Chapter 12

Chapter 12

A dozen blades ripped through the roof like a can opener, then toppled it onto the road.

"What が起こって go?" yelled the tall student with the funky hair.

That's when I realized Emily had gone bye-bye. I understood a few words, but not enough to get the gist.

"Are you ok?" I asked him – Daijōbu desu ka?

"Yes," he answered.

I turned to Kodai and Rin. They nodded, though Kodai was rubbing her knee.

Outside a man in a top hat of all things was talking loudly. While I had no idea what he was saying, it was obvious he was playing it up for the crowd. His costume was theatrical. It included the top hat, a dark yellow, double-breasted overcoat with buttoned shoulder tabs and a high collar, white knee-high riding boots, and a silver walking stick with a gold handle. His face was covered with a black full-face mask with some geometric design in white on it. His gestures were broad, sweeping, meant to draw attention.

Ignoring the showman, I noticed five people surrounded the bus. They were not being stealthy, just quiet – letting the boss have his time at center stage. Three were dressed similarly, in power armor with high tech rifles or pistols in hand. They were hovering on the opposite side of the wrecked bus from the showman. The bottom – now side – of the bus hid them when they moved too far in that direction.

On either side of the speaker were two people. On his right was a tall, muscular figure in street clothes with long brown hair and glasses. He was carrying a four-foot-long metal bar of some sort. On the other side was the most frightening of the attackers. A man in what looked like a black gimp-suit and mask. Only his mouth could be seen. But that orifice was the true horror. A dozen silvery blades shot out of his maw. They were at least twenty feet long – holding him in the air – and were moving like nightmarish spider legs.

Since the explosion, I had been gathering every spirit I could reach. As had often been the case in my old body – during a real crisis my power grew in range. I was drawing in more poltergeists than ever before. Looking out, the villains on the ground appeared to be satisfied with posturing and monologuing. It was a bit of a relief to be able to ignore what the leader was saying.

The armored flyers were showing signs of excitement or anxiety. They brandished their weapons and started shooting energy bolts into the bus frame. Each shot caused a small explosion that tore pieces of metal from the overturned vehicle. So far, the shrapnel was spreading outside the bus, but they might blast through the thin metal and glass shell at any second.

Rin, Kodai, and I were trying to keep the other passengers calm and spread out. I didn't want any single shot taking out a crowd huddled together. We were having limited success.

When one shot punched through a window and rained shattered glass down on a handful of students, the big chin boy from general education yelled something and raced out though the open roof. He stopped and pointed his fist at one of the fliers, like he was going to punch him with an uppercut.

Then he grew, changing color and composition as he did. He reached eighteen or twenty feet in height and slammed into the chest plate of the flying figure. There the boy froze, a stone statue punching upwards.

The powered armor guy was knocked in an arc. He hit a building half a block away and bounced. Somehow, he had inflated, his armor sections spreading on elastic bands.

The villain targeted his ricochet just right. He smashed into the statue's head with enough force to topple him. I guess the kid didn't brace correctly before growing.

The statue fell on his back, lying in the street parallel to the bus. I tried to drag him into the bus, but there was no way I was moving that weight. Neither could I roll him or rock him. He was just too much for my spirits.

Blade-mouth started chipping away at the petrified boy. Each blade strike did minimal damage, but there were enough of them that he was digging divots into the stone skin.

Rin was taking aim on the blade-wielding villain, readying to fire a scale it him. I rushed to stop the boy.

"No," I said with my limited Japanese. "Danger."

Then I continued in English. "I protect the big guy. You protect the people in here." I swept my arm, pointing at the other passengers. Then I pointed to myself and lifted several small blocks of concrete and metal that had been kicked up by the explosion and blaster fire. I set them orbiting outside over the stone student.

Rin nodded and returned to the passengers.

With the debris, I was able to either block or deflect the blades.

It was quite a challenge. Blade-mouth thrust with significant force. It took almost all my spirits concentrated on a single metal shield to counter a thrust directly. It took far less effort to brush the blades aside before they impacted the boy's surface. However, I could only do that to attacks near the periphery of his body. Thrusts to the core had to be blocked.

I made sure to use broad gestures to emphasize the obvious movement of the makeshift shields, a deception to hide my true capabilities.

Testing over the last weeks had proven that using individual spirits too much could tire them out. So, to conserve the strength of my swarm, I tried to rotate the poltergeists so that no one was constantly opposing the strength of the attacks. Some were resting, some were maintaining a sensor shell to track the people on the battlefield, and some were getting more debris as the blades often shattered the pieces that I used to block.

Blade-mouth was toying with me. I could tell. Otherwise, he would have concentrated all his attacks on the guy's core, where I wouldn't have been able to block everything.

His compatriots were enjoying the show. They started joking with each other, cheering their friend and jeering when I made a successful counter. They may have been betting on the outcome. Whatever – they weren't taking this seriously.

I got the feeling they were stalling for time. Which was perfectly fine with me. The longer they held off pressing their attack, the more likely help would arrive.

Part of me really wanted to get serious with these guys. There was enough broken glass and metal shards that I could cause the villains serious harm before they knew what was going on. But that would land me expelled, arrested, and likely in jail for a long time – unless I got a good lawyer and a sympathetic DA or judge. It might also get a lot of people around me hurt or killed.

If they wanted to play games, I was fine playing along. As long as no one else got hurt.

After a few minutes, the petrified student began to shrink – his stone shell reverting to skin. The scrapes and divots became bloody wounds. Finally, he was light enough for me to drag back into the bus. He gained a few more cuts as I moved him over the ripped metal of the roof. No help for that. I still had to deflect incoming blades so I couldn't devote all my spirits to lifting him.

The villains took time to settle their wagers as Kodai came to examine the boy. I noticed she had taken advantage of the time the game of 'whack-a-blade' had taken to distribute medical supplies she must have kept shrunk in her pockets. She unshrank a roll of bandages and some ointment and started treating the student's wounds. He was awake, but had little fight left in him.

Another minute or two later the villains resumed taking pot shots at the bus. It was obvious they were not aiming at the people, but some of their attacks had dangerous side effects.

The fliers blasted. Blade-mouth would take random seeming stabs from different directions. In addition, the long-haired guy had some sort of power to cause people to careen around the interior of the bus. His were the only attacks that directly targeted the passengers. They were also the ones with no visible effects – other than the people bouncing around like pinballs.

I concentrated on catching the passengers or cushioning their impacts. Rin managed to disrupt many of the incoming blaster bolts by interposing his scales before they hit the bus. And Kodai blocked several blades by enlarging pieces of debris in their path. She built a secondary shelter inside the wreckage of the bus and moved about half the passengers inside.

Again, the villains were playing with us. They cheered whenever one of their attacks got through. Rin, Kodai, and I were all bloodied by this time. Too many sharp edges and jagged points to avoid them all.

Rin's scales offered some him protection. He knew it – and chose to put himself between others and incoming blades or showers of glass. He took what damage for us that he could, and it showed on his battered body.

This punishment lasted for ten minutes or more. We were all getting tired.

Unfortunately, that included my spirits. Despite my careful management, I was down to around a third of my strength. Kodai was out of stored items and Rin's constant scale regeneration looked to be causing him pain.

The villains stepped up their attacks. Blades and blasts came faster and were targeted at the three of us.

The leader of the fliers launched a small rocket that blasted through the bottom of the bus, sending shrapnel from the frame and drivetrain sweeping through the passenger compartment.

The big chin student threw himself in the path of the blast, growing and transforming to block the debris and plug the hole. This also closed off several angles of attack. It was obvious he could not move in his transformed state. I didn't know if he could feel anything. If so, he was probably hurting from the damage he was absorbing.

The pseudo-magnetic guy took advantage of the giant boy. One touch and the statue started to pull in half the girls on the bus. It also caused three guys who were standing next to him to suddenly shoot out of the vehicle and off into the distance.

Rin was one of the three. Just like that, he was gone.

Fuck.

Blade-mouth took advantage of the shock to attack Kodai and me. Suddenly he was moving at twice the speed he had earlier.

I tried to parry the blades but failed. He caught me through the left shoulder. Kodai was stabbed in the thigh. The blades held us upright, pinning us off the ground like insects in a collection.

Fighting through the pain – pain it was clear this body had little defense against – I used a few spirits to gather a small stream of ground glass and metal splinters. These were going down Blade-mouth's throat. Let's see how he breathed with shredded lungs.

I didn't have the spirits left for big attacks. But small effects – in the right places – could be debilitating, even fatal.

It was time to get serious.

Native

Tanaka Tanto – known by his hero name Native – was patrolling north of Musutafu City when he got a report on the radio that there had been a villain attack on a bus. It was a general call for heroes.

~ Be advised that the U.A. faculty are not available for back-up. All available heroes are requested to assist in hostage rescue operations. Search and recover to follow. Proceed to …~

Tanto noted down the address and started his iron steed.

The tricked-out motorcycle was painted to resemble a palomino horse. Few people remembered the ancient media characters – the Long Ranger, and his trusted companion Tanto. Fewer still would recall the native guide had ridden a painted pony. Tanaka had watched the vids with his grandfather when he was a boy and had become fascinated by his namesake hero. The old stories of simple heroics had inspired him to follow the path that led him to his current profession.

Saving a bus full of civilians from a gang of bushwhackers was the sort of thing he loved doing. After he transferred the coordinates into the nav-comp, he checked to be sure all his weapons and tools were in their right places.

~Native inbound,~ he reported. ~Any intel on the villains?~

~Ravagers reported, along with the Fetts. A total of six villains.~

The Ravagers were a trio of B-Rank thieves and murderers. Dangerous even without the backup of the Fetts – C-Ranked hired guns. Native prepared himself for a serious fight. He hoped other heroes would also be answering the call.

When he arrived, things looked grim.

The six villains were closing in on the bus where a few U.A. students seemed to be putting up a faltering defense. He could smell the blood from thirty meters away.

"Hiyo Seba!" Native cried as he tossed a taserhawk at Mr. Compress, the leader of the Ravagers. At the same time, he jumped his cycle off a ramp of debris, aiming it to crash through the blade 'legs' supporting Moonfish.

The hero threw himself from his steed just before impact, landing on the ground in a roll that ended with him on his feet in front of Magne.

As Moonfish crashed to the pavement behind them, Magne narrowly avoided Native's grapple attempt. She returned the attack with a sweep of her magnet. The hero caught the metal bar and attempted to rip it from the villain's hands before she could use it to repel him.

Too late. Magne charged Native and sent him staggering him back with the south pole of her magnet. The hero rolled with the repulsion and felt his danger sense ping. He launched himself into a side cartwheel as a blast from one of the Fetts speared into the space he'd just vacated.

I can't let myself get tied down fighting any one foe, he thought. There are too many. I have to keep moving. Hit and run.

With a practiced motion, Native pulled his collapsed staff from his armband and extended it in time to parry a blade from Moonfish. A spin and another parry knocked a rocket off course. It exploded where he'd last seen Mr. Compress.

The villain leader had vanished.

Native danced with the five attackers, avoiding ranged attacks while parrying those closer in.

He smiled. While his physical enhancement quirk boosted his strength, speed, agility and senses; it only took him to peak human capabilities. He had trained himself to be an effective combatant and tracker. Easily able to hold his own in this sort of chaotic melee with multiple powered opponents. He loved the rush of adrenaline and the social boost of being a hero in the public eye.

A slice from Moonfish brought him back to the fight.

As Native dodged more thrusts from the mutated madman, the hero grinned as Uwabami, the Serpent Goddess, appeared behind the maniac and swept the metal legs out from under him with her golden whips.

"About time you got here," he chided.

"I had to do my hair," she replied as she planted a high kick into the metal mouth of the falling villain. Her blond bombshell supermodel looks and evening gown fighting attire always seemed out of place on the battlefield. But the popular hero was a highly trained martial artist with built-in poison dispensers.

"Now I've got you," the lead Fett boasted as he leveled his blast rifle at them. The two heroes were standing close enough he might be able to get them both with one blast.

As Native and Uwabami dived in opposite directions, a dark-winged figure swooped out of the sky and raked a razor-tipped wing across the Fett's back-mounted flight pack. The pack exploded, sending the armored mercenary slamming into the roof of a parked car. The metal crumpled around him.

Native took advantage of the remaining male Fett's shock to lasso him with the electro-lariat. The charge caused the Fett's systems to start smoking as the Western Hero slowly pulled him in.

"I think that's enough of that," said Mr. Compress in a clear voice that cut across the sounds of battle.

The villain was standing almost inside the bus and had one arm wrapped around a U.A. student. He was threatening her with his right hand. There was no visible weapon, but the heroes knew one touch and he could make the girl's head disappear, killing her instantly. "I think it is time for you three to just stand down. Walk away and nothing will happen to this little dove."

Native shared a glance with Uwabami. They had not worked together often. But they were both experienced enough to know that this was a real problem.

Nightwing is another unknown variable. Native hoped the vigilante wouldn't attack and endanger the girl.

"Alright," Native began, holding up both hands. "Alright …"

Suddenly another U.A. student leapt in close to the Ravager, cutting at his wrist with a makeshift dagger. A small cloud of metal and glass flew across Mr. Compress' mask, scouring the white façade clean away, revealing the black balaclava beneath. Even that was ripped and bloodied.

With a howl of pain, the villain reflexively released the girl he was holding and lunged for his attacker.

Native launched forward, hoping to get there in time to interpose himself. But he was too far away.

The white-haired girl parried Compress' arm with hers, avoiding his outstretched hand. But the arm contact was enough. Any touch and the villain could activate his power.

The girl compressed into a tiny marble.

"One down. Two dozen to go," Mr. Compress gloated – holding up the marble for all to see.

Nightwing

Yanagi! Fei-Long – known as Rin to his classmates – cried silently. He had heard of the Ravagers, though he had not faced them before. Like many of the villains based in Mosuaizuri, the trio usually committed their crimes outside of the district. In fact, the bus was still in Musutafu, several blocks from the city boundary.

Mr. Compress' power was known and feared. At least he did not just take her head, leaving her body behind, the dragon thought. The villain had been known to kill like that to make a statement.

The marble the villain was holding so proudly held a shrunken classmate. No way was Fei-Long leaving her in the villain's clutches. Taking careful aim, he shot a pinion to knock the bauble out of Compress' grip. It scored, cutting open the villains palm in the process.

Kodai, who had been Mr. Compress' first target, snatched the marble out of the air and dove away from the villain's instinctive grab. In the second Fei-Long took his eyes from Compress, the villain vanished.

Seeing Yanagi effectively killed – for he knew of no way to undo the Ravager's quirk – was distressing.

He had taken advantage of the magnetic expulsion from the bus to change into his vigilante identity once away from all eyes. As Nightwing, he allowed himself to use all his Winged Dragon quirk, rather than just the Scales that he showed to the rest of the world. He feared his efforts to maintain his secret identity may have just cost his classmate her life.

However, he did not have time to grieve. There was still a mercenary in the air, and only he had the range and agility to take her down.

The dragon knew the Fetts were actually the Pro Hero Greedo and his sidekicks. When they committed publicly criminal acts outside the district, they assumed the disguise of the Fetts. He assumed they were trying to maintain the illusion of legitimacy.

Jeeta was standing on a car roof, her blaster in hand. She and Bosuku carried blast carbines – less powerful and without the rocket attachment of Greedo's own blast rifle. She was aiming it at Nightwing.

He dove towards her, only to slam into a kinetic sink. That was her quirk. She seldom used it because she had to have time to prepare and could not move once she drew the circle around herself. It absorbed incoming kinetic energy – stopping him in mid-flight.

"Ha! You dumb animal!" She fired.

The blast burned but did not pierce his scales.

He pressed against the draining field with his enhanced strength, overloading it. With one wing, the dragon sliced her blaster in two. The momentum spun her around allowing him to slash her flight pack, wrecking it and grounding her.

Suddenly Uwabami slammed into Fei-Long. She stuck to the outside of his wing, throwing him off balance. Looking down, he saw Magne laughing.

The vigilante veered away from the villain. Once out of Magne's range, the Serpent hero was freed from the pseudo-magnetic attraction.

She braced herself, one hand on the dragon's shoulder, and leapt towards Greedo – who had pulled himself out of the crumpled car and was aiming with his rifle. Fei-Long flapped his wing to give the Serpent Goddess more power to her leap.

Greedo got the rocket shot off just before Uwabami slammed into him. Fei-Long deflected the projectile with his steely feathers. The rocket detonated next to Magne.

The normally agile villain managed to trip over nothing while attempting to dodge, falling into the explosion, which sent her rolling across the rubble.

As the dragon wheeled in the sky, he spotted Yanagi standing next to Kodai. She must have used her Size quirk to counter the compression. Fei-Long thought with relief.

His failure had not cost another life.

Mr. Compress

Sako watched as the snake bitch poisoned his mercenary 'ally', Greedo, with one of her serpentine tresses.

"So hard to get good help," he lamented as he reached to touch the model hero.

"Behind you," Native called as he threw a chunk of concrete to redirect Sako's hand.

Uwabami rolled out of range and ducked behind a damaged car.

"It's not gentlemanly to interrupt an assignation between a man and a beautiful woman," Sako complained as he brought his cane into position like a saber.

"You might be the furthest thing from a gentleman I could imagine," Native responded. He swung his staff in an overhand blow.

"You're supposed to be the gentleman. I'm the lovable scoundrel." Sako danced to the side and riposted with his cane.

"You're a killer and a madman." Native did a reverse spin; using his weapon to knock the cane aside and smack Sako's leg.

"Ouch!" the villain expostulated. "No need to be so rough. If you don't know how to play nice with your toys, you shouldn't be allowed to play with them at all." He dropped his cane, which disappeared in midair, and slapped the staff – compressing it and pocketing the bauble.

Sako dropped into a spin kick, which Native backflipped away from.

While the hero's back was momentarily turned, Sako compressed himself – dropping to the ground as a black marble. He rolled under a bench at the bus stop they had been fighting next to.

Almost no one knew about that aspect of his quirk. He could see out of the marble he had compressed himself into – and could cause it to roll almost as fast as a person could walk. It was a great way to move around stealthily, though it had its limitations.

From his hidden vantage point, he saw that things were not going well for his team.

Magne and Greedo were down for the count. Bosku was tied and disarmed and Jeeta was cowering in place. Only Moonfish was putting up a fight. He'd finally recovered from Uwabami's kick and was keeping the lady and the dragon occupied. Native was still looking for him – stubborn bastard.

Luckily, their time was almost up.

Giran had hired them to attack the bus as a distraction. To draw any local heroes into a fight and keep them busy until 1100. The fixer obviously wanted the heroes away from whatever other plans he had going.

Sako had heard rumors that the man was recruiting street trash for some big gig. Greedo and his crew would have been fit for that sort of job, but Giran knew better than to insult the Ravagers with trivial bullshit.

This distraction, on the other hand, was fun and highly visible. He could see the media, police, and ambulances hiding in the distance – waiting for the heroes to save the day before coming to help the 'poor hostages'. This job allowed him to mock the heroes and be seen doing so on national television.

He rubbed his wrist where that girl cut him. It was tempting to take a few of the students with him for revenge on the girl's temerity. However, there wasn't time.

He'd get his own team out and if any of Greedo's crew got left behind, that was on them. The mercenary should have paid his 'insurance' premium.

Finally giving up the search, Native joined the attack on Moonfish. Taking advantage of the lack of eyes on him, Sako rolled to Magne's side.

At precisely 1100 alarms sounded from all six villains. Canisters of multicolored smoke released quickly forming a cloud that concealed the whole area. Sako regained his height and pocketed Magne.

Three long steps brought him to meet Moonfish. Their special contact lenses allowed them to see through the polarized smoke.

As Sako reached to shrink his last teammate, something exploded in Moonfish's mouth. Blood was everywhere as the maniac's jaw as almost torn off. Moonfish let out a high pitched warbling wail.

Sako quickly compressed him, knowing the stasis effect would keep him from bleeding out. What the hell was that? He thought.

Not waiting for an answer, he grabbed Bosuku, who was hogtied at his feet.

As he pulled his hand back with the new marble, a whirlwind of metal and glass tore into Sako. Shredding his clothes. Slicing and tearing the flesh all over his body. He quickly compressed and rolled into the nearby storm drain.

Maybe that could have gone better. He thought, dreading the pain he knew would be waiting when he resized.