27 Burger Party
POV Kieu :
I idly sit in front of the window and strum my guitar in my penthouse apartment, still trying to get used to the recent changes to my physiology. It's been two days since I left Cricket hanging by her own chains, and that event plus the elimination of a number of E88 goons had allowed me to pick up 'A Son of Sparda'.
Eseentially, it boosted everything from physical capabilities, to magical, and mental. Though, they weren't technically upgrades to my mind, more just making me as stubborn as a mule... Or better yet, the Sparda brothers.
The biggest thing the skill did was remove the 'Cap' on how strong I could get. With it I'd never see a bottleneck to my progress, just a smooth road to the top, even if it did take a while to get there... Unfortunately, I doubted I had enough free time to train and punch out Alexandria or the Siberian with a single hit.
That said, my Regenerative abilities were quite frankly, ridiculous... It wasn't quite at Wolverine or Deadpool levels, but it was getting there. It'd improve with time but as is, I'm pretty sure I could take damage to my vital organs without much issue. Whether or not I could grow back a severed limb quickly was another matter entirely though. I could probably do it? But it'd probably take days to do.
The skills I had available after getting 'A Son of Sparda' were pretty cool too, though, most cost a metric fuckton of BP.
'Rule of Cool' basically made reality conform to enable cool moments, which would make me more effective in combat, or anything else that 'cool' could be applied to... I imagined cooking and other hobbies were included in this.
'Jackpot!' would give me an instinctive understanding of trajectories and such, making me like Deadshot, or Dante with any ranged weapon.
And lastly were two exclusive skills 'Way of the Dark Slayer' and 'Way of the Devil Hunter'. These were basically Dante and Vergil's styles of fighting.
Vergil's included teleportation and strong deliberate attacks that annihilated both groups and single targets. Highly manoeuvrable, if lacking in variety. This disadvantage would be rectified further up the tree though as soul swords and the devil trigger were introduced.
Dante was more of a jack of all trades, less martial arts and more freestyle, including his four specialities, Trickster, Gunslinger, Swordmaster, and Royal Guard. It was effective, and his devil trigger later up the tree is arguably more powerful than Vergil's...
That said, the real choice was whether or not I wanted Rebellion or Yamato, as the next main upgrade I could see was a sealed variant of one of them... As much as I liked Rebellion's combat style and abilities, I was already on the path to wield Yamato, which was by all accounts way more powerful than Rebellion could ever be.
*Ping!*
I scowl as I accidentally break another guitar string. Playing music was a good exercise for my control but constantly changing strings was getting really annoying.
Nishihara had given me a couple days vacation to let the heat die down. Hookwolf had seen what I'd done to Cricket so the E88 was hunting me like I'd pissed in Kaiser's cereal... I was honestly surprised to hear through the rumour mill that Cricket had survived the ordeal, if barely.
She was confined to a wheelchair and forced to follow Othala around so the healer could constantly give her a Regenerative power, likely hoping it'd eventually heal the spinal damage she'd incurred.
Ugh... Sooo fucking bored. I'd spent most of my morning trying to use magic, but I'd only been able to produce short bursts of light, which was essentially just me pushing out my magical energy like a toddler tossing his food on the floor.
There was only so much time I could spend cooped up in this, admittedly nice apartment... "You know what? Fuck it." I mutter, grabbing some cargo pants that my tail could easily tuck into, along with a big sunhat that wouldn't compress my ears too much.
The day was nice, and I wanted to try out that burger place the local ABB goons keep going on about.
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POV Victoria Dallon :
Was it weird that she'd asked him out on a date...? No right? Girls can shoot their shot too, to say otherwise would be misogynist!...
...
To be honest it was more awkward that they'd only broken up a couple weeks ago. It was stupid, but she couldn't help but get jealous over dumb things. Dean was popular as Gallant, and whenever she saw girls throwing themselves at him, getting 'autographs' and 'pictures' she blew her top.
Which made it even more ironic that seeing the same thing during their break had her wanting to get back together again. She knew he was way too nice to take advantage of people, and his ability to sense emotions made it impossible for him to get fooled into dating someone malicious... But even then she couldn't take it.
The fact that he was one of the few people that was immune to her aura was another factor... When she saw him hanging around so many girls at school she'd retaliated by asking out one of the jocks... Who turned into a blubbering mess whenever she lost concentration and accidentally lost control over her aura.
The memory of that guy blowing a load in his shorts when she brushed against his arm would always be a turn-off, and a reminder a regular relationship was impossible for her.
"Vicky, something wrong?" Dean asks. While he couldn't sense her emotions, the expressions flitting across her face were information enough that something was bothering her.
She shakes her head and takes a big bite out of the monster burger she'd ordered, "Mgno..." she swallows, "Just worried you might be mad at me... For breaking up last time..."
He shakes his head, "No, I'm not angry or anything. We're teenagers, being unsure about things is what we do. I get if you want space to figure yourself out... I'd prefer if that didn't include other guys, though..." he says, obviously referring to the jock.
Victoria sighs, "I learned my lesson... I just wished you put more space between your fan girls..."
He rubs the back of his head, caressing his blonde hair, "It's my bad but not totally my fault, I can't do anything that'll hurt Gallant's image. You get it, I'm sure."
"Yeah, yeah... Hey, I heard about that thing with Dennis." she grins at his grimace.
"Why he tried to float by jumping and freezing his pants in time is beyond me..." Dean rubs his face in second-hand embarrassment. "I could feel it, his pride of pulling it off before the shame of it hit him."
Vicky laughs, "Why didn't he just do it inside!? Doing it in the middle of a crowded street is crazy!
"Ask him not m-me..." Dean trails off as his heart darts to the side, towards the door where a short figure had just entered.
"Dean?"
"See him, that kid?" he points to the short white-haired boy wearing an overly large sunhat and sunglasses, "I can't feel his mind..."
"What!?" she barely retrains her shout, the implications of what he'd just said quickly turning her surprise to anger. "Master effect?"
He shrugs his shoulders, "Probably? But I can't confirm. Whatever it is, it can't be good..."
The duo watches as the boy buys three large burgers and begins heading for the door, Vicky grabs Dean's wrist and stands, pulling him to his feet, "We should follow him."
"I don't have my costume!" he hurriedly whispers.
"Would you rather some monster do something to that kid? Who knows what's happening to him if a Master is involved!?" she grits her teeth, "What if it's like Heartbreaker!?"
...
"Okay, but we need to be careful about how we go about this... I'll call HQ and pick up my armour-"
"And I'll follow him, got it!" she says, running to the door and flying off.
"Vicky wait!" he shouts. If it's a Master then going off alone was completely stupid! He shakes his head and runs out, contacting the PRT to explain the situation... Thankfully she'd not turned off the location on her phone, otherwise he'd never let her go outside without a comprehensive safety briefing!
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POV Kieu :
Glory Girl is following me... I'm hoping that's the case at least, the fact that a human-shaped shadow disappeared every time I looked up made it obvious a flying cape was tailing me, and out of the list Glory Girl was one of the tamer options.
For fuck sake! I just wanted some burgers!
I duck into an alleyway further up the road and start running, a bag of burgers in one hand while I hold down my hat with the other.
"Hey! Wait up!" Glory Girl shouts from above, finally revealing herself.
"Piss off, stalker!" I shout back, darting into the next alleyway, over a car, then into an underpass to try and lose her.
"I'm NOT a stalker!" Glory Girl shouts as she flies into the graffiti-ridden tunnel and blasts towards me at dangerous speeds.
I barely duck as she zips overhead, almost knocking off a light fixture, "ARE YOU CRAZY!?"
"No, but you are!" Glory Girl shouts and lands on the floor, sliding to a stop. "You're being controlled by a Master cape! So stop and let us figure this out!"
Master cape...? What the fuck is she talking about!? Does she not know who I am!?
"I'm not being mastered! I just wanted some food!" I retort, pretty baffled by the whole situation.
"That's what someone who's being brainwashed WOULD say!" she jabs a finger at me.
"Are you completely retarded!? Why do you think I'm mastered!?"
She pauses, the thinning of her lips making it obvious the methods weren't exactly legal... "Doesn't matter! Now come with me so we can get this figured out!"
"No-no-no! You say you know that I'm mastered, I want to know how!"
She scowls and shakes her head, stomping towards me, "This is non-negotiable! Now stop being a bratty twerp and come with me!" she exclaims as a look of concentration comes over her.
...
"No?"
Glory Girl gapes at me, "What? How! You should be shitting your pants right now!"
"And THAT'S not a Master effect!? Is your brain alright!?" I tap my fingers into my temples to emphasize my point. "Enough! Leave me alone you crazy bitch!" I run past her while she's still shocked from the revelation, sprinting out of the underpass and into a formerly busy market street... I say formerly due to the three figures standing at the end of the road.
One, a shirtless guy wearing jeans and a welding mask to cover his face that I quickly recognised to be Hookwolf.
The second is a completely white man, with white hair, skin, clothes, and even lacking irises. In his hands were two pistols, and I could see a large stiletto dagger on his hip. This was Alabaster, a Brute cape who had high regenerative abilities.
And the third, a short girl wearing green hooded robes and had a number of rather large chunks of stone floating around her. This was the Empire's newest cape, Rune, speculated Shaker and or Striker, though it was all theories for how her powers worked.
"I'M NOT CRAZY!... Or a bitch!" Glory Girl roars as she flies out of the underpass, pausing in midair as she sees the Empire capes standing opposite me. "Oh. Great, nazis." she arrogantly sighs, as if the trio weren't worth a second glance.
"Why don't you buzz away, Glory-Hole. We're here for the freak." Alabaster gestures his gun at me.
"Cat." Hookwolf growls breathily, "You won't be able to run this time."
...
"Can someone tell me what's going on!?" Glory Girl exclaims.
"Can't you see you dumb bimbo?" Rune drawls, her voice sounding way too young to be in a nazi organisation, "We're here to kill this chink-loving cat for what he did to Cricket!"
Glory Girl looks down at me, just as a gust of air blows my hat off and reveals my ears... I toss my sunglasses to the side and shrug at her, "Surprise...?"
The look of horror on her face was one to remember, even if it cost me my 'civilian' identity... They'd seen my face, so I was shit outta luck if I wanted to go outside without hounds finding my scent.
"YOU'RE THE NEW PSYCHO CAPE!?"
"Not willingly." I quietly say, "So, why don't you help me not get lynched by the KKK-rejects and we'll call it even?"
"Even for what?" she angrily whispers back.
"Stalking me?" I drop the bag of burgers and let out a long sigh, "I just wanted some fucking burgers!" I groan. These chucklefucks were probably only here because of the scene Glory Girl made... Seeing a white-haired kid matching around the same dimensions the new ABB cape was like shining the nazi bat signal.
...
"After this we'll be having a word. Understand?" She folds her arms and looks to the Empire capes, "Why don't you leave before I smack you black and blue... Your gang would probably kick you out if that happened, right?"
"Funny. And no, that kid's coming with us dead or alive." Hookwolf states before letting out a shout and dropping to all fours, quickly transforming into his metal wolf-like abomination form. Hooks, blades, and other sharp metal implements scrape against the road as he looks up at us, "Last chance! Come quickly or I'll tear you apart!"
I bounce on the balls of my feet and shake my arms out, I didn't have my gun or tanto on me so I was left with just my claws... "You get the werewolf-wannabe, I'll get the others."
"Psch, easy-peasy!" she says before generating a burst of wind as she flies straight at him, hitting Hookwolf and carrying him further down the road, into a building where a cloud of dust exploded.
I look to Alabaster and Rune and roll my shoulders, "Any chance we could do this one versus one?"
"Fat chance. We're not here for a fair fight, once we're done with you we'll take that blonde bitch." Alabaster raises his guns.
