Here's chapter 9. Copied directly from the more polished version on Sufficient Velocity. (That's what I've been doing the last few days, which is one of the reasons, no new chapter yet. I was polishing the old chapters). (update 2/15/2016
In commemoration of Groundhog's day, (the patron holiday of the Naras/ the holiday of shadows) and deja vu,
This is the second chapter posted today.
Be sure you didn't miss the previous chapter.
This takes place after Shikako went to the Library. While she was there, she did some research, and Skitter met her about an hour in to thank her personally and give her $2000 (still personally deciding on the amount) from Tattletale as thanks for helping them the other day, and to give her some time to find other options before having to rely on the Protectorate again.
(During the scene with Hookwolf chasing Vista, I like to think of the song, Yakety Sax).
The reason Armsmaster's/Colin's second part is spoilered is to make it easier to read Shikako's part together, and that it may spoil some parts of the rest of the chapter, Colin's part is important. You can go back and read it at the end if you want. (this was for SV. I like spoiler tags).
Chapter 9, Colin and Shikako: Run run run as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the body snatch gal!
Colin:
"Tell me exactly what happened." I told Gallant. "You know how important it is that we get the right facts, and learn all we can about Hokage's powers, in case it turns out she didn't really get out ok like it appeared."
"I already handed in my report on what happened." Gallant said.
"I know but I want to hear it directly from you, including details that might not have made it into the report. We really need to be well informed."
Gallant took a breath, calmed himself and began to give his report.
"Fine. Hokage was told to accompany Vista and me on our afternoon patrol today. "When I first met her, I noticed that not only did she have emotions, but her shadow did as well, though they were very, very faint. It seemed, to be suspicious and fearful, while Hokage herself seemed to be very trusting, if abnormally calm."
"Is her shadow alive?" I asked.
"I'm not sure, though once again the emotions at the time were very minor, and I didn't sense them at all later." He replied. "We stopped a few muggings and assaults, when Hokage told us she sensed a disturbance nearby."
Shikako:
We went out and for a while found no crimes or events of note. We stopped a few muggings, but things were quiet. Until I noticed something strange. There was a female cape nearby, but with someone else's barely there pseudo-chakra also in the same body. That was new.
"There's something happening this way." I told Vista and Gallant.
"How do you know?" Vista asked, "Is it another one of your powers?"
"Yeah. Trust me, something's happening there." I responded.
They both nodded and we ran. We soon saw two green and red clothed Asian men beating up a Caucasian male. It was the Caucasian that was giving off the weird chakra, though it was a male? Something was odd here.
Gallant blasted the ABB members with emotion blasts that took them out, while I tried to figure out what was happening with the Caucasian.
"This isn't usual ABB territory." Vista asked as she walked closer. "Why were they attacking someone here? Especially with -"
I tuned her out. I had sensed a strong amount of pseudo chakra being flung in a few directions from the pseudo cape. I had gotten close and hadn't prepared defenses in time. What was wrong with me? I would never have let that happen back home. I hadn't sensed any danger somehow, but that was no excuse.
Due to my surprising incompetence, I could only stop the attack from hitting me or from hitting Vista. I jumped in front of her and took the attack.
Colin:
"Then she jumped in between Vista and the Caucasian and then stumbled." Gallant continued his report. "Then she held her head and started shaking."
He hesitated. "Her emotions rapidly changed. She experienced pain, and confusion. At the same time, the white male's emotions changed from joy and anticipation to confusion. He asked where he was. Then Hokage charged Vista and caught her with her shadow. Vista seemed surprised and scared, and considering how Hokage was acting, I assumed she was under M/S protocols and blasted her with a barrage of blasts. Vista got free and I sensed something strange so I blasted her too. She then ran off. Immediately afterwards, Hokage turned towards me and attacked. "
"She managed to get up and attack after being bombarded by your emotion blasts?" I asked.
"Actually, I think that after a few seconds her shadow was being affected by my emotion blasts, but she wasn't."
'So, she can likely transfer her emotions to her shadow so that she doesn't have to live with them. I wonder if she can control it' I thought to myself. That might have explained her mood swings in the hospital bay if she was using it, except it didn't explain why she would allow it to affect her like that in a situation like the one she had been in.
"Anyway, she knocked me down and told me Vista had been mastered." Gallant continued.
"I'm not sure how Hokage was able to know about the attack before it happened, or that Vista had been mastered but I wasn't, or why the master experienced pain when he tried to control her, as he didn't seem to have any problem with Vista or Cricket if the reports I've heard are accurate."
"It's possible it's another one of Hokage's powers, an anti-master power like her emotion shifting. Alternatively, it is possible that she was working with the master, and the master had tried to betray her, and this was a specific sort of fail safe put in place ahead of time."
"What?" Gallant seemed surprised.
"She lead you to an alley where there happened to be yet another new cape who also has a very dangerous and powerful ability? Who was working with the ABB, and so is likely also Asian like Hokage? Its still a possibility. The alternative is that she can sense capes or conflict."
"Is that really that hard to believe? She went after Vista to help her! And she took down the ABB capes. Why would she have done that if she was working with the master? What makes the most sense?" Gallant asked me, almost shouting before calming down at the end.
I thought about it. "Maybe you're right. However we need to be open minded about the possibility she is working against us." I held up my hand to silence Gallant's protests.
"It's still possible this was all a setup to help the cape get control of Hookwolf, maybe it was to improve her reputation in the eyes of The PRT, maybe it had been an ambush, but Hokage grew cold feet on the plan, or thought that if the master was trying to go after her instead of Vista like planned, that she couldn't trust her anymore and should try to stop her while she could, or maybe she took down the ABB capes so she could step in as leader. I will admit these seem unlikely, and I am taking that into account."
"Like you said, it is also possible she was acting fully on the up-and-up and just wanted to help Vista, but around here, a string of good luck like that is rare and we shouldn't take it for granted. I'm not saying that Hokage was doing or planning anything wrong, but we shouldn't just blindly trust her before we know anything substantial about her." I continued.
Gallant was staring at me. "I know we have to be cautious around new capes, and I know you said we wouldn't assume that she was acting to try and betray us, but it sounds like that's exactly what you're doing. This seems like you are almost looking for reasons to demonize her. Why?"
I sighed. "Stranger things than that have happened involving capes before. It's good to keep an open mind."
He looked at me and seemed like he wanted to say something but didn't.
"Finish your report please." I told him.
"Fine." He grunted out at me. "After saying Vista was being mastered, she withdrew and ran off, I assume to chase after Vista. I called back to base to report what happened, and then tried to catch up. I wasn't able to, my suit isn't nearly as good at improving my speed as Vista's or Hokage's abilities, so I instead went back to base to await new orders."
"There. That's all I know." Gallant finished.
"Thank you Gallant. That will do for now." I told him.
"How long will Hokage be in M/S protocols?" Gallant asked.
"Probably just till the morning, when we can call Panacea to get a look at her."
"Well at least you're going to let Panacea see her. I still think you're being too hard on her." Gallant told me.
I didn't respond to that, and we left the room in different directions.
I left the room thinking. Perhaps I was being too hard on her. Both Aegis and Gallant had told me to stop treating her like a criminal, and there was some sense to not letting my beliefs taint a potential relationship. Also, if she was a spy, it wouldn't do to let her know I was suspicious. I should try to do something about that.
Shikako:
I must have failed because now Vista had the double chakra. I didn't know what was wrong, but to be safe I caught her in my shadow. "Kage Mano Konpurito!" I called out.
Then I suddenly felt a deluge of conflicting emotions. I felt sick. I had to let go of the jutsu and saw Vista run off. I tried to release but failed, so I tried to shadow split … Gallant was attacking me? He must have assumed I had been the one mastered, which made sense but wasn't helpful right now.
I rushed Gallant and knocked him down. I told him to let me deal with this new cape who was mastering Vista and went off after her. I noticed I still had some of the other chakra in me, but I couldn't seem to get it out without stopping and losing Vista's trail. Frustrated, I pressed on ahead. Catching Vista was a higher priority now.
It wasn't easy. She was getting far ahead, since she could cheat and go much faster than me with her power. Not to mention she knew the city much better than I did. If she hadn't stopped when she did, I would not have been able to catch her. Unfortunately, it seemed she had stopped near some other capes.
I appeared and approached her when I was attacked by a giant metal beast. I managed to dodge out of the way, but it was a close call. After dodging I was attacked by a woman wearing a cage around her head who was dual-wielding kama, short scythes, moving with Rock Lee-speed. I barely managed to hold her off, before blocking with a kunai with an exploding tag and stepping back, giving me a second respite to get away from the assault. The woman charged out of the smoke, having only been slightly damaged by the blast.
"Cricket, hold." The wolf monster, I assumed he was Hookwolf from my research at the library, called out.
The woman stopped. "You're not one of ours, and you aren't with The Wards or Protectorate, and yet you still tried to interrupt my chat with the young ward. Why? Surely you aren't stupid enough to have thought that was a good idea." He growled at me.
"She's being" what was the phrase I had heard again? "Mastered. I'm trying to help her until she has her mind back." I replied.
"You think I didn't realize that?" Hookwolf spoke to me. "Vista, a model Ward for the last three years, suddenly shows up alone and offers to switch sides and join the E88? Of course she's being mastered. I've ordered my men to fill out the surrounding alleys to block her if she tries to escape. And should that fail, Cricket here can stop her. We will hold her until The Protectorate arrives to pick her up."
I respected that consideration for your enemies, especially young ones like Vista.
Upon hearing that last sentence, Vista tried to escape. She took giant steps towards the alley farthest away from me while the distance between us grew many times larger than it had been. A screeching noise rang out as Cricket ran after her. Vista tried covering her ears while running but still seemed to manage to avoid Cricket as I tracked them. Hookwolf snarled far behind us now as he also started to run, but Vista changed space and he rammed into a wall. He tried again, only to run into another wall. Then he ran into a third wall. Then he started running in the opposite direction. He howled in frustration. Cricket and I had enough maneuverability to avoid that fate and try to get around Vista's twisted space, but Hookwolf was fastest in a straight line and had much more trouble. Anyway, Hookwolf wouldn't have been able to go far through the twisting alleys without possibly hurting or killing his men.
Vista put more distance between us then shot me and Cricket as she approached. She must have gotten the gun when I had been out, and it proved she still had many ways to deal with us even if she couldn't stop our chase as easily as she could Hookwolf's.
I thought I had predicted the bullet's path based on the guns direction and moved out of the way, but it still hit me in my right side about a foot below the shoulder somehow. Cricket shrieked, an even more jarring sound then she had been letting out already. I supposed she had been shot as well. First Gallant, now Cricket. My insides were not having a great day, though I had faced worse and pushed through it. Vista though had finally been caught somehow, as she was surrounded by a lot of white men in one direction, many with shaved heads, and Cricket and me on the other side.
Cricket approached her and tried to slice her down. I tried to stop her from hurting Vista too badly while also trying to catch Vista with my shadow while she was distracted and out of it from Cricket's siren. I caught her. I walked forward to put a knockout tag on her head when Cricket attacked me. I defended myself but had to undo the jutsu to withstand the assault.
I cursed her and asked her why she was attacking me when I had finally gotten Vista, but really I knew. Somehow she had the double chakra now, like Vista and me, though hers was much more active. It just wasn't in my best interest to reveal how much I could sense yet, hence the question. She was moving differently than she had before, a different kind of martial arts. It was hard to counter. I had thought I was skilled in Taijutsu, but she was both extremely skilled and lightning fast. I tried just staying always right out of her reach, and blocking with special weighted daggers when that failed. Her left arm didn't seem to be in good shape, but her raw speed meant it was still hard to keep up with her.
Her scream was also that much worse when directed at me. I used my chakra to shield my ears, but it only did so much. I wasn't used to worsening my senses with chakra.
She went back to try to free Vista, but I went after her and brought her attention back to me.
Vista was soon dog piled by the unpowered men, and didn't seem capable of getting up. That avenue was closed to the master.
I think I blacked out again because a second later I was in a different place in the street.
"What is wrong with you?" Cricket asked me as we continued, taking a break from her screech. "You a cape 53? Why is your body so stupidly weird?" I didn't answer as I kept fighting back trying to get an advantage in the narrow space, while also trying to lead her away from Vista.
The relatively small space, combined with Crickets speed and disorienting siren meant I couldn't get enough distance to make a hand sign and perform a jutsu. The best I could do was stay slightly out of reach of her attacks. Her weapons were also much better than ones I had with me for short distance fights, other than my lightsaber, which I was not revealing in the presence of someone who could take control of my body and possessions.
This assault continued. At this point, the sound had caused me to start seeing double, and I was dodging by noticing her chakra and moving out of the way of where it would naturally extend to with her weapons. It's possible we went into more open areas as we fought, but I was unable to trust my senses and take advantage if we did.
I sensed three new capes nearby, then for some reason Cricket stopped her assault and dropped to the ground.
The next thing I knew, I was the one lying on the ground, and my face hurt. Cricket had gotten past me, and run off. The Empire 88 men had been told to guard Vista and stop her from escaping, but not Cricket.
I felt bad about letting Cricket escape, but I wasn't going to leave Vista alone with the E88 members, regardless of how they were "protecting her". I had no idea what was going to happen when The Protectorate arrived.
I got back and was saw a person in a blue armored suit with a giant halberd on their back, talking with a more human looking Hookwolf. There was a man in a red suit and visor behind him next to a woman in a green and black costume with a green visor. I assumed they were Assault and Battery. Vista had been walked over to them, constantly surrounded by a myriad of E88 members so she couldn't escape.
I wasn't sure who the person in the blue armor was, until I realized Hookwolf, had called them "Armsmaster". That couldn't be right, they only had the pseudo chakra in their brain, not spread out. I thought about it. I could vaguely recall Cricket had her pseudo chakra spread out throughout her body though she was clearly female. I guess the rule wasn't ironclad. I also noted there was something different about Battery's pseudo chakra, despite it all being in her brain, but that wasn't important right now.
I improved my hearing using chakra instead of dampening it. I doubted I would be able to hear anything at all otherwise.
I walked up to them. Hookwolf rounded on me. "Where's Cricket?" He asked me, in a voice that hinted at hidden danger.
"She got away." I told him.
He roared at me. "You let her get away?"
"She got away, or are you telling me you think Cricket is so useless a cape that she couldn't have gotten away without me letting her?" I questioned him.
He grew larger with more weapons emerging from him. Battery, in a burst of movement that corresponded with her unusual pseudo chakra spreading throughout her body, rushed to my side.
"That's enough. She's a new cape and was fighting against a powerful cape. I'm sorry she wasn't able to help you, but that wasn't her duty." Battery said to Hookwolf.
"And I suppose if Cricket is caught after being freed by the master, or if the master leads her to your capture, then you're going to arrest her?" Hookwolf snarled at her.
"She has a warrant out for her arrest, so yes. If we find and capture her, we will arrest her." Armsmaster responded.
"She only got mastered because we decided to help one of yours! My men were injured protecting Vista, and you won't help us for even those damages? What kind of message will that send?" Hookwolf queried.
"That we don't work with Nazi's. While we appreciate her assistance in helping Vista, she is still a criminal and we will be obligated to arrest her if we see her again. We will however, give you a temporary stay and won't arrest you here for your past crimes or for the damage you did to the stores around here, out of respect for your help today. Don't test that patience. You're outnumbered and outgunned."
Hookwolf laughed at him while Battery shook her head. "If you think even all of you combined can stand up to me, you don't know who you're dealing with. You wouldn't try it anyway, attack me and the whole E88 will go to war with the Protectorate. You wouldn't survive that and you know it." Then he growled. "But if Cricket isn't returned soon, you might learn it through experience rather than a hypothetical."
"Let's go." He gestured to his men. A few men were noticeably injured from Cricket's attack.
"Hey Hookwolf." Armsmaster called out. "Oh no," I heard Battery whisper next to me as I thought the same. "If you care about Cricket so much, why didn't you protect her?"
Wow. Armsmaster really was what Skitter described him as. I understood a little better why she said to avoid doing anything through him if at all possible, and to instead try to go through Miss Militia.
Hookwolf turned and seemed about to strike. Then he caught himself. "Next time Armsmaster." He growled.
"I'll be waiting." Armsmaster replied smugly. Wow. I wanted to punch him, and Hookwolf didn't seem to have great impulse control. Yet he walked on, his men walking with him.
"Sorry about Armsmaster." Battery whispered to me. "You eventually learn to live with him and Assault."
Assault, who had been steadily inching forward to us chose that moment to respond. "Aw, I'm not that bad once you get to know me." Battery rolled her eyes through her mask.
"Is that the generic face mask from the base?" She asked me. I nodded. "You may need to get a better one soon."
Personally, I thought it was a much better disguise than her visor, but I held my tongue.
Armsmaster turned towards me. "Hokage. Thank you for going after Vista. I can assure you that fighting the Empire's capes is not normal for The Wards. I urge you not to consider this when deciding if you want to join The Wards, though I do think this is a good example of what can happen when you are alone without backup. You might come across situations you can't handle, despite initial circumstances suggesting otherwise."
"Also, I hope you won't take this the wrong way, but I need you to come with us now."
"Why?" I asked.
"You were under the effect of a master, and it wasn't made clear that they couldn't control you even now, or have some other effect on you that may be more subtle. We need to check you and make sure you are free of their influence."
"How long would I be forced to stay?" I asked carefully.
"As long as it takes to make sure you aren't under someone else's control."
'And until you agree to join us and be under our watch more officially' went left unsaid.
I shook my head. I couldn't waste however much time it would take to have them check and confirm I was master-free. I needed to get my research done as soon as I could. "I'm sorry, but I don't really see why I need to go with you."
'Besides, ' I thought to myself, 'unless they have someone specifically capable of checking for that influence, I'd be better at checking myself than any of them'. The foreign chakra had died out very quickly after Cricket had escaped, and had been fully gone by the time I had walked back to see Armsmaster talking to Hookwolf.
"You went into battle with a master that can control capes, alone, and were the only one known to come out. There is a strong likelihood that you are the master controlling Hokage's body or masquerading as her. You need to get checked. If there is fallout for this, I will take it, but I will not let a cape with as much potential for harm as you may have go without making sure you are in control of your facilities."
I frowned at that behind my "mask" but it made a lot of sense. I could see that even Assault and Battery thought so as well. It wouldn't be smart to get the local authorities angry at me if I didn't have to, and they had let me go out before. Additionally, refusing at this point would make me look like I was being mastered, and there were three of them right there.
"Fine. I'll get checked. How long will it take?" I asked.
"We'll hook up a lie detector and ask you a few questions. then we just have to wait till morning to see if there are any lingering effects and you should be free to go." He replied.
Great. Another night lost. At least I could use the time to go through what I had learned and do some more brainstorming of ideas to get home.
Battery turned to me. "Despite Armsmaster's wonderful personality suggesting otherwise, it won't be that bad. Plus, you'll get to meet Panacea."
Armsmaster shook his head.
"We can't risk her getting mastered as well. We can call her in the morning, if all goes well, but she can't heal Hokage while she is under M/S protocols."
Battery whispered to me "Sorry."
"No, he's right. Anyway, I'll get healed tomorrow so it's no big problem." I assured her.
She stared at me. "But your ears are bleeding! Come to think of it, how can you even hear anything after fighting Cricket for so long?"
I shrugged in reply.
"Ok. We're all going together so that if one of us tries to escape, the others can catch them." Armsmaster spoke.
We all ran next to his motorcycle at a steady pace as we headed towards the PRT building.
Author's notes:
Chiyo's original plan:
1) Body-snatch Vista, and then kill whatever Ward was traveling with her using the gun in her temporary body. Leave a sign that implicated the E88 attacking because they no longer had to risk fighting both the ABB and the Protectorate at the same time, or for aiding a new non-Caucasian cape (Hokage).
Also commit other traditional E88 crimes as Vista, in order to further the blame, and then either kill Vista, or disappear with her. Enough people would be so caught up in initial rage that they would call for the E88's heads and charge in before the more reasonable people could stop them.
Unfortunately, she wasn't counting on Hokage to notice her so soon, and wasn't expecting the pain and unusual body Hokage had when she possessed her, which made the other Wards suspicious. She also wasn't counting on Hokage knowing to attack Vista as soon as she switched bodies to Vista. Then when Gallant blasted her she ran away in confusion before realizing that things were not going according to plan.
She tried to think on her feet, and appear to join the E88 in reality, maybe she could still salvage the mission. Unfortunately for her, this was foiled by Hookwolf's noble demon tendencies/lack of suicidal tendencies of knowing not to purposefully start a full on war with the PRT.
Other Author's notes
2) I honestly did not think of the Nematomorpha connection with Cricket until I looked up "Cricket worm" in google to see what her appearance was like and saw the info on Nematomorpha again. Honestly, I came up with the fact that she would meet up with Cricket after chapter 7 and didn't even realize that Cricket would be her final body of the chapter until it was almost finished. (I also only looked up "Cricket worm" near the end of the chapter, when I had cemented she would be in the chapter and I would probably have to describe her appearance.)
3) Hookwolf, as "Vista's" main target who also moved more in straight lines than the other two capes had been led in a maze by Vista when she was being controlled, so that he ended up far away. By the time he got back, Cricket and Hokage were a distance away, and he didn't trust his men to "play nice" with Vista while he wasn't around to watch them. He prioritized making sure the Ward was ok over going after Hokage and Cricket.
4) Gallant got a shorter M/S sentence because he wasn't controlled, unlike Vista and Hokage.
5) Next chapter, Shikako gets her mental faculties back, and meets Panacea. I really hope I write it well (it's harder than I might have thought, and not posted anywhere yet)
Update 2/15/2016
6) I removed Chiyo's part to make the story flow better.
7) Made Armsmaster less of a jerk.
Spoiler tags make everything so much better :). They don't have them on fan fiction net...
Edit: 3/1/2016. Chapter 10 allowed me to use a phoenix down in this chapter. I still don't like chapter 10 though.