Hey hey people, itsa me. Duviri Paradox came out, so that's been occupying my time, and I need to change some stuff for next chapter (Not much thankfully) due to new lore bits.
Also, got some cover art done by FeeroComics on Deviantart. The version of it on FF is cropped but Chapter 1 of the story on Ao3 has it embedded. I also noticed that on FF the formatting for certain things keeps getting super scuffed where it will bold almost the entire work for some reason so I had to go back and fix it a few times.
Ramble over. New chapters soonTM.
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SWF Investigative Report
Great Moscow Tragedy AKA Dark Winter
Incident Report: April 25, 2234
From recovered WHA (World Heroes Association) communications, we know that at 06:00 hours on April 24th, an investigation team was dispatched to investigate a cavern found underneath Izmailovsky Park. Said cavern contained ancient ruins. Due to the sensitive nature of the matter, the #2 and #3 heroes Siphon and Permafrost were sent to protect the team.
At 06:30 hours contact with the expedition team was lost. Drones sent in found only a strange symbol on the main floor and a large ████████ █████ floating in the center of the room.
At approximately 10:22 cameras in the main hall cut out. Five minutes later an unknown radiation signature emitted an electromagnetic pulse that shut down all electronics in a 200km radius, as well releasing a large energy beam into the sky. The beam emerged from the site and created a crater measuring 500m inside the park. The initial blast killed all personnel on site.
At 10:28 a large ice structure formed, nearly instantly freezing everything within about 80km in a massive 1km tall glacier, resulting in the deaths of almost everyone caught inside the structure.
At 13:08 rescue efforts began after the chain of command was re-established.
At 1600 hours multiple heroes from across the globe were called in to assist in rescue efforts.
Three days later at 12:00 WHA and Russian SOF forces with the assistance of Japan #2 Hero Endeavor to secure the remains of the ruins and collect any survivors.
Outcome:
8,191,350 Fatalities.
1,419,024 Wounded.
⅔ of Moscow Leveled.
83% of Russia's central government killed.
#6-9 Russian Heroes deceased.
Of the twenty-four person investigation team that entered the ruins, only two people were recovered.
- #2 Russian Hero: Siphon (Civilian Identity ██████ ██████, the sole survivor of the incident.
- WHA Analyst ███████ ████████, KIA, missing right leg and nearly unrecognizable due to severe internal and external burns.
The fate of the remaining twenty-two members is currently unknown at the time of this report. The upcoming WHA tribunal for Siphon will hopefully shed light on the incident.
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- First page of the Speedwagon Foundation's classified report to the US Dept. Of Defense on the "Dark Winter" incident.
[U.A]
[April 26th 2242]
Ordan could move his arms now. It was a slow process, having been without a physical body for hundreds of years would do that. He would admit that he missed it. Plus, he had the ability to enjoy food again, the most important thing of all. Void knows he missed eating.
It helped that the food they served here was delicious. Far better than the preserved nutrient cubes and bars they used for long voyages or rations. Terrestrial food was always superior in taste. Currently he was eating rice, some kind of fish, and some vegetables. He grabbed one of the packets of seasoning that was brought with the meal. He wasn't sure what 'しょうゆ' was but was delicious.
'I probably should be more concerned about wherever we are and what happened.' He thought to himself between bites. Think and eat. He could run complex mathematical calculations in his head. Multitasking wasn't hard.
He glanced to his left. The operator was still asleep. He wasn't surprised by that, she looked exhausted, especially after what she had just been through. He wasn't sure what happened after she had boarded the railjack. Judging by the fact that the restored form of The Lotus lay in another bed at his right, he assumed she succeeded. Didn't explain why they were here, though.
"Ordis." He heard the Lotus finally. "That is you, correct?"
He swallowed some rice. "In the flesh -PHYSICAL FORM ONCE AGAIN-"
Well. Apparently that was still a thing. It's not like she wasn't used to him doing that when he was a Cephalon.
Ordan cleared his throat. "So, uh… you look better. Less spectral and screamy. How do you feel?"
"I… remember everything. As the Lotus, Natah, Margulis's stolen memories… they all are blending together. Who am I now?" She hung her head.
'Even for us... death... leaves a mark. Do you understand?' Hunhow's words to the Drifter echoed in his mind. "I guess he was right. She came back broken, like me. At least she still has her free will." He shuddered at the memory.
"Well, that's not really something I can tell you. It's something you have to figure out yourself. The only thing I can suggest is to pick a voice to guide your thoughts. Ballas is no more -GOOD RIDDANCE- I assume. You get to decide what you want to be now."
What did she want to be? Margulis was long dead, sustained only in memories inserted into her mind by Ballas. He wanted her to be Margulis in every way that mattered… to him. And now he was dead, by her hand, never to hurt anyone ever again.
To the Tenno she was the Lotus, a guiding figure and surrogate mother. Nurturing them on their journey and keeping them safe from outside threats. She hoped that the rest of her adopted children were safe. Haylee was the only one she had seen, and she assumed that was because the girl had been the one to save her. That didn't account for her father or Ordis- no, Ordan's presence.
'Father was trapped beneath Uranus, and Ordan was probably near back on Earth in the Orbiter… how did they get here? The three of us were onboard mother's body before we arrived here, but those two were across the system!'
Her family being here complicated things. Erra and Hunhow both wanted their 'Natah' back, an identity that had been abandoned to become the Lotus. Before all this, Hunhow was buried and Erra had been assumed dead for centuries. Both had also done terrible things to either her or the Tenno she cared for. Still, they were the only biotechnological family that she had left.
She remembered the previous day when they washed up on the beach.
Hunhow stood before them as she pleaded for him to not kill the green haired child in front of him. Her father lowered his fist, his bloodlust placated by his kin. That peace was short-lived with the arrival of a blonde skeleton of a man. To almost everyone he would've appeared on death's door, but she could sense an immense reservoir of refined strength within him. With a burst of steam, he nearly matched Hunhow in height, leaping into the air and taking down the world-ender with a single punch.
One thing about the situation confused her. 'He would have killed that boy that protected us without a second thought before. What stopped him this time?'
Her train of thought was stopped by a sudden noise coming from her torso.
Grrrrrrrrrr!
Ordan's gaze snapped over to her, eyes wide. "Was… was that your stomach grumbling?"
That was impossible. Sentients didn't have stomachs.
A few floors below, four eyes opened.
"Natah! Erra! Where…" Hunhow trailed off, noticing that his wrists were bound in heavy cuffs, tied down to the ground with heavy metal cables. Another collar was around his neck, also tethered to the ground. The room he was in was padded, only a single one way glass panel in front of him.
"Release me from this at once humans!" He bellowed furiously. Channeling red Tau energy flared out of his body, and he flexed to remove the bindings, only for a powerful electrical shock to emulate from the bindings, locking his muscles and stunning him. Violet mist burst forth from tiny nozzles hidden in the walls, filling the room with Midnight's quirk.
This time however, it didn't work. He had adapted to it. Given time, his resistance would fade, but right now, it only made him feel slightly lightheaded. The real problem was the bindings that would stun him whenever he used his powers.
But something was wrong. He felt weak, like his body was missing something important.
"Sustenance…" He mumbled. His body was running low on power. Normally sentients would absorb latent radiation from outer space or siphon off of power grids. They had even created specialized systems to charge themselves with power, using crystals from the Tau system.
But he had none of that. No way to recharge. Besides, this felt… different. Cravings for something he had never experienced before. He didn't know what though. He couldn't keep resisting if he wanted to maintain his power. And so, four hate filled eyes remained fixated on the one way glass. Someone, maybe someones, were watching him.
Hunhow had waited centuries, expecting to eventually fade. Now that freedom, and his family was within his grasp, he could wait a bit longer.
On the other side of the glass, Hound Dog shuddered. Yesterday the prisoner had tried to break out of the cell four times before Power Loader could craft restraints strong enough to contain him. Today was the fifth time "Hunhow" had woken up in a rage, but this was the first time the giant red man actually took the time to see where he was before trying to break free of his restraints.
He had, of course, immediately released some of Midnight's stored quirk into the chamber again once big red started to scream and struggle in his restraints. Only this time, it didn't work. Hunhow was still awake. Thankfully the shock restraints stunned him out of his rage.
"Shit! Grrrrrr!" He pressed a button on the console, alerting the principal to come to the holding blocks. Ryo looked back through the glass to see Hunhow's hateful glowing blue eyes staring back at him. "Can he see me?" He thought, nervously starting to sweat.
The door opened behind him and Midnight strutted through, Principal Nezu on her shoulder.
The chimera hopped down onto the desk. "What seems to be the problem, Hound Dog?"
"He's awake. I used Midnight's quirk on him but it didn't work this time." He growled.
Nezu's beady eyes widened. "How many times have you knocked him out in the past two days?"
"Eight, this would have been the ninth time."
Nezu's eyes narrowed, deep in thought. He scurried over to the console and pulled up camera feed, watching the recordings of Hunhow's previous awakenings. 'The time he spent asleep decreased with every exposure to Somnambulist… which means that he was slowly gaining a resistance to it! But is his immune system naturally this effective? No, the only way to combat her quirk would be if his quirk allows him to adapt to threats.' He paused the video when Hunhow began to glow red. 'But, that quirk he is an offensive quirk, which means that along with his physical mutation, he has a secondary adaptation quirk'
The principal froze. 'Unless he has more than one quirk.' But that would be impossible. All For One was dead. He had watched them cremate the body personally. He was the one who could give people multiple quirks, and all his known subordinates were missing, imprisoned, or dead. That left two options, both equally worrying. One, that All For One somehow had survived, or the alternative that that either this man or someone else had a potentially similar ability.
"Sir, are you okay?" He heard Hound Dog worriedly ask behind him. "You froze up."
"Yes, I'm fine, just thinking." Ryo didn't know about All For One, and he didn't want this getting to Toshinori before he knew if it was the quirk thief or not. He had enough on his plate training his successor. "I want you to give the prisoner just enough food and water to stay healthy." He had deduced that the only reason Hunhow had not tried to escape was purely due to exhaustion.
Both teachers looked at him in shock. "Nezu, we can't just starve him! That's cruel!" Midnight exclaimed.
"Cruel but completely necessary Kayama. Those restraints he is in are designed for S-Rank villains and I can already see stress marks on them. We have neither the means or power to contain him should he escape without All Might here." He continued. " If your quirk stopped working on him that likely means that any sedatives we have would lose their effectiveness as well. Our only option is to keep him in a weakened state. It is entirely possible he could gain resistance to the shock cuffs as well if given enough time."
Hound Dog growled in discomfort. "Grrrrr… I don't like this one bit. But if you think this is the only way to safely contain him…. Ruff!"
While the situation with this "Hunhow" man was secure for the moment, Nezu still had questions that needed answers. Originally he planned on questioning the others after they had a few days to recover, but he needed answers as soon as possible. From Recovery Girl's notes this morning, both the adults in the infirmary were awake.
"Midnight, please come with me to the infirmary. It's time to question our mystery guests." He scurried out the door, grabbing his bag on the way out..
Back in the infirmary, the former Sentient was undergoing an existential crisis.
"How is this possible? I'm… human!?" Her normally stoic expression was replaced with one of utter shock.
Ordan was similarly confused, but to a lesser extent. "I mean, it makes sense for me, since I was human before I got turned into a -GLORIFIED FILE MANAGER- Cephalon, but you have always been…" His mind raced. The beach, Hunhow, Erra… they looked entirely different, more humanoid. "Oh! Shit. That's not good."
"What?"
"I uh… I think your father and brother are also human now as well."
Oh. Oh fuck. That was quite possibly the worst possible outcome if true. She had no idea what Hunhow would do if he discovered he now shared the same genetic base as the Orokin. All she did know was that he would take the information very poorly.
As the Lotus, she had grown accustomed to associating with them on friendly terms. The only downside would've been the potential loss of her powers…
Fwoom!
She released a purple aura from her fingertips as her nails sharpened into claws. Energy manipulation, shapeshifting, damage adaptation... They all still functioned correctly. Her ability to interact with technology however… she couldn't even sense the EKG monitors in the room. She also couldn't sense the telepathic connection to other members of her family.
"You're thinking about how your father is going to react based on the look on your face. Nice to see your powers are working though. Can you use them to hack their tech?" Ordan asked hopefully.
She glanced back over to him, turning her fingers back to normal. "No… I think that becoming human made me lose that ability."
"Yea, I can't do that anymore for obvious reasons. Never had powers as a human. The only thing that seems to have carried over is any information I had as a Cephalon, and the processing speed." Ordan could feel a vast difference in cognitive power than when he was last human. He also remembered the blueprints for most of the Tenno's arsenal, but those were useless without the materials.
"Well, guess neither of us can get any information about where we are that way." He frowned while checking his reflection on a cleaned plate. "Is it alright if I call you Lotus till you figure your whole identity thing out?"
She nodded. "Ok, Lotus. I think we are on Earth, or at least some Earth-like planet with what I'm assuming are humans. Both of us are now human, with the working assumption that Hunhow and -a-a-a-sshole of a brother- Erra are as well." He shifted his gaze to Haylee, specifically her arm. "The Tenno's power seems to have changed as well. Her arm looks like her Excalibur Warframe."
They both remembered her saving them from the falling scrap with Exalted Blade. She still hadn't woken up after yesterday morning. He hoped that the operator was alright.
Lotus interrupted his train of thought. "It is Earth. I recognized Lua, setting as the sun rose, but it was unbroken and barren. If this is Earth, it is in the past."
That made sense, except for one thing. "That skeleton guy… he had powers too. He was able to match your father's strength with just his fist." Most pre-Orokin empire information had been purged long before he was born, but strength like that would have been noted, even as a myth. The only thing he could think that would match that kind of strength was maybe an Atlas or Rhino Warframe.
Except this was a man. A man who looked so frail and skinny Ordan thought that the slightest breeze would make him keel over and die. A man who took down Hunhow in a single human punch, powerful enough to shake the whole beach they had been on.
It was unreal. If Lotus hadn't seen it as well he wouldn't have believed it.
Whirrr! Hiss!
Suddenly, the door to the infirmary slid open. In walked that raven haired woman in very thin clothing from before, and sitting on her shoulder was a floof.
'No wait. It just blinked. That's not a stuffed animal, that's a real animal … aaaand it's wearing a suit as well as carrying a small briefcase.'
"Lotus, I think they spiked the fucking food. Please tell me you see the pobber in a suit."
He heard the other woman stifle a snort as he shot a pleading look at Lotus.
All he got back was a shell-shocked nod. He prayed to the void that there would be no more surprises like this today.
Principal Nezu always liked to be prepared. He knew eventually he would be able to question the strangers, so had always brought his tablet with him over the past day whenever he visited the MEC. At first it hadn't been urgent, just something that caught his interest. The strangers were unknowns and he loved to figure things out.
But once he discovered the possibility that Hunhow very likely possessed multiple quirks that passing interest turned into a sense of dread and uncertainty. It was one thing for a villain and some hopefully innocent people to find out All Might's secret. He could find out just how much they knew, and hopefully bribe or swear them into secrecy.
But the possibility that this could be connected to All For One, or one of his surviving henchmen changed things. That would mean it was no coincidence that he showed up near Toshinori on that beach.
'It looks like Chiyo got all the DNA test results back.' He scrolled through the documents as he sat upon Nemuri's shoulder. 'She even got the one in the hospital. Thorough as always. Hmm… Hunhow, the woman and the younger man with red skin are all blood relatives. Doesn't look like she inherited the physical mutation like he did though…'
It also seemed that the girl and other man weren't related to those three or each other. 'Nothing in the quirk registry either for any of the five, or any relatives in the system either. Of course this is only Japan's registry and they seem to not be from here.'
He could always request the international database, but that would take time and raise unnecessary questions. He needed answers now. None of them seemed to speak English or Japanese, but Nezu knew many of the world's most common languages. Those he didn't know he thankfully could use a translation program he wrote that could take any written or spoken language and translate it. That should cover any that he didn't know.
The R-Rated hero finally reached her destination, unlocking the door to this section of the medical quarters. The patients could roam around the room freely, but until he knew just who they were they had to stay confined. It was a far better alternative to being locked in cells like Hunhow.
It seemed they caught the two conscious adults in the middle of a conversation. The man had finished his brunch that Recovery Girl brought him early, and it looked like the woman had just started hers before they arrived.
Nemuri saw the handsome scarred man eye Nezu before turning to the woman in the bed to his right. She almost laughed when she heard him say what sounded like "pogger". The other woman had a look on her face that Nemuri had seen many times on Shota. The look of someone who was absolutely done with their day, or as Hizashi would say "Big mood my dude!"
Nemuri grabbed a stool for the rat (or at least that's what she thinks he is, they have a pool going on that) and sat herself down on her own chair.
Nezu opened up the audio translation software on his tablet. "Now, I know that neither of you can understand what I'm saying, but please speak into this." He pointed the screen at them, with a flashing microphone symbol.
"Of course the animal talks. Why wouldn't he?" Ordan buried his face into his hands, rocking himself back and forth. 'Maybe this is just a dream. One long crazy dream with good food.'
He continued to mutter into his hands, not even in response to the request to speak, just in sheer disbelief of his circumstances. Lotus wasn't doing much better.
Beep!
A message popped up on Nezu's tablet.
Error: Unknown Language Detected.
Similar languages: Korean, Arabic, Japanese, Latin, English
Attempting to Translate…
…
…
Translation not found.
Well that certainly wasn't the result that Nezu was expecting. The software had thousands of languages on it, and whatever this man was saying was using an unholy fusion of four different languages. Maybe a written example would help?
He passed the tablet to the white haired man, who had finally snapped out of his state of shock to warily look up at the offered device.
Ordan grabbed the tablet, turning it over. Physical screen instead of a holographic display, no visible a line with some unknown text on it saying "ここに書いてください:"
"Uh? What is this for?" He asked aloud, aware that the creature in front of him didn't understand him.
Lotus gave him an exhausted glance. "I believe it wants you to write something on it." She offered.
It finally occurred to him that maybe the creature of dubious species in front of him was attempting to establish some form of communication, as neither of them could understand the other's language.
He wrote down "My name is Ordan Karris".
Nezu took back the tablet as it analyzed the strange symbols the man drew on it. They somewhat resembled swords with various accents to distinguish them. Judging by the number of symbols, it used something similar to the Arabic alphabet. It seemed the vocal form of the language was more complicated than the written form.
Now the issue was figuring out what it meant. At the moment it was just a sentence with no reference to what it referred to. But that meant he had something he could work with to establish a baseline for the language. Of course, since it needed to be something that Detective Tsukauchi could understand, it would be far easier to teach the strangers Japanese.
They continued for about an hour, Nezu showing both of them images and recording the responses both verbally and written. All the while Midnight sat growing increasingly bored with the situation, pulling out her phone.
Eventually it was almost lunch time and Nezu decided that he had enough to start creating a basic Japanese learning plan for them based on their language. "Midnight, I can see you are bored and probably hungry, as are our guests. I have what I need for now, you are free to go." He waved her away. "Oh, and tell Recovery Girl to bring them some lunch as well please."
As he spun around on his stool, he heard rustling coming from the bed to his right, and the young girl shot up from her bed. She was finally awake and her eyes showed that she was panicking at not knowing where she was, her elongated metal arm grabbing the metal handle on the edge of the bed and crushing it in her grip.
Ordan rolled out of his bed onto his feet. "Haylee! Stop! It's okay, we are just in an infirm-"
In hindsight, trying to walk after hundreds of years without appendages probably wasn't his crowning achievement today. Muscle memory could only help him so much, and it didn't help that he had spent the last two days just remembering how to use his arms. It especially didn't help that his body seemed to be a lot denser than it was when he was human.
Both legs immediately buckled and he fell face first toward the ground, arms outstretched. But then something unexpected happened. He felt a tingling in his bones, something that felt natural and unnatural at the same time. He embraced the feeling as it spread to his arms, the skin on several points rapidly paled and hardened. White spikes of bone shot out, forming ragged supporting structure that stopped his fall.
Haylee stared at him, eyes wide and mouth agape.
"That's new."
Ordan Karris
Quirk: Calcification