Unwanted Tourist…
The Warrens, is on a quite peculiar state. At least that's what anyone would hear from most of the civilians of Empire City. Two of the quarantined islands were all rebuilding normally, but the Warrens and its occupying gang, the Dust Men, are having a small incident.
Nature seems to retake one of the city blocks in the Warrens, flooding the garbage covered area with flowers and grass. It was not caused by any of the other gangs, and the supernatural phenomena seemed to start on its own and only on the Warrens. No one can come up with an explanation for this event and rumours about a new powerful conduit rose up. The Dust Men reacted poorly to this incident and sent out a group there to burn down the place. None of them returned, and the cause was discovered.
One lone person started to visit the area, sometimes even 'strolling' outside. That stroll mostly involved the person watching the Dust Men move about or sometimes attacking them during their operation or on a location. The tourist did not attack with normal means, but with unnatural abilities involving plants. Civilians run away in fear when she is outside, and there are only few who confronted her survive unscathed.
She was more than capable of defeating, a group of Dust Men in a matter of seconds. The Dust Men's retaliation was to try and reclaim their territory with more force and drive her out. Yet they failed to reclaim the area and were forced to retreat.
The Chief of Police was aware of the violence that occurred during these attacks, unable to stop each side. And they had to resort to contacting the city's hero.
Now, the unwanted tourist and the electric hero stood face to face.
Here at the center of the Warrens, the grass covered the whole area, and it revealed to be much cleaner than the other blocks. Despite the industrial state of the island, the grass around it was lush and there were no garbage or debris. A thick chain link fence was acting as the fence around the area along with a couple of buildings, but even those are slightly covered by moss. It was noon and the sun was high in the sky, brightly giving the clean garden the proper heat it deserves. Aside from the two people on the area, there was no one else nearby. And there were no obstructions between them.
On one side, right where the chain link fences gave way to the streets, was Cole MacGrath standing cautiously. Days ago he was the so-called terrorist with electrical powers that was labelled as a freak. But now his name provided comfort and hope to the citizens of Empire City. With his powers, he had protected the citizens, and would continue to do so until the quarantine of the island is lifted. He was without doubt, the hero of Empire City, defeating three leaders spreading chaos. And here he was, about to fight another one.
On the center of the growing garden, several metres away from him, was a tall Asian woman with short green hair. She was the woman who time to time, leaves her 'garden' to watch and mess with the Dust Men's plans. On a crowd, she would easily be noticed with her tall height and strange outfit. The outfit was different from anyone's in the city, a red checkered skirt with a red checkered vest over a dress shirt, certainly something that cannot be brought in the city. She also carried a parasol around wherever and whenever she went. Her body also signified maturity and many of Empire City's citizens are surprised to how she could fight so well. Many who had seen Kazami Yuuka fight say that she has the manipulation of plants and are quite fond of those. Some say she isn't even human.
Yet she looked human, and she only stood still, her red eyes locked on Cole twirling her parasol occasionally. The conduit returned the gaze while trying to focus.
There was a short silence. Both of them barely know about each other's powers, but they have an idea of what the other can do.
"So," Yuuka started with a calm tone. "You're the rumoured hero that was supposed to protect this city?"
"Yeah, and I guess you're the one messing with the Dust Men around here?"
"Those garbage men that keeps trespassing? That seems like a fitting name. They're quite annoying to be honest,"
"I could say the same. But why exactly are you here?" demanded Cole as he crossed his arms. "You just popped out of nowhere and just made this… place."
"Oh? Is it that bad for a lady to enjoy herself in a vacation?"
"I wouldn't really count beating up gangs and torturing them to be a relaxing thing for tourists,"
"I assure you they enjoyed their last moments."
"From what I heard, they were screaming in pain and begging for mercy,"
"My, my, you want to be one of them?" Yuuka raised her parasol at Cole. "Do you?"
"Hell no, I'm no masochist," electricity coursed through Cole's body before vanishing. "Last time I checked, abduction and killing isn't legal,"
"So is trespassing on a tourist's garden, which you are clearly doing."
"This, isn't even your garden to begin with," Cole raised his right arm at Yuuka, arcs of lightning coursing through. The gardener only narrowed her eyes and smiled at the action. "You're with Kessler aren't you?"
"Maybe,"
The gardener youkai only grinned and with a tilt of her parasol, some of the sunflowers close to her rose up and turned to face Cole and glowed.
Cole had fought many enemy conduits that used their powers from afar, so he had a good experience dealing with and predicting most attacks. His right hand formed a wall of electricity in front of him, just as yellow energy bullets launched from the dozens of sunflowers.
"This is new…" Cole began running to his right side as his Polarity Wall absorbed the danmaku, his shield giving him more energy. As he ran, he tossed two Shock Grenades towards his enemy. The orbs landed right beside Yuuka and her flowers, but the woman only opened her parasol. The electric orbs detonated, immediately destroying the flowers and forming a cloud of dust.
Cole stopped running and gazed at the dust cloud, not lowering down his shield. With his view obstructed, defense was important to him. He certainly doubted that this person can be taken down that fast if the rumours were true.
With a use of a radar pulse, Cole made out the electric currents in Yuuka's body, not even budging from the blast. The dust cloud vanished revealing her as she stuck her parasol downwards.
Predicting an attack, Cole jumped up and activated his Static Thrusters; just as a trio of vines suddenly sprouted from the ground and missed their chance to bind him. He spotted the vines moving about and lifted himself higher into the ground towards the chain link fence. He poured in more electricity and began to hover higher than the chain link fence's height, thinking that his enemy cannot produce plants out of concrete.
But one of the tentacle vines elongated and wrapped around his leg and slammed him face first down to the ground. The conduit grunted in pain and tried to get up, but the vine was still clamped on his leg, digging through with thorns on it. But with force, Cole managed to turn on his back and face the direction of his enemy. Two bolts of lightning launched from his hand but Yuuka only sidestepped, causing both attacks to miss.
Before Cole could align his aim, the two remaining vines wrapped around his other leg, more thorns digging through his skin. The vines then began to drag him towards Yuuka, who had now raised a fist. Even as Cole was being dragged towards Yuuka, he fired one lightning bolt after another, each one missing due to his state.
As Cole drew closer, Yuuka smirked and held her parasol tightly. But by some sort of luck, one bolt struck her directly, making her gasp and loose her grip on her parasol. The vines wrapped around Cole's legs loosened, leaving him on the ground with a one metre distance between him and the woman.
Cole took advantage of her vulnerable stance and summoned a shockwave. The blast lifted Yuuka off the ground, and her parasol was lifted off the ground causing the vines wrapped around her target to slump on the ground useless.
Cole quickly jumped to his feet, his legs healing already, and began launching lightning bolts at the rapidly rising woman. Yuuka only grunted as the shots struck her repeatedly, a feeling of numbness spreading throughout her body, unable to move properly due to the Shockwave's Reverse Magnetism. But when effect constricting her vanished, Yuuka grew out wings and flew upwards, dodging the rest of the bolts.
Cole wasn't even surprised when the woman began flying around. He did catch a peek of her undergarments, but instead of being distracted he focused on attacking where he thought the woman was heading. Yet the flying woman dodged the bolts, with a casual smile despite grazing the attacks. Seeds not visible to Cole fell from her sleeves and rained on the ground below, digging through the soil.
After a minute of attacking, Cole was suddenly knocked off his feet by a burst of energy. He quickly rolled up and spotted a batch of sunflowers that grew from the ground, the seeds already fully grown. Another batch was growing nearby, already increasing the number of Cole's attackers.
He decided to change his tactics and sent out a small jolt of electricity in his brain. Time seemingly slowed down on his perspective, he summoned his Polarity Wall and blocked a burst of Polarity Wall. With a quick scan of the sky, he located Yuuka. Cole raised his hand, and launched Precision before rolling away, dodging another volley of danmaku.
With how Yuuka is moving quite slow and the Precision's mind accelerating affects, Cole's Precision easily got a headshot from her. The blast emitted a yelp of pain from her and sent her rolling in the air, yet she still held on her parasol. She recovered her balance and scowled at the man below her. Tree roots began growing from Yuuka's back and slowly formed a full body armor and mask of some sort. Cole was still busy avoiding sun flowers below, which now numbered into eight batches.
Yuuka smirked as she opened her parasol and pointed it below, the tip slowly becoming brighter and brighter.
From below, Cole just summoned another shockwave to flatten another batch of sunflowers, reflecting some of the attacks thrown at him. He was pelted by another streak of energy bullets that got around his shield, but he remained standing from the attacks and launched another shockwave. That left him with only four more sunflower batches that he could easily counter. That's when he spotted the glowing light from above him.
After charging up enough energy, Yuuka's face twisted into a wicked grin and she released her attack as a massive beam of energy towards the ground. Cole let out a curse and fled from the Master Spark. The beam of energy tore through ground, following Cole's trail, inevitably closing the distance between them. The sunflowers around the area were also taking pot shots at him, but a Polarity Wall and Cole's fast movement prevented the conduit from being hit.
Detecting that the sunflowers were still alive, Cole decided to try out a small theory of his on the flower loving woman. Just as the beam was about to devour him, he turned and ran towards a batch of sunflowers with his Polarity Wall. With a jump and his Static Thrusters, he flew over the flowers and landed on the other side, right in front of a chain link fence.
Cole turned to face the airborne youkai and began launching orbs of lightning towards her. Yuuka was in no position to dodge as she was maintaining a beam of death in place, but each Megawatt Hammer missed and travelled past her. That's when the batch of sunflowers Cole flew over grew out vines. The vines elongated and latched onto his legs, trapping in him place.
Yuuka smirked and slowly steered Master Spark towards the man, giving time for the flowers to wriggle out of the way.
Cole struggled to get out, but the vines were stronger and his electrical energy was getting low. With a grunt, he launched four lightning bolts at the youkai, making sure not to use up all his energy. Two struck the wooden mask Yuuka wore while the rest struck where her armor was. The electricity vanished the moment it made contact with the non-conductive wood.
"Wood doesn't make good targets for your power, human," taunted Yuuka loudly, assured of her victory.
With Cole's arms unable to perform any action that will save him, and the Master Spark slowly closing in on him, any bystander watching the fight would think that the battle is done. That's what the gardener thought before Cole's Megawatt Hammers returned and rained down on her from behind, detonating in large blasts.
Because of the four electrical blasts, Yuuka's centre of gravity was disrupted and she was sent spiralling down, landing close to the center. Her spell was cancelled and her parasol that was guiding the Master Spark Spell was flung into the air: the beam of destruction dissipating into nothing right before it reached her target. Cole was not devoured by the Master Spark, and the vines binding him was struck by the remaining energy and burnt out, freeing him. He let out a breath he was holding and got back to his feet.
As if remembering, Cole summoned a Polarity Wall just in time to stop a barrage of energy from Yuuka's surviving sunflowers. Arcs of lightning covered his arms as he recovered some of his energy. The sunflowers seem to notice how their attacks gave him energy and they stopped attacking, but Cole had already regained half of his energy.
"Wood doesn't really block explosions," muttered Cole as he inspected the damage of his attacks.
The sunflower batches nearby remained in place, not even sending out its regular attack patterns. A group of vines protruded from the ground and weaved towards Cole, but a shockwave flattened out the attack. He continued to walk towards the centre of the garden; summoning two Polarity Walls, each facing his sides.
"Hmm, cheap but clever move,"
Yuuka's voice made Cole jump back. Tree roots began to grow around the woman as she started to stand up. Vines reached out for the conduit but he rolled away, avoiding capture. As he avoided another one of those tentacle vines' capture attempt, the batches of sunflowers nearby grew out vines. Each vine connected to Yuuka and was slowly dragged towards her. By the time Cole was a good distance away from his opponent, the gardener youkai was now sporting a wooden full-body armor of some sort, barely showing her face.
"What the hell," Cole growled as he seized up Yuuka's new armor.
He slowly drew closer to the chain link fences, trying to think up of a strategy. He stood up, and threw a pair of Megawatt Hammers into the sky. He launched a lightning bolt at Yuuka, but wooden roots grew from the ground around her. Each extended and grabbed the chain link fences nearby.
Although Cole dodged the wooden roots, he barely escaped the chain link fences that were pulled in towards the woman.
"You're putting up quite a fight for an outsider." Yuuka remarked as she waved her hand and blocked a lightning bolt. "I guess I should start actually putting effort into my attacks
A fortress made out of wooden roots and section of chain link fences formed around her before Cole's attack could return. The Megawatt Hammers rained down on the fortress, but the wooden barricade held strong. Sunflowers and wooden vines were also blooming out of the Wooden Fortress, readying to attack. A few more lightning bolts launched into the fortress, hitting it directly. But the lightning was redirected into the chain link fences, fully protecting Yuuka.
"Are you running out of options electric man?" she taunted from inside her fortress. Her sunflowers began to take potshots at the conduit and the vines slowly elongated, spreading about. Cole turned around and ran outside of the garden's boundaries, heading towards an electric source.
Confident in the fortress' durability, Yuuka peered through one of the Fortress' open areas that were barricaded by a chain link fence. She only spotted Cole just in time to see him standing right beside a lamppost, on an odd stance; the man having his arms raised into the sky.
The whole area dimmed downed as sounds of lightning rang around the garden. A storm was being gathered at the sky, the clouds barely illuminating the garden. Yuuka frowned and with a flick of her hand, more tree roots covered her fortress, knowing full well what was about to happen.
Cole unleashed the Lightning Storm at the fortress, continuously absorbing the electricity from a lamppost. The wooden fortress held quite firmly despite trying to block the storm, and for a moment, Cole thought about aborting the attack.
Then the wooden fortress collapsed inwards, destroying the sunflowers above it, giving way for the Lightning Storm to strike his enemy. Cole would've smirked, but his attack was straining his body and the strain was too great for him to even open an eye. He held the storm for several seconds before stopping. The lightning storm dissipated with a lasting thunderclap, the lights of the city returning, but much more dimmer now as he had almost drained the whole block dry.
Cole shakily let out a breath, as his energy was drained from the Lightning Storm. For a moment, he had a faint thought that his enemy might have escaped. He decided to search for another lightning source aside from the lamp post, knowing full well what a blackout could do. He walked to a stop right beside a car, before draining its battery dry. He approached a second car and began draining it energy.
Before he could finish, a very strong object struck him at the chest, sending him rolling back towards the garden. With his doubts of his enemy not defeated gone, Cole jumped back to his feet, ignoring the ache of his body. He immediately spotted his opponent, right where he was awhile ago.
The moment electricity travelled through his veins, a strong hand clamped on his head and slammed him to the ground. Although the ground wasn't hard enough to deal much damage, vines grew from it and pinned him firmly to the ground, keeping him in place.
The person, who had attacked him with the parasol, was still on the garden's borders, walking towards him. Yuuka was completely unscathed, her clothing clean and not sporting the wooden armor, despite being hit by the lightning storm recently. And the parasol that she used with her was also with her.
The other Yuuka, the one that had pinned him to the ground, was the one that suffered the Lightning Storm. She still wore the wooden armor, but it was charred and risked falling apart, having took the majority of the damage. Her entire body was still affected and was blackened and mutilated, not a pretty sight to see. Yet Cole could see that she was still smiling behind her wooden mask.
He struggled with his bindings, but to no avail. Then a tip of a parasol was pressed on his back.
"Very well played!" she remarked. "Would've defeated me if that was actually me. Wait, no, even then I'd still survive,"
"It was still painful," The other Yuuka murmured despondently. "Honestly, my skin's all burnt up."
"Ah, sorry about that," the one with the parasol said. "I probably should've been a lot more serious. I never thought he could actually deal some damage."
"Is that why you only gave me only sixth of your power?" the other one asked sulkily.
"I thought you can handle something like him without even being damaged."
Cole growled and arcs of electricity formed in his arms. But with how he was pinned, he wouldn't be able to form an attack that would reach them. That's when he felt the pressure of two parasols pressed on him.
"You put up quite a fight!" the burnt one cheerily said. "But you would have survive longer if you left and attacked from afar,"
"Then again I did ambush you in the end," the other one added. "But even then, you just need a bit more training."
"Who the hell are you!?" Cole suddenly screamed out, electricity coursing through his body.
"Oh my, oh my, I think we angered him,"
"It couldn't be helped. Anger can be a good motivation to fight more ferociously,"
"Well he can't fight anymore on this state,"
Cole felt heat from at both parasols' tips. Instantly reminded of the Master Spark attack that was used on him, he began struggling as the attack charged, putting much more force for each passing second. When he his skin started to burn, Cole gritted his teeth as he thought if it was possible to survive the attack. He threw that thought out of his head almost instantly upon remembering the damage it did.
"By the way, we don't work for Kessler. If you want to be stronger, meet me,"
The small burst of energy released from the Parasols promptly blasted Cole, forming a crater on the ground and knocking him out.
The two Kazamis faced each other and sighed before placing a flower over the conduit's body.
"Honestly he killed Kessler already and knows what's going to happen. He needs to relax more," the charred Yuuka murmured.
"He'll get better," stated the other Yuuka. Both of them walked away from the area, despite the event.
Rewrited, but still crappy.
Review this if you want, I don't care. Its not like I want it or anything. Its not like it'll boost my confidence. Its not like I'm thankful for your reviews or anything.