Chapter 12: Unknown Evil
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***
While I was contemplating what an idiot I was after all, the drones managed to find an unknown terrorist and more than one. He was fighting with Kastet, which is odd, because he's been out of the business for a year now, and now, out of the blue, he decided to come back? I'll argue later, Kastet and the terrorist were not far from the tower, so I got there quickly.
- Starper, I'm here to help! - I shouted, and in flight I shot down this dude who looked strangely like Kastet.
- Great, the two of us will have a better time taking him down. - The old man with the rifle was grinning happily as he fired back at his attacker.
- Oh! It's the great Naruhat vigilante Tengu, your fame is running ahead of you. - Smiled the terrorist. - The boss was sure you'd intervene, lately, your actions often put him in the way, like with Hachisuka. Good thing he had time to upgrade me before we clashed. - He finished his chatter, activating a quirk that sent electric shocks through his body.
- Old man, who's that? Is that your bastard son? - I asked, pointing my finger at a noticeable resemblance, a scar on this guy that looked very similar to Iwao's scar under his left eye.
- What the hell are you talking about, kid? He's not my son, I've never seen him before.
- That's actually offensive, teacher. But it's true, I'm not your son. However, I am the greatest creation of my creator, created to surpass you, Master! - He attacked, instantly accelerating behind our backs, but I reacted in time and knocked him back with a powerful kick to the side.
- You may not know him, Old Man, but he knows you, and he calls you teacher.
- I told you, I don't know him, but my friend from the police said that they found someone with a quirk just like mine, and that he was involved in the attacks in Naruhata. - The old man dropped the rifle, and pulled out a shotgun from behind his back to shoot back with it, but the terrorist successfully dodged the shotgun as well.
- I am your successor teacher! Before you, I was just Number Six, a nobody! But now! Ha-ha, I'm O-Cloud! And by killing you, I'll be a more perfect O-clock than you! - screamed this Number Six with a mad face, but he didn't scream for long as he got a punch in the jaw from me, making him fall to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
- This is why I don't talk to nutcases, they're just talking bollocks. Now, you will answer for all fifty thousand lives that because of you, almost died! - I hollered at him, forcing him to switch to me while Kastet shot him with his shotgun.
I was faster than Number Six, so I could easily deflect his attacks, and from analysing his actions during the battle, I realised that he had a few quirks, including increased strength and regeneration, judging by the healed wounds from the shotgun blasts, but even so, I could easily overpower him, forcing him to go on the defensive. I didn't have much energy left, enough for one or two more attacks, so I had to deal with him quickly.
- I haven't lost yet! - Number Six shouted, and I was suddenly blown aside by the explosion.
- Kid! - Kastet was worried when he saw that I'd been blown away by the blast.
- I'm okay. - I got up and looked in the direction of the scattered explosion.
- Ha ha, you thought I didn't have an ace in my pocket? - grinned the psycho whose arm was torn off at the elbow, looks like he can blow up his limbs too. - You didn't see that one coming, did you Master!? - he used the old man's quirk to speed up cell division, instantly regenerating the lost arm, only now it was made up of mutant bombardier flesh. - How about that, Master? - He turned his other arm into a mutated arm as well and swung at Kastet, who had no choice but to strike back.
But before Six could hit, I threw him away from the old man and started firing a volley of photon beams at him, which he didn't have time to react to, the only thing he had to do was cover himself with his hands, but they, like those mini-bombers, detonated too, creating a massive explosion.
- Is he dead? - Kastet asked me.
- I don't believe it. My fifth sense is that he's going to get up again. - I suggested, turning to the old man, but no, he didn't get up... he exploded again, only this time, the explosion was so powerful that it blew off all the upper floors of the building and the roof as well.
- Are you alive, Old Man? - I asked, a little bruised from the blast, hovering over the exploding building and holding Old Man by the scruff of his neck.
- Yeah, I'm fine, but how are you?
- I'll live. - I said, gradually healing the damage, but not critical, all the damage was on my back.
But we didn't get a break, a flying fire skeleton flew out of the smoke towards us. It seems that he overdid it with the 'Acceleration', it burnt out his whole body, leaving only the bones of the torso, the spine skull, and apparently the brain, at the expense of which he and continue to attack us, but now his whole body is plasma.
- He's not giving up...' Kastet said with a frown, as he flew as far away from the city as he could and tried to dodge the plasma charges that were hitting me and the Old Man.
- No way, I didn't notice. - I replied sarcastically. - And how is this Sixth still alive?
- What's going on with him? - said the surprised old man, holding on to me. And around Sixth, from some fright, gradually grew a huge fiery humanoid, and it grew to five metres, and the skeleton of Sixth acted as the central brain of the monster. Energetically, there was some damn thing going on with it, as if it had begun to feed off of something.
- RRRAAAAAAAA! - shrieked the 'who-knows-what.'
- Sorry old man, you're gonna have to sit here for a while. - I threw the loudly screaming Kastet onto the roof of the nearest building, which was not too high from me, so he wouldn't get hurt. - I have no idea what you are, but I can tell you one thing for sure. I'm gonna kill you! - I turned around and flew straight at the huge humanoid, boosting myself with all the energy I had left. The pressure of energy from me was so strong that it formed a blanket of energy around me, causing my suit to burn. In my current form, even human features were barely visible in me, as well as in my opponent.
- RRAAAA! - The Sixth was about to pounce on me, but I was faster and flew right into his chest area, and literally, rammed with him high above the ground.
In the air, Sixth, in his current form, was extremely clumsy, and could hardly do anything to me, but I chose a direction in the flight, exactly so that we both fell into the lake outside the city. Barely touching the water, the huge Sixth squealed so loudly that any other man would have bled from his ears. The huge plasma humanoid, quickly cooled down, and Sixth eventually died, with only the top half of his skeleton left.
- Finally. - I exhaled tiredly, slowly climbing out of the pond and dragging Sixth's skeleton behind me, holding it by the spine. Today had drained me of all my juices. I think I'm supposed to get a kick out of killing...a human being, but I can't call this thing a human being.
To make sure he was dead, I took Six's skull in my hands, and at the same moment a man appeared at my side, only it wasn't a man, it was just a mental projection of a telepath coming into Number Six's head, but by taking his skull in my hand, I inadvertently established a temporary mental link with... what is it....
- How interesting. Number Six was a good lab rat, but even after receiving my modifications, he couldn't overcome his limit and overpower the enemy. However, it's nothing new, a thing is a thing, it can always be replaced. - said the mental projection of a man who is hardly even human. His nose, eyes, and hair were gone, replaced only by a huge, ugly scar of scar tissue. Various tubes protruded from his neck and jaw, apparently to make it easier for him to breathe. He was dressed in a strict suit, which didn't make him any more attractive anyway. - Hmm, you're looking in my direction. You can see and hear me somehow, am I right? Your quirk is very good...yes I think it will work well for Tomura, but not now...Grow stronger young Tengu, and when the time comes, we will meet again...' he blurted out in a frightening smile and disappeared.
...What did I just see?
***
I had managed to find that thief Whimsy, or rather, it was spontaneous. It seemed like I finally had a lead, but when I met him, I had even more questions. Who is he? Where did he come from? How can he pick up whimsy? From his monologue, I realised that he wasn't going to attack me to take the quirk, at least not yet, and he also doesn't know my real identity...not surprisingly, when he saw me, I was masked and in afterburner mode, and my face wasn't visible there at all.
So I have time to get stronger as the eyeless alien advised...naturally to kill him. Leaving such a dangerous individual alive has a high probability of bringing danger to the whole world...by the way, since he had a mental link to Number Six, perhaps he was able to somehow, temporarily strengthen it.
I gave the bones of Number Six to Kastet, let him explain to his friend from the police why there were only bones left of the suspect.
After the events in Tokyo Sky Egg, Tengu's name was all over the news channels in Japan, some people censured me for breaking the law and disregarding the rules that superhuman society is built on. However, most people praised me for saving fifty thousand people, a number that most Japanese heroes can't boast of, some news reports even said that only the Almighty could do such a thing.
The Public Security Commission tried to cover it up by making it look like the Heroes who came to the farewell party did all the work, and I was a lawbreaker trying to cash in on the glory of professional heroes, but it didn't work, because videos of my antics had already leaked onto the Internet, and in turn, the commission received a number of accusations of falsification about me. While the commission fought off the journalists' attacks, they tried to find me and find out who was behind the mask.
To their disappointment, I am good at sweeping up my tracks behind me, so figuring me out is problematic. Of course, I don't always destroy evidence, I didn't erase the video of me during the Tokyo Tower attack, I didn't have time for that, and this is the result. In some of the photos and videos, I was seen with Pop-step, and then they tried to get to me through her, but surprise, all the information about her suddenly disappeared from all the databases, servers, hard drives. Pop could have been caught at her street concerts, but, firstly, I am always present at her performances, and in case of anything, I can run away with her, and secondly, she, lately, began to devote more time to study, probably listened to my words at the party.
Frankly, I don't give a damn about the committee or what they think. The committee makes me look like a villain, but they have blood on their hands, and they are of the opinion that the society of superhumans is kept afloat only thanks to the heroes and their alternative, the villains, and all the undesirable elements, they throw away as unnecessary rubbish. In the early days of superpowers, when the vigilantes were at the height of their popularity, the government provided support for the newfound heroes. Except that they only gave support to the most attractive, interesting, powerful, and important heroes to society, and they weeded out the rest. That's the problem, the Commission is pissed off that such a strong, attractive and necessary to society hero like me, they do not obey them. Not obeying society's rules, their rules. Also, it was partly the Commission that influenced the discrimination fads, where people are divided into heroes and villains, just by their superpowers. Because of my tacit refusal to follow the law, they should have sent a hitman after me by now, but they didn't. The thing is, I've been a hero for a few years now and people have noticed that I've been growing rapidly, which means I'm a child, not an adult dwarf as originally thought. Killing a child isn't going to make the Commission's reputation any better, especially if that child has become nationally famous.
A little biased, but a fact is a fact. This world has become dear to me, there are people dear to me here and I am not satisfied with the world where people divide everything into black and white, light and dark, fire and water, good and evil...heroes and villains.
To change the world, it is necessary to change society, and changing society leads to changing man, which is impossible in principle. Man is an aggressive animal, he does not tolerate when a stranger tries to change the rules of the pack, but he will obey if the person is stronger than him...stronger than the whole pack. That's roughly my plan, to gain power so I can change the world around me for the better...preferably by destroying that ugly thief of whimsy. My reasoning, of course, is full of selfishness, but people are selfish, and I am the reincarnation of a god, my selfishness should be ten times more than human.
My characteristics right now are as follows:
≪Status≫
HP: 13400.
Light: 32940 [8325 per hour]
Body: 973
Stamina: 1340
Control: 822
Intelligence: 954
Magic: 1000
Lately, training had stopped increasing my stats, battles with fiends had stopped, even the fight with Number Six had only increased my Body and Stamina a little.
The incident with Number Six showed how weak I still was. I lacked energy, and my ways of using light were too simple and easily guessed by the opponent. Number Six, after turning into a burning skeleton, easily repeated my trick of firing plasma, only with fire, and then turned into a huge monster.
I figured out how to compensate for the lack of energy, but the main thing was to make it work. I once started to design a machine to speed up the development of the Quirk, but I abandoned it while working on the new armour, so now I'll have to go back to work on the machine and wait for the armour.
It took me almost six months to build the machine, and the materials required for its construction included copper, gold, and cesium, a metal that absorbs blue light. The frame is made of a titanium alloy, and the inside of the machine is covered with photo elements that include cesium. To make the machine work, it needed a power source, for which four magophotonic batteries weighing a tonne were created. I powered their energy cells with my light, which took about ten of my reserves. The machine, along with the photon batteries, looked like a room version of a nuclear reactor from the outside, but it wasn't.
The plan is for me to get inside the 'Stream Emitter,' as I called the machine, and during the process, the machine is supposed to draw all the available energy out of me and then release it in the form of a few ultraviolet waves. Why ultraviolet? The white light of the sun is a set of photons of the full spectrum of shades of colour that are 'divided' into the colours of the rainbow - red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, violet. And the sum of these colours gives white. These colours in turn are subdivided into ranges of wavelengths, frequencies and energy of photons. The greatest wavelength at red light, but the greatest frequency and energy of photons at violet. In addition to these colours, which are part of visible radiation, there are two other types of radiation: infrared and ultraviolet. Infrared radiation is on the border with red, and ultraviolet with violet, and the latter I prefer, because blue and blue light are predisposed closer to violet light, plus ultraviolet radiation is more stable, and infrared radiation on the contrary. No, if I start absorbing infrared, I'll just increase my body density, temperature, and the power of my plasma, and that's not what I want. The infrared radiation, along with the magophoton batteries, should stabilise my body's light particles to the point where I can safely control them as I wish...in theory, if I don't die in the process.
By propagating, charged with my energy and photon batteries, ultraviolet waves into my body without energy, I will unwittingly force my body to start the process of body mutation, to adapt to its surroundings. My genetic research, based on my DNA and that of Number Six, whose piece of flesh had managed to survive without burning, was unusual. The meta-gene, or as I call it, the Plus-Alpha gene, is clearly non-human in origin, at least not on my first world. The Plus-Alpha gene triggers a forced rearrangement of processes in the body, causing an anomaly called 'quirk'. Even more surprisingly, after rearrangement of the organism, the gene continues to work further, and in a critical situation, can once again rearrange the organism. This effect can be called 'Awakening' - a repeated mutation that opens up an even stronger variation of the quirk. However, only a truly powerful person, a one in a thousand, can achieve awakening. Perhaps that's what will happen to me if I survive, and I'm one hundred per cent sure of my cockroach-like survivability.
For the operation, I put on a special jumpsuit, and if I were a believer, I would definitely cross myself now.
- Well, Godspeed! - I switched on the emitter through the side panel and went inside, closing the cockpit.
At first everything was normal, but when the photocells absorbed all the energy from my body, a wave of violet colour went through the cabin, knocking me down, causing just incredible pain. The second wave made my body curl up, and the next two didn't even let me exhale. In order not to pass out from the pain, I supported my body with vital energy as much as I could, but after the tenth wave, I fell unconscious.
I woke up when the process was over and the stall opened, but now it was hard for me to stand up, my whole body felt like it had been torn apart and then sewn back together. When I recovered a little, I noticed that my body and even my hair were involuntarily glowing with blue light, and sometimes energy tentacles flashed out of my body.
- That once again, I'd get into untested crap, irradiating my body. - I was able to stand up, and after taking control of my body, I forced it to extinguish. - Okay, I got a result, and I'm alive. You could say the plan went well...but it hurts like hell. - I complained, opening the stats:
≪Status≫
HP: 25220 [6305 per hour].
Light: 65670 [1641.75 per hour]
Body: 2386
Stamina: 2522
Control: 2302
Intelligence: 1545
Magic: 2500
Almost all of my stats have increased by two and a half times, so with the light amplification, I can lift several thousand tonnes, and almost reach a speed of Mach 15. My reserve has also doubled, as well as energy control, but my expectations were not met, I could not 'Awaken', although I was very close to it.
In the system, there was an inactive skill before, but after the procedure, that skill unlocked.
'King's Possession.' [an artificial dimension or domain where you are king and god, your word is law, and fantasy is reality. The size of the domain depends on the energy invested in it].
- Not bad - I commented, activating a skill that moved me to the artificial dimension. So far, the size of the domain is a small room, where only I can fit. From the description it is clear that the domain needs to be developed, but in general, I was satisfied with the new acquisition. Now I have an escape route in case I can't defeat the enemy.
I spent half of the reserve and the remaining energy from the magophoton batteries to expand the domain, and then decided to do what it was all about.
Using my quirk Flow of Light, I've always lacked finesse, usually defeated by combat skills or by bombarding the enemy from the air. So I got the idea to learn how to create a solid pseudo-matter out of light, which could be transformed into anything I wanted, be it a sword or a gun. However, I have not been able to create pseudo-matter, due to the fact that my powers are heavily skewed towards photonic energy, and less magic. Now, however, the ultraviolet radiation has triggered a second mutation, so to speak, levelling the scales.
I tried to create pseudo-matter and it was surprisingly easy, but it was just a cube of compacted light, but you have to start somewhere.
Weekly Power Status
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