"Hello, dear. Would you be so kind as to answer some questions for us?"
I didn't respond to the words at first, too busy trying to wrack my brain on who exactly these two could be. They were clearly Empire, that much was for certain, but I couldn't recall ever seeing them before.
Deciding to play it safe, I gave the two of them a scared look slowly backing away as they leered at me, "Uh, I-I think you have the wrong person." I said, acting like a normal scared teenager, "W-Who are you two? What do you want?"
The woman gave me a gentle smile, or at least the facsimile of one, "Oh my, how polite, asking our names first. I am Night, and this is my husband, Fog. And you, my dear, have information on someone very important to us."
"I'm not sure what you're talking about." I said, continuing to feign ignorance. As I spoke, I searched for any sort of escape from this situation but it was no use. The two of them had me cornered, blocking the only exits in what was likely a deliberate move, "I don't know anybody like that."
Night tutted, "Now now, hasn't anyone ever told you about lying to your elders. We know you've been spending time with Tammi. We've seen the two of you on your little outings and we would appreciate it if you would be so kind as to tell us where she's been. Her family has been worried sick, you know?"
So this was about Tammi. I should have suspected as much. I hid my reaction to their words, instead shaking my head and cowering in fear, "I don't know what you're talking about, I-I promise. Please don't hurt me!"
It rackled me to act like this, even as a precaution, but I needed to figure out exactly what they planned to do with me. Was this just some random hate crime, or something more? I wouldn't put it past Empire capes to corner a minority in a dark alley just to have some fun with them, but something about these two made me think they weren't the run-of-the-mill racists.
Fog eyed me consideringly, "I believe that she is lying to us, dear."
"I believe you are right." Night agreed. She smiled as she stepped forward, beginning to approach me, "It seems we'll have to do this the hard way, then. That's too bad."
Her words, combined with the sinister look she was giving me, told me everything I needed to know about these two. These two weren't like Tammi, they were more like Hookwolf or even Alabaster. They were killers, through and through, and though I didn't know exactly what they had planned for me, it was clear that they had no intention of letting me live through it.
With that realization, came a choice that I had to make. I could continue this charade and see where they took me, banking on the possibility that I might be able to fight back further down the line wherever I ended up, or I could take care of them now, ending the threat to both mine and Tammi's safety as early as possible.
The choice was obvious.
I threw my facade out the window, drawing myself up with a confidence that was clearly noticed by the two of them as Night stopped walking towards me and instead eyed me curiously, "Your organization is truly detestable." I said, my voice lacking the fear it once had, "I had thought that you would not stoop so low as to kidnap one of your own and return her to an existence tantamount to slavery, but it seemed that I was mistaken."
I looked Night in the eyes, "I will not be going anywhere with you, I'm afraid. As a matter of fact, neither of you are leaving this garage alive."
Night didn't react to my threat beyond a raised eyebrow. She turned towards her husband, "She's quite well-spoken, isn't she? I could barely detect a hint of that reprehensible accent in her words that time."
"It's just a facade, dear." Fog answered, "Like an animal mimicking human behaviors in order to fit in."
"Well it's a clever ruse, either way. She almost seems like a normal, upstanding citizen!" Night said as if I was some modern marvel.
My lips curled in disgust at their words and Night saw this. "Oh please, don't make that face. It doesn't fit a pretty young girl like yourself."
"I thought I was an animal." I said as I finally decided on the form I would take.
Night smiled, "Well, everyone has had a cute pet or two in their lives. It's a wonderful conversation starter when you're having trouble relating to guests."
Disgusting.
Mist burst out from under my clothes without warning, obscuring the two of them from my view. As I transformed, I could hear an odd noise, like something being dragged across the concrete away from me. I ignored it in favor of raising my hand and letting out a blast of frigid cold so powerful that it blew my now snow-white hair back like I was in a wind tunnel, clearing the mist around me and revealing my new form at the same time.
Fog was unprepared as my attack caught him in the chest, blowing him backwards with frost and ice crystals forming all over his outfit. Curiously, I didn't manage to hit Night despite my attack being more than wide enough to catch both of them, as was made apparent when the residual fog from my attack faded away to reveal that she was standing in a completely different place from before.
She stared at me, eyes slightly widened in surprise, before looking towards her partner who was lying on the ground a few feet away, "Oh dear. Honey, are you alright?"
"Of course." I was mildly surprised as Fog responded immediately. His body faded into white and rose up, the frost covering him falling to the ground behind him as he regained his composure. As he became human once more, he gave me an analyzing glance, "But this is interesting. It appears that our information wasn't quite as good as it should have been."
"Yes indeed." Night agreed, turning towards me, "If we had known that you were Yosei, we would have taken more precautions before hosting this little meeting."
I sneered at her, "Yes well, hindsight is twenty-twenty. Your regrets won't save you from my wrath, I can promise you that."
Night seemed to find something amusing, and she ignored my words in favor of turning towards her husband, "Though, this certainly makes things easier, doesn't it? Now we won't need to run around the city searching for her."
Fog nodded, "Yes. Agnes will be happy that we managed to find her so quickly. We'll be killing two birds with one stone this time."
Agnes. My lips curled at the name. I had thought Kaiser was responsible but of course she would be behind this. It seemed that Tammi had been correct that her aunt simply would not let her go.
"You won't be killing anybody." I proclaimed angrily, clenching my fists.
"Oh I wouldn't be too sure about that." Fog said, stepping in front of his wife, "It is our favorite part of the job, after all."
Fog's body split at the seams, dispersing widely just like his namesake. And that's when the problems started.
He drifted towards me ahead of his partner, spreading thin enough that I couldn't see either of them through his body. Not willing to let him get close, I immediately blasted him with a burst of cold wind, sending him flying away. As he disappeared into the darkness, I heard movement and whirled around to find that Night had somehow transitioned to standing behind me in that tiny instant that I took my eyes off of her. Startled at her appearance, I collected moisture in my palm and flung a spike of ice straight at her face.
Night stepped around the attack and something clattered to the ground where she had been. I looked down to find that she had dropped one of the flashbangs attached to her belt and immediately closed my eyes and slammed my hands over my ears. That was a mistake.
Something hard yet flexible slammed into my torso hard enough to knock the breath out of me and make my ribs creak from the force of it. I was knocked off my feet and tumbled backwards towards the wall of the parking garage. That wasn't the end of it though, as the moment that I landed I was set upon again, something incredibly sharp scraped across the side of my cheek, clearly aiming for my neck judging by the angle and narrowly missing the mark as I ducked my head in panic.
I was hit in the stomach again, and this time I could distinctly hear the sounds of something cracking inside my chest, followed by an incredible amount of pain. Said pain caused my eyes to fly open and I was met with a curious sight.
Night was standing a few feet away from me, just watching as I did my best to recover from the sudden assault. She had clearly been the one responsible for my current state judging by the oddly satisfied smile on her face, and I snarled in both anger and pain as I shot a cone of frost at her smug face, missing completely as she ducked back into the dark.
I stood up with some difficulty, looking around for any sign of either of the Empire capes. The flickering lights around me illuminated practically nothing. Long shadows hid my opponents from view and the only reason that I even knew that I was not alone was by the sound of skittering limbs hidden in the darkness.
Forming another spike of ice, I sent it flying towards the origin of the noises. The spike did hit something, but judging by the resounding metallic crash followed by a dying car alarm, it wasn't what I was aiming for.
I looked to my right as a thud sounded out and was met with Fog beginning to stand from a crouch, as if he had fallen from above. My eyes widened at his sudden appearance, and without even thinking about it, I struck out at him with a closed fist, aiming for the center of his costume. Instead of hitting him however, my fist went
through him as a hole opened in his chest, full of the same misty vapor that he had been turning into throughout our battle.
It hurt. Whatever Fog was made out of was not anything natural. It was as if my hand had been dipped into acid and I could practically feel the skin on the limb begin to dissolve from the moment that I put it inside of his body.
With a pained noise, I jerked my hand out of his body and brought my uninjured hand in front of me in a warding gesture, blasting him away with another torrent of wind. He floated backwards much more slowly than he had before, before disappearing into the smokey darkness once more.
Panting both from the pain in my hand and chest, I eyed the darkness warily as I came to one simple conclusion. The parking garage was not the place for this fight. There were two of them and one of me, and unlike them, my power wasn't designed for surprise attacks. They used the shadows to their advantage, making me feel like I was fighting ghosts.
I needed a change of scenery.
Keeping one eye out for any attack, I pressed my hand to the wall behind me and focused. I immediately found what I was looking for, moisture trapped inside of the porous brick surface of the wall. Using my power, I turned those tiny fragments of water into ice and commanded them to expand, heedless of their limited confinements.
The wall erupted outwards in an explosion of ice and stone, and looking through the hole, I could just barely spot the green of the nearby park, a much better battleground than a cramped parking garage.
I jumped out of the hole without hesitation. As I fell, I held a hand out, blasting wind below myself to slow my fall so that I could land softly on the ground without issue. The moment that my feet were under me once more, I began running in the direction of the park, wanting as much of a head start as physically possible. Ice gathered on the ground below my feet, allowing me to keep all of my momentum as I began skating down the street towards my destination.
As I moved, I held my hands out behind me, blasting powdery snow and wind out of my palms to propel me even faster. The move had the added effect of providing some semblance of a smoke screen which would hopefully make it a bit more difficult for them to discern my exact location should they choose to follow me. The few people still on the street after I blew up the wall of the parking garage scattered to the wind at my actions which was good. There was no need for them to get caught up in this.
Only a few moments later, it was clear that they hadn't simply decided to let me go. I heard a crash behind me but I ignored it as best that I could, speeding up and skating along even faster. The sounds of destruction behind me were just out of reach, but it was clear that they were steadily growing closer even as I sped up.
Something hard and small smacked into the back of my head and I had to stop using my power to propel myself to keep from falling on my face. Recovering, I turned around, wondering what that was, and saw a massive chunk of concrete had been gouged out of the ground where I had just been.
Night was also standing in the middle of the street, just staring at me. Scowling at her, I aimed a hand back and fired a plume of frost at her which she dodged by ducking into a nearby alley, disappearing from sight once more.
I kept my eyes peeled for any more attacks. Night was gone, as far as I could tell, but I didn't dare believe that she had given up the chase so easily. She was likely waiting for me to let my guard down before attacking again, just as she had every time before.
With that thought in mind, I continued skating down the street towards the row of buildings barring me from my destination. As I approached, I gathered my power and jumped as high as I could, using my power to propel me up and over the buildings and into the grassy field just beyond.
Hopefully here, I might be able to turn the tides of this battle in my favor.
~~~
Tammi scrutinized herself in the mirror, her eyes gazing intently at her reflection as she tried to decide whether or not her current outfit was good enough for her impending date. It wasn't anything too fancy, more the type of thing you'd wear to a party instead of a fancy dinner, but she still wasn't sure where they were even going and she didn't want to overdress.
Eventually, she shrugged, deciding that she looked fine. It wasn't like she had many options at the moment. She still hadn't replaced her wardrobe and all the stuff that she'd left at her parents house. Though it wasn't because she was out of money or anything, she just hadn't bothered to go shopping yet. Being in the ABB paid way more than the Empire.
"Guess it only makes sense she pays well with how much money she has." she mused to herself as she grabbed her eyeliner pencil from the sink, "I could definitely get used to living in this suburban mansion, too. I've never had a bathroom
in my bedroom before. It's fucking awesome."
As she began applying her eyeliner, Tammi mused to herself how strange it was to be doing her makeup right now, or at all really. She never would have imagined prettying herself up like this for a date before; it just never seemed worth the effort. All of her previous boyfriends would have told her she looked good no matter how much effort she actually put into her outfits and that just made the whole idea of dressing up seem kind of pointless.
With Yuko, it was different. Even when they were just friends, she had always felt a little underdressed when the two of them hung out. Yuko made being pretty look effortless. No matter what she was wearing, it was as if her attire had been meticulously picked out to suit her perfectly.
Tammi wasn't like that. She actually had to try to look nice. But she wasn't one of those preppy girls who would spend hours picking out the perfect outfit for an occasion. Dressing up for her normally involved a nicer-than-usual jacket thrown over her usual outfit and maybe putting on some light makeup if she had time or cared to. Usually she didn't.
With Yuko though, Tammi actually
wanted to try. She remembered how Yuko had looked at her when she had worn a skirt to their last date, how it made her feel. It was nice, much nicer than anything she had felt before. She's like to feel it again.
Putting the pencil down, Tammi stepped back and admired her work. She smirked at what she saw, "Oh yeah. She'll love this."
Satisfied with her work, Tammi turned her attention to her hair which was currently hanging just above her shoulders. She ran her hands through it, pondering whether or not she should tie it up or just keep it down. After a moment, she shrugged and decided to put it up. It wasn't like she couldn't take it back down if she didn't like how it looked, her usual hairstyle was pretty low-effort in the first place.
Just as she went to put it up, her phone began buzzing on the sink in front of her. She gave it an annoyed look at the interruption, before putting her hair tie in her mouth and lifting it up to her ear, holding it there with her shoulder as she resumed her work on her hair, "Hello?" She answered the call.
"You are needed." The voice that came through the speaker was one that she didn't recognize, raspy and slightly gravely, as if the owner didn't use it often, "Our leader is in trouble."
There was an odd sound in the background, a soft thudding undercut by the rushing of wind. Was he running? It sounded oddly loud for it just to be that.
Tammi paused at the words, not sure she had heard right. She put her hair tie down, focusing on the phone, "What? Who is this?"
"It is Lee." The voice responded, causing her eyes to widen.
"Wait,
Oni Lee? How the hell did you even get my number!?"
"That is irrelevant." The man said, though Tammi felt the need to disagree with him. She didn't want that psychopath to have any of her personal information! "Yosei-sama requires our assistance. Prepare yourself and join me downtown to assist her."
The line went dead before Tammi could respond, leaving the girl in a state of confusion and growing panic as she processed what had been said.
Yuko was in trouble. Oni Lee hadn't explained shit to her besides that, but that was really all Tammi needed to know. She put her hair up into the quickest pony-tail she had ever managed in her life to keep it out of her face, before beginning to strip out of the clothes that she had spent so long debating over whether or not to wear.
As she went to grab her costume and gear from her closet, Tammi's mind wandered to exactly what might be happening with her girlfriend. Oni Lee had been frustratingly vague, but it didn't take a genius to guess who might be responsible. There were only two organizations in the city that would even think about fighting Yosei, and the heroes had been leaving them alone so far.
"Fucking Kaiser! Can't you just fuck off and die already!?" Tammi growled as she wrapped her scarf around her face. She pulled her hood over her head, making sure that her hair was hidden under the bright red cloth, though there honestly probably wasn't even a point anymore. It wasn't like they wouldn't know it was her.
Tammi glanced at herself in the nearby mirror to make sure that everything was good to go and nodded, before turning to the next and arguably most important issue she currently had. How was she going to get downtown?
She could find a dumpster with a broken lid she could use but that would take too long. So would calling Kon to come pick her up. She needed to be downtown
now.
Searching her room for something, anything she could use to get there faster, Tammi paused as her eyes caught on something that she had completely forgotten about.
Hanging on her wall above her bed was a longboard, or at least the deck of one. It was a gift from Kon to quote 'spice up her boring bedroom'. Tammi didn't know how he knew that she didn't have any decorations in her room since he had never been in it, but she wasn't going to refuse such a cool gift. She'd skated a few times before the Empire and was kind of good at it, so something like that was right up her alley.
Now, as she stared at the design on the bottom of the board, Tammi got an idea. A horrible, horrible idea. The kind of idea you get at two in the morning and immediately throw away because it's so bad.
…Maybe if she kept it low to the ground she'd be fine?
"I'm going to fucking die." She muttered as she grabbed the skateboard off of her wall and made her way to the window, shoving it out. It hovered in the air just in front of her, only a few feet above the ground. Tammi only hesitated for a moment before stepping onto it.
It bobbed slightly under her weight but a quick mental adjustment fixed that and soon she was balancing on it well enough that she felt comfortable moving.
She rose into the air high enough that the fall wouldn't hurt her too badly, but also high enough that nobody would be able to bother her. Then she began moving, slowly at first, but gradually beginning to pick up the pace as she grew more and more confident with her ability to do so.
Soon enough, she was flying just as fast as she always did. Her power helped her stay perfectly balanced even in the rushing wind as she made micro-adjustments to the board underneath her as she flew to her girlfriend's aid.
And as she reached the edge of downtown, her eyes locked onto a massive spire of ice that was jutting out above several buildings. Snow swirled underneath it, a localized storm centered entirely on that single point, and Tammi knew where her destination was.
Tammi's scarf whipped in the wind as she picked up the pace even further as she flew to her girlfriend's aid, not caring in the slightest that she'd probably be completely useless in a fight against her former colleagues. She had just started living her life the way
she wanted to. There was no way in hell she was going to let them take that from her.
~~~
I had vastly underestimated my current opponent.
Wind whipped around me at a nearly deafening speed, flurries of ice and snow circling me in a constant blizzard centered entirely around my very being. I slowly turned around, keeping my attention on the woman, the
creature, that I could feel moving inside of the growing storm that my power was steadily creating.
Night's power was more than it appeared. Before, I had been baffled as to exactly how she was able to do all that she had done to me in that parking garage, but here, the cause was made swiftly as I felt the thing that she had become stalking me in the blizzard.
Said storm wasn't of my own making, unfortunately, or at least not intentionally. It would seem that a passive ability of the Yuki-onna form was to create a perpetual blizzard around myself without conscious effort. It was as if the very air around me was reacting to my presence, recognizing my power as the supreme force of nature and reacting in kind.
I suppressed the feeling of pride that reared up in the back of my head at the notion. This form had a bit of an ego it would seem, a sense of pride that was only enhanced as mother nature herself bent to my very will.
Even now I could feel the storm growing, beginning to steadily encompass the entirety of the park around us in torrential winds and frosted squalls. If there was anything good to come out of this entire situation, it was that I hadn't needed to try very hard to evacuate the park.
A burst of motion had me whipping around with a snarl, a blade made of the ice forming in my hand as I struck out at the monster that had lunged towards my unprotected back. Only instead of a monster, it is once again the woman who had become it. Night bent backwards at the waist, dodging the swipe of my sword.
My frustration continued to build as she skipped away from my follow-up strike, "Oh dear, you nearly had me that time!" She said with a laugh as fake as her smile, before backflipping back into the depths of the storm with a surprising amount of agility.
The moment she was out of sight, I could once again feel her form shift monstrously once more. The creature with far too many legs stalked around me in a wide circle, utterly unaffected by the icy wind as she prodded at my defences like she had been doing for the last several minutes.
I couldn't stop the growl of frustration that escaped my throat. With a mere gesture, the snow in the air solidified around Night, deadly daggers of ice shooting towards the woman with the intent to skewer her and put an end to this farce. Like every time before however, they were effortlessly evaded or even deflected by the woman's incredibly hard limbs. I scowled at my failure and the storm around me seemed to grow even wilder in response to my rising emotion.
This was how things had been going for the past several minutes, and one thing had become apparent above all else. I had chosen my form poorly.
It stung my pride but I was smart enough to realize what was happening, why Night was being so careful despite having the upper hand in both speed and strength. Any time I laid eyes on the woman, the monster that she had become ceased to be, replaced once again by the flesh and blood of a human being. It happened every time without fail, and it didn't take long for me to recognize the pattern.
Her power only worked when she wasn't being actively observed with the naked eye. The only reason that I could even see the form that she had taken was because I wasn't technically 'seeing' it, I was feeling it through the disturbances it made in the storm around me. The same storm that kept Night hidden and me reacting to her assaults.
In other words, my power was actively working against me in this scenario. As long as I remained in this form, the storm would continue and Night would remain hidden, free to poke and prod at my defences until she found the weakness she was looking for.
The only silver lining to this situation was that Fog had seemingly not joined her in chasing me, though I wasn't exactly sure whether that was a good or a bad thing. I couldn't feel his presence anywhere within my storm, human or otherwise. Was he somewhere outside of my range, waiting for an opportunity to strike while I was distracted? Or perhaps he had gone for reinforcements while his partner kept me busy. Should I expect more Empire capes to show up and assist the woman in her task of dealing with me?
That wouldn't be good. I already had my hands full with Night alone thanks to the unintended consequences of my power. If more capes showed up or one of them managed to circumnavigate my senses, I wouldn't last. If I wished to get through this alive, something would have to change.
With that thought in mind, I raised my hands and concentrated on the air around me. Sheets of thick ice materialized around me as the moisture in the air solidified, blocking me off from her storm and the monster lurking inside of it. Not intent to let me hide away in my fortress, Night immediately set upon the walls, clawing and scraping at them to get to me inside. Her limbs cut through my ice with the barest effort, proving just how sharp and deadly they were, as if the cut on my face wasn't evidence enough.
I disregarded her as best that I could. Placing my hands on the ground, I ignored the pain in my burned hand as I focused, sending a seed of my power far down into the earth. I needed to make it deep enough that my creation wouldn't simply fall or collapse under its own weight. As I worked, I could feel Night growing closer. The woman was doing an impressive imitation of a buzzsaw, constantly grinding and chipping away at the ice as she slowly but steadily made her way towards the center where I was. If this continued, she would be upon me in mere moments.
Luckily, a few moments was all that I needed. The ground rumbled underneath my feet as my power expanded, the earth splintering before erupting outwards as a spire of ice as thick as I was tall emerged from below. The force of its emergence cracks the very ground underneath me, causing deep fissures to spread and threaten to swallow me up.
As the spire rose, I could feel Night pause in my storm, clearly curious as to what I was doing. She got over it quickly though, and resumed her assault on my fortress. She was close enough now that I could hear the disturbing sounds of the woman's clawing over the rushing wind, but that didn't matter. The proverbial beacon was raised.
If Fog had truly gone to get reinforcements, then I would need some of my own. Unfortunately, I had no way to contact my men as my phone had disappeared with my transformation and even if it hadn't, I doubt I'd be given the time needed to dial them for assistance. That was fine though, I didn't necessarily need
my men. I just needed another force on the battlefield to take her attention long enough for me to switch form.
Now I just needed to keep her at bay long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Whoever they may be.
With that thought in mind, I turned towards Night as she finally broke through my ice. LIke always, she was back in her human form the moment I laid eyes on her, smiling serenely at me. In one of her hands was a long, slender stiletto.
I sneered at the weapon just as much as the woman holding it, "Do you intend to stick me with such a miniscule blade? I had thought you were too cowardly to engage me in a head-on battle, much less with paltry weaponry such as that. You won't manage much, I assure you."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that, dear." Night smiled serenely "All it takes is one good thrust between the ribs. You won't even feel it. Trust me, they never do."
I scoffed at her words, "You won't get the opportunity!"
The icy walls around us melted and froze again in an instant, and I sent the resulting chunks of ice hurtling towards Night at incredible speeds. The woman saw my attack coming however, and ducked out of the way of my attack. As she moved, she brought her hand to her waist and another grenade fell from her belt, spewing a thick smoke that quickly obscured Night from my sight once again. The smoke was swiftly swept up by my storm and carried away, but by that point Night had already disappeared back into the snowy depths.
And as I once again tracked her through my storm, waiting for the next time she would try her luck, I settled in to continue this game of cat and mouse, hoping that assistance would arrive sooner rather than later.
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