Little Hunter
"Cloak isn't bad."
Shadow Stalker had a reputation.
Strike first. Strike from ambush. Strike anyone too weak to possibly threaten her.
Maybe she'd provide a decent hunt, but Nanku was tired of hoping. The only people in Brockton Bay she was proud to kill were a man who'd thrown a phone at her and Bitch.
And Nanku didn't want to kill Bitch. She was simply too worth killing to kill.
Shadow Stalker wasn't worth the time even if she was.
"I can barely see yo—"
Catching her shuriken, Nanku swiped for the girl's thigh.
"Shit," she cursed.
Her body was armored lightly. Padding and thickly woven cloth. The cape was thick and flowed, unlike cotton. Something lighter, but her hood was thick and protected while her mask had a wide visor and a makeshift rebreather fitted over her mouth.
Not the kind of outfit she wore in pictures Nanku found of her, but most of those were from when she was a Ward.
Nanku swung a fist at her throat.
Shadow Stalker leaned back from the blow and the blade shot out from Nanku's gauntlet.
"Shit!"
She burst into smoke and the blades swiped through.
Nanku swung her arm back and kicked at the mist. It didn't react right. It looked like smoke or shadow. Swirling and misty, but it felt thick. There was a resistance when she touched it, like trying to move through water.
The smoke moved away and Nanku stayed close.
She'd risk the crossbow bolt, as annoying as becoming injured again would be. Shadow Stalker could be as practiced as she wanted. No one could reload a mere crossbow that quickly.
When Shadow Stalker reformed she shouted.
"Calm down, killer! I'm just trying to—"
Dusk swooped from above and crashed into the girl. Shadow Stalker sprawled and Nanku stomped her foot toward the girl's head. She burst apart again and slipped through the roof.
Nanku tilted her head and her visor shifted mode.
Shadow Stalker appeared as a vaporous cold spot on her multi-layered camera.
She moved freely through the solid materi—
Stalker shifted, sliding away from an electric line in the ceiling of the room below.
Interesting.
Stalker reformed below and dropped to the floor. Nanku attached a fly to her thigh and a pair of mosquitoes to her cape and hood. They clung to her body when she ran for the wall, broke apart, and slid through into the alley.
Nanku matched her steps and lunged from the roof.
When Stalker reformed on the fire escape of the opposite building she reacted quickly. She cursed and jerked at the last second. Nanku's shuriken cut clean through the banister of the escape while Stalker clung to it to swing herself around. Wristblades followed her and she kicked off into the air before turning to mist once more.
The bugs were still with her.
Very interesting.
Nanku leaped after the mist. It didn't change direction. If anything, it slowed down. She was still subject to physics but as a solid cloud rather than true mist or a body.
A very interesting power.
Nanku dropped to the alley below. Above, Dawn caught her shuriken with her mandibles and dove. Dusk swung high through the alley and the Shadow Stalker reformed to drop faster.
She burst apart again when Dusk flew through her and Dawn did a running landing. Nanku grabbed her shuriken from the bug's mouth and directed her back into the sky.
Stalker reformed and grabbed the last rung of a fire escape as Nanku threw.
She drew her legs up with a curse and avoided the blades.
"You really go straight for maiming."
The shuriken spun back quickly and Nanku threw it again. Stalker kicked off the wall and flew herself through the opposite wall. She drifted into the room beyond, jerking and pulling her cloud a bit tighter before she touched an electrical line.
Once was happenstance.
Twice was coincidence.
Never trust coincidence.
But, Nanku bolted down the alley, sprinting one way while Dusk and Dawn flew another.
Nanku slowed only at the end of the alley and allowed her cloak to settle. In the dark, it was at its best. When Shadow Stalker poked her head out and floated herself back to the roof with a jump and the use of her power, she followed Dusk and Dawn.
She might have the ability, but she had no instinct.
Nanku slipped onto the street and hopped onto the back of a truck. It drove down the road and she weaved Dusk and Dawn at the edge of her range. Their eyes struggled whenever Stalker hid herself well, but they tracked her tracking them.
The Twins turned on command and Nanku leaped from the truck.
She ran down an alley and climbed to a roof.
Dusk and Dawn flew toward her and the shadow followed. Stalker darted between buildings. She formed her body on occasion. To see? To move faster?
The cloud form seemed unable to propel itself. Though it didn't stop. Many times when Dusk and Dawn could see her, Shadow Stalker used her power to make it across long gaps. The cloud wasn't affected by gravity like a body, or like mist, but it always slowed down once she shifted. The cloud alone couldn't move. It carried on from how she moved.
What were her senses in that shape? Nanku thought she could still see, but obviously couldn't change direction.
Jumping to the base of the roof, Nanku hung off the end and readied her shuriken.
Dusk flew overhead first.
Then Dawn.
They continued on and when Stalker didn't follow directly, Nanku turned them and kept turning them until the shadow came toward her.
The angle was about as good as she could expect.
Shadow Stalker ran across a rooftop and leaped at the edge. Nanku held herself completely still. Waited. Stalker burst into her cloud.
Only then did Nanku strike.
She threw the shuriken into the air, angled to cut two routes of escape as it rose or fell. Throwing herself up, Nanku reared her arm back and turned her wrist blades. The cloud flowed onward and she waited.
No matter what Stalker did—continue to her land point or drop to the alley below—Nanku could hit her.
The cloud shifted. The shape—
Not a cloud.
Nanku jumped back and bent herself backward. The shadow bolts flew over her chest and past her chin. The arrows were dark and blurred. Bolts of shadow.
A shadowy arm reached out and grabbed the grated rim of a fire escape. Stalker shifted solid for a moment and pushed and burst apart again as her cloud—No, shadow shape launched her toward the roof across from Nanku.
She didn't turn into a cloud. That was an illusion produced by her power affecting the cloak covering her.
Nanku caught her shuriken and ran. She jumped aiming right at Stalker's shadowy neck.
The thought of 'two bolts?' struck her mid-air.
Nanku rammed her foot into the edge of the roof and let herself crash into it. The third bolt shot by and Shadow Stalker scrambled back.
Her larger crossbow was on her back under the cloak, and each hand held a small pistol-sized crossbow with two strings. One over and the other under.
Two shots each.
Nanku rolled as the fourth bolt flew by and Shadow Stalker laughed.
"Fuck you're quick! No wonder you wiped the Pure's asses! But ho—"
Dusk rammed into her from behind and threw Shadow Stalker forward. Nanku swiped her wrist blade at the girl's neck but she was quick.
Her body took on a shadow shape again after slapping the roof and throwing herself up.
Nanku took her chance.
The laser sight shot from her mask and struggled to lock the target. Nanku used her eyes and fired anyway.
Hot plasma spat from over her shoulder and slammed into the shadowy figure. The shape recoiled. Flung back and hit the ground. She shook and flailed and while the plasma bolt continued flying through the night.
Stalker's power vanished and the girl convulsed on the ground from head to toe.
"The. Fuck?!"
The Plasma Caster used a powerful beam of electro-magnetism to guide the plasma bolt and maintain its coherence. More electric energy than would be found in any Earth power line.
If that was too much power for Stalker's power to handle…
Well. Nanku enjoyed being right.
And she was right.
Rising up, she stalked across the roof toward Shadow Stalker.
It would be trouble if any word spread—in any way—that she'd been at the police station. Stalker had noticed Dusk and Dawn. That was bound to happen eventually, but at least this way Nanku could cover her tracks.
The chase was decent in the end.
That was a pleasant surprise.
Pinning the woman down with one foot, Nanku grabbed the back of her hood and raised her wrist blades. Her shuriken struck the ground nearby. More or less where she intended it to.
"Wait!" Stalker pleaded.
"Why do you all insist"—Nanku adjusted the angle—"on commanding what you can't?"
"Know what you're doing!" Stalker pleaded. "About your dad, right?"
Nanku froze.
She cursed fate.
Gods. In several variations.
Coincidence because to hell with it.
And the Black Warrior because her life was just a dance of frustration in increasing frequency.
Earth was a horrible place to hunt now. No wonder everyone stopped.
"How?" Nanku asked.
"Fuck everyone knows! Big rumor going around you're Weaver's kid! The one that died at the camp!"
Damn the Internet.
Well, that answered that question. Time to—
"I can help!"
…
Damn the Black Warrior. "Why?"
Stalker turned her head, looking at Nanku from inside her mask. "Fuck the Nazis."
How in any world's version of hell did the Pure manage to live so damned long?
"How?"
"Figured you'd go to the po-po at some point. If you hadn't. It ma—"
"How can you help me?"
"Been a cape in the bay for as long as he's been dead! Almost. I know shit!"
Nanku narrowed her eyes. She'd guess Shadow Stalker was in her early to mid-twenties. She could be that old…
One of the longest-running capes in Brockton Bay.
"Enticing?" Stalker asked. "Figured if the Undersiders were paying it forward, you wouldn't still be here."
"No deal."
"Wha—"
"You're all exhausting."
Nanku readied her strike.
A beam of light cut the night. Nanku jumped and rolled forward. It struck the ground behind her and scorched the concrete black.
The beam came from beyond her range.
The bugs at the edge noticed it with their eyes first.
Nanku dodged a second beam and a third. Shadow Stalker used the chance to escape. She tried, at least.
Dropping to one knee while a steak of light flew over her shoulder, Nanku swung her wrist blades out. Stalker jumped and kicked off the edge of the roof. She briefly burst into shadow as she sailed over Nanku's head.
Clever.
She'd figured out the range of Nanku's wrist blades.
Nanku spun, snatched her shuriken, and threw it.
Shadow Stalker stayed shadow until the blades flew through her. She reformed and one foot tapped against the ground.
"Come on," she started. "Let's—"
Nanku thrust her hand forward and the spear slid to its full length for her palm.
"Shit."
She tried to break apart but before she could the tip of the spear pierced her side. A shallow strike, but it was blood. Nanku followed it up by spinning the weapon only for the next few blows to strike Stalker's power.
Another beam of light came and Nanku was forced back.
Kid Win flew into her range, a pistol in his hands. Another boy flew behind him, shouting and pointing the other way.
Shadow Stalker made a break and Nanku growled. She caught her shuriken from the air and turned away. She had no interest in becoming embroiled in another brawl.
Beams of light cut off her path. Kid Win flew by and kept shooting. Nanku jumped and leaped. She spun for the nearest roof edge and ran.
His shots were accurate, even in the dark.
The visor over his eyes.
He was penetrating her cloak. That wasn't even original anymore.
Throwing her shuriken again, she forced Kid Win to dodge directly into Dawn's path. She barreled into the boy from behind, knocking him from his board and sending him falling to the ground. Three red lights cut the night and the second Ward—Chronicle, she thought—jerked in the air. A plasma bolt flew past him and he let out a youthful scream.
The bolt would have never hit.
He was far too young to kill.
And Nanku, for once, wanted to kill very little. Drawing less of the PRT's interest was preferable, and she had to run before the Protectorate came.
"Hold it!" Kid Win's hands flashed and a rifle appeared in his hands.
He took aim at Nanku but she kept running.
Kid Win jerked back as a shadowy bolt flew past his shoulder.
"Whoops!"
"Damn it, Stalker!"
"Stop jerking about jackass!"
Nanku stepped off the roof.
She dropped toward the ground and bent her knees on impact. Dropping, she rolled backward over her shoulder, planted her feet on the wall, and pushed. With one hand she forced herself upright and sprinted down the alley.
So damn close to just getting away cleanly.
Spinning about, Nanku ran a frantic course through the alleys while Dusk and Dawn flew ahead a bit further before diving out of sight. Chronicle flew straight to Kid Win and started getting shouted at. Kid Win messed with his gauntlet—not too dissimilar from Nanku's. His board twisted about in the distance and flew back.
At the end of the alley, Nanku leaped over the barrier into the parking garage and ran through the maze of vehicles.
She found a place to hide between large trucks and waited with the Wards at the edge of her range.
Kid Win retrieved his board and flew off in the direction Dusk and Dawn appeared to go. The Twins had already circled back. Low and out of sight. Chronicle actually looked back as they flew away but Kid Win shouted again and he followed.
Nanku's eyes narrowed behind her mask.
She waited and when nothing came she rose and walked onto the roof of the garage.
That felt off.
In more ways than one.
Nanku turned.
Shadow Stalker waved from the next roof over and threw something into the air before running off into the night.
The phone clattered at Nanku's feet.
She waited but it didn't explode.
Curious.
Nanku picked the device up and looked at the screen.
Call me for help, killer
Nanku tilted her head and tried to decide how hard she should think. Shadow Stalker really deserved to die. If only for the inconvenience she caused, but opportunity was calling. A tempting opportunity.
In more ways than one.
Nanku looked over her shoulder in the direction Kid Win went.
Then the direction Shadow Stalker went.
Dusk and Dawn landed on either side of her and she checked them both over subtly. No trackers. No marks. No apparent signs of radiation or energy stuck to them according to her biomask.
So what was the trick?
Because there was a trick.
She'd still be getting chased otherwise.
And the way Stalker and Kid Win seemed to coordinate just enough to play it all out…
Nanku moved a few blocks over and hid the phone in an AC unit. She wouldn't be taking it anywhere. This trap was plain as day.
Someone wasn't nearly as clever as they thought they were.