Izuku stood on the deck of the Leviathan as they pulled into port, hands resting on the guardrail as a red eye raked over the old, salt and sun tanned man who barely gave them a look before continuing to fish, "What's that about?"
"They're used to people coming in," Mana said, chewing on the leftover fat of the steaks and fastening the bandolier holding a long hunk of metal and stone in place on her back, "Idiot kids on vacation, people on the run. They do a lot of trade with Eisley, not officially of course, but enough that they know to look the other way if we don't threaten their own."
"Ah," Izuku nodded, trying to keep the stress from his gut as he slid the backpack he had on, watching Mana do the same. Three backpacks, him, Mana and Killer, each had all they needed.
"So," Mana started, before asking a question as innocently as possible, "How'd you get a demon bonded to your soul?"
Izuku locked up as Raum roared to the forefront of his mind, before whipping his head towards Mana and fighting the urge to lock his claws into combat position as red lightning crackled into existence along his fingers.
Mana was fingering her rifle.
Izuku breathed in, closing his eyes. This didn't need to get aggressive, they could do this peacefully.
{I'm taking over and gutting her if she goes for the draw,} Raum rasped, {I've respected your desire to not go for a kill through the bullying and the discrimination from "Kacchan", but if our life comes into the line, I will do what needs to be done.}
"I-" Izuku stuttered, stomach rolling, "I-I was going to die from something else, and he was trapped and starving. We made- I agreed to host him so… so we could both survive and be strong."
"Can I talk ?" Mana said, not removing her hand from the gun.
"He can hear you," Izuku said.
"Then let me say this, demon," Mana spat the last word, "if you try to hurt anyone, or Izuku, I will end you."
"{That's a promise,}" Raum deadpanned, leaving Izuku in the back of his own mind again.
"That's a-"
"{I've heard these threats before girl, so let's speed through them,}" Raum continued, "{Better Sentinel of Light than you have tried, I haven't faced you before or that's what I think, oh really, yes, really, ex cetera.}"
"I am the daughter of the two greatest-"
"{Sentinels of Light who have ever lived, somehow I doubt-}"
"Lucian the Purifier and Senna the Redeemer," Mana finished, and Raum's voice fell silent as he reached Izuku's arm up to touch the left side of his chest, exactly over their heart, which had quickened.
"{Well then,}" Raum said, eyes locked onto the gun, "{Then perhaps that boast isn't quite so empty. You'd still fail, but if you're as good as your father, Mana, then you'll come closer than most.}"
"You… know my parents?"
"{Oh, I know your parents,}" Raum said, "{how are the old ghouls?}"
"They're… well," Mana said, sounding nonplussed by the way the conversation went suddenly.
"{And Viego?}" Raum said.
"Who?"
"{Right question,}" Raum said, satisfaction staining his voice, "{Let him rot in ignoble oblivion. Killer, are you ready!?}"
"Yep," Killer said, a pair of kama hanging off his backpack as he glanced between the two, "Something happen? Mana looks poleaxed."
"Nothing," Mana said, having finally dropped her hand from the gun.
- X Izuku X-
Captain-Kid," Izuku looked up from where he was practicing shaking the air above his hands with magic, growing serious at Killer's words as they rode in the back of a run down pick up truck, "What do we do if things get… well, get bad?"
"We'll-" Izuku stopped and lapsed into silence, thinking. It should have been an easy order, "We'll stop them" or "we'll deal with it when we get there" or something, but it didn't come. It couldn't.
What right did he have to say that, when Mana and Killer were here guarding him? That was the only reason they were here, so if their lives were in danger, it was his fault. Like it had been at the Pieces' hideout…
That threw something Izuku didn't want to admit into the light. They weren't strong enough to win these fights while closing off the avenue of killing. It just wasn't possible.
"Give them one chance," Izuku finally finished reluctantly, "one chance to stand down. And if they don't, do what you have t-"
At the edge of his senses, his raven cawed and Izuku whipped around as it dove, "Brace yourself!"
And Izuku shook the air in front of him as an RPG flew towards them.
- X Lucian X-
Lucian rushed into the Sentinel of Light commune with blazing eyes, his relic guns clenched in shaking hands. Being like this, angry and out for blood, ironically and paradoxically, both was easy and wasn't.
He'd drowned himself in anger once. Sworn himself to seeing Thresh scourged from the world for taking Senna from him. Getting her back was like a life raft in a maelstrom, a breath of air to the dying. It had saved him.
But that didn't mean the part that had woken with her death had ever truly gone away. It had always been there, waiting for Thresh or another evil against the innocent to rear their ugly head.
And everything him and Senna had heard about this place made it sound like an evil. The Hallowed Mist had darked, not quite to the pitch it was when unpurified, but he would be lying if he said it was the color it had been the day he swore himself to finding a way to lift the curse.
His Relic guns, one blockier than the other, swept to the left and the right, blasting through the knees of two separate Sentinels even as he didn't glance in their direction. The one below his knee, holding a rifle, dropped it and paled.
"Pu- Pur-"
"Purifier," Lucian growled, pressing the "barrel" of the relic gun against her chest. A single pulse of will would manifest a shot that would sear through her skin and bone. He had her dead to rights, and both knew it, "What did you do."
"We… we made a weapon."
"Souls are not WEAPONS!" Lucian snapped as Senna called to him.
"Lucian," Senna said, eyes glowing green, "I found her. Isolde?"
"Ho's dat?" A childish voice far too monotone said, and Lucian's grip on the gun grew tighter as he stood up.
"No, no! Mercy, please, " a flash of light ended the Sentinel below his feet.
"This is a mercy, a mercy for the people who deserve it. Who you hurt!" the Purifier growled, gunning down the other two Sentinels without breaking stride and crouching down in front of the fragment of Isolde's soul. Was she naturally a child, or had they shoved it into one despite the risks? If the Black Mist ever broke the wards, there would be no place on Runeterra, on Earth, that would be safe for her. Like it had been for Senna.
Chocolate eyes stared up at them from light brown skin, long matted green-black hair pulled into a ponytail. Clutched against the too long, dirtied Sentinel uniform was a rag doll with bright blue hair and a replaced button eye.
"What's your name?" Senna asked, sharing a look with Lucian, We can't leave her.
Adoption?
Do we have a choice?
No.
That's what I thought.
"Mana," the girl said.
"Well," Senna nodded to Lucian, who picked up the girl, "C'mon, Mana, we're going home."
- X Ebert X-
Ebert, current Black Pawn of the Pieces, lowered the tube as the missile exploded. That would get him a promotion from pawn to knight, he was sure of i- no.
No.
The explosion faded, showing the truck driving away at breakneck speeds as the three people in the back jumped out of it. He went for his rifle as the youngest nodded towards the woman, who pulled out a pair of pistols. Before he could grab it, a raven's sharp talons gouged into his arm, drawing blood.
"One chance," the woman said as she approached, flicking the safety off her guns, "Drop the rifle and and get one the-
Ebert jerked the gun up, only for a loud crack to echo across the area, followed by a roar of pain from his kneecap.
"We're showing you mercy," she said, "even though you don't deserve it."
- X Izuku X-
"Don't kill him," Izuku ordered, panting and wincing. Part of Mana wanted to check on him, worry running through her as his body was wracked with a spasm. Whatever he had just done was obviously causing massive after effects on his body.
"Give me a reason," Mana said, "because he just tried to blow us up, and I'm fresh outta mercy."
"It sends a message," Izuku said, leaning against Killer while the truck tore away from them. The old man driving was understandably terrified and uttering curses as quickly and loudly as he could, "We're not intimidated by their attempt to kill us, and we're coming for the chemtech anyway."
Mana wanted to call bullshit, but was forced to concede it would be a good message to herself. Still, "I'm still gonna make him wish he was dead."
"One chance," Izuku croaked, "Give him one chance."
"Fine, fine," Mana said, storming towards the man holding an empty SMAW with a look of horror on his face. She pulled out her 92Fs, flicking off the safety as she approached and racking the slides while the man was savaged by Izuku's pet raven. Red energy leaked off the man into the bird, "One chance, drop the rifle and get on the-"
The man backhanded the raven away, causing an indignant croak, and grabbed his FAMAS, only for Mana to casually whip up one gun and kneecap him. The man screamed in pain, dropping his gun and grabbing the damaged knee in pain.
"We're showing you mercy, even though you don't deserve it," Mana said, voice chilly, taking the rifle and hanging it off her backpack, "That was a baton round, so your knee should heal. But you're gonna be our messages to the Pieces, you should have thrown your worse at us before, because now it's too late, we're here, and we'll get what we're coming for."
- X Mei X-
Mei rushed around her workshop, working on the suit of armor with a mad giggle. It was a quarter finished, hulking monstrosity of metal, as advanced sensors as she could bring with her, and synth wires to help move the thing. It wasn't the best thing she had ever made, she was running on low supplies, but it was good enough for a MK.1. Six hardpoints, four on the side on the knees and two on the shoulders, sat ready for her to add.. wea… pons…
Right, she was supposed to be modifying the boat with weapons right now, not making armor. Inspiration had struck, and she hadn't thought about it for the past two hours… or eating…
"We'll get back to putting you together," Mei cooed to the armor, before walking towards the huge gun Uncle Sett and Tristana had told her to bring. Pinned to her hair, her ears twitched. It was gonna have to be a sloppy job until they were at an actual port and she could go to town, but the Captain was probably right, these were more important than her baby.
- X Mos Eisley X-
Mos Eisley brought back memories. When he had been ten, Izuku had taken a trip to Brazil to see his dad. From their hotel room, they had been able to see a favela.
"Dad?" Izuku asked, turning to where his dad was talking with a woman with dark hair and purple facial markings. They were both crouched over a map, or at least his dad was as crouched as he could be when Inko was sitting in his lap.
"What's up, kiddo?" Hisashi asked, turning and craning his head.
"What's that?"
"It's called a favela," Hisashi said, "People… people without a place to live go there."
"Why don't they ask All Might for help?" Izuku had asked, causing the trio of adults to laugh, the woman wearing a weird suit standing up and putting a hand on Izuku's head, "What's funny, Miss Kai?"
"Call me Kai'sa," she said, "and this place is really far from Japan, All Might can't help here."
A place where All Might couldn't help? How was that, "Braum?"
"Braum's a bit busy," Kai'sa said, "you know your heroes well, kid. Most people only know Heroes from their home country."
"Braum, Taric and All Might are friends," Izuku chirped, "The Scand- scana-"
"Scandinavian-"
"Yeah, that, and Wandering and Japanese Symbols of Peace!"
"Braum'll be happy to know he inspires a kid from Japan," Kai'sa said, "we call him the Heart of the Freljord."
"What's that?"
"A place far away," Kai'sa said, "Hisashi said you wanted to be a hero when you grow up, right?"
"People say I can't because I'm Quirkless," Izuku said, "Imma prove them wrong!"
"Really?" Kai'sa said, glancing at a black suitcase on the table, "Then I look forward to hearing about the first Quirkless Hero."
"C'mon," Izuku said, walking through the streets of the "city".
"Let's find a place to stay."
- X History X -
The Mos Eisley Assault, known by many derisive nicknames amongst those who sympathize with Creatures, was an attack on the Creature Rejection Clan manor in Mos Eisley. Led by notorious Creature Midoriya Izuku, they assailed every member of the clan and left them naked and unconscious in the city.
- Excerpt from a Creature Rejection Clan history book on the matter of the Day of Naked Men. When interviewed on the topic, Izuku replied he didn't feel comfortable killing them.
- X Izuku X-
"We're… attacking this place," Killer said as Izuku stopped in front of a large wall of wood, rebar and wire. Viable over it was a large, ramshackle building, built from the same roughshod metal and timber as the rest of Mos Eisley. It's biggest claim to regality was honestly the fact that everyone had given the "manor" a wide berth in a place where space was at a premium.
And the CRC actually called it a manor, the conceited jerks.
Izuku slid out the chainsaws on his gauntlets, letting them chew air for a second as red lightning crackled around them, before he inserted them into the mess they called a fence. Moving his arms in a clockwise direction, one facing up and the other down, Izuku made quick work of the fence and kicked in the hole.
"Something I gotta point out before we beat these old geezers up," Mana said.
"What?"
"They're gonna be trying to kill you, Kid. You look like a Heteromorphic, with the paleness and the cross shaped pupil. Should I use live rounds?"
"No," Izuku said, "We're gonna knock them out, throw them into the city and then leave them there. We'll be fine."
"But will they?" Killer asked.
…
That was kinda the point. If they didn't survive for whatever reason, Izuku could convince himself the blood wasn't on his hands to help him sleep at night, "We'll be fine. I'm not-"
"What the hell do you-" Izuku snapped his head towards a black clad, skull masked man holding a… a… candlestick? What the hec- "a Creature-"
The walker of Sorrow's Road didn't stop to think, just aware at the spike of indignation before he slammed his free hand into the far older man's solar plexus. A shockwave rippled through the man, causing bile to splatter out of his mouth as Izuku climbed through the hole. Behind him, Mana and Killer both had to duck through the hole to enter.
"You sure you don't want us to kill them?" Killer asked with a touch too much enthusiasm as more old men in black robes and skull masks stepped out.
"Yes," Izuku deadpanned, before pausing, "but I won't complain if they wind up naked."
{...That's the best punishment you have?} Raum asked, {You could reveal their darkest secrets to the world, flay their soul with that new claw, and you decide on rendering them nude?}
Yep.
{...Why do I get the mad ones for hosts?}
Dunno, why did he pick mad ones?
{Touche.}
Izuku nodded to one member of the group staring at them with random items. He was evidence of the CRC's hypocrisy, a man too massive to be anything but a Heteromorphic, with a pair of massive censer spreading incense as he swung them as improvised flails, "Take that one out, Killer."
"Bearded Lady willing, Captain," Killer said, unhooking his chain scythes and spinning them.
"Mana," Izuku said, turning to see she had hooked a pair of bayonets onto her pistols, "You're with me."
"Aye, aye," she deadpanned, "Let's be pirates."
"Are we pirates or mercenaries?" Izuku asked, turning back with red lightning crackling along his hands. The eldritch energy of Raum augmenting his own magic.
"Both?" Mana said.
"Fafafafa," Killer's laughter was covered up by his mask, mostly, "Both is good. We're indiscriminate."
"Then let's be Sinners," Izuku said as the CRC got tired of waiting around and charged them. Izuku slammed a palm into the first one to get close to them, ducking under the board he was swinging, and sent him flying into the next three in another shockwave, the air visibly quaking, "Gurararara!"
- X Killer X-
Killer whirled his scythes, reversed from how he would normally hold them so the hafts were whirling towards the old bigots. Attacks that normally would have dismembered and decapitated them instead smacked limbs wide and knocked them over. They were old, and if they had ever been *in* practice, they were out of it now. Used to relying on a fear that didn't exist here.
Behind him, Mana's guns went off with a crack like a backfiring car as fast as she could, bones audibly breaking and men collapsing with each shot. The Kid was throwing punches, kicks and knee strikes as untrained as they were devastating, dropping members of the Clan with each attack. And they weren't going for anywhere enjoyable. Kidney, diaphragm, groin-
"I think he popped one," one man squeaked out, and the Kid stopped and looked at his metal clad fist in horror. A man holding a candelabra raised it and-
Screamed as the raven did the very unraven-like act of dive bombing the man and driving talons into his arm. He dropped the candelabra on instinct, crashing it onto his head and causing him to collapse.
"Now's not the time to get sloppy, Kid!" Killer called, knocking a rate actual weapon, an old sword. A Shin-Guntō.
Well, Killer didn't listen to government mandates very often, but here? Here he would.
Flipping both kama, he caught the next swing between the blades and began to tighten as he slammed it against his Enhancement coated chest until, with a shriek of rending metal, the sword broke.
"That… was my great grandfather's," the man said.
"Sorry," Killer deadpanned, "not sorry." And then he slammed his mask into the man's mask, shattering the porcelain and his nose before he collapsed like a puppet, "You racist fuck."
Two censers came flying at him, and Killer hardened his skin a second before they crashed home. The big guy rushed towards him like a bolt of lightning, and Killer shifted his stance before doing the same.
- X Izuku X-
Izuku really didn't want to admit how much being called a creature hurt as he alternated between tremor magic and Raum's demonic power, hands of red energy slamming into the bigots and holding them in place for a follow up crackle of electricity or a shot from Mana.
Quirkless, and Kaachan made fun of him. Get a Quirk? The mutations that came along with it got the CRC focused on him over Mana and Killer. Quirkless and you were a freak. Minor mutations from a Quirk, and you were one too. At least Kaachan didn't bully him about it too much.
Izuku's red eye traced the attack from the CRC member holding a hatchet, a rare member holding something that could be legitimately considered a weapon. Swinging one of the gauntlets Engie, Mei he hastily corrected, had made, Izuku deflected the strike before he backhanded the man, dropping him as a burst of red magic emanated from his arm. Behind him, a member raised his… bowling pin? and began to swing, only from Izuku's raven, which he really needed to name, to land on his head and begin to peck at it viciously.
Giving Mana time to appear behind him in a flow of pitch black and sky blue mist that set Izuku and Raum's teeth on edge. A knee to the spine knocked the man over, followed by her wrapping her elbow around his right arm and dislocated it with an emotionless look on her face and a basic exertion of force. With her other hand, she aimed at another CRC member, finger leaving the side of the barrel and caressing the trigger.
Center mass, the man collapsed like someone had cut his strings. Breathing in, Izuku's gauntlets tightened into a pair of fists as five men approached them. Firing a red hand of energy at them, Izuku followed it up with a shotgun blast of red energy. All five men dropped just as easily as their friend, leaving just Killer and the big guy.
"Mana," Izuku ordered, voice clipped as flail met kama, "drop him."
"Roger that," Mana said, reloading both guns. Thirty shots hit home in the center of the man's chest, knocking him to a knee so he was mask to mask with the pitch black body of Killer. The blunt side of both kamas smacked into his head, knocked him unconscious.
"Alright," Izuku said, deploying his claws, "Strip them bare, take photos, ask Sett to make sure they get handed to the Hero Commision anonymously, no more chances of them having a day life without people knowing they're a member of the CRC."
{That's devious,} Raum 'breathed'
Yep.
"It's hard for a naked man to keep his identity a secret," Izuku said with a laugh, crouching in front of one of the bigots.
- X History X-
Of the four major factions in Mos Eisley, the Creature Rejection Clan was by far the weakest. Yes, number wise they outclassed the members of the Church of Violence (or, more accurately, the members of both factions in Mos Eisley. The exact number of CRC and CoV members across the globe are, of course, still unknown), but as a weapon smuggling operation, the CoV was better equipped with ballistic vests, guns, and whatever more "esoteric" equipment they had on hand.
They (that is to say, The Creature Rejection Clan) was also finding it harder to find new blood with each generation. The "holy" human form they exalted was becoming rarer and rarer as Heteromorphics had children that retained some of their parent's traits. As such, the majority of their members were at least sexagenarians at the time of the First Cut.
All of these to say that, as (in)famous as the IoW would become in future years, if three members of the smallest of the three factions that make it up (though many would argue that, in direct comparison to the factions mentioned earlier, the Sinners make up for their small numbers with a focus on having more elite members than the other two) had attacked the CoV, Triads or Russia Mafia, this book likely wouldn't be written. They may have taken their bases, but the retaliation would have been swift and bloody.
- Excerpt from Ever Sharpening Steel: a History of the IoW.
-X Kai'Sa X-
Kai'Sa span the chain holding a Tear of the Goddess around one small finger, smiling at it. Tears weren't rare, even in this day and age, Doran and Ornn's artificial ones were still some of the easiest relics of the years surrounding the End War to find. This one was unique for two reasons. The first was that it wasn't a Doran or Ornn-make, but an authentic, meaning it was about the side of a grapefruit compared to theirs, which were generally the size of a large strawberry. And the second was that it had sentimental value as one of the two items she still had from Ezreal. The "Treasure Hunter'' had, in fact, been acquiring it the first time they met in an old Ithacan tomb.
She hadn't thought of it until years later, when he had handed it to her out of the blue. Had assumed he sold it.
There hadn't been anything romantic between them over the years. Ezreal had always been more enamored with women who looked like Luxanna Crownguard, blond, blue eyed (and she'd taken the opportunity to imply it was narcissism that caused that attraction on more than one occasion, since those were traits Ezreal also had) and slight of figure. Kai'sa, was exactly none of those things. Dark haired, purple eyed, and while there were women with larger chests than her, she for it in other ways.
So yes, she was, in short "not Ezreal's type".
Her constant compassion, and occasional adversity, the chronophagic Void symbiote that was practically fused with any biological "system" you cared to name, tightened its grip around her wrist. Kai'Sa rolled her eyes, before taking a slightly spiteful bite of the peach in her hand, thousands of years of experience let her tear out the pit and spit it into a trashcan of her office in the UNAVTF Shieldwall FF-52 superheavy airplane- "Void Watch" in one move. She fell into her chair, shrugging off the specialty shirt she had made (and thank all the gods and goddess of Shurima for Quirks. A woman with a carapace "quirk" didn't raise eyebrows anymore) bringing the tip of the tear shaped crystal to the edge of the shoulder, "Eat up."
A sharp mouth split on the chitinous "catsuit" around her shoulder, latching onto the Tear and sucking the mana from it as fast as it could manage. Mana wasn't its favorite meal, that came from other voidborn, but it would keep it happy until she could authorize her own deployment to a Void combat zone.
Tears were essentially miniature mana fulcrums, capable of turning activities like movements to mana.
"Commander," Kai'Sa hit the radio.
"Chris," Kai'Sa said, "Done?"
"Yes, Ma'am. Hisashi is toasting the leftovers as we speak. There's a man here asking to talk to you."
"Pyke?"
"Pyke," Chris said.
"Put him on," she tried to keep the suffering from her voice. A second later, Pyke's wet rasp of a voice came across.
"Kai'Sa," Pyke said, watching the dark haired man burn the pile of voidlings with a combination of shots from his gun and flames from his mouth. His skin began to secrete a torrent of water, like sweat on enhancement magic, "been what, fifty, sixty years?"
"Last time," Kai'Sa said, the radio quality was so good it was like he was right there, "Was the last time Ornn called us north for her."
"Bad day," Pyke said, "Seem to always have those when you're involved, Void Lass. You want to tell me what this is all about?"
"What do you mean?"
"Not an idiot," Pyke said, "Neither of us. You'd call in fifteen people before me, normally. Only of our kind still alive who stand me are Ahri and Braum. Even Aatrox, Varus and Rhaast would do, if you didn't care about collateral. They hate the Void as much as anyone. And this was something you could have done yourself. You wanted me here."
"Sometimes it's scary how you put things together," Kai'Sa said.
"Don't survive in Bilgewater and on the sea if you ain't a least a bit sharp," Pyke said, "Well, sharp and lucky. So, why me?"
"Yone and Sett have a new student," Kai'Sa said, "I know him, and am kinda fond of him. He was heading to Mos Eisley as the leader of his first group, didn't want you killing him if he messed up."
"Fair," Pyke said, "Think he'll mess up?"
"No, but better safe than sorry. I have a friend I'll put him in touch with if he survives this job."
"You're making me want to meet this kid," Pyke said, "You, Sett an' Yone all like him? That's a mix."
"You met his dad," Kai'Sa said, "the black haired pyro."
"Small world," Pyke said.
"Our kind tends to find each other," KaiSa said, "And he is ours. He's in a symbiotic relationship with Raum."
Pyke stopped watching the fire and blinked, "Raum? You sure we can trust him?"
"Yes," Kai'Sa said.
"Well, I ain't," Pyke raped, "Gonna keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn't become a repeat of Swain."
- X AN X-
Thoughts questions and opinons?