CHAPTER 229(Metal Storm)

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CHAPTER START---

---Fukukoa Japan, 9PM...

Soaring through the sky on his hoverboard, Horizon is now entering Fukukoa, Japan's major city on the main islands that is closest to South Korea.

He'd never actually been here before, but it is a hub for associates of his other life.

May it be taking a boat to South Korea, or importing equipment and people via cargo ships. Since the last war, Japan's northern naval port mostly sends cargo toward the USA or South America, but in Fukukoa its one quick ride to South Korea.

And from there, anywhere in Europe or Asia.

Which is exactly why its such a transit hub for the underworld.

Flying above the city Horizon weaves through some skyscrapers to see the modern port, a man-made island just miles beyond the bay.

There were dozens of monolithic ships docked, currently being loaded and manned.

Metal shipping containers stacked high atop each other, set out in blocks containing hundreds.

The island itself was over a mile -1.6km long and half as wide, and the lights on it could be seen from anywhere in the province.

High above the massive stacks of shipping containers and the ships themselves were the cranes, gargantuan feats of engineering that load hundreds of containers each day.

Billions of dollars of investment and commerce simply sitting in the ocean, and Horizon was flying toward it.

"Hello?" he answers a call directly into his visor.

"The other ports are clear," Vlad King says. "You were right, he has to be at that one."

"Yeah, good thing I fed them some intel that the coast guard was patrolling extra heavily tonight, they'll be stuck there until tomorrow at least."

"How did you even manage that?" Vlad King asks.

"That's none of your business, keep the other ports locked down until I get the girl back---" Horizon hangs up.

As he makes his final approach to the port island, only a few miles away, Horizon sees the lights on the island flicker.

On the cranes, the roads, even the ships. They went out for a moment before coming back on, then there was a massive clang sound.

"This is gonna be annoying, isn't it..." Horizon mutters while turning on the camera in his visor.

The sound of metal grinding against metal echoes across the water, all the way to the city behind him.

His Room was already open, using Scan to focus on the port island, but there were so many people he couldn't easily locate Wolfram.

"Gotcha," he says as he finds Melissa. With a flick of his wrist he warps one of his metal cards into his hand, "Shambles."

He commands it to swap places with her, but nothing happens.

"Ok, that's a problem," Horizon says, then he looks into the distance, and sees a gargantuan cargo ship rocketing through the air directly toward him. "So much for a easy job, guess its one of those nights..."

SCAN!

He checks the contents of the ship, locating all the men on board in an instant.

As if time froze he could see them all stuck to walls from the sudden acceleration, and above were the ship the shipping containers scattered about but also rocketing toward him.

'If I warp them out they'll keep their momentum and just shatter against the water. Time to get creative.'

AMPUTATE!

He slices apart some of the containers from range, while casually standing on the hoverboard.

SHAMBLES!

He swaps all of the men with some of the parts, and then begins flying off to the side to avoid the ship itself.

TAKT!

The ship and most of the containers crash into the ocean after rushing past him, causing a massive splash and sending ripples all the way to the nearby shores.

The water splashes so high that it nearly reaches him, but he simply looks at the impact to make sure nothing else unexpected happened.

But all he hears and sees is the ship crumpling in on itself and breaking apart, slamming into the ocean floor like a spear, obviously unable to maintain its form.

Looking off to the side he sees 5 shipping containers floating over to him, with a few men on each one.

He's caught the men with them and slowed the acceleration bit by bit to safely rescue them.

Most of them were laying flat, either holding on for dear life or heavily injured by the ship suddenly being launched.

With a thought he calls the containers over and connects them side by side, allowing the men to feel a bit more comfortable as he hops onto it.

"Horizon? What happened just now?" one of the men asked, he was barely able to sit up with the blood pouring down the side of his head.

Horizon begins moving one by one to heal all of them, "just another psycho villain, I'll take care of it don't worry. Right now I just need all of you to stay seated as I get you to the shore, alright?"

"Uh, yes sir," the man nods.

"Good, now I should get everyone else out of the way too, before fighting that."

"That?" the man asks.

"Yeah, that," Horizon gets up and faces the port island, seeing a swirling maelstrom of metal and concrete.

Like a tornado has started to grab everything on the island as it continues expanding outward.

Horizon looks around at the closest shore, then expands his room even farther, 16km -10mi- in every direction from him. Enough to encompass the edge of the city and the port island.

Focusing his mind he raises his hand, as if reaching out to grab the island itself.

"Shambles!"

He thrusts his hand to the side, and in one smooth motion the men sitting around him on the containers disappear.

Swapped with blade of grass or leaves, as do all the people still trapped on the island.

All but two.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon suddenly appears inside the maelstrom as it envelops the entire island, feeling winds pulling him in every direction as metal clashes around him.

But he was in the eye of the storm, where no debris was flying.

He could sense every small piece of debris in the vortex, but seeing it from the inside was an entirely different matter.

As if if were a wall of shrapnel ready to shred anyone who touched it.

Scalpel is immediately in his hand as he looks around, then a moment later he focuses on his target.

In the middle of it all, there was a large opening with metal structures and cables, clearly pulled out of the ground, shipping containers, and cranes.

It flowed through the ground of the entire island like roots of a tree, and now thousands of these 'roots' were reaching upward and connecting directly into a tall, muscular, red haired man.

He had pieces of metal all over his body with a device which appeared similar to the Mechanical Quick Amplification helmet David Shield made.

It was thin, with narrow arms extending outward from the main core at the back of his head, but it seems to sink into his skin and fuse with his skull.

Just as all the 'roots' have done to his limbs, back, and parts of his chest.

The roots were holding him in the air, just as they did for Melissa.

She was wearing a pair of jeans and a pink frilly top, her forehead was bandaged and she had a bruise on her cheek. But she was also fused with these metal roots, making herself, Wolfram, and the entire island into one big body.

'No wonder I couldn't warp her out, shit...'

Horizon suddenly throws Scalpel to the side before swapping with it, then warping it back into his grasp.

At his previous position the anchor of one of the massive ships slams down into the floor, then is easily picked up by the storm and begins swirling around them once more.

"Amazing what a little thing like this can do, huh?!" Wolfram yells down at Horizon. The roots begins taking him and Melissa higher, until they were 20m -60ft- above Horizon. "Took my Quirk from just manipulating metal I touch, to all of this!"

"You know I can't let you leave with it!" Horizon yells back.

"Doesn't matter either way, Tech made this one, he's already figured it out. I'm just collecting this girl because its what I got paid to do, can't leave a contract incomplete after all, not that a Hero like you could understand that.

But in my business, our word is all we are. So why don't you just leave, let me turn her in, then maybe the boss will let her go since she's useless to us now, huh, Hero?!"

"Well, I promised I'd protect her, so I can't got back empty handed," Horizon points Scalpel directly at Wolfram's head.

"Bad idea," Wolfram says. "You kill me, and who knows how far all of this will get launched," he gestures at the maelstrom around them. "Can the mighty Horizon really hold all of this metal in place? Can you protect the entire city from it?"

Horizon considers it for a moment, destroying Wolfram's brain from here would be easy, not that he'd simply kill a villain and ruin his image. Plus, the fallout could make him look bad, it would set his reputation back for at least the next few months.

'The destruction of this port is already gonna get me into some trouble with the public, and Pantu, having the city get caught in our crossfire will only lead to more problems. And if I kill him then people could find out and I'd be in even deeper trouble...fine, guess I'll play along.'

Horizon lowers his sword.

"That's more like it! Make this fun, let me test out my new power!" Wolfram yells as he gets a manic look in his eyes. "I'm sure you're used to it, being so powerful there isn't anyone in the world that can beat you, but this is new for me, so I'm gonna enjoy it!"

"I've actually never felt invincible before, because everyone can be defeated, even me...but not by you."

"ARGH!" Wolfram angrily swing his hand, and a buckshot of metal launches out of the maelstrom and at Horizon.

A dozen shipping containers and a massive rudder.

CURTAIN!

All the metal slams against Horizon's translucent blue shield, and continues to press against it.

"This is my kingdom, and you're gonna die in it!" Wolfram yells out, and a stream of metal from the opposite side is hurled at Horizon.

TAKT!

The ground all around them breaks apart even more as rocks shoot upward and begin floating in place.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon swaps with one of the rocks and arrive on the opposite side of Wolfram.

"No wonder your head is worth so much, ha!" Wolfram has the entire root system turn for he and Melissa to face Horizon. "And my prices are going way up after this!"

'Well, that makes my life a lot easier,' Horizon realizes. 'Keeping him focused on me until he pulls all the metal inward, then I can just get close and end this.

Especially since if I just use Amputate he'd pull himself back together, this guy must have spent quite some time coming up with this plan. Making himself and Melissa into one massive body that he controls with a thought.

I break the device and who knows how the maelstrom will react. I cut them up and he'll use the metal in them like puppet strings and bring them back together. I kill him and the metal could go haywire, same as the device being broken. And he's making sure there isn't anything near him I can warp to.

Fuck, this guy actually has a brain. Makes sense since he's a mercenary and not just a moronic Villain...'

"Alright!" Horizon points his blade at Wolfram. "Lets see how strong you really are!"

END CHAPTER---