Dojo & Sharing
"Tak-tak-tak-tak-tak."

"Too bad I can't share any of this with Dad," said Zenko to herself as the roulette went on. "'Pets and companions' sound pretty useful."

[Level check. Passed. Share System activated. Requires sufficient points for all chosen recipients.]

Zenko groaned and felt like shouting, but just grumbled out her reaction. "Would have been nice to hear that earlier."

[Kitsune Companion]
[Checking Availability.]

"Well, that could be weird," admitted Zenko before jumping to the next building.

Really, she understood why the PRT had wanted to keep her name off the reports. She wasn't ready to face Lung.

Maybe when she WAS ready, they'd go ahead and admit it was her. More important to get Oni Lee off the streets.

[Kitsune Companion located. Mechanism already implanted. Enhancement. Activation.]

"Wait, what?" asked Zenko.

"Oh. This is interesting."

* Wednesday, Sep 23, 2009 *

Kayden Anders smiled at the sight of the news. Oni Lee captured and being held by the PRT. They weren't saying whodunnit, but the news anchors were quoting "inside sources" stating that the teleporting bomber had been caught and immobilized by a new hero named The Scarlet Lady.

A quick internet search showed a very grainy picture of a teenage girl in a dark red leather catsuit who had reddish hair carrying a crossbow. Purity tsked at the apparent age of the girl wearing skintight leather and spike heels. She could get away with high heels because she could fly and hover. If the Scarlet Lady couldn't fly - those were impractical as hell. Also in the muggy Brockton Bay summers - the girl would be in constant danger of heatstroke.

Still, Kayden thought it very likely the girl didn't know how much danger she'd gotten into by capturing Oni Lee.

* Medhall *

"The 'Scarlet Lady'?" asked Krieg. "The reports I read said it was Zenko."

Kaiser shrugged. "If someone changed the record so that it wasn't an ABB in-fight and was someone who was the Right Kind? Errors happen."

"Wait? We did it?" asked Krieg.

Kaiser shrugged again. "Perhaps. As it is, we have a pair of vigilantes running around. If we recruit the Scarlet Lady, we get her abilities and break up the pairing with this Shadow Stalker."

"What are her powers?" asked Krieg.

"Observation was she's a probability nudger, she fell three stories into a dumpster and managed to only break one leg. Also dislocated a shoulder and has a slight concussion. Two feet to the left and she would have been skewered on the wood of some broken furniture. Two feet to the right and she would have hit the pavement. Instead she hit a cabbage cart that cushioned her fall."

"That IS pretty lucky, but it could just be chance," noted Krieg.

"When Brad brings her in, we'll find out more," said Kaiser.

* PRT ENE HQ *

Director Piggot glanced at the two heroes and two PRT employees in front of her. "Does someone want to explain this?"

Armsmaster stopped whatever he was doing on the tablet. "Oni Lee was delivered two days ago by Zenko during a gang war between the Empire 88 and the ABB. According to Zenko, Lee went after her specifically. She demonstrated two new abilities at that time. Generation of a thick fog and a healing power. According to her both are related to this 'chi manipulation' ability."

"You can say 'ninja technique'," said Assault.

"It's a parahuman ability," countered Armsmaster.

"Not that," interrupted Director Piggot. "Who is 'The Scarlet Lady' and WHY was she given credit for the Oni Lee capture?"

"'The Scarlet Lady' is a new cape seen in the company of the vigilante Shadow Stalker," stated Armsmaster. "At first the analysis was that she had some sort of probability influence Shaker power. When forwarded to Think Tank, however, the result was that she didn't actually have a power and is probably just Stalker's girlfriend or minion."

"A vigilante cape has a minion?" asked Assault.

"Probably," said Armsmaster. "As to why she was credited for the capture - it appears to be a clerical error that was passed on and spread."

"Well, fix it before Lung goes after her," said Director Piggot. "Double the efforts to track down Stalker and bring her in. We've had several reports more of thugs being shot with broadhead crossbow bolts, and we don't need that sort of escalation. Sooner or later they'll be more than a minor annoyance, and then we'll have a cape and a wannabe at the coroner's office."

There were a few nods at that.

"How did Zenko manage to catch Oni Lee anyway since our own forces haven't managed that?" asked Director Piggot.

"It was previously theorized that Oni Lee needed to see to teleport, and that was on some of the reports that Zenko accessed due to her affiliate status," stated Armsmaster. "She confirmed he was doing line-of-sight teleports and then used her fog-generation to deny him mobility. As soon as he was staying still, she used her wood-generation to essentially bind and blindfold him."

"She has a freaking lot of those ninja techniques," observed Assault.

"It's simply a single parahuman ability that has multiple facets," protested Armsmaster.

"Yeah, to come up with new powers as she encounters situations when she needs them," responded Assault. "Either of us could beat her as she is now. Her dad on the other hand?"

"I could develop technology to beat his cold-generation ability," stated Armsmaster.

"Except he's old and experienced and probably has ways to deal with..." Assault's voice trailed off as he stopped to watch something out the window.

Dread settling down into the bottom of her stomach, Director Piggot slowly turned her chair to see what had stopped Assault mid-sentence.

There was Zenko, apparently in a hurry.
Running up the side of a building, then leaping from one roof to another.
With the aid of a chain she produced that allowed her to swing even further.

"I swear, is she TRYING to make us update the Threat Report every few days?" asked Deputy Director Renick.

"Right," said Armsmaster. "Estimated speed based on that rate is roughly 90mph."

"I suppose there's no chance of getting me into those chi-manipulation classes? Being able to get places that fast would be cool," added Assault.

"No," stated Director Piggot. "Next order of business. I have a report here that someone has been robbing a series of electronics and auto parts stores along the southern part of the city."

"It is likely that Squealer is attempting to build some sort of vehicle to affect a jailbreak of her gang boss," said Armsmaster.

"Does she not know that Skidmark and Mush are both out-of-state at this point?" asked Director Piggot.

"She's a known drug addict," pointed out Assault. "Working for a gang that was barely on our radar at all prior to their attack on the Docks."

"Point taken," admitted Director Piggot.

* Stately Barnes Manor *
* (Actually just a large two-story house.) *

"Wait. Me?" asked Emma Barnes.

"Yes. You. If the PRT was any more incompetent, the building would collapse under the weight of it," grumped Sophia Hess. Never mind the control issues, this was another reason she didn't want to join.

"So... wow. The Scarlet Lady has some serious street cred now," said Emma, her grin brief before another twang of pain went through her head in response to the facial movement.

"Yeah, that's good and bad," said Sophia.

"Eh, what could go wrong?" asked Emma. "Not like the Scarlet Lady can go out until the casts come off."

"You really up for school tomorrow?" asked Sophia.

"Might as well, don't want Taylor to forget about little ol' me," said Emma with a grin that went immediately to a wince and an "ow."

"See it's that kind of thing that makes me wonder if you ARE ready to return to school," noted Sophia.

"I can handle it," said Emma, anxious to prove her strength. Like she'd said, what could possibly go wrong?

* Docks Area *

Orochimaru stopped what he was doing as he felt something familiar. Very familiar and very distinctive.

Slowly he smiled, before he turned his attention back to the current project.

Honestly, the idea that the placement of the shards within this organism dubbed "Eden" was related to its importance and/or function to the organism had not occurred to any of these Cauldron people. Their reasoning that organ placement on an alien creature would be simply alien had never been tested.

Perhaps he would have accepted such a thing when he was younger. Now was a different story altogether.

Likewise a test on the efficiency of an action by that Contessa woman had not occurred to anyone. Set a goal with a known number of steps, have Contessa use a Path, compare results.

Now this development. Very interesting indeed.

Orochimaru's smile deepened a moment before he wiped the expression and continued to infuse ink with chakra and use that to make an elaborate seal array.

This might be very useful, and this time it wouldn't involve invoking some god of death. Those could be a bit fickle after all.

* Warehouse #14, Docks *

Taylor walked around Zenko, examining the fox-ninja from all angles. "Huh. I hadn't noticed how I looked from this side."

"You've been working out," noted her father from the side.

"It's different seeing it in person," agreed Taylor.

"As fascinating as your backside might be to yourself, aren't there other things you wanted to try?"

"First, you'll have to do something about the voice."

"How's this?"

"Almost Perfect," said Danny Hebert. "Raise the voice just a bit."

"Hmph. Very well. This then?"

"Doesn't sound a thing like me," protested Taylor.

"No, that got it close enough. A little bit of a rasp still there but practice might help."

"So this is when you need an alibi, Taylor?" asked the false Zenko.

"That's the plan," said Taylor. "Of course, you don't dispel with a hit."

"Depends on the size of the hit, I suspect," said 'Zenko' before reverting to her true shape.

"When I got 'kitsune companion' I didn't expect you two," said Taylor as she shifted to Zenko.

"Not the first time we've been together, but this arrangement is admittedly new," said the other Zenko.

"Well, you've got school tomorrow, so best get to bed young lady," said Danny as he indicated the clock on one wall.

* Thursday, Sep 24, 2009 *

He didn't know a lot about the situation, or having a human or female avatar. This Taylor was into some pretty weird situations even by the standards of the ninja world he originated from.

She. Not having an actual gender to begin with just added to the strangeness of the situation.

Oh well, worth it to be able to go out and plunk a few coins down to get a skewer of fried tofu. Yum!

Of course that meant shifting appearance away from being a Zenko-clone but that was what the Disguise jutsu was for, wasn't it? Making an image of yourself that just fit into the locality, passing unremarked and uncontested through their territory.

Foxes were tricksters, right? So taking the likeness of someone he was familiar with and had some pleasant memories associated with was trivial and should be perfectly fine - right?

Someone settling onto one of the nearby stools was hardly a surprise as he'd felt them approach. It had been a little surprising, but there had been a few hints. Not that Zenko was aware, but she was young and inexperienced.

"Another skewer and a tea, please," said the apparent teenage Naruto Uzumaki. "Orochimaru."

"Nine-tails," acknowledged Orochimaru before addressing the server. "I'll have what he's having."

"Any problems for my... associate?" asked Kurama.

"I've solved a few actually," said Orochimaru.

Kurama in the appearance of Naruto smirked. "Excellent."

"Oh, she'll have enough problems to challenge her, I'm not solving ALL of her problems. Just a few complications she doesn't need at this point."

"Good," said Kurama.

"Nice to see you out and about and not knocking over buildings," commented Orochimaru.

"It's nice to be out and about, going where I will, and to be able to do things I've only ever been able to do second-hand," confessed Kurama. "Such as taste things. Smell things. And eat fried tofu on a stick."

"I can see where that would be the case," admitted Orochimaru.

That was when there was a familiar and very unwelcome sound. The Endbringer sirens.