The automatic doors swung open as Armarhino approached, their specific, oversized design allowing him to enter the hotel without the dilemma of either ducking his head or getting a doorframe to the forehead. The lobby was deserted, all kinds of luggage and bags strewn across the room, discarded in a panic as the hostage taker made his entrance. Around him, Armarhino could hear weeping and crying, punctuated by the occasional terrified shriek, and the occasional shout from what Armarhino assumed was the hostage taker. From his tone of voice, the hostage taker seemed erratic and stressed (a dangerous mix), so as soon as Armarhino figured out where the shouts where coming from, he began to carefully make his way over, moving as fast as he could while still looking passive and safe, and held his hands high in the air.
By the time he rounded the corner, the hostage taker already had his rifle aimed squarely at Armarhino's chest, gripping the weapon with a white-knuckled grip.
"Who are you!?" He shouted, scanning the towering hero up and down. "Get down, join the others!" He commanded, but Armarhino didn't follow it.
"Easy now, I'm a hero," He replied, keeping his tone level. A hushed whisper ran through the crowd, the hostages' expressions turning hopeful as they heard the news. The hostage taker whipped around and shouted, commanding the hostages to keep quiet. He left the rifle aimed at Armarhino throughout, but the hero didn't want to risk charging the man, as he could get a shot off at any time, or potentially activate his Quirk. A Quirk completely unknown, that could bring all manner of disastrous consequences.
"Hero?" The man was confused, until recognition dawned on him, "Yes… Heroes," He relaxed his grip on the rifle, but still kept it aimed at Armarhino, "You've arrived, but for what purpose?"
"I'm here to try and reach a peaceful end to this… situation," Armarhino began, choosing his words carefully. The hostage taker was in a clearly unfit mental state, and he didn't want to risk setting him off in any way. "I don't want anyone to get hurt, or for this situation to go on for any longer than it has to,"
"There is no end to this situation," The man replied, "not for either of us. This room is not the final stand, there are many more battles to be fought. An end in this room is not in your fate, the prophecy says otherwise."
Inwardly, Armarhino cursed. The man was probably off his rocker, raving about prophecy and fate, leaving the hero little in the way of coherent rhetoric to pick out some form of resolution from. He still didn't like his chances if it came down to a fight, and more importantly, the hostages were getting restless again, prompting another order for silence.
He was still grasping for a way to resolve this mess when he saw something. Behind the hostage taker, the elevator doors began to slowly open as a strange black tendril pried them apart. The hero had to fight to keep his attention focused on the hostage taker, as to not give anything away, but out of the corner of his eye, he watched as the owner of the black tendril peeked out of the shadows of the elevator shaft. It was a boy, about fourteen or fifteen, with very short black hair, just barely above his scalp, and dark brown eyes. He made eye contact with the hero, and grinned, offering a two-fingered salute as a greeting. He pointed at the hostage taker, and then at the hero, offering a thumbs up, then pointed towards the hostages, and towards the elevator. Armarhino felt his eyebrow twitch, but he caught on.
"What does this prophecy say then?" Armarhino asked. He felt good about his odds that the hostage taker would take his bait, and sure enough, the man launched into another rambling speech.
"Discarded steel will be reforged into the strongest blade," The man ranted, his rifle starting to lower as his speech got more animated, "But those swords alone cannot fight the oncoming tide. The winds of war blow, and will swallow this land whole,"
Thankfully, the man's speech was loud enough to cover any sound the hostages made, as they scurried past the madman and down into the elevator, disappearing into the darkness. But they still had a lot more hostages to get to safety, so Armarhino pressed on.
"Winds of war? War with who, or what?"
"War with the shadows. But shadows flee from the light, and you cannot fight what you cannot find. Only those who have walked in the shadow can show you how to fight this war."
As the man spoke, an unsettling weight began to take hold in Armarhino's gut. He wanted to dismiss the man's words as the insane ramblings they resembled, but something about his warnings took an uncomfortable hold within him. The way he talked about the light while staring at Armarhino clued him into what he was alluding to, which made his talk of a shadow hero's couldn't fight raise some uncomfortable questions. In hindsight, Armarhino was almost glad the man's raving was so enthralling, as it kept him from glancing at the escaping hostages, and the young man helping them escape.
"And what does your prophecy say about you and me?"
The man's stare seemed to pierce through Armarhino, as he focused his bloodshot eyes on the hero. "Your fate is not written in stone yet, hero. The actions you take will change your destiny. Beyond this encounter, I cannot tell you."
They were down to the last few hostages, but Armarhino was also running out of questions. More importantly, he'd spotted something quite… interesting. If he'd had the freedom to react, he would have spit out any water he was drinking, but he had to settle for a long protracted stare that threatened to give them both away. One of the hostages wasn't quite the nameless citizen he'd first assumed they were. In fact, they were someone he knew quite well. A pro-hero, out of costume, sat silently among the few remaining hostages.
It was Naruko, another mid-tier hero, though compared to where Armarhino sat on the rankings she might as well have been in the top ten. They'd worked together twice in Armarhino's memory, and they had been some of the most dangerous, and yet most interesting, operations in all of his career.
As they made eye contact, she flashed him a knowing smile and a wink, something that didn't help his stress. She tilted her head at the young man in the elevator.
"Is he with you?" She mouthed, her eyebrows and the rest of her face carrying the rest of the message across: Didn't think you had a sidekick.
He ignored her, or at least he tried to. The revelation that another Pro Hero was here, especially one like Naruko, should have cheered him up, but Naruko's history was a colourful one, and situations always seemed to be more dangerous than they appeared when she was around. Besides, as much as he didn't like to admit it, she knew all his buttons and tells, and could poke basically as many holes in the unflappable exterior he projected as she wanted. And without a way to fire back at her barbs, he was feeling more than a little put out.
With one half of his mind was too busy trying to process the prediction he was hearing, another half trying to come to terms with the fact that he was seriously listening to the ravings of a madman, and a third part that he didn't think existed trying to process Naruko's presence, an unpleasant question came to mind, and before Armarhino could think about it, he blurted it out.
"So why are you doing...whatever this is?"
As the words left his mouth, he cursed inwardly to himself. Of all the questions to ask, he had to ask about the hostages. One of the few things he didn't want the madman paying attention to. He clenched his knuckles, preparing to attack if the situation went south, but the hostage taker continued his rant after taking a swig from an unmarked flask he produced from somewhere in his jacket.
"An insurance policy." He answered, "Something is going to happen, tonight, in this very building. I intend to be here, as a witness, or as a performer. These hostages will ensure that no-one disturbs anything."
"Something?" Armarhino asked, "That's not a lot to go on, how do you know it hasn't already happened?"
"Do you think me a fool, hero?" The madman replied, "I watched everyone as they entered or left this lobby, none of them are the sort of people that make the kind of change that matters in this world. Not like you or me." He seemed to recover slightly from his outburst, recentering the grip on his rifle, "So I will wait, until whatever is fated comes to pass. And no-one will interfere, or else risk the safety of these…" His voice trailed off as he turned and, with a sweeping gesture, indicated to the now almost entirely empty room, with only Armarhino, Naruko, the hostage taker, and the young man who had helped free the hostages, who now stood casually against the elevator doors, his left arm tucked into his pocket while the other hung limply at his side.
A heavy silence descended upon the room, as the hostage taker blinked, trying to process what just happened. "Nice job, hero," The young man said, once again saluting Armarhino, "If you hadn't kept him talking, that could have turned out far worse, even with this lady's help."
"Excuse me-" Naruko began, but Armarhino interrupted.
"Down!" He shouted, as he dove in between the hostage taker and the others. While they had been talking, the madman had recovered from his surprise, and swung his rifle around to aim at the young man, his finger curling around the trigger as he moved. Armarhino only had enough time to do one thing, either try and take out the madman before he could shoot, or protect the young man, letting his armour absorb the impact and make sure he was safe. He took the option he trusted most, he was no speedster, but he'd been shot at enough to know he could take it.
As he dived in the way, Naruko reacted, as though they'd planned it out beforehand. Three kicks happening so fast, it was as if they were one single, fluid move. The first kicked the barrel upward as the man pulled the trigger, sending the spray of bullets into the ceiling, sending a rain of plaster down on everybody. The second went into the man's stomach, and Armahino swore he heard the sharp sound of ribs cracking even as the man got the wind knocked out of him. The third slammed the poor guy right in the jaw, lifting him clean off his feet. Naruko brought her foot down, slamming the man into the floor with her foot on his chest.
The man wheezed and cringed in pain. Yeah, he probably has a few cracked ribs, Armarhino thought, as he watched Naruko demolish the man. It wasn't a surprise to him, he'd seen her in action, and even been on the receiving end of one of her kicks during a particularly heated sparring session. He could say with good authority that tanking those bullets from the hostage-taker's rifle would be more comfortable than taking Naruko's heel to the jaw, at least for him.
By the time the young man recovered from his shock, the fight (yes, Armahino told himself; that was definitely a fight) was already over. He blinked in surprise, but quickly shook it off. He glanced around the hotel lobby, seemingly satisfied, and made his way over to Armarhino. He offered the hero his fist, a casual smile on his face.
"You guys work fast when you're not putting on a show," He said, "Its a lot easier when there's no-one out there to impress, right?"
"It's faster when there isn't anyone nearby to get hurt." Armarhino corrected, "Like you, for example. Why didn't you leave with the other hostages, and let the pros handle it?"
"Hey, its not my first fight," The young man began, "I've taken odds better than that, and won, I don't need a babysitter,"
"You almost needed a funeral," Naruko's voice came from her position by the criminal. She was kneeling on top of him, her knee digging into his back while she wrapped duct tape around his wrists, binding him tight. "Or are you saying those shadowy tentacles of yours could catch every single bullet and not one could even get close? At least we're paid for what we do."
"I have capture tape you know," Armarhino commented, as he watched her bind the criminal,
"This was faster, and you were busy. Mine's still with my costume." She answered, as she finished wrapping the criminal in tape.
"I wasn't going to let him shoot me forever," The young man replied, "I've beaten guys with guns before, I know what I'm doing."
Armarhino shook his head, as he walked over to the criminal and grabbed him, hefting him onto his shoulder as though he was a sack of potatoes. He made sure to keep his hands turned away and his eyes facing front, so that he couldn't aim any kind of quirk at him, at least till they got out of the lobby. The man groaned in pain as his cracked ribs shifted, but went quiet soon after. "What's your name, kid, and why are you out here?"
The young man opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, the lobby windows exploded inwards, as the SWAT team stormed the building, shouting commands as they surrounded the group of three. Wait, three?
Just then, Naruko reappeared at Armahino's side, finally in her Pro Hero costume, and a few officers jogged up to take the criminal from the Pro-Heroes, cutting the duct tape around his wrists and replacing them with anti-quirk cuffs. A larger group of officers surrounded the young man, still reeling from the explosive entry the heroes were so accustomed to. They forced him to his knees, wrestling his hands behind his head and into another set of anti-quirk cuffs, before hauling him to his feet, and frog marching him towards the door.
The police captain jogged up to join the heroes, obscuring their view of the young man being carted off.
"Excellent work, Armarhino! And Naruko too, I didn't know you were here. Must have been a cinch with two heroes working together, I'm just glad no-one got hurt." He loudly exclaimed over the clamour in the background.
"All in a day's work." Armarhino replied, firing off his automatic response to anyone trying to congratulate him, "What's happening with that kid? Why's he getting arrested too?"
"Criminal charges, he's got a wrap sheet a mile long." The captain answered, waving his hand dismissively. "Breaking and entering, assault, unlicensed usage of Quirk for violence, and also vigilantism. Don't worry about him, we'll make sure he ends up where he belongs."
Out of the corner of his eye, Armahino noticed Naruko's smirk fading from her eyes.
"Where he belongs-" Armarhino began, but Naruko quickly jabbed him in the ribs. He shot her a sharp look, but she put her finger on his lips.
"We'll talk later," She muttered, apparently not realising what she was doing, or that she was drawing the attention of more than a few bystanders. "If you're worried about the kid, I know a way you can help."
Armarhino wanted to think of a reply, but Naruko was currently occupying most of his brain right now, and by the time she took her finger away and began to make her way out of the hotel, he was still trying to puzzle his thoughts back together. He quickly jogged out after her, leaving the police to clean up the scene.
He caught up to her just clear of the police cordon, and they fell into stride with each other as they made some distance from the hotel.
"Watch where you're putting your fingers next time," Armarhino broke the silence, "Else we're going to end up in some gossip magazine,"
"Whatever do you mean?" Naruko replied with a smile, and as usual, Armarhino couldn't quite tell if she was serious. He shook his head, and changed the subject.
"So what's this rescue plan of yours?"
A cautious expression crossed Naruko's face, and she glanced up and down the street.
"I'd prefer to have this talk in private. Technically I shouldn't even tell you about it, but it's important."
Naruko's sudden shift in attitude caught Armarhino off guard, as he watched the other hero nervously shift her weight from one foot to the other.
"My agency is pretty local…" He offered, but Naruko shook her head.
"I don't want to risk anyone overhearing us, not even one of your colleagues. Or worse, a civilian. Can you think of anywhere else?"
Armarhino pursed his lips as he considered his options, but finally relented. "Alright, my apartment is nearby, but this better be worth it. And I don't want you showing up on my front doorstep at god knows what hour, trying to drag me out on a mission or to a club."
"Oh~?" the smile spreading across Naruko's face would put the Cheshire Cat to shame, but she mockingly saluted the taller hero, "I promise to try. Now lead the way."
Naruko had to admit, she didn't expect Armarhino, or as she knew him, Mahiro, to have such a nice apartment. She and her sisters still lived in the house her parents had left them, and while it was nice, her occasional partner's home had far more luxuries.
It was purpose-built for people with oversized bodies, so the front door was probably twice Naruko's height, allowing Mahiro to enter unimpeded, and the rest of the furniture was just as large to accommodate Mahiro's bulk.
"Nice place you've got here," Naruko admitted, letting out a low whistle as she looked around. Mahiro shrugged slightly, "It was built by a family friend, plus I get a benefit to help pay the extra cost that come with being oversized, and the issues that presents." He explained, as he took a seat on his recliner, "besides, you're like, fifty ranks higher than me on the hero rankings. I'm sure your salary pays for nicer digs than mine,"
"Not really," Naruko replied, as she took a seat on the couch opposite Mahiro "Most of my early paychecks went to paying off old debts and putting us through school and university. I'm only just now building up a nest egg, and if I wanted to get a place, it would need to host my siblings too."
Mahiro nodded, but Naruko could tell his attention was still on the young man from earlier, so she changed topics.
"Have you ever heard of Unimate Robotics Incorporated?" Naruko began, leaning forward in her chair.
Mahiro shook his head, "Doesn't ring a bell, why?"
"They're an American corporation that makes industrial robots, but that's not what's important." Naruko replied, "Recently, they've started something. Sort of an international secret project, in collaboration with several governments around the world,"
"A secret project to do what?" Mahiro asked, leaning forward to match Naruko.
"To reform vigilantes." Naruko answered, "To take them, educate them, and turn them into real heroes."
Mahiro sat back in his chair, a surprised yet thoughtful expression on his face. He had to admit, it made sense, he just didn't expect a random corporation to be the ones doing it. "How did you find out about this?" He finally said.
"My little sister, Shiki," Naruko admitted, "After our parents died, me and Shiraha ended up raising her by ourselves, and when we both became heroes, I guess she copied us, even though she was too young. I didn't exactly want my little sister to go to prison, so when they gave us the chance to get her out of trouble, we took it."
"And you're thinking we give that kid the same opportunity?"
"You saw him out there, risking his own life for others. Also, you'll be the one vouching for him."
"So what do we need to do?" Mahiro asked.
Naruko produced a folded slip of paper from somewhere in her costume, and handed it over to Mahiro, "Both of you need to sign this contract, and then get it filed with the program. After that, we can get him out of prison, and into the program."
"Thank you, Naruko" Mahiro said, as he stood up out of his chair.
"You can thank me by buying me lunch," Naruko replied, as she also stood up out of the chair.
"How about coffee?" Mahiro offered, "If you're free on Sunday?"
Naruko's lips curled into a smile, "I think there's a spot in my schedule. If there isn't, there'll be one soon. I'll send you the location of the most expensive restaurant I know." She replied, as she walked towards the front 's hand instinctively jumped to his wallet, as though shielding it from her, but Naruko grinned. "Just kidding, it'll be the location of my favorite restaurant. Still not cheap, but not the most expensive I know by a long shot."
"I'll meet you outside your agency," Mahiro said, as he watched Naruko leave. She opened the door, and paused in the doorway.
"It's a date!" She called back to him, before slamming the door shut, leaving him no chance to respond.
The available character spots have been slightly lowered from 19 to 18, because I forgot about something that will come up later.
Since last chapter, we have gone from 7 to 14, so there is only 4 spots left
1) Connor Smith (Omnipotent X)
2) Lucina Eventide (DragonStorm88)
3) Yuwaka Arai (MysteryAgain)
4) Kirimeku Orail (Hazzamo)
5) Ingrid Mugen (Wish Upon a Sol)
6) Devon Manson (The Imprisoned of Hell)
7) Sakiko Mizushima (POMForever)
8) Takeshi Ishi (thebest4game)
9) Rylan Yugana (Damashii)
10) Leonard Baird (Obie527)
11) Vanessa Ameri Yates (DogWalker4)
12) Samuel Payton (Scatman55)
13) Genrihk Povtoreniye (Dead Man's Joy)
14) Jun Hamada (ThalioTP)
