Bullets In The Sky

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of Hailstorm Vol. 2! Clay confronts a former hero today and it's not going to be as simple as either one of them hopes. But one thing that is simple, checking out my Pat reon! That's right, if you like what I do you can support me by leaving a donation or becoming a patron, either one will help me out. Now then with that business out of the way, and no guest review questions this week, let's dive on in!

Musufatu: Abandoned Penthouse

"You…..know me," the woman coughed from her position against the couch, "how? Who….even are you?"

"Cloud Warrior Cirrus," the hero-in-training answered back while removing the goggles on his mask, "I'm also, a fan of yours."

"A fan," Lady Nagant groaned, "if you know…who I am…..then you know what I did. Or at least….what the commission said…I did."

"I know it was a lot less simple than they pretended it to be," Clay acknowledged, "you were one of my favorite female heroes, someone who took a seemingly simplistic ability and turned it into a force to be reckoned with. A collected, intelligent person like that wouldn't kill fellow heroes in a simple dispute, not unless there was no other choice."

"Huh, how old are you….anyway," the former sniping hero questioned, "You look like…..a kid."

"I'm sixteen," the cloud wielder revealed, "though after everything I've been through with my classmates lately I don't really know if I can still call myself a kid."

"Your eyes don't look like…a kid's," she observed while shifting position to get a better look, "so maybe I can tell you…..the real truth of what happened that day. It was really pretty simple. I was tired…I'd been killing for years…..in secret. When I wanted to quit…the head of the commission threatened my life. So I took his and the lives….of several other members."

"That certainly explains his sudden resignation and disappearance," Clay mused aloud with a hand to his chin, "it'd look pretty bad if one of their own agents went rogue. Ironically that's probably why they kept you alive. Lady Nagant, the best shot in all of Japan, suddenly disappearing would draw too much attention, at least that's my guess."

"You're a bright kid," Kaina noted, "you certainly know how…..to think like a hero. But why…don't you sound more surprised?"

"My Uncle's a pro hero of the super analytical variety," the U.A. student explained, "he taught me how to use my head and that heroes, and the public safety commission, aren't perfect. Not to mention, we've had all kinds of nasty secrets spilled recently. So this is just par for the course right now."

"Heh, well I guess it doesn't…..make a lot of difference….now," Nagant admitted, "tell me. Would you be able…..to take me to the top heroes?"

"Turning yourself in," Clay tried to hide the surprise in his voice, "this because of what happened to you?"

"Yes," the sniper freely admitted, "I thought I'd….be free…if I did what All For One wanted."

"All For One," the Cloud Wielder's eyes narrowed, his voice gaining an edge, "you were hired by All For One?"

"He wanted me…to catch a kid," Kaina explained, "a kid-."

"Wearing a green outfit with a metal faceplate and rabbit-like ears," Clay quickly guessed, "I believe he's also wearing a yellow cape now."

"That's right," Nagant confirmed with slight surprise, "you know…Izuku Midoriya?"

"He's one of my oldest friends," the U.A. student informed, "are you telling me Midoriya did this to you?"

"Not….all of this," the former hero indicated her right arm, "he just busted…..my rifle barrel. His speed was…..incredible….faster than my bullets. But it wouldn't have mattered….my heart….wasn't in this job. The rest of this….was a trap All For One placed in my body…..along with the secondary quirk he gave me."

"It looks like you got blasted," Clay observed, "I'm guessing it was an explosive quirk. But how did you get here?"

"I used my new quirk….Air Walk," she broke down the scene, "I kicked him away…and used the highest boost I could. Then the blast occurred and I….was thrown all the way here. The next thing I knew….I woke up and stumbled into here….that's when you came along."

"So now you want to take out All For One as payback," the Cloud Wielder questioned.

"No," was Lady Nagant's surprising answer, "or at least….not in the way you think. It's true…I want him to hurt for using me…..but the truth is…I let myself….be used, like I had before. So if I'm going to die….I at least want to die….as something other than a tool. But more importantly….I want to help that boy…..I want to help that hero make things right."

Clay turned her words over in his head, looking for a lie or deception. Given her talents it wouldn't make sense to use her as an undercover operative, too many people were familiar with what she looked like. Furthermore she'd be checked out thoroughly by the heroes to ensure she didn't have some kind of quirk that would disrupt the safety of the shelters. On top of all that, the sniper wouldn't be allowed to even be within sight of Midoriya once he told them she worked for All For One.

"Alright," the hero-in-training agreed reluctantly, "I'll take you to the pro heroes. But no tricks or I just might finish the job All For One started."

"I believe you," Kaina acknowledged before holding up her left hand. Clay grabbed it and pulled her to her feet, momentarily surprised to find she was just the slightest bit shorter than him before putting her arm over his shoulders and steadying her with a hand on her back. He could've produced his clouds right then and there to carry her but decided this was a good way to examine her movements and hopefully determine whether or not she was faking her injuries. Again, he couldn't think of a reason that bringing her back would be detrimental but being cautious had yet to let him down.

Case in point, noticing a certain oddity when he pushed the door open all the way. "These bugs are with you, I hope."

"Afraid not," Clay denied as the two of them watched a large swarm of winged insects hovering a short distance away from the doors. Several of them suddenly clumped together, forming a mostly human-looking head that was covered by long shaggy hair, save for the antennae.

"Now what do we have here," the stranger cooed in a female voice, "a little lost hero and an older woman with the quirk of self-barbecue?"

"Who's asking," the cloud wielder questioned back, "if you're one of those criminals who's gotten loose you'll find better marks than us."

"I doubt that," the insect villain laughed, "I recognize you, you're that cloud wielding brat from U.A. who's worked with Gang Orca a few times."

"Strange that you know something like that," he remarked, "I don't recall ever running into someone like you while I was there."

"You wouldn't," the woman barked with a frown crossing her face, "by the time you showed up with beetle dangling from your clouds Gang Orca had already subdued me with that blasted sonic attack of his!"

"Wait a sec, you're Red Swarm aren't you," Clay finally recalled, "that's right, you had that sidekick, Dung Beetle, you worked with."

"Partner!" Red Swarm yelled in correction, "and his name was Dark Beetle!"

"Either way it doesn't look like he's around right now," the student noted, "so maybe you should do yourself a favor and go find 'em. I've got something kind of important to take care of."

"Oh I know where he is," the insect woman sneered, "he was sent to a whole other prison and he already got picked up by the other heroes. But you're gonna help me bail 'em out."

"What, you trying to take me hostage or something?" Clay put his hand on his hip while shaking his head, "afraid that's not gonna work out for you. Even if the pros were willing to negotiate I don't exactly plan on just coming along quietly."

"Oh I hope you don't," Red Swarm smirked sinisterly, "watching you struggle is also part of my payback!" The swarm of insects advanced towards the Cloud Wielder who took a more ready but still somewhat relaxed stance after leaning Nagant against the doorway. The moment they got close he expelled a large volume of clouds out in front of him, engulfing the middle of the insects while the rest split off to two sides.

"I'll be honest," Clay quipped while moving forward and guiding the cloud to the left, "I don't know if you can even qualify this as a struggle." He made his point by swinging around, his cloud following his right arm as it circled around him and engulfed more and more of the swarm. It was like watching a giant, fast-moving fishing net at work, sweeping up everything in front of it until there was nothing left.

"Gah, what in the world's happening?!" Swarm screamed in confusion from within the cloud, "why is my entire swarm stuck?!"

"Simple," the U.A. student began his explanation while closing the other end of the cloud up, "all these small bugs weigh practically nothing, so if I keep the cloud moving while upping the back and inner density, you can't fly out the back or the way you came. It's a new trick I like to call Rain Gauge Prison!" He increased the speed of the cloud then as another idea occurred to him, "now I can't help but wonder: what'll happen if I hit your entire insect swarm against a wall at high speed?" He did just that, circling the cloud prison around his body even faster before basically launching it at the wall of the penthouse.

"AAAAAAAAHHH! Wait, wait, wait, we can talk about-SLAM!" A cracking sound from the wall accompanied by a painful 'OOF' ended her sentence. Clay removed his cloud from their attacker then, revealing the villain's true form: a brown-haired woman with antennae and a red, insect-themed costume. She slid off the wall, clearly unconscious.

"The only thing we're gonna be talking about is your return to prison," Clay quipped, "maybe this time they'll stick you with your partner." A slight groan was the only response he received from the downed insect woman. What would draw his attention next was the sound of snapping and Kaina yelling in pain. "NAGANT!"

"I'm fine," the sniper assured as she suddenly appeared in the doorway, still very wobbly on her feet, "I just had…..to pop something….back in place."

"Well I hope you don't mind moving out of this place," the U.A. student tried to sound more humorous about the situation than he actually felt. He'd legitimately feared for a second that a possible link to All For One had been in danger. A very justifiable fear, it turned out, as four missiles suddenly came streaking in from overhead. Clay and Kaina both had enough time to look up before the Cloud Wielder acted, flying forward and producing clouds to both cover Red Swarm and move Lady Nagant out of the way. The building shook as the projectiles impacted, blasting multiple large holes in the penthouse and sending debris flying everywhere.

Smoke clouded the door of the penthouse as the sound of even more missiles tore through the silence of the receding rain. Just before they impacted, the glass of the large front window shattered and two clouds flew out and down towards the street. "What in the world," Nagant exclaimed from atop the cloud she was on, "did you lead a whole team of villain's right to me?!"

"Doubt it," Clay called back as they descended, "if I'd been followed they would've blown the whole building up shortly after we went inside. That damn bug lady must've had some backup." A theory that was almost immediately confirmed when several razor-sharp blades busted out of the middle story of a tall building on their left. "SHIT!"

It was only thanks to the distance the lethal weapons had to travel that Clay was able to jump off his cloud and toss Kaina off her own that they were able to avoid the web of what he now recognized as teeth and even then just barely. 'Moonfish,' the cloud wielder realized as he turned midair to see said villain leap out of the building with assistance from his quirk. Unlike the outfit he wore when he assaulted the training camp, the villain had acquired a grey hoodie and black leather pants. But even with his face concealed Clay could practically feel the murderous gaze from the man as he turned his head towards them.

Time seemed to slow then with Clay forming a javelin cloud to throw, praying that he would be faster and more accurate than their attacker. It would turn out, however, that neither one of them would receive that honor as the crack of a rifle filled the air. At nearly the same time a bullet impacted Moonfish in the head, causing him to turn end over end in midair before slamming into a window in the opposite building across the street. The cloud wielder didn't have to guess where the shot came from as he turned around and raced towards Nagant, catching her bridal style before producing a cloud underneath his feet to keep them both steady in the air.

"I thought you said Midoriya busted your arm," Clay accused, noting the fleshy, rifle configuration that was currently her right arm was very much not bent.

"I tensed the muscles in my arm and used the reshaping properties of my quirk to straighten it out," the sniper explained, "it's a trick I picked up on the job but I hate having to use it because it takes a minute and hurts like a son of a bitch. Especially now."

"That explains the noise you were making earlier," Clay realized before hearing the sound of more missiles heading towards them, once again from above. "But we can talk about the tricks up our sleeves later. For now, let's deal with this last prick." He produced more clouds from the pads on his shoulders and arms, sending them out and reshaping them into a large net that stretched several feet across. "Shelf Cloud Razor Net!"

Said net caught the first missile, cutting into it as the next one hit behind it, followed by the one after that. Both the cutting of the warhead and the impacts from behind were enough to detonate all the missiles heading for them. 'Better restrict my cloud use a little,' Clay told himself while ascending upwards with Lady Nagant, 'no telling how long this could drag out if we're really dealing with who I think we're dealing with.' His fears would be, unfortunately, confirmed when another person flew up from a nearby building, propelled by what looked like a jetpack.

"Clay Cero," their attacker boomed, "so it is you after all."

"Ballistic M," the cloud user responded, "I thought there was something familiar about those missiles." The villain looked a little rougher since the last time he saw him. His outfit was a scrounged up red jacket that had seen better days and his dirty black pants had one or two holes in them. Most confusing of all, however, was his jetpack seemed a bit odd.

"Nice of you to remember," The villain half-laughed, "and you're right about this being familiar. Is that the same girl you were hauling the last time we duked it out? She looks like shit."

"You know this maniac," Nagant questioned with a tired look in Clay's direction.

"Me and a classmate had a run-in with him a few months back," he recounted, "she couldn't fly so she had to hold on."

"Until you used her to catch me by surprise," Ballistic M barked before turning around and pointing at his backpack, "but that trick won't work like last time. Allow me to introduce my new partner!" The jetpack suddenly moved and sprouted what resembled a head who then proceeded to speak.

"Allow me to introduce myself!" The stranger exclaimed in an, admittedly, dorky-sounding voice, "I am the one and only Jetpack Jack!" The response to his loud, boastful declaration, was confused silence. "Oh come on! I've been working as a villain for years!"

"I actually have a friend who's an absolute quirk nerd," Clay informed, "and I don't think even he's heard of you."

"Oh….wait," Kaina suddenly remembered, "I think I know him."

"Ah good, someone who's aware of my star-studded career!" Jack Boasted.

"He's basically a sidekick villain at best," Nagant explained, "he tried being a legit villain at first but kept getting caught because all he can do is turn into a jetpack. The greatest success he's found as a villain is selling out his services as a sentient form of transportation. He was sent packing regularly by Jet Boost until they finally caught him a few years ago."

"That's because all the guys who bought my services were losers!" Jack yelled, "But I've finally found a villain with actual jetpack experience and now we're going to blast apart every prick who's ever crossed us!"

"Uh, I don't know you pal, and Ballistic M attacked me," Clay corrected, "I don't think self-defense counts as crossing someone."

"Then consider this as me finishing what I started!" The Missile Villain declared, whirling around and firing a small volley of missiles at the pair. The Cloud Wielder quickly ascended through the gap between another couple buildings, summoning some large cloud shuriken to cut through the missiles that turned to track him without hitting the buildings. He continued to climb upwards after that, leaving the city skyline and heading towards the clouds.

"You realize we have no cover up here," Nagant pointed out, holding on as Clay dodged and cut through more missiles.

"Ordinarily you'd be right," Clay acknowledged, "but after what happened last time I doubt Ballistic M is going to be willing to follow me up past the cloud layer."

"You have a plan then," the sniper surmised, glancing up at the approaching clouds before looking back towards the largest onslaught of missiles yet.

"We'll have to get up there first before we can do anything else," the U.A. student shot out an even larger razor net this time, bunching up and detonating the large majority of the missiles. A couple still made it through, however, and continued to race towards them. Clay glanced back and was about to turn around with another attack before Nagant leaned back and extended her rifle arm. She fired a spiraling bullet that nailed the closer missile with a glancing blow.

The impact was enough to knock it off course and into the path of the other one, detonating both. "I might be able to help, if you'll allow it," she said almost humorously.

"I'm surprised you can still shoot like that in your condition," Clay commented upon entering the clouds.

"I'm mostly running on adrenaline right now," Nagant informed, "so I can't shoot at one hundred percent. But I can still do a simple trick shot like that. Just don't ask me to fire fifty plus rounds or armor piercing shots."

"Only you would call a super precise shot from an awkward position like that simple," the cloud wielder quipped before moving slightly to the side to avoid a blindfired missile, "but you have given me an idea."

"So you didn't have a plan beyond getting to cover up here," the sniper groaned as a few more missiles broke the layer close by.

"More like I had a plan, but now I've got a much better one," the U.A. student attempted to sound reassuring, "though, you probably won't be the biggest fan of it." One of the missiles that missed them exploded shortly after breaching the cloud layer. "It looks like our pursuer is using his brain a bit more this time around. So we better figure this out quick."

Said pursuer was also busy laughing as he fired five missiles this time, watching as they detonated shortly after entering the clouds. He wouldn't make the same mistake like last time and leave himself vulnerable from below. "How long do you think he's going to hang around up there," Jetpack Jack questioned from behind his partner, "come to think of it, how do we know he hasn't run away already?"

"The same reason he took this fight up towards the clouds in the first place," Ballistic M laid out his reasoning while continuing to fire a missle or barrage of missiles at random intervals, "sure he's got cover but there was plenty of it down in the city. He probably would've even had an advantage but thanks to Moonfish he can't be sure whether or not we have more people down there. But even if he did know for sure he'd still come up here because he can't risk the possibility that our fight might destroy quite a bit of the surrounding area."

"Oh, so does that mean we're gonna fly back down and start bombarding things if he doesn't make a move soon?" Jack asked enthusiastically.

"Exactly," the missile villain confirmed, "just like at the forest he's not gonna want me anywhere near a populated area. So he either makes a move or we head over and make some people die!" He punctuated his last statement with the largest barrage of missiles yet. It was taking a bit of restraint but he wasn't going to use his signature move and leave himself vulnerable this time until he was certain his target was in sight.

The villain continued to recall how careless he'd been the last time and repeated to himself, almost like a mantra, that it wasn't going to happen again. 'Come on hero,' Ballistic M grinned wickedly in anticipation, 'come out and face your explosive end.' Almost as if answering a telepathic summons, a shape emerged from the clouds, followed by another and another until a large number of shapes was heading right for them. 'Are those, pillars?' The villain was half right.

What Clay had formed were numerous, human-sized javelins that stood at the same height and width as an average human body. And he'd made over two dozen that he was currently raining down all around Ballistic M and Jetpack Jack. "Hah, you think corralling me in is gonna work!" The convict exclaimed before shooting his missiles at the closest javelins.

They dispersed with the blasts while the other javelins spread out and surrounded Ballistic M. "How do you like the new trick," Clay called out, standing on the tip of one of the more distant cloud constructs. "I've been trying hollowed out shapes that require a lower volume of clouds to form. Since I can control the density of my clouds it seems pretty viable, but what do you think?"

"I think you're just trying to pull the same trick again," the villain accused, "I'm betting that banged up woman you had with you is hiding nearby. But she won't get the chance to make a move!" Clay moved his clouds the moment Ballistic M readied to fire his missiles, directing them to circle and enclose the villain. Explosions followed as cloud met missile, lighting up the sky. Smoke soon filled the area afterwards but the villain wouldn't remain hidden in it for long.

He burst out and charged right at Clay who called two of the remaining large javelin clouds to either side of him. "I'm gonna blast you to pieces and rain your guts all over U.A.!" Ballistic M gave out a crazed yell while readying more missiles. When he got close, however, a purple and indigo-colored projectile came soaring towards his backside.

"Ballistic!" Jack warned, turning them both around in the air. The missile user raised his arm up, his gauntlet shattering from the impact. M grinned savagely at his successful interception and readied a large barrage of missiles that he fired in the direction the bullet came from, 'now he's out of tricks'! The instant he was about to turn back around, though, another bullet came speeding in from above Clay.

"Oh shi-CLANG!" Jack couldn't react fast enough and was beamed in the head by the rifle round. The hit packed enough force that he was actually knocked unconscious which, inconveniently for them but convenient for Clay, deactivated his quirk. Jack's body morphed and rearranged back into that of a slim man with a basic tie on mask and a red and white bodysuit with a giant JP on the front.

"Game set," Clay quipped while morphing his two remaining javelin clouds into giant hands and slamming them together, capturing the two criminals who he proceeded to electrocute with Grasping Thunder. "And match." He held his arms out next to catch Lady Nagant who was floating thanks to another cloud he'd had attached to her body and landed into a bridal carry once again.

"You were right," groaned Kaina, "I was not the biggest fan of that idea."

"It was the part where I tossed you through the air, wasn't it?" Clay more stated than asked. At its core the idea had been surprisingly simple. Lady Nagant would lay prone on a cloud platform above Clay and watch Ballistic M's movements. The U.A. student knew he was expecting an attack from behind so Nagant fired one of her specialized curving bullets at just the right angle to create the illusion she was behind him.

The moment he turned towards the bullet Clay flipped the platform, catapulting the former hero several feet towards him and falling at an angle where she fired her second curving bullet. It's trajectory and form had it curving just right before it hit Jack's head, giving him no time to dodge or even see the projectile. "That and the fact I had to use two bullets," Nagant grumbled, "do you have any idea how embarrassing that is for a sniper?"

"You say that like there was anyone else who could've made a precision curving shot while floating halfdead through the air," the U.A. student pointed out while beginning their descent back towards the city. "Skill like that is why you were one of my favorites."

"Hmph, is this how you imagined meeting one of your favorite female heroes," she couldn't help but quip.

"If I'm being honest," Clay replied while descending towards one of the midlevel rooftops, "this actually went better than the last time I met one of my favorites."

"Did they turn out to be that big of a jerk," Kaina was admittedly curious how this whole ordeal wasn't as bad as his last one.

"Actually Gang Orca's a pretty nice guy despite how much he looks like a villain," the U.A. student laughed, "the problem was he was playing the part of a villain for one of the tests in the provisional license exam. I electrocuted him."

"I'd laugh if it didn't hurt right now," Nagant gave a weak smile. Clay nodded before noting a flaming object, or rather person, coming their way. It was Endeavor.

"What happened," the Number One Hero questioned immediately upon landing and noting the defeated villains hovering in suspended cloud hands.

"We were attacked by some of the escaped convicts," The U.A. student explained, "they've been taken out but two of them, Red Swarm and Moonfish, are still back in the penthouse area. Look for a couple of shattered windows on the way and that's where the latter will be. Also, get someone with a healing quirk here, stat, this woman's pretty severely injured and she has very valuable information."

"Lady Nagant," Endeavor realized upon getting a closer look at the woman in his arms, "I was starting to think she'd died in that explosion. We've been looking for her but we had to stop and get medical attention to a fellow hero."

"No need to play dumb," the U.A. student informed, "I already know you're one of the one's working with Midoriya to find All For One. In case you haven't heard, the bait idea's been scrapped."

"Principal Nedzu did contact me about that," the number one hero revealed, "but getting Midoriya to come back of his own free will won't be as easy as you think."

"Class 1A will worry about that once we find him," Clay's eyes narrowed with a look of determination under his mask, "so first thing's first: tell us where Midoriya is."

All he had to do was pick up a lady and get her to the pro heroes. Simple, right? Well maybe it was simple depending on who you ask. But either way I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and as always leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. And remember to check out my Pat reon and see about becoming a patron! Finally, stop in next time as the search for Midoriya continues through even more unexpected obstacles! 'Til then.