Beginning 1.2
(Kyduoka)
I walked around, familiarizing myself with the entire city. I took some snacks from the fridge Bakuda had. They weren't really fulfilling, granted they were potato chips and Bakuda would probably be mad from me taking a few of the small bags of them she had.
Walking around at night, I familiarized myself with the layout. I felt a connection and it abruptly came even closer. I looked up, staring right at the mask of Lee.
"Lung wishes for you." Was all he said before he started teleporting away.
Naturally, when the Dragon comes calling, you answer. So I followed. Lee was purposely not travelling extreme distances to lead me to Lung.
It seems as though Lung decided to stay a block from Bakuda's workshop, going off the route.
When I arrived, I saw Lung leaning against a wall near his door with Lee right next to him. I had to hand it to the guy, he was extremely intimidating despite being right next to Lung.
Lung called out to me.
"Do you have your tinker weaponry done? And what power has Bakuda been given?"
I answered truthfully, "I have my tinker weaponry done and as you can see am appropriately dressed. Bakuda chose a power that gave her a bag that could hold a seemingly infinite space in it and launch things from it as projectiles."
Lung nodded and got off the wall.
"Why do you not have a mask?"
I considered my answer.
"I have no identity and will not be needing one aside from this one. If people recognize my civilian identity with my cape identity, fine by me."
He snorted.
"You do realize the futility in such an action, yes?"
I did, I realized how faulty it'd be but, "I can't bring myself to care. If they want to take me down, they're welcome to try."
I was going to tinker on my armor anyways, the fabricator's battery will also require an extremely better power source, it could only fabricate a single item and that was with a duracell battery.
Lung, being Lung, accepted it for what it was. I was confident but I was arrogant. I knew that.
"Hmph. In a day we will be retaliating against those fools who dare steal from me. Be prepared."
I got the message. Lung then threw me a wallet. "Courtesy of joining the ABB and being the newest lieutenant, you're now being given a stipend."
He then also told me one more thing. "Lee's new teleportation power is unnecessary. Give him a different one."
I complied, walking over to the senior gang member and gave him the sword tinker power. In actuality, I didn't. I had a small suspicion he should keep it. I'll change it later.
"He is now a tinker specializing in swords, sir. Anything else?"
Lung nodded, "Give me one of them."
I walked over and thought about the choices. Inevitably, I was drawn towards Magik... A power that allows elemental control, not super strong but with Lung's power, it'd most likely get better over time.
And so I chose it.
(Lung)
I was curious on what power this cape would choose. Perhaps something that'd affect me negatively in hopes of defeating me? Regardless, I was curious.
I am also not an idiot. If he tried anything, I would have Lee execute him. He was not a master, and that I knew. That was when I felt something. It was almost as if...
And then, segments of the ground spiked up. I felt my fires grow stronger than before. I could manipulate the ground, the air, and my own flames. It seemed more powerful than I truly was, but now I could fly using the ground or the air.
I smirked, watching my newest lieutenant step back.
"Anything else?"
I shook my head, my mask covering the feral grin.
"No. Prepare yourself for the skirmish."
The cape paused in front of me, asking something I personally didn't expect.
"What about Bakuda? Is she preparing for this fight?"
I let out a bark of laughter, "No. Bakuda is a longer term investment than this. You are merely better equipped to handle combat this early. Now go, make a bow. Commit to your namesake."
And I was being truthful. Though, out of the two, Bakuda was the more powerful tinker, it's just this cape, no, Kyudoka, was the more capable. Bakuda was drawn in by delusion, this cape was almost lazy but he displayed sociopathic tendencies.
I looked to the direction where I could feel the sea, thinking of the beast.
Soon, you will die. And when you do, I will be free of the torment from thinking that you are unkillable.
For you, Leviathan, will be crushed like a gnat.
It is now April 10th, 2011, 9:33 PM, 3 hours until Taylor fights Lung.
(Kyudoka)
The day turned to night by the time I finished seeing the sights. A few gangsters tried to attack me, yelling about how I was a chink, but I broke their limbs in the process and overall was unconcerned. I also went to a local store to buy some groceries from a list I thought was appealing to me.
For some reason, people avoided me the entire night. I don't know why, but I don't really care. Even the cashiers were a bit uneased by me.
As I walked into Bakuda's workshop, I noticed her still sleeping. I shrugged, putting the foods I bought into the fridge and I went over to my workstation.
With my wavelength specialization, I tore down most of the armor and thought of a way to make it strong enough to take a shot from, well, any sniper rifle. And designs popped into my head. In only two hours, the entire armor was redecorated. It was a darker version of the other outfit, shinier, and had a crimson red.
It had no additional features except from a few places to put my tech. I heard mumbling and grumbling as I was finished and I turned around to see Bakuda stretch as she was waking up.
"I see you're awake," I spoke up.
She fumbled around, nearly falling off the couch, entangled in the blanket. She looked at me.
"Are you some sort of Noctis Cape?"
I let my eyebrows raise, doing the talking for me.
She sighed, exasperated, before speaking. "A noctis cape is a cape that doesn't need sleep and remembers everything after their... trigger event."
Her voice went quiet before she spoke of triggering. I walked over, "Want to talk about it?"
She shot me a scathing glare. "We're not even friends yet, asshole."
I nodded, "Yet we are both going to be working together."
She saw the logic in that and agreed but chose to not care. "Whatever."
I went back over to the workstation and grabbed a slab of metal and a few batteries. I thought of a possible power source, and before I knew it, I had a blueprint for a small battery that could power half a warehouse for half an hour. I immediately went to work as Bakuda watched me work.
"Hey, Bakuda?"
"Yeah?"
She sounded distracted while watching me work.
"What's your name?"
She immediately went defensive, "Yeah, well, what's yours?!"
I shook my head, "Again, I am only Kyudoka. I have no other name."
And, unexpectedly, she sighed. "Yeah, I know... Well, if we are going to really be part of the ABB and working together, fine. I'm Megan and I'm a genius."
I bowed, "Hello, Madam Megahn."
She snickered at the theatricals and did her haughtiest impression with her Bostonian accent. "Raise thy head, sir Kyudoka."
I then stopped bowing, and walked over to watch the TV.
"Lung's going out tonight with Lee and I to fight the Undersiders." I mentioned to her.
She stiffened, "What, do I have nothing that could help? I'm not good enough?"
She was going to explode but I merely said, "No. It's just you're too valuable right now to lose and should continue making explosives. As soon as you're out on the field, you'll probably kick up a lot. I'm also more combat capable."
And I went back to tinkering.
Before long, I had a power cell that was the size of a duracell triple A battery. I instantly plugged it into my fabricator as I went to work on making a bow.
A bow that'd, specifically, form its own projectiles from the air around me. Bakuda went back to her own devices, namely sitting on the couch and watching some TV show.
I went into a fugue and stopped thinking so hard about things and just focused on my device.
April 11th, 2011, 12:28 AM, 5 minutes until Taylor fights Lung.
I finished it, with time to spare, as well. Lung came in, "Come. We must go. I will send you with Lee."
And with that, Lee appeared next to me, nodding. My armor, on, I followed the assassin. Expertly doing parkour, getting on top of buildings, we were running to a scene, well, I was running. Lee was, irritating for me, teleporting. By the time I saw him stop, I twirled out my bow and took a Kyudo stance as my eyes observed everything in front and below the building we were on.
I saw someone moving before a yell echoed out, "LEE'S HERE!"
And that's when I noticed Lee turned to ash and the street was covered in darkness. I shook my head, thankful I didn't change the power I'd given Lee. After all, his original power focused on Line of Sight, but the new teleportation power allowed him absolute awareness around him. I waited.
The darkness that enveloped the street went away and Lee was on top of a man with a skull mask in a takedown that wasn't fatal only due to a gunshot making Lee disappear.
Giant monsterish dogs ran after Lee, dogs which I shot through the legs with my arrows in extremely quick timing.
My arrows were piercing through, the condensed air. The dogs, now with loss of their limbs, crashed down. Lee teleported to a guy who looked far too out of place as a dog masked girl ran through and hurled the skull masked man to the dogs.
I knew Lee could handle this. I then heard something and ducked. It was a whistle, no, a bullet. I twirled and unleashed an arrow just at the right angle. From my eyes. Sniper down. This had to be over quick.
"Lee!" I called out.
He tilted his mask as he was fighting with the, obvious Undersiders. We were waiting on Lung, but we didn't need him.
"They have reinforcements!"
I said as I blocked a sniper round with my bow. Vans were pulling up the street and men were coming out. I shot the sniper with an arrow and pulled out my ray gun. I shot the ray at one of the people pulling weapons on me and Lee as Lee teleported, a frag grenade in his hand primed, and blew up an entire van of the men. Lee appeared next to me, nodding.
The Undersiders were small fry and were being protected. Lung wouldn't like this. We both knew it, at least, I thought we did. We quickly got out of there, heading to where Lung was.
(Lung)
This bug girl was annoying. She was constantly swarming me with insects in futility. I merely covered myself in flame. But I knew she was stalling. Someone else was coming, that I could hear.
I grumbled out the best 'Where are you' I could with my draconic form. She was hiding, but I will find her. And when I do, I will tear her to smithereens.
That's when Armsmaster jumped in front of me, only for an arrow to knock him off course. The dart, from his halberd, still pierced through my scales.
I was starting to fall... Asleep. No, no. I am LUNG!
THIS WILL NOT STAND! I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED!
So I mustered my courage and tried to regenerate from it. But no, the poison from the original spiders was already too much. My eyes closed as I fell asleep.
(Kyudoka)
I arrived just in time to see a blue metal man lunge at Lung. With reflexes so quick you'd think I'd kill 3 CSGO players in less than a second just from pure reaction, I shot an arrow into his chest. It knocked him back, but his halberd still launched a projectile of some sort that went into Lung.
I felt a few bugs land on me, biting my face and hands. I'll get some gloves later. It wasn't very poisonous. I motioned Lee to go find whoever was doing that. I rushed over to Lung.
I picked him up and started the exit. I felt the bugs stop biting as Lee appeared two seconds later, some person in his hands. They weren't dead but unconscious. That blue man from earlier got up and was shouting at us as he charged. I tossed Lung to Lee, twirled around, and shot my ray gun at him. He deflected it.
I knew for an instant I'd have to settle this. "Lee, get Lung out of here."
I unsheathed my sword and blocked the man's halberd. It ejected a spray of some kind at me, I merely ducked down, took my sword around, and twirled around him.
I sheathed my sword in a fluid motion, dashed backward, grabbed my bow, and unleashed an arrow straight at his turning face.
He was launched back, his helmet still not even cracked. What type of monstrous armor did this guy have? Speaking of which, I flipped out my sword again. With no time delay, we went after each other once more. I carved into his halberd, my sword cutting neatly through now.
Good, wavelengths are synced. Time to cut this bastard in half.
With that, I fell back and in a stance similar to iaido, slashed forward. He frontflipped over it with surprising agility and slammed his fists onto my head. I instantly felt the floor on my face before I rolled to the left, twirled my ray gun out, and shot. He couldn't deflect or block this time as a chunk of his armor fell out. I dashed forward, grabbing it and twirling around him, jumping a nearby wall and actually doing wall parkour. I ended up on a roof as he looked at me.
"Kyudoka." I mentioned as I left.
He didn't chase.
We were back at Bakuda & I's workstations with the people Lee carried using his duplication teleport to grab them and hurl them one place at a time, that one body that Lee knocked out was sitting in a cage. Interrogation purposes.
Bakuda was, understandably, raging at Lee as I arrived.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?! HE'S GOING TO BE MY REPLACEMENT, HUH?!"
Lee had a knife to her neck the next second as I clapped.
"Oi. Wait until Lung wakes up you two. Now, we'll wait until this... boy? Is that a boy? No, that's a girl."
Bakuda looked at me with anger before turning to confusion as she understood what I said.
"What the fuck do you MEAN that's a GIRL!? That's a boy!"
I shook my head, "No, too curvaceous unless he's a really feminine man. Also, the hair. and mask indicate girl. Also, make some bomb that kills all bugs. She has bug control."
Bakuda sighed, "Yeah, you need me." She muttered as she walked away.
Lee looked over to me as I looked over to him. I shrugged, "Women."
He nodded before going over to the couch where Lung was. It was bad, he wasn't regenerating quick enough.
I dialed Bakuda's power up to 250%, she was going to need it. I then walked over to the station, hearing the sounds of tinkering. "We also need healing grenades. You're overclocked at 2.5x, get onto it, please."
Her face turned to a scowl, "And who are YOU to boss me around, HUH!?"
I sighed, "Lung is our leader. If you have a better plan to get him back up quicker, do so." And that reminded me. "I'm going to give Lee the sword tinker power."
Bakuda thought about it, "He doesn't even have a personality." I shrugged, "Yeah, I'll probably give him a breaker power instead."
Walking back over to Lung, I changed Oni Lee's teleportation power I'd given him to making him elastic enough to be immune to blunt force entirely. I had a feeling he'd need it.