Taylor groaned as she fell onto her back due to a throw by Lisa, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath, her body soaked in sweat and sticking her to the mat.
Most of the members of the Unbound were having mandatory CQC (close quarters combat) training in the base's expansive gym and dojo, and Taylor was getting a crash course in hand to hand with the rest of the 'beginners', which also included Ruby, Jaune, Lisa, Brian, Alec, Dinah and Aisha. The last two weren't strictly members of the Unbound, but considering how much time the latter spent around them, and the former's insistence on sticking around despite her parents' consternation, they might as well be.
Taylor had initially been surprised when Brian had been grouped with the beginners, as Lisa had told her that he'd been practicing multiple martial arts for years. But then she saw the others sparring during training, where she could focus on their skills rather than whatever was going on.
Even now, John was fighting Nora, Yang and Ren at the same time, honing his precognitive power in combat (and that was just a truly terrifying power for a man like John to have). Pyrrha and Blake were sparring as well, the two going at it hard and fast, no quarter taken or given. Both matches were like something out of a crazy action film, the kind with plenty of wire work and special effects.
Taylor had also been surprised that Ruby and Jaune were in the beginner's class, but that made sense when it was pointed out that they were more used to fighting with their weapons than without them. Ruby didn't seem enthused about being forced to train in hand-to-hand, but she knew better than to complain, while Jaune was being attentive and doing his best to learn, even if he wasn't exactly the most talented person there.
Off to the side Beast Boy, Alice and Lara were at the exercise machines, all of them working on various parts of their bodies. Surprisingly it was Beast Boy that appeared to be having the most trouble. He might be too used to shifting forms when he needed to do something physical.
Taylor was shaken out of her thoughts when Lisa held out a hand to help her up. The blonde was breathing just as heavily as she was, her body covered in just as much sweat, which was rather obvious as she was wearing only a sports bra and shorts provided by the Unbound for training. Of course, everyone was wearing the same clothes, the men wearing appropriate versions of their own. Taylor had originally felt self conscious of being in a relatively skimpy outfit, compared to her usual preference. Not to mention her attempts to keep her eyes from roaming in the beginning. Now, however, she didn't pay it any mind, being more focused on surviving the training, which was one of the most physically demanding things she'd done so far in her life.
As she took Lisa's hand and got to her feet she stretched a bit before turning to their trainer, who was observing them with his arms crossed.
Master Chief (even out of armor he still never gave his name) stood opposite his current students. His exceedingly pale skin was quite a contrast with the black exercise clothing he wore as well, and his blue eyes were studying them all carefully. "Good. Now, again." As usual his orders and instructions were brief, but his students had learned by now to do as told as fast as possible.
They got back into position across from each other, their stances pretty much perfect after the grueling instruction they were put through. And then Taylor waited. She'd learned quickly that going on the attack against Lisa wasn't a great idea. Her power was a royal pain in the ass to fight against, since it gave the blonde a leg up on reacting to pretty much any form of attack. The only ones that could go on the offensive without worrying as much were the original unbound, since Lisa's power still had trouble with them, and even then she could usually still get some sort of smaller insight to help her.
Of course, as Lisa grinned, Taylor reflected that going on defense wasn't usually a huge help either. It just meant that Lisa got to pick which weakness to go for on her own time. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
In the end the bug controller ended up on the mat again, face down this time, unable to find an advantage on the cold reader. She grumbled about the unfairness of it all, but Chief wanted everybody to spar against everybody, to help them learn how to deal with different and unexpected opponents. It was just Taylor's bad luck that it'd ended up being her turn to go up against Lisa.
"You really need to keep that elbow tucked in." Lisa said with a vulpine grin still on her face as she took a pull from her water bottle. Taylor gave the older teen a look that she was sure conveyed perfectly well where she thought the other girl could shove her advice, making Lisa back away, raising her hands in playful surrender.
"She's right." Chief said, interrupting the little bit of banter. "You're also turning your right foot too much. It's making you easy to unbalance. Now sit. It's Ruby and Aisha's turn."
Ruby sighed as she got up, while Aisha bounded into place with a toothy grin of her own, bouncing on her feet. The second youngest girl there really wanted to learn how to fight like the capes around her, and so was going all in on the lessons, much to her brother's surprise.
Ruby, on the other hand, saw this as a chore, though one she wasn't stupid enough to complain about. So it took her a moment to get into her stance. When the spar proper started, however, she definitely gave as good as she got.
As Taylor drank some water and wiped her sweaty face with a towel, she relaxed in this moment of normality.
Nora suddenly went flying overhead, making them all pause as she slammed far up on the far wall before falling to the floor. Before long she was back on her feet, yelling out a war cry.
Well, relative normality, at least.
"Are you out of your fucking mind!?" Jacob Rasmussen, Secretary of Defense, roared at the young man sitting across from him. "You're talking about provoking a war with fucking China!"
President Nicholas Everett sat behind his desk in the Oval Office, hands folded in front of his face, glancing from Jacob to Nevermore, eyes narrowed and thoughtful.
The young leader of The Unbound had asked to meet with him in order to, quote, 'discuss a humanitarian action'. Considering that the young man and his team had essentially killed Leviathan single handedly, Nicholas thought he would be a damned fool to refuse the meeting.
He did not expect it to involve a proposal that would likely necessitate the mobilization of the United States' military forces in the Pacific.
Also in attendance was his Vice President, Alphonse Cohen; the Chief of Staff, Michael Benedict; the Secretary of State, Elleanore Hutchinson; the Attorney General, Melany Winchell; the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Elias Chismer; the Director of National Intelligence, David Mulberry; the Chief-Director of the PRT, Rebecca Costa-Brown; and two members of Nevermore's team, Relic and Cortana, the latter in attendance via video call.
Nevermore calmly sipped the coffee he'd been provided, seemingly unruffled by having a considerably powerful man basically screaming in his face. Then he set the mug down and looked at Rasmussen. "Actually, I'm talking about helping millions of people currently living in squalor and poverty due to the actions of the Endbringers. The fact that China will no doubt try to take advantage of this is simply a side effect."
Rasmussen was still seething, so Nicholas spoke before he could continue ranting. "I understand the importance of what you're proposing, and very much agree with it. However, Jacob isn't incorrect that it risks bringing us into open conflict with a world superpower, which hasn't happened since World War Two. It could be incredibly bloody. Are you sure you couldn't start somewhere else? It isn't like our world is short on places that need help. If you're looking for the same effect, Canada would work." He said calmly and reasonably, showing why he had been elected on a reputation as a patient negotiator.
Nevermore smiled at him. "I'm aware of your concerns, and agree with them. However, when I first conceived of this idea I had my team do some research into options. During our investigations we came across some information that swayed our opinion on where to start our work." He nodded to Relic, who pulled several folders out of the bag she was carrying, handing them around, starting with the president himself.
Nicholas raised an eyebrow and picked up the folder, opening it and beginning to read the files inside, wondering what the Unbound could have to report that would justify potential open war with one of, if not the second biggest, military powers in the world. The further he got through the very well structured report, the more alarmed he became. The rest of his cabinet also read the report with growing concern, and after a while murmuring began to fill the room.
Even as Nicholas was finishing reading through it, David was already speaking. "How did you obtain this information?" He asked, his suspicious tone more to hide his shock than anything else.
As Nevermore took another sip of his coffee Cortana replied to the question. "We obtained this information by infiltrating the computer systems in the CUI's Dāofēng Wū." She said simply.
"Bullshit." David said. "Nobody can access those systems, even Dragon. They have no external connection. Everything is intranet, and they use paper copies for anything that leaves the place. The best Tinkers and Thinkers in the world, on all sides of the law, have been trying to access it for decades, but there's simply no way to."
Nevermore set his mug back down. "Indeed, that's all a problem. That's why we had one of our people infiltrate it and connect their systems directly to one of our satellite uplinks so Cortana could gain access."
Every member of the cabinet stared at him. "I'm sorry, what?" Elleanore asked in a strangled voice. "You're telling us one of your people just, what, waltzed into the House of Blades and logged on to a computer without anybody noticing?"
"Essentially." He said with a smile. "We have quite a bit of information we'll be more than happy to share for use in preparing for any conflict, not to mention plenty of proof in case you think we're making it all up." As he spoke Relic removed a sleek external hard drive some of them recognized as a new Excelsior model, setting it on the table, the drive presumably holding all the information they were referring to.
Elias cleared his throat as Elleanore's mouth opened and closed like a fish's, wanting to get things moving further. "If this intelligence can be trusted, then you're saying that a war with China is inevitable and will likely occur within the next two years."
"Indeed." Relic said, taking her turn to speak. "They intend to claim both halves of Korea, along with New Siam and Vietnam. They already have deals in place with Red Gauntlet for support. Considering your current treaties and agreements, that would mean you'd inevitably be drawn into conflict with them. We've determined that what we plan on doing would prove to be too much of a temptation for them to resist, so if we do it now we can force their hand and start the fight on our terms, as they would likely move as quickly as possible to entrench themselves before anyone can move in to stop them."
"And how will you help us when the fighting starts?" Jacob asked seriously. "Or do you expect us to just clean up after you've done your thing, taking all the losses while you get a massive propaganda coup?"
Nicholas frowned at the aggressive tone of his SecDef. "Jake…"
"No, it's a fair question." Nevermore said. "It wouldn't be right for us to simply light a match and just let everyone else deal with the explosion." He interlaced his hands in front of his face as he leant forward slightly. "Unfortunately most of the members of our team aren't suited for all out war. Most of them are teenagers, and generally don't have the skills or power needed to be much help in most cases even if we were willing to put them through that sort of trauma. Rose is a superb sniper, for example, but she alone won't be much help beyond being another gun on the field. Not unless the enemy is stupid and clusters up. However, we do have some things to offer. Master Chief is a soldier with decades of experience, and will be more than suited to countering members of the the Yàngbǎn. Cortana has a multitude of unmanned vehicles and weapons she could use to supplement your forces. Beast Boy is also ready to go Godzilla on their fleet, eliminating their sea power. And Thanatos is still in the Dāofēng Wū. Once things start, he is prepared to perform a decapitating strike, particularly targeting Null, with One and Two as secondary targets, if possible."
The cabinet members stared at him, surprised at the response, particularly by the mention of what Thanatos was prepared to do. Michael seemed to catch something, eyeing Nevermore speculatively. "What about you? Wouldn't you participate in this?"
"If it's still ongoing by the time I recover? Of course." Nevermore answered the question with a nod. "Otherwise I can help us get our forces into position before the entire thing begins."
Nicholas leant forward, suddenly concerned. "What do you mean, when you recover? Is this going to injure you?" He didn't want to imagine what would happen if something happened to this young man, considering his immense importance as the Endbringer slayer. Not only would they need his help against the others, the hit to the people's morale if he died or became incapacitated somehow would be immense.
"The last time I used the ability that will let me do this, it was on a much smaller scale but left me exhausted and with a bloody nose." Nevermore said seriously. "Considering this is going to be several orders of magnitude more difficult and straining, I'm not sure what condition I'll be in by the end of it, though it's likely I won't be in any condition to do much of anything for a while." He said. "I don't know how long I'll need to take to recover, so I intend to set things up as much as I can ahead of time."
"That actually brings up a question I have." Rebecca said before anyone else could respond to that statement. "What is your power? You've shown too many, too powerful abilities. Most grab bag capes' powers are weaker the more they have, and the broadness of a single power's application is the same, while the narrower a power is, the stronger it is. So, how exactly do you have so many powers of such strength?"
Nevermore took another sip of his coffee, green eyes boring into Rebecca's from over the rim, before he responded. "We don't exactly have a lot of time to go into it, so I'll keep it simple. I'm not, strictly speaking, a parahuman." He said, shocking the entire room with that statement. "I was born with my abilities, and have been able to use them since birth."
Rebecca's eyebrows were almost to her hairline. "How?"
"To make a long story short, most of the Unbound are not from Earth Bet." He said. "We're not even from your multiversal cluster. We've been jumping around, from cluster to cluster, and simply ended up on Earth Bet relatively recently. Outside of some of our newer recruits that are native to Earth Bet, such as Imperatrix, none of our powers come from whatever source parahuman powers come from. We do not have a Corona Pollentia or Gemma. We are simply… different."
The cabinet members stared at him till Alphonse finally broke the silence that had fallen. "What do you mean by 'multiversal cluster'?" He asked.
Nevermore sighed. "I don't want to derail our discussion on more immediate matters too much, so I'll be quick. You are obviously aware of the multiverse, since you are in contact with Earth Aleph, and have knowledge of others. Well, nothing is infinite except perhaps the omniverse itself. Each branch of the multiverse is arranged into 'clusters' which encapsulates universes that are similar or close enough to have similar 'rules'. For example, whatever is responsible for parahuman powers only encapsulates this cluster, with perhaps a few other clusters being affected by a similar thing or entity but going in a different direction, events wise. Meanwhile, other clusters work by different rules. Which is why my powers work differently than what your understanding would expect."
"I have been writing a research paper on this topic that I have been adding to with each cluster we visit, drawing from local information and science, including pataphysics and other branches of science you're likely not aware of." Cortana put in. "I'm more than willing to share that with you and the wider scientific community, but as of now, I believe we should get back on topic."
Nicholas nodded in agreement. "Indeed. Alright, as of right now, considering the information you've provided, I believe that we can tentatively agree to provide our assistance." He turned to Elleanore. "Get me Prime Minister Mochizuke on the line." He said seriously.
A week later found Harry floating in the air above Japan, looking down at the land that was still recovering after Leviathan's attack over a decade before. He was currently above the south western corner of the main island of Honshu, a few miles west of the city of Yamaguchi, near the coast. From his position up high he could see the open stretch of ocean that had once held the island of Kyushu. Below him the land was scarred from the after effects of the battle between Leviathan and Lung, buildings only good for demolition for miles around, the damage extensive despite the distance from the site of the actual fight, the shocks and after effects reaching beyond Kyushu itself, primarily due to the tsunami sized waves that had battered the area.
He knew that he was being watched, Cortana having several drones with cameras on them nearby, observing and sending the video of everything to come to news networks, along with the American and Japanese governments. He knew Prime Minister Minazuki had advised people not to panic, but he was sure what he was about to do was going to unnerve, if not outright scare, quite a few people below.
Deciding he'd procrastinated enough he closed his eyes, letting Teleute connect him to the myriad gods of Japan, especially the more local ones for the area. Much as he had way back when he'd helped Cortana become metastable, he was merely the conduit through which the gods would be doing the hard work.
The first touch he felt was warm and bright, like the touch of the sun on a cloudless summer day. Amaterasu. He felt her gratitude as others began to connect to him, hundreds, even thousands of major and minor kami doing what they could to help heal their land. Those that could not assist in the recovery itself instead helped soothe and comfort Harry, who even at these early stages was already under a great deal of pain and stress.
Outside, a circle of multicolored energy appeared on the ground directly below him, it wavered for a moment before beginning to grow at a rapid pace. It kept going and growing till it enveloped the entire area that had held Kyushu within its radius, the rest of the circular area enveloping the rest of the affected area and more besides.
Then Harry felt the strain increase as the gods got to work, absently noting the blood beginning to flow from his nostrils. The ground began to rumble, an earthquake rocking the land as, bit by bit, the large landmass that was Kyushu emerged from below the waves, rocks and dirt flowing to their proper positions, making up the island the exact same way it had been before Leviathan's arrival. Within ten minutes the tremors stopped, the entire island once again in its proper place.
After that things shifted, now affecting the rest of the area enveloped by the circle of power. First all the manmade structures began to be restored, as if time was flowing backwards, buildings, roads and all other objects becoming just as they had been that day.
Then the plants began to grow as a great wind carried seeds and pollen across the water to the restored landmass, greenery appearing at an accelerated rate, trees sprouting and growing to full maturity within minutes, former farmland immediately having the appropriate crops growing as they should be.
Then came the animals. Insects and birds flew from Honshu to Kyushu, finding homes where they needed to be. Many birds actually carried other animals to where they needed to go, such as fish and smaller mammals like rabbits. The larger animals seemingly leaped across the small stretch of water with no real trouble. And every single animal was going at an immense speed, as though their personal time was accelerated, so that they took their places populating the land within minutes.
By this point Harry was bleeding from his ears, eyes and mouth alongside his nose, the cameras capturing images of how damaged he was becoming during his work. But he kept at it, eyes closed and face focused despite the obvious pain and exhaustion.
Finally, thirty minutes after the start of the event, everything was done. Harry felt all the gods end the connection with their thanks for his aid. Amaterasu was the last to leave, and he could feel what seemed to be gentle, warm lips on his forehead. Then he was once again alone.
Immediately he fell from the sky, those watching shocked and scared at the sight, but he caught himself before he hit the ground, arresting his momentum before slowly touching down onto the soft grass as he passe out, where Lara, Chief and Beast Boy recovered him, BB becoming a draft horse to help carry him away.
And Japan celebrated the restoration of their country.
And that is what I have been calling the Benevolent Show Of Force. If killing Leviathan didn't send a very clear message, then this undoubtedly will.
Not much else to say about the chapter itself. After this two things will be happening simultaneously. The war by the CUI against Japan, and certain… events, in Brockton Bay. I'll be focusing on one at a time, so we'll be going through the war first, then I'll rewind to show Brokcton Bay. I hope you're all looking forward to it.
First, though, I'll be making my first PHO Interlude. I think I'll be making it on my own rather than using my original forum idea, as I've been warned away from it. If interest is great enough, however, we can give it a try with the second PHO interlude I have in mind before the story moves on to another world.
In any case, that's all I really have to say, so let's get to my usual reminders.
As I've stated previously my best friend and their roommate have a biweekly podcast. Yes, I know, everybody and their mother has a podcast these days, but I beg you to hear me out. It's called 'Two Idiots and a Dog', and they talk about pop culture in general with different shows for different topics. So far they've done 'Idiots on Film', talking about classic or important movies (or movies they just like), and another one called 'Idiots Unleashed', where they just take a topic their Discord members vote on and talk/argue/rant about it without a filter. Their latest episode of 'On Film' was actually a series instead of a movie, 'Trigun Stampede', which is why it's called 'Serial Idiocy' instead, while their latest 'Unleashed' was about 'Storytelling in Video Games', since for some reason the 'are video games art/storytelling' discourse is still ongoing, against all sense. So if you're interested, that's 'Two Idiots and a Dog' on most podcasting resources, including Youtube, now. Please check it out. For me? *puppy dog eyes*
Secondly, I am, as always, truly grateful for those of you who are willing to send a buck or two my way out of the kindness of your heart. I relied on all of you when I wasn't working, and it definitely still helps even now that I'm gainfully employed. Thanks to you I have more of a cushion to get things I still need or pay essential bills. Like Final Fantasy XIV. (Speaking of, Ryuma Hyurinmaru on the Coeurl Server, Crystal Datacenter, North America, Astral Prime FC).
I used to have a poll on what to update there to incentivize donations, but I recently realized that part of the reason I have trouble motivating myself to write is that I've been letting others dictate what I write, so that's no longer a thing. I apologize, but as of now, I don't have anything to really reward patrons with other than my gratitude.
If you'd like to send a few cents my way anyway, I'm at Pat A Ron dotcom /athanmortis. However, if you'd rather donate a one-off amount rather than a monthly sub, I also have a Ko-Fi. That's ko-fi dotcom /athanmortis78653 .
I think that's all I have to say, so I'll go ahead and sign off. Thank you all for reading, and your patience, and I hope to see you all next time!