Saikazo

"Well, see, it's funny you mention that," I say. "I was offered a job by one of the mages in the Holy Grail War. We be his eyes and ears in the war, and let him take refuge in our turf, and occasionally help him out with some of his crazy schemes, and in exchange, he'll pay us whatever we want," I motion to my jacket. "Even have a pretty generous down payment here, ten thousand bucks, if you're interested. Hell, I can even let him talk to you if you're still not sure,"

Well, it seemed coming here was the best idea he had all day. There was someone that held his passion for research came in, and even better, didn't beat around the bush with some fake tests and showings of superiority. His kind of people. He began to explain what he wanted each to do, the Japanese genius listening and nodding as he followed along.

"Similarly, there are a lot of inanimate objects in this room, ranging from medical equipment to plastic implements. I ask that you show us how your ability works, so that I can analyze the specifics. Just please avoid damaging anything that is vital. I assume you know which is which, given your background." He did in fact have a decent idea of what was vital and what would be damaged or not. "Please, begin whenever you are ready," Alek spoke barely above a mutter as he grabbed a clipboard, "I'm excited to see what we can learn about how to help each of you."

"Well, I dunno, I was just told we shouldn't just show our Ids all willy nilly," Raidā stated a bit sarcastically, raising an eyebrow.  "And you all know about so much about our Ids already," Okay, he was being petty now. "Well, I suppose I can make an exception for a fellow scientist," he finally relented, walking around and looking for some items. Finally, he settled on a syringe, a pair of goggles, and a Bunsen burner.

"There are two ways I can interact with an item," Raidā explained as he snapped the googles over his eyes. "I can do one item at a time, and by doing that, my whole body will take the properties of the absorbed item," As he said that, the googles were absorbed into his body, said body turning clear and plastic-like. "Absorbing these googles likely will allow me to act like a shield against chemicals and bright flashes of lights, although I imagine I am a fair bit flimsier in this form,"

The goggles were soon ejected from his body, falling to the floor as he picked up the syringe in his left hand and the Bunsen Burner in his right hand. "When I absorb two items, each half of my body will take the properties of one of the items," He explained as he absorbed the two items, his left side turning plastic like as his arm morphed into a syringe, his hand becoming a needle while his right side turned metallic, a knob appearing on his shoulder and a nozzle over his hand. "I have some theories about what I can do with this dual absorbing, but until I find an example of my theories being more than theories, I shall keep them to myself," With that, he placed his hands over the table, placing the two items back on the table as he reverted to normal. "Now that we have completed that..," he ran over to one of the recording devices. "This Id has me intrigued, I want to study it the best I can!" he stated with a grin as he waited for Akiko's experiment to begin. He was so excited!

Glorious Aggressors

The time Kazo had with his newly gathered family was a calm before the storm, and what a storm it was. Dozens of metal soldiers filled the sky, each one looking extremely menacing.

"Well, we might be fucked," Denku muttered to himself, remembering exactly how tough the Genesect he fought not even a few days ago was. Still, they couldn't let themselves be stopped here.

"So we got a plan, or....?" Kazo asked before Sai chuckled.

"Ain't it obvious bro? We stick together and kick some ass!" Sai shouted before running ahead, diving headfirst into the battlefield. Denku sighed and blasted off with his pressurized air, rocketing off to keep up with their headstrong brother.

"When we get into battle, we'll need ya to give us some cover," Denku commented to Kazo, who was keeping pace with the two with a quick sprint.

"You got it!" Kazo said as he gave a thumbs up. The two watched as Sai held out one of his claws, the appendage beginning to shine with a metallic sheen and slashing at a Genesect that was flying towards him, the Genesect holding out its arm and blocking the attack with its metal arm. The two began to swing back and forth, almost like a sword fight as they tried to overpower the other. While this happened, Kazo began to run in a circle around them, drifting around to get behind the Genesect, and Denku positioned himself behind Sai, following his motions in order to make sure he was always lined up with Sai's back.

Finally, it seemed the Genesect got tired of using melee attacks and aimed its cannon right at Sai's face, the heat of a Fire Techno Blast radiating from the tip. Sai grinned, breaking away from the melee and leaping to the right. The Genesect quickly spun to follow its target... only to get blindsided by Denku, who had blasted off at that second, a Dark Pulse in his arm as he clotheslined the gijinka, the force of the attack sending the Genesect flying to Kazo, who rushed forward and swung his foot, sending the enemy flying into the air. With a grin, Sai jumped up, spinning like a drill and slashing through the Genesect, his Drill Run finishing the job.

Before the three had time to celebrate though, a series of explosions went off around them, forcing them to back away from where they were. About eight Genesects had spotted them, and all eight flew at them, firing Magnet Bombs at the family.

"Okay Kaz, we could use that cover now!" Denku called out. Kazo nodded, closing his eyes as the winds began to pick up like they had so many times before, a Sandstorm brewing and covering the three brothers. Kazo managed to melt away into the storm while the other two ran deeper in, making it harder for the Genesects to see their targets, forcing them to go into said storm to confront them.

The moment the Genesect came in however, they were hit by a speeding Sai, the Excadrill rushing through the sand, the winds helping him instead of slowing him down. In order to not be caught, the eight split up into the storm, knowing that it was likely that at least one of them would take down their targets. However, the three brothers wouldn't make that easy. Denku and Sai dove in and out of the Genesects' vision, chipping away at them slowly while at the same time driving the group of minions closer together, all eight soon pushed back to back.

With only one idea left, the Genesects began to fire into the winds, launching torrents of Magnet Bombs and Techno Blasts, some getting far too close to their targets for comfort. However, the trap was already sprung. Kazo ran around the sandstorm, moving faster and faster, until his speed began to influence the wind, the sands slowly changing from a chaotic storm into a swirling sand tornado. The high speed winds began to influence the Genesects' ranged attacks, the attacks being sucked up in the winds. On top of it, Denku and Sai had moved outside the tornado and began to fire Rock Slides into the tornado.

The winds carried the projectiles, slamming them into the Genesects with much greater force than what one Gijinka could normally do, and their own attacks began to hit them as well. Soon, the winds died down, and the sand dispersed, leaving eight damaged Genesects all in a circle, the Gijinka falling over and not standing up again.

Kazo sighed, panting and looking over their handiwork. They were doing much better than usual. This was really weird.

"Don't let your guard down ye---," Denku began, but suddenly, the eight Gijinka began to glow. "Oh sh---," before the three could react, all eight Genesects Self Destructed, the force of the explosion sending the three brothers flying away in different directions, separating them once more...

"Yes!" The pure eagerness in her voice was enough to make Raynor smile some and let out a laugh. "Er, I mean. No! I don't need anything, at all. I'm perfectly fine!" However her growling stomach gave her away. "Er, I mean. If you want. It's not like I want it or anything, but I'll eat some if there's spares." Edda had begin to nod to herself, making Raynor chuckle just a bit.

The shopkeeper, meanwhile, was ecstatic. "Twenty pounds! For sure! You get twenty, quality pounds! Thank you customer, thank you much much, fine quality customer. Do business here again yes?"  Raynor smiled and nodded as he passed coin with the man.

"When I come back around, you'll be the first I give business to!" He claimed with a wide grin. Now that the food was in his grasp, he packed it up, tying it onto the back of Gojira's saddle, leading the Salamander to Edda. "Here, we got a spare right here, miss," He said with a smile, spinning the leg of... some sort of creature in his hand before presenting it to her. With his other hand, he grabbed another leg, taking a bite out of it. "Mmm... the guy was right, this is good meat!" He said as he took another bite. Really, shopping was the best idea he had in awhile.

It seemed that Edrick was taking to ignoring him. Didn't even give him an answer before going to help the others. Well, if he was gonna leave town, then he would meet Shiro outside the town. Link also told him to hold still, but he believed they were pushing their luck as is. He needed to leave, before something bad happened. He sighed, standing up and heading over to Cat, getting on a knee to bow politely.

"I will be outside the village until you deem it time to move on," He told her. "If I run into Sienna or Licorice while there, I will do my best to redirect them towards you," He then stood up, turning around and heading outside. Their duty was done, the people were back to normal, and the animals didn't have to worry about being stuck in human form any more. Once he stepped outside the church, he transformed into his frog form, taking huge leaps away, heading to the edge of the town. Perhaps it would be less of a ruckus to walk, but he wanted out of there now, before something could happen.

Once he made his way out of town, he headed towards the forest they came from to get here, finding a tree at the edge of the forest to climb up in his human form, waiting for the others to finish their business. It was nice and quiet now... and he could finally, if only for a little bit.

History went about as well as one could expect. Honestly, the Starkiller city incident was one he remembered very well, despite how young he was when that happened. He was always curious about that time, and ate up any info he could get of it. Honestly, he hadn't learned anything new from this little lecture, despite the fact that the teacher was apparently involved in the event. However, it seemed now they had another problem.

"As you can plainly see, we don't have much staff around here. It's pretty much just me, our resident engineer, and a couple of wardens to keep the place safe. Due to the fact that this school was erected in such a hurry, we're kinda low on supplies. Look, look, I know it might've been my job to do most of the shopping, but I'm only one guy, so please bear with your teacher." He bowed to them. "This also gives you an opportunity to conduct yourselves in a proper manner outside of school, spread our name around and get people to start noticing your efforts!"  He clapped his hands together once more. "Well, let me list off our groups!  Toshiko, Akuma, Keika, and Hane will be responsible for the groceries.  Kiburi, Nanami, and Juryo will be the ones to grab electronics.  And last but not least, Yu, Midome, and Miyu are off to get the office supplies!"  

Oh ho ho ho ho? It seemed Hane would get to travel with his bestest friend in the class. Today looked like it would be fun after all.

"[Yo,] Team Grocery! C'mere, we gotta talk strategy." Akuma called out. ... Wait, what?

"It would be fastest if we split up, right? There's four of us, so we should leave the bulk items to... Akuma! He'd need the most shopping carts, but that's fine because of his Quirk!" Toshiko offered.

"Um... guys, we're just grocery shoppin'," Hane added. "We don't need some grand plan. We go in, get food, hand the cashier money, and head out. Like... you guys know how to grocery shop, right?" He paused, thinking to himself. "Oh, by the way, everyone! If you want something, you better tell us, because no one has a mind reading quirk!" He scratched his chin before sighing. "Anyways, big important thing, try to keep a cool head on your shoulders, last thing we need is an excuse for everyone to lock us away. And yeah, the public isn't the best place to work for, so be nice to your cashier. Source: Worked as a cashier for two years," 

"Oh, who are they? Wait...Kazo, are they your brothers?" he remembered Kazo talking about them before. Feeling his throat choke up a little from nerves, the boy swallowed. He was nervous, but...this was also really, really exciting! "Hi, there! My name's Ari, it's super great to meet you! Kazo's talked a lot about you, Kazo's brothers!"

"Hey, nice to meet ya to, little buddy!" Sai said with a smile, with Denku more distracted with the woman behind Ari. Wasn't that... the queen of Pride Rock...? So didn't that mean that Ari was... a prince? And Kazo seemed pretty comfortable with him, so either he had known for a long time or didn't know at all.

"Mom, this is Kazo and his brothers. Kazo's the one I talked about before. He's uh..." he gulped, before setting his expression into one of determination. "He's my big brother!"

"Eeeeeeeeeeey! You got your little bro! That's great, man!" Sai laughed heartily as he threw an arm around Kazo's shoulder's, who blushed and scratched his cheek. Denku chuckled and punched the Gabite's arm.

"Looks like you ain't the youngest anymore," he joked.

"I'm just glad he sees me that way," Kazo muttered, embarrassed.

"Anyway, this is my mom, Leah! She's really really nice and never loses her cool and stuff!"

"Hello there, it's nice to meet you all, though I've met one of you before," she switched her gaze to the Pupitar. "I'm glad to see you're doing well, Denku. Again, thank you very much for helping us all out earlier. Please pass that on to Beatrice and Fjanna as well if you see them. And Kazo and Mac, I've especially been wanting to meet you two. I've heard you've been taking care of Ariel, and I wanted to thank you for that. He is... a very special person in our home of Pride Rock, and to me as well."

"I... I don't deserve your thanks... I didn't help much at all," Denku muttered, before Kazo and Sai both gave Denku a look.

"Oy, oy, just take the thanks, you downer," Sai commented.

"Yeah, you're way too hard on yourself, bro, like always," Kazo added.

"So... Kazo, Mac, there's something I've been keeping from you,"  Kazo looked over to Ari, a bit confused. What could he be possible hiding?

"... Oh shit, he doesn't know...," Denku muttered.

"Doesn't know what?" Sai asked.

"Wait, Den, what don't I know?!" Kazo added, to with Denku shook his head, not answering.

"Well, not keeping as in I've been keeping it a secret on purpose! I really was going to tell you, but I forgot about it, and--no, that's an excuse. I'm sorry, Kazo," he looked down. "You're still my big brother, no matter what. And Mac, you're still my annoying--"

"Ariel," his mother put a hand on his shoulder, "breathe."

The boy took in a breath then. "Kazo, Kazo's brothers, Mac, umm...my real name isn't Ari. Well, it is, but it's not my full name. I'm actually Prince Ariel of Pride Rock. I set out on this journey to defeat Entei and prove myself a real lion and king!" He shuffled his feet awkwardly before straightening up with a jerk. "But wait, that's not important either! Kazo, Mac, I just found out! Kah might be a Godslayer! And she might be dead! I heard somebody talking about having killed her or something over in Mio..." he struggled for a second. "Mioter. Yeah! Mioter! That's what they said!"

W-wait, what? Kazo took in a deep breath, closing his eyes and breathing a little. Well, that explained... quite a bit. Now he was regretting some of the things he said to.

"Okay, give me a second, you dropped a lot on me at once...," Kazo muttered.

"Well if she's still alive, and still on their side, I'll just have to take her down too. That's our job now isn't it, Kazo? Prince Ariel?" At the last she couldn't hold back and snorted again. "Ariel, heh."

"Yeah, you're right. If she's---,"

"She's dead," Denku suddenly stated bluntly, Kazo stumbling over his next words, before turning to Denku, a questioning look on his face. Before he could get the question out, Denku continued. "I was in Mioter. She died trying to kill Reshiram. ... I'm sorry, I wasn't the one who killed her, but I saw it with my own eyes,"

"You... you haven't changed in 10 years, bro," Kazo muttered. "I think I now need a minute...,"

"You know, you guys sure did meet a lot of the same people," Sai commented. "Or at least people connected to the same people," Denku shrugged while Kazo shook his head.

"Anyways... I think Imma keep calling Ari, 'Ari', unless he wants me to call him Prince Ariel," Kazo commented.

"I'm gonna call him Ariel," Sai commented. "But in exchange, he gets to call Denku Denden like back in the day,"

"Please no,"

"Too late! He has the right as the youngest of the brotherhood!" Kazo and Sai stated at the same time before laughing in sync. Denku sighed and rubbed his head, seemingly accepting his fate.

I still hate you for doing this to me.

https://buddymeter.com/quiz.html?q=yL6jqPh

Let's see who wins.

"I see you've already met Captain Macha. I am Major Nika Volkov, your commanding officer. You will address me exclusively as Major or Major Volkov... And you shouldn't be so quick to trust. As a rule of thumb, other people cannot see it before you let them. It's an ace in the hole. Yet, here you are, telling everyone your Id. This was a test, and you all have failed."

And thus, a genius's pride was wounded. So it was a test, was it? One he had failed as well. It didn't matter if he was given 'partial credit', he had failed to pass, and had his intelligence insulted. He didn't expect the transition from civilian life to active duty to be the easiest, but to be made a fool on the first day?

"Sorry about that, everyone. We already know your Ids, as well as lots of personal information about each of you, but... Y'know, this is what the Major wanted, so I had to comply."

It was such a devious trap as well, making it seemed as if they cared and wanted everyone to get along. He'd have to be careful around them from now on. He wouldn't get caught off guard like that again.

Oh well, he could worry about those things later. He looked down at his recorder, stopping the recorder and rewinding. The moment of truth was now! He stopped right when Akiko began to speak, and listened to the playback carefully. She was speaking normally... and when she began to use her Id... there was nothing but garbled noise. Hmm... how interesting. Perhaps there was a way he could separate the noises into the two things she said, but that would require access to his computer and a digital copy of her voice, something he didn't have at the moment. He would get a lot of mileage out of this one.

Still, they needed to go. "Well, we all better go. Giving us a time limit is probably some other secret test. We fail,they have an excuse to chew us out again," he told the others before heading out himself. Now, there was only one place that made sense for him to be. After all, with a magnificent Id, and a brain like his, there was only one obvious choice! He headed to the infirmary, smiling as he enter. "Hello, hello, I'm here to begin the experiment!"

"Cheap Meat?! Non non, my customer. This meat is gooood meat. It is freeesh meat. It high quality! Cheap is bad to say. Undervalues delicacies! This is good meat at great price! And for you, customer of muuch value, I will throw in more for you! No cheap scraps. Complimentary scraps! And not even scraps. High quality....scraps." The man's accent broke at the last word, but seemed to smile brightly less than a second after. 

"Well, that certainly is some boast there," Raynor said with a grin. "You say it with such confidence I have no choice but to believe you! Alright, lemme have...," He paused to think to himself. He wasn't sure for how long they'd be gone, but he didn't need to buy for the whole trip, only until they got to the next town. Although, he had no idea how much time that could take. Not to mention Cormag was there to, and he had no idea how much the wyvern ate.

Well, then again, Cormag was Rona's wyvern, and he doubted she would neglect to feed it. "15," He paused as Gojira nudged his side with its head. "20?" Another nudge. "No, 25 is too much, nice try boy," He turned back to the man. "20 pounds of meat, please!" He looked over his shoulder real quickly, looking for Edda. "Hey Edda! Do you need meat to?"

Raidā didn't sleep last night. He didn't need to, not with the real super power of coffee on his side. He was too excited to sleep anyways, so he spent all of last night making sure he was ready for today. His camcorder was ready, charging through out the night, and an empty tape inside of it. He sighed as he picked it up. It was kinda bulky, needing to be held with both hands. He couldn't wait for tech to march forward and slim them down. He'd do it himself but...

Well, no one wanted to pay for his experiments yet.

He was in the cafeteria at 7 that morning, chugging coffee and eating food. It was kinda empty in here, but hey, that worked out fine for him. He stayed in the far corner, out of sight of everyone unless someone was looking for him. This was needed, for science. As he well knew, people tended to act slightly different when they knew they were being recorded, and he needed them to be as natural as possible.

Around 8:15, Captain Mathilde walked in. Raidā had heard of her through the company grapevine, but he didn't know her personally. She seemed nice enough though, unless that was a front. Not that it mattered to him.

“Gooood morning!” Truly, she was enthusiastic. “Come now, come now, let’s all share a table! After all, it’s easier to do roll call that way, hm?” Oh joy, that would throw the recording plan out the window. However, it didn't really matter, he supposed. He slipped behind everyone, opting to stand a bit away from the table, his recorder running. “I am Captain Mathilde Macha, born in Seattle, Washington, here in the USA. My Id, Scope Sight, means that I can see far away things very, very well. The Major will be joining us shortly, but since you all arrived early, we can use this as a chance to learn about each other!”

A useful Id, but ultimately uninteresting. He could theorize exactly how it worked and would probably work, but there was nothing really new to learn.

"My name is Sergei. Sergei Shustakov," Another person spoke up, one that seemed Russian to him. "I was shipped over here from Russia not long ago, and my Id is called Vitality. It lets my body regenerate at an accelerated pace." Eh, that was boring to. He didn't even have to guess how it worked, although he could guess at its downsides. He said something else, but that wasn't important at all.

"Sup losers." an American was next said. "Austin Rankin from Venice, Los Angeles, California. And let's just say, I'm better in every way than you lot! Not stating an estimate, just a cold hard fact. My Id is called Idposter, and basically...I mimic any one Id I want and I basically just do it better than you." Not scientifically possible. He was obviously boasting about his ability to wield them, but it was an inaccurate boast. Still, he'd be interesting for some study, seeing how his body handled the rapid changes to new Ids.

"My name is Gekkane, Akiko, er, Akiko Gekkane I mean from Japan, Shimonoseki Province,"  Oh, someone from his neck of the woods. Cool cool. "Sorry, I'm still not used to American introductions. My Id I guess is... Truth and Lie? Dunno if that's the best way to put it, but I will say it sucks. I can say two things at once, as long as it's a Truth and a Lie, and can choose who hears which," She then spoke something, what it was didn't matter to him.

What did matter was that this was the first interesting Id. How did that work? Could she bend sound waves in such a way that she could send two messages at once? Was it some sort of mental thing, where she subtly mind controlled someone to hear what she wanted them to? Best part was, he got this on tape, so he could see how it affected recordings!

"Omoshiroi," he muttered under his breath.

"Hello, hello. My name is Cade Laurent. Born in Lyon, France. My Id is... Easier to show, than to explain." As he spoke he bought a single arm up into the air, his hand raising up once it reached the peak, and from his backpack, a steadily flow of books rose up into the air. Was this some sort of telekinesis? Kinda boring, but still more interesting than the Russian and the American. "I can direct books and move them around freely without having to touch them. It's... Simple enough once you see it in action."

Just books? That was... weird.

"Name's Mawcel, was born in N'walins." Oh, new guy. What sort of crazy power would he have? "I call my Id Sado-Masochist, it let's me hurt'cha by using myself as a pincushun. Caws, it's a bit maw complicated then that but that's the jist of it." Well, that didn't tell him anything. At least stab yourself for real as a demonstration. The group so far was kinda boring, although the Id was something worth looking into.

"Um... Hi." Only a few people were left at this point, and a girl decided to step up. "My name is Ann, Ann Fernace, I'm from Coutts in Canada, at least originally. My Id is, at least in my own words, The Curse of Pain. It forces me to feel the pain of everyone around me, and by feel, I mean that I experience it. It comes with only a few benefits."Ann briefly stopped looking in the corner of this room to look at the person in the wheelchair. "For example, um, Marcel, was it? I noticed last night and even today, when you move around, your body aches and hits you with sharp, pin like pains. Is that a recent development? I could help you out with that, if you would like, which it's fine if you don't, I just think that it would be an easier adjustment period for me if I took it to get numb to it faster." 

Well, that just sucked. Both as research material, an Id, and for the girl. Anyways, everyone here was boring. He placed the camcorder on the table and walked around, making sure he was in frame of the camera. Time to show them how to have a real introduction!

The Genius Reveals Himself

"Hello, everyone, the genius Tateru Raidā here to spice up the experiment!" He stated with a large grin. "My Id is called Henshin! It lets me... well...," He walked over to Austin, swiping away the man's fork and knife. He held both up in his hands so everyone could see... until they were absorbed into his body, which began to change to match the color of the stainless steel the utensils were made of. "Henshin! Fork Knife Mode!" He struck a pose as a large, knife like blade came out from the back of his left hand and a fork like one came out of his right. He then walked over to Austin, holding his hands over his plate as the fork and knife were ejected from his body, landing on the plate with a clatter. "I hope you all provide me with interesting data," he finished, walking over and grabbing the camcorder, going back to where he was standing. Only one more person to go.

It was finally over. They managed to defeat the creature, although there was a lot of magical backlash from the attack. The good news was though, the feeling came back into his leg, allowing him to walk once more. It seemed that the people that were animals were turned back into humans, which meant the humans were turned back to animals. Then, his job here was done. Still, it seemed the others wanted his help.

“Shiro, would you round-up anyone that can’t walk and bring them over here? I haven’t seen Ciela or Licorice. They may be hurt,” Link said, looking at the frog Protean. Shiro nodded and headed out, looking for any sign of the two. It didn't take very long to find Ciela, as she she was outside, out cold. Shiro didn't know what happened, but that didn't look good at all. He walked over, grabbing her wrist, checking for a pulse. Thankfully, he could feel it, meaning there wouldn't be more trouble tonight. He gently picked her up, walking her inside, where it seemed Alois had a fight with one of the locals, the two looking very sour.

He took the long way around, he wasn't dealing with that.

And wouldn't luck have it, because he went the long way around, he found the Pegasus Knight in a pile of crates. Adjusting Ciela so that he had her over his shoulder, he went to carefully picked up Adel as well. Still, he wasn't the strongest in his human form and he'd be damned if he transformed in front of these townspeople, so he headed over to Link, struggling with the weight of two people.

Finally, he got to Link, setting the troublemakers down. "I couldn't find Licorice," he explained, not adding it was for a lack of trying. With that, he sat, watching Link patching the others up. A thought then popped into his head. "Edrick. It might be best if you and I leave town. Last thing we'd want is for the town to turn on us after all this," If Cora took Edrick's belief in magic people in the sky that badly, then he couldn't imagine the rest of the town not taking up pitchforks, and he didn't trust Edrick to keep his mouth shut long enough to not get them all in trouble.

At first, Sieg wasn't focusing. He was desperate to get his energy back down, to keep himself from overloading like he had done many times in the past. He took slow breaths, the golden glow his tattoo slowly dying, returning to the green it normally was. He wasn't sure if he should call that natural, but hey, it was back to normal. He stood up slowly, rubbing his neck before realizing, Alex was surrounded by a bunch of shadowy cats. He really wanted to pet one... but something told him it wasn't a good idea.

"My, you really can handle yourself around colossal beasts." Oh no. He heard a voice he wasn't sure he wanted to hear right now. "I still want to see how you handle dragons of course but even this much... well the effect isn't lost on me." Catriona continued, causing Sieg to rub his neck even harder. The glow had stopped dissipating, instead slowly flashing between gold and green.

"Well... it wasn't as easy as it probably looked... I didn't want to hurt him too badly," He tried not to look at her, instead focusing on Alex's slowly shrinking body. It seemed he was going back to normal. "Um... A-are those your cats? They're... they're cute...," He said, trying to make conversation. Was that a bad thing to say? Maybe he shouldn't have brought it up. He just hoped he would calm down, there was no way that him acting like this was healthy to... well, anyone really.

“Eeuuh...Hioni-san is kinda cute I guess. She looks very friendly too!” Yu told Hane, who nodded in response. Interesting, interesting. The devil girl was cute, but did this mean Yu was into bondage or something? Well, never let it be said Hane didn't have an opened mind. He mentally scratched the devil off his flirting list, right when their teacher came in with a visitor in tow. Hane bounced back to his seat, listening to the man's words.

"This is Hairo Academies largest benefactor.  Without him, this school wouldn't be here, and you would all have likely ended up in prison."  Mr. Arai spoke up before letting the new guy walk up and speak.

"Good day, Students of Hairo.  My name is Zwart Bakker."  Loosening the tie around his neck, he smiled.  "I was once in your shoes, unable to become a hero because of my past, and who my parents were,"  Hane's jaw clenched a little, listening to the man's words. That hit a little too close to home. "However, I changed my course for the better, and now I help the world in different ways," Who was to say that the career choice of being a hero was the right path? Sure, that was what society said, but Hane had seen the red tape most heroes refused to cross, and how that let people get hurt...  The speech went on for a little longer, before the man finally left. With that, class started.

This was basic history. Did people really not know this? Hane had no clue, but he suspected a lot of people didn't care in the first place. He personally enjoyed it, but... this was all stuff he already knew. Independent research and all.

"Tomorrow we'll talk more in depth about the Starkiller City incident. But that'll be all for today.  Your stuff has been moved here from your places of residence, and outside of your dorms. Take the rest of the day to move your belongings into your new roomsooms, and get to know your roommate. You'll be spending a lot of time with them. Don't cause trouble. Later!"

With a sigh, Hane stood up, stretching a bit. Well, class was over. Time to do some hero work before settling into his dorm.

"I'll see you at our room, Hane-san!" Yu said, waving at him before departing for the dormitories. Hane gave him a two fingered salute of acknowledgement before he reached into his bag, pulling out a garbage bag. With a whistle, he headed towards the dorms, keeping his eyes on the ground. Any piece of litter he'd find, he pick up, placing it in the bag. It was cleaner than America, to be sure, but there was still a decent amount of litter.

Still, he got to the dorm in a decent amount of time. He saw Yu was already unpacking, so he might as well do the same. He brought his stuff in, opening the boxes and checking to see if everything was in there. So far, it seemed to be. First things first. Hane found the perfect spot on the wall, placing up a poster of a superhero, the poster proudly displaying the name Silver Comet.

That was one of the few heroes Hane still had respect for, as he was willing to team up with Hane's band with vigilantes in order to take down a tricky villain. The hero never looked down on Hane, just told him when he was ready to take the next step, he would let Hane intern at his associate to work towards a hero license.

... Too bad Comet's license was temporarily revoked once it came out he worked with vigilantes. He took his mask, placing it next to his bed, just setting it to the side. Looking around, the room was kinda empty....

"Yo Yu. I'm thinking of saving up for a TV. You think we should do it, or go without?" Hane asked absentmindedly. It'd probably take about three months, but if he was diligent, he could save up for one.

“A TV? Well, I don't watch too much of it, but I suppose I could buy one for our room if you'd like?” Yu answered, typing away on his phone. Hane looked at the boy, a bit confused before it clicked for him.

"Whoa man, that's a lotta money to just drop, ya know?" Hane commented. "You really should save some for the rest of the year,"

“Oh, no worries Hane-San! I have no problems with that kind of thing. When I left for the city, the government men gave me a card that let's me get what I need!” Yu replied with a smile, before returning to his phone, “Perhaps I should also get something to eat...Do you like sushi Hane-San?

"... I...," Hane paused, putting his fist to his chin as he thought. "I mean, it's your money. Get whatcha want, I'll eat anything,"

“Ok then, I'll get two unagi specials delivered!”

"Right, sounds good," He pulled out his phone before sighing to himself. "Crap, forgot to get her number...," He shook his head, he turned to Yu. "Anyways, I'm gonna hang out with Kiburi later. You wanna come with?"

“That sounds nice! This is a good day to get some ice cream, I think!” Yu commented. Hane flopped onto his bed, muttering to himself. He didn't realize that he was rooming with a rich kid. He only hoped that Yu didn't start looking down on him for his lack of money, and he certainly hoped Yu wouldn't try to pay for everything. That was the last thing he wanted.

But now wasn't the time to worry about it. He stared at the ceiling, waiting for the food to arrive...

Kazo was ecstatic. He was taught a new move! And not just any move from any teacher, but Draco Meteor from Zekrom! How cool was that?! There was so much many more things he wanted to learn from Zekrom, become a better chaser, but it seemed the final battle was upon them. The voices of Dialga and Palkia echoed in his head, and soon, he found himself transported onto a ship that flew. That was so cool! The ship itself seemed a bit crowded, as there was a lot of people on the ship.

He thought he could see people he had seen earlier in his journey to. Unless his eyes were playing tricks on him, he thought he saw Dorian, and Melody. He would have to go talk to them at some point. However, they were being given a pep talk, one that came with a huge surprise.

 "I am honored to be standing before so many brave souls. My name is Azriel. Some of you know me as the former sheriff of Juyu. But I am also the Disciple of Arceus... I have watched this land for many years,"

"What?!" Kazo couldn't help but let that slip out, although he could have sworn he heard some other voices say something similar. But really, Old Man Azriel was a Disciple of Arceus?! What the hell?!" The rest of the speech went about as well as a person could expect, but Kazo still had to get over the shock he felt. Old Man Azriel? Really? Kazo really didn't know how to react to this. Kazo turned to see what Ari and Mac were doing, but they seemed to be talking to other people at the moment.

That was fine, he supposed. He could go confirm if that was Dorian or Melody he saw---

"Well, well, well, I think I feel the presence of a real man!" A voice rang out from above, one that was far too familiar to him. Looking up, he could see a figure standing on top of the crow's nest, arms folded as a scarf blew in the wind. It was hard to see exactly what they looked like, but Kazo knew. The figure leapt off the nest and landed by the dragon, revealing themselves to be an Excadrill.

"Way to stick the landing Sai," Kazo said with a wide smile. "Much better than usual,"

"Hey, had to do somethin' while I was out traveling," Sai joke, smacking Kazo playfully in the chest. "How have ya been, Kaz?"

Denku didn't find a TM that gelled with him, so in the end, he didn't take one. He was happy with what he had now, and he didn't feel the need to change. He spent the next few days under the deck, sitting in the bed. His chest felt... odd. He wasn't sure if it was a sign that the healing was temporary or just something else all together, but he didn't want to risk the others seeing an episode. They knew he was sick, they didn't need to see it in action.

The days still passed somewhat quickly, but it was peaceful... until Denku heard a booming pair of voices in his head. They asked for Chasers, for people willing to help... Denku's chest clenched again. He hoped, he prayed that he was there....

He went onto deck, which by now was completely covered in all sorts of people. He scanned the crowd... no one he knew seemed to be there. That was okay though. He wasn't sure he wanted to see the hotheaded bee or fiery bug right now anyways. The Captain was making a big speech, and there wasn't much interesting, expect that old man Azriel was the Disciple of Arceus. What the hell?

Still, there wasn't much else that caught his attention. He instead decided to look around and try to see if by some miracle his brother was in the crowd. He quietly walked passed a lot of conversations, hearing a lot of interesting things, but nothing that really caught his attention. At the end of the day, the stories of the others didn't matter to him.

He did, however, hear a sentence that did mean something to him. Someone said the name Kaz. He whipped his head over to the direction he heard it, seeing a Excadrill and a Gabite talking to each other. A name is a coincidence. The two species hanging out was also a coincidence... but both? There was only one thing it could be...

Denku rushed over, taking off his mask as he ran. This had to be right, this had to be the moment he dreamed of for the past two years, nothing could take this from him, not a damn thing. "Kazo!" He called out, the only warning the Gabite would receive before the Pupitar latched onto him, arms wrapped around him in a giant hug. "Kazo... bro, I finally found you," He gritted his teeth, trying to suppress the the feelings swelling in his chest. He didn't want to break in front of everyone, he didn't want to show weakness here. But...

"Denku?" Said Pupitar choked on a sob as he felt arms wrap around him, the feeble damn he built for his emotions crumbling in an instant. The strength left his knees as he slumped to the ground, tears flowing out of his eyes, the rock type becoming a sobbing pile of emotions.

Kazo went down with him, just hugging his older brother close. He didn't think Denku would break down like this. Did his brother really miss him this much? He tightened the hug, letting his brother cry. Sai watched the two, before bending down and just wrapping his arms around both of them, the three just being one big huge pile.

Finally, after a few minutes, Denku finally broke the hug, standing up, wiping his eyes and chuckling weakly. "So, can you tell that I missed you?" He asked. Kazo nodded, standing up as well. With a smile, Denku took his first good look at his brother in the first time in over ten years. "Huh... when the hell did you get taller than me?" He joked, realizing he only came up to his younger brother's shoulder.

"More importantly, what the hell is this?" Sai asked jokingly, flipping up Kazo and Denku's capes. "I thought we all agreed scarves were super cool!" He flipped his scarf around, folding his arms.

"Mom gave me this," Kazo supplied as Denku shrugged.

"Cape was more practical," Denku explained.

"Aaaah, you two got laaaame," Sai commented. Kazo suddenly snapped his fingers.

"Oh yeah, there's some people I want you all to meet!" He said, smiling widely at the thought.

"Oh, who are they? New members for the brotherhood?" Sai asked as he placed his hands on his hips.

"Well... yeah," Kazo answered with a shrug.

"Oh? Color me curious. Who?" Denku asked as he tried to regain a little bit of dignity.

"Hey, Kazo!" Ari shouted. "I have somebody I want you to meet!"

"Well, speak of the devil. That's one of them," Kazo said with a grin as he turned around to face the young lion. "Great timin' Ari! There's some people I want you to meet to!"

The trip to the marketplace was rather typical for Raynor, for the most part. The streets were full of all sorts of all sorts of food and people, and they all were in awe of the Salamander and his rider. Of course, why wouldn't they be? He was a legend in the making, and anyone could see that. Then again, it wasn't exactly typical, not with a pretty lady making the trip with him.

The new smells were exciting Gojira, who was taking several deep breaths to sort all the smells. Most people keep their distance, obviously scared of the giant reptile, but a few braver people, mostly children, approached slowly.

"Don't 'bout him, he don't bite," Raynor supplied as he leaned against his Salamander's side. Gojira let out a snort and shook his head a little. "He's just getting used to the new smells," He watched as Edda was also getting excited about the marketplace, which was really cute. She must not get out too much. 

"Man, they sure are lively here." Looking to Raynor, she pointed at his mount saying, "so uh...what do they normally eat, anyway?"  

"Salamanders? Well, they mostly eat meat," Raynor supplied as he reached down and patted Gojira's side. "Helps them grow big and strong," He paused, rubbing his chin. "However, Gojira here also has a bit of a sweet tooth. Got into mah mum's fruits once, and developed a taste for that. It... doesn't help him as much as meat, but, I use it as a treat for him," Gojira shook his head again, and began to move forward. "Ah, looks like he found a kind of meat he likes," Raynor commented as he hopped on Gojira's back, making sure he didn't go off into a full sprint. "Really need to stock up for the trip, ya know?" Gojira came to a stop in front of a stall, laying down in front of it. Taking a look, Raynor looked to see it sold mostly general livestock, which was good. "Yo, got any cheap meat?" He asked. "And, maybe some scraps you weren't gonna sell anyways?"

Shiro watched as the creature's head was pounded into dust, watched as it reformed back into something more monstrous appearing. So even destroying its physical form wouldn't be able to help defeat the beast. To make things worse, it once again swung one of those damn tendrils at the group. Shiro attempted to leap over it, but because he was in his human form and not his frog form, he didn't go as high as he needed to, and the attack hit his left leg, making it go numb instantly.

Shiro grunted, but adjusted his weight so he fall forwards, landing on his hands and performing a handstand. He then slowly lowered his body, letting his right leg take all the weight. Well, he didn't embarrass himself like earlier, but until he got some sort of feeling back into his leg, he wasn't going to be any help.

“Something behind the altar caused that thing’s power to stop! I will distract it! Go quickly and find its source!” The new human called out. Shiro sighed to himself. He could do that... but... With a grunt, he began to hop on his one leg, turning himself around and hopping straight to the altar.

I sigh and shake my head. "Well, there were some weird things goin' on, so I did some snoopin'. We got a Holy Grail War going on in our city. Can you believe it? Seven nutjobs with seven magical nukes are hidin' out in the city. One of them even approached me, wanted to do business with the gangs. The nerve of the guy, right?"

Kyouji seemed to be losing his patience with the group, however, something peaked his interest. Jet revved his engine, making Kyouji look over to the boy with a bit of surprise mixed with confidence. "Are you... challenging me? To a duel...? To a race?" He raised his fingers into the air. "Well then, if you wanna use our D-Wheels to solve this, then solve this we shall. Rise, Shining D-Wheel!" He snapped his raised fingers, and his D-Wheel roared to life, zooming over to the champion, who leapt on, grabbing the handles and drifting, the D-Wheel coming to a stop by Jet's D-Wheel. "In the center of the town, there's a park. That's the finish line," He revved up once more.

"On your marks!" Zirco called out. "Get set! ... GO!" At the word go, Kyouji took off, headed to a ramp that would take him to the higher levels of the city. When the two disappeared, Zirco sighed and turned to Shannon. "I'm glad you two figured out what I was mimin' there. Frankly, I'm shit at that kinda shit," He muttered to himself as he picked up his D-Wheel. "Man, the asshole made me crash my baby...," with a sigh, he began to push the D-Wheel towards the warehouse.

They would find the door unlocked, and inside, a most unusual phenomenon was occurring. the inside was completely engulfed by darkness, the two being unable to see what was ahead of them. "That... that doesn't seem right...," Zirco turned his D-Wheel towards the darkness and turned on its headlights. The light went into the darkness... but illuminated nothing, the two beams revealing nothing. "What the hell...?"

"I'm gonna get straight to business." The man looked up as she was approached, the powder still on his nose. "You're an associate of the Dread Knight. He's sent us to you and another guy of his to prove that we deserve his help with stomping out some troublemakers. What's the task that'll get us a positive referral?"

He sat up straight, smoothing out his jacket as he fixed his hair. "A bit of manners first of all, Ms. Hayes. After all, manners maketh man, or woman in your case," His voice was very distinctly British. With a quick sweep, he brushed away all the dust on the table, "Sir Lock Holmes, at your service. You need not refer to me as Sir, but I do like the way it sounds," He stood up. "Now Ms. Hayes, my task is very simple. Come discover the truth with me," He walked away from the table, before calling out. "Come, Sir Greyshoe, the game is afoot!"

"Right, that's our cue," Dick said, walking over to Kiyoko. "C'mon, let's head out,"

"Mr. Hanazawa, Ms. Kuzuno, will you pursue the truth or learn it? The choice is up to you," Lock said before heading out.

For those that followed Dick Greyshoe, he lead them to a very inconspicuous place, the store they first visited when they came to the city. Dick sighed and rubbed his head. "Okay, so we last saw one of our targets enter this store and never left, so we're thinking there might be something important here. Let's look around," He went down the aisle on the right, pushing the food on the shelves to the side. "Look for anything out of place... buttons, weird writing, that sort of thing,"

Lock on the other hand, went to a very inconspicuous apartment, unlocking the door and strolling in. The place was a mess, with papers all over the place, covering almost everything. The only clear spot that was available was a couch, a chair, and a rocking chair. "Make yourselves at home, but don't sit in the rocking chair. That is my chair," he sighed and walked over to a whiteboard, wheeling it over to the center of the room in front of them. On it, they could see a lot of pictures, all connected by strings. Among them, they could see a picture of Blues, a picture of Mr. E, some pictures of the older signers, and a picture of a symbol of a dragon. "Now, let us dive right in, shall we?" he said before clapping his hands, the lights dimming some. "Now, you're trying to team up with Dread Knight, but he won't join you? Why is that? Well, that's because your group, specifically your leader, is very suspicious,"

"Now, as you may or may not know, Project Crimson started 40 years ago in an attempt to recreate the Signers that saved our world so many years ago. The process wasn't easy, but they manage to replicate those powers from the Crimson Dragon," He paused. "Or did they?" He motioned to the pictures of the original signers. "Head, Tail, Wings, Body, Claw, and Heart. Those were the six marks that made up the signers," He pulled out a folder, leafing through it. "And with your merry little group, we have instead...,"

"The mark of the Head, belonging to one Shannon Almaz. The Heart belonging to Octavia Hayes. The Left Wing and Right Wing branded upon Hotaru Hisakawa and Zirco Sakata, the Body on Rajin Hanazawa, etc, etc," He closed the folder. "As you can see, the marks don't match. Sure, it can be argued that the unnatural way of tapping into the dragon might mess with the marks, however, being able to even tap into it when the signers themselves couldn't control it is... suspect,"

He moved his hand over to Blues and Mr. E. "Now, this is where the plot thickens. Blues's father, Azure Kaiba, died around a month ago. The cause of his death? Unknown.  And at the same time, the kidnapping and murders began happening around the country, and a majority of your false signer marks began to manifest. Blues took over as company head, taking down anyone that attempted to take the title from him, with Mr. E as his right hand man. As for Mr. E and the people he works with... none of them have any records of existing. They might as well have popped into existence a month ago. Now, perhaps it is Blues hiding their information... but why would he do that?" Sir Lock placed to the folder to the side. "Frankly, there is far too much unknown. There are two conclusions I've come to. One is that this is all just a small part in the bigger experiment. Blues, with help from his associates, manufactured a crisis so that the Brands would manifest. For what purpose would he want those for, I know not," He paused, looking down at the folder. "The other doesn't have enough evidence to back it up, so I will withhold it for now...,"

"I personally believe you all to be unwitting pawns in this game, and can be trusted, but the question is... will you blindly follow orders from Blues, or will you seek the truth?" With that, he placed the folder on the table and waited for their answers.

OOC

"No." He looked towards Raynor and Rona saying, "all of us are the Iron Falcons. Together. If you want to leave, then I won't stop you, but I'm not going to abandon any of you. Especially not for a reason like this," Ah, the captain had a bleeding heart. Bless his soul. "Falcons. Our mission has changed. We're going to find a boat to Yon'Lou and go there. We'll figure out what to do after that, but for now, this is our plan of action." Looking to everyone, thinking as if on an after thought, he said, "oh and feel free to shop around first. It'll probably be a long journey."

"Aye, aye, Captain," Raynor stated with a nod before mentally thinking about what they would need. He might need a new lance, seeing as only god knew how long they were going to be gone. That would mean they'd need more things... but something was was nagging at him. He was forgetting something very important, he knew it. He lead his mount down the road before it hit him. "Right! I need to get food for ya, Gojira! We're gonna be gone for awhile and the rest of your food's at home!" With this knowledge in mind, he headed to the market, hoping to find some cheap food.

“Eehhh yea! Hane-san! Sure, we can be roommates!” he stammered out, “For sure! Uhhh, hopefully you’re ok with that even though my Quirk is dangerous!”

"I wouldn't ask if I wasn't okay with it, buddy!" Hane said with a wide smile and a thumbs up. "Still, I dunno if I'd called your Quirk dangerous. Protective maybe, but not dangerous," He said with a shrug. Then again, maybe his own views were skewed by his vigilante run. He leaned against the wall, looking around the room. "So... any girl catch your eye?" He asked, partially joking. "Actually wait, give me a second,"

He looked over to the group playing rock-paper-scissors before bouncing over, landing by them. "Yo, quick question. Nobody's dating nobody in this class, right? I don't wanna flirt with a dude's girl, ya know?" After receiving an answer, he bounced back to Yu. "Okay, that's settled. So, as I was asking, got anyone in your sights?"

The Perfect Storm

The Bow that Split the Sky

"Time to begin the experiment!"

Shiro really hated magic.

Sure, one could say that Proteans were magic, but really, it was just an ability they were born with, one that humans could not achieve naturally, so it was called magic. No, magic truly twisted the natural, doing things like bring the dead to life, or stone to life. And right now, it was perhaps the most annoying thing, seeing as no matter how they attacked it, it just wouldn't go down.

As if to drive that point home, another attack came at them. Sienna seemed to have a limb hit by the attack. Shiro on the other hand, did another hop, one much smaller than his first, in order to clear the attack, the tendril so close to grazing him, but the centimeters of space between frog and attack meant he was not hit.

At this point, another man had ran in, attacking the beast with magic. Well, he supposed it was helpful, but it was another human. Joy. He turned back into his human form, standing on two legs again. His size wasn't helping here... maybe if he could sneak around to the symbol. He quietly ran around, heading to the back of the monster.

And my bow.