Disclaimer is in chapter 1. So apparently Tenhawk has resumed posting fanfiction on one of his own sites ( t . evancurrie . ca ) and on (username tenhawk).
Empire 88 Fighting Pit.
Hookwolf groaned as he came down off his tiptoes, teeth clenched as he felt his brute based healing kick in. Nevertheless, he could still feel the pain from the boot that had been planted right between his legs with a speed he'd barely been able to follow.
"Still want to stick to no rules for the fight?"
The smirking face of the Magus asshole was doubled up a little as he limped back a step or two, surprised that the other fighter wasn't pressing the advantage.
"You're a cocky little shit," Hookwolf ground out through clenched teeth.
"I've been called worse by better," Magus shrugged, looking around at the wide eyed stares he was getting. "What, have you guys never seen a low blow before?"
Hookwolf laughed painfully, though he was now able to straighten up and move almost without pain. Before he'd triggered, he had no doubt that blow would have left him on the ground puking his guts out for the better part of a half hour.
"Never saw anyone suicidal enough to try it with me is more like it," He said flatly. "You're gonna pay for that, boy."
Magus just laughed, "I've been a pitfighter before, lapdog. Been trained by the very best there is, from Wildcat to the Bat and even a little time with the Captain himself. You don't rank."
None of those names meant anything to him, which told Hookwolf that the kid was either bullshitting or he was vastly overestimating the skills of his trainers. He knew every good pit fighter in the country, and most of the top ones worldwide. Aside from a couple who's powersets were really bad matches for him, Hookwolf figured he could stand toe to toe with them all.
"You're not getting that hit in again, kid," He told Magus with a shake of his head. "and I'm am going to shred you."
"It wouldn't be as funny the second time anyway," Magus shrugged with a grin and a wink. "Sorry if I was too… rough with your sensitive parts. I'll be gentle, promise."
Hookwolf gritted his teeth, he was getting real tired of the innuendo too. He flexed his power and roared as he charged in, blades spinning around his fists as he swung for the kid's head. He was surprised when the kid didn't dodge, opting to block and bat away the swings with efficient moves that would have been perfect in a normal fight, but against his blades should have resulted in tearing the idiot kid's arms right off.
So he was more surprised when the blocks actually worked.
Falling back to reassess, Hookwolf snarled, "Brute too?"
Xander was enjoying himself, probably a little bit too much in all honesty. Blocking the attacks had been fairly easy, since he was pretty sure that Hookwolf was so used to his powers doing the heavy lifting that he'd not put a lot of muscle into it… or skill.
"Armor," he corrected, casually examining his arm where the blades had tried to tear through, noting that several layers had been cleanly sliced. "Carbon fibre weave, aramid underlay. Quite cut resistant even as mundane materials… I have to say, kind of impressed though. Regular knives wouldn't have even scratched it."
"I'm a Parahuman, nothing regular about me."
"So I see," Xander nodded as he shifted his stance. "Well then, let's dance."
With a snarl, Hookwolf again charged in, this time with even more blades spinning in lethal whirling speed. Xander blocked another swing, ducked the follow up, and delivered an underhand punch into the man's guts, lifting the Nazi off the ground with a grunt. Little more than that resulted from the blow, however, and Xander had to roll clear before the walking blender descended on him with intent to puree.
Coming back to his feet, he turned just in time to intercept the next attack, weaving through the gauntlet of blades with his arms up to protect his head as he turned in a spin that snapped his elbow around and into the steel wolf mask with all the strength he could muster.
A crunch could be heard as Hookwolf stumbled back, blood flowing from under the steel as the Nazi involuntarily grabbed for his face.
"Motherfucker!"
"Yeah," Xander said, "mask like that has to be fit really well or it'll break your nose everytime. I'm guessing you can't fully change your head, either cause of a power limit or because you don't want to blend the wolfmask, am I right?"
Hookwolf growled, letting his power fully out. The steel mask was instantly caught up in his blades and torn to shreds.
"Smart guy, huh? Well now you get my full attention you little shit," He snarled.
"Good," Xander gestured for him to come on. "Let's see what you've got."
He was going to tear that cocky shit limb from limb, Hookwolf decided as he surged forward.
His blades tore up the ground, digging furrows in the concrete like it was loose soil as he moved. The kid was fast, though, and kept getting out of the positions he was trying to maneuver him into. Hookwolf was fighting back the growing frustration, knowing that he had plenty of endurance and with his powers fully unleased none of the kid's blows were even slowing him down now.
This went on for a minute, maybe more, he lost track. It felt like a lot longer, but Hookwolf was used to how time seemed different in a fight. The cheers of the gathered spectators and the roar of blood in his ears… even when he didn't have ears any longer… was all the fuel he needed to keep going forever it felt like.
They traded blows, and slowly the kid's fancy pants armor was getting shredded. Soon it would fail, and he'd draw blood. When that happened, it was all over other than the screaming. The kids blows were strong, he could feel them, which was impressive… but they weren't doing any damage now that he'd surrendered fully to his powers.
Now, if only the damn kid would stop grinning like a fucking loon!
"I admit it," Magus said after a moment, causing Hookwolf to pause, "I can't touch you with your power fully unleashed like this."
Hookwolf grunted, "Good of you to admit… so why are you fucking grinning?"
Magus laughed, headed tilted back as his whole body shook. Everyone stopped cheering and just stared at the lunatic. You could have heard a pin drop when he stopped his laughter.
"Oh, Lapdog, haven't you noticed?" Magus asked, waving his hands over his armor.
Hookwolf felt his power hidden eyes widen in shock as the armor was repaired in front of them, leaving Magus looking fresh as he'd been when they started.
"I haven't used my magic yet," The kid fucking winked at him again. "Round two, lapdog."
PRT HQ.
"Colin, you might want to see this."
"Dragon?" Armsmaster shifted, "What is it?"
"Hookwolf is streaming a Capefight," Dragon told him, her face appearing on the monitor directly across from him.
"Hmm," He hummed, "There isn't one on the schedule. Have you been able to locate the source of the stream?"
"Not yet," She admitted. "As is usual, they're bouncing the signal through several servers in… unfriendly nations. I've requested permission to hack the signal, but until it's granted…"
"Yes, of course," Colin sighed. "Who's fighting?"
"It seems that Hookwolf caught Hellhound trying to save some of his dogs," Dragon said, earning a quiet curse from the Tinker.
"Damn it," Armsmaster swore, shaking his head, "How is she holding up?"
"She was taken down almost immediately, even her dogs weren't a match for Hookwolf when she was caught by surprise," Dragon said. "However, Magus interrupted before things could get too… out of hand."
Colin stiffened in alarm, "Magus… is he?"
"Alive, well, and seemingly mocking Hookwolf," Dragon told him with some amusement, "That young man has a twisted sense of humor and a true level of disregard for Nazis it appears."
Colin sighed, but in relief this time. He hated the idea of another Tinker being cut down by that beast, particularly a talented one. Additionally, he was hoping to collaborate with the young tinker to see if he could duplicate some of the rather impressive inventions he'd seen.
Dragon was smiling knowingly at him, "Relieved that you might not be losing access to the young man's technology?"
"It is of inestimable value," Armsmaster defended himself brusquely. "Can we locate the fight from the video?"
Dragon frowned, "I've been trying, but the feed is angled to show very little beyond the remains of an old abandoned factory from the looks of things."
"Something we have far too many of," Armsmaster grumbled.
"Precisely."
He got to his feet, "I'll put out the word to all patrols and get out there myself. While I abhor the inefficiency, we may be able to get lucky."
"I'll monitor the feed and let you know if anything changes."
"Thank you."
Lisa Wilbourne answered the phone on the first ring, not even needing her power to tell her who it was.
"Hey boss, I assume you're watching this too?"
"What is your read on Magus?"
Lisa shrugged without taking her eyes off the fight she had running on one monitor while she had PHO open on another.
"Not enough real information yet," She admitted. "I can tell you that he believes what he's saying, and he's not even slightly intimidated by Hookwolf. Best read I have on him right now is that he's seen worse… much, much¸ worse."
"Powers?" Coil asked in a clipped tone.
"No idea," Lisa admitted. "One moment he reads like a basic brute mover, next I'm getting Tinker vibes, then flashes of Blaster… If I had to guess right now, I'd call him a Trump."
There was a long silence from the other end of the line.
"That's not good enough."
"That's what I have," Lisa snapped, reaching for a bottle painkillers. "This is the first eyes on I've had with Magus, and the details just keep changing. Trump is the best I can do for now, and that's not even my powers speaking, that's just logic. Whatever he is, it screws with my powers."
She swallowed a couple of the extra strength tablets as Coil grumbled over the line.
"I'm on it for now, hopefully with more data I'll be able to filter out the noise, but that's where I'm at."
"Fine," Coil snapped after a long silence. "I want a report once the fight is over."
"You'll get it," She said, though the phone connection went dead halfway through her words.
Lisa sighed, dropping her phone back down beside the keyboard as she looked over to the video again.
E88 Fighting Pit.
Xander rolled away from the attack that was intended to turn him to mulch, easily coming back to his feet with no effort. He was working Hookwolf around the fighting area with ease, keeping the Nazi focused on him while he obfuscated their positions as much as he could.
"Hold still you little shit!"
Xander laughed, but stood his ground and extended his arms to either side, "Ok lapdog, I won't move. Take your shot."
Hookwolf shot him a glare and squared off, seething now at the mockery he could feel being directed at him. Even the cheering of his own people had dropped, more of a low murmur of worry now.
He loosed his power fully, blades whipping around like a blender designed by Escher. With a lean into it, he let his power bite into the concrete below him, and surged forward with vicious acceleration. Spinning blades outstretched, he reached out for blood, seemingly surprised when his target really didn't move.
Xander watched the murder blender come straight at him, waiting for the last possible moment, and then focused his intent and let his power loose.
With a crack of displaced air and a whisp of black… something… he vanished from where he was and appeared right behind Hookwolf, letting out a mule kick right into the back of the Nazi's head from behind, and sending him crashing forward into the cement pylon Xander had positioned himself in front of.
Hookwolf's blades chewed through the cement with disturbing ease, shredding the base and bringing down the rest on his head, driving him to the ground.
Xander landed easily and turned to watch with interest as chunks of the roof, barely held up as it was, slammed into the Nazi in succession, hammering him into the cement floor. Dust covered him for a moment, and silence filtered out aside from the occasional chunk of something else falling.
Finally a metal on cement scrape could be heard as the dust settled and Hookwolf appeared again, covered in cement dust as he picked himself up and stalked slowly out of the mess.
"You said you weren't gonna move," Hookwolf snarled.
"I didn't," Xander said with a grin. "Technically I folded space. I didn't move, the universe did."
Hookwolf stared blankly for a long moment before shaking his head, "A smart ass answer to everything, is that it?"
"Well, better than a dumbass one," Xander responded. "I mean, not all of us are so intent on dragging down the average IQ by flying Nazi colors in America, you know."
Hookwolf's blades spun furiously, hiding his body… if there was any of it left that hadn't been converted to steel.
"You talk a lot of shit for someone who's just been running away." The voice that came from the mass of spinning blades sounded like a grating of steel on steel.
Xander just grinned, "Just would have felt bad if I didn't give you a chance to show off for your little friends here. I know how tough it can be being a bully, all that posturing and everything."
"If I catch you, I'm going to scatter your remains across this whole fucking city," Hookwolf promised.
Xander flexed his hand, his wand appearing in his grip a moment later as he lost his smile.
"If."
Hookwolf paused, eyes drifting to Xander's hand.
"I'm supposed to be afraid of a stick?" The Nazi asked slowly.
"Nah," Xander shook his head, "Just thought you might want to play fetch, lapdog."
He flicked the stick around, eyes not leaving Hookwolf, "Come on, that's a good boy. Who wants the stick? You do, you do!"
Xander paused, covering his mouth and mock whispered to the spectators, "I'm just kidding… He's clearly not a good boy."
Hookwolf roared, rage overcoming him as he surged forward… and immediately fell on his face, his feet somehow stuck to the ground.
"What the fuck…" Hookwolf twisted, looking at his feet in disbelief before blades whirled out of them, shredding the ground and allowing him to get to his feet, "I don't know how you did that but…"
"Yes, yes, you've made that clear," Xander interrupted him. "If you did know, you'd make like a good Nazi."
"You think I'm going to give up to you?"
"Give up?" Xander raised an eyebrow, "I meant swallow your own pistol barrel."
Hookwolf roared, blades erupting from his flesh, throwing bloody viscera to spatter across the cement around him.
"Going to fucking kill you!"
Xander let him finish and commit to his forward charge before he slashed his wand forward. A beam lanced out, connecting the fighters for a brief moment before Hookwolf let out a confused shriek of metal and voice… and then collapsed in on himself, body folding in strange, impossible ways, until where the Nazi had been standing there was now… a small dog.
A Chihuahua, to be exact.
A very loudly yapping chihuahua.
"That's more fitting, I think," Xander said. "Yo quiero Taco Bell?"
The little dog just kept yapping up a storm while silence otherwise descended around them and Xander looked around to the spectators.
"Now… what should I turn the rest of you into?"
Proving that they had some slight level of survival instincts, the crowd began to panic and started pushing wildly to escape.
Xander just watched and let them run one another over in their efforts before he heard a metal scrape that sounded familiar but… off pitch somehow, then a sting on his ankle.
"Ow! Fuck… what the…?" He looked down, confused, until he spotted the mini-blender coming back around to attack his other foot. "Seriously? Your powers still work? Ow! Stop that, you little shit… Son of a bitch!"
He danced over the mini-blender's next attack, firing a stunner at it in irritation, only to miss and hit the ground.
"How are you… ow! How are you harder to fight as a Chihuahua than as a person, damn it?"
Frustrated, Xander planed his feet and waited, then kicked as hard as he could at the next charge.
The yipping dog flew in a high arc, his barking dopplering as he flew off and impacted the cement wall of the old factory, only to slide slowly down, seemingly unconscious or stunned by the impact.
Xander followed the kick with a stunner bolt to make sure, only to suddenly be jerked around by a strong hand on his shoulder.
"Do not kick dogs!"
Xander looked at the stocky girl's angry expression, then over his shoulder before looking back, "Not even Chihuahuas? Really?"
She shook him, eyes blazing, "No dogs. Don't care."
He slowly smiled, shaking his head, "I think I like you. Relax, not a dog. Just hookwolf changed to look like a dog."
She glared at him evenly, not looking away, then slowly let her hand drop.
"Thanks," She grunted, limping away from him and toward the factory, stepping on a broken dog mask that had been crushed at some point during the fighting.
"Hang on, you need some help there," Xander told her, walking to catch her. He flicked his wand in the direction of her thigh, "Episkey."
She paused, looking down in surprise as the blood flow slowed to a stop and the flesh began to pull together.
"Take it easy for a while or you'll pull the wound open again," Xander advised.
"Can't," She grunted, nodding forward. "Dogs."
Xander followed her gaze, the dog cages were visible and many of them were barking angrily.
"What the fuck?"
"Hookwolf runs dogfights. Gambling on winners."
Xander looked in the direction of the sleeping Chihuahua, "Shit. I didn't think you could get lower than a Nazi until now."
He paused, thinking about it, "Well… not while you were breathing anyway."
He followed along with her, watching as the girl began looking over the dogs. Her movements were careful, with intent and efficiency, but her body language was expressed without any sign of weakness. The dogs mostly reacted to that, allowing her to evaluate them before she dropped a little treat for them and moved on.
Not all of the dogs were so cooperative, however, and even she couldn't approach a cage with a particularly large rottweiler who looked like he'd been through a couple wars and several even worse peacetimes. No matter what she did, the dog attacked the viciously when she approached.
Xander saw her slump, shaking her head. He put a hand on her shoulder, and pushed her slightly aside, growling low in his throat. The big Rotty turned on him and lunged at the cage for a moment before Xander's eyes flashed golden and the growl grew.
The girl pulled away from him, eyes wide, and the Rottweiler fell silent with the rest of the dogs, dropping to it's belly and whimpering.
Xander relaxed, letting the magic go.
"You can check him now," He said, turning away.
"Hey…" The girl said, getting his attention. "Name?"
"Magus."
"Bitch."
Xander looked at her oddly for a moment before he nodded.
"Good to meet you, Bitch. Need help with the dogs?"
She considered, then nodded slowly. "Thanks."
"Any time."
Getting the dogs checked over took time, during which… through various grunts and similarly short communications, Xander got an impression of the girl. She certainly cared for the dogs, more than people he was quite certain. Not that he had a problem with that, in all honesty.
She apparently had a place to look after them, so he agreed to help her get them situated and similarly decided he would see about getting her some help with food for them too.
The dog that she had been defending limped along with them, plus her other two that had… shrank from their demon dog appearance that had originally caused him pause.
Bitch pet all three, before kneeling in front of the one who'd been injured. She stared into he dogs eyes for long time before nodding firmly.
"Angelica," She said with certainty.
Lisa leaned back from her screen and blew out a long breath.
What in the hell was that?
Magus was all over the place with his power set, leaving her just confused. She didn't think she'd ever even heard of anyone with powers this diverse before.
None of the literature covered it. No Grab Bag had powers this diverse, and the only Trump she'd heard of in the ballpark was Eidolon himself.
Magus seemed to be even more flexible than Eidolon, though not as powerful? I think? Eidolon takes time to shift between power sets, but the ones he brings out are far beyond what Magus just showed… How much was Magus keeping back, though? Because he was straight up playing with Hookwolf.
The forums were already losing their minds, of course. Magus was going viral like nobodies business, and if the Empire didn't consider him a threat to be dealt with before this?
Well, they would now.
Her phone rang and she took a moment to settle her thoughts before picking it up.
"Boss. No, trump is still the best I've got, but frankly I'm worried we may have a mini-Eidolon on our hands. You've watched the video, I assume… He's not Manton Limited, and his powers are all over the map. The only thing I'm certain of is that he hasn't shown all his cards yet."
The angry snarl from the other side caused part of her to flinch, while part smugly enjoyed the obvious distress her boss was dealing with.
The line went dead a moment later, so she just set the phone down and started the video up to watch it again.
Whatever else, this… Magus… was fascinating.
"How is there nothing on him, anywhere?" Coil was close to literally pulling his hair out by the roots.
Magus had seemed to be a minor player when he showed up. A vigilante with a hate on for Nazis arriving in Brockton Bay was hardly a shocking turn of events, after all. He wouldn't be the first, nor likely the last.
However, when he went in to the PRT for a bit of power testing, that changed. Armsmaster was impressed with his tech, and the very idea of having a few of Magus' communications devices had left Coil salivating at the thought.
Unjammable, untappable… The value was incalculable. What Accord would pay for a few alone would have made up for almost any investment he might need to put into acquiring them.
However, having attempted to take the man three times already, Coil was no longer so optimistic.
Each attempt had ended with his men taunted, captured, and somehow with Magus learning the location of Coil's base despite only having access to the captured men for minutes at most before turning them over to the police or PRT.
After that, well none of his security had done jack shit to keep the man out, and invariably he'd been forced to drop those timelines in order to prevent capture.
Normally, not a big deal. Losing over and over was just how he perfected his plans, after all. In this case, however, Magus never really gave him any useful information to streamline the next attempt with… and, worse… he'd begun to notice something off during the attempts.
There were small… variables that he couldn't account for between the timeline's he kept and the ones he dropped. Things that didn't seem like much… until Coil had realized that they shouldn't be there at all. Little things, little changes that shouldn't have changed.
Glitches in reality.
Possibly it was his paranoia speaking, but Coil was a cautious man. He needed to know what was causing those changes before he made any moves he couldn't undo.
Armsmaster slowed his bike to a stop at the address that had been reported and directed to him from Dragon. The old factory looked like any of dozens of others in the area, several times that in the city as a whole, but looking closer he could see evidence of recent use.
"Console, Armsmaster," He said, more for the record than out of need, "I've arrived at the reported address. Am proceeding inside."
"Understood, Armsmaster. We have backup available if needed."
"Keep them standing by."
"Yes Sir."
Dismounting from the bike, he retrieved his Halberd and started in toward the factory, eyes peeled while his suit scanners were moved up to full power. He picked his way in through the debris left by those who'd been spotted leaving in a hurry earlier, and found a big open bay door that led within.
The large skylights that had, in times long past, provided light to the workers within, were long since smashed out, letting the elements in to turn the interior into a state of disrepair that was likely well beyond any attempt at recovery now.
"Armsmaster."
Armsmaster readied his Halberd automatically, only to relax marginally a moment later as Magus descended from one of the broken skylights.
"Magus," He responded.
"Got a call?" Magus asked curiously. "I was going to call it in myself once I got the more important things cleared up."
"More important?" Armsmaster queried, "Hookwolf was here."
"Is here, actually," Magus nodded over to a wall, "but he's not important. I was helping Bitch get the dogs to safety, that's more important than any Nazi."
Armsmaster grunted, not voicing his disagreement but practically radiating it anyway.
"You say Hookwolf is still here," He asked, tensing up.
"Relax, he's out." Magus told him, walking over to the wall with Armsmaster reluctantly trailing him. "See? I stunned him after I transfigured him."
"That's Hookwolf?" Armsmaster asked in disbelief as he looked down at the, apparently sleeping, chihuahua.
"Yup, I think this form suits him better, honestly," Magus snorted. "Yappy little bastard."
"Is the change permanent?"
"Nah, he'll change back in a few hours. Maybe sooner," Magus said, "Depends on how his power interacts with the change."
Armsmaster shook his head, "Can you undo it?"
"I suppose, but why?"
"Because I'd rather not have him change back by surprise while we're transporting him, and encasing him in confoam while in this state might kill him if he turned back," Armsmaster said.
"Confoam?" Magus asked with a shrug as he produced his wand.
"Containment Foam," Armsmaster explained as Magus flicked the wand and the Chihuahua shuddered and began to expand, turning back into the form he had come to expect with Hookwolf. "A breathable matrix of flexible foaming polymers, we use it to secure the more… troublesome prisoners."
He produced a small grenade while he was speaking, dropping it by Hookwolf's body before stepping back.
The grenade hissed briefly before suddenly foaming out exponentially, covering Hookwolf entirely from foot to head.
"Breathable, you say?" Magus asked curiously.
Armsmaster nodded, "completely permeable to air, yet strong enough to hold a tank in place."
"Very impressive," Magus admitted.
"What happened to Hellhound?" Armsmaster asked.
"Hellwho?"
Armsmaster sighed, "The Public Relations Department won't allow us to use her preferred name."
Magus laughed, "Are you serious?"
"Unfortunately," Armsmaster shook his head.
"Bitch and I," Magus carefully pronounced the name, "cleared the dogs out, got them to a place she had set up. I helped her get food and water for them before coming back."
"She is wanted for murder, I have to ask where you left her."
"Ask all you want," Magus shrugged. "Who'd she kill?"
"Officially she killed her foster parents for unknown reasons before fleeing arrest and becoming a fugitive."
"And unofficially?"
Armsmaster scowled, "There are… questions about the original report. However, until she's brought in, we can't do anything about them… and the longer she's out committing crimes, the less likely any investigation will bother to look too deeply."
"What do you think happened?"
"I don't." Armsmaster said simply, "What has been suggested, however, is that her Foster mother attempted to drown the stray puppy she brought home and Hellhound triggered during the incident."
"Ooh," Magus winced. "Nasty."
"Indeed. Unfortunately, without her statement, that suggestion has essentially been ignored. At this point, I'm not even certain that there is any evidence to uncover," Armsmaster admitted. "When she came into our jurisdiction, the Director had all her files delivered to our care. Reviewing them didn't turn up much to support the suggestion."
Magus nodded.
The system sucked sometimes, he was all too aware of that. Innocent people made bad calls all the time, and the system ground them up for it.
"Will you tell me where she is?"
Magus shook his head, "No. I don't believe I will."
Surprisingly Armsmaster just nodded, "Understood."
"That easy?" Magus asked, eyebrow raised.
"Hookwolf is a priority suspect, Hellhound…" Armsmaster shook his head, "We have to take her in, if we come across her location, but I see no reason to push for that tonight. How many dogs were there?"
"Forty. Give or take. Several aren't going to make it."
Armsmaster nodded, then just keyed open his radio. "Console, Armsmaster. Send in the prisoner van, pickup for Hookwolf."
"Yes Sir."
He looked back up at Magus, "They won't let this go. Empire 88, I mean."
Magus just grinned, "Good."