Knowing how much time was left before the Slaughterhouse rolled up to the party was more of a burden than a blessing. It wasn't like I had anyone to talk to it about, so I dealt with the stress the same way I dealt with all my problems: shutting down emotionally and putting all my effort into preparing to weather the incoming storm.
The thought of an incoming storm drew my mind back to Leviathan. I wasn't sure which group I was more unprepared for. Sure, the Endbringers were powerful beyond belief, but the Slaughterhouse Nine were fucked in the head beyond belief.
I breathed in deeply, trying to wash away memories of roaring waters, but found that washing away something only added more water to the mix. I was left with red crescent moons on my hands, and a burning urge to utilize my explosives on someone... or something. Anything.
But I couldn't. Explosions draw attention, and I need an explosion to be a complete surprise to Jack Slash, and the last thing his evil mug sees before all trace of him is gone, so the world isn't actively at risk of ending. Can't risk Bonesaw somehow putting him together, and outside of that, she's the most scary individual to leave to her own devices, so I need to ensure she won't be a threat to me.
I can do this. Just need to keep my eyes on the prize, take out the two biggest threats, and the Nine will be someone else's problem. Hell, if things go right? A few body modifications can go a long way...
"I feel like doing something rash," I told Taylor.
She blinked, then frowned. "You said that to try and surprise me."
"Maybe, but it's also true," I corrected. "The Merchants sat out on the Leviathan fight, and they're the ones who are benefitting the most from the destruction of the city. Hell, they're even something of a credible threat now. So, why not deal with them?"
Taylor paused. "Now you've surprised me. You want to get rid of the Merchants?"
"Yeah, I can take them," I decided. "Check this out," I called upon a Susanoo arm, miming picking up the table we sat on with my real arm. The Susanoo mimicked my arm, grabbing onto our table.
Crunch!
I stared at the chunk of table I now held. That moment of contemplation reminded me of the excruciating pain and heavy chakra drain of using Susanoo, prompting me to release the arm construct and let the chunk fall onto the steel floor with a bang.
"While that wasn't a good example of my control," I admitted, "it was a good demonstration of how powerful it is."
"What was that?"
"I call it the Susanoo. Very draining, hurts like a bitch, and summons a magical skeleton to fight for me. I'm completely honest when I say that I think I could walk right into a room with every single cape the Merchants have to spare and a small army of junkies, spout one-liners the entire time, and walk away without a scratch on me. The Merchants do not have the required calcium in their diet for their skeleton to be a match against mine."
"That doesn't sound like you at all."
"Nah, not my style. I'll probably get a bunch of them with illusions and only smack around the ones I need to. So, what do you say?"
"Oh, I'm in," Taylor grinned. "What's the plan?"
I turned to a map. I want to see where I need to go to find actionable intelligence about the Archer's Bridge Merchants. An illusory dart landed firmly in recently acquired Merchants' territory.
"Want to see if we can find anything around The Docks?"
"The majority of Merchants are gathered here and here," Taylor pointed at two wrecked buildings. I recognized one of them as generally being where the dart landed.
"I'll go in," I decided.
"Alright. Shouldn't need my help, it's not exactly airtight."
I pressed my hands together, transforming into a dragonfly. I flew into the building through a hole in the side of a wall, deftly avoiding a poorly aimed slap and darting up onto the roof.
"Fuckin' bugs…" The haggard-looking old man with long, untamed hair grumbled, before calling out. "Yo! Dicknips! Grab the broom, got a big fucker this time."
An overweight, balding man in his forties opened the door, heading in with a broom. He swung it at me, trying and failing to squash my body as I darted around the walls.
"Goddamnit," Dicknips growled. "Why the fuck is Skidmark having us crush these fuckers?"
"Thinks that one bug bitch is spying with her bugs," the old man peeked through the hole in the wall, watching for people. "I think it's bullshit, and he wants an excuse to keep us busy while he parties."
"She probably is, dipshit. I don't know why he thinks we can keep this wreck bug-free, though. If she's spyin' on us, we're already fucked."
"Like I fuckin' told you. Keep us busy while he parties! Bet he's got a crackwhore lickin' his crack!" Dipshit croakily laughed.
"He probably will, tomorrow night. I know a guy who just got promoted, and he did me a solid. Let me know where he's hosting The Crackstravaganza." He swiped the broom at me again. "Think I'll buy some shit once I get off this shift to bribe my way in."
"Do a man a favor, yeah? Tell me where that's at?"
"Fine, if you deal with this fucking bug for me. Can't hit this thing for shit."
"Deal, hand me that fuckin' broom!" Dipshit snatched the broom. "Where is it?"
"Maple and Fifth," explained Dicknips as Dipshit tried to whack the shit out of me. "Used to be a library, everything inside got fucked up by the waves. Cleared out the books and shelves and reading shit, plenty of space. Capes and crack galore—shit, smack it, it's getting away!"
The Crackstravaganza? Sounds like an opportunity. Thanks, eyes. I flew out the way I came in, leaving Dicknips and Dipshit to themselves.
I poofed back into myself as I returned to Taylor. "I got what we need. Tomorrow night, big party, lots of capes. Library on Maple and Fifth."
Hive hummed. "First building. The Merchants are awful at keeping secrets."
"Seems to be a common thing in this city. I think it's just an inherent security problem of having so many people involved in a gang like this."
"So…" She paused. "What now?"
I shrugged. "Go home? Might try and get New Wave involved. I'm still adapting to my powers, so I'd rather focus on that."
"Huh. Wish it was that easy every time."
"Must be karma, from Leviathan."
I began producing Shadow Clones tasked with practicing Rasengan, also known as spinning water balloons with their chakra. Incredibly, it was probably the most significant thing I've done since receiving my Mangekyo, aside from Shadow Clones themself.
My chakra control substantially increased with multiple inputs of training, particularly once my clones started collaborating. The better my chakra control, the less chakra a jutsu costs. The less a jutsu costs, the more I can use it. Since I'm able to use Shadow Clones more often, I get better at using Shadow Clones, making it both cheaper and faster to spit out more Shadow Clones to go and improve my chakra control some more.
A cycle of improvement. I'm up to popping out six clones an hour, and I'm not even on the rubber ball stage. My chakra control was genuinely garbage up until now, I realize.
Now I'm polished trash.
I left about twenty clones to their devices. Make that nineteen, as one of them tried to add water release to the poorly spinning water balloon, detonating the balloon and his arm.
"I think we should wait before trying to add water chakra to it," I decreed, and my clones agreed.
I returned to the task at hand, copying the tattoo seal for storing water. All this chakra use steadily grows my reserves, and copying steps is easier and easier. The Fuinjutsu department of myself dropped off a few hundred explosive seals and dispelled in my room last night, so I created another clone to make the tattoo brush while I was out hunting for Merchant information.
Hmm. If my chakra continues to improve noticeably, I'll be able to use Mangekyo abilities on clones without them instantly dispelling from burning through all their chakra. Chakra control doesn't assist with the cost of using a Mangekyo Sharingan, so the only thing that can help is pure power increase.
The other downside of using your Mangekyo as a clone is that you're not exempt from the eyestrain. They go pop before anything worthwhile gets accomplished, so I'll leave the clones to their clone things. The real eyes are the ones that matter.
Midnight hit. My clones still practiced, and I absentmindedly continued burning chakra and copying tattoo steps. Fuinjutsu is extraordinarily complex and time-consuming, which makes it a pain to learn through Omoikane.
I want to see myself performing the next step of permanently inscribing a storage seal that allows the user to store an incredible amount of water and access it without having to dedicate focus to releasing the water on an arm.
Omoikane failed, thankfully. My head shot up from resting on my arm. I went over my memories, quickly realizing that the last step I watched was undoubtedly the last.
I think I'm going to have to be more careful about my commitments in the future. That was ridiculous. My eyes fucking ache.
"It's ready," I informed my clones. "I'm going to use Omoikane to watch it all at once when my chakra fills up entirely, to make sure I don't miss anything. If I start running low on chakra, start releasing yourselves."
I made a new batch of clones every few hours, and these ones are relatively fresh. I can handle a rapid-fire burst of small bits of memory if I need to.
I want to see myself performing every step of permanently inscribing a storage seal that allows the user to store an incredible amount of water and access it without having to dedicate focus to releasing the water on an arm.
An illusory copy of myself appeared, swiftly inscribing an arm with kanji. The seal began with a central kanji in a circle of smaller kanji on my wrist, swirls of kanji spreading down from the circle and all around my forearm like twisting black lines. Because I wasn't learning any new information from Omoikane, viewing the entire process from my memories cost nearly nothing.
As I neared the end, I could feel my chakra beginning to wane, and the copy with his Sharingan active motioned to some clones to start dispelling themselves. My chakra quickly returned with a second wind, and I focused on continuing to copy the seal rather than the memories my mind was trying to process.
"Oh, neat," I commented as my illusion laid the last few kanji on the arm. "We've started the rubber ball part?"
"Yeah, we've been having trouble with it. It's is the power part, and that isn't our strong suit."
"That's fine. I think the water balloon part could still use some work. We're learning this primarily for better control, so still focus on that. Leave five or so to the rubber ball."
I summoned a shadow clone after waiting for my chakra to regenerate. If I want him to do this as best as he can, he'll need the extra chakra to throw into keeping the Mangekyo active.
"Left or right arm?" My clone asked.
I grinned. "Right."
Getting a tattoo was uncomfortable, but was nothing compared to something like using the Susanoo.
I and the clone that tattooed me stood in the Bay of Brockton, using the water-walking technique to stand above the waves about half a mile from the sea. The moon alone lit our stroll on the water, the dim glow of Brockton the only other light around us.
"I think you just have to focus a little chakra into the central kanji, and it should do the rest?" my clone waffled. "I don't know, man. We stole this shit, we didn't design it."
I crouched down and put my hand into the water, channeling some chakra into my inner wrist.
The seal activated. The lines of ink began to glow a deep blue and water itself began to travel up and into the lines.
A whirlpool formed, small at first but then growing bigger. My clone was forced to evacuate the area as the whirlpool became vicious, crashing and foaming as the water swirled and drained into my arm. Despite the swirling waters around me, the 'eye' of the whirlpool where I stood remained still and firm.
After a minute the water stilled, and my seal was satiated. My clone returned to my side.
"How much water was that?" I asked.
"Not sure," he shook his head. "A hell of a lot, though.."
"Amazing. Not that we'll need it for the Merchants, but it'll be nice to have."
"Agreed. Now we just need to test it."
"Water Clone?"
"Water Clone."
I want to see how to perform the Water Clone Jutsu.
An illusory copy appeared, rapidly flashing hand signs and molding chakra. I flashed the hand seals along with the copy, molding the nature release along with the steps in front of me.
I cut the illusion as the justu completed on the tiger seal and released it. My water storage seal glowed as the jutsu searched for water to fuel the clone, spiraling water from my sleeve and into a humanoid shape in front of me. In a poof, the water took form and gained my appearance.
Water Clones aren't sentient like Shadow Clones. They're entirely puppeted by my intentions, though they don't require much of an active hand. I made my Water Clone throw some punches, relatively unimpressed by it. Weaker than an average person, though probably better for non-lethal options.
"Not bad," I admitted. "But pretty uninteresting. I want to try something with some real stopping power. I want to see how to create the Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu."
I didn't follow along with my illusory self this time, instead focusing on learning the jutsu itself. After the forty-fourth hand seal, I cut the vision off and waited for my chakra to return.
I began. Forty-four hand seals is a lot, but I have a perfect memory of it. My hands moved with surprising precision, thanks to a bit of clone practice and memorization.
I finished on the bird hand seal. The jutsu activated, my water storage already swirling and ejecting massive amounts of spiraling water from out of my sleeve and up my hands. Hundreds of gallons of water formed into a massive simulacrum of a dragon, straining my chakra. Those hundreds of gallons became thousands before the dragon launched forward with the speed of a bullet, slamming into the open ocean with a disorienting eruption of mist and water droplets.
"That's more like it," I smiled greedily as the mist from the aftermath settled. "But not very cost-effective. How about we learn a few more?"
I decided to work on my Susanoo the day of the night we planned to take out the Merchants. Easier said than done, unfortunately. Susanoo is draining beyond anything else I have.
It drains me physically, mentally, and chakra-ly. The longest I managed to hold it was forty-five seconds, doing nothing but focusing on withstanding the pain, and then I started feeling the tell-tale signs of my chakra supply scraping the bottom, and cutting it off before any real damage occured.
Took me half an hour to get me from bedridden to back in action. Naturally, I pulled my Susanoo back up, though I was more conservative with my chakra supply from then on. Unfortunately, any training at all with it was exhausting, and a potential hemorrhaging of my ability to see right before a significant conflict.
I need to work on increasing my chakra quantity if I even want to consider some dedicated Susanoo training. How could I do that?
Jinchuriki is out, there aren't any random chakra beasts around. Cursed Seal? Maybe. But just creating a water storage seal took forever. How long would a curse seal take?
I want to see the amount of time it would take to create a cursed seal.
I slip of paper appeared in my hands. "Three months," it read, and I cursed.
Too slow, and I don't even know how effective it would be. I'll focus on other things. Honestly, I'm not too broken up about it. More chakra would be nice, but I'm already growing stronger by the day. I don't want to have to go fucking beast mode to keep up.
I knocked on Taylor's door.
"Come in!"
"Hey, Tayl—" I stopped with the door halfway open. "Taylor, why is your bedroom a hive?"
Taylor sat on her bed with a laptop in front of her. Aside from a clear path to her resting spot, the entire room was subsumed with various styles of insect hives. Honeycombs, wasp nests, and more lined the room, linked up by paths of wreathed spider-web rope bridges, all bugs working in tandem to expand their nests.
"Well, I can't exactly build a hive under the base. You gave me this room, I figured I'd get the most out of it."
I blinked. "You know we have a ton of spare rooms, right? You could just set up in those."
"Oh, I have," Taylor told me proudly. "I'm working on three other rooms right now."
"Ah," I decided it would be wise to identify and avoid those rooms. "Anyway, I came here to tell you it's time to head out."
She sprang from her bed. "Great! I'll get dressed. Be ready in a minute."
Hive and I watched the library from across the street. We sat in an abandoned building nearby, the area generally vacant, deemed uninhabitable by anyone who wasn't as used to filth as the Merchants.
I peered through an empty window frame, the glass that used to be there blown out by the tidal waves a few days ago. Taylor didn't bother to look out the window, instead sitting and focusing through her swarm.
The party started half an hour ago. It wasn't noticeable from the outside, aside from the light thumping of music coming from within. Random people sat outside near entrances, doing their best to appear as vagrants until someone tried to enter the building, then they'd play bouncer.
A surprisingly competent front.
"What's the count looking like?" I asked Hive.
"Tagged one-hundred and twenty-nine people. Three capes so far, Skidmark, Mush, and Scrub."
"Might be some in their civilian identities. Anyone who matches the description of any of the capes?"
"A few. Skidmark has a blond all over him, could be Squealer."
I want to see Skidmark.
A wall of the library faded away, revealing a room of the library. Only a dozen or so people were there, including Scrub, Mush, and Skidmark. Indeed, a blonde hung off his arm, a double-stemmed crack pipe nestled in her absurdly large chest, held in place by a dingy sports bra. Undoubtedly Squealer, judging by the way Skidmark and her sipped from the two stems of the crack pipe in a strange facsimile of how young couples sip from a two-strawed milkshake on a date.
It was the VIP room of the party.
"We'll get the capes first," I told her. "They're the priority."
"Alright. I've found a couple of ways in. A few windows, a hole in the wall, and the vents."
"Just point me wherever you think is easiest."
"Alright," she went silent for a moment, before calling a few flies. "Through the wall it is. Dragonfly will work for this one, as long as you can crawl for a bit."
I transformed, flying out the window after her flies. She led me to the side of the building facing the coast, where I dropped down and crawled through a small hole in the wall.
This hold didn't lead into the building, but rather into the walls themselves. There's no light to guide me here, but I trust Taylor to get me where I need to go.
After a long crawl in the dark, feeling the vibrations of music through the walls, I emerged. I came out from the ceiling, through a missing chunk in the ceiling.
Light hit my eyes, revealing the main room of the party. At least a hundred people all in one room, dancing or bobbing their heads to music while indulging in a variety of cheap-looking drugs. In their haze, nobody noticed a dragonfly following a few flies over to a door. Even the VIP room bouncers took no notice, instead focusing on making sure none of the very visible people tried to get in.
I squirmed under the door, sticking close to the ground and gathering my bearings. The room was how I remembered it, so I moved into action before anyone could take notice.
Time to see exactly how much more effective the Mangekyo is at ensnaring people in illusions. I felt excitement rising up from within me, an eager willingness to test out my new eyes in a genuine conflict. I dispelled my transformation in a burst of smoke, appearing as if from nowhere in front of the only exit to the room. I reached behind my back, locking the door, and locking the Merchants in with me.
Scrub and Mush were the first to react to my appearance, snapping their heads up at me in shock. One look at my face and they froze up. The sudden movement of the pair got the rest of the room to look my way. Every person aside from Skidmark saw my tomoe and fell under my spell.
Skidmark purposefully looked at my legs, identifying me without looking into my eyes. He layered acceleration fields with his power while drawing his pistol, but I was quicker.
I darted forward, tossing a knife. It hit Skidmark's pistol with a clang, knocking it from his grip as I moved around his acceleration field and darted toward the disgusting man. My hand slammed onto his jaw and I grabbed hard, forcing his head up and making him look into my eyes.
He saw the same thing the rest of his crew did, freezing in place.
Now I've got Skidmark, Sqealer, Scrub, and Mush under my control. The majority of the capes that compose the Merchants. Taylor's flies buzzed excitedly around me, indicating her joy.
I'm not out of the woods yet. I have to get them to custody, and between me and escape are about a hundred crack-fuelled Merchants. How the hell do I get them out?
An idea came to me. A devious idea. An idea that would make people a lot more terrified of me, but that nobody could find any real fault in me for doing.
Ah, well. I was going to crush the Slaughterhouse in due time, or die horribly while trying. I can live with a few Master-themed fears popping up.
I took a good look at Skidmark, and then transformed into him, turning and walking into the party. I closed the door behind me, getting a respectful nod from the pair of people guarding the room. The crowd parted for me as I walked up to the speakers, grabbing a microphone and speaking in my best Skidmark impression.
"Listen up, chucklefucks! I've got an announcement to make!"
The music dimmed and the crowd turned to me. One hundred pairs of eyes looked to the face of Skidmark—and then it was suddenly my face.
"I'm here to tell you that the Merchants will be no more, from this day on."
My transformation ended and the crowd fell under my illusion, freezing in place. An entire hollowed-out library's worth of crackheads lost control of their bodies.
I pulled my phone from my pocket, dialing a number. The phone rang once, twice, and then picked up.
"Hello?"
"Victoria, right? This is Pain. You mentioned collaboration with New Wave, right?"
"Uh, yeah? What about it? It's a little late, you know?"
"Oh, I've got a handful of captured Merchants, and I would appreciate New Wave's help in getting to custody."
She went quiet for a moment. "Sure, why not? Should I bring anyone else?"
"I'll send you a picture of how many there are and the address, you can work it out from there. Great working with you."
I hung up, quickly texting the address to the library. I raised my phone and spoke, "Say cheese!" I snapped a photo of the crowd. Nobody smiled, not that they'd be able to. Moving back to the VIP room, I snapped another photo and sent both of them to Victoria. My phone started ringing moments later, but I didn't bother picking up. I decided to play it safe and put the capes to sleep with my Mangekyo: far more draining than immobilizing someone. Worth it, though.
A few of Taylor's flies started battering me, signaling me of something incoming. I left the building, freezing a group of bouncers on my way out and transforming into a dragonfly (just in case) right as Glory Girl and Brandish flew down the street.
"He's been here," Brandish declared, "Bind their hands." The woman peeked through a window. "Oh. It wasn't a joke. We've got an entire crowd of frozen people here."
"Oh. Shit."
"Victoria," the mother sternly warned.
"I think that was a very justified 'Shit.'"
Brandish sighed. "Please call the PRT and inform them of the situation. Did Pain think we carry around hundreds of zip-ties? Speaking of, where is he?"
I darted over behind the pair, silently dispelling my transformation. "Right behind you."
Brandish stiffened, head darting over her shoulders to look back at me. Glory Girl squawked at the unexpected noise, instinctively spinning around and throwing a punch. I leaned to the side, allowing the fist to pass harmlessly by, an inch away from pulping my head into a meat smoothie.
I raised an eyebrow at the blonde, prompting a sudden flush of embarrassment. Brandish quickly grabbed her daughter and pulled her away from me, harshly muttering about the importance of measured responses.
After a moment, Brandish looked back at me. "I apologize for my daughter's actions. She is still young and she doesn't know her strength."
"Ah, who cares about a bit of near-manslaughter between friends? Speaking of friends, I have some capes to introduce you all to. Follow me?"
I opened the door for the pair, allowing them inside the building. The pair looked a little uncomfortable as I led them through the crowd of still-immobilized people and to the VIP room, presenting the small group with a dramatic flourish.
"The sleeping ones are the capes," I informed them.
"Shit. That is Skidmark."
"Victoria." Brandish hissed. "Not now."
The stern woman was already moving towards Skidmark, rapidly cuffing the filthy man and throwing him over her shoulder.
"Hey, is this Squealer?" Glory Girl asked. "She's asleep but she doesn't have a mask on."
"Looks like it," Brandish confirmed. "She's unmasked, though, and I don't see the mask anywhere around here. We'll run her as unpowered unless Pain has any—Oh, of course. He's already gone. Fucking stealth capes, can't just say 'goodbye' and walk away like a reasonable person."
"Aha!" Glory Girl exclaimed with a tinge of smugness in her voice, pointing at her cursing mother. "You hypocrite!"
Indeed, I was gone. With the capes secured, I saw no reason to stay. I slipped out of the VIP room and made my way to the nearest window, pulling it open and vanishing.
That's how the Archer's Bridge Merchants end, I believe. They aren't exactly known for their legal skills or their restraint, so I don't see them getting out of prison. Even the PRT aren't going to just let them go. Maybe if the city was still intact, they'd play along a little, but not now, when they desperately need some wins to make them look in control.
What will this mean for the city? The Merchants were one of the major contenders for supply theft. Without them, will the PRT be able to step up and tackle Lung and the Empire offshoots?
What I think will happen is that the gangs start snatching up the supplies the Merchants would have gone for, while the PRT fortifies their defenses against them. They're all more organized groups than the Merchants: they rely on the threat of truly whipping out their capes for action, and the inevitable damage to property and livelihood to facilitate bringing together a large number of individuals to do their bidding.
The PRT is good, but they aren't good enough to defeat multiple gangs, all of whom are practically free from repercussions, particularly after the collapse of regular society. But they've been able to stalemate so far, and with reduced enemies, I think they can slowly come out on top.
The next step is obvious: do nothing. At least, nothing that will draw any eyes. We just took out the ringleaders of a major gang in the city, though arguably the least embedded. While doing so, I displayed a pittance of my abilities: transforming into Skidmark and freezing a room with Genjutsu.
For me? Not impressive, though it was pretty draining to catch an entire room under Genjutsu.
For everyone else? I revealed an unforeseen level of power. The power to Master a room with a glance.
People will recognize that I need eye contact to defeat them easily, and if they start incorporating vision protection that'll make my job a bit harder.
A quick round of experimentation with a Shadow Clone revealed I could use Omoikane to see hidden eyes, allowing me to bypass even closed eyes to cast Genjutsu. Still costly and difficult, as it requires both casting and holding Omoikane and projecting Genjutsu all at once.
They'll also be tightening safety procedures. Things like passwords and other anti-stranger measures. Their fear will mean they will prepare against me.
Regardless, I can use this fear, capitalizing on it for my benefit. We'll stay hidden, training and preparing until the time is right. Simply by not revealing myself, I'll have the gangs on the watch, thinking that they may be next.
The more paranoid everyone is, the better they'll be able to act against the Nine. I can't deal with the fucking Slaughterhouse Nine all by myself and I can't reveal their coming without raising some flags and possibly blowing my plans up. But, if I keep them scared about me infiltrating or attacking them, they'll be better prepared to fight the Nine.
I'll just have to show up every few days and put the fear of god in someone to keep up the ruse. Oh, right. That reminds me.
I want to see how to induce an illusion of pure fear of me.
An illusory copy of myself and a random man appeared. I watched as my copy locked eyes with the person, blasting chakra out of his eyes and embedding it in precise locations in the brain. The man dropped to his knees in an instant: pure fear engulfing his being.
I hissed in pain. The combination of Susanoo practice, moderate Omoikane use, and casting Mangekyo-enhanced Genjutsu was starting to take its toll, leaving my eyes aching and sore but still functional. Creating my water storage seal before that almost certainly compounded the damage. Worth it, I think.
I'll need to reduce my casual usage of the Mangekyo before the Nine arrive; I want to be in the best possible state I can be when they show up. Aside from using Omoikane to plan for the nine, I'll swear off from using it until they're dealt with. My fundamentals are still lacking and a week devoted to preparing with Shadow Clones sounds like just what the doctor ordered.
And, of course, making people shit themselves in fear with my new Genjutsu. That'll be hilarious.
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Topic: Post-Endbringer Brockton Bay: A Retrospective
In: Boards ► News ► Events ►America
Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know):
I've been keeping an eye on Brockton before Levithan hit, so I feel I'm relatively qualified to explain this to those unaware of the situation. If you somehow weren't aware, Brockton Bay was the site of the most recent Endbringer attack, as well as the first time we've seen Leviathan shift from fully targeting infrastructure to fully targeting civilians.
One week after Leviathan, the city is almost unrecognizable, both in terms of building structure and power structure.
To start: the city was already in crisis when Leviathan struck. A pan-Asian gang with a Tinker named Bakuda was implanting bombs in people. She was captured shortly before Leviathan, and then escaped. She was followed by another escaping cape known as Hookwolf (you'll be hearing more about him later) and killed, causing her deadman's switch to go off, resulting in the destruction of a couple of Endbringer shelters to add to Leviathan's total.
Any structure within a few miles of the coastline is probably uninhabitable due to water damage and mold, as well as ruining the majority of food within the city. Canned goods are safe, but not enough to feed a city.
The gangs have been fighting for resources: food at first, but soon expanding to other supplies. They've been successful at stalemating the PRT, with one notable exception: The Merchants, who've been functionally dismantled by a local cape group known as 'Akatsuki.'
Fenrir's Chosen and The Empire 88 are the two splinter factions of the Empire 88 Neo-Nazi organization originally led by Kaiser, killed in the Endbringer fight. Despite holding separate territories and having minor engagements, neither side have declared any kind of war against each other. Rather, they've been working together on many occasions to fight off the PRT and the remnants of the ABB. Hookwolf has declared himself the leader of Fenrir's Chosen, and the current Empire leadership is unknown.
Lung is the last remaining cape in the ABB following the death of Bakuda and the mutilation of Oni Lee by Akatsuki. Despite that, he's proven that he was the backbone of the ABB from the start. When a dragon larger than a house shows up to a fight, you give up.
The other miscellaneous 'villainous' cape groups in the region are the Undersiders, Faultline's Crew, and Coil. Coil hasn't been seen, like usual, though his mercenary teams have been seen on scouting missions more often than before. The Undersiders seem to have vanished, not even participating in the Leviathan battle, and Faultline's Crew maintains their neutrality.
A local rogue named Parian has claimed a few blocks of territory and claims to offer protection, also proclaiming neutrality. No cape fights, but she's been fighting off unpowered gang members with a small army of massive teddy bears and the people in her territory speak favorably of her. Locals have taken to calling it Dolltown.
This leads us to the more pleasant part of the segment: the heroes. The ENE's been reinforced with a couple of new Wards, Weld and Flechette, but other reinforcements have yet to be seen. New Wave, the major local hero group, hasn't been as active since the death of Laserdream during the Leviathan fight, but Brandish and Glory Girl assisted Akatsuki in delivering the leadership of the Merchants to custody.
You've been hearing a few references to Akatsuki in this post. Hive and Pain, the two members, have only been seen by a few individuals since their introduction and their hero status is a hotly debated topic, particularly after the PRT revealed Hive had her swarm eat Oni Lee's eyes out and Pain used his Master abilities to cause significant pain to Hookwolf during his handover. After the capture of the Merchants, there have been reports of Pain interrogating various gang members for operational information, but otherwise nothing. More vigilantes than heroes, but they've been surprisingly effective.
Economically, Brockton is still struggling. Shelter is hard to come by and food is a little scarce, but in an unfortunate twist, the recent casualties have reduced the amount of supplies required to keep the city afloat. The resource struggle is expected to shift back to a territory struggle after a month or two, if everything goes well.
Stay safe, Brocktonites!
SmellsLikeFeet:
Fuckin love Dolltown. Wasn't able to get a pad but I've been spending my free time there. They've got a nice market thing going on there since Parian doesn't charge protection money. Lots of good Asian food.
LegalCats (Brockton Bay Refugee):
No wonder there's good Asian food there, who'd want to stick around in ABB territory after Bakuda's bullshit? Probably the safest place to be while sticking around. I was lucky enough to get out of there before the deadman's switch kicked in and tore me apart.
IllegalCats:
You aren't going to mention that Pain is Valefor 2.0?
Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know):
IllegalCats
I'd advise against statements like that. For the unaware, Pain captured the Merchants through what is believed to be eye-contact-based Master ability. PRT testing on captured Merchants revealed Pain's power seems to be negated by any significant shock to the system, meaning unless he catches everyone unaware you can just slap them out of it. Additionally, his powers seem limited in many ways. More information on Pain's threads under the Brockton Bay sections.
CalzoneBoner:
Who would win 1v1, Valefor or Pain? Both gotta look at each other.
SloppySundae (Moderator):
Keep it to the vs battle threads. I'm sick of hearing this one.
CalzoneBoner:
Lame. Eidolon still solos.
DarkBladeShadowLordofEvil:
Shut up dude Eidolon would have to prep an anti-Master power and both of them use surprise to their advantage.
ThreateningBobblehead:
Not even the news tab is safe from hypothetical cape fights.
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Topic: What the fuck is Pain's powerset?
In: Boards ►Powers►America►Brockton Bay
BallsDeep69:
I'm at a fucking loss. I know he's said once that he's a 'supernatural ninja' but that doesn't explain jack shit and the Wiki just repeats the PRT info.
Valkyr (Wiki Warrior):
Hard to say for sure. There's a lot of information we've been unable to sort through definitively. A consistent theme so far has been his eyes. Both his Thinker and Master abilities are almost certainly sight–based, implying that he has a unifying eye-based power. That doesn't track with his speedster abilities, but there are definitely package deal powers out there.
BallsDeep69:
Doesn't help much. What can he actually do?
Valkyr (Wiki Warrior):
TLDR, Pain can move at high speeds and react fast enough to survive Leviathan individually pursuing him twice, as well as freeze at least one-hundred people with a single glance. He's used this same power to puppet Hookwolf's body, but hasn't been seen doing the same with anyone else. Unknown if he can puppet multiple people or if he's restricted to just freezing them.
ShootTheBadGuys:
I saw some people talking about him having a second trigger, what's that about?
WMD377 (PRT Science Admin):
That's a more complicated question than you think. Second triggers are a pretty hotly debated topic. Some powers naturally develop as the user grows more skilled with them or uses them more and with others, you get what you get. Excluding Trumps, of course. The most common type of powers to grow with the user are biologically based, much like Pain's eyes seem to be.
Pain previously was seen with two 'tomoe' (the markings around his pupil) and after Leviathan he's been seen consistently with three. Despite evolving, we don't believe this to be a significant enough change to constitute a second trigger. No significant changes to his powerset have been seen yet, though not seeing his powers much may be intentional.
Still, we would have considered this change for a possible second trigger if not for other details reported by the captured party. Eyewitnesses reported him possessing six tomoe while freezing the crowd, which returned to three once he finished trapping everyone. Additionally, he displayed the ability the appear as Skidmark until he succeeded in catching everyone's attention, though the details around that are spotty at best.
His previous actions suggest an inability to perform such significant feats and the visible change to his eyes suggests an unmeasured but definitive change to his capabilities. Second trigger territory. But unless we ask the man himself, we won't know for certain, and he has a notable reservation against revealing his capabilities.
WhitePlower:
A buddy of mine in the ABB was cornered and interrogated by him. Said it was like looking at a demon, the most terrifying thing he's ever seen. Might be the same thing as him looking like Skidmark.
WMD377 (PRT Science Admin):
WhitePlower for curiosity's sake, could you ask him how many tomoe he saw?
WhitePlower:
He says three.
WMD377 (PRT Science Admin):
Fascinating. I'll get someone to look more into that.
A/N: I love reviews! Please feed them to me.
