Shielding Song (level 8 Sonic / Sonic Defender on Justice)

aka Harmonious Smack (test Sonic / Sonic Blaster) / Resonant Strike (Sonic / Sonic test Defender)

(Naming conventions; some combination of part 1) Harmonious / Lyrical / Resonant / Melodic / Rhythmic, Harmonic, Tonal, Atonal, Discordant / Thundrous / Gentle and part 2) Fist / Smackdown / Beatdown / Strike / Assault / Word / Rebuke or something like Biting Sarcasm, Pointed Comment, Cutting Remark or Rapier Wit)

As a child, Ming Ue Song was considered a ‘lazy disrespectful dreamer’ by her hardworking farmer parents. She constantly spoke of hearing a distant music, that she could never describe, as of many voices uplifted in a constant repetitive chant that seemed to echo from everything in the world. At times they would catch her outside, shirking her duties, dancing to this mysterious music that only she could hear. They tried taking her to a doctor, who prescribed drugs that made her unable to hear the music, or much of anything, as the mood-regulating ‘medicine’ left her numb and compliant, which, to her parents, was a far better thing than dancing to some fantasy song. In her teen years, changes to her body caused the prescription to lose its efficacy, and she began to hear the music again, but dim and far away, always seeming far off in one particular direction, towards the mountains… She had grown wiser as well, and did not mention this to her parents, but did her household chores, and tended the animals, as was expected of her, while stealing what she needed for the day that she would track down the music in her soul. A year of plotting and sneaking about paid off, she left in the night when her parents were away for a two-day market in the city, giving her time to get far ahead of any attempt to track her down. She hiked into the mountains, ever tracking the music, and the farther she got from the towns and villages of the countryside, the clearer it called to her. Hungry, half-frozen and delirious from exposure, the young girl was found by the monks of the Harmonius Fist collapsed only a hundred yards from their hidden monastery in the snow-covered peaks. The monks tested her and found that she could hear the Song, but it remained to be seen if she could Sing.

For the next two years, she trained in this monastery, where the stones seemed to hum along with the constant song. Monks slept in shifts, and even learned to contribute to the Song while asleep, so that the music was a constant thing. Depending on how they trained, the music inspired them, or demoralized their adversaries in a combat testing unlike any other. They worked to get in shape, but they did not learn advanced martial arts, relying only on the strength of their voice, which the islanders call Kiaijutsu, for it was said that the gods created the world in song, through words of power, and it was in imitation of this act that the Monks of the Harmonious Fist relied only on the strength of their voices to defend themselves. It seemed like a fantasy, but soon Ming learned to mimic the many sounds of the wild, from the angry roar of a tiger to the paralyzing howl of a wolf to the sweet trill of a songbird. She watched as the advanced students shouted at boards, and the boards trembled, as if struck by very real force. She stood in awe as the elderly mistress of the monastery, a woman who went by the name of Melodious Strike and seemed barely able to walk from her chambers to the testing fields, shattered a paving stone with a harsh word.

She trained with a singular will, finally finding the home that she had ‘heard’ all her young life, and so it came as a great disappointment to her when she noticed that all of the advanced students, such as she had become, left after reaching the highest level of their art. She inquired why, and was told that not all of the Song is known, and that each of the advanced students must go forth into the world, listen to the many musical styles created by the many cultures of the world, and find the missing parts of the great Harmony that binds the world together. Once the proper Harmony is found, the Song will change, so that not only a rare few children will hear it when all is still, but all of mankind will hear it throbbing in their bones, and the world entire will know unity, harmony and peace, as all are connected in a web of song.

Sure enough, after learning of these precepts, she could hear the imperfections in the Song, formerly the most beautiful thing that she had ever heard. And she became equally driven to go into the world, to discover the missing harmonies, and restore serenity and hope and joy to the world. While her brothers and sisters remained scattered around Asia, she realized that components of the Song must be contained in the musics of Africa, Europe and America, and she chose Paragon City, where her advanced studies would be mistaken for ‘mutant powers,’ or some other phenomena. She has come to the conclusion that if the Song is meant to bring harmony to the world, she must sample not just the sounds of Asia, but of all the peoples of the world, to find the hidden truths within. Her teacher smiled at her ambition, and bade her well as she stepped into the world, knowing that the Song would always live within her heart, that the monastery was a place of beginnings, not a destination...