sama didn’t like to be bothered by trivial shit, and there was no doubt she could reach out and touch anyone she wanted to. Getting a call from Dealer was definitely very, very low on her importance meter, and her cold voice conveyed all of it.

“Oh, you’ll love this one,” Dealer smiled into the crystal Vaccine, and handed it off.

“” a voice spoke in a language that had died over nine thousand years before.

The silence on the other end of the phone was profound. “Sonja?” was the slow reply, the shock in it evident.

“”

“That’s a very fluid Hyrkanian, but your voice is not Sonja’s,” came the warning reply.

“I was reborn as Mary Jane Watson in this life,” MJ answered calmly in Human. “I have been reliving my life as Red Sonja month by month every night for the past several months. I was quite surprised to see that the Golden Hag of my present life had met me in my past life several thousand years ago.”

“That was... is... arghh!” Dealer smiled and gave MJ a big thumbs-up. She had successfully flustered the Golden Hag! How many people could say that? “What has this to do with Dealer?!” she demanded.

“Kulan Gath had a soul cage, which activated in New York several months ago. I am sure you can figure out the resulting incident. Dealer was there at the end of it, and burned his rotten soul away. There was an Atlantean Sword there that brought my prior self forward to face him, sensing the connection between us. Dealer strengthened the bond so that I could relive Sonja’s life at night, in my dreams.” Her voice dropped. “I have not yet recovered all my past life, Lady Rantha, but I thought I was skilled with a sword, until I met you. I will hold you to your promise, if I can.”

There was a moment of silence. “Put Dealer back on,” Sama Rantha finally said.

Dealer took the Vaccine back, smiling broadly. “Sorry to bother you over such an insignificant matter, oh mighty Golden Hag!” she said cheerfully.

“Cheeky young bitch,” Sama said without force. “You Assayed her past self?”

“” Dealer replied cheerfully in fluid Hyrkanian. “”

“Gawdammit. Sonja, after all this time... and as... eesh. Alright, how quickly can you get her to San Francisco?”

“About ten minutes ago? We’re standing outside Champions HQ, north side of the lot. Wave, Red!” She waved with me at the top of the fifty-story building and complex in front of us, where Sama was believed to reside.

“Fantastically cheeky bitch. Obviously, my reputation isn’t dire enough!” Also said without force.

There was just a whisper as the air split right in front of the two of them from a golden clawed finger sharper than space and time, and Sama Rantha was abruptly standing in front of them.

Dealer snapped the Vaccine closed, looking between the two women, one young and older than her years, and the other ageless.

MJ was the first to step forward, her green eyes intense as she brushed aside Sama’s dark hair and put her fingers on the blue-black lines of her Hag’s Curse there, brushing across them... once again.

Sama closed her eyes and sighed heavily. “No, a man still didn’t do this to me, Red.”

MJ let go, stepping back. “I have not experienced all of that life in full yet... but you were the only woman who ever bested me after I left the temple. Yet, it doesn’t live up to the legends I know of you in this time...”

“That was over a hundred years ago for me. Let’s just say I stumbled across an old god who recognized me and sent me back there to close a loop in time. Kulan Gath, again...” She looked at Dealer standing there, grinning like an idiot. “You can go. I will teach her.”

“HAHA!” Dealer swatted MJ’s shoulder, got a punch in return, and Cards swirled out to carry her away, leaving the woman with a Sword and pack over her shoulder standing there with the most dangerous woman in the world.

----------

Red MJ, the She-Devil with a Sword

Forsaken Human/4

Scout/8; Melee/14; Monk/8 (Student of Seven Dragons)

Strength: 15->39

Dexterity: 18->40

Constitution: 16->41

Intelligence: 13->30

Wisdom: 12->35

Charisma: 17->36

Notable Talents/Traits: Born to Perform/Natural Swordswoman; She-Devil Reborn

...

-----

The redhead glided up to us, moving with the ease of a tigress among sheep, and the martially astute around us all instinctively moved aside to let her pass, wondering just who the plain-seeming carrot-haired woman in jeans and a WE IZ DA CHAMPEENS long-sleeved t-shirt was.

I’d naturally been one of the people helping her with her conditioning at the SHIELD complex, with Peggy’s approval. I got a hug of greeting from her.

Wow, that was a LOT of ki, and so many different types of it...

Peggy was staring at her in complete astonishment. A Shielder was naturally very, very good at assessing people, and she could totally tell that the young aspiring actress who had lucked into a magic Sword somewhat over a year ago was now someone very, very different!

“Uh, MJ?” Peter asked, still in his mask.

“Peter,” she replied, and he stiffened up. She smiled slightly. “Oh, sorry. Yes, it is totally plain who you, Rich, Cindy, Jess, and Gwen are, I’m not going to put up a false face for you. Director Carter, it is good to see you again, too.” She extended her hand, and they matched grips that didn’t look like anything, but actually conveyed a whole helluva lot between them.

“Oh my God, what happened to you?” Gwen Stacey blurted out, unable to restrain herself as she jumped forward to give MJ a hug. They were best friends, after all, and MJ returned it serenely.

“I have been training under the most extraordinary woman in the world,” MJ replied calmly, letting Gwen go with a smile. “I have so much I have yet to learn from her, too, but she wanted me to come down here and make sure the Dragons were firmly represented.”

“The Dragons?” Peggy interjected at that. “ALL of them?” she asked for clarity.

“Yes,” Mary Jane replied simply.

Peggy studied her for a moment, then reached out to MJ’s right arm, grasped her wrist, and with her other arm pushed the sleeve back up her arm.

I whistled as the Tats encircling her arm, all of them three-clawed, save for the Ocean Dragon at four, were revealed one by one.

All Seven of them...

Despite myself, I couldn’t stop a chortle from escaping my lips, and had to put a hand up to stop myself from laughing. MJ looked at me, saw that I totally understood what those Tats meant, and she flicked her elbow, her sleeve snapping completely down into place with the motion.

The casual ease and control conveyed more than a flurry of punches if you were perceptive.

“I have a feeling I’m missing the punchline of a very big joke,” Peter said helplessly, and Richie Ryder, along for the ride and given special dispensation from Mentor to compete as a Nova Corpsman, could only nod helplessly, the same with McCoy and Mort.

“She’s a Seven Dragons Null Swordswoman, making you, what, the fourth on the planet?” Peggy explained almost helplessly.

“My seniors made sure to all call me up and tell me to do well here, too,” MJ smiled, rolling her eyes. “Too busy contemplating their navels to let something for young whippersnappers disturb them.”

“SEVEN Dragons?” repeated Peter after getting it, his voice starting to drop. “That, that’s like what Danny’s learning, only better?” he had to ask in a small whisper, eyes wide behind his mask.

I thwopped him on the back of his head. “She’s a Null, Peter. She has no chi. Way Masteries.”

“But... Seven?” he repeated, still in shock.

“It means if you get into a fight with her, she’s probably going to clean your clock.”

MJ tilted her head at him slightly, a sparkle to her eyes that said she was measuring him, and she didn’t refute my words. He swallowed despite himself.

“Without a sword?” he squeaked.

“The Sword is an extension of the Hand,” MJ, Peggy, and I said together. Everyone looked at the three of us, and we just smirked together.

“Total dark horse,” I laughed at her, holding out a fist, and she bopped it with a clink that actually broke over the faces of those around.