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Description
Detective Grace Harrison leaned back on the cold wall which almost seemed to repel her sweat-drenched, boiling body as she brushed a strand of blonde hair that had escaped from her sweatband out of her eye. The once-static air of the makeshift dojang was now filled with the damp heat of extreme exercise, but the dull sounds of light footfalls on the ground still echoed around the room as her tanned instructor continued her work.
There were many reasons Grace needed some extra instruction in martial arts. She might have a huge amount of training from Jupiter City Police Department and her own youth (plus a number of sparring matches with the Amazon Arrow under her belt), but when a variety of supervillains gossiped about her relationship with Ubergirl (she and Svetta were not together any more, it was just impossibly hard, but the rogues gallery didn't know that), so there were never too many ways she could have to defend herself. Second, she had been doing a bit of extra-departmental work beating some justice into scum of the city beneath the notice of JCPD, and beneath the power level of its superpowered protectors (and bolder now that Ubergirl had been gone for over a week - Grace was a bit concerned about how long Svetta's field trip with Cracovia had become). After a particularly bad encounter with Mister Death's thugs, she had finally decided she needed more professional instruction.

And who better to bring in with her extensive contacts than an actual martial arts-based superheroine? Hansoo (AKA Leah Wright) had gained seven different superpowers when the alien fallout activated the 'super gene', unfortunately any two of those working at once threatened to overload her bodily systems and send her into a coma. Luckily, though, Leah was a 5th Dan in Taekwondo and had enough control over her body to regulate the powers to activate one a time, switching between them through meditative concentration - which she symbolised with high level poomsae patterns. So, once Grace had got into contact through her contacts at Manchester Met police, Leah had been happy to come over, she could practice her powers in secret while Grace could copy her moves to get stronger herself.

She couldn't help but feel a little sad she didn't get any powers, though, even when she copied Leah perfectly.

"Aren't you worried about any of the lads you beat up snitching on you to whoever finds them and locks them up?" Leah's scouse accent came clear as she turned her head to Grace (who was still panting against the wall) as her sandy ponytail whipped to the side with the momentum of her backfist strike. Grace took a moment to admire her face, which was still perfectly beautiful and round, her eyes still huge and blue, even when it was covered in sweat.

"You're about to finish Taebaek, just read my memory to find out exactly where I left them to avoid that." Not that JCPD would find them anyway, as stretched as they were by super-crimes. "Hey, actually, we could work together on that, use the Keumgang power to construct some prisons for them!" Grace motioned to the mounds of diamond at four corners of a trapezium which Leah had created as practice using the power she was currently in.

"Yeah, like that wouldn't be obvious. Even with the Koryo power I wouldn't be able to talk my way out of that one. I'll stick to healing your injuries, even if Sipjin takes a few minutes to do properly." Leah giggled as she finished her pattern with two perfectly thrown punches and returned to a ready position, her body now radiating invisible telepathic power instead of geomantic as her hands finished gathering her chi and rested at her belt.

"Okay, fine, we'll save that for when I find the kingpin himself, you can make him a nice prison, change power, phase through the wall, change power again, and then fly away."

"What, so I'll just need to do Cheonkwon in the street, probably in gang territory?"

"Yeah, I think you'll be able to fight them off."

Having a friend to talk and laugh openly with about this whole vigilante thing was another big benefit, even if Leah was (rightly, if she was honest with herself) not willing to stick her head on the line for a detective she didn't really know that well. Grace was already very grateful that she had revealed anything about herself at all.

"You done with your break now? I have something new to show you, seeing as this is like our tenth session together." Leah giggled again. She was always friendly, but not usually this lively. Grace rolled her shoulders, knowing something interesting was coming.

"So it's Pyongwon next, right?" Pyongwon was probably the easiest of the seven patterns Leah used, under a minute of individually simple moves in a straight line, but it needed perfect balance and precision to do perfectly and stay on the same line going both ways. And why was Leah standing in the corner, instead of the centre of the room?

As she took up position to her senior's right, she was greeted by laughter again. "I can practically see you looking through your memories of it. Yeah, it is Pyongwon, but I just felt like changing it up a bit. Just follow me."

Grace shrugged and took up ready position, following Leah through the quickfire sequence of blocks, kicks and elbow strikes. But at the end of the short pattern, Leah transitioned fluidly into another knife-hand block instead of returning to her initial position. Flustered, Grace followed along with her, and then again the next time.

It was only when she started to hear fluid sloshing in her ears that Grace realised they were quite far away from the wall now. And, during the next set she noticed a different patch of missing wallpaper. Leah was actually leading her around the walls. In a slowly contracting circle.

She didn't bother speaking up to ask why they were doing such an aberrant version, which basically defeated the whole point of the pattern. Leah was impossible to talk to when she was truly focusing. Instead, Grace decided to just use the opportunity to focus on each individual move. She imagined a masked thug with a knife having his chin knocked up at a right angle by her elbow strike, she imagined her back kick striking an assailant coming from behind right in the stomach, sending them reeling, she imagined her block deftly deflecting a hand holding a crowbar, leading her attacker into falling forward into their friend.

But the throbbing in her ears was getting worse. Why was she getting so dizzy from such a lazy movement?

Why... Why couldn't she remember a reason for that?

The took a breath between repetitions of the pattern. It was okay, she could just ask Leah what might be going on after they were done. For now, don't think about it, just focus on every move.

Blank out everything. Nothing except her own, spiralling movement.

Her ears thumped but she ignored them.

Her vision swam but she ignored it.

Her thoughts tried to cry out in panic but she disciplined them.

She didn't need to think.

It was fine, just keep repeating.

Keep spiralling.

Never thinking.

Nothing mattered.

Except following Leah's lead.

Not questioning.

Accepting.

Spiralling.

Deeper.

Her eyes opened, but her vision was clouded by a golden haze, and her legs wobbled like a weak child. Leah stood there with her, in the centre of the room. The golden aura was coming from her, and she smiled serenely at Grace.

"I didn't remember why I did that weird version until we were halfway through, but now I do. You remember my fourth power, Grace?"

No. She couldn't. Ever since she started to get dizzy, it was one of the many questions she couldn't answer. That she learned didn't need answering. Her voice came out weak. Her entire body wanted to give in.

And it wasn't from tiredness, it was from a powerful sensation within her. She wanted to kneel. But not to Leah. It was confusing. And she now knew what to do when confused. Don't think. Let Leah lead her.

"It's spirit projection. It's weird, I doubt you'd understand. But I needed to join our spirits, so you could see and feel what I needed you to." Leah closed her eyes, her beautiful face still framed in... spirit energy? (Don't think about it, Grace)

She felt her own eyes close. She saw.

The spiral was bringing her deep, she was entranced thanks to the strange effects on her spirit brought by the movement and Leah's presence, projecting her entranced spirit constantly.

She saw what Leah saw. An image of a man, long-haired and blonde and ripped like a Norse God.

He actually kind of was, Grace's mind allowed her a memory. He was Hardrade. Came up in a meeting on potential threats with all the JCPD detectives a month back. Super strength and Viking berserker powers, including changing into a bear (she remembered how Svetta would find that cool, but then immediately forgot remembering. No distractions. Let Leah lead you). But more dangerously, he was also in control of Stamford Inc, a powerful company which basically owned the North East of England.

And they had access to reverse-engineered Onpyh technology.

She saw Leah's ecstatic smile as she left the brainwashing chamber.

Leah was entranced.

Leah was leading her.

Grace didn't care. She didn't need to think about it. She was entranced now, too.

She was back in the dojang. She felt better now. She felt right.

Leah smiled back, just as happy to finally understand why she was here.

"So, Grace, what can you tell me about Ubergirl. And Alphagirl I suppose. And the Amazon Arrow. Heck, Cracovia too. Anything you can."

She did, happily.

As Leah finished Jitae and left by phasing through the east wall, she turned to Grace. "And don't forget to forget everything except the triggers we buried deep. Master doesn't want Onpyh tracing anything back to him!"

She did, sadly.

----

Based on an idea from brainstorming with TheStonemiester1 about her Onpyhverse characters, and seeing that her cast for Grace Harrison (Katheryn Winnick) is actually a Taekwondo black belt. Now, I actually did TKD until I went to Uni (it's the source of the koreaboo-ness which brings you some of that flavour to this gallery), so I got inspiration from that for this story!

Description
Detective Grace Harrison leaned back on the cold wall which almost seemed to repel her sweat-drenched, boiling body as she brushed a strand of blonde hair that had escaped from her sweatband out of her eye. The once-static air of the makeshift dojang was now filled with the damp heat of extreme exercise, but the dull sounds of light footfalls on the ground still echoed around the room as her tanned instructor continued her work.
There were many reasons Grace needed some extra instruction in martial arts. She might have a huge amount of training from Jupiter City Police Department and her own youth (plus a number of sparring matches with the Amazon Arrow under her belt), but when a variety of supervillains gossiped about her relationship with Ubergirl (she and Svetta were not together any more, it was just impossibly hard, but the rogues gallery didn't know that), so there were never too many ways she could have to defend herself. Second, she had been doing a bit of extra-departmental work beating some justice into scum of the city beneath the notice of JCPD, and beneath the power level of its superpowered protectors (and bolder now that Ubergirl had been gone for over a week - Grace was a bit concerned about how long Svetta's field trip with Cracovia had become). After a particularly bad encounter with Mister Death's thugs, she had finally decided she needed more professional instruction.

And who better to bring in with her extensive contacts than an actual martial arts-based superheroine? Hansoo (AKA Leah Wright) had gained seven different superpowers when the alien fallout activated the 'super gene', unfortunately any two of those working at once threatened to overload her bodily systems and send her into a coma. Luckily, though, Leah was a 5th Dan in Taekwondo and had enough control over her body to regulate the powers to activate one a time, switching between them through meditative concentration - which she symbolised with high level poomsae patterns. So, once Grace had got into contact through her contacts at Manchester Met police, Leah had been happy to come over, she could practice her powers in secret while Grace could copy her moves to get stronger herself.

She couldn't help but feel a little sad she didn't get any powers, though, even when she copied Leah perfectly.

"Aren't you worried about any of the lads you beat up snitching on you to whoever finds them and locks them up?" Leah's scouse accent came clear as she turned her head to Grace (who was still panting against the wall) as her sandy ponytail whipped to the side with the momentum of her backfist strike. Grace took a moment to admire her face, which was still perfectly beautiful and round, her eyes still huge and blue, even when it was covered in sweat.

"You're about to finish Taebaek, just read my memory to find out exactly where I left them to avoid that." Not that JCPD would find them anyway, as stretched as they were by super-crimes. "Hey, actually, we could work together on that, use the Keumgang power to construct some prisons for them!" Grace motioned to the mounds of diamond at four corners of a trapezium which Leah had created as practice using the power she was currently in.

"Yeah, like that wouldn't be obvious. Even with the Koryo power I wouldn't be able to talk my way out of that one. I'll stick to healing your injuries, even if Sipjin takes a few minutes to do properly." Leah giggled as she finished her pattern with two perfectly thrown punches and returned to a ready position, her body now radiating invisible telepathic power instead of geomantic as her hands finished gathering her chi and rested at her belt.

"Okay, fine, we'll save that for when I find the kingpin himself, you can make him a nice prison, change power, phase through the wall, change power again, and then fly away."

"What, so I'll just need to do Cheonkwon in the street, probably in gang territory?"

"Yeah, I think you'll be able to fight them off."

Having a friend to talk and laugh openly with about this whole vigilante thing was another big benefit, even if Leah was (rightly, if she was honest with herself) not willing to stick her head on the line for a detective she didn't really know that well. Grace was already very grateful that she had revealed anything about herself at all.

"You done with your break now? I have something new to show you, seeing as this is like our tenth session together." Leah giggled again. She was always friendly, but not usually this lively. Grace rolled her shoulders, knowing something interesting was coming.

"So it's Pyongwon next, right?" Pyongwon was probably the easiest of the seven patterns Leah used, under a minute of individually simple moves in a straight line, but it needed perfect balance and precision to do perfectly and stay on the same line going both ways. And why was Leah standing in the corner, instead of the centre of the room?

As she took up position to her senior's right, she was greeted by laughter again. "I can practically see you looking through your memories of it. Yeah, it is Pyongwon, but I just felt like changing it up a bit. Just follow me."

Grace shrugged and took up ready position, following Leah through the quickfire sequence of blocks, kicks and elbow strikes. But at the end of the short pattern, Leah transitioned fluidly into another knife-hand block instead of returning to her initial position. Flustered, Grace followed along with her, and then again the next time.

It was only when she started to hear fluid sloshing in her ears that Grace realised they were quite far away from the wall now. And, during the next set she noticed a different patch of missing wallpaper. Leah was actually leading her around the walls. In a slowly contracting circle.

She didn't bother speaking up to ask why they were doing such an aberrant version, which basically defeated the whole point of the pattern. Leah was impossible to talk to when she was truly focusing. Instead, Grace decided to just use the opportunity to focus on each individual move. She imagined a masked thug with a knife having his chin knocked up at a right angle by her elbow strike, she imagined her back kick striking an assailant coming from behind right in the stomach, sending them reeling, she imagined her block deftly deflecting a hand holding a crowbar, leading her attacker into falling forward into their friend.

But the throbbing in her ears was getting worse. Why was she getting so dizzy from such a lazy movement?

Why... Why couldn't she remember a reason for that?

The took a breath between repetitions of the pattern. It was okay, she could just ask Leah what might be going on after they were done. For now, don't think about it, just focus on every move.

Blank out everything. Nothing except her own, spiralling movement.

Her ears thumped but she ignored them.

Her vision swam but she ignored it.

Her thoughts tried to cry out in panic but she disciplined them.

She didn't need to think.

It was fine, just keep repeating.

Keep spiralling.

Never thinking.

Nothing mattered.

Except following Leah's lead.

Not questioning.

Accepting.

Spiralling.

Deeper.

Her eyes opened, but her vision was clouded by a golden haze, and her legs wobbled like a weak child. Leah stood there with her, in the centre of the room. The golden aura was coming from her, and she smiled serenely at Grace.

"I didn't remember why I did that weird version until we were halfway through, but now I do. You remember my fourth power, Grace?"

No. She couldn't. Ever since she started to get dizzy, it was one of the many questions she couldn't answer. That she learned didn't need answering. Her voice came out weak. Her entire body wanted to give in.

And it wasn't from tiredness, it was from a powerful sensation within her. She wanted to kneel. But not to Leah. It was confusing. And she now knew what to do when confused. Don't think. Let Leah lead her.

"It's spirit projection. It's weird, I doubt you'd understand. But I needed to join our spirits, so you could see and feel what I needed you to." Leah closed her eyes, her beautiful face still framed in... spirit energy? (Don't think about it, Grace)

She felt her own eyes close. She saw.

The spiral was bringing her deep, she was entranced thanks to the strange effects on her spirit brought by the movement and Leah's presence, projecting her entranced spirit constantly.

She saw what Leah saw. An image of a man, long-haired and blonde and ripped like a Norse God.

He actually kind of was, Grace's mind allowed her a memory. He was Hardrade. Came up in a meeting on potential threats with all the JCPD detectives a month back. Super strength and Viking berserker powers, including changing into a bear (she remembered how Svetta would find that cool, but then immediately forgot remembering. No distractions. Let Leah lead you). But more dangerously, he was also in control of Stamford Inc, a powerful company which basically owned the North East of England.

And they had access to reverse-engineered Onpyh technology.

She saw Leah's ecstatic smile as she left the brainwashing chamber.

Leah was entranced.

Leah was leading her.

Grace didn't care. She didn't need to think about it. She was entranced now, too.

She was back in the dojang. She felt better now. She felt right.

Leah smiled back, just as happy to finally understand why she was here.

"So, Grace, what can you tell me about Ubergirl. And Alphagirl I suppose. And the Amazon Arrow. Heck, Cracovia too. Anything you can."

She did, happily.

As Leah finished Jitae and left by phasing through the east wall, she turned to Grace. "And don't forget to forget everything except the triggers we buried deep. Master doesn't want Onpyh tracing anything back to him!"

She did, sadly.

----

Based on an idea from brainstorming with TheStonemiester1 about her Onpyhverse characters, and seeing that her cast for Grace Harrison (Katheryn Winnick) is actually a Taekwondo black belt. Now, I actually did TKD until I went to Uni (it's the source of the koreaboo-ness which brings you some of that flavour to this gallery), so I got inspiration from that for this story!