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Ninpo!
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
Celestial Dojo: Ninpo!
There was the Celestial Forge, which dealt with crafting skills and equipment - basically producing a Tinker in the categories used in this one set of universes.
There were others, similar in method.
Then there was the Dojo, or Gymnasium, or Academy. Instead of putting together a wormhole generator or some other technological wonder, this particular mechanism was geared along the acquisition of skills. Primarily combat skills, with a few other techniques or feats thrown in.
And a protagonist was chosen because a protagonist was needed.
* September 9 2009 *
Her first clue, if you didn't count when Emma had told her to "go off and die" when she'd come back from summer camp, was a few choice insults and then Emma's new friend shoving her.
Right over the railing and falling towards the set of concrete stairs that led down to the first floor.
She saw the slightly surprised look of the girl who'd pushed her, So-something, as if she'd not realized she was getting quite the effect intended. She also saw the gleeful/triumphant look on Emma's face. The other girl she didn't even know the name of as this was only the first day in the new school.
Then her glasses went flying off her face as everything blurred, slowed down, and...
Where the hell was she now?
There was a sound. The tik-tak-tik sound like in that game show "Wheel of Fortune" where it started out fast and slowed down just like what she was hearing from all around her.
"Hello?" asked Taylor of the void. The tik-tik stopped and there was suddenly a blue square of light in front of her.
[Suddenly! Ninja!]
[Train under tutelage of 1 or more]
[legendary ninja to begin the road]
[to become a legendary ninja hero ]
[yourself!]
[Unlocks: Basic Taijutsu, Basic Ninjutsu, Basic Genjutsu]
[Unlocks Chakra System]
Then there was another falling sensation before she landed on some grass in a deeply wooded area.
"If there is a talking white rabbit or cheshire cat around here, I'm going to be pretty vexed," stated Taylor.
"If that was a reference to something, I'm not familiar with the source material," said a deep voice and someone came out of the trees.
Big guy. Reminded her of a bear though he had some Japanese writing on his headpiece and his clothes looked distinctly Asian.
"You with the ABB?" asked Taylor.
"No. Who's the 'ABB'? Are they like ANBU?" asked the big guy.
"The gang. You know." Taylor made a gesture off to her left. "The Asian Bad Boys."
The big guy stared at her for a moment. "Okay. First. That's a really stupid name for a gang. Unless they're all eight years old or so."
"I didn't choose the name," pointed out Taylor.
"Uh huh. Well, so you're the hero who needs trained up!" The big guy stretched and cracked his knuckles. "I'll let Umino handle the basics. Mito will handle the chakra, Umino the basic training, and I'll come by and try to get you some further training if you've got the time left. We'll see. Got a name, hero?"
"I'm... I can be a hero like Alexandria?" asked Taylor.
"I don't know any 'Alexandria' but we can at least get you the basics a ninja needs. Those are skills that can always come in handy," said big guy.
"Well, I'm Taylor Hebert. Who are you?"
"Oh hang on. When I was alive I loved doing this," said the big guy, adopting a weirdly dramatic pose.
"Okay..." said Taylor.
"Some call me simply the 'Toad Hermit' but I shall tell you my true identity! I am the man who has no peers among the East, West, North, and South! Even the Heavens themselves know few to equal me! White-haired Summoner of the Toads! Men respect me! Women adore me! Those who have taste anyway. My skills are legion and my prowess substantial! One of Konohagakure's famed Sannin! Famed author! Famed ninja! Famed lover! Sometimes all three at the same time! I am..." (wooden boards clapping together in the background as he shifted to a different pose) "the noble JIRAIYA!"
Taylor wasn't sure how to react so she just unenthusiastically clapped a couple of times.
"Thanks," said Jiraiya, "I feel a lot better after that. Anyway, time's burning. For every second in your world, a year is passing here. Well, basically. It's a space between the Pure World and the Impure World and it's easy to monkey with time. Trainings going to take time anyway though."
"I take it that's my cue," said someone a lot younger who shoved his way out of the underbrush. "A forest? Can we be more cliche?"
"It's our cue," said a woman who was just suddenly there. Her red hair was bound in an elaborate style. "Are you ready, dear? In order to properly use chakra, there's a step or two. It'll be painful, but it will pass quickly."
"I supp.... AHHHH!"
"A combination of your chakra and the Nine-tails?" asked a wincing Iruka Umino.
"Something like that," said Mito before smiling a little smile and fading away.
"Come on," said Iruka, helping the collapsed and woozy-looking hero to her feet. "I'll start by showing you the stretches and manipulations to take the ache out."
"My everything hurts," complained Taylor. "How does my HAIR hurt?"
"Chakra," was Iruka's answer.
"That makes no sense," complained Taylor.
"It will," promised Iruka Umino.
* Two weeks later *
"Where are we anyway?" asked Taylor as she threw the little knives at the targets.
"The afterlife. Well, an afterlife. Kind of on the border of it, actually."
"I'm dead?"
"No. You're just here because we can train you. And the rate between worlds is faster than one second there being a year here. It's a cheat, but then again - we're ninja. Of course we cheat."
"So, am I really here or am I still falling down the stairs?"
"Short answer? Yes," said Iruka."Long answer, well, it's complicated. The end result will be that the you that is falling will be merged with the you that is here. So you'll just suddenly have all the physical conditioning and skills at that particular moment."
"And the tail and ears and red hair?"
"That's what the Disguise Jutsu is for," said Iruka. "Also why I've told you to practice holding it longer and longer."
* Nine months into her training *
"Well, you're a lot better than you were," said Iruka Umino. "Genin level in taijutsu, and I think you've got the Disguise Jutsu down solid. You still need some work on the Substitution Jutsu and your Clone Jutsu... I think you need to learn Shadow Clone. Another student I had struggled in exactly the same way with that Jutsu but he was great at Shadow Clones."
"Okay."
"Once your chakra control is higher, we can start on Tree Climbing and the more advanced technique: Water Walking."
Taylor sunk another kunai into the target, but agreed that second one sounded really handy.
"I think I could use a break at some point," said Taylor eventually. "We don't need to eat or sleep here apparently, and I don't seem to get tired. Physically at least."
Iruka thought for a few moments before nodding. "I've an idea."
The school around her vanished into whiteness before Iruka stamped one foot on a surface that technically didn't exist at the moment. The scene changed again.
"Where's this?" asked Taylor, looking around in interest.
"The school and the forest were from Konohagakure, my home village in the Land of Fire," explained Iruka. "This is in a different nation. I went there on a mission once when I was new to being a chunin. This is the Tanaka Inn in the Land of Hot Springs. I think it was destroyed back during the Third Shinobi War and rebuilt eventually."
"'Hot Springs'?" asked Taylor.
"You can study medical texts or something while relaxing in the hot springs," suggested Iruka. "I'll just be over here talking with some old... associates."
Taylor had just settled into the women's section, wearing a towel, and begun to relax when the door opened and another woman came out.
"So you're the hero that Umino is training," said the woman, settling into place across from her and then leaning back.
"I don't understand a lot of this," admitted Taylor.
"It's simple enough," said the woman. "There's a cosmic multidimensional device which has a chaos element involved - the roulette wheel?"
"Ah, yeah, I remember hearing that," admitted Taylor.
"Skills come in groups and combat skills have to be learned," said the woman. "Single techniques can just be popped in, but if it's a whole group like 'basic ninja' you need to have some build up and context. So the wheel spins and you get the constellations they can connect to - which are related skills. You got lucky - your first spin ended up with ninja skills. You could have ended up with something like Tea Ceremony Martial Arts or a Special Maneuver: Fell Cleave. Even if it is just the basics, there's a lot that will be damn useful for a new hero to know."
"This has to be the weirdest cape power I've ever heard of," commented Taylor. "You know me, but I don't know you."
One eye opened to regard her, then closed again. "Tsunade. I was one of Umino's bosses."
"Ah," said Taylor, relaxing a bit. "Still, I don't think any of this will be of use against Lung or Oni Lee."
"So don't fight them," said Tsunade, not bothering to look at her. "Be a ninja. Choose your fights. Hide, avoid, escape if you can't win. Dying while fighting someone above your weight class is more of a samurai thing. Dying nobly and failing to achieve your mission? Hells, that isn't even a samurai thing."
There was a silence in the hot springs that was comfortable on Tsunade's part and somewhat tense on Taylor's part that continued on for a good fifteen minutes.
Tsunade broke the silence when she started getting out. "Don't spend too long in there. You can overheat. Oh, and you're on a Milestone method from what I was able to learn. You get points from accomplishing things in your life or hero career or some such arrangement. Do something and you trigger that roulette wheel. If it stops on something you have the points for - you buy it with those points. Otherwise it rolls over until the points and the choice match."
"How do I know what will work?" asked Taylor.
Tsunade stopped at the entry to the changing room to look back at her. "The same way all of us go through life. Try different things, find out what works and go with that."
Taylor stayed in the hot spring for another few minutes before getting out.
* Two years into training. *
"Water Release: Water Gun!"
Taylor ran along the surface of the water, shooting off bullets of water at her clone which was doing the same thing.
Iruka waited as the young ninja did so, then had her demonstrate the three techniques. She still had trouble with normal Bunshin (Clone) but could manage up to two Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clone) for short periods and had acceptable on Kawarimi (Substitution) and was very good at Henge (Disguise). Her skills at basic Academy taijutsu were acceptable, as were her skills in the basics of thrown weapons. She was slightly better at staff and kunai and shuriken, but could barely eke by with her skills in fuuinjutsu. All in all, a solid genin skillset.
"I hope we get the chance to teach you a bit more," said Iruka, producing a headband from a pocket to hand to her. "You've been a lot better than most of my students. From what I read, you're restricted to the Ninja Skillset until you make at least chunin or specialist. So we may be seeing each other again, but most likely the next time you visit it will be with someone who specializes in the skills you'll learn. Still, well done."
"Thank y-" began Taylor.
* Winslow *
She felt herself falling and reacted automatically by tucking and rolling and then landing on the uneven surface of the stairs a flight below where she'd started.
It was a bit jarring to suddenly find herself back in Winslow, looking up at the three would-be tormentors.
"What?" asked Emma's friend. What was her name again? It HAD been two years for her, even if it had been maybe three seconds for them.
Checking her watch, Taylor started hurrying towards class after picking up and pocketing her glasses. Also the worse-for-wear backpack. Lunch was over, though she felt a bit hungry at the moment. Now she had to sit through the rest of her school day but tonight?
Yeah, tonight was going to be special.
* * *
Constellations Unlocked (initial concept exploration)
01 Weapons Styles
02 Ki-based Martial Arts
03 Secret Agent Man
04 Fantasy Special Manuevers
05 Fighting Games
06 Ninja Academy
07 Appearance/Social Combat
08 Summons
09 Companions, Allies, Minions, or Pets
10 Support Skills to Pay the Bills
Weapons Styles:
01 Gimmick Archery (300)
02 Working on the Chain, Gang (200)
03 Staff, Stick, and Club (200)
04 I know Gun Fu (350)
05 Specialization in Improvisation (100)
06 Hidden Weapons Style (Hammerspace Weapons Pocket Technique) (300)
07 Way of the Sword (400)
08 Sword & Board (400)
09 Game of Throwns (450)
10 Polearm Presence (300)
Ki, Chi, or Qi: (Basic 250, Advanced 500, Late series 1000)
01 Kame Style (DB)
02 Anything Goes Martial Arts (R 1/2)
03 Chinese Medicine (various)
04 Shadow Arts (Ninja Gaiden)
05 Jedi Arts (SW)
06 K'un L'un (Iron Fist)
07 Cosmo no Sainto (Saint Seiya)
08 Hokuto Shin Ken (Hokuto No Ken)
09 Nanto Sei Ken (Hokuto No Ken)
10 Esper Arts (various)
Secret Agent Man:
01 Spy Tech (250)
02 Stealth (100)
03 Disguise (200)
04 Assassin's Creed (250)
05 Investigation (100)
06 Insight (100)
07 Electronics/Computers (200)
08 Demolitions & Disarming (200)
Fantasy Special Manuevers: (100 pts)
01 Cure Wounds
02 Elemental Affinity
03 Limit Break
04 Weapon Based
05 With a Single Spell
06 Gatling Punch
07 Steal
08 Shell I
Fighting Games: (roll for specific character) 100 basic, 250 advanced, 500 full
01 Dark Stalkers
02 Mortal Kombat
03 Street Fighter
04 Dead or Alive
05 Tekken
06 Soul Caliber
07 Guilty Gear
08 Super Smash Brothers
Ninja Academy (Intermediate) (basics already purchased)
01 Sharingan (basic) (250)
02 Puppet Techniques (350)
03 Dust Release (500)
04 Shunshin (100)
05 Wood Release (basic) (500)
06 Negative Intent Sensing (100)
07 Fuuinjutsu (Intermediate) (250)
08 1d6 random jutsu scrolls (300)
09 Barrier Jutsu
10 Advanced Medical Jutsu
11 Senjutsu
12 Kekkei Genkai (random) (500)
Appearance/Social:
01 Extreme Grace/Acrobatics (100)
02 Fashion Sense (100)
03 Costume Upgrade (100)
04 Projection: Aura of Menace (150)
05 Projection: Aura of Tranquility (150)
06 Looking Fabulous (200)
Summons
01 Signature Weapon (100)
02 Signature Vehicle/Mount (250)
03 Bag of Holding (200)
04 Insta-change costume (50)
05 Barrier Gadget (200)
06 Inventory system (100 for 4 slots, 250 for 10 slots, 500 for 24 slots)
Support Skills To Pay The Bills: (100 pts, all skills start at basic and improve with use)
01 EMT Training
02 Driver (Car)
03 Cooking
04 Sewing/Costumer
05 Computer Programmer
06 Driver (Truck)
07 Mechanic
08 Financeer
There was the Celestial Forge, which dealt with crafting skills and equipment - basically producing a Tinker in the categories used in this one set of universes.
There were others, similar in method.
Then there was the Dojo, or Gymnasium, or Academy. Instead of putting together a wormhole generator or some other technological wonder, this particular mechanism was geared along the acquisition of skills. Primarily combat skills, with a few other techniques or feats thrown in.
And a protagonist was chosen because a protagonist was needed.
* September 9 2009 *
Her first clue, if you didn't count when Emma had told her to "go off and die" when she'd come back from summer camp, was a few choice insults and then Emma's new friend shoving her.
Right over the railing and falling towards the set of concrete stairs that led down to the first floor.
She saw the slightly surprised look of the girl who'd pushed her, So-something, as if she'd not realized she was getting quite the effect intended. She also saw the gleeful/triumphant look on Emma's face. The other girl she didn't even know the name of as this was only the first day in the new school.
Then her glasses went flying off her face as everything blurred, slowed down, and...
Where the hell was she now?
There was a sound. The tik-tak-tik sound like in that game show "Wheel of Fortune" where it started out fast and slowed down just like what she was hearing from all around her.
"Hello?" asked Taylor of the void. The tik-tik stopped and there was suddenly a blue square of light in front of her.
[Suddenly! Ninja!]
[Train under tutelage of 1 or more]
[legendary ninja to begin the road]
[to become a legendary ninja hero ]
[yourself!]
[Unlocks: Basic Taijutsu, Basic Ninjutsu, Basic Genjutsu]
[Unlocks Chakra System]
Then there was another falling sensation before she landed on some grass in a deeply wooded area.
"If there is a talking white rabbit or cheshire cat around here, I'm going to be pretty vexed," stated Taylor.
"If that was a reference to something, I'm not familiar with the source material," said a deep voice and someone came out of the trees.
Big guy. Reminded her of a bear though he had some Japanese writing on his headpiece and his clothes looked distinctly Asian.
"You with the ABB?" asked Taylor.
"No. Who's the 'ABB'? Are they like ANBU?" asked the big guy.
"The gang. You know." Taylor made a gesture off to her left. "The Asian Bad Boys."
The big guy stared at her for a moment. "Okay. First. That's a really stupid name for a gang. Unless they're all eight years old or so."
"I didn't choose the name," pointed out Taylor.
"Uh huh. Well, so you're the hero who needs trained up!" The big guy stretched and cracked his knuckles. "I'll let Umino handle the basics. Mito will handle the chakra, Umino the basic training, and I'll come by and try to get you some further training if you've got the time left. We'll see. Got a name, hero?"
"I'm... I can be a hero like Alexandria?" asked Taylor.
"I don't know any 'Alexandria' but we can at least get you the basics a ninja needs. Those are skills that can always come in handy," said big guy.
"Well, I'm Taylor Hebert. Who are you?"
"Oh hang on. When I was alive I loved doing this," said the big guy, adopting a weirdly dramatic pose.
"Okay..." said Taylor.
"Some call me simply the 'Toad Hermit' but I shall tell you my true identity! I am the man who has no peers among the East, West, North, and South! Even the Heavens themselves know few to equal me! White-haired Summoner of the Toads! Men respect me! Women adore me! Those who have taste anyway. My skills are legion and my prowess substantial! One of Konohagakure's famed Sannin! Famed author! Famed ninja! Famed lover! Sometimes all three at the same time! I am..." (wooden boards clapping together in the background as he shifted to a different pose) "the noble JIRAIYA!"
Taylor wasn't sure how to react so she just unenthusiastically clapped a couple of times.
"Thanks," said Jiraiya, "I feel a lot better after that. Anyway, time's burning. For every second in your world, a year is passing here. Well, basically. It's a space between the Pure World and the Impure World and it's easy to monkey with time. Trainings going to take time anyway though."
"I take it that's my cue," said someone a lot younger who shoved his way out of the underbrush. "A forest? Can we be more cliche?"
"It's our cue," said a woman who was just suddenly there. Her red hair was bound in an elaborate style. "Are you ready, dear? In order to properly use chakra, there's a step or two. It'll be painful, but it will pass quickly."
"I supp.... AHHHH!"
"A combination of your chakra and the Nine-tails?" asked a wincing Iruka Umino.
"Something like that," said Mito before smiling a little smile and fading away.
"Come on," said Iruka, helping the collapsed and woozy-looking hero to her feet. "I'll start by showing you the stretches and manipulations to take the ache out."
"My everything hurts," complained Taylor. "How does my HAIR hurt?"
"Chakra," was Iruka's answer.
"That makes no sense," complained Taylor.
"It will," promised Iruka Umino.
* Two weeks later *
"Where are we anyway?" asked Taylor as she threw the little knives at the targets.
"The afterlife. Well, an afterlife. Kind of on the border of it, actually."
"I'm dead?"
"No. You're just here because we can train you. And the rate between worlds is faster than one second there being a year here. It's a cheat, but then again - we're ninja. Of course we cheat."
"So, am I really here or am I still falling down the stairs?"
"Short answer? Yes," said Iruka."Long answer, well, it's complicated. The end result will be that the you that is falling will be merged with the you that is here. So you'll just suddenly have all the physical conditioning and skills at that particular moment."
"And the tail and ears and red hair?"
"That's what the Disguise Jutsu is for," said Iruka. "Also why I've told you to practice holding it longer and longer."
* Nine months into her training *
"Well, you're a lot better than you were," said Iruka Umino. "Genin level in taijutsu, and I think you've got the Disguise Jutsu down solid. You still need some work on the Substitution Jutsu and your Clone Jutsu... I think you need to learn Shadow Clone. Another student I had struggled in exactly the same way with that Jutsu but he was great at Shadow Clones."
"Okay."
"Once your chakra control is higher, we can start on Tree Climbing and the more advanced technique: Water Walking."
Taylor sunk another kunai into the target, but agreed that second one sounded really handy.
"I think I could use a break at some point," said Taylor eventually. "We don't need to eat or sleep here apparently, and I don't seem to get tired. Physically at least."
Iruka thought for a few moments before nodding. "I've an idea."
The school around her vanished into whiteness before Iruka stamped one foot on a surface that technically didn't exist at the moment. The scene changed again.
"Where's this?" asked Taylor, looking around in interest.
"The school and the forest were from Konohagakure, my home village in the Land of Fire," explained Iruka. "This is in a different nation. I went there on a mission once when I was new to being a chunin. This is the Tanaka Inn in the Land of Hot Springs. I think it was destroyed back during the Third Shinobi War and rebuilt eventually."
"'Hot Springs'?" asked Taylor.
"You can study medical texts or something while relaxing in the hot springs," suggested Iruka. "I'll just be over here talking with some old... associates."
Taylor had just settled into the women's section, wearing a towel, and begun to relax when the door opened and another woman came out.
"So you're the hero that Umino is training," said the woman, settling into place across from her and then leaning back.
"I don't understand a lot of this," admitted Taylor.
"It's simple enough," said the woman. "There's a cosmic multidimensional device which has a chaos element involved - the roulette wheel?"
"Ah, yeah, I remember hearing that," admitted Taylor.
"Skills come in groups and combat skills have to be learned," said the woman. "Single techniques can just be popped in, but if it's a whole group like 'basic ninja' you need to have some build up and context. So the wheel spins and you get the constellations they can connect to - which are related skills. You got lucky - your first spin ended up with ninja skills. You could have ended up with something like Tea Ceremony Martial Arts or a Special Maneuver: Fell Cleave. Even if it is just the basics, there's a lot that will be damn useful for a new hero to know."
"This has to be the weirdest cape power I've ever heard of," commented Taylor. "You know me, but I don't know you."
One eye opened to regard her, then closed again. "Tsunade. I was one of Umino's bosses."
"Ah," said Taylor, relaxing a bit. "Still, I don't think any of this will be of use against Lung or Oni Lee."
"So don't fight them," said Tsunade, not bothering to look at her. "Be a ninja. Choose your fights. Hide, avoid, escape if you can't win. Dying while fighting someone above your weight class is more of a samurai thing. Dying nobly and failing to achieve your mission? Hells, that isn't even a samurai thing."
There was a silence in the hot springs that was comfortable on Tsunade's part and somewhat tense on Taylor's part that continued on for a good fifteen minutes.
Tsunade broke the silence when she started getting out. "Don't spend too long in there. You can overheat. Oh, and you're on a Milestone method from what I was able to learn. You get points from accomplishing things in your life or hero career or some such arrangement. Do something and you trigger that roulette wheel. If it stops on something you have the points for - you buy it with those points. Otherwise it rolls over until the points and the choice match."
"How do I know what will work?" asked Taylor.
Tsunade stopped at the entry to the changing room to look back at her. "The same way all of us go through life. Try different things, find out what works and go with that."
Taylor stayed in the hot spring for another few minutes before getting out.
* Two years into training. *
"Water Release: Water Gun!"
Taylor ran along the surface of the water, shooting off bullets of water at her clone which was doing the same thing.
Iruka waited as the young ninja did so, then had her demonstrate the three techniques. She still had trouble with normal Bunshin (Clone) but could manage up to two Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clone) for short periods and had acceptable on Kawarimi (Substitution) and was very good at Henge (Disguise). Her skills at basic Academy taijutsu were acceptable, as were her skills in the basics of thrown weapons. She was slightly better at staff and kunai and shuriken, but could barely eke by with her skills in fuuinjutsu. All in all, a solid genin skillset.
"I hope we get the chance to teach you a bit more," said Iruka, producing a headband from a pocket to hand to her. "You've been a lot better than most of my students. From what I read, you're restricted to the Ninja Skillset until you make at least chunin or specialist. So we may be seeing each other again, but most likely the next time you visit it will be with someone who specializes in the skills you'll learn. Still, well done."
"Thank y-" began Taylor.
* Winslow *
She felt herself falling and reacted automatically by tucking and rolling and then landing on the uneven surface of the stairs a flight below where she'd started.
It was a bit jarring to suddenly find herself back in Winslow, looking up at the three would-be tormentors.
"What?" asked Emma's friend. What was her name again? It HAD been two years for her, even if it had been maybe three seconds for them.
Checking her watch, Taylor started hurrying towards class after picking up and pocketing her glasses. Also the worse-for-wear backpack. Lunch was over, though she felt a bit hungry at the moment. Now she had to sit through the rest of her school day but tonight?
Yeah, tonight was going to be special.
* * *
Constellations Unlocked (initial concept exploration)
01 Weapons Styles
02 Ki-based Martial Arts
03 Secret Agent Man
04 Fantasy Special Manuevers
05 Fighting Games
06 Ninja Academy
07 Appearance/Social Combat
08 Summons
09 Companions, Allies, Minions, or Pets
10 Support Skills to Pay the Bills
Weapons Styles:
01 Gimmick Archery (300)
02 Working on the Chain, Gang (200)
03 Staff, Stick, and Club (200)
04 I know Gun Fu (350)
05 Specialization in Improvisation (100)
06 Hidden Weapons Style (Hammerspace Weapons Pocket Technique) (300)
07 Way of the Sword (400)
08 Sword & Board (400)
09 Game of Throwns (450)
10 Polearm Presence (300)
Ki, Chi, or Qi: (Basic 250, Advanced 500, Late series 1000)
01 Kame Style (DB)
02 Anything Goes Martial Arts (R 1/2)
03 Chinese Medicine (various)
04 Shadow Arts (Ninja Gaiden)
05 Jedi Arts (SW)
06 K'un L'un (Iron Fist)
07 Cosmo no Sainto (Saint Seiya)
08 Hokuto Shin Ken (Hokuto No Ken)
09 Nanto Sei Ken (Hokuto No Ken)
10 Esper Arts (various)
Secret Agent Man:
01 Spy Tech (250)
02 Stealth (100)
03 Disguise (200)
04 Assassin's Creed (250)
05 Investigation (100)
06 Insight (100)
07 Electronics/Computers (200)
08 Demolitions & Disarming (200)
Fantasy Special Manuevers: (100 pts)
01 Cure Wounds
02 Elemental Affinity
03 Limit Break
04 Weapon Based
05 With a Single Spell
06 Gatling Punch
07 Steal
08 Shell I
Fighting Games: (roll for specific character) 100 basic, 250 advanced, 500 full
01 Dark Stalkers
02 Mortal Kombat
03 Street Fighter
04 Dead or Alive
05 Tekken
06 Soul Caliber
07 Guilty Gear
08 Super Smash Brothers
Ninja Academy (Intermediate) (basics already purchased)
01 Sharingan (basic) (250)
02 Puppet Techniques (350)
03 Dust Release (500)
04 Shunshin (100)
05 Wood Release (basic) (500)
06 Negative Intent Sensing (100)
07 Fuuinjutsu (Intermediate) (250)
08 1d6 random jutsu scrolls (300)
09 Barrier Jutsu
10 Advanced Medical Jutsu
11 Senjutsu
12 Kekkei Genkai (random) (500)
Appearance/Social:
01 Extreme Grace/Acrobatics (100)
02 Fashion Sense (100)
03 Costume Upgrade (100)
04 Projection: Aura of Menace (150)
05 Projection: Aura of Tranquility (150)
06 Looking Fabulous (200)
Summons
01 Signature Weapon (100)
02 Signature Vehicle/Mount (250)
03 Bag of Holding (200)
04 Insta-change costume (50)
05 Barrier Gadget (200)
06 Inventory system (100 for 4 slots, 250 for 10 slots, 500 for 24 slots)
Support Skills To Pay The Bills: (100 pts, all skills start at basic and improve with use)
01 EMT Training
02 Driver (Car)
03 Cooking
04 Sewing/Costumer
05 Computer Programmer
06 Driver (Truck)
07 Mechanic
08 Financeer
I'm stepping out (gonna boogie tonight)
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
She'd only had to avoid the Terrible Trio twice more.
Also deal with people who wanted her to join the Gymnastics Team for some reason.
As for the Trio - compared to the stuff that Iruka had her dodge, the occasional wadded up piece of paper was simple and easy. At one point Sophia grabbed her arm and she reflexively broke the hold but then Sophia stared at her arm. Weirdo. Oh. Wait. Was Emma gay and Sophia was her lover? Then what about that third wheel? But then why come after her?
Yeah, she could have beaten the crap out of them without significant difficulty. That would be giving away her identity and she was going to be a hero after all.
Getting a ninja outfit was surprisingly easy. There was her headband with the little swirl-leaf symbol she'd gotten from Iruka, and other than that she just needed something easy to move in. A quick web search had given her some ideas and then a quick henge and then relax the little mental switch she'd figured out.
Taylor checked herself in the mirror. With her chakra not restricted she was taller, looked a lot more fit, had an actual figure, two fluffy-as-could-be fox tails and a pair of fox ears, and red hair that Emma would be jealous of in a heartbeat.
No, she wasn't being petty - she just had a good appreciation of what she looked like now.
That she sort-of looked like that Ahri from that game "League of Legendaries" (or whatever it was called, it wasn't like she knew more than a few online images) just meant she'd have a few chances to lean into a role.
Not that ninja foxgirl superhero wasn't a role already.
The outfit she'd chosen was about as basic and cheap a combination that she thought looked good on her. Plus the Konoha headband of course. Getting kunai or other weapons would have to wait until she could find/buy such things.
The red hair would help distance her from plain old Taylor Hebert. Tonight she was a Ninja Girl!
She had done a little research and registering as an independent hero was definitely something to do. She didn't trust anyone at that PRT but that didn't mean she wasn't going to be smart and at least avoid the cliche of fighting with the heroes because nobody knew anyone else. She DID do some research and that DID happen.
Meh. Going to have to come up with a better name too. Something foxy. Something ninja-ey. Ninja-ish? Whatever. Ninja Girl was already taken by some gal in Austin. Maybe the night air and her first foray would give her some inspiration.
Iruka had had her training in the basics. The foundation of any building determined what you could build there. So she had drilled and practiced and used those basics while doing everything else.
Bursts of chakra to increase leaps, running up the side of a building using the Tree Climbing training, and the strength and acrobatic training she'd gone through with the enhanced learning techniques was part of her daily exercise routine as she went from rooftop to rooftop while landing "gentle as a leaf" - which was one of the harder parts of it actually.
She had no tools, which required money or taking them from opponents. So she had to find and deal with them.
First things first though. Register, let them know an independent hero was here. Hell, maybe she could get some name suggestions out of them - that had to be one of the questions they got asked a lot with so many names taken.
* Detective Phil Fish *
Front desk duty. At least there was a bathroom nearby.
Nine months, five days, seven hours till mandatory retirement. Not that he was counting.
He understood they were short-staffed. That they were trying to put him somewhere that was low-risk. He appreciated that.
Hell, he'd admit as soon as anyone else that the shaking in his hands meant not being anywhere near the frontline in a combat position. Here all he had to do was raise his hands and barriers would automatically snap into place.
Still, you kept your eyes on the monitors. Kept track of where everyone was. One woman and her five-year-old checking out the gift shop. Vista had a new sticker out, so that was expected even on a school day and this late at night. This one was actually kind of cute, with a little chibi cartoon Vista on a skateboard going through one of her distortions. It came as a pair so you could stick one up far away from the other or something.
As far as he knew, Vista didn't actually have a skateboard.
Image was really missing something there. Having her skateboard around the Boardwalk would probably be a lot more fun than the walk-and-wave stuff. Do that Scooby Doo thing where she was going in one door and coming out another maybe.
He hadn't talked much with the Wards, what he mainly did prior to getting "fill in at the front desk" duty was investigating leads on supervillains and going over reams of internet crap trying to pull actual facts out of that garbage.
He checked the monitors and raised a wrinkled eyebrow. Obvious cape was obvious, despite not wearing a cape. Maybe it was the fox ears. Maybe it was the two fox tails trailing behind her. Maybe it was the sweatpants or the t-shirt with what looked like an old Army surplus jacket over it.
Not that those sorts of jackets had anything wrong with them in this weather. They were pretty durable and at least water resistant.
"Got a cape approaching," said Detective Fish into a microphone. "Query?"
"No match in database," was the immediate answer. "Closest is a deceased anti-hero from Kyushu - Inari."
"Got it," said Detective Fish. New cape, likely hadn't locked down her costume or much other details. Just in case question #4 came up - he pulled up the cape name database on one screen.
Two more Troopers went to standby, one near the elevator, the other standing just outside the gift shop.
"Fish, overwatch notes presence of two E88 plainclothes and one ABB plainclothes at observation points. ABB ganger dropped phone on spotting approaching cape."
"Oh?" asked Fish.
"Probable panic reaction, and yelled something about his liver loud enough audio pickups got some of it."
"Right-eo, then," muttered Detective Fish as the new cape entered. Ears flicked all over the place on entering and nose twitched. Possibly enhanced senses - hearing and scent. Smile shows slightly lengthened incisors on both lower and upper sets of teeth.
Looked like she was trying to project confidence while her tails flicking behind her seemed to indicate nervousness. Not unusual for a new cape on the scene. Give her points for showing up here this early in her cape career, not like some of them who went out and their debut ended up with them face down in an alley and his people trying to figure out who to call with the news their kid was deceased.
Yeah, he'd had to do that a few times over the years.
"Hi there," said Detective Phil Fish, trying to project the whole helpful attitude thing. "How can I help you?"
"I'm here to pick up whatever forms I need for independent hero status," said the cape.
"Groovy," said Fish. Watching her wince was one of his old guy pleasures in life. Got to take 'em where you find 'em. He handed her the proper forms. "You want to fill them out here, we've got a conference room on this floor."
"Thanks, but I'll have to go over them later," said the new cape.
"Just so I've got a record of it, you have a cape name yet?" asked Fish, not expecting one if she was THAT new. "Also some basics on your power so I can pencil it in?"
"Oh, I'm going with Kitsune or Kunoichi unless they've been taken," said the new cape. "Or Kitsune Kunoichi if both are taken. I can change later if I come up with a better one, right?"
"It happens all the time," reassured Detective Fish. Yep, common question #4 about whether a name was taken. "So many of the good names are taken. I can check now... Yes. Kunoichi is taken but she died in the Leviathan attack on Kyushu. Kitsune... Japanese refugee hero now in Korea. Has a native nemesis villain named Gumiho where they've clashed several times. Huh. Did not know that. Shouldn't use the two names together because it'll cause confusion in the press and trust me - from what I'm seeing you don't want a connection to this Gumiho person."
"Ninja Girl? Because my powers are ninja techniques?" asked the new cape.
"Stranger/Mover huh?" asked Fish. "Hmmm. Taken. Rogue or minor villain associated with Bondage Girl in Austin."
"There's really a cape named 'Bondage Girl'?" asked the new cape.
"Tinker. Specializes in restraint devices. Occasionally ends up as the target of her own devices," said Fish. "On the other hand, her merchandise and videos apparently sell really well. You're going with Japanese themes in a city that has the ABB, so you're aware that Lung might object kind of violently?"
"I'm not planning on crossing paths with Lung if I can at all avoid it," said the new cape. "How about Shuriken?"
"Cape in San Francisco, power is very accurate throwing skills," said Fish. "That one I know. Ninja theme... fox. Inari is taken. How about Zenko - good foxes that serve the goddess of harvests?"
"Zenko? Zenko. I could use a rapier and scratch a 'Z' in the clothes of my opponents maybe?" asked New Cape.
"I think anything Zorro-like would eventually get the Disney lawyers on you," cautioned Fish.
"Eh, it'll work for now I suppose," said the new cape. "Can I drop the papers off this afternoon?"
"No problem. Take your time," said Detective Fish as she left. "Stay safe out there."
"Odds?" came a question from the intercom.
"That she'll play it safe?" Fish considered. "Maybe 50/50. She DID have enough sense to get the paperwork and introduce herself before going out to do the cape things. Be really nice if I didn't have to figure out next of kin."
"Amen," responded the console operator.
* Taylor *
After choosing the name, something had popped up in her vision again. From what she saw, nobody else noticed.
[Milestone achieved. +100 points.]
[Roll is deferred for active sit-]
[uation. Points roll over to pool]
This wasn't flying, the whole running at high speeds and leaping from building to building. It was fast, she figured her chakra enhanced running speed was at least 25mph or so. So fast, but not nearly what some of those out there could do.
Apparently nobody available in Konoha had an actual flight technique, which was terribly disappointing.
Apparently one of the rival villages had a technique but Iruka had only known it existed, not how to do it.
Well, she needed to try out her various techniques in the real world instead of halfway between the Pure World and the Impure World anyway.
Standing on a rooftop well away from the PRT building or home, she went through several of the stances and set manuevers of Konoha Academy Martial Arts in quick order. Followed by the few extras she'd learned those few days with Maito Gai from his style. Followed by going through each of the various techniques she'd learned as part of the "basics" of Konohagakure's Ninja Corps. Well, not the medical techniques. Those required someone injured and she wasn't going to cut herself to practice fixing that.
Disguise, Substitution, Clone or in her case - Shadow Clone. She'd already done Tree Climbing and Water Walking in her dash across Brockton Bay now. Water Gun, a Water Release technique that had her shoot high velocity bullets of water, was one of her other "fill out the basics" of the Academy. As was the basic storage scroll and explosive tags - though she'd need to get an ink-making kit so she could feed chakra into the ink to use those particular skills.
The chakra chain thing was harder, and something she really needed to practice more.
Then there was her father, maybe seeing his daughter was a full-on hero would break him out of that cloud of depression.
[100 points acquired.]
[Rolling... Failure. ]
[Points stored + 100.]
Huh. Well, couldn't be a winner every time.
* * *
He'd been up getting a drink of water at the time.
Danny Hebert had heard the window open and had investigated, the thought of an intruder being enough to penetrate both depression and his usual tiredness. Taylor hadn't answered, so he'd cracked the door open and found her missing and the window partly open.
So his early to-bed night had been cut short and he was waiting as someone came in Taylor's window and stopped dead on seeing him sitting in a chair in the open door.
The coppery red hair, the ears and fluffy tails (two of them), and the outfit all dropped away after a very uncomfortable moment and then Taylor was looking as if she'd been caught. Appropriately enough.
"Well, I can explain this," said Taylor.
"I think that I'm ready to listen," admitted Danny Hebert.
Also deal with people who wanted her to join the Gymnastics Team for some reason.
As for the Trio - compared to the stuff that Iruka had her dodge, the occasional wadded up piece of paper was simple and easy. At one point Sophia grabbed her arm and she reflexively broke the hold but then Sophia stared at her arm. Weirdo. Oh. Wait. Was Emma gay and Sophia was her lover? Then what about that third wheel? But then why come after her?
Yeah, she could have beaten the crap out of them without significant difficulty. That would be giving away her identity and she was going to be a hero after all.
Getting a ninja outfit was surprisingly easy. There was her headband with the little swirl-leaf symbol she'd gotten from Iruka, and other than that she just needed something easy to move in. A quick web search had given her some ideas and then a quick henge and then relax the little mental switch she'd figured out.
Taylor checked herself in the mirror. With her chakra not restricted she was taller, looked a lot more fit, had an actual figure, two fluffy-as-could-be fox tails and a pair of fox ears, and red hair that Emma would be jealous of in a heartbeat.
No, she wasn't being petty - she just had a good appreciation of what she looked like now.
That she sort-of looked like that Ahri from that game "League of Legendaries" (or whatever it was called, it wasn't like she knew more than a few online images) just meant she'd have a few chances to lean into a role.
Not that ninja foxgirl superhero wasn't a role already.
The outfit she'd chosen was about as basic and cheap a combination that she thought looked good on her. Plus the Konoha headband of course. Getting kunai or other weapons would have to wait until she could find/buy such things.
The red hair would help distance her from plain old Taylor Hebert. Tonight she was a Ninja Girl!
She had done a little research and registering as an independent hero was definitely something to do. She didn't trust anyone at that PRT but that didn't mean she wasn't going to be smart and at least avoid the cliche of fighting with the heroes because nobody knew anyone else. She DID do some research and that DID happen.
Meh. Going to have to come up with a better name too. Something foxy. Something ninja-ey. Ninja-ish? Whatever. Ninja Girl was already taken by some gal in Austin. Maybe the night air and her first foray would give her some inspiration.
Iruka had had her training in the basics. The foundation of any building determined what you could build there. So she had drilled and practiced and used those basics while doing everything else.
Bursts of chakra to increase leaps, running up the side of a building using the Tree Climbing training, and the strength and acrobatic training she'd gone through with the enhanced learning techniques was part of her daily exercise routine as she went from rooftop to rooftop while landing "gentle as a leaf" - which was one of the harder parts of it actually.
She had no tools, which required money or taking them from opponents. So she had to find and deal with them.
First things first though. Register, let them know an independent hero was here. Hell, maybe she could get some name suggestions out of them - that had to be one of the questions they got asked a lot with so many names taken.
* Detective Phil Fish *
Front desk duty. At least there was a bathroom nearby.
Nine months, five days, seven hours till mandatory retirement. Not that he was counting.
He understood they were short-staffed. That they were trying to put him somewhere that was low-risk. He appreciated that.
Hell, he'd admit as soon as anyone else that the shaking in his hands meant not being anywhere near the frontline in a combat position. Here all he had to do was raise his hands and barriers would automatically snap into place.
Still, you kept your eyes on the monitors. Kept track of where everyone was. One woman and her five-year-old checking out the gift shop. Vista had a new sticker out, so that was expected even on a school day and this late at night. This one was actually kind of cute, with a little chibi cartoon Vista on a skateboard going through one of her distortions. It came as a pair so you could stick one up far away from the other or something.
As far as he knew, Vista didn't actually have a skateboard.
Image was really missing something there. Having her skateboard around the Boardwalk would probably be a lot more fun than the walk-and-wave stuff. Do that Scooby Doo thing where she was going in one door and coming out another maybe.
He hadn't talked much with the Wards, what he mainly did prior to getting "fill in at the front desk" duty was investigating leads on supervillains and going over reams of internet crap trying to pull actual facts out of that garbage.
He checked the monitors and raised a wrinkled eyebrow. Obvious cape was obvious, despite not wearing a cape. Maybe it was the fox ears. Maybe it was the two fox tails trailing behind her. Maybe it was the sweatpants or the t-shirt with what looked like an old Army surplus jacket over it.
Not that those sorts of jackets had anything wrong with them in this weather. They were pretty durable and at least water resistant.
"Got a cape approaching," said Detective Fish into a microphone. "Query?"
"No match in database," was the immediate answer. "Closest is a deceased anti-hero from Kyushu - Inari."
"Got it," said Detective Fish. New cape, likely hadn't locked down her costume or much other details. Just in case question #4 came up - he pulled up the cape name database on one screen.
Two more Troopers went to standby, one near the elevator, the other standing just outside the gift shop.
"Fish, overwatch notes presence of two E88 plainclothes and one ABB plainclothes at observation points. ABB ganger dropped phone on spotting approaching cape."
"Oh?" asked Fish.
"Probable panic reaction, and yelled something about his liver loud enough audio pickups got some of it."
"Right-eo, then," muttered Detective Fish as the new cape entered. Ears flicked all over the place on entering and nose twitched. Possibly enhanced senses - hearing and scent. Smile shows slightly lengthened incisors on both lower and upper sets of teeth.
Looked like she was trying to project confidence while her tails flicking behind her seemed to indicate nervousness. Not unusual for a new cape on the scene. Give her points for showing up here this early in her cape career, not like some of them who went out and their debut ended up with them face down in an alley and his people trying to figure out who to call with the news their kid was deceased.
Yeah, he'd had to do that a few times over the years.
"Hi there," said Detective Phil Fish, trying to project the whole helpful attitude thing. "How can I help you?"
"I'm here to pick up whatever forms I need for independent hero status," said the cape.
"Groovy," said Fish. Watching her wince was one of his old guy pleasures in life. Got to take 'em where you find 'em. He handed her the proper forms. "You want to fill them out here, we've got a conference room on this floor."
"Thanks, but I'll have to go over them later," said the new cape.
"Just so I've got a record of it, you have a cape name yet?" asked Fish, not expecting one if she was THAT new. "Also some basics on your power so I can pencil it in?"
"Oh, I'm going with Kitsune or Kunoichi unless they've been taken," said the new cape. "Or Kitsune Kunoichi if both are taken. I can change later if I come up with a better one, right?"
"It happens all the time," reassured Detective Fish. Yep, common question #4 about whether a name was taken. "So many of the good names are taken. I can check now... Yes. Kunoichi is taken but she died in the Leviathan attack on Kyushu. Kitsune... Japanese refugee hero now in Korea. Has a native nemesis villain named Gumiho where they've clashed several times. Huh. Did not know that. Shouldn't use the two names together because it'll cause confusion in the press and trust me - from what I'm seeing you don't want a connection to this Gumiho person."
"Ninja Girl? Because my powers are ninja techniques?" asked the new cape.
"Stranger/Mover huh?" asked Fish. "Hmmm. Taken. Rogue or minor villain associated with Bondage Girl in Austin."
"There's really a cape named 'Bondage Girl'?" asked the new cape.
"Tinker. Specializes in restraint devices. Occasionally ends up as the target of her own devices," said Fish. "On the other hand, her merchandise and videos apparently sell really well. You're going with Japanese themes in a city that has the ABB, so you're aware that Lung might object kind of violently?"
"I'm not planning on crossing paths with Lung if I can at all avoid it," said the new cape. "How about Shuriken?"
"Cape in San Francisco, power is very accurate throwing skills," said Fish. "That one I know. Ninja theme... fox. Inari is taken. How about Zenko - good foxes that serve the goddess of harvests?"
"Zenko? Zenko. I could use a rapier and scratch a 'Z' in the clothes of my opponents maybe?" asked New Cape.
"I think anything Zorro-like would eventually get the Disney lawyers on you," cautioned Fish.
"Eh, it'll work for now I suppose," said the new cape. "Can I drop the papers off this afternoon?"
"No problem. Take your time," said Detective Fish as she left. "Stay safe out there."
"Odds?" came a question from the intercom.
"That she'll play it safe?" Fish considered. "Maybe 50/50. She DID have enough sense to get the paperwork and introduce herself before going out to do the cape things. Be really nice if I didn't have to figure out next of kin."
"Amen," responded the console operator.
* Taylor *
After choosing the name, something had popped up in her vision again. From what she saw, nobody else noticed.
[Milestone achieved. +100 points.]
[Roll is deferred for active sit-]
[uation. Points roll over to pool]
This wasn't flying, the whole running at high speeds and leaping from building to building. It was fast, she figured her chakra enhanced running speed was at least 25mph or so. So fast, but not nearly what some of those out there could do.
Apparently nobody available in Konoha had an actual flight technique, which was terribly disappointing.
Apparently one of the rival villages had a technique but Iruka had only known it existed, not how to do it.
Well, she needed to try out her various techniques in the real world instead of halfway between the Pure World and the Impure World anyway.
Standing on a rooftop well away from the PRT building or home, she went through several of the stances and set manuevers of Konoha Academy Martial Arts in quick order. Followed by the few extras she'd learned those few days with Maito Gai from his style. Followed by going through each of the various techniques she'd learned as part of the "basics" of Konohagakure's Ninja Corps. Well, not the medical techniques. Those required someone injured and she wasn't going to cut herself to practice fixing that.
Disguise, Substitution, Clone or in her case - Shadow Clone. She'd already done Tree Climbing and Water Walking in her dash across Brockton Bay now. Water Gun, a Water Release technique that had her shoot high velocity bullets of water, was one of her other "fill out the basics" of the Academy. As was the basic storage scroll and explosive tags - though she'd need to get an ink-making kit so she could feed chakra into the ink to use those particular skills.
The chakra chain thing was harder, and something she really needed to practice more.
Then there was her father, maybe seeing his daughter was a full-on hero would break him out of that cloud of depression.
[100 points acquired.]
[Rolling... Failure. ]
[Points stored + 100.]
Huh. Well, couldn't be a winner every time.
* * *
He'd been up getting a drink of water at the time.
Danny Hebert had heard the window open and had investigated, the thought of an intruder being enough to penetrate both depression and his usual tiredness. Taylor hadn't answered, so he'd cracked the door open and found her missing and the window partly open.
So his early to-bed night had been cut short and he was waiting as someone came in Taylor's window and stopped dead on seeing him sitting in a chair in the open door.
The coppery red hair, the ears and fluffy tails (two of them), and the outfit all dropped away after a very uncomfortable moment and then Taylor was looking as if she'd been caught. Appropriately enough.
"Well, I can explain this," said Taylor.
"I think that I'm ready to listen," admitted Danny Hebert.
Foxy Lady
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
"So, let me get this straight," said Danny Hebert, now doubly glad he'd had the foresight to lug over a chair to wait for Taylor. He'd expected a number of things, a boyfriend being the primary reason for Taylor to do a night excursion. Or that pizza place down the street. Or both. Ninja superhero daughter trying to register with the Parahuman Response Team had not been on his list of expected reasons.
"Okay," allowed Taylor, back to looking like Taylor and not a foxgirl.
"You were being bullied, by EMMA who has been your best friend since you were both six, and her new friends and thrown down a stairwell," summed up Danny.
"Right," agreed Taylor.
"Where you found yourself in some odd thing where you trained for two years under a number of ninja from some other world," continued Danny. "Then ended up back at the time you left, where you landed safely instead of breaking any bones, with..."
Taylor flexed her right arm, showing off the tight athletic musculature that came from two years of pretty intense workouts and chakra manipulation.
"Yeah. That." Danny Hebert considered getting his shotgun out and doing some maintenance on it. His little girl was of the age where male suitors might start showing up after all.
"Yeah, so when I'm like this, I'm Taylor," said Taylor. "Secret identities are a thing after all. And then when I'm like this-" (transform) "I'm Zenko, independent hero ninja kitsune and trickster!"
"Uh huh," said Danny.
"Well, since you know," said Taylor, shifting back as she spoke. "Can you look over this legal paperwork I got from the PRT? You've got a lot more experience with contracts after all."
Danny straightened up. This WAS entirely within his area of expertise. Not so much the parahuman stuff, but legal documentation and paperwork? Yeah, THIS he could deal with.
[+100 points. Roll Deferred for active situation.]
"What was that?" asked Danny.
"I just get these weird notices... you heard that?" asked Taylor. "The notice in front of that guy at the PRT - nobody saw or heard that from what I could tell."
"Maybe because you told me what was going on?" asked Danny.
"Maybe," said Taylor after considering for a moment.
"Well, let's see what they may have put in here," said Danny as he turned his attention to the papers. Certainly that other thing sounded like it could wait.
* PRT ENE Lobby *
* Sep 9 2009, 0700 hours *
"Yeah, paperwork just showed up ten minutes ago. Looks like she had someone go over it and mark the usual spots in red and cross off the stuff that shows they can follow the legalese," said Detective Reave. Normally that would get crossed off anyway during the face-to-face when it could be arranged.
"Summarize," said Deputy Director Renick.
"Zenko is the chosen name for now," said Reave. "She's listed her age as 14, so Ward-age despite looking a good five years older. Her powers are listed as 'ninja techniques' but the video of her arriving both yesterday and this morning show she can leap pretty good distances and run along vertical surfaces. Some minor Brute or Shaker rating maybe as she doesn't show the physical signs of stress that you would expect."
"Mover and Brute or Shaker, right," said Renick. "Likes the ninja motif? Any chance we can get her in for power testing to be sure?"
"No phone number we can call and try to schedule, they left the contact information blank excepting a new PHO account under her cape name," said Reave.
* PHO, Nine Hours Later *
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♦ Topic: New Cape in BB
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay
MZenny (Original Poster)
Posted On Sep 10th 2009:
New cape, identifies as a hero, very distinctive appearance.
As in she is a foxgirl. Young teen redhead with two fox ears and two fox tails.
Some of my regular customers know that I get my regular products (milk, eggs, hot dogs, etc) and sometimes I'll get some odd promotion product like in August when I had those Triumvirate bag clips. Well, recently I got egg rolls that I could add to the warmers that keep the hot dogs hot. Oh, and fried tofu sticks which I didn't think would sell at all.
She came in, apparently led by the smell, and bought all three tofu sticks that were on the rollers.
Anyway, the new cape is named Zenko and this is what she looks like [Link]. She had no problem posing for a picture, and was friendly enough. When she left, she walked up the side of the building while eating one of the tofu sticks like gravity had been flipped on its side.
So, welcome to Brockton Bay Zenko. You're welcome anytime. Just watch leaving footprints on the buildings because some of that's hard to reach when they need cleaning.
►XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
Wow, a real kitsune. Not like that one in Korea that just wears a costume? The tails are real?
Wonder if she can get an Ahri costume.
►Mojiizen
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
What the heck is a 'kitsune'?
Oh, just googled it. And found links to moe anthropomorphism. Also found out what Gumiho (one of the two Korean fox-women) has been up to. Yikes!
►Loki_Thorson
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
Okay, I'm really hoping 'Zenko' has nothing in common with 'Gumiho' and a bit more in common with Gumiho's frequent combatant - Kitsune. I didn't even know cannabilism was something a villain could do and not immediately face "kill with extreme prejudice" court orders.
►Mojiizen
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
Yeah, that was a bit of information I didn't want to see either.
For those who don't want to look it up, Gumiho is rated a human Master who can induce a dream-like state and one of the things she does for fun is get people to eat family members while under the illusion they're eating a normal meal. She leans heavily into the nastier side of the Korean legends about fox people. Her frequent opponent/rival is a hero named Kitsune who has some kind of spatial sense linked to her ability to create "fox holes" linking two areas together. Gumiho is a native, Kitsune is a Kyushu survivor who ended up in Korea.
Zenko, from what I've seen on clips [Link][Link] is more like Kitsune except the tail and ears are real and not some kind of Tinkertech sensor/communication device. Some kind of Mover/Shaker?
Looking up the name, Zenko appears to be trying to be a virtuous fox (zenko being heavenly messenger foxes serving Inari) compared to Gumiho who is more of a yako (wicked fox).
►Electric_Techpriest
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
I'm more curious that someone non-Asian has claimed an Asian identity in a city with a large and violent Asian criminal gang.
►Zenko (Unverified Cape)
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
My ears were burning. All four of them.
Hi guys!
►Electric_Techpriest
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
Sorry, but there have been trolls grabbing names and identifying as heroes before. Please get the mods to verify your account.
►Zenko (Unverified Cape)
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
Okay. How do I do that?
►Tin Mother (Moderator)
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
If you can DM me with proof you are who you say you are, I can do that for you.
►Zenko (Unverified Cape)
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
Sent you a picture. Will that work?
►Tin Mother (Moderator)
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
Yes, welcome Zenko. Please familiarize yourself with the Rules. Which is in the header section marked Rules appropriately enough.
►Electric_Techpriest
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
Welcome Zenko. You might want to put on safe filtering while you're at it. Just because Void Cowboy has already indicated he's watching this thread.
* Friday, Sep 11 2009 *
Sophia watched because the weak little prey wasn't acting like prey.
She only knew Stringbean there because of what Emma had told her. And what Emma had told her did not match up with the acrobat she'd seen over the past two days.
Girl was slipperier than a bar of soap on the floor of the girls' showers.
The first clue was when she'd misjudged her timing and had shoved the girl over the railing. Sophia had expected the girl to go into the railing, not over it. That the girl had done an acrobatic flip that looked downright graceful and landed perfectly on the uneven footing of the stairs on the other side? Sophia thought she could have probably done it but it still would've hurt.
So she'd listened to Emma but also started evaluating on her own.
Try to elbow Stringbean in the hallway and she found herself neatly avoided. Most insults and put-downs seemed to go right past the girl. Grabbing her homework or class projects? Girl seemed to see them coming, and moved just enough. Grabbing her arm let her feel that the hoodie was covering someone with some serious muscle tone when Stringbean had flexed to break the hold.
Today had been track and the Stringbean had been keeping up with her, just a bit behind herself. Sophia knew to look for things though, and Stringbean there had NOT been breathing hard or showing signs of strain.
Suspicious as hell. The girl didn't compete, had no drive to be the best, but was clearly in better shape than she let on.
Sophia smirked as the other girl changed out of her gym sweats to shower. She'd...
What the hell?!
Muscle definition showing as she flexed and when she used her toes to pick up the sweatpants so she didn't have to reach. Flexible. Dancer or gymnast? If she was prey, then she might just be something other than the weak one that needed to be culled from the herd.
* Taylor PoV *
Damn, she's watching me again.
Sheesh. Let her and Emma go off and explore their relationship. Just leave me alone.
Maybe tonight I should go run around the city and let off some steam? Find a few bad guys to smack around? Dad might object. Just running around was a rush though.
It was just that I needed something more to test out my taijutsu and bukijutsu skills. The simplest and easiest method was finding someone to fight, right?
* Meeting Room, Shangri-La Exports *
"Huh. So she IS a kitsune. Only two tails so not very powerful," said Lung as he looked over the video on a provided tablet.
The rank and file, some really rank, stirred a bit in the warehouse.
"She is just one of those monster capes," said Lung, pausing for a moment.
"A Case 53?" asked Wing, one of his lieutenants.
"Exactly," said Lung, leaning back into his throne. "Just a bit more fortunate than some of them. She is not that crazy bitch in Korea, who is simply a crazy bitch who thinks she's something else. Like the Faerie Queen that now sits in the Birdcage."
"So... is she someone we should recruit?" asked Ling, one of his other lieutenants.
Lung seemed to consider that for a few moments before shaking his head. "No. I have heard that these 'Case 53' have no memories of their past. If she demonstrates some useful power, it will be something to consider then. Enough on this new cape for now. Ting, tell me of the profits from the laundry operations."
"Profits are up 20% from last month, great Lung."
* 1900 hours *
"Homework done?"
"Check!"
"If you meet supervillains?"
"Substitution technique with a shadow clone and run away!"
"If you meet Lung?"
"Call for a parley, and while he's laughing run away."
"Stick to substituting with a clone and running away."
[Deferred Roll Commences.] A rapid ticking noise was heard by Taylor and her father.
"Oh, that's kind of ominous," commented Danny Hebert.
[Roll is specific to Taylor.]
"Wait. Does that mean what I think it means?" Danny thought it might mean two or three things.
[Restricted to Ninja at present]
[Due to Mastery limitations not]
[being met. RNG factor applied.]
Taylor waited as the tik-tak-tik sound slowed and stopped.
[06 - Negative Intent Sensing]
"That sounds handy," admitted Danny Hebert.
[Negative Intent Sensing - this form of Danger Sense does not register inanimate]
[or incidental dangers to you, only when someone in your vicinity is actively hostile.]
[Further stacks of this ability will upgrade.]
"Huh, because this is an innate ability enhancing something already there and not something taught, I don't have to be trained in it?" asked Taylor, who then nodded because that made a certain degree of sense. One of Iruka's frequent lessons had been that ninjas generally tried to avoid being hit. Dodging was not only allowed but encouraged, usually by means of thrown erasers which were upgraded to rocks which were upgraded to shuriken.
"Being able to tell when someone hostile to you is near does sound rather useful," admitted Danny Hebert. "Be back by eleven."
* * *
Chapter 3, Taylor:
Name: Zenko
Academy Taijutsu Style: Intermediate, Specialty: Evasion.
Jutsu: (general) Physical Enhancement (chunin), Clone (poor), Substitution, Disguise (high chunin), Genjutsu Break, Fuuinjutsu (basic) explosive tags and simple storage only, Tree Climbing, Water Walking, Shadow Clone.
Weapons Skills: (low chunin) kunai, shuriken, staff, naginata, chain. (genin) sword, rope dart, drug dart, rubber duck.
Medical Skills: basic First Aid, beginner level Iryo Nin training.
Jutsu (Water Release): Water Gun
Bloodline: Uzumaki (Mito)
Equipment: Ninja Headband (Konohagakure), exercise clothes, repurposed fishing vest, first aid kit (sealed), quarterstaff (home depot) (sealed), bag of trailmix for snacking (sealed), fuuinjutsu kit (work in progress).
"Okay," allowed Taylor, back to looking like Taylor and not a foxgirl.
"You were being bullied, by EMMA who has been your best friend since you were both six, and her new friends and thrown down a stairwell," summed up Danny.
"Right," agreed Taylor.
"Where you found yourself in some odd thing where you trained for two years under a number of ninja from some other world," continued Danny. "Then ended up back at the time you left, where you landed safely instead of breaking any bones, with..."
Taylor flexed her right arm, showing off the tight athletic musculature that came from two years of pretty intense workouts and chakra manipulation.
"Yeah. That." Danny Hebert considered getting his shotgun out and doing some maintenance on it. His little girl was of the age where male suitors might start showing up after all.
"Yeah, so when I'm like this, I'm Taylor," said Taylor. "Secret identities are a thing after all. And then when I'm like this-" (transform) "I'm Zenko, independent hero ninja kitsune and trickster!"
"Uh huh," said Danny.
"Well, since you know," said Taylor, shifting back as she spoke. "Can you look over this legal paperwork I got from the PRT? You've got a lot more experience with contracts after all."
Danny straightened up. This WAS entirely within his area of expertise. Not so much the parahuman stuff, but legal documentation and paperwork? Yeah, THIS he could deal with.
[+100 points. Roll Deferred for active situation.]
"What was that?" asked Danny.
"I just get these weird notices... you heard that?" asked Taylor. "The notice in front of that guy at the PRT - nobody saw or heard that from what I could tell."
"Maybe because you told me what was going on?" asked Danny.
"Maybe," said Taylor after considering for a moment.
"Well, let's see what they may have put in here," said Danny as he turned his attention to the papers. Certainly that other thing sounded like it could wait.
* PRT ENE Lobby *
* Sep 9 2009, 0700 hours *
"Yeah, paperwork just showed up ten minutes ago. Looks like she had someone go over it and mark the usual spots in red and cross off the stuff that shows they can follow the legalese," said Detective Reave. Normally that would get crossed off anyway during the face-to-face when it could be arranged.
"Summarize," said Deputy Director Renick.
"Zenko is the chosen name for now," said Reave. "She's listed her age as 14, so Ward-age despite looking a good five years older. Her powers are listed as 'ninja techniques' but the video of her arriving both yesterday and this morning show she can leap pretty good distances and run along vertical surfaces. Some minor Brute or Shaker rating maybe as she doesn't show the physical signs of stress that you would expect."
"Mover and Brute or Shaker, right," said Renick. "Likes the ninja motif? Any chance we can get her in for power testing to be sure?"
"No phone number we can call and try to schedule, they left the contact information blank excepting a new PHO account under her cape name," said Reave.
* PHO, Nine Hours Later *
Welcome to the Parahumans Online message boards.
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♦ Topic: New Cape in BB
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay
MZenny (Original Poster)
Posted On Sep 10th 2009:
New cape, identifies as a hero, very distinctive appearance.
As in she is a foxgirl. Young teen redhead with two fox ears and two fox tails.
Some of my regular customers know that I get my regular products (milk, eggs, hot dogs, etc) and sometimes I'll get some odd promotion product like in August when I had those Triumvirate bag clips. Well, recently I got egg rolls that I could add to the warmers that keep the hot dogs hot. Oh, and fried tofu sticks which I didn't think would sell at all.
She came in, apparently led by the smell, and bought all three tofu sticks that were on the rollers.
Anyway, the new cape is named Zenko and this is what she looks like [Link]. She had no problem posing for a picture, and was friendly enough. When she left, she walked up the side of the building while eating one of the tofu sticks like gravity had been flipped on its side.
So, welcome to Brockton Bay Zenko. You're welcome anytime. Just watch leaving footprints on the buildings because some of that's hard to reach when they need cleaning.
►XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
Wow, a real kitsune. Not like that one in Korea that just wears a costume? The tails are real?
Wonder if she can get an Ahri costume.
►Mojiizen
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
What the heck is a 'kitsune'?
Oh, just googled it. And found links to moe anthropomorphism. Also found out what Gumiho (one of the two Korean fox-women) has been up to. Yikes!
►Loki_Thorson
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
Okay, I'm really hoping 'Zenko' has nothing in common with 'Gumiho' and a bit more in common with Gumiho's frequent combatant - Kitsune. I didn't even know cannabilism was something a villain could do and not immediately face "kill with extreme prejudice" court orders.
►Mojiizen
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
Yeah, that was a bit of information I didn't want to see either.
For those who don't want to look it up, Gumiho is rated a human Master who can induce a dream-like state and one of the things she does for fun is get people to eat family members while under the illusion they're eating a normal meal. She leans heavily into the nastier side of the Korean legends about fox people. Her frequent opponent/rival is a hero named Kitsune who has some kind of spatial sense linked to her ability to create "fox holes" linking two areas together. Gumiho is a native, Kitsune is a Kyushu survivor who ended up in Korea.
Zenko, from what I've seen on clips [Link][Link] is more like Kitsune except the tail and ears are real and not some kind of Tinkertech sensor/communication device. Some kind of Mover/Shaker?
Looking up the name, Zenko appears to be trying to be a virtuous fox (zenko being heavenly messenger foxes serving Inari) compared to Gumiho who is more of a yako (wicked fox).
►Electric_Techpriest
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
I'm more curious that someone non-Asian has claimed an Asian identity in a city with a large and violent Asian criminal gang.
►Zenko (Unverified Cape)
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
My ears were burning. All four of them.
Hi guys!
►Electric_Techpriest
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
Sorry, but there have been trolls grabbing names and identifying as heroes before. Please get the mods to verify your account.
►Zenko (Unverified Cape)
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
Okay. How do I do that?
►Tin Mother (Moderator)
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
If you can DM me with proof you are who you say you are, I can do that for you.
►Zenko (Unverified Cape)
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
Sent you a picture. Will that work?
►Tin Mother (Moderator)
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
Yes, welcome Zenko. Please familiarize yourself with the Rules. Which is in the header section marked Rules appropriately enough.
►Electric_Techpriest
Replied On Sep 10th 2009:
Welcome Zenko. You might want to put on safe filtering while you're at it. Just because Void Cowboy has already indicated he's watching this thread.
* Friday, Sep 11 2009 *
Sophia watched because the weak little prey wasn't acting like prey.
She only knew Stringbean there because of what Emma had told her. And what Emma had told her did not match up with the acrobat she'd seen over the past two days.
Girl was slipperier than a bar of soap on the floor of the girls' showers.
The first clue was when she'd misjudged her timing and had shoved the girl over the railing. Sophia had expected the girl to go into the railing, not over it. That the girl had done an acrobatic flip that looked downright graceful and landed perfectly on the uneven footing of the stairs on the other side? Sophia thought she could have probably done it but it still would've hurt.
So she'd listened to Emma but also started evaluating on her own.
Try to elbow Stringbean in the hallway and she found herself neatly avoided. Most insults and put-downs seemed to go right past the girl. Grabbing her homework or class projects? Girl seemed to see them coming, and moved just enough. Grabbing her arm let her feel that the hoodie was covering someone with some serious muscle tone when Stringbean had flexed to break the hold.
Today had been track and the Stringbean had been keeping up with her, just a bit behind herself. Sophia knew to look for things though, and Stringbean there had NOT been breathing hard or showing signs of strain.
Suspicious as hell. The girl didn't compete, had no drive to be the best, but was clearly in better shape than she let on.
Sophia smirked as the other girl changed out of her gym sweats to shower. She'd...
What the hell?!
Muscle definition showing as she flexed and when she used her toes to pick up the sweatpants so she didn't have to reach. Flexible. Dancer or gymnast? If she was prey, then she might just be something other than the weak one that needed to be culled from the herd.
* Taylor PoV *
Damn, she's watching me again.
Sheesh. Let her and Emma go off and explore their relationship. Just leave me alone.
Maybe tonight I should go run around the city and let off some steam? Find a few bad guys to smack around? Dad might object. Just running around was a rush though.
It was just that I needed something more to test out my taijutsu and bukijutsu skills. The simplest and easiest method was finding someone to fight, right?
* Meeting Room, Shangri-La Exports *
"Huh. So she IS a kitsune. Only two tails so not very powerful," said Lung as he looked over the video on a provided tablet.
The rank and file, some really rank, stirred a bit in the warehouse.
"She is just one of those monster capes," said Lung, pausing for a moment.
"A Case 53?" asked Wing, one of his lieutenants.
"Exactly," said Lung, leaning back into his throne. "Just a bit more fortunate than some of them. She is not that crazy bitch in Korea, who is simply a crazy bitch who thinks she's something else. Like the Faerie Queen that now sits in the Birdcage."
"So... is she someone we should recruit?" asked Ling, one of his other lieutenants.
Lung seemed to consider that for a few moments before shaking his head. "No. I have heard that these 'Case 53' have no memories of their past. If she demonstrates some useful power, it will be something to consider then. Enough on this new cape for now. Ting, tell me of the profits from the laundry operations."
"Profits are up 20% from last month, great Lung."
* 1900 hours *
"Homework done?"
"Check!"
"If you meet supervillains?"
"Substitution technique with a shadow clone and run away!"
"If you meet Lung?"
"Call for a parley, and while he's laughing run away."
"Stick to substituting with a clone and running away."
[Deferred Roll Commences.] A rapid ticking noise was heard by Taylor and her father.
"Oh, that's kind of ominous," commented Danny Hebert.
[Roll is specific to Taylor.]
"Wait. Does that mean what I think it means?" Danny thought it might mean two or three things.
[Restricted to Ninja at present]
[Due to Mastery limitations not]
[being met. RNG factor applied.]
Taylor waited as the tik-tak-tik sound slowed and stopped.
[06 - Negative Intent Sensing]
"That sounds handy," admitted Danny Hebert.
[Negative Intent Sensing - this form of Danger Sense does not register inanimate]
[or incidental dangers to you, only when someone in your vicinity is actively hostile.]
[Further stacks of this ability will upgrade.]
"Huh, because this is an innate ability enhancing something already there and not something taught, I don't have to be trained in it?" asked Taylor, who then nodded because that made a certain degree of sense. One of Iruka's frequent lessons had been that ninjas generally tried to avoid being hit. Dodging was not only allowed but encouraged, usually by means of thrown erasers which were upgraded to rocks which were upgraded to shuriken.
"Being able to tell when someone hostile to you is near does sound rather useful," admitted Danny Hebert. "Be back by eleven."
* * *
Chapter 3, Taylor:
Name: Zenko
Academy Taijutsu Style: Intermediate, Specialty: Evasion.
Jutsu: (general) Physical Enhancement (chunin), Clone (poor), Substitution, Disguise (high chunin), Genjutsu Break, Fuuinjutsu (basic) explosive tags and simple storage only, Tree Climbing, Water Walking, Shadow Clone.
Weapons Skills: (low chunin) kunai, shuriken, staff, naginata, chain. (genin) sword, rope dart, drug dart, rubber duck.
Medical Skills: basic First Aid, beginner level Iryo Nin training.
Jutsu (Water Release): Water Gun
Bloodline: Uzumaki (Mito)
Equipment: Ninja Headband (Konohagakure), exercise clothes, repurposed fishing vest, first aid kit (sealed), quarterstaff (home depot) (sealed), bag of trailmix for snacking (sealed), fuuinjutsu kit (work in progress).
Last edited:
Dancing In The Moonlight
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
* Sep 9, 2009, 1935 hours *
* Roof of the Peterson Building, Roosevelt and 7th Avenue, Brockton Bay *
She was the darkness, she was the night, she was justice and she was vengeance. She stalked this urban jungle, seeking the prey she so deserved.
"Wooohooo!"
Shadow Stalker jumped a little as a redhaired foxgirl ran across the rooftop, jumped and landed on another roof a good forty feet away, and was quickly lost in the distance.
Sophia Hess/Shadow Stalker summed it up in her usual fashion. "What the actual fuck?!"
Shadow Stalker narrowed her eyes and took off in pursuit. This was HER hunting ground. She was not inclined to share it with the sort of girl who ran across rooftops yelling "woohoo" at all.
* Zenko *
There had been a flash of hostile intent from the dark shape on the rooftop, but she left her behind very quickly.
Crossbow carrying dark shape skulking about on a rooftop? Obviously either a sniper or someone way too emo.
She had enough teen drama and crap at school, so yeah - leave edgy emo gal way way behind.
Oooh! A mugging!
Just what she needed. First though, preparations were important. "shadow clone," she whispered.
* Sophia *
She was good and she knew it. She typically did the mid-range track events, not the long-distance stuff. So going after the faster girl had winded her a bit.
The sounds of fighting stopped and she slowly edged out over the lip of the roof to look down and see what the tailed girl had been up to.
There were four thugs, splayed out on the ground. One woman with a torn dress huddled up against a wall. Between the thugs and the woman was the redheaded tailed girl.
"That was it? That wasn't even a good workout," complained the fox-tailed cape. "Okay, lady. You got a phone you can call this in? Tell 'em Zenko was here... hang on."
The foxtailed girl spun around and casually broke the arm of the thug who had been in the process of drawing a gun. "Dude. Rude."
"You broke my arm! Police brutality! I know my rights!"
"Yeah yeah. And you were about to shoot me in the back. Should I take your gun and shoot YOU in the back to make it even?"
"You're crazy!"
"If I'm crazy and you're arguing with me, what does that make you?" asked the redhead.
Shadow Stalker retreated just enough as she thought about what she'd just seen and heard. Maybe this was actually someone she could team up with? Foxes were predators after all, right?
* Zenko PoV *
Just letting my shadow clone run up a wall and dismiss herself while I remained hidden worked pretty darn well.
Emo Girl just sat there in the shadows for a few moments, not seeing me at all.
Which was as it should be. If I'm going to be a ninja, and I was, I was going to be the trickster ninja archtype. Emma had been my best friend up until she wasn't, and she seemed to be crazier than a bug on a hot frypan, so I needed new friends. Friends I could rely on. Emo Girl didn't strike me as particularly stable or good friend material.
Friends that weren't going to dump me for some new girl. Unlike Emma. We could have stayed friends and she could just date her squeeze.
Enough dwelling on that, I'm out to test myself and have fun.
Taking those four down as fast as I had kind of pointed to one of two things. Either they were really really pathetic, or a beginning chunin from Konoha was just way overpowered for street thugs.
The tik-tak-tik noise of some roulette wheel began sounding, so I found an empty rooftop and ducked in between a couple of air conditioning units.
The scenery shifted to become the village I'd seen back when training with Iruka Umino.
I didn't recognize the guy, but I bowed and introduced myself but kept my eyes on the guy all the time. "Taylor Hebert."
"Shisui Uchiha," said the guy.
"What am I supposed to learn here?" I asked, just a little eager to have something new to show off.
Though Iruka had always said to have one or two surprises back in case you ran into someone who'd actually read up on your capabilities and prepared for them.
"My signature technique," said Shisui. "It is called 'Shunshin' or 'Body Flicker' - it is a high speed movement technique."
"Okay," said Taylor, watching as Shisui slowly went through the hand-signs. Except there was apparently just one: Tiger. "Wait, that's it?"
"It is a refinement of the Body Replacement Technique or 'Kawarimi no Jutsu' in my own language," said Shisui. "How well practiced are you at that?"
"Pretty good, I've got it down to... one seal," said Taylor, realization clicking into place. "You're substituting yourself with air?"
"Mostly air," answered Shisui, sounding slightly pleased. "Each village has slight variations based on the materials normally at hand. Leaves for Konoha, sand for Suna, and so on. Chakra constructs that fade after a few moments. Creating those at a distance is the actual difficulty and is why Shunshin isn't taught at the Academy even though it is considered a D-Rank technique."
"Huh, so my Adorable Fox Clone technique might be suitable for use with it?" asked Taylor.
Shisui was silent for a few moments. "First - the name for that technique somehow fills me with dread. Two - I would have to see the technique. Which, as I said, I have this feeling I do not want to see it."
"Oh, it combines Shadow Clone, Disguise, and -" Taylor whipped through a set of hand-signs, ending and holding it in the cross-handed one used for Shadow Clone. "Adorable Fox Clones!" (poof!)
Shisui blinked as there were now a half-dozen pure white and extremely fluffy-looking foxes surrounding Taylor. "And the use for this?"
"Well, Iruka-sensei told me always have something as backup," said Taylor. "So I was thinking Shadow Clone by itself could be part of that. But if I disguise my ability as just being able to create these fox-clones it would serve multiple purposes."
"Churr!" churred one of the foxes.
"By using smaller clones I can make more of them," explained Taylor. "I can send them off to scout an area and as long as I don't drop more than a couple at a time they won't give me a migraine. Then there's my world's problem with images and such. If I use the Fox Clones, they look cute and mostly harmless - which makes me seem less threatening to the authorities."
"I see," said Shisui, thinking that was very different from the usual image problems of ninja in his own world but understandable. "If people dismiss them as just cute projections, they will underestimate you and give you an advantage when you need it. That might only work once though."
"Yeah, but that's true with anything I keep as a secret technique," admitted Taylor.
"I will demonstrate the technique and then help you master it," decided Shisui. "Experiment. Find out what works best for you."
* Roof *
Zenko checked her watch, an old-fashioned pocket watch she could tuck into an armored pocket since she didn't think a wristwatch would last long in a fight. Two seconds here for the two years she'd been brushing up on techniques and getting further training in.
If you had the time, make use of it.
She was right on the edge of making it to Tokubetsu Jonin, which meant she'd no longer be restricted to Ninja skills on the pulls if she got there. All those pretty constellations just waiting for her.
Now though? Now she needed to get her name out. She knew from PHO and TV that branding and reputation were BIG things in the cape world. She was going to be a hero and help people and having people know about her would help her help them.
"Adorable Fox Swarm!" (poof!)
The foxes scattered across the rooftops, running up walls and leaping across the street-wide gaps.
How better to find where she was needed?
Zenko sat back, waiting, until one found something and dispelled. She looked up with a smile. Proof of concept.
Shunshin to a rooftop near the burning building, then use my newest technique.
After all, why NOT practice everything else while practicing evading stuff through Body Flicker. Shisui had even approved of the concept.
"Water Release: Archerfish!"
Just taking existing water and adding some pressure and direction was the easy part. Keeping the pressure constant and controlling it was the hard part. Most ninja techniques were combat-oriented after all, meant to damage and kill. Training techniques, by their own nature were designed to minimize such things, so she'd gotten trained in training techniques for that purpose. That these were exactly the sort of thing she needed to keep a reputation as a helpful fox-girl hero made mastering those techniques all the better.
The firemen looked all surprised at Taylor's appearance, and downright dumbfounded at the next thing she did.
"You guys had it all in hand, but I figured I could lend a paw! Independent hero Zenko, at your service! Can I help with anything else?" She tried not to sound too eager.
"Uh, yeah, can you check for anyone needing help? Just in case we missed anyone?" asked one of the firefighters.
"No, already did that, you got everyone," said Zenko cheerfully. "Good job, guys!"
One of the firefighters in back turned to another one. "A cape who isn't a gloryhound. Am I dreaming?"
"She's a kid," fired back the other, "give her time. Oh."
He'd just gotten a look at how Zenko's tails and ears had drooped. Or how the captain was looking back at him.
"I didn't mean to say that very loud?" said the first of the two firefighters.
"Uh well, I'll let you get on with that," said Zenko, turning and running up the wall.
"Lawson?" asked the Captain.
"Yessir?"
"Do we have to schedule more 'interacting with capes' continuing education modules?"
"No, Captain. Won't happen again."
* Zenko *
It didn't really hurt that much. A little, yeah. The rest was just me acting it out.
Better to focus on that... hey there was Emo Girl again. And there went Emo Girl again. Slow wasn't she?
Land over here, jump across this street, and "Adorable Fox Swarm!"
Only be able to do that a bit more, but get at least one more heroic act done tonight. If possible.
Hey, it was either that or scroll some PHO and see what kind of reaction her new approach to Shadow Clone did.
Oh, hey, the Boardwalk was right over there. Maybe she could go through that and get some direct feedback if she let her little foxy sensors be seen?
* PRT *
PRT Internal Threat Assessment Report Initial - Security Clearance 4 Required
Date: Sep 11 2009
Name: Zenko, Status: Independent Hero
Protectorate ENE - Brockton Bay
Reporting Officer - Miss Militia
Note: Subject has been receptive to the idea of Ward membership and power testing but is reluctant to join, stating that some of the regulations and limitations would be difficult for her. Subject has requested time to fully discuss with her father.
Armsmaster Addendum: Analysis of various ratings come from reports from those who have interacted with Zenko in the past week and may be biased. Combined with this is analysis from security cameras, tinkertech overwatch drones being tested in the Boardwalk and West Side areas, and police and fire interactions.
Appearance: Zenko is a tall (5'9) girl of between 14-16 years. Statements by her place her age at 14 while her physical development is closer to what is expected of 16 years age. She possesses two fox tails, apparently real as they are quite mobile and register as a heat source. She has two fox ears atop her head that appear to be expressive. Slight point to the human ears, and elongated canine teeth visible when smiling. Hair is copper in coloration except at the tips of her tails where they are white.
Her costume is currently composed of off-the-rack components with the exception of a metal and cloth headband bearing a symbol which does not come up with a match on database search engines. Zenko states she is working on a more permanent costume.
Brute 1: Zenko shows shows signs of enhanced strength, being able to hit far harder than her frame/weight would allow normally. She does not show any signs of being bulletproof however.
Mover 3: Zenko has managed short bursts of speeds in excess of 45mph and is capable of leaps of over 100feet while running. In addition she can treat vertical surfaces as if they are horizontal.
Shaker/Blaster 2: Zenko has been shown to create small bursts of water and to manipulate existing water supplies in a crude form of hydrokinesis.
Thinker 2: Some evidence of enhanced senses: low light vision, exceptionally acute hearing and sense of smell. See also Master rating.
Changer 1: Zenko's "foxgirl" form acts and reacts as a biological organism and is sufficiently variant from normal human that she would be unable to have a secret identity if she had no way to change back.
Master 2: Zenko has demonstrated the ability to create projections of six normal-sized foxes, pure white in fur coloration, which have the same mover ability she does. These projections are fragile in that penetration by a knife wielded by an E88 member was able to dispel it, but was then immediately mobbed by the remaining foxes as they arrived in a swarm.
Profile: Zenko has presented herself as friendly and somewhat outgoing, though questions about making friends or associating with other her age has shown tells to indicate something wrong in that regard. Possible problems at school or private life. No such indications about family life other than a comment about "how her father is doing a lot better" since she gained powers.
The major aberration about Zenko other than the physical form is her insistence that her abilities are "ninjutsu" and require somatic movements and focus. Considering Myrrdin and several other capes, this is uncommon but not unheard of.
* Elsewhere *
Thomas Calvert sat back in his desk and pondered how best to handle this new asset.
Perhaps some aggressive recruitment aimed at her family? Perhaps it HAD been a grab-bag as that Empire cape Crusader did something with multiple projections?
As it was, where was the unifying theme? Powers usually hung from a single nail, the exception being the so-called grab-bag capes which pinged off of other capes in the vicinity. Yet there were no hydrokinetics in Brockton Bay that he knew of, nor a Mover with anything like a near-match there. Certainly no one with the ears and tail.
His first thought had been a Case 53, though very fortunate in that regard. Yet the point raised in the PRT report was a good one - if this was her natural form she'd have been spotted well before now. She was too practiced at some of this to be a fresh trigger.
Perhaps she would divulge those answers on the table. If she wasn't a Case 53 then her memories should be intact and he had the drugs and the tools to tease those answers out.
* Hebert Household *
Her chakra had been initially developed by Mito Uzumaki dwelling within her, including a charge of energy from the Kyubi. It had dwelled within her, warm and powerful.
It had also been essentially like the training wheels on the bicycle she'd had when she was six. Mito's work had been to develop those chakra coils and capacity, Kurama (the actual name for the Kyubi) had been the charge in that battery.
Taylor let out a deep breath and relaxed. Almost. Speculation from Umino-sensei and Jiraiya-sensei had been that once she'd gotten good enough with her chakra, she'd have two forms. When releasing the hold on her chakra she'd be Zenko, when she held it tight she'd return to her more normal appearance without tails or ears or red hair. She wouldn't have to maintain the henge (disguise) jutsu indefinitely.
Which was good, she had liked that her hair had resembled her mother's hair. That it was temporary until she mastered her ninjutsu was a constant bit of reassurance that her powers hadn't changed everything about her.
Though being awesome ninja foxgirl Zenko was cool, she certainly wasn't done being Taylor.
* Roof of the Peterson Building, Roosevelt and 7th Avenue, Brockton Bay *
She was the darkness, she was the night, she was justice and she was vengeance. She stalked this urban jungle, seeking the prey she so deserved.
"Wooohooo!"
Shadow Stalker jumped a little as a redhaired foxgirl ran across the rooftop, jumped and landed on another roof a good forty feet away, and was quickly lost in the distance.
Sophia Hess/Shadow Stalker summed it up in her usual fashion. "What the actual fuck?!"
Shadow Stalker narrowed her eyes and took off in pursuit. This was HER hunting ground. She was not inclined to share it with the sort of girl who ran across rooftops yelling "woohoo" at all.
* Zenko *
There had been a flash of hostile intent from the dark shape on the rooftop, but she left her behind very quickly.
Crossbow carrying dark shape skulking about on a rooftop? Obviously either a sniper or someone way too emo.
She had enough teen drama and crap at school, so yeah - leave edgy emo gal way way behind.
Oooh! A mugging!
Just what she needed. First though, preparations were important. "shadow clone," she whispered.
* Sophia *
She was good and she knew it. She typically did the mid-range track events, not the long-distance stuff. So going after the faster girl had winded her a bit.
The sounds of fighting stopped and she slowly edged out over the lip of the roof to look down and see what the tailed girl had been up to.
There were four thugs, splayed out on the ground. One woman with a torn dress huddled up against a wall. Between the thugs and the woman was the redheaded tailed girl.
"That was it? That wasn't even a good workout," complained the fox-tailed cape. "Okay, lady. You got a phone you can call this in? Tell 'em Zenko was here... hang on."
The foxtailed girl spun around and casually broke the arm of the thug who had been in the process of drawing a gun. "Dude. Rude."
"You broke my arm! Police brutality! I know my rights!"
"Yeah yeah. And you were about to shoot me in the back. Should I take your gun and shoot YOU in the back to make it even?"
"You're crazy!"
"If I'm crazy and you're arguing with me, what does that make you?" asked the redhead.
Shadow Stalker retreated just enough as she thought about what she'd just seen and heard. Maybe this was actually someone she could team up with? Foxes were predators after all, right?
* Zenko PoV *
Just letting my shadow clone run up a wall and dismiss herself while I remained hidden worked pretty darn well.
Emo Girl just sat there in the shadows for a few moments, not seeing me at all.
Which was as it should be. If I'm going to be a ninja, and I was, I was going to be the trickster ninja archtype. Emma had been my best friend up until she wasn't, and she seemed to be crazier than a bug on a hot frypan, so I needed new friends. Friends I could rely on. Emo Girl didn't strike me as particularly stable or good friend material.
Friends that weren't going to dump me for some new girl. Unlike Emma. We could have stayed friends and she could just date her squeeze.
Enough dwelling on that, I'm out to test myself and have fun.
Taking those four down as fast as I had kind of pointed to one of two things. Either they were really really pathetic, or a beginning chunin from Konoha was just way overpowered for street thugs.
The tik-tak-tik noise of some roulette wheel began sounding, so I found an empty rooftop and ducked in between a couple of air conditioning units.
The scenery shifted to become the village I'd seen back when training with Iruka Umino.
I didn't recognize the guy, but I bowed and introduced myself but kept my eyes on the guy all the time. "Taylor Hebert."
"Shisui Uchiha," said the guy.
"What am I supposed to learn here?" I asked, just a little eager to have something new to show off.
Though Iruka had always said to have one or two surprises back in case you ran into someone who'd actually read up on your capabilities and prepared for them.
"My signature technique," said Shisui. "It is called 'Shunshin' or 'Body Flicker' - it is a high speed movement technique."
"Okay," said Taylor, watching as Shisui slowly went through the hand-signs. Except there was apparently just one: Tiger. "Wait, that's it?"
"It is a refinement of the Body Replacement Technique or 'Kawarimi no Jutsu' in my own language," said Shisui. "How well practiced are you at that?"
"Pretty good, I've got it down to... one seal," said Taylor, realization clicking into place. "You're substituting yourself with air?"
"Mostly air," answered Shisui, sounding slightly pleased. "Each village has slight variations based on the materials normally at hand. Leaves for Konoha, sand for Suna, and so on. Chakra constructs that fade after a few moments. Creating those at a distance is the actual difficulty and is why Shunshin isn't taught at the Academy even though it is considered a D-Rank technique."
"Huh, so my Adorable Fox Clone technique might be suitable for use with it?" asked Taylor.
Shisui was silent for a few moments. "First - the name for that technique somehow fills me with dread. Two - I would have to see the technique. Which, as I said, I have this feeling I do not want to see it."
"Oh, it combines Shadow Clone, Disguise, and -" Taylor whipped through a set of hand-signs, ending and holding it in the cross-handed one used for Shadow Clone. "Adorable Fox Clones!" (poof!)
Shisui blinked as there were now a half-dozen pure white and extremely fluffy-looking foxes surrounding Taylor. "And the use for this?"
"Well, Iruka-sensei told me always have something as backup," said Taylor. "So I was thinking Shadow Clone by itself could be part of that. But if I disguise my ability as just being able to create these fox-clones it would serve multiple purposes."
"Churr!" churred one of the foxes.
"By using smaller clones I can make more of them," explained Taylor. "I can send them off to scout an area and as long as I don't drop more than a couple at a time they won't give me a migraine. Then there's my world's problem with images and such. If I use the Fox Clones, they look cute and mostly harmless - which makes me seem less threatening to the authorities."
"I see," said Shisui, thinking that was very different from the usual image problems of ninja in his own world but understandable. "If people dismiss them as just cute projections, they will underestimate you and give you an advantage when you need it. That might only work once though."
"Yeah, but that's true with anything I keep as a secret technique," admitted Taylor.
"I will demonstrate the technique and then help you master it," decided Shisui. "Experiment. Find out what works best for you."
* Roof *
Zenko checked her watch, an old-fashioned pocket watch she could tuck into an armored pocket since she didn't think a wristwatch would last long in a fight. Two seconds here for the two years she'd been brushing up on techniques and getting further training in.
If you had the time, make use of it.
She was right on the edge of making it to Tokubetsu Jonin, which meant she'd no longer be restricted to Ninja skills on the pulls if she got there. All those pretty constellations just waiting for her.
Now though? Now she needed to get her name out. She knew from PHO and TV that branding and reputation were BIG things in the cape world. She was going to be a hero and help people and having people know about her would help her help them.
"Adorable Fox Swarm!" (poof!)
The foxes scattered across the rooftops, running up walls and leaping across the street-wide gaps.
How better to find where she was needed?
Zenko sat back, waiting, until one found something and dispelled. She looked up with a smile. Proof of concept.
Shunshin to a rooftop near the burning building, then use my newest technique.
After all, why NOT practice everything else while practicing evading stuff through Body Flicker. Shisui had even approved of the concept.
"Water Release: Archerfish!"
Just taking existing water and adding some pressure and direction was the easy part. Keeping the pressure constant and controlling it was the hard part. Most ninja techniques were combat-oriented after all, meant to damage and kill. Training techniques, by their own nature were designed to minimize such things, so she'd gotten trained in training techniques for that purpose. That these were exactly the sort of thing she needed to keep a reputation as a helpful fox-girl hero made mastering those techniques all the better.
The firemen looked all surprised at Taylor's appearance, and downright dumbfounded at the next thing she did.
"You guys had it all in hand, but I figured I could lend a paw! Independent hero Zenko, at your service! Can I help with anything else?" She tried not to sound too eager.
"Uh, yeah, can you check for anyone needing help? Just in case we missed anyone?" asked one of the firefighters.
"No, already did that, you got everyone," said Zenko cheerfully. "Good job, guys!"
One of the firefighters in back turned to another one. "A cape who isn't a gloryhound. Am I dreaming?"
"She's a kid," fired back the other, "give her time. Oh."
He'd just gotten a look at how Zenko's tails and ears had drooped. Or how the captain was looking back at him.
"I didn't mean to say that very loud?" said the first of the two firefighters.
"Uh well, I'll let you get on with that," said Zenko, turning and running up the wall.
"Lawson?" asked the Captain.
"Yessir?"
"Do we have to schedule more 'interacting with capes' continuing education modules?"
"No, Captain. Won't happen again."
* Zenko *
It didn't really hurt that much. A little, yeah. The rest was just me acting it out.
Better to focus on that... hey there was Emo Girl again. And there went Emo Girl again. Slow wasn't she?
Land over here, jump across this street, and "Adorable Fox Swarm!"
Only be able to do that a bit more, but get at least one more heroic act done tonight. If possible.
Hey, it was either that or scroll some PHO and see what kind of reaction her new approach to Shadow Clone did.
Oh, hey, the Boardwalk was right over there. Maybe she could go through that and get some direct feedback if she let her little foxy sensors be seen?
* PRT *
PRT Internal Threat Assessment Report Initial - Security Clearance 4 Required
Date: Sep 11 2009
Name: Zenko, Status: Independent Hero
Protectorate ENE - Brockton Bay
Reporting Officer - Miss Militia
Note: Subject has been receptive to the idea of Ward membership and power testing but is reluctant to join, stating that some of the regulations and limitations would be difficult for her. Subject has requested time to fully discuss with her father.
Armsmaster Addendum: Analysis of various ratings come from reports from those who have interacted with Zenko in the past week and may be biased. Combined with this is analysis from security cameras, tinkertech overwatch drones being tested in the Boardwalk and West Side areas, and police and fire interactions.
Appearance: Zenko is a tall (5'9) girl of between 14-16 years. Statements by her place her age at 14 while her physical development is closer to what is expected of 16 years age. She possesses two fox tails, apparently real as they are quite mobile and register as a heat source. She has two fox ears atop her head that appear to be expressive. Slight point to the human ears, and elongated canine teeth visible when smiling. Hair is copper in coloration except at the tips of her tails where they are white.
Her costume is currently composed of off-the-rack components with the exception of a metal and cloth headband bearing a symbol which does not come up with a match on database search engines. Zenko states she is working on a more permanent costume.
Brute 1: Zenko shows shows signs of enhanced strength, being able to hit far harder than her frame/weight would allow normally. She does not show any signs of being bulletproof however.
Mover 3: Zenko has managed short bursts of speeds in excess of 45mph and is capable of leaps of over 100feet while running. In addition she can treat vertical surfaces as if they are horizontal.
Shaker/Blaster 2: Zenko has been shown to create small bursts of water and to manipulate existing water supplies in a crude form of hydrokinesis.
Thinker 2: Some evidence of enhanced senses: low light vision, exceptionally acute hearing and sense of smell. See also Master rating.
Changer 1: Zenko's "foxgirl" form acts and reacts as a biological organism and is sufficiently variant from normal human that she would be unable to have a secret identity if she had no way to change back.
Master 2: Zenko has demonstrated the ability to create projections of six normal-sized foxes, pure white in fur coloration, which have the same mover ability she does. These projections are fragile in that penetration by a knife wielded by an E88 member was able to dispel it, but was then immediately mobbed by the remaining foxes as they arrived in a swarm.
Profile: Zenko has presented herself as friendly and somewhat outgoing, though questions about making friends or associating with other her age has shown tells to indicate something wrong in that regard. Possible problems at school or private life. No such indications about family life other than a comment about "how her father is doing a lot better" since she gained powers.
The major aberration about Zenko other than the physical form is her insistence that her abilities are "ninjutsu" and require somatic movements and focus. Considering Myrrdin and several other capes, this is uncommon but not unheard of.
* Elsewhere *
Thomas Calvert sat back in his desk and pondered how best to handle this new asset.
Perhaps some aggressive recruitment aimed at her family? Perhaps it HAD been a grab-bag as that Empire cape Crusader did something with multiple projections?
As it was, where was the unifying theme? Powers usually hung from a single nail, the exception being the so-called grab-bag capes which pinged off of other capes in the vicinity. Yet there were no hydrokinetics in Brockton Bay that he knew of, nor a Mover with anything like a near-match there. Certainly no one with the ears and tail.
His first thought had been a Case 53, though very fortunate in that regard. Yet the point raised in the PRT report was a good one - if this was her natural form she'd have been spotted well before now. She was too practiced at some of this to be a fresh trigger.
Perhaps she would divulge those answers on the table. If she wasn't a Case 53 then her memories should be intact and he had the drugs and the tools to tease those answers out.
* Hebert Household *
Her chakra had been initially developed by Mito Uzumaki dwelling within her, including a charge of energy from the Kyubi. It had dwelled within her, warm and powerful.
It had also been essentially like the training wheels on the bicycle she'd had when she was six. Mito's work had been to develop those chakra coils and capacity, Kurama (the actual name for the Kyubi) had been the charge in that battery.
Taylor let out a deep breath and relaxed. Almost. Speculation from Umino-sensei and Jiraiya-sensei had been that once she'd gotten good enough with her chakra, she'd have two forms. When releasing the hold on her chakra she'd be Zenko, when she held it tight she'd return to her more normal appearance without tails or ears or red hair. She wouldn't have to maintain the henge (disguise) jutsu indefinitely.
Which was good, she had liked that her hair had resembled her mother's hair. That it was temporary until she mastered her ninjutsu was a constant bit of reassurance that her powers hadn't changed everything about her.
Though being awesome ninja foxgirl Zenko was cool, she certainly wasn't done being Taylor.
Last edited:
PHO Chapter: Dirty Laundry
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
* September 12, 2009 *
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♦ Topic: Zenko Sightings
In: Boards ► Brockton Bay ► New Capes ► Zenko
►DiscoDock (Original Poster)(Not A Duck)
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
Okay, our little foxgirl has been running around the city lately doing all sorts of things, so I wanted to do a collection of sightings and activities.
On the ninth she stopped a mugging from a bunch of drug addicts and had a whole bunch of little white foxes running around the Boardwalk with many many photo-ops from various people there. (Image)(Image)(Image)(Image)
On the tenth she was again at the Boardwalk, running around and doing acrobatics. Then she ran across the water in the fountain. Across the top of the water. (Image)
Got some pics from when she was helping to put out fires earlier in the week (Image) and when she was helping last night (Sep 11) on that firefight between E88 and ABB gang members on Miller Street. (Video)
►BoyzInnaHoodie (Unverified Cape)
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
Case 53 Cape? Those ears and tails are real? Got to say the swarm of white fluffiness attack is both adorable and apparently effective.
►PenDant
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
Ugh. What's with the tail and ears? They are completely not needed for her costume, she's actually worse than Mouse Protector. Is she a furry or something?
►Tin Mother (Moderator)
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
Just a reminder that the cape in question is underage before the thread derails into THAT territory.
No, it hadn't gone there yet but I've seen the way these things start.
►PenDant
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
I wasn't going there!
Seriously though is there another reason for the tails and ears than some furry 'omg cute' crap?
►Zenko (Verified Cape)
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
Two of my sensei in the ninja arts tell me it was an unplanned consequence of my training and awakening of my chakra coils in the soulscape between the Pure World and Impure World.
►PenDant
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
The individual words make sense but the way they are put together does not.
That there is an explanation is nice, I suppose. I just want one that makes sense.
►SubtleKnife
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
@PenDant: If she's something like a Case 53, she may not know a sensible explanation.
Since you're online, Zenko, something I've been wondering.
Why aren't you wearing a more typical ninja suit if you're a ninja?
►Zenko (Verified Cape)
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
The 'ninja costume' in the movies is for cinematic ninja.
The ninja costume for historically accurate ninja was normal everyday clothing for the time period because they were primarily spies.
The ninja costume for my kind of ninja is mostly durable clothing though if I made full chunin I'd get a flak vest with the village symbols. Except Brockton Bay doesn't have a hidden village yet.
I've mainly been training with ninja from Konohagakure so the symbol on my hitai-ate is the Konoha symbol to honor my teachers. I'll switch to the kanji for shinobi if I get teachers from outside Konoha.
►DiscoDock (Original Poster)
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
"Yet"?
►Zenko (Verified Cape)
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
Work in progress. Some people have expressed the interest in seeing if I can open their chakra coils and I'm trying to work out how to do that.
End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 ... 32, 33, 34
(Showing page 34 of 34)
►XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied on Sep 15th, 2009:
No, she doesn't look like Ahri from League Of Legendaries. Have you even seen the game?
Ahri has multiple looks depending on the skin you're using but no red hair ones. Black, pink, blonde, sort of purplish, and I think there's a "dirty-blonde" but no copper-haired Ahri.
Zenko has two tails. Ahri has either one or nine depending on various factors in the game. Including skins.
The clothing is different. After that incident where Zenko tried to paint a house using hydrokinesis, she had to replace her old gym clothes costume for the new set. Zenko doesn't have any outfits like Ahri.
►Zenko (Verified Cape)
Replied on Sep 15th, 2009:
Gee. Thanks. I wanted to forget that. I especially wanted everyone else to forget that.
►Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Replied on Sep 15th, 2009:
Don't forget to swing by the PRT and fill out form 2097104-E (Affiliated Hero Encountering Unknown Parahuman) or at least DM me on the details of the 'Emo Sniper Girl' for our records at your earliest convenience.
►Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Replied On Sep 15th, 2009:
The lifeblood of any government agency is the papertrail.
►Zenko (Verified Cape)
Replied on Sep 15th, 2009:
Just sent it, and it's getting late. Good night everyone!
►Mojiizen
Replied on Sep 15th, 2009:
That she might be able to teach others to use her powerset is kind of intriguing.
I too would like to be able to do that weird ninja run. Think of all the gas I could be not paying for with my morning commute.
►Loki_Thorson
Replied on Sep 15th, 2009:
I have to admit the idea of people being able to train to use superpowers is both intriguing and frightening.
Me be able to escape a cape fight or not rely on public transport - awesome.
Empire or ABB gang members with weird ninja powers? Frightening.
►Sgt_Murphy (Verified BBPD)
Replied on Sep 15th, 2009:
Zenko is friendly, polite, tends to go off on tangents in conversations and has to be steered back to pertinent information, and from conversations I've had with her twice - is pretty far from being the popular image of a stoic silent assassin ninja.
Though I also am very intrigued with the idea of learning to move very quickly without a squad car.
Bladeworksfan (Kyushu Survivor)
Posted on Sep 15th, 2009:
So, I've seen the videos and I have to ask - what exactly of her abilities is teachable?
►SittingByTheDockofBrocktonBay
Posted on Sep 16th, 2009:
First lesson we had she was putting her hand on her chest and sending "unaspected chakra" into a few of the Dockworkers who'd volunteered for this little experiment. She was telling us to concentrate on what she was doing and what it felt like.
Two of us reacted immediately, stating it was weird. Old Erwin had somehow invited himself to this little meeting and he was one of the two. Two more got it on the second go, and I was in the third batch. Apparently she was sending more of this chakra stuff in with each attempt.
It felt weird. Only way I can describe it. Like someone taking a feather and somehow brushing it up against your internal organs or something.
Then came explanations about how chakra was a combination of physical energy and spiritual energy. Which didn't make much sense to me, but whatevers. I *had* felt something going through me so I was just filing it away as weird stuff I might understand later.
She doesn't think anyone's going to learn the 'ninjutsu' stuff, but that we might be able to train up our own chakra to do things like run faster, lift heavier weights, heal faster. Kind of like an adrenalin response but something you can switch on when you think you need it.
►Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Posted on Sep 16th, 2009:
After midnight, so it's time for me to logoff, but I am sending a message to Zenko that she really needs to meet with us to discuss this whole training people to have parahuman abilities thing.
For what might be obvious reasons, we have questions. So many questions.
♦ Topic: What does the fox say?
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay
Mod_Hatter (Original Poster)
Posted on Sep 16th, 2009:
Okay, assuming that Zenko's set of grab bag powers is actually a single power - Ninja Emulation as was speculated on one of the boards. Which still sounds weird but it kind of fits what we've seen.
Running across water, vanishing in a little poof of smoke, running up the sides of buildings, forty+ foot leaps, stealthy as a fox, etcetera? Those I can see as fitting with what we see of ninja.
Making little armies of foxes? Water-bending? What powerset is Zenko going to pull out next?
►The_Leet_Deal
Posted on Sep 16th, 2009:
Well, the typical ninja game comes out of Japan which also gave us the ninja, so you can look at those to see what the local kitsune might be able to do if she actually was a ninja.
Throwing stars, daggers, and other ninja weapons. These are in a lot of games about ninja. Little caltrops or ball bearings to toss under an enemy's feet. Grenades, though hopefully Oni Lee won't take offense about someone using his modus operandi. Swords of course. The only weapon we've seen Zenko use so far has been that quarterstaff that she makes appear and disappear.
Then there's the sort of heroic ninja in the old game "Sasuga No Sarutobi" where ninjutsu means "ninja magic" with Nikumaru using various wind-based spells. Some of his opponents do fire, one does water similar to Zenko, and another does lightning.
Mod_Hatter (Original Poster)
Posted on Sep 17th, 2009:
If it turns out Void Cowboy is right and her power is literally being a ninja, I'm going to get very drunk just to cope with the idea that Void is right about something.
►The_Leet_Deal
Posted on Sep 17th, 2009:
Honestly, misdirection is a ninja thing. So I'm thinking she's a small scale hydrokinetic. Keeping small amounts of water on her person to control.
Her speed and leaps and such are because she's manipulating those little water packets in her costume.
The little foxes though, that doesn't fit so I'm still trying to come up with a better theory.
* * *
Private Communique: Level 8 Security - Eyes Only
From: Contessa
To: Alexandria
Re: Brockton Bay
Why is it that whenever I path something in Brockton Bay I get a "Step 42: Pet any cute foxes you see."
Is something going on in Brockton Bay that was not mentioned in our last meeting?
Private Communique: Level 8 Security - Eyes Only
From: Alexandria
To: Contessa
Re: Brockton Bay
Not that I know of. Only development there involving foxes is a new fox-themed parahuman who uses projections. My initial thought was that it was a grab bag cape who pinged off of Crusader.
I'll keep an eye out and a hand off until we know more.
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♦ Topic: Zenko Sightings
In: Boards ► Brockton Bay ► New Capes ► Zenko
►DiscoDock (Original Poster)(Not A Duck)
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
Okay, our little foxgirl has been running around the city lately doing all sorts of things, so I wanted to do a collection of sightings and activities.
On the ninth she stopped a mugging from a bunch of drug addicts and had a whole bunch of little white foxes running around the Boardwalk with many many photo-ops from various people there. (Image)(Image)(Image)(Image)
On the tenth she was again at the Boardwalk, running around and doing acrobatics. Then she ran across the water in the fountain. Across the top of the water. (Image)
Got some pics from when she was helping to put out fires earlier in the week (Image) and when she was helping last night (Sep 11) on that firefight between E88 and ABB gang members on Miller Street. (Video)
►BoyzInnaHoodie (Unverified Cape)
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
Case 53 Cape? Those ears and tails are real? Got to say the swarm of white fluffiness attack is both adorable and apparently effective.
►PenDant
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
Ugh. What's with the tail and ears? They are completely not needed for her costume, she's actually worse than Mouse Protector. Is she a furry or something?
►Tin Mother (Moderator)
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
Just a reminder that the cape in question is underage before the thread derails into THAT territory.
No, it hadn't gone there yet but I've seen the way these things start.
►PenDant
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
I wasn't going there!
Seriously though is there another reason for the tails and ears than some furry 'omg cute' crap?
►Zenko (Verified Cape)
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
Two of my sensei in the ninja arts tell me it was an unplanned consequence of my training and awakening of my chakra coils in the soulscape between the Pure World and Impure World.
►PenDant
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
The individual words make sense but the way they are put together does not.
That there is an explanation is nice, I suppose. I just want one that makes sense.
►SubtleKnife
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
@PenDant: If she's something like a Case 53, she may not know a sensible explanation.
Since you're online, Zenko, something I've been wondering.
Why aren't you wearing a more typical ninja suit if you're a ninja?
►Zenko (Verified Cape)
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
The 'ninja costume' in the movies is for cinematic ninja.
The ninja costume for historically accurate ninja was normal everyday clothing for the time period because they were primarily spies.
The ninja costume for my kind of ninja is mostly durable clothing though if I made full chunin I'd get a flak vest with the village symbols. Except Brockton Bay doesn't have a hidden village yet.
I've mainly been training with ninja from Konohagakure so the symbol on my hitai-ate is the Konoha symbol to honor my teachers. I'll switch to the kanji for shinobi if I get teachers from outside Konoha.
►DiscoDock (Original Poster)
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
"Yet"?
►Zenko (Verified Cape)
Posted on Sep 12, 2009:
Work in progress. Some people have expressed the interest in seeing if I can open their chakra coils and I'm trying to work out how to do that.
End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 ... 32, 33, 34
(Showing page 34 of 34)
►XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied on Sep 15th, 2009:
No, she doesn't look like Ahri from League Of Legendaries. Have you even seen the game?
Ahri has multiple looks depending on the skin you're using but no red hair ones. Black, pink, blonde, sort of purplish, and I think there's a "dirty-blonde" but no copper-haired Ahri.
Zenko has two tails. Ahri has either one or nine depending on various factors in the game. Including skins.
The clothing is different. After that incident where Zenko tried to paint a house using hydrokinesis, she had to replace her old gym clothes costume for the new set. Zenko doesn't have any outfits like Ahri.
►Zenko (Verified Cape)
Replied on Sep 15th, 2009:
Gee. Thanks. I wanted to forget that. I especially wanted everyone else to forget that.
►Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Replied on Sep 15th, 2009:
Don't forget to swing by the PRT and fill out form 2097104-E (Affiliated Hero Encountering Unknown Parahuman) or at least DM me on the details of the 'Emo Sniper Girl' for our records at your earliest convenience.
►Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Replied On Sep 15th, 2009:
The lifeblood of any government agency is the papertrail.
►Zenko (Verified Cape)
Replied on Sep 15th, 2009:
Just sent it, and it's getting late. Good night everyone!
►Mojiizen
Replied on Sep 15th, 2009:
That she might be able to teach others to use her powerset is kind of intriguing.
I too would like to be able to do that weird ninja run. Think of all the gas I could be not paying for with my morning commute.
►Loki_Thorson
Replied on Sep 15th, 2009:
I have to admit the idea of people being able to train to use superpowers is both intriguing and frightening.
Me be able to escape a cape fight or not rely on public transport - awesome.
Empire or ABB gang members with weird ninja powers? Frightening.
►Sgt_Murphy (Verified BBPD)
Replied on Sep 15th, 2009:
Zenko is friendly, polite, tends to go off on tangents in conversations and has to be steered back to pertinent information, and from conversations I've had with her twice - is pretty far from being the popular image of a stoic silent assassin ninja.
Though I also am very intrigued with the idea of learning to move very quickly without a squad car.
Bladeworksfan (Kyushu Survivor)
Posted on Sep 15th, 2009:
So, I've seen the videos and I have to ask - what exactly of her abilities is teachable?
►SittingByTheDockofBrocktonBay
Posted on Sep 16th, 2009:
First lesson we had she was putting her hand on her chest and sending "unaspected chakra" into a few of the Dockworkers who'd volunteered for this little experiment. She was telling us to concentrate on what she was doing and what it felt like.
Two of us reacted immediately, stating it was weird. Old Erwin had somehow invited himself to this little meeting and he was one of the two. Two more got it on the second go, and I was in the third batch. Apparently she was sending more of this chakra stuff in with each attempt.
It felt weird. Only way I can describe it. Like someone taking a feather and somehow brushing it up against your internal organs or something.
Then came explanations about how chakra was a combination of physical energy and spiritual energy. Which didn't make much sense to me, but whatevers. I *had* felt something going through me so I was just filing it away as weird stuff I might understand later.
She doesn't think anyone's going to learn the 'ninjutsu' stuff, but that we might be able to train up our own chakra to do things like run faster, lift heavier weights, heal faster. Kind of like an adrenalin response but something you can switch on when you think you need it.
►Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Posted on Sep 16th, 2009:
After midnight, so it's time for me to logoff, but I am sending a message to Zenko that she really needs to meet with us to discuss this whole training people to have parahuman abilities thing.
For what might be obvious reasons, we have questions. So many questions.
♦ Topic: What does the fox say?
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay
Mod_Hatter (Original Poster)
Posted on Sep 16th, 2009:
Okay, assuming that Zenko's set of grab bag powers is actually a single power - Ninja Emulation as was speculated on one of the boards. Which still sounds weird but it kind of fits what we've seen.
Running across water, vanishing in a little poof of smoke, running up the sides of buildings, forty+ foot leaps, stealthy as a fox, etcetera? Those I can see as fitting with what we see of ninja.
Making little armies of foxes? Water-bending? What powerset is Zenko going to pull out next?
►The_Leet_Deal
Posted on Sep 16th, 2009:
Well, the typical ninja game comes out of Japan which also gave us the ninja, so you can look at those to see what the local kitsune might be able to do if she actually was a ninja.
Throwing stars, daggers, and other ninja weapons. These are in a lot of games about ninja. Little caltrops or ball bearings to toss under an enemy's feet. Grenades, though hopefully Oni Lee won't take offense about someone using his modus operandi. Swords of course. The only weapon we've seen Zenko use so far has been that quarterstaff that she makes appear and disappear.
Then there's the sort of heroic ninja in the old game "Sasuga No Sarutobi" where ninjutsu means "ninja magic" with Nikumaru using various wind-based spells. Some of his opponents do fire, one does water similar to Zenko, and another does lightning.
Mod_Hatter (Original Poster)
Posted on Sep 17th, 2009:
If it turns out Void Cowboy is right and her power is literally being a ninja, I'm going to get very drunk just to cope with the idea that Void is right about something.
►The_Leet_Deal
Posted on Sep 17th, 2009:
Honestly, misdirection is a ninja thing. So I'm thinking she's a small scale hydrokinetic. Keeping small amounts of water on her person to control.
Her speed and leaps and such are because she's manipulating those little water packets in her costume.
The little foxes though, that doesn't fit so I'm still trying to come up with a better theory.
* * *
Private Communique: Level 8 Security - Eyes Only
From: Contessa
To: Alexandria
Re: Brockton Bay
Why is it that whenever I path something in Brockton Bay I get a "Step 42: Pet any cute foxes you see."
Is something going on in Brockton Bay that was not mentioned in our last meeting?
Private Communique: Level 8 Security - Eyes Only
From: Alexandria
To: Contessa
Re: Brockton Bay
Not that I know of. Only development there involving foxes is a new fox-themed parahuman who uses projections. My initial thought was that it was a grab bag cape who pinged off of Crusader.
I'll keep an eye out and a hand off until we know more.
Last edited:
We Didn't Start The Fire
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
Sep 17th, 2009. 0530 hours.
She had to keep in shape, chakra by itself could only do so much.
Her father coming down the stairs during her push-ups had become a routine by this point.
He'd stare for a moment, then wander into the kitchen where the coffee was still perking away and disappear there for a few minutes. By then she'd gone on to the pull-ups and then the sit-ups (core work was important) and then the flows of a exercise routine before fixing breakfast.
As soon as she had the funds, she was going to have to get a rice cooker and one of those electric hot water dispensers. Iruka Umino-sensei had shown her how to make "camp breakfasts" and surprisingly enough was a pretty good cook when it came to the basics, but a full meal was something she'd have to work out herselves.
Actually, that seemed to be a theme with Umino-sensei. He knew the basics very very well, and had a few more advanced techniques (yes, even with cooking) but didn't have in-depth knowledge about a lot of things. Medical techniques or fuuinjutsu for examples. There were techniques he knew or knew of but didn't teach because of one reason or another.
Still, she'd gotten used to rice as a staple in the diet and by now it had been a subjective four years total where she'd been eating a mostly Japanese-style menu.
Taylor nodded to her father, remaining quiet for now. The coffee had finished up, and she started heating water for her tea and some oatmeal via the microwave.
So far, so routine. At least she wasn't doing camp breakfasts, crafting a camp stove out of discarded cans and the like for long-term missions.
Her father put his coffee down, took a deep breath, and broke the routine. "Old Erwin got the leaf to stick."
Taylor blinked, then broke out in a smile. "He did? That's great!"
"He already turns up when you least expect him, I suspect if he learns the Spider-Man Jutsu he'll more than double that."
Taylor shrugged. If the old guy had the mental discipline to continue that, the chakra might extend his life. Certainly ninja life wasn't one where old age was normally the means of death, but the ones that lived a long time seemed to live a really long time.
No, from the histories she'd read - the usual cause of death was another ninja. So kind of like parahumans nowadays, if you didn't count Endbringers.
"It's called 'Tree Climbing' not 'Spider-Man' but okay," said Taylor as she stirred up the oatmeal. "Any parahumans can actually do that?"
"No idea," said Danny. "Wouldn't be surprised though."
"True," said Taylor.
"Lessons tonight around seven again?" asked Danny.
Taylor nodded. "That's the plan. Homework as soon as I get home from school. Then dinner, then teaching chakra basics, then my run and patrol. I..."
Danny blinked at the way that Taylor had just gone fully attentive and looking off towards the rear of their house. "Problem?"
"You might get your gun. We've got hostiles in back and a few moving around out front," said Taylor.
Danny Hebert just reached under the table and came out holding a handgun. He was still doing maintenance on his shotgun, as it had been gathering dust in the closet. Old Erwin had provided this as a loaner.
"They're there, they're gathering, and I'm picking them up as hostile," said Taylor shifting fully to Zenko.
Danny waited a few moments before speaking. "Just staying there? Maybe they're waiting us out or waiting for someone to arrive?" He crossed to the phone, set the gun down, and dialed out.
Taylor twitched. "Some are moving around but they're maintaining the distance."
"This is Danny," said her father over the phone. "Put out the word. One of the gangs may be trying for a recruitment drive."
"It's Thursday so I'll have to leave for school soon, but a gang would require they know that I'm Zenko," said Taylor.
"Maybe they're after me since I work at the Docks and everyone knows that the group being trained are at the Docks?" offered Danny as he hung up the phone.
"I suspect we'll see," said Taylor.
Danny hmmed in response.
"Oh, and this weekend I've got a meeting with the PRT," said Taylor. "Apparently they want to discuss the classes. Maybe they want to trial it and see if their agents can get in?"
"There just might be something to that," said Danny, though his voice indicated he didn't think it likely.
Elsewhere, someone used their power and "split timelines" just to be safe.
* Timeline 1 *
The gas grenades went through the window in front. Meanwhile Skull Team charged the rear door, slowed only slightly by the tinkertech "door knocker" that should reduce that entry to kindling.
His men blew up the door, entered the house and died as close to instantly as made little difference.
The smoke coming out the window changed colors and froze.
Thomas Calvert, the villain known as Coil, watching on his computer screen said something very impolite and hit the monitor to see if that got it working again. It didn't.
He went to voice communication instead. "Overwatch. Report."
"Boss, she's killing everyone! She's just appearing behind people, stabbing them with some little knives, and ARGHHH!"
Coil looked at the phone and pondered what this meant when he heard a voice speaking.
"Hello 'Boss', my name is Taylor Hebert but you already know that. You killed my father. I will find you. I will end you."
* Timeline 2 *
Coil considered what that flat emotionless voice had told him in the other timeline. He had believed her and he had cancelled that timeline immediately.
Okay, that method of recruitment was off the table. For now.
"Overwatch. Plans changing because of new information. Maintain surveillance. Call off the majority of the strike force and reassign to keep track of the students once they've all been identified."
* House *
"Okay, I don't get this, at all. They're scattering and moving out of range," said Taylor.
"What IS your range?" asked Danny.
"About a mile," admitted Taylor.
"Reconn, maybe?" guessed Danny. "Or were they even after you..."
Both Heberts looked up and around despite knowing that the "tak-tak-tak" noise wasn't actually a sound heard by the ears.
[Milestone Achieved. Encountered XXXX.]
[Ninja Academy: 1d6 Ninja Scrolls: 6.]
"Oh heck yeah," exclaimed Taylor. "Techniques I can study and try to master? Yes, please."
[Rolling. Scroll #1: Ball of Light Technique. Scroll #2: Monster Strength technique (requires medical jutsu raised to level 2 to utilize). Scroll #3: Water Release: Water Prison. Scroll #4: Interrogation Genjutsu. Scroll #5: Earth Release: Earth and Stone Dragon. Scroll #6: Iryo: Mystical Palm Technique.]
"I already know the basics of Mystic Palm, so I hope this lets me get better at it," noted Taylor.
[As Taylor Hebert now has met the basic requirements for the rank Tokubetsu Jonin, she is no longer considered a beginner in the role of Ninja.]
[Taylor Hebert is now no longer restricted to Ninja point-buys.]
"Okay, that was expected just not so soon," remarked Taylor. "I'd really like to concentrate on the whole ninja motif before I go with some other sensei though."
"What were you hoping for?" asked Danny, eyeing the scrolls now on the table.
"From what I saw from Iruka's stories of the last Ninja War?" Taylor thought a moment before ticking things off on her fingers. "Barrier jutsu would be damn handy, being able to ward the house this morning would have been really good if they'd attacked. Improving my fuuinjutsu skills, as just what I've read about what they could do with that is pretty impressive. A contract with a summoning clan would also be really useful. Jiraiya had toads, but what I saw during my spars with him were really impressive."
"'Toads'?" asked Danny.
"Yeah, some no bigger than your hand, some as big as a horse," explained Taylor. "Able to talk and wield weapons too."
"But still 'toads'?" asked Danny.
"I asked," said Taylor. "Apparently Tsunade? She's the one I got some medic and dodging boulders training from. She does slugs."
"That sounds even worse," agreed Danny.
"They mentioned that there are monkeys and snakes and other creatures where a whole clan of them has a summoning contract that a ninja might be able to get," explained Taylor with a number of hand gestures. "I know the hand-signs, because I watched Jiraiya doing it, but without a contract I won't get anything."
"Ninja seem to be a bit eclectic in skills," noted Danny.
"Yeah, the ninja of that world do a lot of stuff. There's even courier ninja and cooking ninja," said Taylor. "Never met them, but some of the stories Iruka or Jiraiya would tell me had stuff like that in there."
"Oh?" asked Danny, deciding he wanted to hear more about these people her daughter had apparently spent years with.
"Yeah, and there's things like bloodlines, I've already got one," said Taylor, manifesting a length of chain. "Gift from one of my teachers. Umino speculated at one point that the fox stuff might have been a latent bloodline on my part, but they ended up going with an environmental cause as an explanation. Though Jiraiya, Tsunade, and that Hiruzen guy were all drinking pretty heavily while they discussed it."
"I thought they were dead. How did they get alcohol?" asked Danny.
"Ninja magic stuff or weird afterlife stuff, I guess," said Taylor with a shrug. "After awhile you stop questioning a lot of it."
* Bus #36, 0745 hours *
It was weird. On one level, the kids around her making noise and being rude were the same age as her.
Physically she was 13 going on 14. In her mind though, she was four years older than any of those around her.
It left her feeling a disconnect with the people around her. She was pretty sure ninja working in civilian areas felt something of the same even when they were trying to blend in.
Maybe it was the same with parahumans? How did they handle this sort of thing?
The bus trip was largely uneventful, which was good. It was therefore fast, which was also good, and arrived at Winslow on time. Which was kind of a mixed-feelings thing.
Someone swung a book at her head. She didn't even look to move just enough that it missed her.
Honestly, the Sense Hostile Intent thing had to be one of the most useful damn abilities in the ninja playbook.
As it was, most of the people on the bus weren't bothering her.
"Damn. Why won't you join the gymnastics team? We could really use someone like you on the team!"
Ah, that flash of hostile intent had been some kind of test?
"Just not interested, sorry," responded Taylor honestly.
* Winslow, 1145 hours *
* Sophia Hess *
"Why did you want me to remain quiet, I cut class for this."
"Watch," said Sophia.
"It's just Tay... what the hell?"
Sophia nodded and motioned Emma back behind a row of the gym lockers. "Yeah. When she was going to talk to you about camp? Now I'm wishing you'd heard her out."
Emma stared in the direction that Taylor had been in, her brain apparently trying to reboot.
"She shares Gym with me, I noticed she doesn't tire out, she holds back," stated Sophia, keeping her voice low. "Whatever she did on that nature camp thing you mentioned? She might be weak, but she's not bottom of the barrel weak."
"She's still a loser," said Emma finally. "We need to teach her her place is still beneath us."
Sophia glanced at her friend, then nodded. "Yeah. Sure. Just wanted you to know she's not going to be a pushover."
"All the better, actually," said Emma.
Sophia smiled, but honestly was thinking that Emma maybe possibly could be just a bit cuckoo for cocoa puffs.
She was really going to have to do some de-stressing on tonight's patrol though.
That was the way things went as they went along their day, repeat of previous days other than Emma knowing that her ex-friend wasn't a beanpole under those baggy clothes.
Lunch though, Sophia wanted a change of subject. "What about that new cape? Zenko?"
"What about her? Another one of those little PR freaks, right?" responded Emma.
"Not really," said Madison, surprising the other two as she normally didn't outright contradict Emma. "Best guess I've seen is she's a really lucky Case 53, probably her powers are a bunch of low power stuff as opposed to one thing she does well. Minor Brute, minor Mover, minor Master with those little fox critters she can send out. Not very powerful, but also not a one-trick pony like some of them."
"You're the cape expert," said Sophia, sharing a wink with Emma as they both knew better. "So what's her deal?"
"Likely? She's just dealing the hand she was dealt," said Madison, her spoon toying with the Mystery Pudding that was supposed to be chocolate and tasted like plasterboard. "Not everyone with powers gets something awesome. There's a guy in Toronto whose power is he can basically eat anything."
"He can even eat this cafeteria food? That doesn't sound awesome but maybe useful," noted Emma, sounding a bit amused.
"Yeah," said Madison. "Munch Man is pretty lame as far as powers go, but he'll never starve since he can digest anything as well. Last thing I saw about him he was training for bomb disposal."
"Oh, yeah, I could see that," admitted Sophia. Lame power, but he could eat hazardous materials without suffering? Bombs and that kind of thing? That might useful but VERY niche/situational. It's not like this guy could grab villains' guns and eat them or something.
Madison shrugged and continued to poke at her pudding. "So, basically, if Zenko IS a Cape 53 she's got a tattoo of that omega symbol on her somewhere and won't remember her past. Grab bag capes usually have one good power and little stuff otherwise. So she'd be a Master with those foxes being her spies. She's admitted using them to scout out a large area when she's out patrolling, so she can see through their eyes or something. So that's useful - one of the guys on the forum I was reading was pointing out she can find trouble and know ahead of time if she can handle it or not."
Sophia nodded, thinking this sounded damn handy. She varied her patrol routes but something could be happening a street or two over and she'd miss it unless they made a lot of noise.
Madison flicked screens on her phone and then reversed it so the screen was facing Sophia. "See this is the group Munch Man is in. Each of them has powers that are really not very good but they still show up for some disaster relief stuff."
"Their name is the 'League Of Backup Heroes'?" asked Sophia. "Seriously?"
"What would you expect with a cape named 'Munch Man'?" asked Emma.
"Other than think maybe Zenko is at least a couple of notches above these guys," admitted Sophia. "What's this girl's powers? The one next to Munchable there on the right."
Madison turned the phone around to look, then flipped it back. "Color Queen. Her power is she can change the color of objects."
"The statue is something?" asked Emma, looking over the photo.
"Rock Girl. Self-petrification. She can turn herself to stone for a specified period. Can't move while she's stone though - sort of like being asleep for the specified time."
Emma glanced at Sophia as she sat back. "Okay. Maybe some of the local capes aren't as lame as those guys. Doesn't make them any less lame, just that the bottom is further down than I thought it was."
* Warehouse #14, Docks. 1920 hours *
* Taylor *
They were coming along about as well as could be expected.
Except Old Erwin. He was scary when he was focused and seemed to pick up on a lot of things really fast.
Chakra was a mix of spiritual and physical energy that was not quite entirely within the normal purvue of everyday physics. It was an extension of underlying dimensions or something. Iruka hadn't been entirely clear, but to be fair he was a teacher who normally dealt with children a fair bit younger than she was. He had at one point confessed that the math involved was way above his level of understanding.
Jiraiya understood a bit more, but his focus was more getting it to work and doing things with it - not the how and why of the underlying principles of how the multiverse worked.
Again, to be fair, they were ninja. Not scientists or philosophers by focus or profession. As Iruka had put it - our world had a lot of cars and cellphones. Not everyone who owned or operated one knew the mechanics and programming of either.
Taylor knew enough about the physical and spiritual energy and how she'd been trained to know how to get them started. If it worked out, this would be damn handy.
Then Zephron, one of her father's workers/friend, got his own leaf to stick.
[Milestone Achieved: Make Like A Leaf (Bring two students up to Beginning Student level)]
Taylor glanced at her father as the roulette wheel noise sounded, though she did note that Erwin acted like he heard something as well.
"I really want to focus on my existing skills and not try anything new," grumped Taylor to herself as the noise went on.
[Defer roll to Ally? Y/N]
"Uh, yeah, if I can do that," muttered Taylor.
[Current Ally list: Daniel Francisci Hebert]
"Dad?" asked Taylor.
[Sending Query. Daniel Fransisci Hebert accepts. Continuing roll.]
"I've got something to take care of," said Danny Hebert, stepping quickly out the door.
She had to keep in shape, chakra by itself could only do so much.
Her father coming down the stairs during her push-ups had become a routine by this point.
He'd stare for a moment, then wander into the kitchen where the coffee was still perking away and disappear there for a few minutes. By then she'd gone on to the pull-ups and then the sit-ups (core work was important) and then the flows of a exercise routine before fixing breakfast.
As soon as she had the funds, she was going to have to get a rice cooker and one of those electric hot water dispensers. Iruka Umino-sensei had shown her how to make "camp breakfasts" and surprisingly enough was a pretty good cook when it came to the basics, but a full meal was something she'd have to work out herselves.
Actually, that seemed to be a theme with Umino-sensei. He knew the basics very very well, and had a few more advanced techniques (yes, even with cooking) but didn't have in-depth knowledge about a lot of things. Medical techniques or fuuinjutsu for examples. There were techniques he knew or knew of but didn't teach because of one reason or another.
Still, she'd gotten used to rice as a staple in the diet and by now it had been a subjective four years total where she'd been eating a mostly Japanese-style menu.
Taylor nodded to her father, remaining quiet for now. The coffee had finished up, and she started heating water for her tea and some oatmeal via the microwave.
So far, so routine. At least she wasn't doing camp breakfasts, crafting a camp stove out of discarded cans and the like for long-term missions.
Her father put his coffee down, took a deep breath, and broke the routine. "Old Erwin got the leaf to stick."
Taylor blinked, then broke out in a smile. "He did? That's great!"
"He already turns up when you least expect him, I suspect if he learns the Spider-Man Jutsu he'll more than double that."
Taylor shrugged. If the old guy had the mental discipline to continue that, the chakra might extend his life. Certainly ninja life wasn't one where old age was normally the means of death, but the ones that lived a long time seemed to live a really long time.
No, from the histories she'd read - the usual cause of death was another ninja. So kind of like parahumans nowadays, if you didn't count Endbringers.
"It's called 'Tree Climbing' not 'Spider-Man' but okay," said Taylor as she stirred up the oatmeal. "Any parahumans can actually do that?"
"No idea," said Danny. "Wouldn't be surprised though."
"True," said Taylor.
"Lessons tonight around seven again?" asked Danny.
Taylor nodded. "That's the plan. Homework as soon as I get home from school. Then dinner, then teaching chakra basics, then my run and patrol. I..."
Danny blinked at the way that Taylor had just gone fully attentive and looking off towards the rear of their house. "Problem?"
"You might get your gun. We've got hostiles in back and a few moving around out front," said Taylor.
Danny Hebert just reached under the table and came out holding a handgun. He was still doing maintenance on his shotgun, as it had been gathering dust in the closet. Old Erwin had provided this as a loaner.
"They're there, they're gathering, and I'm picking them up as hostile," said Taylor shifting fully to Zenko.
Danny waited a few moments before speaking. "Just staying there? Maybe they're waiting us out or waiting for someone to arrive?" He crossed to the phone, set the gun down, and dialed out.
Taylor twitched. "Some are moving around but they're maintaining the distance."
"This is Danny," said her father over the phone. "Put out the word. One of the gangs may be trying for a recruitment drive."
"It's Thursday so I'll have to leave for school soon, but a gang would require they know that I'm Zenko," said Taylor.
"Maybe they're after me since I work at the Docks and everyone knows that the group being trained are at the Docks?" offered Danny as he hung up the phone.
"I suspect we'll see," said Taylor.
Danny hmmed in response.
"Oh, and this weekend I've got a meeting with the PRT," said Taylor. "Apparently they want to discuss the classes. Maybe they want to trial it and see if their agents can get in?"
"There just might be something to that," said Danny, though his voice indicated he didn't think it likely.
Elsewhere, someone used their power and "split timelines" just to be safe.
* Timeline 1 *
The gas grenades went through the window in front. Meanwhile Skull Team charged the rear door, slowed only slightly by the tinkertech "door knocker" that should reduce that entry to kindling.
His men blew up the door, entered the house and died as close to instantly as made little difference.
The smoke coming out the window changed colors and froze.
Thomas Calvert, the villain known as Coil, watching on his computer screen said something very impolite and hit the monitor to see if that got it working again. It didn't.
He went to voice communication instead. "Overwatch. Report."
"Boss, she's killing everyone! She's just appearing behind people, stabbing them with some little knives, and ARGHHH!"
Coil looked at the phone and pondered what this meant when he heard a voice speaking.
"Hello 'Boss', my name is Taylor Hebert but you already know that. You killed my father. I will find you. I will end you."
* Timeline 2 *
Coil considered what that flat emotionless voice had told him in the other timeline. He had believed her and he had cancelled that timeline immediately.
Okay, that method of recruitment was off the table. For now.
"Overwatch. Plans changing because of new information. Maintain surveillance. Call off the majority of the strike force and reassign to keep track of the students once they've all been identified."
* House *
"Okay, I don't get this, at all. They're scattering and moving out of range," said Taylor.
"What IS your range?" asked Danny.
"About a mile," admitted Taylor.
"Reconn, maybe?" guessed Danny. "Or were they even after you..."
Both Heberts looked up and around despite knowing that the "tak-tak-tak" noise wasn't actually a sound heard by the ears.
[Milestone Achieved. Encountered XXXX.]
[Ninja Academy: 1d6 Ninja Scrolls: 6.]
"Oh heck yeah," exclaimed Taylor. "Techniques I can study and try to master? Yes, please."
[Rolling. Scroll #1: Ball of Light Technique. Scroll #2: Monster Strength technique (requires medical jutsu raised to level 2 to utilize). Scroll #3: Water Release: Water Prison. Scroll #4: Interrogation Genjutsu. Scroll #5: Earth Release: Earth and Stone Dragon. Scroll #6: Iryo: Mystical Palm Technique.]
"I already know the basics of Mystic Palm, so I hope this lets me get better at it," noted Taylor.
[As Taylor Hebert now has met the basic requirements for the rank Tokubetsu Jonin, she is no longer considered a beginner in the role of Ninja.]
[Taylor Hebert is now no longer restricted to Ninja point-buys.]
"Okay, that was expected just not so soon," remarked Taylor. "I'd really like to concentrate on the whole ninja motif before I go with some other sensei though."
"What were you hoping for?" asked Danny, eyeing the scrolls now on the table.
"From what I saw from Iruka's stories of the last Ninja War?" Taylor thought a moment before ticking things off on her fingers. "Barrier jutsu would be damn handy, being able to ward the house this morning would have been really good if they'd attacked. Improving my fuuinjutsu skills, as just what I've read about what they could do with that is pretty impressive. A contract with a summoning clan would also be really useful. Jiraiya had toads, but what I saw during my spars with him were really impressive."
"'Toads'?" asked Danny.
"Yeah, some no bigger than your hand, some as big as a horse," explained Taylor. "Able to talk and wield weapons too."
"But still 'toads'?" asked Danny.
"I asked," said Taylor. "Apparently Tsunade? She's the one I got some medic and dodging boulders training from. She does slugs."
"That sounds even worse," agreed Danny.
"They mentioned that there are monkeys and snakes and other creatures where a whole clan of them has a summoning contract that a ninja might be able to get," explained Taylor with a number of hand gestures. "I know the hand-signs, because I watched Jiraiya doing it, but without a contract I won't get anything."
"Ninja seem to be a bit eclectic in skills," noted Danny.
"Yeah, the ninja of that world do a lot of stuff. There's even courier ninja and cooking ninja," said Taylor. "Never met them, but some of the stories Iruka or Jiraiya would tell me had stuff like that in there."
"Oh?" asked Danny, deciding he wanted to hear more about these people her daughter had apparently spent years with.
"Yeah, and there's things like bloodlines, I've already got one," said Taylor, manifesting a length of chain. "Gift from one of my teachers. Umino speculated at one point that the fox stuff might have been a latent bloodline on my part, but they ended up going with an environmental cause as an explanation. Though Jiraiya, Tsunade, and that Hiruzen guy were all drinking pretty heavily while they discussed it."
"I thought they were dead. How did they get alcohol?" asked Danny.
"Ninja magic stuff or weird afterlife stuff, I guess," said Taylor with a shrug. "After awhile you stop questioning a lot of it."
* Bus #36, 0745 hours *
It was weird. On one level, the kids around her making noise and being rude were the same age as her.
Physically she was 13 going on 14. In her mind though, she was four years older than any of those around her.
It left her feeling a disconnect with the people around her. She was pretty sure ninja working in civilian areas felt something of the same even when they were trying to blend in.
Maybe it was the same with parahumans? How did they handle this sort of thing?
The bus trip was largely uneventful, which was good. It was therefore fast, which was also good, and arrived at Winslow on time. Which was kind of a mixed-feelings thing.
Someone swung a book at her head. She didn't even look to move just enough that it missed her.
Honestly, the Sense Hostile Intent thing had to be one of the most useful damn abilities in the ninja playbook.
As it was, most of the people on the bus weren't bothering her.
"Damn. Why won't you join the gymnastics team? We could really use someone like you on the team!"
Ah, that flash of hostile intent had been some kind of test?
"Just not interested, sorry," responded Taylor honestly.
* Winslow, 1145 hours *
* Sophia Hess *
"Why did you want me to remain quiet, I cut class for this."
"Watch," said Sophia.
"It's just Tay... what the hell?"
Sophia nodded and motioned Emma back behind a row of the gym lockers. "Yeah. When she was going to talk to you about camp? Now I'm wishing you'd heard her out."
Emma stared in the direction that Taylor had been in, her brain apparently trying to reboot.
"She shares Gym with me, I noticed she doesn't tire out, she holds back," stated Sophia, keeping her voice low. "Whatever she did on that nature camp thing you mentioned? She might be weak, but she's not bottom of the barrel weak."
"She's still a loser," said Emma finally. "We need to teach her her place is still beneath us."
Sophia glanced at her friend, then nodded. "Yeah. Sure. Just wanted you to know she's not going to be a pushover."
"All the better, actually," said Emma.
Sophia smiled, but honestly was thinking that Emma maybe possibly could be just a bit cuckoo for cocoa puffs.
She was really going to have to do some de-stressing on tonight's patrol though.
That was the way things went as they went along their day, repeat of previous days other than Emma knowing that her ex-friend wasn't a beanpole under those baggy clothes.
Lunch though, Sophia wanted a change of subject. "What about that new cape? Zenko?"
"What about her? Another one of those little PR freaks, right?" responded Emma.
"Not really," said Madison, surprising the other two as she normally didn't outright contradict Emma. "Best guess I've seen is she's a really lucky Case 53, probably her powers are a bunch of low power stuff as opposed to one thing she does well. Minor Brute, minor Mover, minor Master with those little fox critters she can send out. Not very powerful, but also not a one-trick pony like some of them."
"You're the cape expert," said Sophia, sharing a wink with Emma as they both knew better. "So what's her deal?"
"Likely? She's just dealing the hand she was dealt," said Madison, her spoon toying with the Mystery Pudding that was supposed to be chocolate and tasted like plasterboard. "Not everyone with powers gets something awesome. There's a guy in Toronto whose power is he can basically eat anything."
"He can even eat this cafeteria food? That doesn't sound awesome but maybe useful," noted Emma, sounding a bit amused.
"Yeah," said Madison. "Munch Man is pretty lame as far as powers go, but he'll never starve since he can digest anything as well. Last thing I saw about him he was training for bomb disposal."
"Oh, yeah, I could see that," admitted Sophia. Lame power, but he could eat hazardous materials without suffering? Bombs and that kind of thing? That might useful but VERY niche/situational. It's not like this guy could grab villains' guns and eat them or something.
Madison shrugged and continued to poke at her pudding. "So, basically, if Zenko IS a Cape 53 she's got a tattoo of that omega symbol on her somewhere and won't remember her past. Grab bag capes usually have one good power and little stuff otherwise. So she'd be a Master with those foxes being her spies. She's admitted using them to scout out a large area when she's out patrolling, so she can see through their eyes or something. So that's useful - one of the guys on the forum I was reading was pointing out she can find trouble and know ahead of time if she can handle it or not."
Sophia nodded, thinking this sounded damn handy. She varied her patrol routes but something could be happening a street or two over and she'd miss it unless they made a lot of noise.
Madison flicked screens on her phone and then reversed it so the screen was facing Sophia. "See this is the group Munch Man is in. Each of them has powers that are really not very good but they still show up for some disaster relief stuff."
"Their name is the 'League Of Backup Heroes'?" asked Sophia. "Seriously?"
"What would you expect with a cape named 'Munch Man'?" asked Emma.
"Other than think maybe Zenko is at least a couple of notches above these guys," admitted Sophia. "What's this girl's powers? The one next to Munchable there on the right."
Madison turned the phone around to look, then flipped it back. "Color Queen. Her power is she can change the color of objects."
"The statue is something?" asked Emma, looking over the photo.
"Rock Girl. Self-petrification. She can turn herself to stone for a specified period. Can't move while she's stone though - sort of like being asleep for the specified time."
Emma glanced at Sophia as she sat back. "Okay. Maybe some of the local capes aren't as lame as those guys. Doesn't make them any less lame, just that the bottom is further down than I thought it was."
* Warehouse #14, Docks. 1920 hours *
* Taylor *
They were coming along about as well as could be expected.
Except Old Erwin. He was scary when he was focused and seemed to pick up on a lot of things really fast.
Chakra was a mix of spiritual and physical energy that was not quite entirely within the normal purvue of everyday physics. It was an extension of underlying dimensions or something. Iruka hadn't been entirely clear, but to be fair he was a teacher who normally dealt with children a fair bit younger than she was. He had at one point confessed that the math involved was way above his level of understanding.
Jiraiya understood a bit more, but his focus was more getting it to work and doing things with it - not the how and why of the underlying principles of how the multiverse worked.
Again, to be fair, they were ninja. Not scientists or philosophers by focus or profession. As Iruka had put it - our world had a lot of cars and cellphones. Not everyone who owned or operated one knew the mechanics and programming of either.
Taylor knew enough about the physical and spiritual energy and how she'd been trained to know how to get them started. If it worked out, this would be damn handy.
Then Zephron, one of her father's workers/friend, got his own leaf to stick.
[Milestone Achieved: Make Like A Leaf (Bring two students up to Beginning Student level)]
Taylor glanced at her father as the roulette wheel noise sounded, though she did note that Erwin acted like he heard something as well.
"I really want to focus on my existing skills and not try anything new," grumped Taylor to herself as the noise went on.
[Defer roll to Ally? Y/N]
"Uh, yeah, if I can do that," muttered Taylor.
[Current Ally list: Daniel Francisci Hebert]
"Dad?" asked Taylor.
[Sending Query. Daniel Fransisci Hebert accepts. Continuing roll.]
"I've got something to take care of," said Danny Hebert, stepping quickly out the door.
Last edited:
Octopus' Garden (in the shade)
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
Dojo 7: Octopus Garden
* PRT HQ ENE *
Armsmaster saw a little attention flag on a report and didn't think much of it. Initially.
All that meant is that his automated filters found something that passed the series of checks to indicate his attention was required. Despite working this out for efficient use of his time, there were enough false flags to indicate he had to tweak it some more when time was available.
Oh. This was related to that training experiment of Zenko's. It was Form 1-DIOT-5, in fact. The "suspicious person(s) of unknown affiliation attempting to poke parahumans" form. Wrong one for what was actually there, but an understandable mistake.
Apparently the group that she was training were now being watched by members of some gang. Based on examination of the site, professionals that cleaned up after themselves. That let several groups out right away.
They apparently were at the office of the Head of Hiring over at the Dockworker's Union in the early morning, then found observation points to watch and tail some of those being trained. Military equipment and what looked like Tinkertech weapons?
A moment's consideration and Armsmaster nodded as her 'fox swarm' being able to relay information to her was a formidable ability when used intelligently. So that was a Master/Thinker rating of at least a 3, low because she wasn't an active threat to anyone Armsmaster particularly cared about.
If he could get her into the Wards it would synergize nicely with a number of abilities already present.
It would also make Image very happy as white fox plushies were thought of as something that would sell really well for some reason.
* Danny Hebert *
He hadn't been too clear on how this all worked, despite what Taylor had been telling him.
Suddenly being a child again had been a bit off-putting, but he had at least been warned about that from Taylor's experience.
The whole seconds-to-years thing had been a bit concerning but Taylor's sudden little changes in behavior made sense from that point of view.
Now he was going to do the same thing, but if it helped him keep his daughter safe (or at least safer) then he was prepared to do it. He'd spent too much time being a failure of a father, now he was determined to JUST DO IT.
"Well. How about that?" asked an individual who had been sitting on a tree stump reading a book. "You're the father of that girl that Tsunade and Jiraiya were training, aren't you?"
"You can tell that from a glance?" asked Danny, surprised as he figured he was now about six years of age and not really looking much like he had as an adult.
"Yes, and I must say. This is rich," said the man. "She wanted to concentrate on her ninja skills but she was supposed to defer after the Constellation roll, not before. Well, it also amuses me because this means I can train up a 'ninja hero' and the irony or karma involved is exquisite."
"Well, I'm Danny Hebert, and how do we get started?" asked Danny.
The man shut the book and laid it aside on the stump. "My name is Orochimaru, and I think we get started with physical conditioning."
* 10 weeks later *
"Chakra is in everything, but it is strongest in living things," said Orochimaru, lifting a rock in one hand and then casually changing its shape into a Mobius strip sculpture.
"Sounds like the Force," remarked Danny.
"There is no single 'the force'," said Orochimaru, rolling his eyes. "Existence is a confluence of a large number of forces interacting in an entropic gradient."
"No, it's from some movies, the Force is..." Danny shut his eyes and tried to remember Obi-Wan's words from the last time he'd seen the movie. "'It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, it penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together.' Or something like that."
"Well, that does sound a bit like chakra," admitted Orochimaru. "Fictional movie, I take it?"
"Yes, a series," acknowledged Danny.
"Well then," said Orochimaru. "What does this not-quite-chakra do in this series? It is quite possible I have those techniques."
* One year into the training *
Tsunade rubbed her right temple and managed to convey that even though she was dead, she had an incipient headache.
Which, if you asked her, was currently Orochimaru-sized.
"If you had any objections, you really should have voiced them earlier," chided Orochimaru.
"Everyone expected Taylor to wait until the Constellation roll was finished," complained Tsunade. "We had her flak vest and everything."
"There's how things are supposed to work, and then there's how things turn out," said Orochimaru with a one-shoulder shrug.
"You experimented on him," complained Tsunade.
"I did no such thing," protesed Orochimaru.
"Then why did you have him in one of those glass tubes, with auto-injectors and bubbling tubes and whatever those spark-things are supposed to be?" asked Tsunade.
"An experiment is where you don't know the outcome and are attempting to prove or disprove a theory," countered Orochimaru. "I knew the outcome every step of the way. I accounted for every variable."
Tsunade stared at Orochimaru for a moment. "What. Did. You. Do?"
"He had already begun mixing spiritual and physical energy into chakra, but if you just add a bit of this and a touch of that," said Orochimaru, making an off-hand gesture. "Strengthening the chakra pathways, increasing the reservoir, oh and giving him a bloodline. Those are handy."
Tsunade started cracking her knuckles.
"Though if you wanted a turn at his training, I have had a year," said Orochimaru. "I was getting bored anyway."
"What's with the sword?" asked Jiraiya from a fair distance away, watching the trainee moving around a training ground.
"It seemed fitting with the skills he's picked up," admitted Orochimaru. "From what I've seen in those memories, this world has a big thing about overall themes for their heroes and villains and such."
Jiraiya didn't look back at Tsunade or Orochimaru as he considered that for a few moments. "Don't like to admit it, but he has a point."
"Taylor already has a motif," grumped Tsunade. "Ninja."
"What bloodline did you give him?" asked Jiraiya. "Uzumaki?"
"A bit. Mostly Hyoton," said Orochimaru. He gave another little shrug. "It seemed appropriate."
"Why would it seem appropriate?" asked Tsunade, seeming slightly less ready to commit an act of violence.
"The nature of where we are and my own skills, when he was describing his home I could see bits of his life," said Orochimaru. "Ice is all about control. Of the battlefield of course, but also of oneself. Losing himself in his emotions by wrapping himself entirely within them has caused his problems to worsen, has it not?"
"Jiraiya?" asked Tsunade.
"Yeah, that does happen when we're teaching them. Especially with particularly emotive events," admitted Jiraiya. "Scenes play out. I was monitoring Umino's training a lot, but I have to admit he's better at teaching basic stuff. I saw a bit of her world and I have to say it's pretty messed up. Even by our standards. This Celestial Dojo thing is also messed up, but it gives them a better chance eventually. Especially if she does develop a Hidden City In The Docks."
"Ah, I thought that might be where you were going with that," said a pleased-sounding Orochimaru.
"So... Hyoton? How'd you even get samples of that?" asked Jiraiya.
"In this realm, halfway between the shores of the living and the dead, you can form constructs. And there are many Hyoton users who passed the lands of the living long ago," said Orochimaru dismissively. "So... who is going to take over the training now?"
"I will," said Hiruzen Sarutobi, appearing in a swirl of leaves. "It's been awhile since I've been a teacher. I used to enjoy the role."
"Good," said Orochimaru. "As it is, I've spotted a complication that needs taken care of. I think I'll have a bit of fun with it."
* Sixteen months into training *
"One problem you have is that you have less chakra than your daughter," said Hiruzen Sarutobi, effortlessly keeping up with Danny as they ran.
Which annoyed Danny somewhat as the Third Hokage was running backwards and backflipping over obstacles without looking.
"She received that due to an artificial widening of her chakra capacity and infusion of chakra from the Kyubi." Hiruzen shook his head. "You have the modifications that Orochimaru put in place, but much less chakra than her. Where you stand to be better at it is in the area of chakra control."
Danny grunted as they leapt over a large tree root.
"It is a pity though, as having a summoning contract is currently beyond both of your capabilities," said Hiruzen, ducking under a tree branch without apparently looking. "Orochimaru was even suggesting the snake contract because of the sheer usefulness in having venom experts on call. Personally, I think the apes would be a better fit considering what the winters in your land are like. Or maybe the lizards, though my understanding is that they tend to like pranking people."
"Lizards and New England winters would seem to be a poor fit," admitted Danny between deep breaths.
"One of the benefits of doing all this here, between realities, is that some of the 'lost' or otherwise unavailable contracts are possibilities," said Hiruzen. "Ah. Perfect. We'll stop here."
"I take it from the pond, I'm to practice water walking?" said Danny after he'd caught his breath.
"Yes, while meditating," said Hiruzen. "Sitting atop the water, of course. Oh, and mind the bees."
"'Bees?'" asked Danny, who then saw the swarm. "Oh hell."
* Victor *
They were training to be ninja. Which were elite stealth-based assassins.
So there was a plan, go in, drain the skills of the teacher and see what this 'Zenko' had available. Might have to kidnap the kid and drain her dry, since that would take time to permanently transfer the skills.
But first, what did she actually have?
Well, for one thing, she had some kind of danger sense because despite him being just another dockworker in appearance - she'd picked him out of the crowd and kept looking in his direction.
She didn't attack or anything though. And it was kind of cute how she thought just side-eye glances and such would conceal she knew where he was. He had skills permanently taken from people who were really good at this sort of thing though, so he knew he'd been made.
Huh. Her skills were slippery. She had some kind of interference on his power? Interesting. Not something he'd run across before except from power nullifiers. He could reach past all this quasi-mystic mumbo-jumbo she practiced and try grabbing...
"Well, well, what do we have here?"
Victor blinked. Why was he in a forest? Why was this Alabaster-level pale guy looking him over like he'd just found desserts on sale?
"A little thief coming to try and take things that were hard-earned without any effort of his own? How droll. How common. It's just the coin that is unusual," said really pale guy.
"This isn't real. Some kind of illusion projection?" asked Victor.
"You call yourself 'Victor' and you are a member of a local criminal gang that in many ways are similar to missing-nin organizations," said pale guy. "Oh. Ideologically driven. I see."
"Whatever are you supposed to be anyway? Some sort of clown?" asked Victor.
"Funny you should say that," said the pale guy, smiling a not very friendly smile. "I'm limited in what I can do in the Impure World but you letting yourself in like this, it opens up... possibilities."
"I don't think you could do anything to me, otherwise you already would have," said Victor.
"Oh, is that a challenge?" asked pale guy.
"Yeah, let's see it," said Victor. "Do your worst."
* Taylor *
She counted the seconds since her father had vanished. She'd expected two seconds. When she'd reached seven she'd begun to get a bit worried.
Then her father reappeared and... "Dad? Is that you?"
"Taylor? It's been seven years," said Danny Hebert, staring. "I..."
"You're... different," said Taylor. Her father had been thin but wiry. Now his arms and shoulders looked like corded layers of muscle. His chest was thicker too.
"This is going to be difficult to keep concealed," mused Danny aloud. "Henge!"
There was a scream nearby, as if someone were being forced to confront their own personal hell.
"What was that?" asked Danny.
"It's that guy who was pinging my 'hostile intent' sensor all evening," said Taylor. "Don't know why, but he just stopped registering as a threat."
[Due to practice, Sense Hostile Intent has been upgraded to Danger Sense (Basic)]
* PRT HQ ENE *
Armsmaster saw a little attention flag on a report and didn't think much of it. Initially.
All that meant is that his automated filters found something that passed the series of checks to indicate his attention was required. Despite working this out for efficient use of his time, there were enough false flags to indicate he had to tweak it some more when time was available.
Oh. This was related to that training experiment of Zenko's. It was Form 1-DIOT-5, in fact. The "suspicious person(s) of unknown affiliation attempting to poke parahumans" form. Wrong one for what was actually there, but an understandable mistake.
Apparently the group that she was training were now being watched by members of some gang. Based on examination of the site, professionals that cleaned up after themselves. That let several groups out right away.
They apparently were at the office of the Head of Hiring over at the Dockworker's Union in the early morning, then found observation points to watch and tail some of those being trained. Military equipment and what looked like Tinkertech weapons?
A moment's consideration and Armsmaster nodded as her 'fox swarm' being able to relay information to her was a formidable ability when used intelligently. So that was a Master/Thinker rating of at least a 3, low because she wasn't an active threat to anyone Armsmaster particularly cared about.
If he could get her into the Wards it would synergize nicely with a number of abilities already present.
It would also make Image very happy as white fox plushies were thought of as something that would sell really well for some reason.
* Danny Hebert *
He hadn't been too clear on how this all worked, despite what Taylor had been telling him.
Suddenly being a child again had been a bit off-putting, but he had at least been warned about that from Taylor's experience.
The whole seconds-to-years thing had been a bit concerning but Taylor's sudden little changes in behavior made sense from that point of view.
Now he was going to do the same thing, but if it helped him keep his daughter safe (or at least safer) then he was prepared to do it. He'd spent too much time being a failure of a father, now he was determined to JUST DO IT.
"Well. How about that?" asked an individual who had been sitting on a tree stump reading a book. "You're the father of that girl that Tsunade and Jiraiya were training, aren't you?"
"You can tell that from a glance?" asked Danny, surprised as he figured he was now about six years of age and not really looking much like he had as an adult.
"Yes, and I must say. This is rich," said the man. "She wanted to concentrate on her ninja skills but she was supposed to defer after the Constellation roll, not before. Well, it also amuses me because this means I can train up a 'ninja hero' and the irony or karma involved is exquisite."
"Well, I'm Danny Hebert, and how do we get started?" asked Danny.
The man shut the book and laid it aside on the stump. "My name is Orochimaru, and I think we get started with physical conditioning."
* 10 weeks later *
"Chakra is in everything, but it is strongest in living things," said Orochimaru, lifting a rock in one hand and then casually changing its shape into a Mobius strip sculpture.
"Sounds like the Force," remarked Danny.
"There is no single 'the force'," said Orochimaru, rolling his eyes. "Existence is a confluence of a large number of forces interacting in an entropic gradient."
"No, it's from some movies, the Force is..." Danny shut his eyes and tried to remember Obi-Wan's words from the last time he'd seen the movie. "'It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, it penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together.' Or something like that."
"Well, that does sound a bit like chakra," admitted Orochimaru. "Fictional movie, I take it?"
"Yes, a series," acknowledged Danny.
"Well then," said Orochimaru. "What does this not-quite-chakra do in this series? It is quite possible I have those techniques."
* One year into the training *
Tsunade rubbed her right temple and managed to convey that even though she was dead, she had an incipient headache.
Which, if you asked her, was currently Orochimaru-sized.
"If you had any objections, you really should have voiced them earlier," chided Orochimaru.
"Everyone expected Taylor to wait until the Constellation roll was finished," complained Tsunade. "We had her flak vest and everything."
"There's how things are supposed to work, and then there's how things turn out," said Orochimaru with a one-shoulder shrug.
"You experimented on him," complained Tsunade.
"I did no such thing," protesed Orochimaru.
"Then why did you have him in one of those glass tubes, with auto-injectors and bubbling tubes and whatever those spark-things are supposed to be?" asked Tsunade.
"An experiment is where you don't know the outcome and are attempting to prove or disprove a theory," countered Orochimaru. "I knew the outcome every step of the way. I accounted for every variable."
Tsunade stared at Orochimaru for a moment. "What. Did. You. Do?"
"He had already begun mixing spiritual and physical energy into chakra, but if you just add a bit of this and a touch of that," said Orochimaru, making an off-hand gesture. "Strengthening the chakra pathways, increasing the reservoir, oh and giving him a bloodline. Those are handy."
Tsunade started cracking her knuckles.
"Though if you wanted a turn at his training, I have had a year," said Orochimaru. "I was getting bored anyway."
"What's with the sword?" asked Jiraiya from a fair distance away, watching the trainee moving around a training ground.
"It seemed fitting with the skills he's picked up," admitted Orochimaru. "From what I've seen in those memories, this world has a big thing about overall themes for their heroes and villains and such."
Jiraiya didn't look back at Tsunade or Orochimaru as he considered that for a few moments. "Don't like to admit it, but he has a point."
"Taylor already has a motif," grumped Tsunade. "Ninja."
"What bloodline did you give him?" asked Jiraiya. "Uzumaki?"
"A bit. Mostly Hyoton," said Orochimaru. He gave another little shrug. "It seemed appropriate."
"Why would it seem appropriate?" asked Tsunade, seeming slightly less ready to commit an act of violence.
"The nature of where we are and my own skills, when he was describing his home I could see bits of his life," said Orochimaru. "Ice is all about control. Of the battlefield of course, but also of oneself. Losing himself in his emotions by wrapping himself entirely within them has caused his problems to worsen, has it not?"
"Jiraiya?" asked Tsunade.
"Yeah, that does happen when we're teaching them. Especially with particularly emotive events," admitted Jiraiya. "Scenes play out. I was monitoring Umino's training a lot, but I have to admit he's better at teaching basic stuff. I saw a bit of her world and I have to say it's pretty messed up. Even by our standards. This Celestial Dojo thing is also messed up, but it gives them a better chance eventually. Especially if she does develop a Hidden City In The Docks."
"Ah, I thought that might be where you were going with that," said a pleased-sounding Orochimaru.
"So... Hyoton? How'd you even get samples of that?" asked Jiraiya.
"In this realm, halfway between the shores of the living and the dead, you can form constructs. And there are many Hyoton users who passed the lands of the living long ago," said Orochimaru dismissively. "So... who is going to take over the training now?"
"I will," said Hiruzen Sarutobi, appearing in a swirl of leaves. "It's been awhile since I've been a teacher. I used to enjoy the role."
"Good," said Orochimaru. "As it is, I've spotted a complication that needs taken care of. I think I'll have a bit of fun with it."
* Sixteen months into training *
"One problem you have is that you have less chakra than your daughter," said Hiruzen Sarutobi, effortlessly keeping up with Danny as they ran.
Which annoyed Danny somewhat as the Third Hokage was running backwards and backflipping over obstacles without looking.
"She received that due to an artificial widening of her chakra capacity and infusion of chakra from the Kyubi." Hiruzen shook his head. "You have the modifications that Orochimaru put in place, but much less chakra than her. Where you stand to be better at it is in the area of chakra control."
Danny grunted as they leapt over a large tree root.
"It is a pity though, as having a summoning contract is currently beyond both of your capabilities," said Hiruzen, ducking under a tree branch without apparently looking. "Orochimaru was even suggesting the snake contract because of the sheer usefulness in having venom experts on call. Personally, I think the apes would be a better fit considering what the winters in your land are like. Or maybe the lizards, though my understanding is that they tend to like pranking people."
"Lizards and New England winters would seem to be a poor fit," admitted Danny between deep breaths.
"One of the benefits of doing all this here, between realities, is that some of the 'lost' or otherwise unavailable contracts are possibilities," said Hiruzen. "Ah. Perfect. We'll stop here."
"I take it from the pond, I'm to practice water walking?" said Danny after he'd caught his breath.
"Yes, while meditating," said Hiruzen. "Sitting atop the water, of course. Oh, and mind the bees."
"'Bees?'" asked Danny, who then saw the swarm. "Oh hell."
* Victor *
They were training to be ninja. Which were elite stealth-based assassins.
So there was a plan, go in, drain the skills of the teacher and see what this 'Zenko' had available. Might have to kidnap the kid and drain her dry, since that would take time to permanently transfer the skills.
But first, what did she actually have?
Well, for one thing, she had some kind of danger sense because despite him being just another dockworker in appearance - she'd picked him out of the crowd and kept looking in his direction.
She didn't attack or anything though. And it was kind of cute how she thought just side-eye glances and such would conceal she knew where he was. He had skills permanently taken from people who were really good at this sort of thing though, so he knew he'd been made.
Huh. Her skills were slippery. She had some kind of interference on his power? Interesting. Not something he'd run across before except from power nullifiers. He could reach past all this quasi-mystic mumbo-jumbo she practiced and try grabbing...
"Well, well, what do we have here?"
Victor blinked. Why was he in a forest? Why was this Alabaster-level pale guy looking him over like he'd just found desserts on sale?
"A little thief coming to try and take things that were hard-earned without any effort of his own? How droll. How common. It's just the coin that is unusual," said really pale guy.
"This isn't real. Some kind of illusion projection?" asked Victor.
"You call yourself 'Victor' and you are a member of a local criminal gang that in many ways are similar to missing-nin organizations," said pale guy. "Oh. Ideologically driven. I see."
"Whatever are you supposed to be anyway? Some sort of clown?" asked Victor.
"Funny you should say that," said the pale guy, smiling a not very friendly smile. "I'm limited in what I can do in the Impure World but you letting yourself in like this, it opens up... possibilities."
"I don't think you could do anything to me, otherwise you already would have," said Victor.
"Oh, is that a challenge?" asked pale guy.
"Yeah, let's see it," said Victor. "Do your worst."
* Taylor *
She counted the seconds since her father had vanished. She'd expected two seconds. When she'd reached seven she'd begun to get a bit worried.
Then her father reappeared and... "Dad? Is that you?"
"Taylor? It's been seven years," said Danny Hebert, staring. "I..."
"You're... different," said Taylor. Her father had been thin but wiry. Now his arms and shoulders looked like corded layers of muscle. His chest was thicker too.
"This is going to be difficult to keep concealed," mused Danny aloud. "Henge!"
There was a scream nearby, as if someone were being forced to confront their own personal hell.
"What was that?" asked Danny.
"It's that guy who was pinging my 'hostile intent' sensor all evening," said Taylor. "Don't know why, but he just stopped registering as a threat."
[Due to practice, Sense Hostile Intent has been upgraded to Danger Sense (Basic)]
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Spiders & Snakes
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
Dojo 8: Spiders & Snakes
It was nice to be walking around again, alive. Most people only got one chance at living.
He was not most people.
Oh, to be sure, this body and its interesting abilities were temporary. He'd burn it out eventually.
He'd run his own Hidden Village once, of course, but even then he'd let administrators handle the actual work while he did the parts that actually interested him.
This Village Hidden In The Bay, or whatever they'd actually call it, had possibilities but he had zero interest in running the silly thing.
Still, first he had some errands to run. He had some research to do. Then perhaps he could have some more direct and personal fun. After all, these 'Nazis' had attempted to sabotage the young ninja and...
Oh, who were these obvious troops stationed in various posts around the area.
Hmmm. No skills he particularly wanted. Though what would happen if he drew heavily on this one?
That mercenary picked up a communications device and spoke into it. "Mister Coil, sir? One of the Dockworkers present screamed and then vanished. Possible teleporter."
Orochimaru smiled with his borrowed face. Coil? Oh they did like their theatrics, didn't they? Coil like a spring or Coil like a snake in this odd language?
"Get back to base, Wilson. I'll review your footage and see if it was worth you breaking radio silence."
Those "Nazi" fellows were now number two on the list. It sounded like this might just be amusing.
* Danny *
Neither of them were comfortable with words or actions for closeness. The years they'd been apart hadn't changed that.
So a few muttered reassurances, a brief hug, then back to training the rest of the class as if nothing had happened.
Except that none of the people involved were idiots or so wrapped up in their own dramas that they didn't know something had changed.
Zenko/Taylor was aware of something being off among the students. Danny was more used to people in general and most of those involved as well, so it was more obvious to him.
* Flashback *
"So you're the father of the hero," grumbled some guy with some truly horrific scars.
"Yeah," said Danny, cracking an eye open to stare at the man who'd interrupted him striking these weird target dummies.
The guy made a gesture for Danny to continue. "Name's Ibiki Morino. My understanding is your world has something called 'secret identities' and you keep your active ninja career and your private lives distinct."
"That's accurate," said Danny as he went back to hitting the various protrusions on the post. "Apparently there's this thing called the 'Unwritten Rules' and most capes at least pay lip service to them."
"Implying there are those who do not," said Morino, continuing at Danny's nod. "Well, you don't have much use for Torture or Interrogation considering what you've told Tsunade about what you see as your role."
"Yes?" prompted Danny at the pause.
"What I'm here to coach you on are Infiltration techniques," said Morino. "Part of that is social awareness. Looking for tells and being able to interpret them. We have this afternoon. Not nearly enough time to master, but enough to get you started."
* Present *
Zephron met his eyes and cocked his head slightly. A hand gesture to wait until later. He'd try to come up with an explanation.
Old Erwin had set aside his usual look and Danny got a glimpse of the steel underneath before he covered it up. One of the things that made you wonder how much of the tall tales he spun had at least a grain or two of truth.
Kurt and Lacey had known him well enough to know something had changed but just had a moment or two of confusion before concentrating on the exercises they'd been coached on.
As for Delia, Aisha, and Abdi? The kid was being watched by the other two, as she'd been caught "exploring" in an area she shouldn't have been.
One thing was certain, that meeting Saturday with the PRT was going to be... interesting.
Even more so than it had been.
Aisha, the girl who'd been caught playing Dora the Explora, was just getting to some of the training when "Zenko" snapped her head up and began looking in a particular direction.
"Guys. Head's up," said Zenko.
"Hostiles?" Danny asked.
"Multiple," answered Zenko. "Not the ones from earlier."
"Huh," said Danny, absently cracking his knuckles.
"You," said Zenko directly to Aisha. "Get to the second floor and hide. Everyone else get to cover. You're not ready for this."
* Abdi *
His name was actually Abdi Kenworth, and he was Brockton Bay born and raised and of Somali heritage. Living in modern Brockton was dangerous, especially with the Empire 88 around, so hearing that the new hero Zenko was trying to teach some sort of fast-movement ability was something he was very very interested in.
He'd known Danny Hebert, head of hiring, for years. Danny had been able to get ahold of jobs for him every so often even with things falling apart they way they'd been.
So, upon hearing that there were hostiles incoming, he took the usual precautions. Exits were there and there and that one was opposite from where Zenko was directing her attention.
She must have had some of those fox projections outside. That had to be damn handy.
First, find the exits. Second, find cover. Third, as soon as he knew who was coming - call either the PRT or the Police.
Danny shifted his weight a couple of times then made a bunch of those weird hand gestures that Zenko did.
"Ice Release: Wall of Ice!"
Danny was a cape like Zenko?! Or... Damn. He absolutely HAD to learn this. Powers you could teach others? Yes, please. Give him a "turn invisible while you snuck off away from violent thugs" skill? Oh, yeah. That would be perfect.
There was a literal wall of spiky ice crystals formed that looked thick enough to stop bullets. Being able to do THAT whenever you wanted, well, if he didn't get a invisibility power something like that would be damn handy.
He wasn't going to try for any skill/power to smack down the Nazis, there were enough sympathizers among the cops that would look at a black man punching a Nazi through the wall as an excuse for some violence of their own.
Be damn cathartic though.
Wait. Could he do something like that? Abdi watched as Zenko did that rapid-flicking of her hands into various forms. She did that to shape her chakra, kind of a mnemonic aid from what he'd gathered.
Zenko then slapped the ground with both hands and a wall of concrete formed next to the ice wall.
Yup. Abdi wondered if you could make a hollow dome with that technique. Instant bunker. When you lived in Brockton Bay that kind of thing would have some uses. Enemy capes. Crooked cops. Muggers. Thugs. Ex-wife.
Then the door burst open and someone started shooting.
Abdi, with reflexes honed by years of being in Brockton Bay, ducked behind the machinery he'd chosen as a hiding spot before looking back out.
Also with the skills learned from being a crane operator turned truck driver, he immediately classified them as Bathing Avoidant Druggies (aka Baddies) who were carrying automatic weapons. He knew the difference between semi-auto and auto thank you very much. That had been a burst of gunfire, so fully auto. And that was about the extent of his knowledge of guns other than classifying them as rifles.
"All right you cum-suckling -" (WHAM!)
Enter Skidmark, stage right. Exit Skidmark, pursued by bear?
A bear made entirely of ice?
Well, now that he knew there were actual capes involved he could call the PRT. For Tour Information, dial 1. For a specific department, hit * and the extension number. To report Parahuman villain crime, press 2. Please hold for the next available operator.
Oh, huh. Danny sure looked different now. Guess he'd been training a lot longer.
The idea of forming an ice bear to protect him from his ex-wife never even crossed Abdi's mind. Not even a bit.
* Zephron *
People expected that because he was a big muscular black man, he was good at fighting.
Well, actually, he was.
So he could appreciate how Zenko fought and noticed that Danny was similar but different in fighting style.
Danny was straight forward, waded in with elbow strikes. Every so often he'd punch at someone standing a few feet away and a fist made of ice would shoot across and smack one of the druggies.
Danny had also put a coating of ice on the floor that he and Zenko had no trouble crossing.
"You shitstaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Enter Skidmark who was suddenly slip-sliding away until Zenko's knee met his face with a cracking noise that made Zephron wince. Not in sympathy for Skidmark in particular, just from knowing how much getting your nose smashed like that hurt.
If Danny was wading in and brawling like a machine, Zenko was more like water. Flowing up off the floor, shoving and pushing at the gangers, causing them even more problems on the iced-over floor. Every so often a punch or kick or knee or elbow strike would smack down on a ganger.
One had finally gotten out of the mosh pit that was that doorway and tried to point his rifle at the foxgirl, but there was a loud crack as some wedge-shaped throwing knife was slammed into the muzzle.
Then, despite that Zephron could clearly see the ice forming on the rifle as well, the idiot proved he was an idiot by trying to shoot the gun anyway.
Yeah, that didn't work out too well. For the shooter.
Then something really weird happened after Danny finished covering all the druggies in a sheet of ice.
* Taylor *
It was ridiculously easy to avoid the various attacks, just redirecting attempts to grapple or strike her while avoiding where she KNEW the bullets were going to go.
Danger Sense + chakra-enhanced ninja agility was apparently damn effective.
It might have been more difficult with Skidmark, who kept trying to do things with some kind of kinetic field but she could figure out where those were going just like with the various attempts to shoot her.
There was one bad moment where one shooter was far enough away that she couldn't reach him, but since it was just down to him and one other ganger she used a kunai to hit the gun and dodge the other one trying to get stabby.
That had lasted long enough for a loud bang, dodging a bit of shrapnel, and taking out the last remaining gang member by flipping up into the air and coming down with an axe-kick.
Boot to the head!
[First major enemy defeat! +100]
[Teamwork Makes The Dream Work! +100]
"Tak-tak-tak-tak-tak" came a noise that caused two people to immediately react. Besides herself.
Her father stepped close. "If you're going to defer the roll, wait till it comes up with the first but before the second starts."
[Appearance/Social Combat]
Taylor/Zenko was still eyeing the group of students. Old Erwin was looking around, but that might have just been because that kid Kurt & Lacey had brought in was looking around. Hopefully that big brother they'd called would show up soon.
The second set began while she was still trying to figure that out and avoid saying anything that might be misconstrued.
[Costume Upgrade (100)]
"What?" asked Zenko before her current set of clothing seemed to blur and flow and-
Sweatpants and t-shirt and half-jacket and mask were gone. Instead she was wearing something that did NOT look thrown together from a thrift store. Apparently the ninja motif was considered her primary as the green flak vest was over dark blue leggings and shirt.
"Okay, this is interesting," said Danny, making an ice mirror so she could properly see herself.
Zenko blinked. She'd deliberately made Zenko look different from Taylor after all, so seeing herself had lost that little weirdness after a few forays into cape life. Facepaint whiskers were new but were obviously part of the look she was going for and just as obviously makeup. Her eyes definitely looked different, especially without the glasses.
That she could apparently see without her glasses was another thing to distance her Zenko identity from her Taylor identity.
Her hair was still a brilliant red, her fox ears and tail orange and black and white. And actually looked more like accessories than real ears even when they flicked around.
She could see fuuinjutsu on her fingerless gloves and the thigh-wrap and the sandals. Have to figure out what those did later. Seal work had not been her specialty.
And there were sirens approaching. Someone must have called the PRT or the police.
Hopefully they'd arrive before she had to punch someone back into unconsciousness again. She knew from one of the discussions in World Affairs that concussions were only shrugged off in movies and TV.
Judging by how loud the sirens approaching were getting though, she didn't have a whole lot of time to consider things.
* Coil *
Wilson and Johnson were both showing signs of confusion, with Wilson being extremely talkative.
Reviewing the footage had revealed that Victor had been present without his costume, probably for the same reason that his men were there.
That Victor had abruptly disappeared meant that these powers/skills could be learned. Which made Zenko a much more interesting target for recruitment.
Softsell might be the only way to go there. Torturing her in one timeline to find out which buttons to press, what levers to apply, and then dismiss the timeline in order to apply that knowledge. Standard practice by this point.
Coil canceled the second timeline he was running to have a bit of stress relief. He split timelines again.
* Timeline 2 *
Drawing his gun he shot both of the compromised agents and then went on to...
Coil blinked. Everything had just shuddered and stopped. Silence. Even the clock on the wall had stopped. And now the colors were going weird. What the hell was this? He tried to turn and...
Timeline ended in darkness and pain radiating out from his back.
* Timeline 1 *
Coil stared at the two agents briefly. "What the hell?"
"Boss?" asked Wilson.
"Something wrong?" asked Johnson, looking more curious than anything.
"You two have been compromised by the Empire, Master/Stranger protocols," said Coil, going with procedure since he wasn't sure what else to do.
The other mercenaries in the room shifted their rifles.
Johnson shrugged while Wilson stammered out a protest.
Coil eyed the two before beginning the walk back to his office. Clearly he needed to figure out what had just happened, but that had been an atypical ending of a timeline.
With those two contained he could concentrate on acquiring Zenko, which was the bigger priority.
It was nice to be walking around again, alive. Most people only got one chance at living.
He was not most people.
Oh, to be sure, this body and its interesting abilities were temporary. He'd burn it out eventually.
He'd run his own Hidden Village once, of course, but even then he'd let administrators handle the actual work while he did the parts that actually interested him.
This Village Hidden In The Bay, or whatever they'd actually call it, had possibilities but he had zero interest in running the silly thing.
Still, first he had some errands to run. He had some research to do. Then perhaps he could have some more direct and personal fun. After all, these 'Nazis' had attempted to sabotage the young ninja and...
Oh, who were these obvious troops stationed in various posts around the area.
Hmmm. No skills he particularly wanted. Though what would happen if he drew heavily on this one?
That mercenary picked up a communications device and spoke into it. "Mister Coil, sir? One of the Dockworkers present screamed and then vanished. Possible teleporter."
Orochimaru smiled with his borrowed face. Coil? Oh they did like their theatrics, didn't they? Coil like a spring or Coil like a snake in this odd language?
"Get back to base, Wilson. I'll review your footage and see if it was worth you breaking radio silence."
Those "Nazi" fellows were now number two on the list. It sounded like this might just be amusing.
* Danny *
Neither of them were comfortable with words or actions for closeness. The years they'd been apart hadn't changed that.
So a few muttered reassurances, a brief hug, then back to training the rest of the class as if nothing had happened.
Except that none of the people involved were idiots or so wrapped up in their own dramas that they didn't know something had changed.
Zenko/Taylor was aware of something being off among the students. Danny was more used to people in general and most of those involved as well, so it was more obvious to him.
* Flashback *
"So you're the father of the hero," grumbled some guy with some truly horrific scars.
"Yeah," said Danny, cracking an eye open to stare at the man who'd interrupted him striking these weird target dummies.
The guy made a gesture for Danny to continue. "Name's Ibiki Morino. My understanding is your world has something called 'secret identities' and you keep your active ninja career and your private lives distinct."
"That's accurate," said Danny as he went back to hitting the various protrusions on the post. "Apparently there's this thing called the 'Unwritten Rules' and most capes at least pay lip service to them."
"Implying there are those who do not," said Morino, continuing at Danny's nod. "Well, you don't have much use for Torture or Interrogation considering what you've told Tsunade about what you see as your role."
"Yes?" prompted Danny at the pause.
"What I'm here to coach you on are Infiltration techniques," said Morino. "Part of that is social awareness. Looking for tells and being able to interpret them. We have this afternoon. Not nearly enough time to master, but enough to get you started."
* Present *
Zephron met his eyes and cocked his head slightly. A hand gesture to wait until later. He'd try to come up with an explanation.
Old Erwin had set aside his usual look and Danny got a glimpse of the steel underneath before he covered it up. One of the things that made you wonder how much of the tall tales he spun had at least a grain or two of truth.
Kurt and Lacey had known him well enough to know something had changed but just had a moment or two of confusion before concentrating on the exercises they'd been coached on.
As for Delia, Aisha, and Abdi? The kid was being watched by the other two, as she'd been caught "exploring" in an area she shouldn't have been.
One thing was certain, that meeting Saturday with the PRT was going to be... interesting.
Even more so than it had been.
Aisha, the girl who'd been caught playing Dora the Explora, was just getting to some of the training when "Zenko" snapped her head up and began looking in a particular direction.
"Guys. Head's up," said Zenko.
"Hostiles?" Danny asked.
"Multiple," answered Zenko. "Not the ones from earlier."
"Huh," said Danny, absently cracking his knuckles.
"You," said Zenko directly to Aisha. "Get to the second floor and hide. Everyone else get to cover. You're not ready for this."
* Abdi *
His name was actually Abdi Kenworth, and he was Brockton Bay born and raised and of Somali heritage. Living in modern Brockton was dangerous, especially with the Empire 88 around, so hearing that the new hero Zenko was trying to teach some sort of fast-movement ability was something he was very very interested in.
He'd known Danny Hebert, head of hiring, for years. Danny had been able to get ahold of jobs for him every so often even with things falling apart they way they'd been.
So, upon hearing that there were hostiles incoming, he took the usual precautions. Exits were there and there and that one was opposite from where Zenko was directing her attention.
She must have had some of those fox projections outside. That had to be damn handy.
First, find the exits. Second, find cover. Third, as soon as he knew who was coming - call either the PRT or the Police.
Danny shifted his weight a couple of times then made a bunch of those weird hand gestures that Zenko did.
"Ice Release: Wall of Ice!"
Danny was a cape like Zenko?! Or... Damn. He absolutely HAD to learn this. Powers you could teach others? Yes, please. Give him a "turn invisible while you snuck off away from violent thugs" skill? Oh, yeah. That would be perfect.
There was a literal wall of spiky ice crystals formed that looked thick enough to stop bullets. Being able to do THAT whenever you wanted, well, if he didn't get a invisibility power something like that would be damn handy.
He wasn't going to try for any skill/power to smack down the Nazis, there were enough sympathizers among the cops that would look at a black man punching a Nazi through the wall as an excuse for some violence of their own.
Be damn cathartic though.
Wait. Could he do something like that? Abdi watched as Zenko did that rapid-flicking of her hands into various forms. She did that to shape her chakra, kind of a mnemonic aid from what he'd gathered.
Zenko then slapped the ground with both hands and a wall of concrete formed next to the ice wall.
Yup. Abdi wondered if you could make a hollow dome with that technique. Instant bunker. When you lived in Brockton Bay that kind of thing would have some uses. Enemy capes. Crooked cops. Muggers. Thugs. Ex-wife.
Then the door burst open and someone started shooting.
Abdi, with reflexes honed by years of being in Brockton Bay, ducked behind the machinery he'd chosen as a hiding spot before looking back out.
Also with the skills learned from being a crane operator turned truck driver, he immediately classified them as Bathing Avoidant Druggies (aka Baddies) who were carrying automatic weapons. He knew the difference between semi-auto and auto thank you very much. That had been a burst of gunfire, so fully auto. And that was about the extent of his knowledge of guns other than classifying them as rifles.
"All right you cum-suckling -" (WHAM!)
Enter Skidmark, stage right. Exit Skidmark, pursued by bear?
A bear made entirely of ice?
Well, now that he knew there were actual capes involved he could call the PRT. For Tour Information, dial 1. For a specific department, hit * and the extension number. To report Parahuman villain crime, press 2. Please hold for the next available operator.
Oh, huh. Danny sure looked different now. Guess he'd been training a lot longer.
The idea of forming an ice bear to protect him from his ex-wife never even crossed Abdi's mind. Not even a bit.
* Zephron *
People expected that because he was a big muscular black man, he was good at fighting.
Well, actually, he was.
So he could appreciate how Zenko fought and noticed that Danny was similar but different in fighting style.
Danny was straight forward, waded in with elbow strikes. Every so often he'd punch at someone standing a few feet away and a fist made of ice would shoot across and smack one of the druggies.
Danny had also put a coating of ice on the floor that he and Zenko had no trouble crossing.
"You shitstaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Enter Skidmark who was suddenly slip-sliding away until Zenko's knee met his face with a cracking noise that made Zephron wince. Not in sympathy for Skidmark in particular, just from knowing how much getting your nose smashed like that hurt.
If Danny was wading in and brawling like a machine, Zenko was more like water. Flowing up off the floor, shoving and pushing at the gangers, causing them even more problems on the iced-over floor. Every so often a punch or kick or knee or elbow strike would smack down on a ganger.
One had finally gotten out of the mosh pit that was that doorway and tried to point his rifle at the foxgirl, but there was a loud crack as some wedge-shaped throwing knife was slammed into the muzzle.
Then, despite that Zephron could clearly see the ice forming on the rifle as well, the idiot proved he was an idiot by trying to shoot the gun anyway.
Yeah, that didn't work out too well. For the shooter.
Then something really weird happened after Danny finished covering all the druggies in a sheet of ice.
* Taylor *
It was ridiculously easy to avoid the various attacks, just redirecting attempts to grapple or strike her while avoiding where she KNEW the bullets were going to go.
Danger Sense + chakra-enhanced ninja agility was apparently damn effective.
It might have been more difficult with Skidmark, who kept trying to do things with some kind of kinetic field but she could figure out where those were going just like with the various attempts to shoot her.
There was one bad moment where one shooter was far enough away that she couldn't reach him, but since it was just down to him and one other ganger she used a kunai to hit the gun and dodge the other one trying to get stabby.
That had lasted long enough for a loud bang, dodging a bit of shrapnel, and taking out the last remaining gang member by flipping up into the air and coming down with an axe-kick.
Boot to the head!
[First major enemy defeat! +100]
[Teamwork Makes The Dream Work! +100]
"Tak-tak-tak-tak-tak" came a noise that caused two people to immediately react. Besides herself.
Her father stepped close. "If you're going to defer the roll, wait till it comes up with the first but before the second starts."
[Appearance/Social Combat]
Taylor/Zenko was still eyeing the group of students. Old Erwin was looking around, but that might have just been because that kid Kurt & Lacey had brought in was looking around. Hopefully that big brother they'd called would show up soon.
The second set began while she was still trying to figure that out and avoid saying anything that might be misconstrued.
[Costume Upgrade (100)]
"What?" asked Zenko before her current set of clothing seemed to blur and flow and-
Sweatpants and t-shirt and half-jacket and mask were gone. Instead she was wearing something that did NOT look thrown together from a thrift store. Apparently the ninja motif was considered her primary as the green flak vest was over dark blue leggings and shirt.
"Okay, this is interesting," said Danny, making an ice mirror so she could properly see herself.
Zenko blinked. She'd deliberately made Zenko look different from Taylor after all, so seeing herself had lost that little weirdness after a few forays into cape life. Facepaint whiskers were new but were obviously part of the look she was going for and just as obviously makeup. Her eyes definitely looked different, especially without the glasses.
That she could apparently see without her glasses was another thing to distance her Zenko identity from her Taylor identity.
Her hair was still a brilliant red, her fox ears and tail orange and black and white. And actually looked more like accessories than real ears even when they flicked around.
She could see fuuinjutsu on her fingerless gloves and the thigh-wrap and the sandals. Have to figure out what those did later. Seal work had not been her specialty.
And there were sirens approaching. Someone must have called the PRT or the police.
Hopefully they'd arrive before she had to punch someone back into unconsciousness again. She knew from one of the discussions in World Affairs that concussions were only shrugged off in movies and TV.
Judging by how loud the sirens approaching were getting though, she didn't have a whole lot of time to consider things.
* Coil *
Wilson and Johnson were both showing signs of confusion, with Wilson being extremely talkative.
Reviewing the footage had revealed that Victor had been present without his costume, probably for the same reason that his men were there.
That Victor had abruptly disappeared meant that these powers/skills could be learned. Which made Zenko a much more interesting target for recruitment.
Softsell might be the only way to go there. Torturing her in one timeline to find out which buttons to press, what levers to apply, and then dismiss the timeline in order to apply that knowledge. Standard practice by this point.
Coil canceled the second timeline he was running to have a bit of stress relief. He split timelines again.
* Timeline 2 *
Drawing his gun he shot both of the compromised agents and then went on to...
Coil blinked. Everything had just shuddered and stopped. Silence. Even the clock on the wall had stopped. And now the colors were going weird. What the hell was this? He tried to turn and...
Timeline ended in darkness and pain radiating out from his back.
* Timeline 1 *
Coil stared at the two agents briefly. "What the hell?"
"Boss?" asked Wilson.
"Something wrong?" asked Johnson, looking more curious than anything.
"You two have been compromised by the Empire, Master/Stranger protocols," said Coil, going with procedure since he wasn't sure what else to do.
The other mercenaries in the room shifted their rifles.
Johnson shrugged while Wilson stammered out a protest.
Coil eyed the two before beginning the walk back to his office. Clearly he needed to figure out what had just happened, but that had been an atypical ending of a timeline.
With those two contained he could concentrate on acquiring Zenko, which was the bigger priority.
Last edited:
Meetings & Greetings
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
* Brian *
Aisha going off and getting herself in trouble. Practically a weekly, sometimes bi-weekly, event.
Aisha ending up in the Docks was just a little out of the usual way.
At least she hadn't been shoplifting. Or running from Empire goons. Or...
Look, he had a very troublesome sister who had a bit of Attention Deficit or something.
The lights turned out to be not cops but PRT, which gave him a fair amount of anxiety going forward. Had Aisha triggered?
(Whoosh!) "Big Bro!" (GLOMP!)
Okay, this was new. And worrisome. Aisha was NOT known for public displays of affection unless she'd done something wrong and gotten caught. Or she wanted something.
"Can you sign me up for ninja lessons?!"
Okay, something she wanted. Things made a bit more sense. "What?!"
"They're training here to unlock some 'chalk raw' thing and it lets 'em do LOTS of things!" said Aisha. "Walk across ice without slippin' and sneak and -"
Brian recognized that Aisha was going into her enthusiastic-but-barely-comprehensible babble and continued to just take in the scene.
"-and they took down Skidmark, that's him in the coccoon of ice!" Aisha had released him now, just so she could bounce up and down on her toes as she pointed at a scene that looked like the aftermath of a particularly bad winter storm.
"Aisha, five of them are sealed up," noted Brian aloud.
"This is SO cool!" said Aisha.
"Yeah, there's a lot of ice," said Brian.
"That chalk raw stuff sounds like mumbo-jumbo but Zorro over there can stick that leaf to his forehead and that old guy over there actually managed to stick to a wall and THAT guy over there is throwing ice and Zenko..."
"Are you sure they're not just parahumans?" asked Brian. "Zenko's a parahuman, and that one guy may just have ice powers."
"Well, since they ain't charging the guys money to teach this stuff," mused Aisha.
"Aisha. You should have led with that." Brian shook his head, now looking for one of those teachers. If he could dump his dear little attention-deficit sister in a class that would work off some of her energy? He doubted they were actually learning some ninja stuff, and it looked like the PRT was monitoring them so it likely wasn't some weird cult, but if it kept her from getting in trouble...
Yeah, that sounded like a plan. As long as it wasn't some scam where advanced lesson plans for a nominal fee weren't the reason for this stuff.
* Orochimaru/victor *
* Sept 18th, 2009 0100 hours *
The Master/Stranger protocols might have given him trouble, if he bothered to play by the rules.
He was Orochimaru. He only followed the rules when it suited him. He'd gotten a bit enlightened from the days of his impetuous past, but there were considerations to be made here.
So the poor sap named Wilson whom he'd drained self-control from was recovering from his lapse of communications security, while the "Johnson" who was unconscious and hidden in a warehouse while a simple Henge/Disguise jutsu gave his current body that appearance? Well, he'd keep. In the meantime he had a much better idea.
To a shinobi of his level, even using the relatively weak body of this "Victor" fellow, the underground passages and security measures here were like stealing files from a kindergarten classroom.
The snake motif that Coil used? The underground base? The feeble attempts at security? Consider him slightly flattered.
By the time this Coil fellow had gotten to his little command center and hideaway, he was momentarily distracted by a noise as he opened the door. When he closed it there was less than a second of realization that there was now someone IN his little hidey-hole.
After that startled millisecond, of course, he was wrapped in a genjutsu.
Pleased at how familiar some of this was, and at the resources available to him now, Orochimaru smiled as he prepared to strip-mine the man's mind. After all, if Mister Calvert/Coil used crude methods to the same results - it was only fair for such to be turned on him - wasn't it?
Positively karmic, one might say.
* Later, Elsewhere *
"Begin dictation.
"September 18th, 2009. It is currently 1:15am. Initial findings and report of incident 09-17-2009-20741A-Zenko-4.
"On arriving at the Docks, twelve non-parahuman members of the minor criminal group known as the Archer Street Merchants were found subdued. Five of these had injuries consistent with others subdued by Zenko, minor bruises and concussions being the primary signs of physical violence. Five additional were encased in ice to varying degrees and will require minor treatment for hypothermia. Two additional were simply subdued by superior physical strength and ziptied.
"Accompanying this group were two parahumans associated with the group, Skidmark and Mush. Mush's injuries appear to have been from attempting to use his power on a large ice sculpture of a bear, which came apart and coated him with that ice. He is currently in a cell being treated for hypothermia. Skidmark also shows significant exposure and was encased in ice from just below his nose to the soles of his feet.
"This is the initial encounter with a previously unknown parahuman who introduced himself as a student of Zenko's 'ninja training' experiment, given the tentative cape name of Sub-Zero. Sub-Zero's powerset is ice generation and being able to drain heat energy from areas through that ice. Ice produced by Sub-Zero shows anomalous reinforcement, seeming to have a hardness and rigidity that is higher than one would expect. It also appears to be a hard counter to Skidmark's kinetic manipulation power.
"Sub-Zero is further detailed in report 09-17-2009-511A-Sub-Zero, which I have just finished and sent off to appease the gods of bureaucracy.
"Strike comment regarding gods of bureaucracy, I will have to get some sleep in the very near future.
"Possible familial relationship between Sub-Zero and Zenko noted. Sub-Zero was informed of need to acquire a mask or other form of concealing his identity as apparently he was unaware of Unwritten Rules and need for secret identities. He was provided a copy of the basic packet for new capes.
"Trooper Menendez provided a gift box. I was unaware that we even HAD gift boxes for new capes. Why didn't WE get a gift box? Miss Militia also expressed surprise at the existence of little gift boxes for new parahumans, some of the contents having a PRT logo - including Armsmaster logo ziptie dispensers. Make a note for followup as to when I actually signed off on that product.
"Miss Militia brand 'Armed & Ready For The Morning' coffee was also something she had not heard of. Note that for followup as well. Miss Militia was somewhat vexed by not having had a chance to sample the product.
"Non-parahuman captures will be sent to the police at approximately 0900 hours today. Skidmark and Mush are already in containment cells as they are treated for injuries.
"According to current files, the only remaining parahumans under the Archer Bridge Merchants is their Tinker - Squealer.
"Addendum: Archer Bridge Merchants is believed now currently in the single cape grouping, along with: the Usual Suspects, Yonkers Lane Thugs, Captain's Hill Jokers, and the Brockton Bedeviltry.
"Addendum Two: Make sure that the current list of Armsmaster brand products do not include anything particularly inappropriate. We do not need another fiasco like the panties."
* Saturday, September 20 2009 *
The receptionist blinked and looked over the group. "Zenko and?"
"Sub-Zero," said the older guy in a dark blue flight suit and mask.
"Erwin Leibowitz, just an old fisherman learning a few tricks," said the old man.
"Armsmaster will be with you shortly, if you'll take seats over there," said the receptionist.
The wait was, mercifully, brief. Possibly because Zenko walked up a wall and from there to the ceiling, then just sat down as if there was an invisible chair there while she read a magazine that wasn't there.
Her? Trolling the Parahuman Response Team? Why, thought never crossed her mind.
She definitely wasn't showing off for the kids that were coming out of the gift shop.
"Ah, Miss Zenko. How's it going?"
"Oh, you're that..." Zenko let go of the ceiling and gracefully flipped to land on her feet.
"Detective Fish," supplied the old PRT man. "Good to see you're still going."
"What can I say?" said Zenko with a grin. "I like staying out of trouble."
"Oh, don't we all wish we could hear that more around here," said Detective Fish. "Changed costumes? Looks nice."
"Yes, well, had a bit of an accident with the old one," said Zenko.
"Well, if you will all follow me, the people in charge wanted to get testing done so they have the real data about this stuff before they discuss the implications and such," said Fish, indicating the elevators.
* Conference Room 'Beta' *
"So these abilities can be taught," observed Director Piggot.
"Initial data suggests that to be so, though to a lesser extent than the two primaries demonstrate," agreed Armsmaster as he looked over the in-progress data the testers were providing.
"There's a family resemblance, though the older doesn't have fox ears or a tail," noted Researcher Atkinson, bringing up a facial analysis on one of the screens. "Probably father and daughter, which makes Zenko a Second Generation Parahuman."
"The animal bits are probably part of the suspected Changer ability," offered Armsmaster.
"Stick to the subject of today's testing - which is the teaching of abilities to non-parahumans," said Director Piggot. "That's our area of concern after all."
"We have three volunteers who have passed the background checks for joining this class," said Atkinson. "Trooper Cynthia Anderson. Ted Carroll over in the motor pool. Oh, and Jerry Pidec in Research."
"Why someone in the motor pool?" asked Director Piggot.
"Apparently the strength and healing would be useful considering some of the parts needed to maintain the transports," answered Atkinson.
"Very well," said Director Piggot. "That older man. Something odd about him."
Deputy Director Renick consulted his tablet. "Erwin Leibowitz. Retired in Brockton Bay since the early 90s. Not able to get much on his background - apparently he was a commercial fisherman working for the Four Leaf fishpacking plant in Boston which has since gone bankrupt and folded. It's known that he spends most of his time fishing in his own boat, and that he's prone to telling tall tales over at a dockside bar."
"Strength and endurance and running ratings are what you might expect from someone in their 20s and some training on Mister Leibowitz. Not enough for a Brute or Mover rating, but still a lot higher than you would expect from someone his age. That lasted for three minutes thirty-seven seconds at which point his bio-energy enhancement reserves were depleted," said Armsmaster as he looked over several graphs. "If this training performs like similar non-parahuman training, the time enhanced might increase steadily with practice."
Director Piggot hmphed. "We'll see. What about the two parahumans?"
"Sub-Zero has some hydrokinesis coupled with an energy-absorbing ability," said Armsmaster. "Shaker 4 due to limited range and the apparent need for atmospheric water to draw upon. Same bio-energy manipulation as with Zenko."
"Zenko cannot do these tricks with ice?" asked Director Piggot.
"She denied it when questioned, and has not demonstrated such abilities," Armsmaster noted while bringing up the appropriate section of the report. "They're testing speed on the treadmills now while Leibowitz recovers."
Director Piggot watched for a few seconds as one of the screens was displaying live data. "I thought Zenko was only able to run at 25mph."
"Clearly she has either improved or she holds back in traversing the city," observed Armsmaster. "Sub-Zero is clearly slower at a top speed of 64mph. Zenko is much better at acceleration as well."
"Hmph. When they're done, let me know. I've got to send preliminary findings up the chain," said Director Piggot. "Renick, I'll leave you in charge of this. If they can teach even bursts of that enhancement ability, it could be invaluable for strike teams."
"Wait. Something just happened," said Armsmaster, as he leaned over one display and then began typing again. A scene from the testing room replayed.
"She changed position but we knew she was fast," commented Renick.
"Sensors also picked up several anomalous readings, trying to find a match," noted Armsmaster. "At the exact moment she moved."
"Something new?" asked Director Piggot, having stopped walking towards the door.
Researcher Atkinson hmphed as he looked over the screens. "She was in a conversation with Doctor Sterling. Let me pull it up to see if there's a clue."
Armsmaster straightened. "I have a match. Not exactly, but readings are similar to those of a Grey Boy bubble at the point of reset."
* Taylor *
"Interesting," said Doctor Sterling. "This bio-energy seems not only useful but multi-purpose, but normal instrumentation doesn't seem to indicate any such field. If it's not a problem, I would dearly like to be able to examine projections of this energy."
[Cruxpoint!]
[Further cooperation with the PRT, with the possibility of suspicions of you holding back, OR]
[Stonewall them, with the guarantee of you keeping secrets and further suspicions.]
[Do you wish to postpone the roll at this point?]
"No..." said Zenko, thinking this was a really bad time for the Dojo to send something her way but answering the Doctor.
"Excellent," said Doctor Sterling.
[Roll:6 Ninja Academy]
Zenko got a little excited and tried not to show it. There was the pause, waiting for her to defer, then it continued on with the sound of a roulette wheel being spun again. This though she wanted, as she very much wanted more training in what was basically her brand at this point.
"Something wrong?" asked Doctor Sterling.
"No, not at all." Taylor listened to the clicking noise slow and gradually come to a stop.
There was a brief flicker and Taylor moved a bit. Taylor smiled. "Nothing wrong at all."
Aisha going off and getting herself in trouble. Practically a weekly, sometimes bi-weekly, event.
Aisha ending up in the Docks was just a little out of the usual way.
At least she hadn't been shoplifting. Or running from Empire goons. Or...
Look, he had a very troublesome sister who had a bit of Attention Deficit or something.
The lights turned out to be not cops but PRT, which gave him a fair amount of anxiety going forward. Had Aisha triggered?
(Whoosh!) "Big Bro!" (GLOMP!)
Okay, this was new. And worrisome. Aisha was NOT known for public displays of affection unless she'd done something wrong and gotten caught. Or she wanted something.
"Can you sign me up for ninja lessons?!"
Okay, something she wanted. Things made a bit more sense. "What?!"
"They're training here to unlock some 'chalk raw' thing and it lets 'em do LOTS of things!" said Aisha. "Walk across ice without slippin' and sneak and -"
Brian recognized that Aisha was going into her enthusiastic-but-barely-comprehensible babble and continued to just take in the scene.
"-and they took down Skidmark, that's him in the coccoon of ice!" Aisha had released him now, just so she could bounce up and down on her toes as she pointed at a scene that looked like the aftermath of a particularly bad winter storm.
"Aisha, five of them are sealed up," noted Brian aloud.
"This is SO cool!" said Aisha.
"Yeah, there's a lot of ice," said Brian.
"That chalk raw stuff sounds like mumbo-jumbo but Zorro over there can stick that leaf to his forehead and that old guy over there actually managed to stick to a wall and THAT guy over there is throwing ice and Zenko..."
"Are you sure they're not just parahumans?" asked Brian. "Zenko's a parahuman, and that one guy may just have ice powers."
"Well, since they ain't charging the guys money to teach this stuff," mused Aisha.
"Aisha. You should have led with that." Brian shook his head, now looking for one of those teachers. If he could dump his dear little attention-deficit sister in a class that would work off some of her energy? He doubted they were actually learning some ninja stuff, and it looked like the PRT was monitoring them so it likely wasn't some weird cult, but if it kept her from getting in trouble...
Yeah, that sounded like a plan. As long as it wasn't some scam where advanced lesson plans for a nominal fee weren't the reason for this stuff.
* Orochimaru/victor *
* Sept 18th, 2009 0100 hours *
The Master/Stranger protocols might have given him trouble, if he bothered to play by the rules.
He was Orochimaru. He only followed the rules when it suited him. He'd gotten a bit enlightened from the days of his impetuous past, but there were considerations to be made here.
So the poor sap named Wilson whom he'd drained self-control from was recovering from his lapse of communications security, while the "Johnson" who was unconscious and hidden in a warehouse while a simple Henge/Disguise jutsu gave his current body that appearance? Well, he'd keep. In the meantime he had a much better idea.
To a shinobi of his level, even using the relatively weak body of this "Victor" fellow, the underground passages and security measures here were like stealing files from a kindergarten classroom.
The snake motif that Coil used? The underground base? The feeble attempts at security? Consider him slightly flattered.
By the time this Coil fellow had gotten to his little command center and hideaway, he was momentarily distracted by a noise as he opened the door. When he closed it there was less than a second of realization that there was now someone IN his little hidey-hole.
After that startled millisecond, of course, he was wrapped in a genjutsu.
Pleased at how familiar some of this was, and at the resources available to him now, Orochimaru smiled as he prepared to strip-mine the man's mind. After all, if Mister Calvert/Coil used crude methods to the same results - it was only fair for such to be turned on him - wasn't it?
Positively karmic, one might say.
* Later, Elsewhere *
"Begin dictation.
"September 18th, 2009. It is currently 1:15am. Initial findings and report of incident 09-17-2009-20741A-Zenko-4.
"On arriving at the Docks, twelve non-parahuman members of the minor criminal group known as the Archer Street Merchants were found subdued. Five of these had injuries consistent with others subdued by Zenko, minor bruises and concussions being the primary signs of physical violence. Five additional were encased in ice to varying degrees and will require minor treatment for hypothermia. Two additional were simply subdued by superior physical strength and ziptied.
"Accompanying this group were two parahumans associated with the group, Skidmark and Mush. Mush's injuries appear to have been from attempting to use his power on a large ice sculpture of a bear, which came apart and coated him with that ice. He is currently in a cell being treated for hypothermia. Skidmark also shows significant exposure and was encased in ice from just below his nose to the soles of his feet.
"This is the initial encounter with a previously unknown parahuman who introduced himself as a student of Zenko's 'ninja training' experiment, given the tentative cape name of Sub-Zero. Sub-Zero's powerset is ice generation and being able to drain heat energy from areas through that ice. Ice produced by Sub-Zero shows anomalous reinforcement, seeming to have a hardness and rigidity that is higher than one would expect. It also appears to be a hard counter to Skidmark's kinetic manipulation power.
"Sub-Zero is further detailed in report 09-17-2009-511A-Sub-Zero, which I have just finished and sent off to appease the gods of bureaucracy.
"Strike comment regarding gods of bureaucracy, I will have to get some sleep in the very near future.
"Possible familial relationship between Sub-Zero and Zenko noted. Sub-Zero was informed of need to acquire a mask or other form of concealing his identity as apparently he was unaware of Unwritten Rules and need for secret identities. He was provided a copy of the basic packet for new capes.
"Trooper Menendez provided a gift box. I was unaware that we even HAD gift boxes for new capes. Why didn't WE get a gift box? Miss Militia also expressed surprise at the existence of little gift boxes for new parahumans, some of the contents having a PRT logo - including Armsmaster logo ziptie dispensers. Make a note for followup as to when I actually signed off on that product.
"Miss Militia brand 'Armed & Ready For The Morning' coffee was also something she had not heard of. Note that for followup as well. Miss Militia was somewhat vexed by not having had a chance to sample the product.
"Non-parahuman captures will be sent to the police at approximately 0900 hours today. Skidmark and Mush are already in containment cells as they are treated for injuries.
"According to current files, the only remaining parahumans under the Archer Bridge Merchants is their Tinker - Squealer.
"Addendum: Archer Bridge Merchants is believed now currently in the single cape grouping, along with: the Usual Suspects, Yonkers Lane Thugs, Captain's Hill Jokers, and the Brockton Bedeviltry.
"Addendum Two: Make sure that the current list of Armsmaster brand products do not include anything particularly inappropriate. We do not need another fiasco like the panties."
* Saturday, September 20 2009 *
The receptionist blinked and looked over the group. "Zenko and?"
"Sub-Zero," said the older guy in a dark blue flight suit and mask.
"Erwin Leibowitz, just an old fisherman learning a few tricks," said the old man.
"Armsmaster will be with you shortly, if you'll take seats over there," said the receptionist.
The wait was, mercifully, brief. Possibly because Zenko walked up a wall and from there to the ceiling, then just sat down as if there was an invisible chair there while she read a magazine that wasn't there.
Her? Trolling the Parahuman Response Team? Why, thought never crossed her mind.
She definitely wasn't showing off for the kids that were coming out of the gift shop.
"Ah, Miss Zenko. How's it going?"
"Oh, you're that..." Zenko let go of the ceiling and gracefully flipped to land on her feet.
"Detective Fish," supplied the old PRT man. "Good to see you're still going."
"What can I say?" said Zenko with a grin. "I like staying out of trouble."
"Oh, don't we all wish we could hear that more around here," said Detective Fish. "Changed costumes? Looks nice."
"Yes, well, had a bit of an accident with the old one," said Zenko.
"Well, if you will all follow me, the people in charge wanted to get testing done so they have the real data about this stuff before they discuss the implications and such," said Fish, indicating the elevators.
* Conference Room 'Beta' *
"So these abilities can be taught," observed Director Piggot.
"Initial data suggests that to be so, though to a lesser extent than the two primaries demonstrate," agreed Armsmaster as he looked over the in-progress data the testers were providing.
"There's a family resemblance, though the older doesn't have fox ears or a tail," noted Researcher Atkinson, bringing up a facial analysis on one of the screens. "Probably father and daughter, which makes Zenko a Second Generation Parahuman."
"The animal bits are probably part of the suspected Changer ability," offered Armsmaster.
"Stick to the subject of today's testing - which is the teaching of abilities to non-parahumans," said Director Piggot. "That's our area of concern after all."
"We have three volunteers who have passed the background checks for joining this class," said Atkinson. "Trooper Cynthia Anderson. Ted Carroll over in the motor pool. Oh, and Jerry Pidec in Research."
"Why someone in the motor pool?" asked Director Piggot.
"Apparently the strength and healing would be useful considering some of the parts needed to maintain the transports," answered Atkinson.
"Very well," said Director Piggot. "That older man. Something odd about him."
Deputy Director Renick consulted his tablet. "Erwin Leibowitz. Retired in Brockton Bay since the early 90s. Not able to get much on his background - apparently he was a commercial fisherman working for the Four Leaf fishpacking plant in Boston which has since gone bankrupt and folded. It's known that he spends most of his time fishing in his own boat, and that he's prone to telling tall tales over at a dockside bar."
"Strength and endurance and running ratings are what you might expect from someone in their 20s and some training on Mister Leibowitz. Not enough for a Brute or Mover rating, but still a lot higher than you would expect from someone his age. That lasted for three minutes thirty-seven seconds at which point his bio-energy enhancement reserves were depleted," said Armsmaster as he looked over several graphs. "If this training performs like similar non-parahuman training, the time enhanced might increase steadily with practice."
Director Piggot hmphed. "We'll see. What about the two parahumans?"
"Sub-Zero has some hydrokinesis coupled with an energy-absorbing ability," said Armsmaster. "Shaker 4 due to limited range and the apparent need for atmospheric water to draw upon. Same bio-energy manipulation as with Zenko."
"Zenko cannot do these tricks with ice?" asked Director Piggot.
"She denied it when questioned, and has not demonstrated such abilities," Armsmaster noted while bringing up the appropriate section of the report. "They're testing speed on the treadmills now while Leibowitz recovers."
Director Piggot watched for a few seconds as one of the screens was displaying live data. "I thought Zenko was only able to run at 25mph."
"Clearly she has either improved or she holds back in traversing the city," observed Armsmaster. "Sub-Zero is clearly slower at a top speed of 64mph. Zenko is much better at acceleration as well."
"Hmph. When they're done, let me know. I've got to send preliminary findings up the chain," said Director Piggot. "Renick, I'll leave you in charge of this. If they can teach even bursts of that enhancement ability, it could be invaluable for strike teams."
"Wait. Something just happened," said Armsmaster, as he leaned over one display and then began typing again. A scene from the testing room replayed.
"She changed position but we knew she was fast," commented Renick.
"Sensors also picked up several anomalous readings, trying to find a match," noted Armsmaster. "At the exact moment she moved."
"Something new?" asked Director Piggot, having stopped walking towards the door.
Researcher Atkinson hmphed as he looked over the screens. "She was in a conversation with Doctor Sterling. Let me pull it up to see if there's a clue."
Armsmaster straightened. "I have a match. Not exactly, but readings are similar to those of a Grey Boy bubble at the point of reset."
* Taylor *
"Interesting," said Doctor Sterling. "This bio-energy seems not only useful but multi-purpose, but normal instrumentation doesn't seem to indicate any such field. If it's not a problem, I would dearly like to be able to examine projections of this energy."
[Cruxpoint!]
[Further cooperation with the PRT, with the possibility of suspicions of you holding back, OR]
[Stonewall them, with the guarantee of you keeping secrets and further suspicions.]
[Do you wish to postpone the roll at this point?]
"No..." said Zenko, thinking this was a really bad time for the Dojo to send something her way but answering the Doctor.
"Excellent," said Doctor Sterling.
[Roll:6 Ninja Academy]
Zenko got a little excited and tried not to show it. There was the pause, waiting for her to defer, then it continued on with the sound of a roulette wheel being spun again. This though she wanted, as she very much wanted more training in what was basically her brand at this point.
"Something wrong?" asked Doctor Sterling.
"No, not at all." Taylor listened to the clicking noise slow and gradually come to a stop.
There was a brief flicker and Taylor moved a bit. Taylor smiled. "Nothing wrong at all."
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Deals and Ninja
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
* Between the Pure World & Impure World *
* Flashback: Before Taylor/Zenko returns to the testing facility *
"It was a prank! A prank!"
"We're kitsune, it's practically a requirement!"
Taylor held her fingers in the seal that Hashirama Senju had taught her, not releasing the technique at all.
"You can't deny it's been handy! Your world does that whole secret identity thing after all!"
There was no mercy in her gaze as the wood creaked menacingly.
"You're definitely getting the hang of Mokuton," noted Jiraiya as he observed Taylor using an original technique. At least he thought it was original. It didn't look like something Hashirama would normally do.
"Forgive us!" cried out several kitsune as the clamps tightened just a bit more.
"Why should I forgive you?" asked Taylor. "I leaned into the image because it was useful but until recently that was how I permanently looked."
"A summoning contract?" offered one of the kitsune, who then looked relieved when there was a bit of slack in the pressure.
"What good is a summoning contract with kitsune?" asked Jiraiya. "Are you experts at anything she can use?"
"We're good at infiltration!" said one kitsune.
"We're good at seduction!" said another kitsune. "OWWW! Why is it tighter?!"
"We're good at a number of tasks and human skills, actually," said the third, sounding quite worried.
"I don't know," said Jiraiya. "The crows were interested. So were the monkeys and the spiders."
Hashirama stepped out of a tree. "Ah, you caught them."
"They're offering her a kitsune summoning contract as recompense," stated Jiraiya, managing to put a fair amount of scorn into that.
"I'm actually a bit impressed that they were able to do so without several experienced ninja noticing," said Hiruzen Sarutobi as he appeared.
"So they've got a good handle on stealth techniques then, helped by a lack of malice to be detected," postulated Jiraiya.
"Yes! Yes! We're very useful," stated one of the kitsune.
"The bears and the sparrows were quite intrigued," noted Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage looking over the three kitsune currently in tight wooden bonds. "Apparently it's been ages since they've had a contractor."
Jiraiya shrugged. "Well, one of them was good enough she escaped and you've got a copy captured so at least think about signing them. If you hadn't noticed, Taylor, you've started to fade out and return to your world."
* PRT ENE Conference Room 407 "Chincoteague" *
* The Present *
Her showing up had been a bit of a surprise to everyone.
Director Piggot was unhappy about it, but she'd followed all the rules and regulations about reporting everything so the Director of the ENE Branch of the Parahuman Response Team had suspected some kind of response. Just not this particular one.
Her Thinker ability allowed her to read everyone in the room fairly well with two exceptions.
Armsmaster was wearing his power armor which cut down on a lot of the little tells that would normally take place.
Sub-Zero on the other hand was simply that good at cutting down or outright falsifying many of those automatic responses and shifts so that he was even better at that sort of thing than anyone other than a professional agent with years of training and experience. No, he was acting like he WAS a professional in that field just one whose focus was on something else and the control training was a sideline.
Director Piggot kept glaring at the screen like it had offended her, glancing at her and was trying to work out why such a high-level response when most of her communiques and requests were ignored, and glancing at another screen where Renick had met with the three subjects and negotiated a deal.
The deal was most likely they could get two people into the "ninja program" as "an evaluation" and monitoring the process. The initial demand was for four and doing it here in the building for proper oversight/testing. So far Zenko had been friendly and accomodating towards the PRT and Piggot wasn't satisfied with that but taking the "wait until she steps out of line and THEN go hardcore" approach.
"There," said Alexandria, pointing at the short clip where Zenko had abruptly changed position. "That's why I'm here."
Armsmaster looked up from his tablet. "You've noticed something?"
"I notice many things. Her hair is longer by one-fourth of an inch, stance is different, and where the clothing isn't covering her - it's faint but she's put on a slight increase in muscle mass." Alexandria nodded. "That's where the discrepency between her active time as a cape and practice with her skill set comes from. It seems she's creating a time-pocket and using it to train."
"Not quite a reverse of a Grey Boy bubble," summed up Armsmaster, nodding after a moment.
"Sub-Zero is obviously her father, so she's a Second-Gen," noted Alexandria aloud. "Explains part of her 'grab-bag' set of powers as well. I have to wonder if her mother was parahuman and what power she might have had."
"Of more concern is the student, non-parahuman but he was able to stick to a wall and has physical abilities not normally noted in someone of his age," said Armsmaster, bringing up files on a third screen. "Ernest Sandoval Leibowitz. Worked for a fishpacking plant in Boston as a licensed fisherman and captain of the fishing vessel Lady Penitent."
"This is intriguing, but that both Sub-Zero and Zenko have abilities which increase over time is more along the lines of why I was sent," stated Alexandria. "There are very few who can actively increase powers like Dauntless. Gain skill or expertise with them, certainly. Much less gain new powers as they go."
This was not the whole truth, but then again - nobody really expected that of anyone in politics and the Triumvirate was no exception.
"Look, Mister Leibowitz rested enough to recover and now he's crawling up the wall despite the lack of handholds," pointed out Director Piggot with a nod towards a monitor.
"Just think what the troops in Ellisburg could have done with such abilities," said Alexandria in a low enough voice to indicate she was speaking mainly to herself but just loud enough that Piggot would notice. From the startled look to the glare and then to a more thoughtful expression indicated that idea had just taken root.
There had been several capes who could affect normal people to give them abilities. Othala being a local example. Train them in abilities that they could make their own and were permanent? Entirely different and her actual reason for visiting.
"I'd suggest two for now," said Alexandria.
"We have three," said Armsmaster, handing her three folders.
"Cythia Anderson, Trooper for four years, one disciplinary action from 2007 - unnecessary force against an Empire-aligned civilian?"
"She passed the remedial course on necessary force after that," stated Armsmaster.
"Cleared by medical after getting roughed up by the ABB in 2008," noted Alexandria.
"Shrapnel from one of Oni Lee's grenades," exposited Armsmaster.
"I can see where having some extra mobility in such situations would be useful," agreed Alexandria, putting down that folder and opening the next. "Motor pool?"
* Zenko *
Everyone was doing something else, so she had a few moments to herself.
Zenko observed the chakra-enhanced ice sculpture that Sub-Zero had created for the researchers, though it was a bit crude and her father admitted he was working on the aesthetics there. Still, it was obviously a bear despite the rough shape.
Erwin had crawled up the wall and came back down and was resting again. It would probably require some pretty strong tranquilizers to wipe that smug look off his face. Why he wanted something called a "web shooter" was not something Zenko was familiar with or particularly concerned about.
Her eyes flicked up to one of the ceiling cameras. She was 99% certain that everything going on here would be analyzed to the last micron. So she was certainly sandbagging and not mentioning a whole lot of stuff because ninja. So was her father. Because ninja. Also experience with government agencies.
"Zenko? You carry around those little throwing knives. Is there a reason for that?"
Zenko stirred herself to address Doctor Richards. "Yes, they can be used for a number of things."
"Well, they're not exactly legal to use for a number of reasons. If we set up a target, can you show us? Perhaps something a little more legal-safe and PR-friendly can be used to substitute?"
Making a face, Zenko got up from where she'd been sitting. She knew that heroes and villains all took image and branding very seriously. She was not looking forward to seeing what they were going to suggest instead of sharp or pointy objects.
"Chakra enhanced throw," said Zenko. She wasn't lightning-chakra natured but giving a kunai a slight charge to make it better at penetration was simple enough. She silently thanked Shisui for his pointers.
It naturally went through the target and into the wall behind that with a satisfying 'thunk' noise.
"Kunai shadow clone!" tried Zenko as she again threw a single kunai, rewarded by dozens of kunai suddenly appearing and raining down upon the target when she'd only thrown a single one. The now-shredded target was momentarily obscured until all by the puff of smoke as the fake kunai vanished.
"Projection ability similar to your 'fox swarm'?" asked Richards. "Interesting. Can you do that with confoam grenades?"
Zenko was startled for a moment, not having expected that question, then thought about it. "No, I don't think so. I can't spam explosive tags or barrier tags even if they're on a kunai that I shadow clone."
"Different expressions of power? Can you demonstrate? I'll put up a fresh target," said Richards, sounding intrigued.
Zenko visibly considered that before deciding against it. "No, I'm still learning fuuinjutsu - the system that uses that sort of thing. Maybe when I've got it all down better."
"Interesting, so this 'fuuinjutsu' is one of these teachable powersets?" asked Richards. "What else can it potentially do?"
Zenko was silent for a moment before deciding storage seals were common enough and handy, so that was a good choice. Besides, she could potentially sell some if she could figure out how to allow for a release by someone without chakra.
* PRT ENE Conference Room 407 "Chincoteague" *
Armsmaster stared as he considered exactly what THAT could do for his equipment.
Director Piggot was a bit more vocal. "This 'fuu-whatever' allows her to store equipment in a slip of paper?"
Alexandria nodded, thinking that was DAMN handy considering how few cape costumes came with pockets. "In this case a post-it note containing a quarterstaff, a pack of Armsmaster-brand zip-ties, and what appears to be a ham sandwich."
Director Piggot considered that for a moment before asking. "Why a ham sandwich?"
"Long patrols and she burns a lot of energy, I suspect," answered Armsmaster.
"Sub-Zero just pulled out his own and produced a half-dozen of those little throwing knives," pointed out Director Piggot. "That indicates the ability can either be learned or is part of the family cluster of abilities."
They watched as the old man in the room was handed one of the post-it notes, coached through channeling his chakra into it, and producing a water bottle from it in a puff of that odd smoke that frequently accompanied Zenko's abilities.
"Director Piggot," said Alexandria after observing that. "I would strongly recommend that we get some students into these ninja classes, vet any students currently attending, and that you send weekly updates to the Chief Director's office. This may very well turn out to be something useful."
"Just if we could have troopers with extra ammunition stored away in their pockets? Yes, that thought DID occur to me," grumped Director Piggot. Just having a pack of confoam grenades was sufficiently bulky to make carrying them around problematic in long operations. Being able to pull out a case of ammunition or grenades when you ran out? That had her attention.
"If we can, without alienating them, we should try to get Sub-Zero into the Protectorate," added Alexandria. "The details I'll leave to you."
* Contessa *
The Path had changed. Again.
Path to Victory was adaptive, it had to be. However it did not automatically update, she had to run the particular Path and then check the number of Steps in that Path. There were many she checked daily.
Path to the survival of the human race had begun shrinking and it hadn't done so in single digit terms. No, chunks of Steps were departing. Sometimes a few Steps would be added, but those were the rarer events.
The Parahuman Feudalism experiment however? That had just crashed. Coil was no longer in the running at all.
Worse, when she tried to run a Path to check into Coil's absence from this particular chessboard? She was getting garbage answers. Step Forty-Two remained "pet any cute foxes that approach" for whatever odd reason and whatever THAT was about.
Okay, there were WORSE Paths she'd run. The "Path to Getting Some Down Time and Stress Relief" had been very very concerning, because it frankly read like a particularly lurid romance novel.
Especially Step 9, which had caused her to turn red enough that Doctor Mother had looked across the table at her and inquire as to her health.
Back to this problem, which was why she was standing on the roof of an office building near Coil's secret base wondering what the heck was going on with her Paths and why Brockton Bay was the location for this strangeness.
* Flashback: Before Taylor/Zenko returns to the testing facility *
"It was a prank! A prank!"
"We're kitsune, it's practically a requirement!"
Taylor held her fingers in the seal that Hashirama Senju had taught her, not releasing the technique at all.
"You can't deny it's been handy! Your world does that whole secret identity thing after all!"
There was no mercy in her gaze as the wood creaked menacingly.
"You're definitely getting the hang of Mokuton," noted Jiraiya as he observed Taylor using an original technique. At least he thought it was original. It didn't look like something Hashirama would normally do.
"Forgive us!" cried out several kitsune as the clamps tightened just a bit more.
"Why should I forgive you?" asked Taylor. "I leaned into the image because it was useful but until recently that was how I permanently looked."
"A summoning contract?" offered one of the kitsune, who then looked relieved when there was a bit of slack in the pressure.
"What good is a summoning contract with kitsune?" asked Jiraiya. "Are you experts at anything she can use?"
"We're good at infiltration!" said one kitsune.
"We're good at seduction!" said another kitsune. "OWWW! Why is it tighter?!"
"We're good at a number of tasks and human skills, actually," said the third, sounding quite worried.
"I don't know," said Jiraiya. "The crows were interested. So were the monkeys and the spiders."
Hashirama stepped out of a tree. "Ah, you caught them."
"They're offering her a kitsune summoning contract as recompense," stated Jiraiya, managing to put a fair amount of scorn into that.
"I'm actually a bit impressed that they were able to do so without several experienced ninja noticing," said Hiruzen Sarutobi as he appeared.
"So they've got a good handle on stealth techniques then, helped by a lack of malice to be detected," postulated Jiraiya.
"Yes! Yes! We're very useful," stated one of the kitsune.
"The bears and the sparrows were quite intrigued," noted Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage looking over the three kitsune currently in tight wooden bonds. "Apparently it's been ages since they've had a contractor."
Jiraiya shrugged. "Well, one of them was good enough she escaped and you've got a copy captured so at least think about signing them. If you hadn't noticed, Taylor, you've started to fade out and return to your world."
* PRT ENE Conference Room 407 "Chincoteague" *
* The Present *
Her showing up had been a bit of a surprise to everyone.
Director Piggot was unhappy about it, but she'd followed all the rules and regulations about reporting everything so the Director of the ENE Branch of the Parahuman Response Team had suspected some kind of response. Just not this particular one.
Her Thinker ability allowed her to read everyone in the room fairly well with two exceptions.
Armsmaster was wearing his power armor which cut down on a lot of the little tells that would normally take place.
Sub-Zero on the other hand was simply that good at cutting down or outright falsifying many of those automatic responses and shifts so that he was even better at that sort of thing than anyone other than a professional agent with years of training and experience. No, he was acting like he WAS a professional in that field just one whose focus was on something else and the control training was a sideline.
Director Piggot kept glaring at the screen like it had offended her, glancing at her and was trying to work out why such a high-level response when most of her communiques and requests were ignored, and glancing at another screen where Renick had met with the three subjects and negotiated a deal.
The deal was most likely they could get two people into the "ninja program" as "an evaluation" and monitoring the process. The initial demand was for four and doing it here in the building for proper oversight/testing. So far Zenko had been friendly and accomodating towards the PRT and Piggot wasn't satisfied with that but taking the "wait until she steps out of line and THEN go hardcore" approach.
"There," said Alexandria, pointing at the short clip where Zenko had abruptly changed position. "That's why I'm here."
Armsmaster looked up from his tablet. "You've noticed something?"
"I notice many things. Her hair is longer by one-fourth of an inch, stance is different, and where the clothing isn't covering her - it's faint but she's put on a slight increase in muscle mass." Alexandria nodded. "That's where the discrepency between her active time as a cape and practice with her skill set comes from. It seems she's creating a time-pocket and using it to train."
"Not quite a reverse of a Grey Boy bubble," summed up Armsmaster, nodding after a moment.
"Sub-Zero is obviously her father, so she's a Second-Gen," noted Alexandria aloud. "Explains part of her 'grab-bag' set of powers as well. I have to wonder if her mother was parahuman and what power she might have had."
"Of more concern is the student, non-parahuman but he was able to stick to a wall and has physical abilities not normally noted in someone of his age," said Armsmaster, bringing up files on a third screen. "Ernest Sandoval Leibowitz. Worked for a fishpacking plant in Boston as a licensed fisherman and captain of the fishing vessel Lady Penitent."
"This is intriguing, but that both Sub-Zero and Zenko have abilities which increase over time is more along the lines of why I was sent," stated Alexandria. "There are very few who can actively increase powers like Dauntless. Gain skill or expertise with them, certainly. Much less gain new powers as they go."
This was not the whole truth, but then again - nobody really expected that of anyone in politics and the Triumvirate was no exception.
"Look, Mister Leibowitz rested enough to recover and now he's crawling up the wall despite the lack of handholds," pointed out Director Piggot with a nod towards a monitor.
"Just think what the troops in Ellisburg could have done with such abilities," said Alexandria in a low enough voice to indicate she was speaking mainly to herself but just loud enough that Piggot would notice. From the startled look to the glare and then to a more thoughtful expression indicated that idea had just taken root.
There had been several capes who could affect normal people to give them abilities. Othala being a local example. Train them in abilities that they could make their own and were permanent? Entirely different and her actual reason for visiting.
"I'd suggest two for now," said Alexandria.
"We have three," said Armsmaster, handing her three folders.
"Cythia Anderson, Trooper for four years, one disciplinary action from 2007 - unnecessary force against an Empire-aligned civilian?"
"She passed the remedial course on necessary force after that," stated Armsmaster.
"Cleared by medical after getting roughed up by the ABB in 2008," noted Alexandria.
"Shrapnel from one of Oni Lee's grenades," exposited Armsmaster.
"I can see where having some extra mobility in such situations would be useful," agreed Alexandria, putting down that folder and opening the next. "Motor pool?"
* Zenko *
Everyone was doing something else, so she had a few moments to herself.
Zenko observed the chakra-enhanced ice sculpture that Sub-Zero had created for the researchers, though it was a bit crude and her father admitted he was working on the aesthetics there. Still, it was obviously a bear despite the rough shape.
Erwin had crawled up the wall and came back down and was resting again. It would probably require some pretty strong tranquilizers to wipe that smug look off his face. Why he wanted something called a "web shooter" was not something Zenko was familiar with or particularly concerned about.
Her eyes flicked up to one of the ceiling cameras. She was 99% certain that everything going on here would be analyzed to the last micron. So she was certainly sandbagging and not mentioning a whole lot of stuff because ninja. So was her father. Because ninja. Also experience with government agencies.
"Zenko? You carry around those little throwing knives. Is there a reason for that?"
Zenko stirred herself to address Doctor Richards. "Yes, they can be used for a number of things."
"Well, they're not exactly legal to use for a number of reasons. If we set up a target, can you show us? Perhaps something a little more legal-safe and PR-friendly can be used to substitute?"
Making a face, Zenko got up from where she'd been sitting. She knew that heroes and villains all took image and branding very seriously. She was not looking forward to seeing what they were going to suggest instead of sharp or pointy objects.
"Chakra enhanced throw," said Zenko. She wasn't lightning-chakra natured but giving a kunai a slight charge to make it better at penetration was simple enough. She silently thanked Shisui for his pointers.
It naturally went through the target and into the wall behind that with a satisfying 'thunk' noise.
"Kunai shadow clone!" tried Zenko as she again threw a single kunai, rewarded by dozens of kunai suddenly appearing and raining down upon the target when she'd only thrown a single one. The now-shredded target was momentarily obscured until all by the puff of smoke as the fake kunai vanished.
"Projection ability similar to your 'fox swarm'?" asked Richards. "Interesting. Can you do that with confoam grenades?"
Zenko was startled for a moment, not having expected that question, then thought about it. "No, I don't think so. I can't spam explosive tags or barrier tags even if they're on a kunai that I shadow clone."
"Different expressions of power? Can you demonstrate? I'll put up a fresh target," said Richards, sounding intrigued.
Zenko visibly considered that before deciding against it. "No, I'm still learning fuuinjutsu - the system that uses that sort of thing. Maybe when I've got it all down better."
"Interesting, so this 'fuuinjutsu' is one of these teachable powersets?" asked Richards. "What else can it potentially do?"
Zenko was silent for a moment before deciding storage seals were common enough and handy, so that was a good choice. Besides, she could potentially sell some if she could figure out how to allow for a release by someone without chakra.
* PRT ENE Conference Room 407 "Chincoteague" *
Armsmaster stared as he considered exactly what THAT could do for his equipment.
Director Piggot was a bit more vocal. "This 'fuu-whatever' allows her to store equipment in a slip of paper?"
Alexandria nodded, thinking that was DAMN handy considering how few cape costumes came with pockets. "In this case a post-it note containing a quarterstaff, a pack of Armsmaster-brand zip-ties, and what appears to be a ham sandwich."
Director Piggot considered that for a moment before asking. "Why a ham sandwich?"
"Long patrols and she burns a lot of energy, I suspect," answered Armsmaster.
"Sub-Zero just pulled out his own and produced a half-dozen of those little throwing knives," pointed out Director Piggot. "That indicates the ability can either be learned or is part of the family cluster of abilities."
They watched as the old man in the room was handed one of the post-it notes, coached through channeling his chakra into it, and producing a water bottle from it in a puff of that odd smoke that frequently accompanied Zenko's abilities.
"Director Piggot," said Alexandria after observing that. "I would strongly recommend that we get some students into these ninja classes, vet any students currently attending, and that you send weekly updates to the Chief Director's office. This may very well turn out to be something useful."
"Just if we could have troopers with extra ammunition stored away in their pockets? Yes, that thought DID occur to me," grumped Director Piggot. Just having a pack of confoam grenades was sufficiently bulky to make carrying them around problematic in long operations. Being able to pull out a case of ammunition or grenades when you ran out? That had her attention.
"If we can, without alienating them, we should try to get Sub-Zero into the Protectorate," added Alexandria. "The details I'll leave to you."
* Contessa *
The Path had changed. Again.
Path to Victory was adaptive, it had to be. However it did not automatically update, she had to run the particular Path and then check the number of Steps in that Path. There were many she checked daily.
Path to the survival of the human race had begun shrinking and it hadn't done so in single digit terms. No, chunks of Steps were departing. Sometimes a few Steps would be added, but those were the rarer events.
The Parahuman Feudalism experiment however? That had just crashed. Coil was no longer in the running at all.
Worse, when she tried to run a Path to check into Coil's absence from this particular chessboard? She was getting garbage answers. Step Forty-Two remained "pet any cute foxes that approach" for whatever odd reason and whatever THAT was about.
Okay, there were WORSE Paths she'd run. The "Path to Getting Some Down Time and Stress Relief" had been very very concerning, because it frankly read like a particularly lurid romance novel.
Especially Step 9, which had caused her to turn red enough that Doctor Mother had looked across the table at her and inquire as to her health.
Back to this problem, which was why she was standing on the roof of an office building near Coil's secret base wondering what the heck was going on with her Paths and why Brockton Bay was the location for this strangeness.
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