April came and April went. April showers gave way to May flowers and sunshine.
Then June came, raised temperature and said, 'Die'.
We were in the worst heat-wave in nearly a decade. Today hottest day in years. A hundred and ten degrees in direct sunlight, or in metric, forty-three degrees of buuulllshit... and it doesn't sun didn't set until around ten.
I squinted at the sun; the asphalt was sizzling.
Who builds a city in a desert?!
Ever since we found that weapon cache, Mercutio's been a man possessed. He's got us on lead after lead in a vain attempt to figure out what this scheme is. It hasn't been all that exciting or productive. Mostly cleaning out upstart gangs and dead ends. The problem is those dead ends have often been someone cleaning up after themselves. If we're not fighting gangs in over their head, we're finding dead body after dead body.
We took down the Vitoluco crime family out in that desert two months ago and interrogated the remaining people. But no one knew anything. Not even the mercenary. All they knew was to deliver the weaponry to various abandoned places for some reason. Nothing after that.
They never got 'questioned' by Zelle. They all had died while imprisoned in an underground holding cell the Tao Long had in the sewers. In fact, someone tracked down that location and murdered everyone. Including the guards. All of them shot to them, yet there were no bullets…
It's obvious there was a Nen user in the city that had replaced Binolt as a cleaner. Said cleaner was far more skilled and careful than ol' scissor using shark teeth. And we had nothing to go on. It was like chasing the Invisible Man while blind and deaf. I knew Tao Long had a surveillance system throughout the city, but I didn't know what that system entailed. Somehow they're bypassing it or avoiding it all together.
Either way, it had hadn't picked up anything and Mercutio was getting antsy. That frustration was bearing down on us and making us in Red Squad frustrated.
I sighed and tried to forget the past two months of fruitless search and non-stop training. I yawned and rubbed my sore shoulders. It was around six in the afternoon and my shift just started and today... and I was with Mantis. We were on the Outskirts of the city under the scorching sun, again looking into a lead. I shook my head and marveled at her body… just staring at her tight silver suit questioning why the fuck was she not cooking her alive in this blistering heat...
She wasn't even uncomfortable! She should cook like a burrito a microwave! Instead, this green business suit felt like walking around in a wet sauna towel. I could see the damn air shimmering from the heat above. I pulled on my tie and rolled out my tongue like a dog. I looked and felt disheveled and sweaty…
I frowned as I walked around the sandy, decrepit Outskirts. This part of the city was... always hard to visit for me. Haunted faces and homeless vagrants staring at us in their dirty clothes and tired eyes. Abandoned buildings and construction that was stopped dead because of a shift away from manufacturing and towards tourism and luxury services. The Outskirts and neighboring district I happened to live in was called the Cinders. That's because, way back in the day, it was burned down and rebuilt... multiple time. First time by natives, second time by riots. The buildings that survived still had scorch marks on them.
Hell, the old Mafia used to (and the Tao Long still…) burn down a lot of buildings here for various shitty reasons…
The new, high-rise apartments of the rich Center gave way to ancient tenement rows where badness I was used to living in. That badness lead further down to sandy hell here in the Outskirts.
I stared at the residents that were brave enough to venture out in this post-apocalyptic heat. I could tell they either wanted to beg for help... or rob us. Yet, even here, the whispers of Evira's enforcers kept the residents restrained. Stick resting on my right shoulder helped to persuade them otherwise.
This side of the city was just dead. Cut off from the rest of the city by distance: barely any public transportation, roads that were totally neglected, and crazy amounts of police patrols. It was so at the edge of civilization that I could skip a stone into the desert from here. Abandoned, ruined buildings were slowly being eaten away by sand, erosion, and neglect. This wasn't my Earth's poverty, this was some fresh hell post-apocalyptic destitution. Closer to what Leorio lived like, but fucking worse. And that big bastard had to steal clean water…
I grew up poor, but hoy fuck... never in my entire life had I seen something like this...
"This place always makes me feel uncomfortable..." I said as I fought not to shoot pity at the surrounding people.
Mantis' followed on my left, walking stiffly and theatrically. Or 'heroically' as she called it. Her giant silver helmet and reflective costume made me feel stupid. That was until she spoke. The seriousness in her voice made me pause: no theatrical bravado to be found.
"Can you believe it used to be worse? The old Mafia used to kidnap people here and do... terrible things," she paused, her helmet tilting down as she looked at the floor, "if you ever wonder why Argos is the way he is, it's because of the Mafia..."
I stared at the apprehension and fear in the people's faces. As if we were going to do something terrible at any moment.
"I can imagine…"
Mantis nodded softly, "From what I've been told, Evira's been trying to fix things from how Galante had them. But it's hard. It's not like anyone over there," she said with a wave towards the west, "wants anyone from here coming in..."
We stopped in front of a metal door at the end of a narrow alleyway. Used needles and a shit ton of things that a person could wrap around their arms strewn about like confetti. On the door was an indent at eye level: a sliding peephole for the information broker.
I nodded and lifted a knuckle to the door. Before I knocked I replied.
"Those with vice aren't so nice. Now, we got work to do..."
She stood straight and gave me a salute, "Yes sir!"
I sighed with my soul as I frowned at her her. I knew she'd get serious when it counted, but argh…
I knocked on the metal door. We waited and listened.
Hurried footsteps. The sound of cursing followed by something being knocked over. Someone groaned as they struggled to get up. Shuffling footsteps.
A loud sliding sound pulled my head back as I stared through the hole. Emaciated eye holes stared back at me from the peephole.
"Yeah, what'da ya' want?"
"This Jin-E?" I said sharply. I could see his eyes widened in recognition somehow.
"Red hair... You're that... ah shit, shit. You can't be here! Don't ask me any questions!"
"Then you know I'm part of T-"
"You can't be here! Leave!" Jin-E said forcefully. I looked at Mantis, her body language screaming surprise.
The information-broker glared at me. I could see through the peephole his shaggy black hair covering his eyes. I could hear him shuffling nervously through the metal door.
"Please, just go... if they find you came…"
I stared at Mantis as she pressed her right hand to her chest.
"Whatever it is, my friend and I, the Silver Rider, can protect you! We-"
She paused as the informant's eyes widened. He stared past us. His pupils became giant black mirrors of despair. In the reflection, I saw a shadowy figure standing at the entrance of the alley. Staring at us. I turned.
There was nothing there.
All I heard was a quiet, 'Oh no' the informant behind me. Then a gasp from Mantis.
A sharp crushing sound, then crunching, came from behind the door. I turned to see black ooze escaping the peephole and wrapping around the man's face. A dead-eye pressed up against the metal door, staring at me.
His eyeball was burned into my eternal mind before it jerked his body back into darkness...
Then a thick, tar-like liquid spewed out of the hole with the pressure of a firehose. We pressed ourselves against the walls of the narrow alley and turned our heads away. I held my arms up to block the slime from blinding me. The black gunk fall on our clothing and oozing down our bodies. I grimaced, while Mantis yelled. The sharp hissing sound of liquid being shot out a high-pressure.
The ooze suddenly froze in mid-air, as if someone stopped time. A torrent of pitch black suspended in space, slimy droplets connected by long trailing ooze falling from it. Like feelers on a sea-anemone, said slime trails slowly drifted and glided through the air. I held my breath as I looked at the bubbling, dripping, inky black monster.
My intuition screamed out. I jumped straight up into the air. It was the right move.
The giant tar tentacle slammed itself into where I had stood moments ago, cracking the brick wall with a slam of its writhing body. The alley echoed with thunder as time elongated. My reflexes sped up with the dump of adrenaline through my blood.
Mantis ducked and launched herself forward. She rolled against the cement floor and just barely cleared herself from the thrashing tentacle. Mantis gracefully rolled to her feet and booked it as fast as her silver shoes could carry her. She sprinted the length of the alleyway in the blink of an eye and as safe as home plate. All while I was still rising in the air.
I kicked myself off the alley wall and launched myself out of the narrow deathtrap. I landed on the ground and skidded to a stop, my eyes never losing track of the... thing. It sloshed and thrashed in the narrow alleyway, trying to find a target to crush us with prejudice. An out of control oozing mass...
I narrowed my eyes and looked it over. Whoever the Nen user was didn't have control of it. An automatic Emissive-type?
I shifted aura into my eyes and used Gyo to inspect it. I saw the tell-tale signs of aura through a tint of white vision. MY natural eyesight making it appear as alive and real as any non-Nen entity.
The goo became translucent and glowed with aura. I saw specks of skull fragments and blood being ground up and disintegrated in the body of this thing. White smoke with a glow sizzling out, before being sucked up by porous 'holes' the goo made with its body and tendrils.
It grew as it ate the body of Jin-E, sporadically twitching and pulsating with the facade of life. Thankfully, it immediately shrank in size the moment it finished its meal. The Nen thrashed in vain as tentacle tried to find a new victim to consume. I whipped off the literal sweat off my brow.
There's always a close ca-
I leaped to my right like a matador dodging a giant bull. A a web of tentacles rushed out of the alleyway. It spilled onto the sandy, potholed street and curved toward me like liquid moving in a bowl. On the opposite side of the black goo was Mantis. She sprinted away from the black mass. She was a lot smarter than I was…
I sighed. I clenched my teeth and looked around. The tar speeding towards me. Frustration and the inkling of terror creeping into my mind as I realized the situation...
In my perphirals I could see people staring in confusion at the commotion.
Of the dust and sound incomprehensible to them.
They couldn't see Aura.
They stood there, rubbernecking instead at the sight before them. Curiosity instead of fear gripping them. Some younger, bravado-filled watchers wandered closer to catch a sight. The threat of death and danger not even crossing their mind. I cursed and stood where I was. Stick held in my grip. Determination to help these people.
With barely a thought, Stick turned as narrow and sharp as any metal blade. I mustered the thinnest amount of Shu I could and englufed my weapon it. I raised Stick above my head and prepared myself.
Light and delicate was my grip around my sword. My body relaxed as the creature rushed towards me. I could feel my face slacken as I calmed my and flexible as a whip. Tense and stiff made one slow and dead.
It writhed and released a black tentacle towards the center of my chest. My grip became steel. Stick came down as a blur, my body tensing up at the last second as I transitioned into Ren.
My strike was fast, clean, and surgical. It cut through the tar slime as easy as jello. Yet, something felt wrong as the dismembered piece of goo flew past my left.
I jumped back and analyzed.
I saw a piece of Stick's aura firmly in a cut-off tentacle, My white aura engulfed by tar 'cilia', like something being devoured by single-celled predator. It grew slightly as it enclosed its fleshy tendrils completely around my aura. It bulged in size after it devoured my aura, then shrunk rapidly. I frowned, this was going to suck...
My hands gripped the hilt of Stick tightly yet relaxed. I sighed and focused on the squirming mass of tar that was rapidly approaching me. My body in a state of Ren as prepared myself to strike...
It didn't attack though. It tried to circle me. It shifted left and right. It flowed and flattened. It'd quickly snap out a tentacle, then just as quickly pull it back.
It was feinting. It was angling. It was trying to find an opening…
This thing gained a leap in intelligence now that it was out in the open. I'd wager my life that the slime was automatic when out of the line of sight from the user. But in sight of the user was controllable. The thing was entirely focused on me and wasn't acting randomly anymore...
I shouted toward Mantis, "Find the Nen-user..." I saw a head nod and resolved myself.
I took a step forward and cut my first mass of ooze. It quivered as a large tentacle about the size of a small tree branch fell to the ground. The black tar shivered in response. Then it responded with a sinister strategy.
Six tentacles shot out simultaneously at me from the horse-sized lump of darkness, with more behind them. I moved mechanically and automatically as I sliced through three with a cut down to my left, followed by the other three with my return cut to my right. I frowned, then grimaced in pain.
I felt my hands burn and sting. I glanced down to see black droplets digging into my skin. My flesh crackling and blistering from contact with the slime. A sizzling pork smell entering my nose against my will. It was eating through my Ten and devouring my flesh…
Instinctively I whipped the goo onto my clothing and thank god it worked. I couldn't let it on me... the back of my hands was red, blistered, and burned like a terrible sunburn...
Dread hit me as the black ooze thought 'fuck it' and turned into a tidal wave of black that tried to devour me in one go. I dived to my right and rolled, rough sand and gravel rubbing against my face and hands. The black wave splashed into the sidewalk where I had once stood and cracked it with a supernatural strength.
I heard people gasp at a seemingly invisible force fracture cement. Fear gripped me as it didn't bother diving after me again - the tar slithered and oozed toward a small crowd of four only a few meters away. My eyes widened in horror as it sped up toward them in a haste for more mass.
I tripped over myself as I ran after the speeding slime... I wasn't gonna' make in time…
A shrill scream took my attention away from the slime for a moment. I turned to my right.
I was greeted by a disheveled man falling through a three-story window. He landed, his legs not doing him any cushioning what-so-ever as they audibly snapped. I slid to a stop as I saw a silver reflection in the orange sun.
Mantis leaped out of the window and landed with a crouch next to the man. A quick punch and cracking punch to the jaw sent the man into unconsciousness. I turned to the tar slime and saw, with immense relief pouring through me, that the Nen creature faded into nothing.
I felt myself smile and turned to the would-be victim of four. The crowd looked at me like I was stupid. I frowned and took a gulp of air from exhaustion. Whatever, I wasn't looking for a reward anyway…
I brushed the dirt, gravel, and sand off me and stood up. I walked several meters to the person we 'fought' and looked down at the guy.
He looked like an ordinary man, albeit stereotypically mobster-esque in his facial features. Slopped unibrow and a face like a badly chiseled statue. His hair was in a fade that's hairline was eroding away, placing him in his early thirties or a severe case of Leorio.
My eyebrows rose at his attire: worn-out t-shirts and jeans so dirty I wanted to burn them on the spot. He had masqueraded as one homeless... If I had to guess, he was assigned here to ambush and kill anyone who found the informant.
I turned to Mantis and leveled a 'do you know him' stare. She shrugged.
I sighed. Whether he was one of these new Nen users or a known commodity was something beyond me.
I pulled out my smartphone, "We better call Mercutio for the mobster paddywagon..."
I paused and at squinted at my phone. In the upper left corner was 'No Service' staring right back at me. I blinked.
"The fuck? Man- Silver River, check your phone. Does it have service?"
She titled her head, nodded, then slipped her left hand into the pocket of her form-fitting Power Ranger suit pulled out a Beatleborg cell phone….
I can't believe I thought sentence.
She stiffened and titled her big-ass helmet in obvious confusion. Her silver scarf fluttering around her neck.
"That's strange! I don't have service... That's never happened to me before."
I'm happy that the cell service here was impeccable compared to back on my old world, but that wasn't good…
It was six-forty seven and the sun was a orange fireball falling to the west. It hovered over the desert and mesas in the distance, above the dying apartment buildings. Dark shadows cast slatted over the street.
I looked around…. that was strange… there were no lights on anywhere…
I leaped up, grabbed a windowsill, and propelled myself up to a nearby fourth story roof. My mouth hung open.
The great skyline of York New City was dark. Back monoliths and dark mountains instead of glittering lights and shining glass…
The city was in midst of a blackout.
XXX
Mercutio walked into the green and black conference room with his usual indifferent swagger. Clad in his black and white pin-stripped suit and black fedora, he glided over the green carpet like shot under the red emergency lights. He stared at the round black table in the center of the room.
Acardi, Flole, Evira, Mayer, and Briannaisa all sat around the table. They stared at Mercutio with some annoyance. The emegency lights shining from above and lighting them from in blood red.
Evira glared over her intertwined fingers and at her enforcer.
"Late as always, Mercutio..." Evira said with little heat, but with little patience as well.
The enforcer stared back at her boss without issue, eyes shaded by the lip of his hat. He turned to Evira's right to see Flole. The two sisters wearing black business suits with dark green dragons emblazoned on them. Her red hair now down to her shoulders, curling upward in a way that reminded him of a sheep. This was the first time he had seen Flole it months, though he did not find this unusual.
The fact she was in a meeting period made him worried. As always, he kept it hidden.
To Evira's left was Mayer, his massive arms crossed in front of two anvils he called a chest. His red, sleeveless shirt covering his massive torso. A scar around his wrist and a smaller one above his left eye. He glared at Mercutio.
To Mayer's left was Acardi. His hard stare made worse by glasses sheened crimson under the lights. His blond hair, goatee, and the white button underneath in his business suit made him glow neon-like under the emergency lights.
An empty chair sat left of Briannaisa, who was facing away from her former street rival. She eschewed the maid outfit her mother forced her to wear in favor of military grey and black military fatigue with a military vest. She had reduced her twin ponytail to a single large one that ran down herb back. The illusion of a servant gone, her true role front and center
He casually trode over and his seat. He laid his right hand on the table and pointed at Evira. The red light shining down on him like a spotlight on a witness stand.
"I told you something was going to happen. We should have killed those two when they were here..." Mercutio said without heat, but plain fact.
She glared back at him, her eyes steel, "And I told you I need proof. I can't afford to destabilize my entire organization on a hunch."
"And now you've threatened to destabilize your operation in York New City..."
Mayer grunted, "Enough. We do not have time for this: it is your job to find proof, Mercutio. Until then, stop with your barking. We must focus on the task at hand. Evira. We can no longer afford to ignore these attacks. We must find out who is threatening us. Be it those brothers, the Troupe, or someone else."
Acardi nodded and leaned forward, "Mr. Domo is correct. I have received reports from the Mayor that several power plants have been sabotaged. It appears someone or some group detonated small explosives in said power facilities. They also targeted power lines to the city. The Mayor is requesting immediate help. If we do not render assistance, he will call in the Hunter Association..."
Briannaisa frowned and replied, "It's obvious this is a coordinated attack, but we don't really know who. The members of the Spiders are lying low until the auction, so we can rule out the Phantom Troupe. The Rohan brothers are insane and have caused trouble before, but never like this. Unfortunately, we have no clues. All we can do is coordinate our conventional forces with civilian services until our special operators figure out what's going on."
She turned to Acardi to her left and opened her mouth, but the Spice Island native raised a hand to stop her.
A dark puddle shimmered on the floor behind Acardi. A figure rose from the black pool with eerie smoothness. Large leathery bat wings. Muscular clawed hands. Black inky skin. Two ram horns on ether side of the creature's head. A broad massive grin and frozen, smiling eyes of diabolic intent. The gargoyle-like Nen Beast had its wings wrapped around its body like a cloak, 'staring' over his master.
"I shall send Lestat to search the city. Hopefully, he can assist with finding the perpetrators. At the very least it can offer some reconnaissance"
The Nen Beast called Lestat melded into the black pool and disappeared once again. Evira turned to her sister and she nodded, her voice soft.
"We have several Nen-users protecting Dharmil, but considering his state, he can't be transferred to a safer location. We're trying to bring back some power to critical systems, but whoever did this knew where to hit us. They knew where our secondary emergency power stations were — but couldn't target the Dragon's Head generators. But our secondary systems are left overs from Galante's tenure and wouldn't be hard to discover…. Sorry Ev, I don't have enough information to speculate our attacker's goal or identity…."
Mercutio sighed, causing everyone to turn to him. He replied, "I have Sparrow, Yorkshire, the Frogs, and some goons scouring the city. I have a plan for resolving our power issue, but you all should know we some bigger problems..."
With his left, Mercutio reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. After a few seconds of searching through his phone, he turned it to the rest.
"My inside man the Abnormal Crimes Unit's saying he's getting reports of unusual activity. Riots. But they aren't taking anything... and this…"
The other four stared at the picture on his flip phone. They grimaced.
It was worse then they could imagine.
XXX
Things have gotten weird.
It was midnight and we were in a bit of a pickle. We peered around the corner to see a group of a dozen people chasing down a group of firefighters. In the mob's hands were bats, kitchen blades, and even some pistols. I reached into my jacket's inside pockets and pulled out my secret weapon: a popsicle stick.
Aura ignited my hands and I squeezed the wooden stick in my hand like clay. I rolled what should have been brittle wood into a round ball. With a flick of my wrist, I sent it flying toward the pack leader.
It pin balled off the back of the leader runner with a hard thud. He fell forward and stopped the momentum of the crowd by causing them to trip over him. Most of the mob tumbling over themselves.
The firefighters gained some distance from the mad people as they ran as fast as I could imagine ordinary people could run in firefighter gear. They wouldn't get far though...
A dark floating cloud hung above the firefighters. On its skin was a singular, massive mouth in a frozen scream. A long, lashing tongue that trailed behind as it stayed on top of the crew. Sticky saliva escaped from its tongue. It screamed as it hovered over the men, like a siren of rage. It drew those who were infected with its mind-manipulating rain…
I could see Mantis shiver, her crouched form gripping her hands in a sheer act of will. I could hear her suit's material audibly crunch up in her clenched fist.
"We can't," I said as I pointed to the guy I hit with my wooden marble.
He stood up and looked insane. Bulging eyes with bulging veins popping out of his fury-filled face. His face was as red as humanly possible. The man spewed white foam violently out of his mouth as pure wrath overtook him.
He lurched over and gagged. His body quickly becoming emaciated and thin as he struggled with his throat. His mouth opened and distended. His jaw dislocating as he spewed what looked like a monochrome egg yolk. It fell to the ground with a splat before the... sleeve of what was left of the man fell to the ground with a soft plop.
The white and black slimy egg twitched for a minute. As the Nen yolk laid their growing in form, the rest of the knocked down people stood up. The people seemed to regain their senses now that they were far enough from the Rage Cloud's rain. They staggered around, blinking in confusion. Some of them held their head in pain, no doubt their heart rate and blood pressure giving them a headache...
An eyeball bobbed onto the surface of the egg. Tiny at first, it quickly it grew in size and mass. Big, red-eyed, and glaring. It stared around with disturbing sentience. The yolk's gooey exterior expanded and grew bumpy and cloud-like. It bloated in size to the size of a small bed before floated high above the crowd.
Then it rained. But the rain was spiny, grey, caltrop-like seeds the size of rice. They twitched in agitation as the rain hit landed on their skin. Their chests rising and their mouths grasping as their faces twisted in mad agony, the prickly 'rain' latching on to their skin. As long as a person's skin was covered up it was ineffective: too bad everyone was wearing summer clothes…
It took barely any Ten to stop that rain from touching skin, but without protection, it was probably madness.
I sighed at our predicament and thought back a few hours.
Immediately after seeing the city… the clouds came out. It'd be a cute metaphor for our situation if it weren't for the homeless residents of Outskirts turning into foam spewing rage zombies. They tore our would-be assassins into pieces. Literally.
We've tried every way to get rid of the clouds without getting noticed, but nothing works. They'd simply reform when attacked. That was the trade-off for having no ability to hurt us directly. If we found the Nen-user we could probably pound 'em into a thin paste. Until then, these clouds would continue to reproduce when a person gets mad enough. From their victims... they're after Tao Long and anyone not affected by the rain. Fucking diffusive inductive type...
Usually, these Manipulator types are the weakest in raw strength. Nen abilities all have drawbacks and a cost, and diffusive inductive types trade power for the ability to affect a large number of people. It usually also takes time for the Hatsu's effects to become potent. Usually. But whoever was using this Hatsu was probably as angry as these fucking people, and emotion influences Nen...
We'd been lucky to avoid the clouds so far, but damn it… we had few miles to go and those clouds stuck to people like gnats in the summer…
I turned down to the other Manipulator with me, Mantis.
"You ever fight this type of Manipulator?"
She shook her head, turning away from the crowd and looking down. Her voice was shaky.
"Sorry, can't say I have. I only joined Red Squad a year before you..."
I turned away from the street and walked back into the alley. I was comfortable the shadows of the alley would hide us from those all-seeing eyes. I sat down on a small fruit crate box and stared at her.
"Hey, how did someone like you join a bunch of criminals? Don't take that as an insult, you're just too heroic for a bunch of killers."
She continued to look down, quiet. Even with a full-body suit on I could tell she was thinking on her response. After a minute, she replied.
"They're not all bad, you know? If you got to know them you'd understand that..."
I felt my top lip raise as I fought back a sneer, "I can tell, but I just have a problem with criminals. Besides, why do you care?"
She turned to me, hands on her hips, "And why do you care about why I joined Red Squad?"
"Like I said, you're nothing like the rest of 'em. All of them have a necessary callousness for this kind of 'profession'," I pointed a finger at her, "You, on the other hand, are like me: soft."
I could imagine her frown underneath her helmet. She shifted her weight, "I may not kill, but I still understand some people have to and deserve to die. I'm not naïve."
I chuckled, closed my eyes, and leaned my head back against the brick and cement behind me. Man, I was fucking tired.
"Heh, could have fooled me before. Only now do you act like an actual human being. Not some kid's action hero."
I heard her stutter step, stagger, whatever the hell that weird nervous movement anime people do. Tap dance in place? Don't know... Too tired to care. Blah...
Mantis's voice became softer. I opened my eyes to see her pressing her index fingers together, sheepish. I exaggerated a frown as she answered.
"Normally I'm not as... stressed. I'm nervous."
I was too, but I didn't have the energy to express it. I didn't expect this. I had expected more dead ends and simple work. I fucking trained hard for nearly ten hours earlier. Fuck me. I could feel my body trying to send me to sleep.
I stood up suddenly and slapped my face softly. Mantis stared at me like I was crazy. She straightened up in realization, then tilted her head before shaking it.
"You still haven't eased up on your training, haven't you? Sparrow said that wasn't... the smartest thing."
"Pssh... as if he had said that, that politely..." I said while standing as tall as I could, which wasn't very tall in my exhaustion.
She shook her head, "You're barely on your feet... the other said you're a genius. So why do you train so hard?"
I placed my hands on my hips and stared at her gigantic silver, Kamen Rider helmet. I sighed and looked away toward the street. My eyebrows raised on their own when I saw a sewer cover. I stared up at the sky and saw the shadowy outlines of demonic clouds hovering by rooftops. The distant roar of a population of insanely angry people who are surprisingly well equipped… now we know why they wanted weapons…
I turned back to Mantis, "'Cause I can't take anything for granted anymore. Overwhelming odds like this are a fine example of that. C'mon, I think I found a way to get around the city."
Time to pull a Ninja Turtles.
