Second Degree Burns


A freezing heaviness bit deep into my back, making me drop on the ground a roll-out of the following slash of sunlight. I rose to my feet quickly, my left arm rising behind my back to assess the damage made to me while I held the sword threateningly in front of me.

Legend floated still several meters above me, his open palms pointed at me like the weapons they were: "Why wait until now?" I curiously asked through my clenched teeth, causing the 'hero' to frown under his blue and silvery-white mask.

Before he could answer, I rippled with reiatsu, shattering the glass-like ice that attempted to still me and bltzing him: my first swing was telegraphed enough for him to duck with human-like speed, but that left him exposed for the kick that nailed him in the shoulder as I spun on my left foot, momentum being conserved and redirected.

I felt the impact reverberate solidly through my foot, and as my target was blown from his position, I followed, only for his body to turn in a streak of light a split second later.

In his breaker state, Legend was admittedly faster than me, but it worked only for movements that fully displaced his body, and for all of his skill, there was an abyss between us, a cliff built with the neverending experiences of Yamamoto. As such, my head turned where he landed basically at the same time he left the shape of a 'streak of light'.

"No fighting back?" I taunted him, seeing how winded he already was, only after a mere kick to the side. How frail can one of the 'greatest heroes' be?

He didn't answer, pursing his lips in a way that managed to express his contempt for the situation, and then he disappeared at the speed of light.

But only because he was capable of moving at the speed of light, it didn't mean that I couldn't anticipate him, even with his eyes hidden, I could track him through the small flickering of his soul. I kicked behind me, reiatsu slamming through him and sending him careening off, still in the form of a bolt of light.

None worse for wear, he returned to his human form twenty meters above me, and I actually took in his wavy brown hair and a square jaw. He was tall, with a lean, muscular physique. He wore a skintight sky blue costume with white lightning/flame designs. His costume includeds boots and white gloves.

Even dressed up as he was, I didn't need to see his frown to perceive he was conflicted.

"I wanted to end this fight as fast as possible," Legend spoke, his voice carrying through the air with the same certainty of his laser-like blows.

I shook my head minutely, refusing his implicit request for surrender: he would need much more than that. But on the other hand, showing to the world that I could flip Legend like a pancake could bring many to rally behind my banner, or at least could scary many meaningless villains away from me and my aims, thusly making my work that much faster.

Then he charged, turning into a streak of light. I took a step back and raised the sword, instinctively trying to parry, but his downward slash of reddish lasers had been a feint, and I was flung off my feet by what felt like a kick slamming into my chest. I rolled back up in time to rise my blade, only to feel once more the cold bite of glass-like ice on my shoulders.

I carelessly broke it and shot forward, low on the ground trying to keep some distance from me and my last opponent. In that moment, I became too fast for the regular Protectorate members to attack me.

You need my name.

I shook my head, ignoring the buzzing in my ears as I didn't leave the man out of my sight. He came at me again, almost but not quite playing with me, tearing apart my defense by simply being faster, and grunting with satisfaction any time that one of his fast as light attacks landed.

The ground boiled, turned into ice, and then simply was vaporized as I dodged each one of his attacks, varying the speed of my movements and shooting myself back in order to avoid being corraled in the direction he wanted me to.

A larger than ever beam of grey light zeroed in on me, forcing me to use my Zanpakutō in a blocking motion: the attack split like water against the rocks, exploding the side of the road I was on just as Legend's red-hot laser tried to char me.

Forced by his constant series of attacks, I was directed from the roads into a previously evacuated park, and still he rained all manner of lasers on me.

"Bakudō #39: Enkōsen." a dull yellow energy blossomed in front of me, taking the form of a large spinning disk of condensed Reiatsu, blocking my opponent's attack. Half a second later I ducked a grey-white beam, that curved around my chosen shield and attempted to strike me, hitting instead a tree which was immediately covered by stone.

I slashed with my blade, deflecting a green laser while I manipulated and threw my reiatsu in the opposite direction, following an istinct refined through millennia of war more than my senses: "Bakudō #62: Hyapporankan."

A blue-white glowing rod of energy left my hand only to multiply itself a hundred times.

Legend had already decided the path he would take, and The Hundred Step Balustrade rained down on my target, pinning him against a one of the concrete walls of the building that covered one end of the park.

He looked almost like a moth of some entomologist: his back was forced against the wall, while the steely bars surrounded by a lilac haze punctured him in three places. Admittedly, that he managed to avoid so much of my binding kido was more due to the fact that I spread the effect over an impressive area, but leaving the gaps between each bar too small to be exploited by the 'hero'.

Legend had managed to avoid most of the binding bars that I threw at him, but I neverhteless pinned him by his left arm and both legs: "You're fast enough." I almost aknowledged, "but you need to slow considerably everytime you attack, this makes you extremely predictable."

I shaped the reiatsu instinctively, rising from my the ground as if I was walking some stairs, and without even breathing heavily I rose to his position.

"You don't need to fight the Protectorate." Legend managed to grit out even as he tried to turn into his Breaker form to slip away from my binding Kido. Good luck with that.

I almost wanted to scoff in disdain, but before today, I wouldn't have believed possible that an attack would strike the soul of someone: "Don't I? How long would have it taken you to rid my city of the likes of Lung and Kaiser? From my point of view, you're just as bad as them. You don't prey on the innocents only because you are paid to fight the oppressors, you're paid to stay in New York, and so, every minute of your time is better wasted there than spent where it is needed."

He was good, his eyes didn't betray anything, but my sensing abilities proved more than enough to summersault a cape that attempted to fly into my back. Nevertheless, the newcomer turned on a dime, landing a punitive elbow that I barely managed to shield from by crossing my forearms.

The blow landed with a strength that was absolutely insane, and threw me away from my position almost faster than I could perceive.

Once more, I tilted my body, reiatsu moving instinctively and making me land on my feet, still several meters from the ground. I observed dispassionately as the woman freed her teammate, she was tall and muscular, with long straight black hair. Alexandria.

Her hands closed around the bars pinning Legend in place with uncaring power, ripping them away in the same time it took me to return on my feet, my sword ready.

She wore a black costume with a skirt, knee-high boots and elbow-length gloves. It was black and light gray, with an image of a tower in the center of her chest. The costume featured a wide, heavy cape that flowed over her shoulders and fluttered almost gently in the air. Alexandria was imposing when she wanted to, and when she turned towards me, Legend breaking into a streak of light that disappeared from my senses, I could admit that the newcomer did somewhat manage to live up to her reputation.

Strange, I thought: she moved much faster than sound, and yet, there was no sonic boom, almost as if she was a spirit fighting in Hueco Mundo instead of a person of flesh and blood.

With no transition from stillness to her top speed, she was on my face, a knee-thrust barely diverted in time with a swipe of my off-hand: my sword rose in an upward slash with reiatsu empowering it. I had already transitioned to a fighting form that made use of my right to wield my sword and my left to direct the kido I summoned: that was effective against Legend, and it served me better against Alexandria, because I could keep up the pressure at a distance if needed.

Then the fight began in earnest.

She moved, much slower than Legend in his breaker state, but much more dangerous: there was no transition between attack and movement, and she was aware of every centimeter of her body, using each part almost independently to attack, constantly diverting my sword-arm, keeping me from landing a blow.

I tilted my head back just enough to avoid a punch, my retaliatory slash diverted by a kick throwing my shoulder off just the needed amount to avoid injury, but she couldn't escape the kick that landed on her left hip, spinning her while I stabbed lightly forward, the unforgiving edge of my sword piercing her skin uncaring of her vaunted Brute Rating.

She exhaled in an annoyed hiss because of the unexpected injury, and spun with the momentum I had given her with my kick, adding to it before trying to land her left boot against my temple.

With no warning of any kind, her speed transitioned from horizontal to vertical and I brought forth my left hand, snatching her ankle out of the air and heaving in a direction that opposed the one she was flying in: she didn't hesitate in changing direction, a dropping ax-kick landing solidly against my right shoulder.

Grunting minutely under the impact, I didn't abandon my tentative hold, squeezing with the significant amount of the strength that my soul granted me, and I stepped forward: the leg forced between me and the cape bent at the knee while the one she used to kick me tried to close around my neck in something that would resemble a choking hold.

Forced by the position, I reverse gripped my weapon and rammed the hilt under her ribs, forcing her to empty her lungs with a grunt that tore through her clenched teeth. Faster than even she could react to, my hand left her ankle and closed around her neck while I dropped us to the ground, in which I choke-slammed her as a repayment for her attempt at strangling me.

The frail concrete of the road buckled almost like a wave under the force of the blow, and I tilted my head minutely as I considered the situation: no member of the Triumvirate had ever come to Brockton Bay when Lung rampaged. And two of them arrived just after my Trigger? There was something wrong.

Reiatsu flooded the surroundings as I straddled the hero, my left squeezing her throat while I tried to fight off the devastating blows she attempted to deliver to my liver to free herself. Truly, her ability to ignore the conservation of momentum makes her dangerous.

She suddenly heaved leveraging her core muscles, trying to reach my face with a movement so explosive and sudden that my left elbow bent a little. Still, experience allowed me to stop her from getting free: my head crashed against hers when she tried to close her arms around my neck, the reiatsu flowing through me gifting me a resilience that easily matched her impossibly sturdy nature.

Still in a reverse grip, I rose my blade to stop a bullet made of glowing green energy from impacting my temple, my eyes pinpointing Miss Militia as the origin: she was placed as a sniper on the top of a building, far enough to be 'safe' from retaliation, but close enough to break the fight in favour of her side.

And a moment of distraction was all that Alexandria needed to break free: both her arms crashed on my left elbow with enough strength to make my arm bend the power in my hold over the heroine wavering minutely.

In a split second, Alexandria took in a ragged breath and clasped her chin against the hollow of her throat just before a punch landed on my own throat.

I twisted my torso with a serpentine movement, grimacing when my shoulder was the one to feel the impact of her opposition and grunting when she delivered another punch just under my ribs. I deflected a second bullet with the hilt of my weapon and inched back in order to avoid another blow to the head from the Triumvirate member.

With that minute shift in balance, Alexandria flew away from under me at her top speed, only to deliver a kick to my face that I parried with my sword: the flat of the blade ringing thunderously against the boot-clad foot of my opponent.

The debris around us quivered and was displaced in a circular pattern because of the impact, and an instant later we were once more trading blows, experience and instinct carrying me through the motions while I elaborated what I had just witnessed: besides redirecting my sword at the best of her ability, she had defended herself only when I tried to suffocate her. Could it be?

"Are you out of air?" I ducked under a retaliatory swing only to kick away at an incoming blow, my sword now returning to be held in both my hands as I fully engaged in a close-quarter exchange with the most powerful Brute that the world had.

Her face remained impassible, but her increased ferocity was answer enough. Containment then. I didn't wish to kill her, and to subdue her in hand-to-hand I'd need both my hands-free: but I wasn't going to relinquish my sword.

Soon, the opportunity presented itself: Alexandria punched with her left, my free hand lashing out to grab her only for the woman to turn on a dime, no inertia nor momentum working against her as she changed direction immediately, appearing on my right, her left leg already kicking my sword arm sideways and preventing me from cutting her: with my feet pointing in the wrong direction, my right arm too far from the heroine to ward her away, she hammered forth, aiming just under my ribs on my uncovered side.

But crossing my torso, my left hand pointed in her direction, and I won: "Bakudō #73: Tozanshō."

The energy was manipulated and directed with a frown threatening to appear on my face: we were nearing the level of Demonic Arts that I'd need an enchantment to properly perform, but given its effects, I'd hardly need anything else to win the fight. The spell ignited at a single point, blue energy extending upward to four points as it formed an inverted pyramid, solidifying into a barrier around Alexandria, which was now trapped.

Impassible, the cape started to hammer in several different patterns against the barrier, trying to figure out how to shatter it. Once again, I wanted to scoff disdainfully: Good luck with that.

So easily I dispatch them? I asked myself. Oh, sure, I had received some blows here and there, but nothing that I couldn't fight through. Legend was easy enough to predict, and he was as frail as they came once you managed to land a blow, Alexandria was much more annoying, especially given that I I didn't want to kill her, but finding an effective way of trapping her hadn't taken long at all.

With no warning, the light hit me like a hammer between my shoulder blades, too fast for me to react properly to it, slamming me against my own binding spell, only for it to crack when an incredible force from within as Alexandira slammed exactly where I landed.

Reiatsu was shaped once more and I flung myself into the air, the cracking barrier left behind while I brandished my blade. Faster than ever before, I moved, zeroing in on Legend, who apparently had the time to get himself healed and return, only for him to disappear in another streak of light, appearing over the inverted blue pyramid that kept Alexandria from joining the fight.

You need my name.

I shook my head once more, momentarily distracted.

And then a strange laster beam apparently created a funnel of strangely warped light that phased through the boundaries of the inverted pyramid, freeing Alexandria as if it was Tuesday.

"How surprising." I deadpanned, bringing both hands on the hilt of my sword and taking a deep breath.

The actual fight was about to begin.


AN

Nothing of note in this chapter, a bit short, I know, but I want to run through this introduction as fast as I can while making it action-packed, which is something I don't do often enough in my opinion.

Y'all already know what that name will imply, but I think that I need to push Taylor a bit more before having her start to do some serious soul-searching, so the next chapter will see 'Third Degree Burns' as the title.