* 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.
