When Izuku died in a tragic accident as a child, there was something waiting for him. A twisted, scuttling thing that wanted nothing more than to make a Bargain with him. Coming back didn't mean everything was the same anymore, but it did mean he knew more about the world than he ever expected.
(Don't Fear) the Reaper (MHA/Chronicles of Darkness/minor Cyberpunk)
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Chapter 1
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
Inko stepped out of her bedroom, glancing at the couch and heaved a sigh at the lump lying on it, arm draped across his face. Walking to the kitchen of the apartment, she started the electric kettle before walking back to him. Held in one hand, dangling from it and over the couch, was a perpetually bloodstained, curved hunting knife. Inko reached out, prying it from Izuku's hand and putting it on the table, "Coffee or Tea?"
"Coffee," Izuku groaned, the seventeen year old sitting up and running his hand across his face. His feet hit the floor as he stood up in one go, his back audibly cracking as he stretched. He shook his head wildly, green and black hair whipping around and letting her see his under shadowed eyes. They landed on her, and despite the bloodshot quality of them, he smiled widely, "Hi, mom! I'll put my stuff away!"
"And I'll get breakfast ready," Inko said with a small smile as Izuku walked down the hall and opened the door to his perpetually chilly room, pulling off the heavy, hooded ragged cowboy duster he was wearing as he went. Littered around the room was what Izuku called Mementos, artifacts of the dead.
They honestly, other than seeming to be the cause of the perpetual chill in the air of Izuku's room, seemed like junk to Inko. A tarnished silver flask, a battered heavy, clawed gauntlet, a waterlogged book he pulled out of his pocket and put next to his notes on the underworld, a motorcycle helmet with a cracked faceplate and dented frame and, deep in the back of the closet, hidden by joke T-shirts, like Izuku didn't want to see it but couldn't bring himself to throw it away, was a lock box with four masks in it. But to Izuku, each was a treasure without equal.
"Japanese or Western?" She called out as Izuku came out of the room with his Aldara uniform over one arm and a black towel over the other, a black turtleneck and jeans still on.
"Whatever's easier for you, Mom!" Izuku called, vanishing into the shower.
"What about you, Yo, any preferences?" Inko asked, and Izuku fell silent for a second, listening to the voice only he could hear.
"He'd like a bagel, if it's not too much trouble," Izuku said, sounding slightly sheepish.
"No trouble at all, dear," Inko said, "I'll get that made, and you can tell me what you did last night when you get out of the shower."
—
Izuku stepped out of the shower and grabbed the towel, immediately going at the wet mop he called a head of hair as he did. Once it was sufficiently, but not entirely, dry, he dried off the rest of his body and changed into his school uniform. Reaching out with an emaciated hand, he gripped the door and blinked a couple of times, waiting for his hand to appear human again.
"Very funny, Yo," The boy marked by the Bastard's Key deadpanned.
The Geist scuttled over the mirror in the corner of Izuku's eye, the gaping, toothless hole where his mouth should have been twisting into a facsimile of a smile, the three acid green eyes covered by wispy, cracked hair crinkling the same. Izuku shot a smile up at Yo, taking his hand off the handle for a high-five. Even if Yo wasn't really "there", the point where one of them started and ended was mostly academic, Izuku felt the desicated hand clap against his own.
"We'll find them tonight," Izuku said, "We're close enough."
Izuku pulled open the door, quickly joining his mom at the table as Yo scuttled across the walls, where she put a pair of bagels in front of him, putting her own breakfast, eggs, across from him and sitting down. After a minute, she asked, conversationally, a question Izuku knew was going to bring a reckoning down around his ears.
"So, what time did you get back last night?"
Izuku grimaced, suddenly interested in literally anything other than his mom's face. Yo stopped his crawling, wringing two of his sixteen hands.
Trapped question.
Oh, yeah, partner, big trapped. Because Inko liked to stay up until Izuku got home, and her going to bed without him home made the question as trapped as a Cainite asking you who Cain was. They only cared about the answer so much as they wanted to know how screwed you were.
"Probably… after three?" Izuku ventured with the grace of the dead man he was, both figuratively and literally. You would think, after breaking his neck at age 4, he would have become inured to fear. And you'd be mostly right, but fear of disappointing Midoriya Inko was a different kind of fear.
Inko just gave him a disappointed look, and said, "You have to see this through to the end, don't you, Izuku?"
"Yeah," Izuku said quietly, "There's someone killing people on my territory, Mom. I have to do this."
"And you can't call that group you run with sometimes?"
"They got their own territory to police," Izuku said, "Maine's Krewe can't just pop over to Japan for a Slasher."
"But you can pop over to Coronado to help them?"
"...This is different," Izuku said, "He made it personal."
"You made it personal," Inko refuted, "Chisaki hasn't done anything to anyone you know. But you're obsessed with this, you haven't been coming home on time since the first Ghost showed up on your radar. I'm not trying to stop you, Izuku, but you need to acknowledge that this is your obsession."
Izuku fell silent for a moment, eyes trailing towards his room where the waterlogged, first edition of the Proverbs of Hell sat, calling him silently to ditch school and end the month long hunt that had taken him through Mustafu and Korisato, finding Ghosts and binding them so they could know when their murderer was brought to justice.
Chisaki. Chisaki. He couldn't sleep without that name rumbling through his skull and stomach and Corpus. These people were dead because of Chisaki, and the Hero and Police hadn't done anything. Might not even know he had done it. Chisaki. Chisaki. Chisaki. Murderer, Betrayer, glorified slug. Chisaki.
"One more night," Izuku said, mechanically, not denying what his mother was saying but not acknowledging it either, "One more night, and this will be over. I'll have enough information to root him out, I'm sure of it."
"...Fine, one more night. But then this stops," Inko insisted.
Izuku nodded, finishing the bagel that had suddenly turned to grave dirt (yes he knew what that tasted like and no, he didn't want to discuss why) in his mouth and stood up, pulling out his smartphone as he left the house and pulled up the Twilight Network app. To the average person, it was a niche group of spiritualists and occultists. To the Bound, it was so much more.
Can you meet me at the DMH in nine hours? Got a job to discuss.
—
The Underworld could, roughly, be divided into four layers. The Upper Reaches, the River Cities, The Dead Domains and the Ocean of Fragments. That was the "simple" way of thinking of things.
Was it actually that simple? Heh, that was a funny joke.
No. Not even close. The Underworld was like a shit sandwich. Every layer had some new type of bullshit to deal with.
More fancy, "Academic" Sin Eaters than Rebecca would argue that the first two were one layer, and didn't "technically" count as part of the Underworld. They would also argue the second pair were one layer. But to most of the Bound, there were four layers, and it all started with opening an Avernian Gate, or spending some Plasm on the Shroud if you knew how to, and entering the Upper Reaches.
The first was a fucked up parody of every place where dying would see you marked with the Key of Grave Dirt, all based on where you entered the underworld. Catacombs below a graveyard, subway tunnels below a city, yada yada yada. All sloping downwards, deeper, sometimes it was a cliff drop, other times, like the way they had come, it was a staircase.
They all ended at the brink of the Rivers. Too many to count, too many to learn the names of and what they did, you normally learned the ones 'near' where your Krewe hung, or you were gonna drink and piss your Geist off. The river they were currently walking along, getting closer to their destination, a disgusting mix of blood and slate that Rebecca actually had drunk from, was called Mictlan, after the Aztec Underworld. Which didn't even fucking make sense since she was pretty sure the Aztecs had never reached Coronado, but whatever.
And there close enough that they were in the slums of it, like an unbeating heart, was the Dead Man's Hand, halfway between River City and Dead Domain. It was close to three centuries old, which made it young as fuck by Underworld standards and old as shit by Rebecca's, and it was a place every Sin Eater, shit, every Bound, respected. A light shining in the darkness of the Underworld.
It was a place with two Laws. Don't Cheat the Dealers. All Deals Were Final If Shook Upon. And in return, you could find anything you wanted or needed in the Underworld. Barghest ectophagia? Most places could get you dog or cat, but the real preem places could always scrounge up a prized pig or cow to butcher and put on your plate. Alcohol? Mushroom beer was on every tap, and, once again, the real preem places ran real shit brought in by Bound.
She hoped Izuku had splurged on the preem.
"C'mon," Rebecca said to David, "Let's find our guy."
—
David walked through the city with Rebecca, eyes wandering the street stalls and rope bridges over their heads, hoping against hope that he would find her. If his Mom had come anywhere after she died, it had to be someplace like here, right?
David jerked as Rebecca elbowed him in the gut, the other hand keeping her modded UTS-15A propped over one shoulder, "Eyes front, Dimples, you don't want to get lossed in the Dead's Man Hand."
"Sorry, just… never expected a place like this in the Underworld. It's, like, a city you would see in the real world."
"Say it like this here isn't real, Dimples," the Vengeful Sin Eater said, popping her gum as she fished out a cracked smartphone, checking the Twilight Network, "Oh, nice, he managed to get us a table at Afterlife. C'mon, I know how to get there from here."
"It's just," David said, feeling the Clockwork Giant follow behind them as they made their way through the winding streets of the Dead Man's Hand. Slowly but surely, shacks made of junk gave way for deliberate buildings on metal, built high to poke out around the surrounding favela, "I never imagined something like this in the Underworld."
"You already said that," Rebecca teased, but shrugged, "It took a lot of goddamn effort to get this place the way it is, Dimples, damn near a Dead Domain, and can tank a fucking hurricane of Reapers coming after it, you gotta put some fucking respect on the name of the Krewe that did it… Well, you would if they had one, but you get what I mean. They're badasses."
The Bloated Woman, an ogre sized mass of meat that towered over her Sin Eater, nodded, hovering behind Rebecca. Dreadlocked hair sent flecks of ectoplasmic water flying through the air, even as more poured down from large, crushing hands on shriveled, vestigial arms, her breasts and dragging entrails. It opened its mouth, gargling something out through the torrent of water that made Rebecca nod.
"So, uh… this guy we're meeting, what can you tell me about him? Is he part of the Krewe?" David said uncomfortably. Here it was impossible to ignore that none of the people he had started running with, that he wasn't human anymore.
"Kinda, don't think he buys Maine's Faith," Rebecca said with a shrug, "He's solid, but not sold. Y'know what I mean?"
Not really, no.
—
Izuku played with the complementary pack of cigarettes, flicking it open and closed as he waited for Rebecca to show up. He wasn't one for smoking, but other than Rebecca, he wasn't sure who was showing up.
Smiling at the server who put a glass of lemonade with real strawberries in front of him, he shook his head as she reached from the lighter on her hip, "No, thanks."
"Ok?" She said, blinking her one eye, the other gone with the skid mark that was half her face, before turning and walking away. Izuku leaned back, eyes scanning Afterlife and sipping his drink through a straw.
Unlike most places in inner city Dead Man's Hand, which tended towards the saloons of the North American Transcontinental Railway and Jazz clubs of the Second World War, Afterlife was built on a crude facsimile of a nightclub. A wall of speakers was hooked up to a trio of gas powered generators outside the building. You could almost always find a job running gas from the living to here.
It was here that, seven years ago, Izuku had bound his fate to Maine's Krewe with a handshake. Where he had run his first jobs between the Underworld and the Living World. Afterlife was part of who he was in the supernatural, part of a Krewe but not. Outside but Inside and everything that came with that.
The doors to Afterlife swung open to a storm of familiar cussing. Across the bar, hands reached towards the totally-empty-they-promised holsters, while Izuku just dryly sipped from his strawberry lemonade. Old game, long run out of humor, but too ingrained to not do.
Finally, after a minute of shit talking and gun waving, Rebecca stormed into the room and shoved her Model No. 1 back into its holster like she wasn't openly advertising she was carrying in a no carry zone, the Bloated Woman walking behind her. Then came a Latino boy with a quaff of hair, a yellow jacket and a bemused look on his face, followed by-
Well, shit, if it wasn't the Clockwork Giant. He had wondered where that particular Geist went after its last Bound Flatlined. An eight foot tall mass of grinding gears and metal, a demonic looking stretch of skin over his face and a heart merged with the machinery, pumping with every turn of the gear, was the only part of him that was flesh.
"Hey," Izuku said as they approached, "I need help on a job."
—
"Coffee," Izuku groaned, the seventeen year old sitting up and running his hand across his face. His feet hit the floor as he stood up in one go, his back audibly cracking as he stretched. He shook his head wildly, green and black hair whipping around and letting her see his under shadowed eyes. They landed on her, and despite the bloodshot quality of them, he smiled widely, "Hi, mom! I'll put my stuff away!"
"And I'll get breakfast ready," Inko said with a small smile as Izuku walked down the hall and opened the door to his perpetually chilly room, pulling off the heavy, hooded ragged cowboy duster he was wearing as he went. Littered around the room was what Izuku called Mementos, artifacts of the dead.
They honestly, other than seeming to be the cause of the perpetual chill in the air of Izuku's room, seemed like junk to Inko. A tarnished silver flask, a battered heavy, clawed gauntlet, a waterlogged book he pulled out of his pocket and put next to his notes on the underworld, a motorcycle helmet with a cracked faceplate and dented frame and, deep in the back of the closet, hidden by joke T-shirts, like Izuku didn't want to see it but couldn't bring himself to throw it away, was a lock box with four masks in it. But to Izuku, each was a treasure without equal.
"Japanese or Western?" She called out as Izuku came out of the room with his Aldara uniform over one arm and a black towel over the other, a black turtleneck and jeans still on.
"Whatever's easier for you, Mom!" Izuku called, vanishing into the shower.
"What about you, Yo, any preferences?" Inko asked, and Izuku fell silent for a second, listening to the voice only he could hear.
"He'd like a bagel, if it's not too much trouble," Izuku said, sounding slightly sheepish.
"No trouble at all, dear," Inko said, "I'll get that made, and you can tell me what you did last night when you get out of the shower."
—
Izuku stepped out of the shower and grabbed the towel, immediately going at the wet mop he called a head of hair as he did. Once it was sufficiently, but not entirely, dry, he dried off the rest of his body and changed into his school uniform. Reaching out with an emaciated hand, he gripped the door and blinked a couple of times, waiting for his hand to appear human again.
"Very funny, Yo," The boy marked by the Bastard's Key deadpanned.
The Geist scuttled over the mirror in the corner of Izuku's eye, the gaping, toothless hole where his mouth should have been twisting into a facsimile of a smile, the three acid green eyes covered by wispy, cracked hair crinkling the same. Izuku shot a smile up at Yo, taking his hand off the handle for a high-five. Even if Yo wasn't really "there", the point where one of them started and ended was mostly academic, Izuku felt the desicated hand clap against his own.
"We'll find them tonight," Izuku said, "We're close enough."
Izuku pulled open the door, quickly joining his mom at the table as Yo scuttled across the walls, where she put a pair of bagels in front of him, putting her own breakfast, eggs, across from him and sitting down. After a minute, she asked, conversationally, a question Izuku knew was going to bring a reckoning down around his ears.
"So, what time did you get back last night?"
Izuku grimaced, suddenly interested in literally anything other than his mom's face. Yo stopped his crawling, wringing two of his sixteen hands.
Trapped question.
Oh, yeah, partner, big trapped. Because Inko liked to stay up until Izuku got home, and her going to bed without him home made the question as trapped as a Cainite asking you who Cain was. They only cared about the answer so much as they wanted to know how screwed you were.
"Probably… after three?" Izuku ventured with the grace of the dead man he was, both figuratively and literally. You would think, after breaking his neck at age 4, he would have become inured to fear. And you'd be mostly right, but fear of disappointing Midoriya Inko was a different kind of fear.
Inko just gave him a disappointed look, and said, "You have to see this through to the end, don't you, Izuku?"
"Yeah," Izuku said quietly, "There's someone killing people on my territory, Mom. I have to do this."
"And you can't call that group you run with sometimes?"
"They got their own territory to police," Izuku said, "Maine's Krewe can't just pop over to Japan for a Slasher."
"But you can pop over to Coronado to help them?"
"...This is different," Izuku said, "He made it personal."
"You made it personal," Inko refuted, "Chisaki hasn't done anything to anyone you know. But you're obsessed with this, you haven't been coming home on time since the first Ghost showed up on your radar. I'm not trying to stop you, Izuku, but you need to acknowledge that this is your obsession."
Izuku fell silent for a moment, eyes trailing towards his room where the waterlogged, first edition of the Proverbs of Hell sat, calling him silently to ditch school and end the month long hunt that had taken him through Mustafu and Korisato, finding Ghosts and binding them so they could know when their murderer was brought to justice.
Chisaki. Chisaki. He couldn't sleep without that name rumbling through his skull and stomach and Corpus. These people were dead because of Chisaki, and the Hero and Police hadn't done anything. Might not even know he had done it. Chisaki. Chisaki. Chisaki. Murderer, Betrayer, glorified slug. Chisaki.
"One more night," Izuku said, mechanically, not denying what his mother was saying but not acknowledging it either, "One more night, and this will be over. I'll have enough information to root him out, I'm sure of it."
"...Fine, one more night. But then this stops," Inko insisted.
Izuku nodded, finishing the bagel that had suddenly turned to grave dirt (yes he knew what that tasted like and no, he didn't want to discuss why) in his mouth and stood up, pulling out his smartphone as he left the house and pulled up the Twilight Network app. To the average person, it was a niche group of spiritualists and occultists. To the Bound, it was so much more.
Can you meet me at the DMH in nine hours? Got a job to discuss.
—
The Underworld could, roughly, be divided into four layers. The Upper Reaches, the River Cities, The Dead Domains and the Ocean of Fragments. That was the "simple" way of thinking of things.
Was it actually that simple? Heh, that was a funny joke.
No. Not even close. The Underworld was like a shit sandwich. Every layer had some new type of bullshit to deal with.
More fancy, "Academic" Sin Eaters than Rebecca would argue that the first two were one layer, and didn't "technically" count as part of the Underworld. They would also argue the second pair were one layer. But to most of the Bound, there were four layers, and it all started with opening an Avernian Gate, or spending some Plasm on the Shroud if you knew how to, and entering the Upper Reaches.
The first was a fucked up parody of every place where dying would see you marked with the Key of Grave Dirt, all based on where you entered the underworld. Catacombs below a graveyard, subway tunnels below a city, yada yada yada. All sloping downwards, deeper, sometimes it was a cliff drop, other times, like the way they had come, it was a staircase.
They all ended at the brink of the Rivers. Too many to count, too many to learn the names of and what they did, you normally learned the ones 'near' where your Krewe hung, or you were gonna drink and piss your Geist off. The river they were currently walking along, getting closer to their destination, a disgusting mix of blood and slate that Rebecca actually had drunk from, was called Mictlan, after the Aztec Underworld. Which didn't even fucking make sense since she was pretty sure the Aztecs had never reached Coronado, but whatever.
And there close enough that they were in the slums of it, like an unbeating heart, was the Dead Man's Hand, halfway between River City and Dead Domain. It was close to three centuries old, which made it young as fuck by Underworld standards and old as shit by Rebecca's, and it was a place every Sin Eater, shit, every Bound, respected. A light shining in the darkness of the Underworld.
It was a place with two Laws. Don't Cheat the Dealers. All Deals Were Final If Shook Upon. And in return, you could find anything you wanted or needed in the Underworld. Barghest ectophagia? Most places could get you dog or cat, but the real preem places could always scrounge up a prized pig or cow to butcher and put on your plate. Alcohol? Mushroom beer was on every tap, and, once again, the real preem places ran real shit brought in by Bound.
She hoped Izuku had splurged on the preem.
"C'mon," Rebecca said to David, "Let's find our guy."
—
David walked through the city with Rebecca, eyes wandering the street stalls and rope bridges over their heads, hoping against hope that he would find her. If his Mom had come anywhere after she died, it had to be someplace like here, right?
David jerked as Rebecca elbowed him in the gut, the other hand keeping her modded UTS-15A propped over one shoulder, "Eyes front, Dimples, you don't want to get lossed in the Dead's Man Hand."
"Sorry, just… never expected a place like this in the Underworld. It's, like, a city you would see in the real world."
"Say it like this here isn't real, Dimples," the Vengeful Sin Eater said, popping her gum as she fished out a cracked smartphone, checking the Twilight Network, "Oh, nice, he managed to get us a table at Afterlife. C'mon, I know how to get there from here."
"It's just," David said, feeling the Clockwork Giant follow behind them as they made their way through the winding streets of the Dead Man's Hand. Slowly but surely, shacks made of junk gave way for deliberate buildings on metal, built high to poke out around the surrounding favela, "I never imagined something like this in the Underworld."
"You already said that," Rebecca teased, but shrugged, "It took a lot of goddamn effort to get this place the way it is, Dimples, damn near a Dead Domain, and can tank a fucking hurricane of Reapers coming after it, you gotta put some fucking respect on the name of the Krewe that did it… Well, you would if they had one, but you get what I mean. They're badasses."
The Bloated Woman, an ogre sized mass of meat that towered over her Sin Eater, nodded, hovering behind Rebecca. Dreadlocked hair sent flecks of ectoplasmic water flying through the air, even as more poured down from large, crushing hands on shriveled, vestigial arms, her breasts and dragging entrails. It opened its mouth, gargling something out through the torrent of water that made Rebecca nod.
"So, uh… this guy we're meeting, what can you tell me about him? Is he part of the Krewe?" David said uncomfortably. Here it was impossible to ignore that none of the people he had started running with, that he wasn't human anymore.
"Kinda, don't think he buys Maine's Faith," Rebecca said with a shrug, "He's solid, but not sold. Y'know what I mean?"
Not really, no.
—
Izuku played with the complementary pack of cigarettes, flicking it open and closed as he waited for Rebecca to show up. He wasn't one for smoking, but other than Rebecca, he wasn't sure who was showing up.
Smiling at the server who put a glass of lemonade with real strawberries in front of him, he shook his head as she reached from the lighter on her hip, "No, thanks."
"Ok?" She said, blinking her one eye, the other gone with the skid mark that was half her face, before turning and walking away. Izuku leaned back, eyes scanning Afterlife and sipping his drink through a straw.
Unlike most places in inner city Dead Man's Hand, which tended towards the saloons of the North American Transcontinental Railway and Jazz clubs of the Second World War, Afterlife was built on a crude facsimile of a nightclub. A wall of speakers was hooked up to a trio of gas powered generators outside the building. You could almost always find a job running gas from the living to here.
It was here that, seven years ago, Izuku had bound his fate to Maine's Krewe with a handshake. Where he had run his first jobs between the Underworld and the Living World. Afterlife was part of who he was in the supernatural, part of a Krewe but not. Outside but Inside and everything that came with that.
The doors to Afterlife swung open to a storm of familiar cussing. Across the bar, hands reached towards the totally-empty-they-promised holsters, while Izuku just dryly sipped from his strawberry lemonade. Old game, long run out of humor, but too ingrained to not do.
Finally, after a minute of shit talking and gun waving, Rebecca stormed into the room and shoved her Model No. 1 back into its holster like she wasn't openly advertising she was carrying in a no carry zone, the Bloated Woman walking behind her. Then came a Latino boy with a quaff of hair, a yellow jacket and a bemused look on his face, followed by-
Well, shit, if it wasn't the Clockwork Giant. He had wondered where that particular Geist went after its last Bound Flatlined. An eight foot tall mass of grinding gears and metal, a demonic looking stretch of skin over his face and a heart merged with the machinery, pumping with every turn of the gear, was the only part of him that was flesh.
"Hey," Izuku said as they approached, "I need help on a job."
—
Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
Interesting, you have my attention
Dromeosaur
Feathery Raptor of snowy planes and frozen sea
- Location
- The land of Trees and Squirrels
To my eternal shame, not familiar with this facet of the WOD. Still, a nice story.
Chapter 2
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
David blinked at the teen they approached, a boy with a black and green mop of hair wearing a black duster and boots, an almost insectoid geist with sixteen arms on an elongated torso sat perched on the top of the bench like a monkey, twisting its head to a sickening extent and letting out a series of clicking noises. Rebecca threw herself onto the bench around the circular table, and David slid in next to her, the Bloated Woman and Clockwork Giant stopping next to them.
"I feel like I should know this piece of meat," the Giant growled in the sound of grinding gears, "and I don't know why."
It was… still weird, being able to understand what was, by all accounts, just a bunch of gears mashing against each other as the Giant's jaw opened and closed, exposing a mouth full of grinding gears, ready to crush anything that got too close to pieces in a shower of Plasm. Like that cat.
David didn't shudder. He absolutely did not at the memories of the barghest he had watched the Giant eat whole and "alive".
"So, nice to meet you," the other teen said, sipping from his drink as a server with a heavy skidmark for half her face came over and handed them a pair of menus. He flicked open a pack of cigarettes and offered it to David.
"I, uh, I don't do smokes," the teen said.
"Good, we can put those aside," the boy put the cigarettes back in a small cubby in the wall, not even bothering to offer Rebecca one. They took a moment to order, a beer for David and a gin and tonic for Rebecca, before he continued, "How's your brother?"
"Pft," if Rebecca had been drinking, David was pretty sure she would have done a spit take, laughing out loud, "Still coping, he doesn't like being stuck inside during the day."
"Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, I guess?" the guy said, sounding like he was trying his best to be sympathetic but couldn't quite work it up, "like, don't get me wrong, it sucks, but he really shouldn't have been harassing his Sire for being homeless."
"C'mon, how was the gonk supposed to know that he was harassing a Nosferatu?"
"Shouldn't harass a homeless person to begin with, if you ask me," he said, rubbing his jaw as he looked over at David, "They already got so little to begin with, you gonna take what they do have too? Sorry, I just realized that we completely skipped introductions, that was rude of me, I'm Izuku Midoriya, and this is Yo."
"David Martinez," David said, holding out his hand, only for Rebecca's hand to lash out and pin it to the table like a snake while Izuku lunged back from it like it was one too.
"Word of advice, friend," Izuku said, suddenly looking wary as he stared at the hand, Yo flaring up behind him like an irate cat, all spine, and making dozens of irate clicking noises in a row, fists clenching as it- he- whatever, loomed over his Sin Eater, "You don't shake anything in the Dead Man's Hand if you don't have to. It's considered a serious faux pas to even try."
"Oh," David retracted the hand the second Rebecca let it go, "Sorry, this is my first time here."
"Yeah, I could tell," Izuku said without any heat or sarcasm, "You got lucky, kid. Most people only find out the danger of shaking hands after they've sold something away they'd much rather have."
—
Izuku let go of the grip of the sawed off mts255 as he stared at David with sharp eyes. Pushing his bond with Yo, he soothed the irate geist looming over him, knowing the spine shrank back into something resembling a facsimile of a human frame without looking. Adrenaline and Plasm settled in his veins, ready for the call and making his heartbeat sluggish.
Instead, Izuku picked up his strawberry lemonade and took a sip from it, choosing to cut the tension in the air.
"Uh, kid? We're probably the same age," David said.
"Sorry, instinct. You're new here, I'm… not," Izuku said with a shrug, "I'm an old hat."
"That's depressing," David said.
"Reaper doesn't care about age when he comes knocking, choom," Rebecca said, surprisingly sagely, "'s why we live life with no regrets, we already lost it, and just because we got it back doesn't mean we can't lose it again."
"Hmm," Izuku hummed noncommittally and, hopefully, nonjudgmentally, "Anyways, sorry if I'm a bit rude David, but why'd you bring a new guy? I was expecting Maine and you."
"Maine's… dealing with some shit," Rebecca uncharacteristically hedged.
"He's Flatlining, isn't he?" Izuku said with resignation.
"Close to it," Rebecca said with a shrug.
"Flatlining?" David asked.
"His Geist and him are having relationship problems," Rebecca shrugged again.
"I've never seen someone Flatline and fix it as often as Maine," Izuku said, "sooner or later D's just gonna take control of his body."
"That's possible?" David said, eyes trailing towards the Clockwork Giant, which gave a nasty grin.
"Yeah, that's possible," Izuku said.
—
Rebecca seriously considered trying to shoot the grin off the Giant's face, before deciding being banned from Afterlife wasn't worth it and focused back on Izuku while David gave a gulp.
"So, whatcha want us for, Izu?" Rebecca said, focusing back on her friend.
"Nothing big or impressive," Izuku admitted, "I'm going to spook a serial killer tonight and wanted some backup if things go sideways."
"Think he might be a Slasher?" Rebecca asked.
"Probably," Izuku nodded, "too many ghosts. I'll show you at the apartment. But yeah, doing this subtle, I'm gonna Shroud my way in, try scaring the crap out of him, but…"
"You think things could go loud."
"Always better to be prepared if you have to," Izuku said.
"What's the pay look like? We scaving?"
"If things go south, feel free, but if it doesn't," Izuku gestured to another server, this one a man with a pronounced cleft lip and slit throat, as he placed Rebecca and David's drinks on the table, "can you get the package in cubby 3-C for me? I need it for a deal."
"Of course," the man said, turning and walking towards the vault. Opening it with a key, he grabbed a package wrapped in brown paper dripping with ectoplasmic gore and carried it into the table. A hush fell over the nightclub despite the beating of the music, every eye drawn to it instinctively.
Izuku opened the package, exposing the battered, clawed gauntlet to the world. Rebecca licked her lips, staring at it, but didn't move her hand to touch it until Izuku quietly waved a hand over it, then she snatched it up like a hawk.
It was heavy, though not so much that she couldn't hold it one handed, and ended in sharp claws stained with Plasm, dripping from the tips like a small fountain. Rebecca caught a drop, feeling the icy cold of it, and brought it to her lips for a taste, a macabre lipstick.
"Which Key?" She asked, staring at the Memento in her hand. It had the same not-real realness Sin Eaters had in the Underworld, part of the Twilight and the Living at the same time. Among the Bound it was already a valuable treasure, and when Izuku Midoriya was involved, it was practically valueless.
"Don't know, I never used it," Izuku said, voice almost clinical, "Haven't touched it since I got it really, but probably Blood or Cold Wind. It belonged to a Ghost Eater I took out last year, leader of a death cult, would slit the throat with the blades then eat the ghost. It's got a single shot 12 gauge on the back, blew off most of my head with that one."
"Oh, Izu," Rebecca cooed, slipping on the gauntlet and feeling the foam inside immediately start to constrict until it was comfortable around her arm, "You get me the best presents."
"I was actually gonna give it to Maine, but if you want it-"
"I do."
"Then that's my payment," Izuku said, "Now, let's lay out what Haunts we have, because I don't know if you picked up any more since I last saw you and I have no idea what David has. I'll go first, shall I?"
—
"Uh," David swallowed, watching Rebecca play with the gauntlet and distinctly aware he had been kinda screwed out of any payment for this job. Not that he thought it was deliberate, just… felt different from how Maine ran things. Everyone got a fair cut there, "Anything for me?"
"I don't have any more Mementos I'm willing to part with at the moment," Izuku said, "How's five thousand sound? Paid upfront, if you want."
David's eyes bugged out. That was a lot of scratch for a job that might just be seat warming, "You, uh, you sure?"
"I have a tidy collection from jobs I've run with Maine at home," Izuku said with a shrug, "it'd be suspicious if a Japanese national suddenly showed up with a collection of American money after every job, so most of it stays unconverted so I can convert what I need at random times. It's a bit of a pain."
"You never told us about that," Rebecca said, drinking from her gin and tonic.
"Never needed to," Izuku said, "never did the jobs for the money. Anyways, onto the Haunts. I have access to the Caul, the Memoria, the Tomb, the Shroud and the Void. You know what each of those do?"
"All but the last one," David said, "The Void? Never heard of that one before."
The Caul was using Plasm to merge with your Geist and bring it into the real world. Looked like a Transformation type Quirk, he had seen Maine use it, and it was… something, to watch a (admittedly tall) two hundred pound man turn into a half ton giant capable of throwing cars around.
The Memoria, that was one Rebecca had, and was strange. Sometimes, she would touch a ghost's Anchor and seem to go into a vision, tattooed eyes staring into infinity until she suddenly snapped out of it… other times, more often the room around them would shift and change like Kiwi was using her magic, and they would collectively watch a memory play out. Gang executions, back alley stabbings, pater familicides never anything happy, but always something they could learn from on their job.
He didn't know anyone who used the Tomb before now. He thought it was a Haunt mostly used by the Abiding, was that what Izuku was? Someone who had come back to leave a legacy on the world? But the way Maine had described it when he talked about the Haunts, if the Memoria recreated memories and events, the Tomb recreated objects. The bloodstained knife, the smoking gun, ect.
The Shroud was one he could use himself. It was the opposite of the Caul, basically. Instead of merging with your Geist and bringing it into the real world, you let it bring you into the Twilight. David didn't like it, letting the thin barrier between himself and the Clockwork Giant down, but it was helpful for sneaking, especially when combined with Sandevistan.
"That's because only gonks use it," Rebecca said, eyes narrowing as she stared at Izuku, "I told you not to."
"I'll be fine," Izuku said.
"You'll keep saying that right up until it eats you alive."
"It's a trump card, I'm not using it as a crutch, Becca-"
"Don't Becca me, now," Rebecca said, jabbing Izuku in the side repeatedly, causing him to squirm, "it's a gonk move! Messing around with the Void is asking for a short life."
"Half as long, twice as bright, if you ask me."
"And you're an dumbass for that," Rebecca growled, throwing herself back into her seat, "You know me. Shroud, Caul, Memoria, Curse, Rage. David's got Curse, Oracle, Shroud. We're using masks?"
"Probably should, don't want our faces plastered all over the media if this goes loud."
—
Izuku crouched on the roof of the building in front of their target, an All Might bandana covering his face and a balaclava covering his hair. Rebecca whistled through her Mox gas mask, staring down a scope before handing it over to David, "You sure this is a Slasher? Looks like it might be organized crime."
"First time scoping out the place," Izuku said, "If it's organized crime, I hate to see the turn over rate, with the amount of people Chisaki has killed."
"Might be enemies he's zeroing," Rebecca said, spinning her baseball cap on her finger.
"Doubt it," the Fury said to the Necropolitan, "They wouldn't be that angry if they were enemies."
"Yeah, probably," Rebecca said, "So, how are we doing this, Izu?"
"Normally I'd send for Kiwi, wait for her to get here and then kidnap a member to raid for info," Izuku said, "But I promised Mom this would be the last night I stay out… so we're doing this a bit less subtle, Becca."
"Going in loud?"
"Not yet, not unless we have to," Izuku said, "I'm gonna Shroud, go in there and scrounge around for info. I'll keep you in the loop, let you know if we're going loud."
"Got it, don't get yourself killed," Rebecca said, and Izuku cracked a small smile at her as he breathed out. Plasm welled up, leaking out of his pores and suffusing his clothes, turning him monochromatic as he stood up and walked to the edge of the building, plummeting off the roof and into the Twilight. He strode through the wall of the compound and into the building without slowing. Eyes scanning through it, he noticed the pair of men standing in front of a potted plant.
Yeah, like that wasn't suspicious.
Phasing his head through the floor, he stared at the cement staircase before phasing the rest of the way through and continuing his way into the labyrinth below. Stopping at the first door, Izuku passed through it and stopped, frowning at the contents.
What was a man doing hooked up to high tech medical gear here, instead of a hospital? Glancing around, Izuku slid into the only corner unwatched by a camera before sliding out of Twilight for a second.
There's an old man here, Becca he typed into a battered phone, hitting the send button. After a second, Rebecca responded.
Chi-whatever?
Don't think so. Looks comatose.
Izuku took a picture, making sure the flash was off, and sent it to Rebecca.
Weird, why not send him to the hospital?
Dunno, Izuku sent, before plunging back into the Twilight and exiting the room to continue looking for Chiseki.
Most of the rooms were filled with beds, couches and TVs, but finally, Izuku came across a guarded room that sent his gut rolling.
It was a medical room, the table in the middle stained with blood, death and small belts. Too small. Too small.
Izuku dropped the Shroud and used the Memoria, drawing on the ambient death to watch a man with a beak mask walk around the table with a scalpel and needles. On the table was a girl with white hair and a horn, who couldn't be older than four or five.
Izuku brought the phone up to his ear with one hand, drawing the mts255 with the other and growling the second Rebecca picked up, "We're going loud. Don't let anyone escape alive if you can help it."
"Izuku?"
"They're not just organized Crime," Izuku said as he fought to keep Yo from lashing out around him. He grabbed the door, throwing it open and grabbing the guard by the shoulder, whipping him around and shoving the sawed off under his chin, "They're part of the Web of Pain."
A loud bang roared through the labyrinth, rupturing Izuku's eardrums, only for Plasm to immediately heal the injuries and he dropped the headless body as bone, blood and brain matter splattered him. Plasm leaked from his body again, shifting his frame, forming extra arms and vertebrates until Izuku was forced to go on all eighteen limbs.
—
Oh, yeah, shit's going down next chapter.
"I feel like I should know this piece of meat," the Giant growled in the sound of grinding gears, "and I don't know why."
It was… still weird, being able to understand what was, by all accounts, just a bunch of gears mashing against each other as the Giant's jaw opened and closed, exposing a mouth full of grinding gears, ready to crush anything that got too close to pieces in a shower of Plasm. Like that cat.
David didn't shudder. He absolutely did not at the memories of the barghest he had watched the Giant eat whole and "alive".
"So, nice to meet you," the other teen said, sipping from his drink as a server with a heavy skidmark for half her face came over and handed them a pair of menus. He flicked open a pack of cigarettes and offered it to David.
"I, uh, I don't do smokes," the teen said.
"Good, we can put those aside," the boy put the cigarettes back in a small cubby in the wall, not even bothering to offer Rebecca one. They took a moment to order, a beer for David and a gin and tonic for Rebecca, before he continued, "How's your brother?"
"Pft," if Rebecca had been drinking, David was pretty sure she would have done a spit take, laughing out loud, "Still coping, he doesn't like being stuck inside during the day."
"Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, I guess?" the guy said, sounding like he was trying his best to be sympathetic but couldn't quite work it up, "like, don't get me wrong, it sucks, but he really shouldn't have been harassing his Sire for being homeless."
"C'mon, how was the gonk supposed to know that he was harassing a Nosferatu?"
"Shouldn't harass a homeless person to begin with, if you ask me," he said, rubbing his jaw as he looked over at David, "They already got so little to begin with, you gonna take what they do have too? Sorry, I just realized that we completely skipped introductions, that was rude of me, I'm Izuku Midoriya, and this is Yo."
"David Martinez," David said, holding out his hand, only for Rebecca's hand to lash out and pin it to the table like a snake while Izuku lunged back from it like it was one too.
"Word of advice, friend," Izuku said, suddenly looking wary as he stared at the hand, Yo flaring up behind him like an irate cat, all spine, and making dozens of irate clicking noises in a row, fists clenching as it- he- whatever, loomed over his Sin Eater, "You don't shake anything in the Dead Man's Hand if you don't have to. It's considered a serious faux pas to even try."
"Oh," David retracted the hand the second Rebecca let it go, "Sorry, this is my first time here."
"Yeah, I could tell," Izuku said without any heat or sarcasm, "You got lucky, kid. Most people only find out the danger of shaking hands after they've sold something away they'd much rather have."
—
Izuku let go of the grip of the sawed off mts255 as he stared at David with sharp eyes. Pushing his bond with Yo, he soothed the irate geist looming over him, knowing the spine shrank back into something resembling a facsimile of a human frame without looking. Adrenaline and Plasm settled in his veins, ready for the call and making his heartbeat sluggish.
Instead, Izuku picked up his strawberry lemonade and took a sip from it, choosing to cut the tension in the air.
"Uh, kid? We're probably the same age," David said.
"Sorry, instinct. You're new here, I'm… not," Izuku said with a shrug, "I'm an old hat."
"That's depressing," David said.
"Reaper doesn't care about age when he comes knocking, choom," Rebecca said, surprisingly sagely, "'s why we live life with no regrets, we already lost it, and just because we got it back doesn't mean we can't lose it again."
"Hmm," Izuku hummed noncommittally and, hopefully, nonjudgmentally, "Anyways, sorry if I'm a bit rude David, but why'd you bring a new guy? I was expecting Maine and you."
"Maine's… dealing with some shit," Rebecca uncharacteristically hedged.
"He's Flatlining, isn't he?" Izuku said with resignation.
"Close to it," Rebecca said with a shrug.
"Flatlining?" David asked.
"His Geist and him are having relationship problems," Rebecca shrugged again.
"I've never seen someone Flatline and fix it as often as Maine," Izuku said, "sooner or later D's just gonna take control of his body."
"That's possible?" David said, eyes trailing towards the Clockwork Giant, which gave a nasty grin.
"Yeah, that's possible," Izuku said.
—
Rebecca seriously considered trying to shoot the grin off the Giant's face, before deciding being banned from Afterlife wasn't worth it and focused back on Izuku while David gave a gulp.
"So, whatcha want us for, Izu?" Rebecca said, focusing back on her friend.
"Nothing big or impressive," Izuku admitted, "I'm going to spook a serial killer tonight and wanted some backup if things go sideways."
"Think he might be a Slasher?" Rebecca asked.
"Probably," Izuku nodded, "too many ghosts. I'll show you at the apartment. But yeah, doing this subtle, I'm gonna Shroud my way in, try scaring the crap out of him, but…"
"You think things could go loud."
"Always better to be prepared if you have to," Izuku said.
"What's the pay look like? We scaving?"
"If things go south, feel free, but if it doesn't," Izuku gestured to another server, this one a man with a pronounced cleft lip and slit throat, as he placed Rebecca and David's drinks on the table, "can you get the package in cubby 3-C for me? I need it for a deal."
"Of course," the man said, turning and walking towards the vault. Opening it with a key, he grabbed a package wrapped in brown paper dripping with ectoplasmic gore and carried it into the table. A hush fell over the nightclub despite the beating of the music, every eye drawn to it instinctively.
Izuku opened the package, exposing the battered, clawed gauntlet to the world. Rebecca licked her lips, staring at it, but didn't move her hand to touch it until Izuku quietly waved a hand over it, then she snatched it up like a hawk.
It was heavy, though not so much that she couldn't hold it one handed, and ended in sharp claws stained with Plasm, dripping from the tips like a small fountain. Rebecca caught a drop, feeling the icy cold of it, and brought it to her lips for a taste, a macabre lipstick.
"Which Key?" She asked, staring at the Memento in her hand. It had the same not-real realness Sin Eaters had in the Underworld, part of the Twilight and the Living at the same time. Among the Bound it was already a valuable treasure, and when Izuku Midoriya was involved, it was practically valueless.
"Don't know, I never used it," Izuku said, voice almost clinical, "Haven't touched it since I got it really, but probably Blood or Cold Wind. It belonged to a Ghost Eater I took out last year, leader of a death cult, would slit the throat with the blades then eat the ghost. It's got a single shot 12 gauge on the back, blew off most of my head with that one."
"Oh, Izu," Rebecca cooed, slipping on the gauntlet and feeling the foam inside immediately start to constrict until it was comfortable around her arm, "You get me the best presents."
"I was actually gonna give it to Maine, but if you want it-"
"I do."
"Then that's my payment," Izuku said, "Now, let's lay out what Haunts we have, because I don't know if you picked up any more since I last saw you and I have no idea what David has. I'll go first, shall I?"
—
"Uh," David swallowed, watching Rebecca play with the gauntlet and distinctly aware he had been kinda screwed out of any payment for this job. Not that he thought it was deliberate, just… felt different from how Maine ran things. Everyone got a fair cut there, "Anything for me?"
"I don't have any more Mementos I'm willing to part with at the moment," Izuku said, "How's five thousand sound? Paid upfront, if you want."
David's eyes bugged out. That was a lot of scratch for a job that might just be seat warming, "You, uh, you sure?"
"I have a tidy collection from jobs I've run with Maine at home," Izuku said with a shrug, "it'd be suspicious if a Japanese national suddenly showed up with a collection of American money after every job, so most of it stays unconverted so I can convert what I need at random times. It's a bit of a pain."
"You never told us about that," Rebecca said, drinking from her gin and tonic.
"Never needed to," Izuku said, "never did the jobs for the money. Anyways, onto the Haunts. I have access to the Caul, the Memoria, the Tomb, the Shroud and the Void. You know what each of those do?"
"All but the last one," David said, "The Void? Never heard of that one before."
The Caul was using Plasm to merge with your Geist and bring it into the real world. Looked like a Transformation type Quirk, he had seen Maine use it, and it was… something, to watch a (admittedly tall) two hundred pound man turn into a half ton giant capable of throwing cars around.
The Memoria, that was one Rebecca had, and was strange. Sometimes, she would touch a ghost's Anchor and seem to go into a vision, tattooed eyes staring into infinity until she suddenly snapped out of it… other times, more often the room around them would shift and change like Kiwi was using her magic, and they would collectively watch a memory play out. Gang executions, back alley stabbings, pater familicides never anything happy, but always something they could learn from on their job.
He didn't know anyone who used the Tomb before now. He thought it was a Haunt mostly used by the Abiding, was that what Izuku was? Someone who had come back to leave a legacy on the world? But the way Maine had described it when he talked about the Haunts, if the Memoria recreated memories and events, the Tomb recreated objects. The bloodstained knife, the smoking gun, ect.
The Shroud was one he could use himself. It was the opposite of the Caul, basically. Instead of merging with your Geist and bringing it into the real world, you let it bring you into the Twilight. David didn't like it, letting the thin barrier between himself and the Clockwork Giant down, but it was helpful for sneaking, especially when combined with Sandevistan.
"That's because only gonks use it," Rebecca said, eyes narrowing as she stared at Izuku, "I told you not to."
"I'll be fine," Izuku said.
"You'll keep saying that right up until it eats you alive."
"It's a trump card, I'm not using it as a crutch, Becca-"
"Don't Becca me, now," Rebecca said, jabbing Izuku in the side repeatedly, causing him to squirm, "it's a gonk move! Messing around with the Void is asking for a short life."
"Half as long, twice as bright, if you ask me."
"And you're an dumbass for that," Rebecca growled, throwing herself back into her seat, "You know me. Shroud, Caul, Memoria, Curse, Rage. David's got Curse, Oracle, Shroud. We're using masks?"
"Probably should, don't want our faces plastered all over the media if this goes loud."
—
Izuku crouched on the roof of the building in front of their target, an All Might bandana covering his face and a balaclava covering his hair. Rebecca whistled through her Mox gas mask, staring down a scope before handing it over to David, "You sure this is a Slasher? Looks like it might be organized crime."
"First time scoping out the place," Izuku said, "If it's organized crime, I hate to see the turn over rate, with the amount of people Chisaki has killed."
"Might be enemies he's zeroing," Rebecca said, spinning her baseball cap on her finger.
"Doubt it," the Fury said to the Necropolitan, "They wouldn't be that angry if they were enemies."
"Yeah, probably," Rebecca said, "So, how are we doing this, Izu?"
"Normally I'd send for Kiwi, wait for her to get here and then kidnap a member to raid for info," Izuku said, "But I promised Mom this would be the last night I stay out… so we're doing this a bit less subtle, Becca."
"Going in loud?"
"Not yet, not unless we have to," Izuku said, "I'm gonna Shroud, go in there and scrounge around for info. I'll keep you in the loop, let you know if we're going loud."
"Got it, don't get yourself killed," Rebecca said, and Izuku cracked a small smile at her as he breathed out. Plasm welled up, leaking out of his pores and suffusing his clothes, turning him monochromatic as he stood up and walked to the edge of the building, plummeting off the roof and into the Twilight. He strode through the wall of the compound and into the building without slowing. Eyes scanning through it, he noticed the pair of men standing in front of a potted plant.
Yeah, like that wasn't suspicious.
Phasing his head through the floor, he stared at the cement staircase before phasing the rest of the way through and continuing his way into the labyrinth below. Stopping at the first door, Izuku passed through it and stopped, frowning at the contents.
What was a man doing hooked up to high tech medical gear here, instead of a hospital? Glancing around, Izuku slid into the only corner unwatched by a camera before sliding out of Twilight for a second.
There's an old man here, Becca he typed into a battered phone, hitting the send button. After a second, Rebecca responded.
Chi-whatever?
Don't think so. Looks comatose.
Izuku took a picture, making sure the flash was off, and sent it to Rebecca.
Weird, why not send him to the hospital?
Dunno, Izuku sent, before plunging back into the Twilight and exiting the room to continue looking for Chiseki.
Most of the rooms were filled with beds, couches and TVs, but finally, Izuku came across a guarded room that sent his gut rolling.
It was a medical room, the table in the middle stained with blood, death and small belts. Too small. Too small.
Izuku dropped the Shroud and used the Memoria, drawing on the ambient death to watch a man with a beak mask walk around the table with a scalpel and needles. On the table was a girl with white hair and a horn, who couldn't be older than four or five.
Izuku brought the phone up to his ear with one hand, drawing the mts255 with the other and growling the second Rebecca picked up, "We're going loud. Don't let anyone escape alive if you can help it."
"Izuku?"
"They're not just organized Crime," Izuku said as he fought to keep Yo from lashing out around him. He grabbed the door, throwing it open and grabbing the guard by the shoulder, whipping him around and shoving the sawed off under his chin, "They're part of the Web of Pain."
A loud bang roared through the labyrinth, rupturing Izuku's eardrums, only for Plasm to immediately heal the injuries and he dropped the headless body as bone, blood and brain matter splattered him. Plasm leaked from his body again, shifting his frame, forming extra arms and vertebrates until Izuku was forced to go on all eighteen limbs.
—
Oh, yeah, shit's going down next chapter.
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Man I wonder if any of the mages in this crossover made personalized cyber ware using perfected materials. Super cool setup. Got to wonder what craziness the Dracula's have created with quirks and cyber ware too.
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
Cyberware is more rare in this fic. The only major characters that explicitly have some are Falco and Lucy (and Lucy would much rather she didn't).
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
Feel free to ask questions. I'll freely admit I have a bad habit to just assume people know what I'm writing.
Okay I was more talking about the world outside the cast I could definitely see a free council member trying to mix cyberware with perfected materials and magic to create a super version of normal cyberware the crossover leads to some neat ideas. Like I wonder if there's a new type of promethean because of quirks or cyberware.
There would definitely be a couple of new legacies made though I wonder how quirks and the life sphere would interact.
Though the fact that Izuku knows the void is pretty concerning
Though I am confused about why Becca is more afraid of the tomb in this previous chapter.
"All but the last one," David said, "The Tomb? Never heard of that one before." From above maybe a mistyped?
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ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
Yeah, it's a mistake, he's supposed to be saying the Void.
Well I can help explain some of that, just going to give the basic notes.
So Izuku + gang are sin eaters, basically they died once and the geist a special kind of ghost showed up at the moment of their death and offered a deal the specific might vary but what the deal was basically a second chance at living with an extra passenger and ghost powers. Want to know more, look up Geist: the sin eaters 2nd edition since that's what I see it is being used.
The underworld is also part of that game and the whole layers and realms of the dead over there have different rules, in very simple terms, you can have a greek underworld in one part and japanese one in another to set up a crude example. I'm not all that familiar with the game though and part of it went over my head when I looked at it, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
The web of pain alludes to the web of conspiracies that go about doing all kind of freaky experiments, super soldier programs, psychic experimentation, etc. not necessarily all mad science though, but generally bad in most morality scales, how Raven was conceived for example would fit something a conspiracy in the web of pain would pull off as would Danzo's root with how they trained their ninjas or how the red skull came to be, Hydra would be a good example of how the web of pain works too. Deviant the Renegade is the game where this comes from if you want to check it out.
So Izuku + gang are sin eaters, basically they died once and the geist a special kind of ghost showed up at the moment of their death and offered a deal the specific might vary but what the deal was basically a second chance at living with an extra passenger and ghost powers. Want to know more, look up Geist: the sin eaters 2nd edition since that's what I see it is being used.
The underworld is also part of that game and the whole layers and realms of the dead over there have different rules, in very simple terms, you can have a greek underworld in one part and japanese one in another to set up a crude example. I'm not all that familiar with the game though and part of it went over my head when I looked at it, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
The web of pain alludes to the web of conspiracies that go about doing all kind of freaky experiments, super soldier programs, psychic experimentation, etc. not necessarily all mad science though, but generally bad in most morality scales, how Raven was conceived for example would fit something a conspiracy in the web of pain would pull off as would Danzo's root with how they trained their ninjas or how the red skull came to be, Hydra would be a good example of how the web of pain works too. Deviant the Renegade is the game where this comes from if you want to check it out.
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
To explain this more. The Dead Domains are a thousand petty kingdoms with Old Laws, and breaking those Laws leads to the local Death God showing up and slapping you around for doing it. That's why shaking hands at the DMH, which is on its way to becoming a new Dead Domain (a tongue in cheek reference to it originally being one in 1E), is considered a big deal. If you shook on killing someone, you have to kill them, or the Krewe in charge is compelled, by the Laws in place, to punish you. That punishment could be anything from assigning you a new task, to breaking your fucking kneecaps.
To use one of the Sample Dead Domains in the Book,
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
So time for the traditional "things Psycho forgot to mention" note, Izuku being kinda... Inured to things like the old Boss being comatose, Eri's situation (as micu as declaring massacre on an organization can be called "inured") and most importantly, being covered in gore this chapter is a feature, not a bug. Sin Eaters get the Merit Tolerance for Biology free, they literally cannot be shaken by seeing gore-y shit. This also means Izuku's rage at Eri's situation is entirely on a moral level.
Uh, yeah, Eri's a Deviant, which is a fun sentence to say. Relatively low level, meaning she's somewhere below basically every supernatural but above weak Hunters. Compared to Lucy, Eri is the stronger of the two, but that's a bit like comparing a couple of grams of gunpowder. Both can go off badly if given the right pushes (Eri, currently, has no Touchstones. Lucy's are, unsurprisingly, the idea of visiting the Moon and David. Or, as I half-jokingly said to a friend "oh, god, I accidentally did the Femcel Yandere Lucy Meme"), but them going Tetsuo would be "relatively" small. You know, a small block, not a city or anything.
The Void, since it wasn't really elaborated on beyond "the bad juju" is one of the two "you stupid fuckin' idiot" Haunts (which, Izuku being the self sacrificing idiot he is, means of course he messes with it). Drawing on pure entropic energy of the Underworld to destroy things, but tends to eat away the user if used for long periods of time.
And finally, yeah, Pilar got his ass vamped by a Nosferatu (if they existed in CoD, it'd be a Malk) from the occasion of his canonical death. Point and laugh at him.
Uh, yeah, Eri's a Deviant, which is a fun sentence to say. Relatively low level, meaning she's somewhere below basically every supernatural but above weak Hunters. Compared to Lucy, Eri is the stronger of the two, but that's a bit like comparing a couple of grams of gunpowder. Both can go off badly if given the right pushes (Eri, currently, has no Touchstones. Lucy's are, unsurprisingly, the idea of visiting the Moon and David. Or, as I half-jokingly said to a friend "oh, god, I accidentally did the Femcel Yandere Lucy Meme"), but them going Tetsuo would be "relatively" small. You know, a small block, not a city or anything.
The Void, since it wasn't really elaborated on beyond "the bad juju" is one of the two "you stupid fuckin' idiot" Haunts (which, Izuku being the self sacrificing idiot he is, means of course he messes with it). Drawing on pure entropic energy of the Underworld to destroy things, but tends to eat away the user if used for long periods of time.
And finally, yeah, Pilar got his ass vamped by a Nosferatu (if they existed in CoD, it'd be a Malk) from the occasion of his canonical death. Point and laugh at him.
Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
I'm not familiar with the crossover, what are the general specs for it, (ie creators, version)
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
The Chronicles of Darkness are a game series created by White Wolf as a successor to their World of Darkness series (in fact, 1E of Chronicles was just called "the New World of Darkness"). This involved a general streamlining of splats (Vampire goes from 13 clans to 5 that encompass all the traits of the 13) and redo games that were, for a variety of reasons, unpopular (Hunter went from a divinely powered warrior on a mission from God, to any fuck who found out about the supernatural and decided to have a wack at them).
Geist: the Sin Eater is the Spiritual Successor, in the sense that they're the games that deal with the Afterlife, of Wraith: the Oblivion. It is also infinitely happier than Wraith, which isn't very hard when Wraith had a splatbook for playing as an executed Jew at Auschwitz, with the given goal of "a New Orleans Funeral" feel.
Essentially, you died. And instead of moving on (ok, here's where things get messy. According to the Splatbook, you do move on here, but at the same time, you can do things, like leave behind a Ghost, that implies you didn't. For the sake of the story, you didn't) you struck a Bargain with a little god of death, a thing that, at one point in time, was human. Something that desperately wants to relive the half remembered experience of being human. A Geist.
The Bargain is simple. You bind your soul to the Geist's, becoming one being, and you come back to life. What follows is less simple. You're alive, but you're dead. You might have come back, but part of you is inexorably tied to the Underworld. When you walk by that roadside memorial for a kid run down by a drunk driver, you see the kid's ghost.
So what do you do?
For some Bound, it's an "Fuck you, got mine" world. The Elysians, Bonepickers, Thanatologists, and Gatekeepers. At best they ignore the fact that they stand at the threshold and do their best to live life with their little god of death hanging over their head. At worst, they enslave their Geist and exploit the dead for all their worth.
But for other Bound, they take on an old Christian term. A belief that if you broke bread above the corpse of the newly deceased you took on their sins and allowed them to move on. Sin Eaters.
Furies, those who stand for justice for the living and dead. The ones who hunt down Slashers and let their victims tear them limb from limb, or track down that drunk driver and become their supporter at AA.
Necropolitans, those who believe life and death, is more than surviving. You have to live, drink, feast and be merry.
Mourners, those who believe that anything that can die, person, place, ideology, deserves to be remembered and recorded.
Undertakers, those who believe that they need to make the living world and afterlife work together to cause less people to be trapped in as spirits.
Pilgrims, those who believe that life and the afterlife are prisons, and only through spirituality will people be able to move on.
Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
Thanks, I played WOoD back in the day, a dark world game where the vamps went from (mocking) Oh no, another werewolf rampage, whatever, (shotgun blast) shall we do.(/mocking) to
Oh gods where did that furry shot go, what do yo mean he just ranked the primogen?
Because I ran my small werewolf pack like a Shadowrun team
Oh gods where did that furry shot go, what do yo mean he just ranked the primogen?
Because I ran my small werewolf pack like a Shadowrun team
Is Izu here a reference to the Overwatch black man?
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
No, he's not. I'm too unhappy with Blizzard to willingly reference them.
Interlude 1: Sasha's Last Dance
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
"Alright, fuckers, I'm offering us one last chance to bug the fuck out of this," Pilar's voice said in Izuku's ear as he locked a black gasmask over his face and slid on an similarity colored ACH over his head. Dorio doing the same across from him while Becca and Sasha, in standard fashion, put on much more more ostentatious ones. Pinks and blues and purples and- wasn't this supposed to be a stealth mission? The fifteen year old didn't get girls, he swore, "Because the second you get caught stealing their 'sample', every Hunter contracted to Cheiron in the greater San Diego area is gonna come out of the fucking woodworks for your gonk asses. Plus any on sight security-"
"Are we gonna have to deal with your bitching the entire time, bro? I thought the leader of Network Zero in the area was helping foot the bill for this job?"
"We don't have a 'leader'," Pilar said, "I'm just making sure you realize what kind of shitshow you're about to bring down on yourselves."
"We'll making sure not to leave anything that can identify us," Dorio said, the Changling checking her XM5 as Falco stopped the van outside of the pyramid shaped HQ of Cheiron, "So Izuku, Sasha, don't go doing anything stupid like leaving the transmitter in the port."
"Right," Izuku said, nodding as he clipped the locator onto his lapel.
"Alright, comms check, then we do this," Dorio said, "Dorio."
"Falco."
"Izuku."
"Rebecca."
"Sasha."
"Right, all coming through loud and clear on my end," Pilar said, "Dorio, Sasha, don't die in there. Izuku, Rebecca, blow yourselves to hell before they take you."
"Got a grenade with my name on it," Izuku said, dulcetly.
"Same," Rebecca said.
"Let's go get my idiot of a boyfriend back," Dorio said as they turned into the alley were the maintenance door they were breaching through was situated, yanking open the door, "Izuku."
Izuku swung up the pair of Lemat 2072s he had, both hammers set to hit the shotgun shells and fired a pair of Masterkeys into the hinges of the door, switching the hammers back to the revolver stations as Dorio lunged out of the van, the Summer Courtier kicking the door off its frame and leading the team into the Cheiron HQ.
"Come on, elevator, now," Dorio said, "Floor Seven for me and Becca, all the way to the top for Izuku and Sasha."
"Where'd the info of where they're keeping Maine even come from?" Izuku asked quietly as they hurried along, switching his revolvers for his MP5. Thank goodness for Maine and Dorio's old military friends not asking questions on why they were buying guns.
"Murph," Pilar said simply as the elevator doors swung open to let the four in and prepare themselves.
—-
"Can not believe we're doing this," Rebecca looked up from where she was checking her Benelli M3.
"Regrets, Freckles?"
"No," Izuku said, "I shook on the deal, just…. Want to be a Hero. Does not feel very heroic, this."
"Are you kidding?" Rebecca said, "We're rescuing Maine from a Megacorp, that's practically the definition of a big damn hero!"
"People are going to die," Izuku said.
Poor, innocent kid.
"Considering we don't know how many "samples" they have," Dorio said, "We might be saving more than we kill. No Changelings, that's for sure. But Vamps? Wolves? The rest?"
"Do not know how many of those are dead," Izuku pointed out as the elevator rose through the levels, "Do not need them alive to get samples."
"Then we destroy the bodies," Dorio said, hefting up a bag, "Got enough incendiary charges to burn the whole development wing down."
"Does not make things better," Izuku muttered as the Elevator rumbled to a stop. The door opened, and Rebecca followed Dorio out as Sasha pressed the button for the top floor.
"I don't like this," Dorio muttered, "We should have had some sort of security by now."
"Probably," Rebecca agreed, eyes landing on a camera trained on them, "I don't think Cheiron is stupid enough to keep one guy on night security. Got anything for us, bro?"
"Not until the other two get the transmitter in the port," Pilar said, "So be carefu-"
"Hey, bro," Rebecca said, quietly, as they turned the corner.
"...You just fuckin' found a patrol?"
"If that's what you call eight guys, sure," Rebecca said, hefting her shotgun up and sliding into place next to the door where guards were standing and pointing at a sport's game. Fucking gonks, "Take them out?"
"Probably for the best," Doiro said, raising her hand. From it exploded a tangle of vines as the Mask dropped for a second. The large woman became hulking. Thick, exposed corded purple muscle bulging, thorns and brambles exploding from each strand. The hall suddenly felt far more cramped as the Ogre let loose.
"What the-" before the guards could respond, grabbing pistols and trying to stand up, Rebecca Vented the Rage. Necks twisted until vertebrates were exposed, hearts were crushed in their chest, and the ones not being choked by the field of thorns dropped dead. Dorio snapped up her gun, shooting the last four in the head to make sure they were dead as the brambles bleed them out slowly.
"Alright, alright, alright," Pilar crooned, "We are in! Beau travail! Let's see what we're working with here… Alright, found the guard patrols. That's the good news."
"And the bad?"
"They're coming right after both of your asses," Pilar said.
"Then we better hurry up," Dorio said, swinging her hand and filling the hall behind Rebecca and her with a bramble patch, "How far to the 'lab'?"
"Three halls down," Pilar reported, "It uh, it looks like shit, honestly. Got eyes on Maine. You're gonna be carrying him out of here. Two guards by the door."
"Then let's go deal with them," Rebecca said, taking point as they rushed through the hallways. Something was wrong, she could feel it. Like, knives under the skin, worming their way towards her heart.
"How are Sasha and Izuku doing?"
"Fine," Izuku said, "Sasha is looking up something on the computer. I have barricaded the elevator. Everything is fine."
Mmmm.
Turning the hall, Rebecca snapped up her gun and blasted the first of the guards off their feet, at the same time Dorio hit the other dead in the head. Dorio whipped out a wicked bowie knife, driving it into the wedge of the metal door and using it to gain purchase before ripping it open.
"Welcome to the San Diego most wanted list," Rebecca muttered to herself as they stepped into the lab. Three samples, all dead.
Dorio rushed towards Maine, lying on a mortuary slab with his chest open to the world, and cut the belts binding him to it with her knife. Rebecca blinked, vision growing blurry.
"Sasha, what the sam fuck was that!" Pilar suddenly snapped over the comms as Rebecca staggered to the side.
"What? What happened?"
"Sasha just blew Izuku out of a thirty story goddamn building!"
—
https://youtu.be/AN1RJF55NXI]Izuku[/URL] clutched the MP5, quietly regretting shaking on the deal to rescue Maine before hearing the specifics of it. Stupid move, it was stupid of him. Had thought it was a Ghost Eater, or a rival Krewe trying to enter Concordo at worst. Not this. Not Cheiron.
"Izuku-Kun," Sasha said in fluent Japanese, "Thank you very much for helping us with this. I know it makes you uncomfortable, but you didn't back out."
"I can't back out, Sasha-Chan," Izuku said with a shake of his head, quietly relieved to not be forced to rely on his shoddy English, "I shook on it when Rebecca asked me to."
"And if you asked Dorio, I'm sure she'd let you out of it," Sasha pointed out, "A Changeling keeping someone against their will?"
"It's not that simple," Izuku said, "There are no out to deals shook upon in the Dead Man's Hand. It's one of the Laws of it. And nobody but an idiot breaks a Law in the Underworld, at best you're gonna end up doing something you don't like anyways. The worst… I don't want to talk about it."
"Hmm… Can I ask you a question? It's a bit personal."
"I don't promise to answer, but you can ask."
"Do you ever…regret it? Becoming what you are, I mean."
"Do I regret not dying?" Izuku asked, "No, I don't regret the Bargain, Sasha-Chan. Why?"
"I just… I was wondering what it was like to choose to be something," Sasha said, "I was born this way, changed, broken…"
Izuku wanted to deny that, but knew it to be true. Sasha was a Deviant, a human made Supernatural through experimentation… and they had no idea what experiment had caused it. Sasha was… she was like a Bound in some ways. No Geist, no Bargain, but she stood halfway between the real and the Twilight. Ghosts became more real around her, and she less real around them.
"I was born broken too," Izuku admitted, "at least that's how most people see it. I'm Quirkless."
"You are? Why'd you never say anything?"
"Do you want pity for your damage?"
"No. And you don't want pity for yours."
"Exactly," Izuku said simply, smiling at Sasha and, passed her, Yo, "I was a child clinging to a dream I couldn't have before the Bargain. Now, I can be a Hero."
"I wish I had powers that could be used like that."
"Any power can be used for good causes, in the right hands," Izuku said as the door opened and they strode into the CEO's office. Izuku took a moment to watch the San Diego skyline before moving to where a long table sat, sweeping the contents of it off and lifted it with one hand, slamming it against the elevator door as Sasha slotted the transmitter into the PC. Slamming his hands against it, Izuku drew on the Caul just enough to sprout and extra pair of arms to hold his gun.
"Alright, alright, alright," Pilar came on the coms then,, "We are in! Beau travail! Let's see what we're working with here… Alright, found the guard patrols. That's the good news."
"I'll help go through the files," Sasha said, sitting in the chair and beginning to type on the computer, her pink Five-Seven sitting next to her.
"How are Sasha and Izuku doing?" Rebecca asked suddenly on all channels
"Fine," Izuku said, "Sasha is looking up something on the computer. I have barricaded the elevator. Everything is fine."
"Izuku-kun," Sasha suddenly, voice serious, "Please come over here."
"I-"
"Please," something about the way Sasha said it, cracked and pleading, caused Izuku's stomach to roll as Yo chittered worriedly. Izuku did what she asked, stomach roiling with every step. Sasha grabbed her pistol, pushing it into Izuku's hands. She smiled, planting a hand on his chest and a kiss on his cheek… and then activated the Lash, cracks leaking Plasm appearing along her arm before Izuku was blasted back and out the northside window. The MP5 fell out of his hand on impact, the Five-Seven nearly leaving his hand too as he watched Yo lunge at Sasha, not that it would have done anything, only to be dragged out of the building alongside Izuku.
He was dimly aware of people screaming on the comms as he fell weightlessly towards the ground, body describing a parabola until finally.
SPLAT
CRACK!
Oh, son of a bitch, that hurt! Fuck, fuck, fuckity.
"Don't come up for me," Sasha's voice was cold and shaking with rage, "This just… this just became personal."
"Izuku!" Izuku focused through the pain of snapped bones and pulped organs on Pilar's voice, "If you are in any fucking state to respond, say something buddy!"
"'M," Izuku tore off his rebreather and vomited up a mouthful of blood, aware the noise was being played on the comms, "I am alive. But I do not think I will be moving much anytime soon. Being held together with, what is the phrase? Prayers and Plasm."
"I'm going to send his location to you now, Falco," Pilar said.
"On my way," the Texan said, "Izuku, can you get yourself to a place where I can just open the van doors, or do you need me to carry you?"
"I will probably black out immediately after doing so, but yes," Izuku staggered up onto legs splinted together with Plasm and limped towards the edge of the building, a blinding headache pounding away like a railway spike.
Then the nosebleed started and Yo began to chitter. Something was wrong, something was wrong, something was-
"Bec's nose just popped a fucking cork!" Dorio yelled, "Sasha, what are you doi-"
Izuku tipped over, falling off the building and slamming into the sidewalk as he did, vomit splattering as he did.
"Fuck it! Falco, get Izuku out of there! I'm taking Maine and Rebecca through the Hedge!"
Izuku was dimly aware of Falco pulling up and yanking open the passenger door, dragging him into the van as the other nostril began the bleed too. He was too busy focusing on the top of Cheiron HQ, watching it for any sign of Sasha.
Instead, he had a front row seat to watch the top three layers implode, glass shattering and turning to dust as it was pulled into a orb of pure darkness centered on the top floor, the Twilight screaming in protest. Or maybe that was Yo, he couldn't be sure.
Izuku, mercifully, blacked out then.
—
Sasha's eyes turned from the small form of Izuku as he rolled onto his arms and legs, eyes focused on the computer sitting in front of her.
File Name: Valieva, G. Yakovleva, S.
Drug: EP-10: 10 Milligrams of ectoplasm injected into the thigh once a day for diabetic symptoms.
Results: Partial success, symptoms successfully suppressed. Unexpected mutation in child (Yakovleva, Sasha. B Weight: 7 Pounds, 4 Ounces. B Height: 21"), drug not ready for common application yet. Monitor child, may be useful as an asset in future.
Cat ears on the top of Sasha's head twitched as the door bulged. She pulled out her other Five-Seven, deactivating the safety as the barricade Izuku had erected fell. Time seemed to move in slow motion as she stepped forwards, Plasm leaking from her damaged soul and along her arm Lashing out as a wave of ghostly force, shattering the table and sending half of it through the head of the breacher team's torso so fast it bisected him. Time resumed as Sasha activated the Lash again, this time manifesting as plasmic claws from her left hand as she rushed towards the remaining nine security guards.
She could feel them, her Scars, there since birth, aching and expanding rapidly. The Twilight got realer around her as she went on the attack.
"Becca's nose just popped a cork," Dorio reported as Sasha tore open one guard's throat and shot another, ignoring the bullets that tore through her body from the glocks of the other seven, "Sasha what are you doing-?"
Power welled and the Lash slammed two guards against the wall, splattering them into paste. Their ghosts faded into existence, still pointing their guns at her as the room grew gray and Sasha lost feeling in the arm that had smashed them. The ground below her cracked and crumbled, sending her falling towards the next floor.
Sasha closed her eyes, and let her Scars consume her.
--
Thoughts, questions, opinions? Good? Bad? Meh?
"Are we gonna have to deal with your bitching the entire time, bro? I thought the leader of Network Zero in the area was helping foot the bill for this job?"
"We don't have a 'leader'," Pilar said, "I'm just making sure you realize what kind of shitshow you're about to bring down on yourselves."
"We'll making sure not to leave anything that can identify us," Dorio said, the Changling checking her XM5 as Falco stopped the van outside of the pyramid shaped HQ of Cheiron, "So Izuku, Sasha, don't go doing anything stupid like leaving the transmitter in the port."
"Right," Izuku said, nodding as he clipped the locator onto his lapel.
"Alright, comms check, then we do this," Dorio said, "Dorio."
"Falco."
"Izuku."
"Rebecca."
"Sasha."
"Right, all coming through loud and clear on my end," Pilar said, "Dorio, Sasha, don't die in there. Izuku, Rebecca, blow yourselves to hell before they take you."
"Got a grenade with my name on it," Izuku said, dulcetly.
"Same," Rebecca said.
"Let's go get my idiot of a boyfriend back," Dorio said as they turned into the alley were the maintenance door they were breaching through was situated, yanking open the door, "Izuku."
Izuku swung up the pair of Lemat 2072s he had, both hammers set to hit the shotgun shells and fired a pair of Masterkeys into the hinges of the door, switching the hammers back to the revolver stations as Dorio lunged out of the van, the Summer Courtier kicking the door off its frame and leading the team into the Cheiron HQ.
"Come on, elevator, now," Dorio said, "Floor Seven for me and Becca, all the way to the top for Izuku and Sasha."
"Where'd the info of where they're keeping Maine even come from?" Izuku asked quietly as they hurried along, switching his revolvers for his MP5. Thank goodness for Maine and Dorio's old military friends not asking questions on why they were buying guns.
"Murph," Pilar said simply as the elevator doors swung open to let the four in and prepare themselves.
—-
"Can not believe we're doing this," Rebecca looked up from where she was checking her Benelli M3.
"Regrets, Freckles?"
"No," Izuku said, "I shook on the deal, just…. Want to be a Hero. Does not feel very heroic, this."
"Are you kidding?" Rebecca said, "We're rescuing Maine from a Megacorp, that's practically the definition of a big damn hero!"
"People are going to die," Izuku said.
Poor, innocent kid.
"Considering we don't know how many "samples" they have," Dorio said, "We might be saving more than we kill. No Changelings, that's for sure. But Vamps? Wolves? The rest?"
"Do not know how many of those are dead," Izuku pointed out as the elevator rose through the levels, "Do not need them alive to get samples."
"Then we destroy the bodies," Dorio said, hefting up a bag, "Got enough incendiary charges to burn the whole development wing down."
"Does not make things better," Izuku muttered as the Elevator rumbled to a stop. The door opened, and Rebecca followed Dorio out as Sasha pressed the button for the top floor.
"I don't like this," Dorio muttered, "We should have had some sort of security by now."
"Probably," Rebecca agreed, eyes landing on a camera trained on them, "I don't think Cheiron is stupid enough to keep one guy on night security. Got anything for us, bro?"
"Not until the other two get the transmitter in the port," Pilar said, "So be carefu-"
"Hey, bro," Rebecca said, quietly, as they turned the corner.
"...You just fuckin' found a patrol?"
"If that's what you call eight guys, sure," Rebecca said, hefting her shotgun up and sliding into place next to the door where guards were standing and pointing at a sport's game. Fucking gonks, "Take them out?"
"Probably for the best," Doiro said, raising her hand. From it exploded a tangle of vines as the Mask dropped for a second. The large woman became hulking. Thick, exposed corded purple muscle bulging, thorns and brambles exploding from each strand. The hall suddenly felt far more cramped as the Ogre let loose.
"What the-" before the guards could respond, grabbing pistols and trying to stand up, Rebecca Vented the Rage. Necks twisted until vertebrates were exposed, hearts were crushed in their chest, and the ones not being choked by the field of thorns dropped dead. Dorio snapped up her gun, shooting the last four in the head to make sure they were dead as the brambles bleed them out slowly.
"Alright, alright, alright," Pilar crooned, "We are in! Beau travail! Let's see what we're working with here… Alright, found the guard patrols. That's the good news."
"And the bad?"
"They're coming right after both of your asses," Pilar said.
"Then we better hurry up," Dorio said, swinging her hand and filling the hall behind Rebecca and her with a bramble patch, "How far to the 'lab'?"
"Three halls down," Pilar reported, "It uh, it looks like shit, honestly. Got eyes on Maine. You're gonna be carrying him out of here. Two guards by the door."
"Then let's go deal with them," Rebecca said, taking point as they rushed through the hallways. Something was wrong, she could feel it. Like, knives under the skin, worming their way towards her heart.
"How are Sasha and Izuku doing?"
"Fine," Izuku said, "Sasha is looking up something on the computer. I have barricaded the elevator. Everything is fine."
Mmmm.
Turning the hall, Rebecca snapped up her gun and blasted the first of the guards off their feet, at the same time Dorio hit the other dead in the head. Dorio whipped out a wicked bowie knife, driving it into the wedge of the metal door and using it to gain purchase before ripping it open.
"Welcome to the San Diego most wanted list," Rebecca muttered to herself as they stepped into the lab. Three samples, all dead.
Dorio rushed towards Maine, lying on a mortuary slab with his chest open to the world, and cut the belts binding him to it with her knife. Rebecca blinked, vision growing blurry.
"Sasha, what the sam fuck was that!" Pilar suddenly snapped over the comms as Rebecca staggered to the side.
"What? What happened?"
"Sasha just blew Izuku out of a thirty story goddamn building!"
—
https://youtu.be/AN1RJF55NXI]Izuku[/URL] clutched the MP5, quietly regretting shaking on the deal to rescue Maine before hearing the specifics of it. Stupid move, it was stupid of him. Had thought it was a Ghost Eater, or a rival Krewe trying to enter Concordo at worst. Not this. Not Cheiron.
"Izuku-Kun," Sasha said in fluent Japanese, "Thank you very much for helping us with this. I know it makes you uncomfortable, but you didn't back out."
"I can't back out, Sasha-Chan," Izuku said with a shake of his head, quietly relieved to not be forced to rely on his shoddy English, "I shook on it when Rebecca asked me to."
"And if you asked Dorio, I'm sure she'd let you out of it," Sasha pointed out, "A Changeling keeping someone against their will?"
"It's not that simple," Izuku said, "There are no out to deals shook upon in the Dead Man's Hand. It's one of the Laws of it. And nobody but an idiot breaks a Law in the Underworld, at best you're gonna end up doing something you don't like anyways. The worst… I don't want to talk about it."
"Hmm… Can I ask you a question? It's a bit personal."
"I don't promise to answer, but you can ask."
"Do you ever…regret it? Becoming what you are, I mean."
"Do I regret not dying?" Izuku asked, "No, I don't regret the Bargain, Sasha-Chan. Why?"
"I just… I was wondering what it was like to choose to be something," Sasha said, "I was born this way, changed, broken…"
Izuku wanted to deny that, but knew it to be true. Sasha was a Deviant, a human made Supernatural through experimentation… and they had no idea what experiment had caused it. Sasha was… she was like a Bound in some ways. No Geist, no Bargain, but she stood halfway between the real and the Twilight. Ghosts became more real around her, and she less real around them.
"I was born broken too," Izuku admitted, "at least that's how most people see it. I'm Quirkless."
"You are? Why'd you never say anything?"
"Do you want pity for your damage?"
"No. And you don't want pity for yours."
"Exactly," Izuku said simply, smiling at Sasha and, passed her, Yo, "I was a child clinging to a dream I couldn't have before the Bargain. Now, I can be a Hero."
"I wish I had powers that could be used like that."
"Any power can be used for good causes, in the right hands," Izuku said as the door opened and they strode into the CEO's office. Izuku took a moment to watch the San Diego skyline before moving to where a long table sat, sweeping the contents of it off and lifted it with one hand, slamming it against the elevator door as Sasha slotted the transmitter into the PC. Slamming his hands against it, Izuku drew on the Caul just enough to sprout and extra pair of arms to hold his gun.
"Alright, alright, alright," Pilar came on the coms then,, "We are in! Beau travail! Let's see what we're working with here… Alright, found the guard patrols. That's the good news."
"I'll help go through the files," Sasha said, sitting in the chair and beginning to type on the computer, her pink Five-Seven sitting next to her.
"How are Sasha and Izuku doing?" Rebecca asked suddenly on all channels
"Fine," Izuku said, "Sasha is looking up something on the computer. I have barricaded the elevator. Everything is fine."
"Izuku-kun," Sasha suddenly, voice serious, "Please come over here."
"I-"
"Please," something about the way Sasha said it, cracked and pleading, caused Izuku's stomach to roll as Yo chittered worriedly. Izuku did what she asked, stomach roiling with every step. Sasha grabbed her pistol, pushing it into Izuku's hands. She smiled, planting a hand on his chest and a kiss on his cheek… and then activated the Lash, cracks leaking Plasm appearing along her arm before Izuku was blasted back and out the northside window. The MP5 fell out of his hand on impact, the Five-Seven nearly leaving his hand too as he watched Yo lunge at Sasha, not that it would have done anything, only to be dragged out of the building alongside Izuku.
He was dimly aware of people screaming on the comms as he fell weightlessly towards the ground, body describing a parabola until finally.
SPLAT
CRACK!
Oh, son of a bitch, that hurt! Fuck, fuck, fuckity.
"Don't come up for me," Sasha's voice was cold and shaking with rage, "This just… this just became personal."
"Izuku!" Izuku focused through the pain of snapped bones and pulped organs on Pilar's voice, "If you are in any fucking state to respond, say something buddy!"
"'M," Izuku tore off his rebreather and vomited up a mouthful of blood, aware the noise was being played on the comms, "I am alive. But I do not think I will be moving much anytime soon. Being held together with, what is the phrase? Prayers and Plasm."
"I'm going to send his location to you now, Falco," Pilar said.
"On my way," the Texan said, "Izuku, can you get yourself to a place where I can just open the van doors, or do you need me to carry you?"
"I will probably black out immediately after doing so, but yes," Izuku staggered up onto legs splinted together with Plasm and limped towards the edge of the building, a blinding headache pounding away like a railway spike.
Then the nosebleed started and Yo began to chitter. Something was wrong, something was wrong, something was-
"Bec's nose just popped a fucking cork!" Dorio yelled, "Sasha, what are you doi-"
Izuku tipped over, falling off the building and slamming into the sidewalk as he did, vomit splattering as he did.
"Fuck it! Falco, get Izuku out of there! I'm taking Maine and Rebecca through the Hedge!"
Izuku was dimly aware of Falco pulling up and yanking open the passenger door, dragging him into the van as the other nostril began the bleed too. He was too busy focusing on the top of Cheiron HQ, watching it for any sign of Sasha.
Instead, he had a front row seat to watch the top three layers implode, glass shattering and turning to dust as it was pulled into a orb of pure darkness centered on the top floor, the Twilight screaming in protest. Or maybe that was Yo, he couldn't be sure.
Izuku, mercifully, blacked out then.
—
Sasha's eyes turned from the small form of Izuku as he rolled onto his arms and legs, eyes focused on the computer sitting in front of her.
File Name: Valieva, G. Yakovleva, S.
Drug: EP-10: 10 Milligrams of ectoplasm injected into the thigh once a day for diabetic symptoms.
Results: Partial success, symptoms successfully suppressed. Unexpected mutation in child (Yakovleva, Sasha. B Weight: 7 Pounds, 4 Ounces. B Height: 21"), drug not ready for common application yet. Monitor child, may be useful as an asset in future.
Cat ears on the top of Sasha's head twitched as the door bulged. She pulled out her other Five-Seven, deactivating the safety as the barricade Izuku had erected fell. Time seemed to move in slow motion as she stepped forwards, Plasm leaking from her damaged soul and along her arm Lashing out as a wave of ghostly force, shattering the table and sending half of it through the head of the breacher team's torso so fast it bisected him. Time resumed as Sasha activated the Lash again, this time manifesting as plasmic claws from her left hand as she rushed towards the remaining nine security guards.
She could feel them, her Scars, there since birth, aching and expanding rapidly. The Twilight got realer around her as she went on the attack.
"Becca's nose just popped a cork," Dorio reported as Sasha tore open one guard's throat and shot another, ignoring the bullets that tore through her body from the glocks of the other seven, "Sasha what are you doing-?"
Power welled and the Lash slammed two guards against the wall, splattering them into paste. Their ghosts faded into existence, still pointing their guns at her as the room grew gray and Sasha lost feeling in the arm that had smashed them. The ground below her cracked and crumbled, sending her falling towards the next floor.
Sasha closed her eyes, and let her Scars consume her.
--
Thoughts, questions, opinions? Good? Bad? Meh?
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...wait,what happened?
Not Sasha dying
I mean what's up with the repeat?
Not Sasha dying
I mean what's up with the repeat?
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
Error, fixed now
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
So as an aside, for those not versed in the Chronicles of Darkness (or at least Geist), I, if anything, exaggerated how much damage Izuku would take from a 30 story fall.
CoD bottoms out on fall damage at 10 lethal for terminal velocity. Thing is, Sin Eaters reflexively downgrade all lethal damage to Bashing so long as they have Plasm to spend. So if I went by CoD rules, Izuku would be walking around with some severe bruising, but not nearly on the brink of blacking out (though part of that was Sasha building up to using the Wrong Way Door in her final moments).
Uh, otherwise, thank God I decided to make this it's own thing. This would have destroyed the flow of the chapter had it stayed in.
CoD bottoms out on fall damage at 10 lethal for terminal velocity. Thing is, Sin Eaters reflexively downgrade all lethal damage to Bashing so long as they have Plasm to spend. So if I went by CoD rules, Izuku would be walking around with some severe bruising, but not nearly on the brink of blacking out (though part of that was Sasha building up to using the Wrong Way Door in her final moments).
Uh, otherwise, thank God I decided to make this it's own thing. This would have destroyed the flow of the chapter had it stayed in.