Part two of the fight against King Saber!
Enjoy a long chapter today. There's a lot going on in this one so I hope you like it.
"Suri!"
White.
Everything was white.
And there was an absolutely annoying ringing sound flooding everything around her, drowning out even her own thoughts, let alone anything around her. The ringing made her clench her eyes and grit her teeth with annoyance, and then came the feeling of pain rushing in. She all but screamed through clenched teeth as the white blinding light began to fade and take shape and color once again.
And that when everything came flooding back.
"Suri!" Alpha was screaming, his voice filled with pain and grief. "Kenji, you bastard!"
"Suri!" Taiga was screaming as well, her voice filled with sobbing and grief as well.
Suri blinked and now she was staring directly into King Saber's eyes, his face was still that emotionless happiness that he wore, but his eyes held surprise somewhere inside them. His grin only began to grow as Suri's eyes narrowed into rage before they turned downwards to find the source of her pain. It was like deja vu all over again, seeing an arm buried through her body, this time being the large weretiger's arm going through her right deltoid. This time however, instead of letting him stay there for the length of time Gemini had, Suri lifted her right leg and slammed it into him, kicking him with as much strength as she could.
The tiger went hurdling backwards, the force he was taken back with hurt Suri but she gritted and ignored the pain as she watched him hit the ground and roll a few yards. He took the roll in stride, coming up easily and brushing himself off with a grin as he curiously watched Suri. The attention he was giving her made her stop to examine herself and found she was in her classic form, standing well over six feet in height now, broad shouldered and covered in firm muscle and fur from head to toe. Had it been another seamless transformation or something else? She realized she'd had yet to feel or remember the full transformation into this form and it made her mad that she could only take this form in desperate moments.
She really hadn't grown at all since her first fight with Gemini, had she?
No, she had.
With a growl, her power poured out of her in a thick wind of energy that surrounded her in an electric blanket of heat and power. Golden green flames poured from her eyes and green lightning arced off of her flesh and fur as she stared the weretiger king down with the heat of rage and determination. She had grown because of how much power she could wield, how strong she'd become, and with that strength came the sound and sensation of her muscles and flesh pulling themselves back together, seamlessly healing the hole the weretiger had left inside her shoulder.
It made both the weretiger and her dad pause.
The short silence was broken first by the two behind her who she'd stepped in front of.
"Y-You saved me. Why?" came Twice's shocked voice, quiet with shock and anticipation. Then came his second voice which, surprisingly, didn't try to contradict himself this time. "Yeah! Why'd you save us?"
"Cause saving people, no matter what side they're on, is the basic part of being a hero."
She looked at Twice and Toga behind her, both with bewildered expressions pointed up at her expectantly, then to her dad who seemed to have calmed down a little despite his predicament. She gave him a coy smile before turning back towards the opponent in front of her and gave him a determined glare. With a pop of energy her visage shimmered, leaving a shadow of herself behind before reappearing right where King Saber was standing. Was. Because she'd hit him in that burst of speed, sending him backwards and now he was crashing through one of the supports to the upper deck seating area.
King Saber began laughing as he came to a stop and pulled himself out of the pile of debris he'd landed in. He merely dusted himself off and gave Suri a wide grin before extending his arms outward in a grandiose display.
"Save people?" He laughed with a joyous tone letting it be known how funny he thought Suri's answer had been. "My dear, did you already forget about your fallen lover? Was he not worth saving? Or did you enjoy watching me kill him?"
Suri flinched, clenching her fists and narrowing her eyes.
"I fucked up by hesitating," she admitted. "Maybe I wasn't taking you seriously enough. Maybe there's a part of me that wanted him dead because he betrayed everything I loved in my life back home. I hesitated. I fucked up. But I can't let that stop me from stopping you."
"Maybe I should have let you kill him yourself," King Saber grinned, walking slowly back towards Suri. "Let you have the delight of ripping his throat out and tasting in the fruits of your revenge. You really are so similar to me, it's such a wondrous thing."
"No! I'm nothing like you. I'm not a murderer," Suri spat back.
"Oh but you will be," the weretiger hummed low with a sadistic grin, a flash of golden energy surrounding him as he disappeared from the spot he was standing. "Isn't that right, Kitty Kat?"
Suri's eyes widened as she heard the sound of his voice, now behind her. When she turned, Taiga's eyes were going wide as well because the weretiger king was now standing over her, peering down into her eyes. Eyes that filled with fear.
"Vashra! Third Form!"
There was a screeching sound as King Saber came down on Taiga's shield, the sound of electricity sparking against electricity filled the room like there were thousands of mice squeaking and chirping all at once. The magic barrier screamed and strained as the weretiger pushed down on it all while he laughed and chuckled as he watched his daughter through the gold translucent dome.
"It's stronger than before. But tonight, daughter of mine, you don't have that look on your face," he grinned wide, gripping the barrier with his claws and making the magic begin to flicker. "No, tonight you look ready to join your mother!"
Suri bolted.
She got to King Saber in a flash of speed and jumped, tucking herself into a ball as her right arm curled upward to grab the weretiger by the neck. With all of her weight and downward momentum, she hit her knees with his neck hooked in her arm so that when she pulled, he was bent backwards over her back. It was a violent modification to a simple shoulder throw that sought to jam his neck with force that would break a normal human's spine. For him, he went head over heels across Suri's back before being slammed into the ground on his stomach on the other side of her. It was hard enough that it knocked the wind out of him.
"Run! All of you," Suri snarled, looking from Taiga, to Toga, to Twice.
Toga and Twice hesitated but listened. The look shared between the blonde girl and Suri was a silent but resounding thank you between them, something Suri never thought she could share with the blood user. Deep down, maybe she had. Taiga on the other hand came up from behind her barrier in beastwoman form, eyes rolled to black and gold, claws and fangs extended, and a series of tiger stripes appearing across her skin and newly formed tail. The amount of power that radiated from the girl made Suri shiver and helped to fully reinvigorate Atiena's power, making the energy and electric wind surrounding Suri that much stronger. Suri remembered that Taiga was one of the most powerful in her group, equal to Pazuzu and Aiko and capable of standing her ground to one of her Waves of Domination. The look of rage and determination etched across Taiga's feline features was proof that she hadn't even tried in her fight against Suri the other night. She had let Suri beat the shit out of her. She would not let her father have that same opportunity.
"I said run," Suri growled at Taiga, moving to stand next to her and face down King Saber.
"Respectfully, my queen. No. I will not," Taiga leveled, flexing her claws and fists before going into a fighting stance. A tiger stance more specifically.
With a loud, rumbling growl, the air around King Saber popped, sending a concussive wave of energy and heat outward, hitting Suri and Taiga with a wall of force. The electric wind around him whipped and bit at the two girls violently before a flash of golden lightning struck and suddenly he was back upright and inches in front of them. Taiga managed to dodge the first strike, parrying his hand away from her with her right hand so he spun sidewards as she hit him with a right tiger palm to the ribs. As he was sent Suri's direction, she hit him with two hard body shots before slamming a right uppercut into his chin. The hits worked for a moment as he stumbled backwards but grinned wide and came at them, quickly recovering from the strikes.
He'd taken the blows on purpose to test the two of them and then rebuked their upper hand. First he took care of Suri, parrying two more jabs that she sent his way that left her arms wide and her body completely open. Instead of a body shot however, he did the next most destructive thing; he grabbed her head in both of his big hands that nearly swallowed her whole and roared as he hit her, bashing his forehead into the bridge of her nose. There was a loud smack as he hit, leaving a crack in the bridge of her nose and making blood spurt from the surface of the skin and her nostrils. As a searing pain shot through her face, King Saber followed up with another hit, this time a hard right kick to Suri's gut that sent her tumbling and rolling backwards across the ground. As she was sent rolling unceremoniously in pain away from the weretiger, he turned on his heel with blinding speed to grab Taiga by the face with one hand. He grabbed her hard enough that she screamed in pain as his claws pressed into her flesh, drawing blood as he forced her to her knees in a display of strength and dominance.
"You never were very good at following instructions, daughter. It's high time I change that," he snarled, drawing his claws up to strike the weretiger girl at his feet.
Then something caught his attention.
He growled and threw Taiga to the ground before he disappeared in another flash of speed. That golden lightning took him to his new destination; right in front of Toga and Twice. He snarled as he looked them both over with disgust.
"Where do you think you're going? Running away like cowards again," he scoffed and let a rumbling growl pour from his throat as he narrowed his eyes at the two of them. "Our master has no need for such insolent, lazy fools. How you two became generals is laughable. Shigaraki is a pathetic excuse for an heir. It should have been me. Not you pipsqueaks. Your generation knows nothing about work ethic or what it takes to make it in this world."
King Saber grabbed at Twice, gripping his head within his big paw just like he'd done to Taiga and JJ before. His claws were tempting to pierce Jin's skull and the man began screaming in fear and pain, flailing and trying to get him to let him go. That was when King Saber growled in pain as three knives were stuck into him, buried into his arm to the hilt. Blood poured from the deep, open wounds before growling again as a trail of skin opened up around his wrist holding Twice. Blood blossomed and poured as he was stuck like a pin cushion and flayed like a fresh cut of meat. His eyes sparked with golden fire as he sneered and pointed deadly glares at Toga who was looking at him with the same gaze as she pulled more knives from the inside of her jacket and readied herself.
"The more you talk, the more I just wanna stab you," Toga replied, narrowing her eyes as she bolted forward.
Her speed was palpable, not quite on the level of the weretiger in front of her but still something far more than human. King Saber growled and tossed Twice at her like a ragdoll and forced her to dodge her friend's flailing body as she ran low to the ground and popped up on the other side. Once she was airborne, she threw the two knives in her hand in quick succession, letting the tiger man parry one only to have the other embed itself into his own deltoid. Then her foot kicked the hilt of the blade, driving it deeper into his shoulder as she bounced herself to land behind him. She spun on her heels then, winding up to jam another knife into his kidney but never got the chance.
King Saber growled and spun to face Toga, getting face to face with her as he grabbed her, one of his big hands easily wrapping around her form like a straight jacket. In one fell swoop she was caught with nowhere to go as he started squeezing her. She screamed as she struggled, the tiger pressing hard enough that her bones began to ache from the pressure. That was when his vision snapped upwards just in time to get rocked. Not only did he catch a hard fist to the face, he caught two. It made him stumble backwards but it wasn't enough to make him drop the blonde girl, instead he blinked and found himself seeing double.
In front of him, winding up to hit him again, were two Suri's. They struck him again, one after the other as they both let out feral screams when they struck him. When they wound up for a third strike, he batted at them, hitting one with as much force as he could, watching it splash into a puddle of brown sludge and wet clay. Before he could think he found another fist connecting with the side of his temple, one that was coupled with a concussive blast of wild energy that exploded with a jolt of electric wind and whipping energy. Then came the stinging pain that rushed through his hand - or lack thereof - because Suri ran her claws through him, severing the hand that held Toga hostage. To double up on losing his hand, he then received a hard left kick square to his chest with an even bigger pop of energy, one that blasted him across the room and sent him into a wall.
Suri fell with Toga, wrapping her in her arms in a way that was almost reminiscent of the first time she'd met Tooru. Her hand was curled underneath Toga's head so she hadn't smacked it against the ground, her other arm was extended to brace the impact so that her knees hadn't made the same mistake they'd done that first time catching Tooru.
See, she had learned a thing or two.
Suri never caught the bright blush that covered the blonde's face as she looked up to see her because Suri was focused on the continued fight. Taiga was going on the offensive, swinging at her father with her own claws and drawing attention away from Suri and Toga. Suri growled and turned her head to look over her shoulder, seeing Twice pulling himself off of the ground while her dad continued to struggle with the debris stuck through his wrists. He was to the point of trying to bite through the metal scraps and rebar sticking out of him.
"Twice, get him out. Now," Suri commanded, putting every ounce of domineering power behind it making him stutter and trip over a response. He didn't have a chance to deny her command nor did he feel compelled to disobey. She had to fight the urge to say good boy when he nodded quickly in response and hurried to Alpha's mock crucifixion. She then turned that dominant glare down at Toga who's eyes went a little wider and she found herself at a loss for words, even as Suri asked her. "Do your blades have silver in them?"
There was a split second of silence before Suri had to ask again and it seemed to knock Toga out of her daze.
"N-No. The throwing knives I carry are lightweight steel or aluminum. My go-tos are titanium," Toga quickly answered, clearing her throat and laying a rare seriousness in her tone.
"That'll have to do," Suri growled and released the girl from her grip as she readied to strike at King Saber. "Keep him off balance."
"What makes you think I'm gonna work with you?" the blonde girl sneered.
Suri simply let her eyes darken, narrowing them at the girl and letting a threatening growl rumble from her throat for a second or so before releasing the blonde and firing forward towards the weretiger. Right as he was about to come down on Taiga with a clawed hand he found that wrist was captured and being twisted around his back and over his head in a violent chicken wing maneuver. Once again he was pulled, Suri's strength threatening to rip his arm out of his socket as he was forced to be back to back with her. She let out a feral scream as she pulled, clutching his arm with both of hers to his chest as she lifted him off the ground and had the pleasure of hearing him grunt and yell from the pain. Doubly so because she heard Taiga let out her own growls and then heard the sound of claws ripping through flesh.
The weretiger girl was using her bastard of a father as a punching bag, hitting him with blow after blow as she released her anger and frustration on him. His chest and abdomen blossomed in crimson as he was flayed and cut open and he watched as Taiga clawed at him, tears pouring from her eyes as she took a swipe of her claws for every member of her family and clan he'd murdered in front of her when she was a little girl. That was when he stopped grunting in pain and began chuckling, a slow jerk at first before his bellowing voice began to echo throughout the torn auditorium. His free hand came up, claws glinting in the light as he looked down at the sight of his daughter struggling to do anything more than vent her years worth of pent up emotions.
"You really were such a worthless daughter of mine."
His arm came down to strike at Taiga when something curious happened. That arm was caught and a weight was fitted onto his shoulder. The only thing he saw was a flash of blonde hair and an amber cat eye filled with rage before the pressure of Toga's legs were wrapped around his neck. She'd caught his arm in hers bending it back behind her back with her right arm while her left jammed a large hunting knife, her main blade as it were square into his chest. Then she ripped it from him and stabbed him again. Her lip was quivering as he looked up to see her eyes as she stabbed him a third and then a fourth time before she let out a scream of frustration of her own and plunged her blade right between one a set of ribs, and watched the blood spray from where she'd struck his lung.
"Don't say stuff like that," Toga growled, her voice full of pent up rage mixed with a torrent of other emotions that seemed to spill out of her. It was no longer just her simple blood lust and morbid curiosity that came with her Quirk, this was something else completely. "Ever!"
With that scream came a sixth stab that found the blade going between another rib and then being twisted, spreading the wound open and letting his chest become washed in thick blood that was red enough that it almost seemed black. The waterfall down his chest with a feral scream of pain from him, meaning she'd at least done some real damage to him. Now? Now she was no longer some pawn who couldn't hurt him like Taiga was. No. Now she was dangerous and had lost her usefulness to him which had been nearly none in the first place. Now his eyes filled with a new wave of rage that came with a heavy pulse of lycanthropic power. That power hit everyone like a blast from a grenade, hitting them with a brutal heat and a shockwave that left their ears ringing and their vision swirling.
Suri was the first to be thrown, her body rolling and plummeting across the room like a discarded toy. She pulled herself upwards to her knees and shook her head, blinking rapidly to clear her vision in time to watch King Saber grab Toga by her hair and throw her forward. She was thrown overhand like a dodgeball, and like a dodgeball her target had to decide to dodge or catch. Except Taiga's vision was still blurry when Toga's smaller frame hit her like a ball made of concrete sending them both tumbling backwards in a violent display with both of them going end over end before Taiga was only stopped by the edge of a toppled wall. A wall that most likely had nails and other sharp debris because she screamed as she hit the wall first and then caught Toga's final tumble which hammered her harder into the debris. Toga had the saving grace of having Taiga's body as an airbag to cushion her roll, though with how battered the throw had left her, it was like she wasn't caught at all.
The next saving grace came when King Saber's laughter choked.
One second he was the only one left standing, the next he was caught with a set of powerful arms around his waist and lifting him upwards. A loud, feral growl filled the room as Alpha lifted the big man upwards and over his head, slamming the back of the weretiger's head into the ground with a German suplex.
"Howling."
Then came the twist of the hips, forcing King Saber to be rolled so that Alpha still had leverage enough to pull him upwards and suplex him a second time, the second blow to the back of the head being harder than the first.
"Moon."
And then a third swing of the hips brought the two men back up again, King Saber swaying from the repeated blows to the head making his vision swim and sense of clarity sit on the fringes of his mind. Then came the rush of air as he was sent end over end for a third time, Alpha's arms releasing him at the apex of the swing so that he landed harder and further; quite literally being thrown onto the back of his head.
"Suplex!"
King Saber growled and groaned as he was rolled up like an accordion and then flattened out as his body forced itself to straighten from the recoil of the impact. When he tried to stand he growled again in pain as he felt a weight come crashing down on him. That weight was Alpha coming to kneel on top of the weretiger, burying a knee into the villain's spine while he was bowed and bent backwards. The werewolf put him in a reverse chokehold, leaving him with nowhere to go if he didn't want to be suffocated to the point of unconsciousness.
He tried resisting anyway which resulted in a dual roar sounding throughout the auditorium, King Saber growling in pain and defiance, while Alpha growled in dominance and supremacy.
"Kenji Mutekabe, you're under arrest," Alpha growled, putting on an effortless display that made Suri grin from ear to ear. She had a sense of pride and joy in her dad's accomplishment that let her shelve her power and return to her human form.
He'd done it.
Alpha had his arch nemesis right where he wanted him.
That's when the weretiger began chuckling.
It started off quietly at first, building and building until he was chuckling and laughing with mild humor. Even as Alpha pulled back, putting more pressure on the tiger's back and neck, he continued to chuckle and smile from ear to ear. It made Suri and Taiga's smiles drop, and Alpha's pride turned to anger. The anger made him pull harder, straining King Saber to the point he was nearly being bent in half in a way that his spine shouldn't be bent.
And that's when Suri realized that it was too late.
King Saber flexed his power, hitting Alpha with his own version of the Wave of Domination, something that sent a burst of energy outward like a firecracker. That snap went off right in the werewolf's ear and filled his sight with a bright white blur of light that clouded his vision and filled his ears with a loud, high pitched ringing and the sound of rushing water. He was disoriented just long enough for the tiger to pull at the arm around his neck, though instead of slipping it over his head, he let it fall into his mouth. The tiger bit down with every ounce of force he had in him, burying his fangs and sharp teeth into fur and flesh, instantly filling his mouth with a hot rush of blood. And as Alpha screamed in pain, King Saber, growled in delight as he bit down and worried into the arm inside his mouth, sawing at the flesh with animalistic aggression.
In another swift motion, as Alpha tried to pull away in pain and an instinctively reaction, it gave King Saber the opening he needed. As the tiger pushed back, knocking Alpha off balance, he jerked his head to the side, filling the room with sickening wet squelches as flesh and bone separated. As he came away with a prize in the form of Alpha's right forearm, King Saber then spun and grabbed at the werewolf's head, pounding his palm against the bridge of his opponent's nose. Another sickening cracking sound echoed through the screams of pain as Alpha's nose was shattered in one blow and then he was taken to the ground, having the back of his head slammed into the ground beneath him.
"You should have killed me when you had the chance, Demetrius," King Saber growled with humor and delight as he was the one now kneeling over the werewolf. Alpha's arm was discarded, having been spit out to the side.
Then King Saber turned his smiling face towards Suri.
Time stopped.
Suri was no longer in the fight, instead she was right back in that night fourteen months ago, the full moon high in the air, casting a spot light down on the scene in front of her. There was no longer a crowd of witnesses, no clan around her, it was simply just her staring in horror and dread at Hyrum Black kneeling over Mathias. It scared her how much deja vu had taken over her mind and senses and a part of her felt like she was back at square one. The moment was frozen as she remembered herself from over a year ago, how scared and weak she had felt in that singular point in time.
Was she really about to watch her dad die the same way that Hyrum had intended for Mathias? Had she been meant to watch him die that night and stand watch as this scene played out over and over again?
King Saber's hand started to come down in a painfully slow motion as time continued to be frozen around her. It was like time and the universe was wanting her, begging her to repeat that mistake again. The gods themselves were itching for Suri to suffer and relive that night time and time again. Was this a moment of deja vu or a moment of celestial karma?
The gods really were wanting Suri to suffer, weren't they?
"Fuck the gods," Suri and Atiena whispered together in unison.
Power erupted from her, a flash of golden green fire surrounding and enveloping her and leaving the spot she'd been standing frozen in fear ablaze with ethereal fire and lightning. The flash of power sent her forward like she'd been shot out of a rail gun, her body morphing as power and energy surged through her. Out of the fire came Suri in her classic werewolf form like she'd jumped straight out of the movies, leaving a streak of fire and lightning flickering in her path. Instead of zig zagging like she'd done that night, she made a straight shot toward her target and in less than a second he was no longer seeing Suri standing a few meters from him but now staring down her shin coming right for his face.
Through a jet of speed she made the distance in - quite literally - a flash and her shin connected with the massive weretiger. Instead of going for the kill on Alpha, King Saber was now going for a ride along the ground as he skid and rolled wildly across the floor. And when he finally did come to a stop and was able to get his bearings, his eyes filled with the vision of Suri coming down on him. As he was crashing across the ground, Suri had followed, rushing after him like she was chasing down a soccer ball that she'd kicked - because she had - and then took a high leap into the air. As she came down like a meteor, Suri's energy pulsed again, surrounding her right fist in a blazing green gold fire that let out a scream that was the mix of a wolf's howl and a leopard's call.
"Fist of the Beast Queen!"
King Saber rolled, barely ducking the strike in time as the ground and rubble around where he had stopped erupted. The force rocked the ground, cratering it with a massive shockwave that filled the air around Suri with blazing heat and a concussive quaking that sent cracks stretching across the floor from where she'd hit.
King Saber roared as he hit Suri, plowing into her with a hard shoulder to her gut that knocked her back a step enough for her to get a second blow in the form of a kick to her chest. It was hard enough that she skid across the ground a few feet backwards and left King Saber with another opening. His next strike however was parried and then hit with a secondary blow as Suri's escrima sticks came out. She'd pulled one in time to block the hard right fury punch, sending it ary as she pulled her second stick and smacked King Saber in the nape of his neck.
Suri followed up as fast as she could as she swung her left arm again, slamming the hard polycarbonate rod straight into the weretiger's ribs. She then followed that blow with another swing of her right arm, coming down on his neck again, slamming the nape with the end of the rod. She put on the pressure then, continuing to swing and smack at King Saber repeatedly, driving the weapons into him and hitting him with as many hard body shots as she possibly could in quick succession.
While the quick flurry of blows was effective at first, King Saber adapted, taking two back to back hits against him and caught each of the escrima sticks one after the other. With a stick in each hand, he rolled Suri like he was spinning her in a dance while still keeping his hold. It meant that she was spun, her arms crossing across her chest as he forced her to turn her back on him. And with a loud, ferocious growl, he raised his right foot again and slammed it into Suri's back, bowing her in half backwards while sending her forward with brutal force. Force enough to send her airborne for a few meters before she hit the ground face first with a hard, meaty smack against the floor.
Suri cried out in pain as she forced her back to reset itself. The kick had been enough force that it had made one of her spinal disks to come a fraction out of place. It took more time and effort than Suri cared to admit, especially in the heat of battle. King Saber though had given her the time to do so, because he stared at the escrima sticks and inspected them like he was doing quality control on his own support items. He sneered and choked out a humorless laugh, dissatisfied with the weapons, as he threw them, sticking one into the floor at his feet while the other found itself embedded into the rubble across from Suri.
Suri got to her feet in time for King Saber to meet her face to face, and then her face bloomed in a mask of crimson. The delay in pain was more than a second, leaving Suri to wonder if she'd actually seen him raise his claws to her. Then came the sting as her skin opened up, claw marks trailing their way over her face from the top of her right brow, down across her right eye, nose, and then trailing off the left side of her jaw. Through the sudden spike in pain, Suri swung forward, swiping her claws across the figure she thought she'd seen in front of her through a veil of blood over her eyes.
She hit air.
Instead she got socked, taking a punch across the chin that sent her reeling, as the world started going cloudy and even more red. Then another, one that hit hard enough and loud enough that even through the sound of blood rushing through her ears, she heard the crack of her jaw fracturing. And if that hadn't been enough to make her world spin and go hazy, making her dance on the edge of unconsciousness, a double fisted axe hammer to the back of the head sent her closer to that blackness and everlasting purgatory.
Suri stumbled forward and crashed into something sturdy and warm, something she nearly found comfort in. The comfort was only momentary as that sturdy warmth turned her and she soon found two hard grasps against her. As she stumbled forward, she'd fallen right into King Saber who was laughing gleefully as he grabbed her and spun her around. She was being stood to face a winded Alpha who was struggling to stay awake himself from the amount of blood he'd lost from where his right arm had been ripped off oh him. He looked up to see his daughter in the clutches of his arch nemesis who now had his right hand clamped around her throat, pushing claws into the base of her spine, and his left hand clamping over one side of Suri's face.
All he needed to do was rip his hands in opposite directions, a move Alpha knew would see Suri decapitated in much the same manner that King Saber had disposed of JJ.
"D-Dad?" Suri muttered weakly, seeing Alpha, having shrunk down to his human form, through the mask of blood that had filled one eye completely.
"It's me you want, Kenji. Leave my daughter out of this!"
"On the contrary, old friend, it's your suffering that I want."
"Father, stop this, immediately!"
"Oh, my dear worthless daughter, don't you get it? I've come this far. Why stop now?"
Suri felt pressure begin to build, crashing past the threshold between pressure and pain. She could feel King Saber pulling and she didn't have the strength or senses to stop him. She remembered the last time she'd been hurt this much, brought this close to the brink of death and her mind's eye thought of one thing. Izuku. She knew he wasn't close by, and would never hear her call to him. Even if she called to anyone in her pack for help, outside of Taiga, no one was in a position to help. Even still, she felt her power put out the call anyway, one last ditch effort that her power might reach somebody.
Anybody.
As the pain began to build on her neck and face, feeling blood beginning to pour from the back of her neck and her right temple, she did the only thing that came to mind. No matter how stupid or useless it seemed, it felt like the right thing to do at that moment. She called out for her mate one last time.
"Izuku…"
For the second time tonight, Suri's vision blackened. Her senses dulled as the droning pain took over everything. She hated this. Hated how weak she felt and how it seemed like there was never a time in her life since choosing to become a hero that a fight ever went the way she expected it. Yumei had gotten the better of her when they first fought. Gemini… Well Gemini flat out killed her the first time. The second time it took a straight up miracle for Suri to overcome her. Stain gave her a breakdown. Yasuke mind raped her. De'Jon did that plus nearly killed her. And now she was about to get her throat and head ripped from her body just so King Saber could spite his arch nemesis.
Maybe Suri wasn't cut out to be a hero.
Maybe she hadn't deserved redemption afterall.
If Suri was meant to die, then she at least wanted to see her dad one last time. She forced her eyes open through the throbbing pain, ignoring how much more it seemed to hurt to open her eyes. It made her grit her teeth as she forced herself to wake back up to see the people in front of her. She wanted to see them, no matter how much it hurt to see Taiga screaming for her dad to stop. She was being held back by Twice, curiously enough, who seemed to be in just as much agony seeing Suri in this position. Then there was her dad, struggling to move forward and pull himself up. He was screaming as well. Through all of the pain of sheer exhaustion, the amount of effort it was taking for him just to stand, he was trying to will his body to move. The old man just couldn't get to her fast enough. Then there was Izuku.
Time around Suri froze in place as her eyes opened wider.
Izuku.
He was here!
But something was off about him.
Black sclera surrounding wide bright emerald eyes with a pair of slim almond shaped irises. Ears elongated, not quite coming to a sharped point but a slim bell shape. Fangs. And a long, slim, gold colored tail, tipped in black and covered in black and forest green colored leopard spots. He was also back in his previous suit, Costume Gamma. She knew that because he hadn't been using the full tan colored arm braces in a month or two and now here they were.
He also had knives in each hand.
Knives that found themselves buried into both of King Saber's hands, piercing him through his palms. Izuku's blinding speed didn't come with his usual sparks of emerald lightning but he was just as fast all the same. The difference was the sharp cat claws that emerged from his gloves and ran ten lines up King Saber's face, making a mask of crimson blood blossom across his gold and white furred face. The pain from suddenly being clawed to bits came coupled with the pain of two iron soled boots being slammed down on the tiger's shoulders with brutal force. It was enough to crack bone and subsequently enough pain was registered that King Saber dropped Suri.
Suri's feet hit the ground but she was still too out of it to stand up straight so she hit the ground like a ragdoll. It was enough to jolt her back to reality, making her groan and hiss from the immense amount of pain she was experiencing. Through the pain she forced herself to look up to watch this animalistic version of Izuku attack King Saber with a ferocity that she'd never seen him use. He was also far more acrobatic and limber than she'd ever seen him be, even with all of the training Mina had done with him.
He also wasn't the fastest she'd ever seen him move, but gods was it close.
The speed combined with the ridiculous amount of agility he was showing off had him snaking his way around King Saber's body as he tried to swipe away Izuku like he was a pest. However, when he went to swipe at Izuku, the greenette found that perfect timing to retrieve the knives, pulling them from the weretiger's hands with complete disregard to any further damage they were causing. The disregard made it so that King Saber's left hand was all but cut in half and barely hanging on by the muscle tendon and bone, most of which had been cut through. Once they were retrieved though, they continued to find themselves embedded and then pulled again from various spots all over the big man's body.
But since they weren't silver blades, the damage wouldn't be permanent.
King Saber had been stabbed at least a dozen times, if not more, had his face, chest and back clawed to hell and back, and was getting socked with fists and iron soled boots across the face, chest, and back countless times. And yet, the closest he came to getting taken down was briefly falling to one knee. When he fell, this half leopard version of Izuku got a running start and wound up one of his signature kicks, going vertical and bringing down his right heel in a powerful front flip kick.
His Full Cowling Shoot Style Manchester Smash.
Except Toga wouldn't know that that's what it was called.
Izuku landed flat on his left foot, his right heel smashing into the back of King Saber's head. Except it hadn't connected like he'd hoped. It had smashed into King Saber, sure, but it had fallen straight into his right hand. The weretiger growled, filling the room with the low rumbling vibrations that promised violence and death, and slowly looked up to meet Izuku's eyes. The golden amber surrounded by oily black sclera burned a hole through the imposter Izuku, making the bright emerald of Izuku's irises begin to recede into their own amber color.
King Saber gripped tighter and pulled, rendering gravity a thing of the past, as he wound up a pitch, treating Izuku - or rather Toga's - ankle like a baseball. The changeling's body hit the ground behind King Saber's body, bending her in an uncomfortable and inhuman position before she was launched forward, being thrown like a pitcher's fastball right towards the pile of rubble that Alpha had been crucified onto. Namely the metal and rebar that had become an array of skewers for King Saber to use however he wished.
Toga, still in Izuku's form, never hit those would be torturous death devices however. Instead she hit something solid and warm. As Toga opened her eyes, bright amber surrounded by the black sclera of Izuku's animalistic ones, she was expecting to see King Saber smiling. She had expected an insurmountable amount of pain. She expected to be dead or dying. She expected to look down and see metal wreckage piercing or severing her in half, not a pair of muscular arms covered in a soft coat of black and brown fur with hints of dark leopard spots. Nor did she expect the feel of a furred face of a humanoid leopard woman next to hers.
"I think this puts us back to you owing me again," Suri purred with a smirk crossed along her lips. There was a part of her that was forgetting that it wasn't Izuku she was holding but Toga parading around as her boyfriend. Though that part didn't dissuade the idea of being attracted to the changeling either. "And we need to have a long talk about how and when you got my boyfriend's blood or why you're using it."
"Yeah, yeah. Just let me go already," Toga sneered in Izuku's voice, slightly flinching from the heat of Suri's breath on her ear and the trickle of purr and growl it came laced with.
"You! Why won't any of you just die already?!" King Saber roared, his eyes seeing red not only from pure unadulterated rage but the fact that his entire face was covered in his own blood as a result of the claw marks strewn across it.
"Let's put this bastard down for good," Toga growled under her breath, her voice coming out with a layer of Izuku's gritted voice.
"Yeah. Let's," Suri growled in agreement, finally standing upright completely and releasing Toga still wearing this animalistic version of Izuku.
Suri had to pry her eyes away from this version of Izuku. Now was not the time or place for the heat in her core to be manifesting. Instead she took that heat and put it into an emotion that was more fitting for this moment, one she could use. The heat of rage and anger filled her instead, which let her power come back with a vengeance, her body surging with the heat of an electric wind that prickled across her skin and fur. Her eyes began to glow with a golden green fire once again and the sparks of emerald lightning began to arc across her body. The heat and power surrounded her, filling the decimated auditorium with a power that was filled with everything Suri had left in the tank and then some.
Power that enveloped Toga who had to stifle any trace of a moan that threatened to escape her because she didn't want to address the elephant in the room. Instead she screamed the question inside her own head; why was Suri's power making her feel like this? And why did she feel like she could run a thousand marathons right now? And why did she feel like… No!
No, she would not feel like that. Not right now.
She'd address that later.
Instead, Toga got a welcome distraction to the storm brewing inside of her. Because that electric wind and flow of energy did something else, it made the room glow with a bright golden green light that seemed to pulse like another heartbeat. The glow pulsed and thrummed with a hum of wild energy that emanated from the escrima sticks Suri had used before. The discarded weapons were humming and glowing like they were lightning rods in the middle of a storm as that same golden green lightning arced between them and Suri herself. As the energy pulsed like a second heartbeat, a second growl emerged from the hum of electricity, one threatening enough to cause King Saber to look over his shoulder. His eyes began to widen because behind him now stood another Suri in her full classic werewolf form, each breath making the entire creature rise and fall. The creature itself was glowing, bright golden green lines outlining its shape as it stood there like a living neon line drawing come to life. He was staring directly at a physical manifestation of Atiena, a phenomenon he'd never witnessed before.
"This power," King Saber breathed out, his rage calming to something akin to wonder. That wonder then turned to need and envy. He wanted, needed this level of raw power. "You. You're going to…"
King Saber thought he was going to monologue. Like this was just another typical night of him being a super villain and All For One's commanding general. This was going to go the same as it always went for him. Or so he thought.
Instead, Suri's visages disappeared, vanishing from sight both in front of him and behind him. He saw glimpses, flashes of what he thought was her, flashes of golden green fire and lightning just as the blows started coming. The first took him by complete surprise because seemingly out of nowhere he'd gotten socked right in the face, making his head jerk to the side. The second hit was a hard strike to his right shoulder, jolting him hard enough that he was forced to spin a half a step before he caught his balance. Then came a third strike, then a fourth, then he'd been hit eight times before he was even able to react at all.
Then, right as he was about to get his bearings and hunt down Suri and a pure energy projection of her beast, Toga appeared. He growled loudly in pain and frustration because just as he'd been hit from Suri, he found a blade being run across his chest. Before he could hunt down the treacherous girl, he was hit several more times by Suri and then found himself being kicked by Izuku's iron soled boots right across the face again.
When King Saber's vision cleared and he started to have a sense of his surroundings, the weretiger found himself completely surrounded. Before him and all around him he found two dozen Suri's all of them glaring with a righteous rage, her chartreuse eyes set ablaze with a golden green fire. Surrounding her figure was the same golden green colored lightning, outlining her in a neon glow while her beast, Atiena, stood proudly with her, the beast's visage rising behind Suri like a guardian sent from the gods themselves. And to add to that was the fact that there were now multiple Izukus, at least five that he could clearly count because the air around the grenette was shimmering. Toga was not only still in the shape of Izuku, but she'd become a living mirage because of the speed that she was achieving.
That wasn't the only thing messing with the tiger's senses because his sense of smell was on fire. Not only was the air filled with the raw power and energy flowing around him filled with Suri's scent, Toga's had changed as well, something was different about her than the girl he'd been giving orders to merely an hour ago. More than that, there was a multitude of scents of multiple beasts, running wild and dancing throughout the lightning surrounding him. He smelled alpine forests and wolves, tropical jungles and leopard tiger, sun baked prairies and fox, the rivers and snakes, and the all too familiar scent of tiger. And that's when he realized something, the power and energy that was glowing that bright green, nearly turning white with luminosity and heat had created a dome around him. His sight and senses were now locked inside this circle that he stood in the middle of.
He was inside the eye of the storm that was Suri Kuroyashi-Okwondu, the pro hero known as Wild Eyes.
The heat inside the dome became scorching, making the villainous tiger begin to sweat from the sheer temperature of it all. Then came the sweltering burns as the lightning and pure, raw lycanthropic energy whipped and smacked at his skin. That wasn't nearly enough though because on top of the heat and whipping burns came the kicks, punches, and claws that began hitting him more and more, coming at him faster than he could register. Insult to injury was the secondary kicks and strikes being gouged into him from multiple blades. King Saber was getting hit several times a second and his body was reeling from how many strikes and blows that were pelting him.
It was like being in the middle of a firing squad, each of the gunmen having automatic rifles, and all of them unloading on you at the same time in all directions.
King Saber's senses became blurry and his head began ringing as Suri, Atiena, and Toga triple teamed him with a flurry of blows. The circle around him began to close in and the succession of blows were coming fast enough and hard enough that he lost touch with reality. The pain from each strike overlapped to the point that his entire body thrummed with an immense amount of droning pain that was rattling his consciousness to the point that his sight went completely white in a fog of pain and despair.
"Jury of Wolves! Pack's Law!"
The circle collapsed completely, the blows coming fast enough that King Saber began to float off the ground. And then Suri's visage appeared solid in front of him and she hit him with an uppercut as hard as she could. Hard enough that his neck jolted, giving him a severe case of whiplash as he was sent airborne, his body floating high above the destroyed roof of the high rise and into the night sky.
He slightly registered the sensation of floating as his eyes fluttered open. Around him he saw the moon high in the dark sky and above him, highlighted by that same ethereal moonlight was a glint of chartreuse and golden eyes. Suri had jumped after King Saber, taking Toga with her hand in hand and right now they were floating above him. His eyes widened but it was already too late. Suri's body was still moving with the momentum of her two story leap and with that she twisted herself, carrying Toga's added weight as an extra boost. That boost led to Toga in Izuku's form being rocketed towards King Saber before a hard vertical right roundhouse kick connecting square with his chest.
"Smash!"
The tiger disappeared from sight, the kick firing him like a bullet straight down into the floor below, right into the massive pile of rubble that he'd once crucified Alpha to. The section of roof that Suri and Toga sent him though became his catchall and being the only thing that kept him from going through the top floor down into the rest of the building. And now, instead of Alpha or Toga being skewered on the metal wreckage, it was King Saber being the one that was impaled multiple times over.
King Saber was defeated.
"That," Toga sighed happily, grinning ear to ear as Izuku's face melted away and revealed her own. Her cheeks were pink with a happy blush, proud of herself for having used one of her crush's finishing moves. "Was so cool~"
"Yeah it was," Suri replied with her own exhausted grin.
The two of them were falling together, the beast girl taking the quick thought to catch the other as she wrapped Toga up. The blonde was taken aback, fighting to keep the blush she already had from deepening as she found herself being caught by Suri for the second time tonight. It reignited the intrusive thoughts because when she looked up, it was the same bruised and bloody mask she'd been forced to leave an hour ago. When the two of them hit the ground, Toga was shaken out of her thoughts as she was forced to roll with Suri, her thoughts now making sure she wasn't injured. The roll had been to help stave off the momentum from the fall, taking three rolls before Suri found the balance needed to come out on one knee.
Suri took a long, deep breath as she tried to catch it and let it out slowly. Exhaustion was catching up and hitting the beast girl like a truck, enough that she wobbled a little with Toga in her arms. It made the blonde blink rapidly as she got her bearings and took in her surroundings before slowly looking up at Suri again. Any words that she had caught in the back of her throat because Suri, through her exhaustion, was looking at Toga with the utmost care and worry.
"You okay?" Suri asked softly.
"Suri!"
"Toga!"
Suri and Toga both looked up to see Taiga and Twice coming for them. The two of them crowded around the two girls, with Jin being gracious enough to have found Toga's big puffy coat. The blonde carefully pulled herself out of Suri's arms and quickly wrapped herself in her coat, making sure she was no longer nude and had at least one layer of clothing. Twice helped her into it while Suri sighed and laid her forehead against Taiga's happily taking a small moment to regain some energy and sharing it with her friend.
"You did it. He's finally," Taiga sighed, smiling wide and not caring to finish her sentence.
"Well, I had help," Suri chuckled, grinning ear to ear and turning to look at Toga through one open eye.
"Yeah well, I owed you," Toga grumbled, dipping herself so that the collar of her coat covered most of her face. It hit the gracious blush that was painted in a deep crimson across her cheeks.
"Thank you," Suri smiled, nodding her head towards the blonde. Again, making the girl flinch and shrink once more.
"Y-You…"
The happiness in that moment drained away in an instant as a deep growl, filled with a rattling gurgle creeped into the silence. Alpha was already standing above King Saber, holding one shoulder tightly as he panted and breathed heavily above the beaten villain. The weretiger, now back in his human form shuddered, coughing blood as he tried to pull himself up off of the wreckage he'd become a part of. The air around him pulsed with power and killing intent.
He hadn't taken the memo that he was done.
"Stay down, Kenji," Alpha growled out. "You're done. No more getting away, no more slipping through the cracks. This is the end of the line."
"I refuse, Demetrius. I won't be taken by the likes of you."
Suri watched the exchange, a sense of pride filling her getting to watch her dad finally have his arch nemesis right where he wanted him. The pride of watching two old foes still go at it. It was like getting to watch the two of them in their prime and she couldn't help but feel like Izuku in that moment. It was a moment to really nerd out on.
That was until she felt the weight next to her shift and she watched Taiga stand and begin moving without a word.
"Taiga?"
Suri furrowed her brow as she watched the tiger girl. Then her eyes caught on to something, something she remembered from before the mission started. Taiga was playing with her wrist where she carried the three remaining capture devices she'd created, the capture devices geared specifically towards lycanthropes. The air around her was filled with a stern, strict aura that was almost devoid of emotion, a feeling you'd want to go into if you wanted to do the unthinkable and not have a guilty conscience.
"Then maybe I will suffice," Taiga said with a cold bitterness as she idly tossed the beads from the bracelets at her father. He watched the beads bounce with confusion, even scoffing at them before he realized his mistake. "Vashra; Final Form."
A golden dome of magical energy surrounded King Saber, the walls shimmering with power and light on the outside. On the inside that same golden energy became sharp, steeled with years worth of rage, regret, and sorrow that meant that any sudden movement meant that King Saber would be pierced by pure magic. Taiga's dome shaped barrier was no longer for protection, she molded it into an iron maiden, one that began poking, prodding, and stabbing the villainous weretiger as he began to thrash about. The beads released and were now spraying their payload, filling the dome with a deadly toxic mix of hemlock and wolfsbane. If one single bead could take a lycanthrope down like a human to a canister of tear gas - well she'd just unleashed an amount that was the equivalent of putting a person in a locker full of mustard gas and halon.
"Taiga, no!" Alpha screamed, watching as his nemesis bashed and battered at the dome for dear life. Because any amount of life in the tiger was quickly being snuffed out and the gas and magic barrier hid his panicked screams of desperation. Alpha turned to the weretiger girl who watched with little to no emotion, her eyes and face void of anything remote to pity or remorse. He grabbed at her arms, shaking her as he called her name directly to her face with no wavering of any kind. "Taiga! Take the barrier down! Now!
Suri stumbled to her feet but ran to Taiga and the golden dome as well. Seeing Taiga wanted nothing to do with any part of taking her magic down, Suri did the next best thing; she started punching the dome. She knew she could punch through it, she had done so a couple nights ago. But that had also been after Suri had kicked the shit out of the other girl.
"Taiga, c'mon. You don't want to do this," Suri pleaded, punching at the dome as hard as she possibly could. Her strength though, wasn't near anything she normally had. Her and Atiena were too exhausted.
"I do," Taiga replied simply. Then there was the first sign of emotion as she sucked in a deep breath, her lip and brow turning up as she stared at the man inside the dome pleading for air with disgust. "I want him to suffer. I want him to feel every bit of pain he burdened me to carry. I want his life to be snuffed out just like he did to my mother."
"Taiga, take the barrier down!"
"C'mon kid, don't do this!"
"Tell me, father, which one of us is worthless now?"
SMACK!
Taiga recoiled, holding her face as she blinked rapidly. Her concentration wavered and the barrier began to flicker and wither, the gas leaking from it and dissipating into the night air, giving King Saber a sliver of hope. The tiger girl gripped at the side of her cheek, feeling it burning with heat as it stung with pain, her golden eyes looking up and focusing on Suri. Suri's eyes were locked on someone else which led to Taiga seeing Toga standing in front of her, eyes wide in shock, like she didn't realize she did what she had. Her hand still hanging in the air however, said all that needed to be said. Toga had been the one to slap Taiga.
"Y-You… don't get to say things like that either," Toga mumbled before quickly retrieving her hand, and shoving it and her face back into her coat as she looked away.
Before Taiga could say anything at all, she felt Suri's hands cup either side of her face and turned the taller girl back towards her. Golden green eyes stared deep into golden amber ones as the shorter of the two tried to convey every emotion she had running through her right now. She was debating whether to pull the queen card or the friend card.
"Taiga, please, as your queen and your friend, please take Vashra down. You cannot take a life. You don't want to be like me, I promise you that," Suri pleaded, tears beginning to well in the corners of her eyes. Then she added something that she was sure to get through to her. "What would Iida say?"
Taiga flinched and took a deep shuddering breath as her magic disappeared immediately. The golden dome of magical energy vanished in an instant, and with it came a plume of white smoke as all of the beads released the second half of their payload filling the space with the antitoxin that had been packed in. The smoke pulled back to reveal King Saber, wide eyed and scared, panting and gasping as his entire body shook and convulsed tightly. No one could tell if the poison had gotten to him and he was dying or if the antitoxin had taken hold and he was okay. Seeing him in such a manner made Taiga break, her breath hitching as she fell to her knees and began sobbing. All Suri could do was collapse with the tiger girl and hold her in her arms, laying her into the crook of her neck as Taiga's tears cascaded down Suri's shoulder and chest.
"Alpha to base, King Saber is down. Send medics and retrieval teams to my position immediately," Alpha spoke into his comm device. He had put on a brave face as he watched his nemesis' daughter succumb to an emotional break and tried to sound as heroic and confident as he could. "I repeat; mission accomplished."
And with that, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and silence washed over the entire room save for the panting gasps of King Saber and the soft hiccups that came with Taiga's quiet sobbing.
"Right! Well we'll uh just," Twice poke, breaking the silence after a long, awkward moment. Then his second half spoke. "Right! See ya suckers!"
"Jin."
Twice froze in his tracks.
He'd wound up, ready to book it as fast as he could, ready to get the hell out of there, get out of dodge, and get back to the team he called his friends. That was until his name hit his ear, spoken in a stiff, quiet calmness that forced him to stop and look behind him to where Toga stood. She was looking down, lost in thought, her usual bubbly and bright - however twisted - sense of demeanor was gone. Something had shaken her to the core and for the first time in a long time he saw her lost and confused. She wasn't anymore broken than usual but something had changed. And then he felt something similar, something that made him want to stay because the look in his best friend's eyes demanded it.
And he just couldn't tell Toga no or deny her.
Not now.
Not ever.
Even if what she said next didn't make sense.
"We're staying."
And with that he pulled himself upright, tilted his head as he looked Toga over for confirmation. When her demeanor didn't change, he did something he'd never thought he'd do; he looked to Suri. He looked to a hero for guidance and confirmation.
Why?
It's not like heroes ever did anything for him. They never stopped to care, they never stopped to lift a finger when life kept fucking him in every single way possible. They didn't do anything when he cried for help as he watched his clones murder each other and drive a nail through everything left of his sanity. They'd never been there when he needed someone, anyone, to catch him when he fell.
And then Suri happened.
A hero finally came to save him, even if it was way too late. Sure he'd made friends with Hawks and he seemed cool but the number two hero never made the extra effort. Not like Suri had. She'd been the only one that truly tried to help him when he had his breakdowns and the only one who absolutely and truly trusted. And now Toga, his best friend who he'd follow to the ends of the Earth, was putting her trust in the girl.
So maybe.
Just maybe.
Maybe he could too.
"Okay."