章 6: Water Hose vs Muscular

Water Hose look at him with determination filled eyes. The woman darts a quick look at the unconscious suit before clicking her tongue. "Think you can hold him off for a minute while I get the civilian to safety?"

The man cracks his knuckles while letting out a nervous chuckle. "We'll just have to wait and see won't we?"

"Be careful." She gives him a peck on the… helmet, before grabbing the suit and dashing down an alley.

'The question now is: will she come back for him?'

"Don't think you'll be getting away that ea- whoa!" As he takes a step to chase after her, he slips on a puddle that wasn't there before.

"Don't think you can ignore me and get away with it." Water Hose minus one says.

With a scowl, the villain picks himself up. "I wonder how your woman will feel coming back to your mangled corpse."

"You'll still be wondering about that in a prison cell at the end of the day." And with the latest round of bantering done, the battle truly begins!

The villain charges at the hero, careful of his footing now. Seeming to understand that the same trick isn't going to work a second time, the hero takes a different approach for avoiding his attacks.

He directs two streams of water at the ground, now noticeably weaker without his wife around to compress them. He kicks off the ground and seems to skate along the water. My eyes are drawn to his boots, undoubtedly the things letting him skate along so easily. 'Good support gear. I wonder which company made them?' I watch as the hero dodges the villains wide swings, constantly spraying water to enable his movement.

After a few moments of dodging and spraying him with water, the villain shouts in rage, clasping his hands above his head. "Stand still so I can kill you already!" His muscles seem to grow bigger before he brings them down, once again missing the surprisingly slippery hero and instead striking the ground. Fractures spread across the street, causing the hero to stumble.

The villain grins and this time goes for a jab at the hero's face instead of his previous swings. Still, the hero manages to roll under the punch, but instead of coming out of the roll he curls up and uses his water to roll, giving himself some distance from the villain.

I find myself nodding at his actions. 'He knows he doesn't have enough power to stop him, so he's keeping him focused on him so he doesn't try to run. But…' My eyes narrow in suspicion.

Standing back up, the hero faces the villain. "Give up now, villain. By this time I'm sure my wife is on her way back, as well as having contacted other heroes for reinforcement."

My tail twitches in surprise. 'Interesting. It seems they don't care about climbing through the hero rankings if they're fine with sharing the takedown for this guy.' That's another point in their favor.

The villain grins sardonically. "Guess I'll just have to finish you before they get here then."

Suddenly his legs start to bulge. The hero's eyes widen, but then he hears a shout. "Up!" Reacting on instincts trained for years to listen to his wife, he points his hands down and lets loose with his water. He shoots up into the air just in time to avoid the villain's sudden boost in speed. The ground craters under the villains punch, the ground fracturing even further.

The hero angles his water, jettisoning himself towards his other half. Water Hose is back together again.

I find myself nodding. 'Nice show of character. Even if she is his wife. Now let's see how the rest of this goes.' I stand up, arching my back with a stretch. I start to move closer.

His face fixed into a snarl, the villain glares at Water Hose. "I'll fucking end you!" His muscles burst forth from his legs, the same as his arms. As I watch, it seems like long and thick tendrils extend from his chest, wrapping that as well. Now everything except his head is covered in muscles, and it looks really freaky.

'So he's not enlarging his muscles, but growing new ones. Ugh, he looks so unpleasant.'

Water Hose exchange glances with each other, traces of worry appearing on their faces. The husband speaks before the wife can. "If we run, he'll target any civilians he can find. We need to hold on until reinforcements get here." His wife gives a sharp nod, determination filling her features.

"Then let's show him what we can do." The two of them dodge to either side as the villain launches himself at them again, the street now utterly pulverized from his powerful attacks.

Water Hose works together to launch a powerful jet at the villain's back, causing him to stumble. But despite the force in the attack, the damage didn't go beyond the muscles of his quirk. Clicking his tongue, the husband dodges another strike.

This continues for another few minutes, Water Hose dodging attacks, the villain being unharmed by theirs.

Then they start to hear the sirens. The husband visibly relaxes, a slight amount of tension leaving his shoulders.

He doesn't live to regret it.

Taking advantage of his slightly lowered guard, the villain launches himself forward with more force than he's shown to possess so far, the muscles on one leg growing larger than the other for a brief moment.

Unable to dodge in time with his hands still extended towards the villain, the husband shoots out one last jet, fuelled by the desperation of both him and his wife.

The villain tries to block, and for a moment he seems to succeed, with the water hitting the edge of the muscles on his arm. His smirk vanishes when the water cuts through it and into his left eye though.

With a roar of rage and pain, the villain's arm enlarges even further, and he slams it down onto the husband's head.

There's no crack.

No sound of his skull breaking under the power of the villain's fist.

Just a loud *THUMP* as the villain buries his fist, and the husband, deep into the cement.

For a moment, there's silence except for the sirens. Then the wife's despair filled cries ring out.

She stares at the spot her husband was just at as she drops to her knees. Her arms drop to her sides and she doesn't react as the villain pulls his blood coated fist from the ground.

Blood drips from a long gash running over his face while he directs a hatred filled glare at the wife. He walks towards her. Not fast. But with the slow inevitability of one who knows with certainty the outcome.

And then a furious cat jumps on his head.

He screams as I claw at his face, dodging his grasping hands as I try to dig into his already open wound. My claws leave superficial wounds on his face, but once it's clear that I won't be able to get at either the wound or his other eye, I try to go for his throat. But he finally manages to grab me. As I feel his hands clench around my small body, my claws dig deep into his mouth, cutting three furrows into the right side.

Then he squeezes and I feel myself *pop*.

𝌡𝌡𝌡

I awaken in class with a start, a loud gasp escaping my lips. Everyone looks at me, surprised at my rough awakening. Usually when I stop possessing one of my cats the shift is gradual, more like reluctantly waking up.

They simply shrug it off, thinking I had a bad dream or something. Meruem is the only one who looks at me with concern, since she's the only one who knows I can possess my cats. Even then the only reason I told her was she knew her dream power didn't affect me in class sometimes.

"What happened? Was it another car? Or some bastard?" Meruem's eyes darken as she recalls the time when someone decided to murder the spy cat I was possessing on a whim. She may be a little ball of sunshine, but mess with her friends and you'll find out how true a certain phrase is. 'Hell hath no fury like a woman'.

I look at her, breathing a bit heavily. I glance around at the other students getting up to have lunch, the teacher having already left. I hold up a finger for her to wait. She does so, fidgeting impatiently. While we wait, I dismiss my spy cat to absorb the day's lesson.

Once the room is clear, I look her in the eyes. With the gravest tone I can manage, I tell her what happened. "The Hero Couple, Water Hose, is dead."