You are constantly surprised by the weirdness of this world. That said, your surprise isn't enough of to make you freeze. Jetting forward you grab Kururu and shove her behind you as several shards of glass flung out by the masked man's entry are hurled out over the inside of the tower. The gesture was useless as the shards fell far short of either of you but better safe than sorry.
The masked man paid you zero attention as he hit the ground, his ATs soaking up the impact for a burst of speed as he hit the ground. Leaving Kururu where she was you mounted a void corridor and shot after the man, arcing up over the piles of parts to head straight for the infiltrator. You didn't know why he was here but if you'd learned one thing back home it was that masked criminals should have their asses kicked on principal.
You hurled yourself off the void road, artisan perfecting the flip and the brutal heel drop you aimed at the mans head...before he grabbed you by the ankle and hurled you bodily away from him barely slowing down. Adjusting midair and landing was simple. As you tried to dart forward though you suddenly froze in place. Your muscles had all locked up kind of like being electrocuted, or the feeling when you overused a massager.
You stood there stock still for about a minute as the masked man zipped away, finally able to move again after he got out of range. You stopped to think before following. The fuck had that been? It wasn't magic, they didn't really have that here, but you were vulnerable to it for sure. Dipping into aura vision you looked at the man...and groaned. Of course he had a fucking regalia. And a strong one too. He was also an arrogant sociopath but you'd seen worse in other people.
Luckily you were still an absolute genius and it was easy enough to see that you hadnt frozen til you made contact with the ground. You remounted a void road and decided to be more careful as you shot after the assailant. As you shot toward him you saw him shift his fingers and shove. A burst of your new void sphere technique swallowed the air attack easily as you hurled one back.
You were not winning this fight. It might look like you had him on the back foot but his aura just showed frustration and annoyance. This person was barely trying to fight you at all, he just wanted to leave. His aura was...scary. Not the contents of it like you said you'd seen worse from Bakuto, but the depth and intensity. This guy was stronger than anyone you'd seen so far. And you just didnt fucking care. This was annoying.
You had been on the back foot and getting your ass kicked since you fucking got here. This whole world was annoying you. Their stupid roller blade fetish, your inability to use your gear without drawing too much attention the fant that artisan didnt work on their ridiculous style of combat. You just snapped.
Looking at the still looming masked figure you dropped your sphere and just let loose. Dozens of hurled orbs of void force rained down on the man from every direction, aimed with pinpoint precision for every gap in his defenses. You looked forward to seeing them tear him apart. Sadly that did not happen. The mans clothes split in multiple places, his fringe blowing wildly as a sphere air so dense it was solid smashed outwards, batting every orb away and shoving you off your road and across the room even from about thirty feel away.
As you hit the ground you felt that strange stunning force reassert itself, but worse because you were on your back. With more time to think over what happened you were pretty positive it was some kind of vibration effect. Instead of running again the man calmly glided over to you. Glaring down in annoyance that you could see even through the mask. "I should kill you trash. But I want to crush you for real later. I'll find you again soon. Until then." You barely had time to understand what was happening before his AT clad foot smashed down on your face and the world went black.
You felt yourself regain consciousness slowly. Your shoulder being shaken. Kururu was staring down at you, afraid and worried as she played anxiously with her plaid skirt. When she saw you were awake she hurled herself at you to wrap her arms around you. "Oh thank god! You're alright! I was so terrified you might die. He kicked you in the face with his AT's and your nose and face were ruined. I checked you over for first aid supplies and found a vial of yellow liquid with a note to use in case of emergencies."
Glad you carried a vial of cure all on you at all times you pulled yourself up, happy about the complete lack of pain. That was the ONLY thing you were happy about. This had been a shit show. The forge had been pushing you to focus on developing your road, you knew thats what it was doing. But you'd gotten so used to relying on tech you had assumed making your regalia would make you invincible. That asshole had used some sort of aerokinesis and you'd seen other stormriders do similar tricks on a smaller scale.
Pulling yourself up you grimaced. If learning to do this would help make you stronger when combined with your tech like you thought it needed to be done. You had to learn to ride properly. All the weird aerokinesis shit included. You weren't going to be able to keep up without a serious training session. The question was where the hell were you supposed to find a teacher? With Spitfire training the girls you needed someone who could show you the ropes without interrupting their month of grinding and screwing your chances to beat sleeping forest. But who should you ask?
Since it was later and you didn't count being knocked unconscious as legitimate sleep you headed home after talking to Kururu. You felt terrible for failing to help her friend, Hako having been kidnapped along with the stolen wind regalia. You called Ikki first thing out of the tower to arrange a meeting the next morning and stumbled home and into bed to sleep.
You woke in the morning to pounding on the door as expected, stumbling out of bed and staggering through the penthouse to open it and let in your impatient friend. Ikki looked almost as tired as you felt and you forced him to sit down as you headed into the kitchen to make you both something to eat. You looked up at him from across the kitchen island stove as you cooked a some pancakes. "So how are you feeling?"
Ikki stared back at you glumly. "Not great. I talked to Yoshitsune like you asked and got you a meeting, but I won't be going with you. I have enough on my plate. Genesis is in an uproar right now, my Big Bro, the previous wind king is disappointed as hell that I let the regalia get jacked from under my nose and your masked buddy has been spotted around the city making noise. I've been running all over town and beyond putting out fires and I'm exhausted man."
You flipped a few perfectly mad pancakes out onto a plate and drowned them in real maple syrup. You weren't enough of a craftsman to tap the stuff yourself but you had a spice blend you added over a boil that let you tweak it enough for your perks to affect it. You sigh at your friends defeated expression. "Look bro, i get it. That's a lot of pressure. Running a team the size of genesis at our age is pretty nuts and I don't envy you that. But clearly they saw something in you, or they wouldn't have picked you. Hell Yoshitsune respects you enough to take a meeting with me, and I hear that guy is a straight up monster."
Ikki straightened up a bit at that "Well I did pass an ancient test in Kantai to get recognized by him and trident. I beat their record and everything. You might be right." He exhaled and took a few botes of pancakes moaning in bliss at the taste before returning to his though. " They wouldn't have picked me if I didn't have what it took. Guess we both need to buckle down. Hopefully Yoshitsune can help you out with that."
You finished making another dozen pancakes, packing some of them up for Yoshitsune with some syrup (your tupperware was made with stasis modules from dead space so it literally froze in time during transport) you scarfed down your own pancakes before telling Ikki to get some sleep on the couch and getting the address from him. He resisted for a bit but you finally talked him into a quick nap.
You very carefully didn't summon the archway away from the house so the girls could leave if there was some kind of emergency, though since they couldn't get back in you doubted they would. Spitfire was most likely brutalizing them in some of that sadism he liked to call training, especially with his new enhanced body. Your mentor had confided he was going to use the time between sessions while they worked on their techniques to get himself back to fighting trim for the match. He'd been sandbagging for years because of his injury.
You didn't have a license or even an actual identity here though you could have created one easily enough, so you called Black Flame to give you a ride down to Yoshitsune's place. It wasn't exactly close so the limo would be more pleasant, though Coke (Black Flame's real name) seethed at having to let you use it. Spitfire had named Kazu his heir due to you having your own regalia but everyone in Team Spitfire knew your mentor favored you immensely and they had to treat you with respect.
Finally after several hours of driving (well Coke drove you napped in the twin bed in the back seat of the limo) you reached Trident's base of operations. Rather than Yoshitsune himself it was Benkei who was waiting for you. The extremely busty woman in leopard print and a red bikini top wore her usual leather pants and greeted you as you got out of the limo. " Mr. Taylor, welcome to Trident, the boss is inside right now playing pachinko, he regrets to inform you that he is on a hot streak so you'll need to come to him."
The woman sounded genuinely apologetic and you noted the annoyance and resignation in her aura with a sense of amusement. Apparently Yoshitsune was as eccentric as all the other powerful people you had met. What was it about strength that made people so damn weird? You made your way into the empty pachinko parlor, looking around at the machines. You'd never played Pachinko and understood nothing about the game but the flashing lights and colors reminded you of casino's back home.
Yoshitsune sat at the farthest machine in the back, sitting with his knees and feet up on the chair as he manipulated the machine in ways you understood nothing about but could definitely match with artisan. His glasses were blocked out by the glare from the lights rendering his eyes invisible to you, but you knew he didn't look at you when he spoke.
His voice was bored as he addressed you "You have five minutes, boy. I took this meeting out of respect for the kid and for your mentor who I know to be a generally decent guy. I heard you want me to teach you about riding, I can only assume you mean more about the wing road or over road since Spitfire should be able to teach you anything you need. The Flame is a template for all rides but it doesnt deal as much with the air. The question is, why the hell should I care?"
You stare down at the rumble king, sitting crouched on his chair, his hands flashing across the surface of his machine and realize that you really will need to prove yourself. You sit down at a nearby machine and start it up. "Listen up old man. You seem like you're decent at this game, so it must be something you care about. I care about getting stronger. So if I beat you at this thing you care about you have to help me with the thing I care about."
The white haired king laughs at your demand, never taking his eyes from his machine. His hand snaps out and shuts it off, restarting it, spinning the chain as everything resets. "You know, I've had dozens of riders come to me to learn. Dozens of people who wanted to prove they were good enough or hungry enough. You're the first person to ever challenge me at pachinko. They always show me their road or try to get me into a parts war. I've accepted some of them if they were good enough. But I like this better. Fine kid. I'll accept your challenge."
You sit down at the machine. It's complicated. Luckily its well within artisans wheelhouse. Before you even reach for the machine you know exactly what you're supposed to do despite never having done it before. It isn't quite time to start yet, you see Yoshitsune observing you. You swing your own chair to look at him "If I had challenged you to a parts war would you have taught me?"
He shrugged "Depends if I found your road interesting. If it makes you feel better that's fairly rare. My philosophy is doing whatever I want. I want to protect my family, my team, so I do. I want to be a king, so I am. I want to play pachinko, so I do that too. If I had wanted to teach you I would have done it. If I hadn't I'd have kicked you out no matter who said different. This is interesting, so if it helps you probably have a better chance this way. Parts wars I always win get boring, but I never get tired of pachinko."
You smiled broadly at his little speech. This guy...was exactly like your dad in alot of ways. He could have been a Stark. That do what you feel like attitude was pure Tony, and it made you actually like him. You imagined most people found him annoying or were just scared of him at least at first, but this entire exercise just reminded you of home. You spun around to face the machine. "Well ok then, just tell me when to start."
Yoshitsune looked at the machine seriously, and as you caught his aura out of the corner of your eye you corrected your earlier impression. Not like your dad. Yoshitsune wasn't as casual as he acted. The man had a strict code of honor and conduct. Your father was an honorable man in his own way sure, but this guy was an old school warrior. He signalled aloud and the two of you started, your hands flying across the machine in patterns you honestly barely grasped at first.
The rules of this game were a bit odd and you didn't understand them, though you were picking them up as you went. In any case artisan made sure you were keeping up more than adequately. That said you weren't crushing him like you had expected. Yoshitsune wasn't just a fan of pachinko, he was fucking great at it. In retrospect the physically gifted tactical mastermind who managed to hold a place among the gravity children as a human being good at the thing he dedicated all his time to wasn't really surprising.
For his part Yoshitsune WAS surprised. His aura was strobing shock and glee at how difficult you were making things, shooting glances at your hands and machine as you continued to play. You felt for the guy, he really loved this game but it had started to get stale for him. Never any suspense or difficulty. At this point it was mainly a rote relaxation device he used to chill out. You could see his excitement for the game ramping back up though and it was beautiful. Like watching an artist rediscover his love for painting.
The game lasted an hour, every time you got one of the balls in the hole you got a spin on the slot machine and another ten of the little metal balls to handle. The cascade of new pinballs into the machine outpaced the rate you could put them a few times but your insane dexterity and artisan touch countered it. Yoshitsune was more than keeping up, metal balls only fall so fast and theres only so much interaction so your speed wasn't as big a game changer as expected. Finally after an hour your stamina won out and Yoshitsune slipped, missing one and allowing you to overtake him for the win.
The white haired man grinned and leaned back smiling. "Ok that was fantastic. Ok kid tell you what. I'll teach you how to ride properly if we can have another game each day you're here. Spitfire was ranting about how fast you learn so I doubt it'll be long but it should be at least another few days. You agree to play a few more games and I'll do my best to turn you into a proper king. We got a deal."
Your new mentor held out his hand for you to shake, and with a grasped palm you accepted. You had the distinct feeling Yoshitsunes training would be even more brutal than spitfires but you didnt mind. This would be a good chance to get stronger. As you shook his hand you felt the forge fire and decided to allow it to hit interested to see what you would get this time.
Celestial forge accessed: Vibranium Sample (Marvel Cinematic Universe Vol. 1) (200CP) Sufficient CP. Total remaining CP: 500.
You decided to start out with the most obvious flaw in your riding ability. As Yoshitsune stood across from you in a warehouse you couldn't help but be a bit nervous at the though of learning something as weird and esoteric as air manipulation.
The rumble king seemed to sense your hesitation and laughed. "Let me guess, you're worried about trying to learn such a profound skill? Think its some deep mysterious secret huh?" The white haired man chuckled. "This part always makes me smile. Do me a favor kid, press your hand flat against the wall our floor, but cup it slightly so your palm doesnt touch." You did as he asked "Now push it flat."
You pushed down like he said, sending the trapped air in your cupped palm rushing out from either side. Wait, theres no way that was it. Yoshitsune noticed your expression and laughed even harder. "You got it kid. Thats the secret to air manipulation. When you pull it from the surface there'll be a vacuum seal effect thats the other half of the process. All in all, we need to take your mastery over that principal to a level that you can feel the air currents against your palms when you're not touching a surface and manipulate them. First task though, learn to strengthen that seal. Your first test is the ability to put your hands flat against the wall and lift yourself off the ground without coming free."
Despite the incredibly odd and esoteric nature of the concept, the actual application was underwhelming. But you had a major advantage in learning this. Because air manipulation existed in your home universe Artisan actually worked on this unlike with completely universe specific skills like storm riding. You knew you would pick up this sticking trick fast. Granted the air manipulation you had seen was way part normal human limits so you still had learning to do but it would take days instead of weeks like storm riding.
It took five minutes of trial and error to get your hands to stick with enough suction to lift your whole body off the ground. You grinned at Yoshitsune "Easy peasy. Got anything harder for me to do? Because I could hang here like this all day." Your stomach sank when the other mans face split in a vicious grin.
Yoshitsune's aura showed he was actually pretty shocked and impressed but your new mentor wasn't one to coddle. "Ask and ye shall receive kid. Next I want you to climb up the wall across the ceiling and down the other side without letting any part of your body but your hands touch any surface."
Having already mastered sticking you just laughed and started to climb...and then you fell. You fell so much. It took hours to manage to get up the wall. Contrary to your belief having learned to stick did not make this a cake walk. Creating another seal while maintaining one with one hand was absurdly difficult, plus since you couldnt touch you had to hold your entire body weight on one hand while you switched to the other.
The issue there was the massively increased weight on one hand and the strain made finding that sweet spot damn near impossible. Not only that but once you did you figured out that it got progressively harder each time you placed your hand again. Your body got even more exhausted, and adjusting got more difficult. You couldnt even imagine trying this hell training without stone age otaku or artisan to help you cheat. Even leaning on both skills it took you eight full hours to manage the task.
You fell off the ceiling nineteen times. You broke at least ten bones. Every muscle in your back and arms felt like it had been shoved into a food processor. You remembered being brutally beaten and tortured by literal evil knights and pushed to your limits daily and none of it had hurt even half this much. You palms were bright red. Not from blisters, but because you had literally ripped the skin off them in training. Finally you made it to the other side, slumping to the ground and trying very hard not to scream at the pain of just existing.
Yoshitsune had been here with you the entire time to his credit. Granted he'd taken out a pocket handheld pachinko game and been playing it constantly whenever he wasn't checking on you. Once you hit the ground he stood up and brushed off his pants, walking over to you. "Ok kid. I'll admit it. Spitfire was right. You're a monster. The good news is the muscles and skills you just built were more than half of what you needed to master. I could have half assed it and started you after the sticking exercise but despite how it felt that little exercise was the best training you could have gotten."
You weakly raise your head to glare at him, only managing to get it a few inches up. Your voice came out in a wheeze. "Hate...you. Hate you so much." The worst part was that hearing that muscle thing meant you couldn't use a cure all because fuck ever doing this again. Your back muscles were shredded and if you needed them built that way you'f need to let your natural Named and enhanced healing handle it.
Yoshitsune laughed at you again. "Thats fair. Tell you what. I'll let you punch me once. As repayment for the pain. But you have to do it now, I dont want to get sucked punched some random day." He leaned forward thrusting out his chine at you. You grinned and tried to sit up...and failed. You glared at his stupid awful face as it broke into an even wider malicious grin. "What's the matter kid. Go ahead. Make a fist." His laughter achoes through that stupid warehouse almost loudly enough to cover your howls of rage.
You woke up from sleeping in the workshop with your muscles still on fire. Your hands were still raw, though both were much better than they had been. Your back and arms were down to just a dull roar, and you could feel with your hands again even if actually doing it hurt. You stood up and stretched, ignoring the extreme pain. You'd told Yoshitsune you weren't done and that you'd be back in a few hours.
With the time folding up to four times the two hour's you'd been away had been a full eight of sleep and while it would be starting to get dark there was time to get some more training in today. Despite the extreme pain you could already feel the air currents better, your raw hands actually being more sensitive.
You headed out into the parking lot outside Yoshitsune's parlor only to throw yourself to the side as a rain of debris smashed down across the whole parking lot. Your eyes flicked up to the floor above (what was now the rooftop based on the lack of covering) where a giant fucking mech was aiming the biggest fucking gun you'd ever seen at your mentor's refuge.
You mounted the void road and flashed up there just in time to see Yoshitsune streak to a stop and used the heat and force to throw up a literal wall at the end of the barrel of the mechs cannon, reflecting the bullet back up the gun and destroying the arm of the mech. Yoshitsune noticed you and scowled "Damn it kid, you have shit timing, these guys are kings from Genesis. Get out of here, I can handle this but you'll just get in the way. Their roads are weird."
At his statement you realized the mech had distracted you from a really edgy (no pun intended) looking goth guy with fucking swords strapped to his heels. You scowled at the ridiculous and impractical looking setup, though you couldn't say for sure it was the latter with how this weird ass world worked. "Who the fuck are you supposed to be edgelord?"
The goth sneered lazily at you, replying in the bored monotone voice you knew he would have. "Gawaine, king of Genesis. I rule the Gladius road. Run away little boy. We're here for the regalia, no need to kill any kids when we off the old mob boss here."
Your eyes narrowed. Literally every part of that sentence had just pissed you right the fuck off. "First. I dislike being called a kid" You activated the Legion protocols in your smart clothes. Shifting to your legionnaire's armor, your sleeve reshaping into a gladius. "Second. You aren't the anything of the gladius anything you fucking poser. And third, I'm wearing a set of regalia myself you joy division loving fuck."
You glanced over at Yoshitsune "Listen up old man. I'm a pretty damn good rider, better now than I was earlier. But the day anyone with the word gladius in their name kills me is the day stay dead out of pure shame. Handle the fucking mech, and leave Edgar the emo to me. I would be able to take him even if I hadn't learned a fuck ton about riding earlier."
Yoshitsune glared at you before sighing. "Fine kid, I don't have time to try to make you leave anyway. But if you die I'll shove my ATs up your ass. Don't underestimate him because he's a miserable edgar allan poe looking bitch. Becoming a king in a group the size of Genesis is a big fucking deal. Even if you know swords he won't be easy."
He probably would have said more but he was forced to dodge by the other arm of the giant fucking mech the other guy was driving, which was probably good because a pair of scything chain blades slashed down from either side, forcing you to dodge or lose a limb and even having to deflect one. You glare over at the asshole goth "You fucking shithead. Those aren't gladii. Gladii are short leaf bladed swords like this one. You aren't even using the right weapon type."
You curse yourself silently for adopting your legion configuration now. The thing had shit defense for arms and legs and flying blades were actually dangerous to you in this. That said you would die before you'd let this little poser bitch keep riding around calling himself the king of the gladius road, and switching to a less Legion oriented gear set would be embarrassing at this point.
The goth looked down at his blades and his eyes actually got serious. "How the fuck did you chip this? These are super alloy Z just like that old fucks belt. They're supposed to be indestructible. What is that fucking sword made of." The more important question to you was how had your blade not sheared right through them, fucking indestructible super metals. Yours was obviously better but still.
You glared hatefully at him for a second and then grinned, revving up your ATs and flashing forward across a now visible road "Your mom". You only had a single hand with a weapon. First because your hands still fucking hurt from training and second because you were now able to try out your new ability. You put your hand facing out at the base of your spine and pushed on the air, the low friction surface of the road and your own skates providing insane speed as you flashed forward at the goth bastard.
His eyes widened but he didn't lose his cool his blades flashing out at you, making sure to aim the chipped one at your face where he knew you'd have to deflect the damn thing. The other scythed out at your leg and you cursed and dashed off your road flipping out of the way. You scowled as you remembered Spitfire telling you that gravity could use their weird three dimensional spatial sense to map out escape routes and pin people down. Those blades were more annoying that you'd thought.
You snarl at the pretender, mounting your road again. You blitz toward him, but dont use your air manipulation this time. As you draw closer the blades rain down from the sky at you again, twisting midair to compensate for your movements in a way that almost seems like magic. Artisan lets you dodge like a genius but the goddamn gravity child 3d brain map power is letting him compensate for your moves.
You deflect the shot heading for your arm and lean into the blades to take the other on your chest clinking off your armor without leaving a mark. They snake back out trying again for your limbs while the other scythes toward your throat. You manage to deflect one but the other leaves a gash up your arm. You have to circle around a few times to find an opening, evcry time you get close you get pushed back by his seemingly evolving spatial mapping.
Finally you spot a hole in his blades and dash in to slam your gladius into his shoulder, eliciting a grown of rage. You lose your grip on your blade as you dash back dodging the two strikes. He reaches for your sword but you hurl a shell of void at his head and dash in to yank it free when he dodges. While he reacts to your stab you take a moment to look over at Yoshitsune.
Your mentor looks exhausted. He's running circles around the mech but he's had to block a few high speed projectiles from the debris on the ground and whatever that wall is takes it out of him. You silently wish him luck and turn back to your somehow much harder to kill than expected opponent. Yoshitsune had warned you, but Gravity Children were bullshit. Being able to effectively see perfect routes for both yourself and your opponent in three hundred sixty degree bubbles that go out for like a mile was ridiculous.
You thank your lucky stars you never had to legit fight Spitfire because he was supposed to be talented even for first gen gravity kids and the bar there was nuts. Coke even told you Spitfire was considered second in talent only to Kilik in the old days. Exhaling and shaking off the thoughts you dove back in for another strike.
You'd only given Gawaine a split second to reorient and somehow it had been enough. He lashed out at you with both blades trying to rend your limbs. You caught a few more gashes, nothing serious, but you finally noticed the weakness to his ATs. His damn regalia required insane precision. He couldn't move when he was attacking.
Bulling past a few hits tanking them on your chestplate you got to melee range and attacked. He blocked. And blocked. And kept blocking, and not moving. You grinned as you pinned him down and started to wail on his defenses with every ounce of legion skill and artisan talent. The blades flashed out to parry and harass but stationary at close range he could barely keep up. His damn space sense didnt do shit this close range, because you could read his moves just as well from here.
The battle went on for a few more minutes. The goth got progressively angrier and more afraid as you went on. If you were reading the situation wight he couldnt run unless he pulled back his blades, and you were harrying him so close that doing that would mean instant death. He was just stuck, and you were loving that shit. Finally he panic slipped and left an opening and you drove your gladius right into his fucking lung.
You grinned nastily down at the dickish goth kid who had been planning to murder your new friend and leaned down to twist the blade a bit, causing his eyes to go wide with pain and a murmur of pain to squeak out from his blood frothed lips. You leaned down far enough that only he could hear you and whispered "King of what, bitch?" Then jerked the blade up to finish it. Even assholes didnt deserve to suffer too much.
You dragged yourself up, back burning arms in ribbons legs cut to shit hands on fire and looked over at your mentor crushing the mech asshole finally just as you got done. He glided over to you, wincing at the body. "Damn kid, remind me not to piss you off." You just grinned and gave him a wink.
You slumped back against the wall, tired and sore. You were glad you hadn't bothered bringing a cure all because if you'd had you usual spare on you you'd have taken it and wasted all that damn training. As it was you were going to sleep for a week. "Wow. What a mess." You were about to nod in agreement with Yoshitsune before you froze, tired eyes you had closed opening in horror and looking at your mentor.
Yoshitsune looked back with eyes just as wide as you both looked at the beared of the very familiar voice that had just spoken. Well fuck. The guy in the mask was here. That was less than good. His mask was gone this time, presumable because he planned to murder the shit out of you both (he didn't know you'd come back in your avatars body). Of course Yoshitsune would NOT come back.
You could and would bring him back, but since this guy would know he'd killed him that would let the whole bring back the dead cat out of the bag. Which would really fuck with your ability to be in this tournament. You needed to win this tournament to leave, and as nice as some of the people were you really wanted to leave. maybe you would visit. When secret shadow wars for rollerblade supremacy werent going on.
The man formerly in the mask grinned nastily down at you, and didn't even bother with buildup. He smashed down his foot and kicked out sending shards of stone at both of you like bullets. You closed your eyes in resignation, annoyed that you would have to retrain all those shitty back muscles over again because your avatar hadnt done any of that training.
You waited for the end. And waited. Until your waiting was interrupted by a lazy british drawl. You opened your eyes at the sound to see a wall of flames separating you from your attacker as the acerbic voice asked. "Hey mate, exactly whose disciple do you think you're picking on?"
You exhale in relief at your mentor's appearance and drag yourself and Yoshitsune through your now visible gateway. The silver haired mob boss is gaping around himself at you workshop, but you can't be bothered to inform him of what's going on right now. You look around and find the girls all sitting not far away watching through the archway. Ruby smiles at you as you see them, giving a little wave. "Hey, babe, come grab a seat, we dragged the couch Randall made over here to watch. Spitfire told us not to get involved, apparently this asshole is one of the guys who crippled him originally."
You pull the trident boss to his feet and drag him over to drop down on the couch, Felicia curling up next to you as you all watch your mentor face off against the masked fuck. Well, formerly masked. Watching through the arch is surreal. The time dilation means everything is happening a bit slower than it should, which with the speed some of these fights happen at shouldn't be a big deal, but might make the talking parts annoying.
Spitfire stood outside where you had been with Yoshitsune, his trademark fur lined coat and wild red hair making his identity obvious even as his new physical upgrades youth and increased attractiveness made it hard to believe he was the same man. He smiled darkly over at hood guy "Nike. I've been wanting to do this for years you know. Having to play nice with Genesis knowing you were partly running the show always drove me mad."
Hood guy, whose eyes were amusingly also hooded, though with laziness rather than an actual hood just sneered at your mentor. "Spitfire. Looks like you got your hands on some new moisturizer. Guess looking good made you a bit over confident, you always were a shallow little dandy." Despite his sneer you could see in his aura that the casualness with which Spitfire had melted his little rock bullets was disturbing to him.
Your teacher rolled his eyes at the comment, refusing to engage. "So what's the deal with trying to kill Yoshitsune. Trident is part of Genesis. Word gets out you're killing your own people and some of your teams are going to have second thoughts about sticking around. Don't worry though, we'll make sure to tell them all about it when we hand over your charred corpse to Genesis for burial."
The brown haired hood guy, Nike you guessed, actually grinned at that. "Now there's the flame king I remember from when we were kids. Not this even tempered dandy. The man who didn't give a fuck. You always did have a temper, it's why Doctor Minami gave you that name. Yoshitsune is an aberration. A human being as a king? Talent or not it's like teaching your dog to play piano. It's cute but its not what dogs are for. The regalia belong to us, to the Gravity Children. At least the ones who can still use them. I was coming to get yours next anyway."
Spitfire's answering smile was...dark. You'd never seen him look like that. He looked vicious. Brutal. Then he vanished. At one fourth speed your mentor moved so quickly that he literally disappeared even from your enhanced cognition. The flames left behind on the roof behind him were fucking white, and from one blink to the next he was behind Nike. The other riders eyes widened and he flexed every muscle as hard as he could. A pulse of air blasted out from every side of him, shredding his shirt and pants and blowing Spitfire back about ten feet.
Nike was staring at your mentor in something akin to genuine terror. "You shouldn't be able to move like that. Not on that leg. Hell you weren't that fast even in your prime. Did someone upgrade your regalia?" He was nearly hyperventilating in panic, but slowly forced himself to calm down. "No. Doesn't matter. Speed is useless against me." He slammed his foot down, cracking the floor under him in a six foot circle. As his ATs started to vibrate the rocks and shards started to bounce toward him.
Within a few seconds his body was coated in stone and tile. He looked like some kind of demented golem. His whole body was glowing like a regalia, and you knew the regalia was actually acting on the stone even in that form, hardening his shell into something genuinely harder than metal. Spitfire just looked at the other man and smiled that dark smile, then vanished again. When he reappeared on the other side of the roof from where he had been Nike was screaming, white flames in a slash pattern across one of his thighs.
You could see seared flesh and melted rock bubble up from the wound as he snarled at your teacher. "Fuck! This isn't possible. You can't do this! I'm Nike! God of Victory! You can't beat me! You're just some washed up old has been. A cripple who isn't fit to ride my sky. You can't-" His villainous monologue was cut off by Spitfire vanishing again, Nike sputtered to a stop wheeling in circles looking for your mentor, who was clearly playing with the idiot.
As Spitfire kept up the high speed you activated aura sight looking for his. Then turned it off because the fucking aura tornado circling the rooftop was giving you a headache. However your mentor came back into view soon after. Smashed against a wall on the other side of the rooftop. You saw the crumpled form of your teacher before you heard the sonic boom from the impact, even through the arch. Another man stood next to Nike smiling gently in a red jersey and shredded khaki cargo pants, a baseball cap perched on messy brown hair.
Yoshitsune say bolt upright with a curse on the couch next to you. "Fuck! I have to go out there! That's the original fucking wind king! Spitfire is fast as hell now, but he can't take on Sora. The wing road is the fastest of the roads, and Sora is a genuine monster. Even without those cheating fucking legs." The silver haired king staggered to his feet, stumbling towards the battle outside. You saw the metallic glint of the prosthetic AT legs the other man was wearing and looked at your mentors crumpled form in the crater on that shattered wall and made a decision.
You stared at the silver haired king, and past him to your mentor, standing in front of someone you knew was considered one of the most dangerous men in this whole world, and you moved without thinking. You walked over and grabbed a vivifier vial and shoved it into Yoshitsune's hand. "You might have noticed Spitfire isnt hurt anymore, and he's stronger than he ever was. I'm sure you have questions about all of this shit, and I can answer them later, but I need your help. If you want to be able to keep up with this mess, take this vial."
Without waiting for the man to make up his mind you sped off across the floor. You stop in front of your cabinet, opening it up to stare at the black soulsteel helmet of your armor. You slip into the suit leaving your regalia on in place of the boots. Luckily the suit is highly modular so you still had shin protection even if there was a gap you didnt like. You exhale in bliss as your second skin fits back over you. The forge might have had a point about this world, you felt way too good in your suit, this couldn't be healthy.
You spotted Randall, your avatar, standing off to the side. He smiles at you "Aside from not having any training I'm sure you want me in here to play backup life if you bite it. Just make sure to use the reanimator on your other body so I can come back. Another avatar would be a person but it wouldnt be me. I'll keep an eye on things in here." You nodded at your mirror self sharing a smile with the other version of you, and considered letting him stay behind when you left.
Heading back over to the archway you see Yoshitsune adjusting to his new form. He must have taken the damn vial as soon as you turned away because you were only gone a few minutes. His face is as usual, better looking and he's in markedly better shape. He whistles at your armor "That's some edgy shit kid. Hope it can get the job done. Here's the plan. We wait for Spitfire to get up and distract them then I hit Sora from behind and take the wind out of his sails. If that armor is as sturdy as your sword you should have decent luck with Nike while Spitfire and I handle the big fish."
You glanced out at the scene of your mentor finally getting to his feet, You were thankful all over again for the time dilation effect on this place or you might have already been to late. Looking at Yoshitsune you give a firm nod he should be able to see even with the helmet on and step up to archway exhaling as you ready yourself to ride out to battle. Sora was talking casually to Spitfire as he stood up. "Well look at you old friend. All healed up. It's almost a shame to take those back from you now. You sure you don't want to get on side? It would be nice to ride together again."
Spitfire's earlier dark smile is gone, replaced by an even more alien expression. A mask of pure rage and hatred. You had never seen your laid back mentor look so angry before. "Side? What side is that? The side that killed Don? The side that turned Burn into a drunk? That broke Rika's heart and made Kilik a robot? I kept quiet about what really happened all these years because of what you lost. I thought you'd been punished enough. But even that was bullshit wasnt it. You wanted your legs gone. You planned all of this."
Sora gave an easy shrug "Most of it. Any good plan leaves room for human error but I got the broad strokes." His face shaded a bit under the brim of his cap as he bowed his head. "Don wasn't part of it. Stubborn bastard should have just handed over the regalia. The rumble was too dangerous to leave loose. Too much of a threat. But he got the last laugh anyway huh? "
The wind king let out a sad laugh "That big bastard made it easy to underestimate him. We still arent sure when he switched out the regalia core for that shitty knock off. It broke in the middle of the fight you know. That's what killed him. We even left Yoshitsune alone all these years out of respect. Helped him out now and then. Regardless your stance is pretty clear here. Sorry old friend. But even you can't be allowed to get in the way." The casual monster whose aura reeked of blood and hate kicked out lazily with one of his metal legs and a hammer of wind smashed forward at your mentor.
But it never landed. Yoshitsune was suddenly standing in front of him foot raised as the blast of wind rebounded back at the wind king. The lazy way he deflected it seemed almost amused as he stared down the two kings. "You two are full of surprises. You look like you're in perfect shape Yoshitsune. Shame for you both. If it was just me you'd be a huge problem, but Nike can take care of the rumble king easily enough. Isn't that right brother?"
He smiled smugly at the two kings. And waited. And waited. And turned to look over at his twin. Who was dead. Like. Really dead. You'd used your armors anti grav to float up behind him and drive your gladius through his back. His regalia and cement plating had done jack shit against your soulsteel why he'd though immobilizing himself and hiding behind stone plates was a good plan boggled the mind. Mobility was like half of what made storm riders dangerous. The rumble had even negated any air senses for a minute so you could get in position.
Just to be sure you'd severed the spine, stabbed the heart, and pierced the brain all in one blow. You didn't think gravity children could regenerate or anything but it seemed better to be safe. Of course, that left you standing only ten or fifteen feet from a nuclear bomb level threat with his twin brother hanging off your sword. You may not have thought this plan through.
Looking back on the discussions you've had, you recognize in hindsight that not fighting this guy without Yoshitsune was a very wise choice. The former wind king stares daggers at you, seething with rage at the sight of his twin, dead on you sword. Yoshitsune activated the ram jet as soon as he turned, and it was the only thing that saved you.
Up to this point you hadn't bothered to look as person using Aerokinesis in your aura sight. It made sense they would infuse the air they affected with aura. Having used the technique you knew that controlling air got exponentially harder the higher the volume you used. Even with artisan and the fay of training you could move about as much air as you might fit in a suburban or another large SUV. For things like aerokinetic sense that volume could be spread very thing but your grasp on the air would be practically nonexistent.
Going from say a breadbox of air control to a barrel of air control was tens of times harder, and you had expected even the best in the world could do maybe house sized sphere of influence. You had been wrong. If Yoshitsune hadn't been on this roof you would have been dead, at least in this body. Because Sora Takeuchi reached out and took control of MILES of air when he saw you standing next to his brothers body. The sudden shift of air currents as the ram jet siphoned off the attack literally took your breath away.
Air is funny stuff, you noted as you raised your doom cannon and fired a salvo of blasts right at the bastard. Even small amounts of air pressure can crack stone, fast enough wind can rip steel or cut buildings in half if condensed. Hell the pressure in your lungs was a delicate thing and if upset the could just explode, not to mention an oxygen bubble in your blood could kill you in seconds. The attack that Sora would have used to murder you was not subtle like any of those things. The ripple effect of mobilizing air currents on that scale would have affected fucking CONTINENTS, and you suspected most of this neighborhood at least would have been gone when he was done.
Gone like he was before your fucking doom cannon blasts even hit. Which was bad. You braced for getting smashed into the inside of your armor by the force of being shoved headfirst through a stone wall but it never came. Spitfire and Yoshitsune appeared in front of you, and both of them lashed out at Sora. Spitfire put every ounce of speed and friction he had into an X shaped burst of fire. Casually saying "St Elmo's Crossfire." You suspect Sora would have just shrugged the damn thing off if Yoshitsune hadn't unleashed his own attach into the flame kings absurdly hot flames.
You felt yourself smashed off your feet and be sent sailing just from the feedback of the attack. Sora's enraged face faltered for a second as he remembered even in his stunned state why the wind king wasn't supposed to fight the rumble king. Yoshitsune took that massive fucking air burst, condensed it and sent it right up the ass of Spitfires flame attack creating a solid wall of flaming pressurized air that even fucking Thor would have had trouble shrugging off.
You couldn't help but smile as you saw the wind king blown away and smashed through the air off into the distance. You watched his aura smugly, expecting to see it fade away as he died. It didnt. It just...condensed. You watched as the slippery bastard created a sphere of vacuum around himself, using the heat and pressure the condense it into a sturdier form, making a stronger shield the hotter and more pressurized the blast got. You scowled and dashed over to grab your mentors and jerked them through the archway before the fucking monster could come back.
You all collapsed, exhausted on the couch inside the arch, the girls having vacated the cushions to give you some room. Yoshitsune, whose face was white and aura was flickering even with the vivifier boost from redirecting an attack that big scowled at you. "What the fuck kid? That was our best chance to kill the bastard! We caught him off guard there! We could have finished him off."
You shook your head and were about to disabuse him of that notion when Spitfire cut in. "No we didn't." You were surprised for a second before remembering your mentors weird space sense would have been amplified by the vivifier. He noticed your shock and nodded "Yeah, I noticed too. That stupid molten shell trick is one I've seen him use before. I thought with the increased speed I might be able to blindside him while he was distracted by Nike's death but that fucker is just too damn fast. Good work on that by the way, little bastard was evil to the core."
You gave him a grin to show your thanks. "He can't get us in here, he might wreck the parlor in a fit of rage but I saw Benkei slip away when she realized we had the lackies handled thankfully." You saw Yoshitsune look around the pocket as if for the first time and scowl before opening his mouth but cut him off. "No. Not right now. We're all exhausted right now and tensions are high. I know you have questions but ask them later. For now we all need to rest."
Your second mentor looked annoyed but nodded grudgingly as Felicia came forward to lead him off to sleep. You had slept for hours before the fight but between the muscle damage you had avoided healing and the battle you were already exhausted again. Ruby led Spitfire off to one the spare beds while Nat helped you pull off your armor and laid a blanket over you as you laid down on the couch. Before you drifted off to sleep, that last thing you felt was the forge trigger.
Celestial Forge Accessed: Nice Bike (Ghost Rider) (0CP) Sufficient CP. Purchased. Total remaining CP: 1100
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Perks:
Vibranium Sample (Marvel Cinematic Universe Vol. 1) (200CP)
Vibranium is an extremely rare element that possesses unique attributes. In a pure mass, vibranium forms a solid metal that is stronger than steel, but only a third of the weight, as well as being completely vibration absorbent. This means it can absorb the impacts of a great deal of attacks, but bear in mind high-energy attacks WILL do damage... especially if it is consistent. Purchasing this gets you a container a foot in length with some Wakandan Vibranium shards that will replenish itself every month.
Nice Bike (Ghost Rider) (0CP)
You have a nice motorcycle; it's top of the line, and decorated to your tastes. If you'd like, you can import another vehicle for 100 CP, giving it a motorcycle alt-form while also translating its capabilities. Comes with a matching helmet not that you'd need one. If you'd prefer, you can turn your vehicle into a horse instead. How do light speed movement, cloaking, and missiles translate onto a horse? Hell if I know.