"Hookwolf is planning an attack," Taylor told me as I picked up my phone.

"Already?" I laughed. "It's only been a few days. You'd think he'd realize we're out of his league, at least enough to plan something more impressive."

"Gonna come through somewhere on our north border. Lisa's already putting up a defense for the ground troops and I can handle Cricket and Rune, but you're our answer to Hookwolf."

"I'll be there in a minute."

I want to see where Hookwolf will attack from.

"And you're sure he'll be coming from there?" Lisa asked me, uncertainly. "Everything we have says he'll be coming down Fifth Street."

"Nah, but keep Taylor in position. It's not too far away, I think he's planning on flanking and attacking from behind, maybe tear up any reinforcements we have as he comes in from the back. Gunners can't really fight back against him."

I want to see where Rune and Cricket will be.

"I'm certain, actually."

"Get inside, position yourselves in windows, and aim for tires and legs. Wait for me to move into action before you do anything." I instructed the men at the border, then signed a half seal and body flickered myself up to the rooftops.

On the roof, I pulled my shoulder free of my cloak and began to flash hand seals. Two spikes of bone ejected from my shoulders, rapidly expanding and forming into clones. The two bone shadow clones weaved hand seals of their own, ejecting six standard bone clones of their own to play with. They then channeled chakra into their spine, sprouting a handle from their backs. The bone clones followed the instructions of their shadow clones, gripping the handles and ripping them from their backs.

The handles ejected to an impossibly long whip of serrated spinal segmentation, then another handle grew as the whip was fully removed. Clone after clone ripped whips from the backs of their spawners, until every clone had their whip. The bone clones hid out of sight, and the shadow clones took up a vigil with me.

The street was abandoned, and the hint of gang warfare had civilians hiding away. With my enhanced vision I could see as far as the road went straight: nearly two miles.

There they are.

About a mile away, four trucks moved onto the road. They drove in a square, two trucks on either side of the road. Being the only car still on the road was already enough to give them away, but the littering of various Nazi bumper stickers and decals over the vehicles would have exposed them regardless.

I want to see Hookwolf.

First car on the right, in the back seat. Hidden behind two men equipped with machine guns in the front. Prepared to spring from the vehicle at any moment, visibly itching for a fight. I mentally prepared myself for the fight, honing in on my strategy as they continued to cruise towards us. That is, I prepared my mind in a literal sense: I reinforced my skull on the off chance one of my men or a Nazi tried to blow my brains out.

As the trucks neared, I heard their booming engines and squealing tires. I started flashing hand seals, molding vast water chakra without letting a drop slip from my seal. I slowed down how fast I signed as they neared, counting down the last five hand signs as the trucks approached.

Five, Bird.

Four, Dog.

Three, Clone.

Two, Fish.

One, Dog.

I peeked out and launched the jutsu right before the trucks reached the border. A great torrent of water exploded from my seal and flooded the street, forming into a giant wave filled with innumerable water constructs of piercing bony fish.

The wave hit the trucks, the fish punching through the engines and wheels as cars stalled and flipped and were swept away. Hookwolf burst from his vehicle before it could be taken away, exploding into a massive metal wolf of whirling blades. The morphed man was almost swept away when he did hit the ground, forced to start launching a thick metal anchor and pull himself toward me as the bony fish hopelessly scratched at the powerful, thick steel. I held the jutsu regardless, relying on the constant pressure to keep him slow.

My shadow clones directed their bone clones into the fray, bouncing off the walls of the buildings on either side of the road and whipping at Hookwolf's anchors. After a few lashes of impossibly dense bone chipped chunks off the anchor, the metal beam snapped.

Hookwolf was only sent a few feet back before he readjusted, launching out more and slightly thinner anchors. Still enough to ignore the bony fish, and numerous enough that the clones had to focus on whittling through them with their whips. With the enhanced perception of my shadow clones guiding them from above, they efficiently repositioned themselves to wherever Hookwolf would struggle to hit.

Hookwolf made it halfway to me before the shadow clones moved. They both body flickered behind Hookwolf and stood above the torrent of water still ripping through the street, the first clone sprouting a massive bone shield from his ribcage to protect the other as he flashed seals and molded water chakra.

Hookwolf allowed himself to be pulled back by the current toward my clones, warping his back end into a wall of snapping jaws. He met the wall of ribs and got to work, snapping through bone after bone. My shadow clone sprouted innumerable ribs of various sizes, holding off the whirling wolf, but slowly being overtaken as the Nazi dedicated more and more mass to the wall of snapping steel.

The shadow clone in the back finished his jutsu, thrusting both of his hands forward, and created a massive orb of water around the two. Tthe water prison lifted into the air with a simple exertion of will. I ended my bony fish river and body flickered to the Hookwolf's orb, where he was probably angry but incomprehensible though the sound of swirling water. He ripped through my sacrificial shadow clone while ejecting more anchors, trying to pull himself down and free from the trap. Six of the bone clones disappeared with their controller gone, but that was acceptable.

I flashed three hand seals and pressed a single hand to the orb, focused on the rotational principles of the Rasengan, and infused them into the outer shell of the prison. The water began to whirl in every direction, and any bit of metal Hookwolf tried to push out of the prison was turned to useless metal particles. It didn't matter if it was an anchor sent at the ground or a blade sent at my face, nothing escaped.

That didn't stop him from trying, of course.

Hookwolf lost his distinctive wolf shape and became a formless blob of metal, ejecting anchors and blades and axes and knives and every vaguely dangerous piece of metal Hookwolf's small brain could think of. Apparently, a desperate Hookwolf can only conceive of vaguely Nordic weaponry, despite how stupid a Viking-themed khopesh looked. None of it made it through, though the amount of ground metal in the water prison began to build. I let it happen.

After a minute of hopeless thrashing, I felt something click. The water prison was made of water infused with my chakra and Hookwolf provided all the iron needed. My new Ketsuryugan kicked in, recognizing that the water had hit some arbitrary percentage of iron content needed to be under its influence, and the jutsu became a lot easier as the red water slipped firmly under my control.

Both my shadow clones and I dropped our hands, utilizing only our eyes to maintain the technique. Gunfire broke out as Hookwolf's backup caught back up, and both I and the clone started sprouting rib shields all around our bodies to intercept incoming bullets. The remaining six bone clones moved to protect us, using their whips to snap bullets out of the air and snap guns from hands, and occasionally a hand from an arm.

My backup began to fire back, from the windows. Bullets ripped through Nazi legs, feet, and a special third thing as we continued to hold our enemy's leader. The squad, clearly intended as a small surprise convoy for Hookwolf, was quickly forced to retreat under heavy fire and no parahuman backup.

Hookwolf continued to provide more and more iron to my water, tightening my control over his prison. His thrashing grew desperate and less coherent, now throwing out unformed masses of metal in the hopes of somehow escaping. His strikes slowed, slowed again, and then stopped.

The mass of metal reverted to a man, deprived of air and unconscious. I stopped the shredding aspect of the prison just before his head drifted into the obliteration field, and my shadow clone ejected him from the orb. He hit the ground with a small splash.

I ripped the iron-infused water from his lungs, forming hooks around the mask to rip it from his face as I forcibly revived him. His eyes shot open and he gasped as the air suddenly returned to his lungs, only for his eyes to suddenly roll into the back of his head as they met were my pupils.

I seized control over the orb of steel water from my shadow clone, then tossed him Hookwolf. My clone body flickered away, already moving to deliver Hookwolf to the PRT. Sure, they don't like me, but they can't effectively capture a clone of me. I'm sure they'll appreciate the gift.

"Get down here and secure prisoners!" I barked, my gangsters hearing and obeying. "Tourniquet any shot limbs and tell me if anyone has any mortal wounds. Easier to keep a pleasant appearance if we limit casualties," I explained.

My bone clones dismantled any remaining fighters, incapacitating them with ease. My forces funneled into the soaked and shredded street, trudging through water and binding prisoners. I let my bone clones dispel as the men were bound, their whips dropping to the ground.

I turned back to my ball of steel water. I've never had the opportunity to easily access high-iron water, but then Hookwold just offered himself up.

I think I'll keep it.

I made a quick shadow clone take my orb of silvery water, the steel already slowly oxidizing with the water and flaking off into red rust. I'll make a seal tag for it once I'm finished here, to expel and seal at will.

"Anything critical?" I asked. Silence ensued. "I'm going to secure the main border now. Get the prisoners where they need to go, we'll make them the PRT's problem once everything is secure.

Interlude - Taylor

Taylor watched the world through her bugs, sat in a chair indoors. Lisa's mercs guarded her, positioned tactically around the room, just in case a gangster took issue with the white girl commanding the asian gang. The walls were thick brick, purposefully chosen as the most secure location in the general area the assault would occur in.

Oh, there they are.

Taylor directed her swarms toward the incoming groups of nazis, highlighting every group she could find. Lisa was commanding the troops from the safety of her home, informed through cameras and radio information. Taylor listened as she gave orders to the gang, watching them form up into defensive positions and firing back at the armed squads.

"Cricket spotted! Fourth Street!"

Taylor focused on the fourth street, identifying Cricket. The woman tore through the defensive line, dodging past bullets and breaking bones with powerful kicks. She started emitting a horrible noise as the group reformed, drawing her twin blades and starting to slash.

Taylor stood and walked over to a window. She unlocked the window with a click and pulled it up, pausing as she was stopped by a bug screen.

"Someone cut through this," Taylor ordered, and the nearest mercenary obliged.

She directed ten wasps to remove themselves from her hair. The modified bugs flew out of the window and through the slash in the screen, flying over to the street Cricket chose to fight in.

Cricket continued to push through the border. The first line of defense fell to bullets and kicks, fleeing and trying to establish another front down the street. The masked woman silently directed her warriors forward, pushing the Vritrahan defense back with deadly pressure.

The wasps arrived.

They weren't given much notice, ignored in favor of the swarms she already had on the field. She directed a bunch of regular wasps away from the gunners and toward Cricket. The woman blasted a sound wave toward the group of wasps that sent them spinning out, which gave Taylor plenty of time to sneak her modified wasp onto her neck.

A single sting was all that was needed. Cricket casually squashed the wasp between her shoulder and neck, moving back into the fight. She noticed something was wrong a few seconds later as the dizziness hit. Cricket slipped, hit the ground with a ding as her metallic mask impacted asphault, and did not get back up.

Rune burst from cover, drawing symbols with her hand and using two cars as shields. She ran for Cricket, attempting to secure her unconscious comrade.

Taylor sent another wasp. She didn't bother with a swarm to provide cover. It wouldn't matter, Rune's focus was entirely on her partner.

Another sting.

Taylor paused as a swarm of her bugs identified Indra flickering onto another battlefield, conjuring his skeletal Susanoo and launching blasts of water at anyone who stuck some part of themselves out.

The defensive lines became offensive lines. Some still struggled, so Taylor redirected more swarms there. The enemy struggled, then fell back.

Taylor felt a small smile force its way onto her face. Victory was near. The first success for their organization.

Indra being back indicated he'd dealt with Hookwolf, leaving whatever territory Fenrir's Chosen held capeless. Taylor figured that's what this was all about: a last stand before his resources were drained completely dry.

She grabbed her phone and called Lisa.

"Move to take territory?"

"Yep. Reinforce the push with your bugs. We'll have half the place seized by nightfall, and then we'll deal with whatever's left tomorrow."

"On it," Taylor hung up, turning to order Lisa's men. "Let's get moving."

Taylor felt pretty good at this whole gang warfare thing. It wasn't her dream job, to be sure, but it still felt nice to be good at something.

This calls for a celebratory meal, she decided. I know Indra likes Sushi, I'll have to figure out if we control any good Sushi places.

Indra

We pushed forward, seizing Fenrir's Chosen territory for ourselves. Suddenly, a panic spread through the ranks.

"PRT inbound!" I heard someone's radio say.

I'm about halfway drained of chakra, but I've been blowing excess chakra out of my ass with the water jutsu I've been using today. I can take whatever they can throw at me, as long as I'm careful.

I want to see the significant forces that the PRT are sending.

Let's see. Assault, Battery, closest to me. I popped a bone shadow clone out and sent him to hit their street with a bit of sleepytime mist.

Triumph? I really don't want to deal with him. Another shadow clone sent to hit him with a sleep genjutsu, hide him on a roof, and let him wake up on his own when everything is done.

And then… Oh. That's a lot of Armsmasters. Dragon and Defiant sent a literal airship worth of themselves my way.

I want to see where the real Defiant is.

He wasn't even on the field, holed up in some fortified Dragon lab miles away. On the bright side: I can cleave through these suits with no restraint. I body flickered to an alley between the airship and the destination.

I kept my skeletal Susanoo up as I sprouted an ornate katana handle from my wrist, the white chakra bones of my Susanoo's wrist sprouting a simple handle in imitation. I drew the katana from my wrist: an identical blade to my family sword forged of sharpened bone. My Susanoo drew a blade of its own, a massive curved sword with a similar shape to my comparatively short sword.

As the airship passed over a second later, I slashed my sword in a single upward strike. My Susanoo emulated me, carving the airship in half and spilling robots down. The Defiant robots above me repositioned themselves and pointed their nanothorn spears at me as they fell, while the Dragonsuits ignited their flight systems and began to circle.

I made the half-seal to body flicker up to the roof with my left hand and slashed with my right, carving the brave robots into spare parts with Susanoo's sword. Left exposed, every suit targeted me, coming at every angle. Physically impossible to see all at once.

I want to see in full three-hundred and sixty degree vision.

Thankfully, physics is more of a suggestion than a true limiting factor.

I continued to body flicker my Susanoo around, cleaving through Defiants and Dragons as they failed to land any meaningful damage. They ran purely on Armsmaster's combat efficiency program, which was clear as day to my predictive eyes. Admittedly hard to deal with directly, but easily managed with a blow from behind.

As the numbers dimmed, the robots got a better hand on my strategy. One Defiant whirled around as I body flickered, meeting my Susanoo's sword with his spear. His nano-edge spear melted through my chakra blade, cutting it short and letting it pass harmlessly in front of him as he capitalized on the miss to charge forward.

I flicked my wrist, obliterating it with the flat of my severed blade, and then channeled more chakra into my Susanoo. My sword reformed, and went right back to cutting.

Dragons were much less of a threat, they relied mostly on long-range arms that posed minimal threat to me. A few engaged nanoblades on their arms and tried to charge me, but their lack of reach and lack of Armsmaster cyborg parts made them much more manageable.

One-by-one, two-by-two, and in one particularly impressive instance, if I may toot my own horn, six-by-six, they fell. The primary force of their push was reduced to crushed steel and sparking circuits moments after my ambush. They fell until there was only one Defiant left, still trying to fight.

"Really living up to the name, aren't you?" I tried to banter with the final robot. "Defiant till the end."

A voice came from the robot, noticeably not mechanical. "We will not stop until you are captured."

A snort slipped from me, which the robot used to try and thrust his spear at me. I just body flickered backward.

"Sorry. I don't mean to laugh at you, but it's already too late."

"Too late?"

"To capture me. It's too late for you to capture me. You could have done it a year ago without trouble, a few months ago with a few hiccups, but the last time you tried to capture me? That was your last shot."

"Bold claims," he didn't seem impressed. "We'll see if you can back it up."

I rolled my eyes. "Really? You want to stress test this? Did you not see me turn your machines into mush?"

"Everyone can be defeated. Nobody is unstoppable." Defiant's last robot continued to fight.

I sighed. "I have to respect your commitment, at least." I slashed the robot's legs, leaving it a useless torso. "But it's really, really annoying. Everything would go much smoother if you just left me to my own devices."

Defiant threw his spear at me in a final act of retribution, which stuck firmly into my Susanoo. I stopped feeding my Susanoo chakra and the spear clattered to the ground. I walked to the last Defiant's torso, scooping up his spear as I passed.

"I should've already dropped off Hookwolf, and I'll be leaving Rune and Cricket later. I'll let the police handle the rest of the captives, that should sort itself out nicely." I poked the Defiant robot with the butt of his spear, stepping back as he swiped an arm at me. "I just realized, we haven't really had the chance to converse much before. A real shame. I think it's a neat thing you have going: trying to emulate my flesh and blood with your steel and circuits."

"I'm trying to counter you, not emulate you," he spat.

"Yeah, yeah," I ignored him, idly twirling the spear. "I just wanted to ask: do you know the answer to the riddle of steel?"

"...The Conan the Barbarian plot point?"

"Oh my god! A decent pop culture reference that somebody recognizes," I sighed in relief, my head tilting back. "It's been so long…"

Without looking back down, I slashed with his molecular blade, splitting the robot in two. "Anyway, steel isn't strong, flesh is. What is the sword compared to the hand that wields it?"

I couldn't help but feel elated. Finally, I'm strong. Strong enough to dramatically monologue without suffering any consequences, the pinnacle of dick-smacking levels of strength. Not something I should make a habit of, but this is a man who has seriously impeded my progress...

"This is a cool spear," I decided. "I'm gonna keep it."

I want to see how to remove any way to track this while leaving it functionally intact.

There is only one tangible result of Defiant's defiance against me. He taught me how to use his weapon.

Once I got back to base, I snagged the storage seal with the iron-dense water. I exposed my upper arm on the same arm my standard water storage seal was tattoo, then created a shadow clone.

The clone retrieved the tattoo brush, drawing another storage seal on the upper half. I began to extract the now mostly red water from the seal, guiding it into the tattoo on my upper arm. After a moment, all the water was sealed.

I flashed a half seal and ejected some of that red water, compressing it into an orb and rapidly rotating it. It move under the full control of my Ketsuryugan, more compressed and dangerous that my original erosion orb could have ever been due to the presence of the iron. With one eye I managed the form and with the other I rotated the water.

A half seal to produce, incredibly deadly, and unbound to my hands. I moved the red orb around the room, contemplating. An instant-kill technique with none of the downsides of the rasengan.

What should I name it? The Erosion Orb? Orb of Obliteration? Sphere of Shredding? Damn, naming things is hard.

Taylor suggested a celebratory sushi dinner after the fighting, which sounded lovely. With our help, Vritrahan forces pushed forward and claimed two thirds of the territory Hookwolf once held. The last third of territory was relying on guerilla warfare and dirty tactics, so we decided to hold off on fighting and reinforce our claimed territory for the rest of the day.

Let them burn through their resources in vain.

I decided to bring Bonesaw along. She wasn't the most socially adept, which may be partially my fault, but I figured it was the least I could do for the girl.

"Here," I gave her a few teleporation tags. "Keep them on you while you're outside. They're a backup for someone trying to kidnap you."

"Like you did?" Bonesaw asked.

"Yes, exactly." I nodded. "This will let me kidnap you back with ease."

"Cool!"

Taylor and I casually strolled into the sushi restaurant, Bonesaw happily skipping behind me.

"Table for three, please," I asked the server.

The man looked up, freezing in place. I had to hold myself back from laughing as his eyes dilated and his face paled, clearly not expecting the unmasked ruler of the territory to show up.

"Ah, ah, yes, of course, Sir," he stammered. "This way, please."

We followed him as he led us to a table, still visibly uncomfortable but falling back on his experience as a server. It still felt a little off to have someone so clearly spooked by me, and it was ringing all my paranoia alarms.

I want to see if there's anyone who will poison our food.

Ah, nothing.

I want to see any threats to a pleasant experience.

A few minor health hazards: the sign of a restaurant with delicious food. The three of us settled into our chairs, finding them to our liking. The only things Omoikane picked up were the bugs in Taylor's hair.

"Anything to drink?" he bowed.

"A sweet sake, I think."

"Water," Taylor said, taking the coward's way out.

"Orange juice!"

"Ah… of course. Are you ready to order, or would you prefer some appetizers?"

"Some tuna and salmon nigiri for the table, we'll decide on everything else in a minute."

"As you wish," the man again bowed, shuffling off to the kitchen. He came out a moment later, placing a tray of rice and fish before us. "Your drinks will be out momentarily."

I nodded, and he returned to the kitchen.

"Ooh," Bonesaw poked the nigiri, plucking a thin string from it. "Fish parasites. Frozen, completely harmless." Bonesaw dropped the parasite back onto the nigiri, grabbed the piece of food, and tossed it into her mouth. "Yummy!"

Taylor looked slightly sick.

It was a good meal. Good company, too. Taylor even got over some of her reluctance to eat raw fish.

Interlude - Parahumans Online

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Topic: Hookwolf Captured, Akatsuki Responsible

In: Boards ► News ► Events ►America ►Brockton Bay

Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know):

Bringing back the classic. Hookwolf and the other two capes in his gang tried to make a frontal assault. Didn't work. We didn't get a mocking handover this time, seems that Akatsuki were more focused on conquering Brockton Bay.

They're doing well on that, by the way. The gangs fought for hours today. The ABB seems to have rebranded as "Vritrahan." Seems to be a reference to a Hindu story, which roughly means "Demon Slayer" or "Dragon Slayer." The main character of that story is about the god "Indra," so take a guess who that's a reference to. Rumor has it, that they've switched their gang colors to white and red to match Pain's new style.

Lung isn't the only dragon he's slain recently. He took on an aircraft's worth of Dragon suits and won. After that, seems like The Guild decided to regroup and deal with them another day, the PRT following suit. The fighting died down as night fell, but it's expected to pick up soon.

GodKilla:

What a dumb name. Could have been something cooler

Point_Me_ _The_Sky (Verified Cape) (New Wave):

Azn Bad Dragonz

PantySeer (Verified Cape) (New Wave):

Stop.

Bad.

Point_Me_ _The_Sky (Verified Cape) (New Wave):

Stop Bad? That doesn't make sense at all. You need to work on your naming sense.

PantySeer (Verified Cape) (New Wave):

You're insufferable.

Point_Me_ _The_Sky (Verified Cape) (New Wave):

Yet you suffer me? Checkmate, liberal.

TobyRamen:

I really hate this indra guy. Dumbass red eyes

Akatsuki2:

Red eye racism :(

TobyRamen:

Red eyes, also he's taking over a city. I don't think its too big of a stretch to assume he's fundamentally and uncompromisingly evil. Somebody nuke him already. Get Eidolon on his ass.

End of Page: 1

A/N: I promise to have the rest of the story out by the end of summer. Knocking out the editing on the last few is gonna be a little slow tho. Hope you enjoyed :D