S-CRY-ed Fan Fiction ❯ Alter Ego ❯ Alter Ego Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Shellbullet 
first chapter. Please give honest opinions of what you think.
Anime/Manga: S-CRY-ed Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Sci-fi / Post-apocalyptic / Action | Type: Self Insertion | Uploaded On: 01.04.2005 | Updated On: 03.30.2005 | Pages: 2 | Words: 4.1K | Visits: 256 | Status: Completed
first chapter. Please give honest opinions of what you think.
Anime/Manga: S-CRY-ed Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Sci-fi / Post-apocalyptic / Action | Type: Self Insertion | Uploaded On: 01.04.2005 | Updated On: 03.30.2005 | Pages: 2 | Words: 4.1K | Visits: 256 | Status: Completed
Alter Ego Part. 1
Chapter 1
“HEY ROB, WAKE UP”
With that I jump so high that I fly right out of bed and slam right onto the floor headfirst. I look around groggily and yell, “What the hell was that?!”
It is then that I see Megumi standing at the door to my room laughing hysterically.
“Ugh, why do you do that? You know how I am in the mornings”
Still giggling she says “But it’s just so funny to see you freak out like that Mister super tough Alter user, and besides breakfast is getting cold”
“Yeah, whatever” I say grumpily.
I really don’t know why I put up with her. I think to myself.
Finally I drag myself off of the floor and start to get dressed. As I’m getting ready I look out the slightly broken window and see the sun rising on another day in the Lost Ground. Me and Megumi have been able to make a pretty decent life for ourselves in this place. We live inside of the ruins of an old inn or something that wasn’t totally demolished in the great uprising. It’s pretty run down, but hey,home is a home, right? I make my way to where we eat and sit down. Megumi comes over and hands me a plate of something. I look down at it, raise an eyebrow at her and say “What is this stuff?”
“It’s supposed to be eggs. I got it at the relief station this morning.”
“Yeah right, I’d bet my right arm that they don’t eat this shit in the city.”
“Well we’re almost out of food so you’d better start bringing in a bit more money, maybe you could find a legitimate job somewhere...”
I really don’t remember exactly when or where I first met Megumi. I do know it was a couple years after I lost my parents and my powers first emerged. I remember I was around fifteen and I was just wandering the wasteland when I decided to take a rest in some nearby ruins. When I got inside I thought I heard a noise that sounded like crying. I followed the noise for a little while and found where it was coming from. It was a girl about my age. She looked awful. She was dirty and looked like she hadn’t eaten in a pretty long time. When she noticed me she looked at me with the most fearful eyes I had ever seen and said, “Please don’t hurt me”
I was so shocked, I couldn’t believe that she found me that threatening.
I finally managed to say, “I’m not going to hurt you, what do you think I am some kind of thug? I’m just trying to find a place to rest for a while.”
She seemed to calm down when I said that and I sat down across from her. After sitting in silence for quite a while I asked her “So, what’s your name?”
“Megumi Taisen, what’s yours?”
“Rob Kelly” I replied, “What are you doing is a place like this?”
“I lost my parents, my village was attacked by a gang led by an alter user about two weeks ago and I got separated from them.”
This got my attention and I asked her “Was your village attacked by an alter user that could manipulate fire?”
She looked shocked and answered “Yes it was.” and then she started crying again.
My heart started to pound when I heard that, “Are you absolutely sure about that?”
“Y-yes, I-I’m sure.” more crying.
“Do you remember where your village is?”
“No and even if I did I don’t want to go back.”
I sighed feeling very disappointed, but realized I had to take care of the situation at hand. I had a scared, starving, lonely girl in front of me and I realized that I had to take care of her. We both had no one at the moment and I guess we were looking for companionship.
So I was the first one to speak.
“Hey Megumi, do you want to come with me?”
“Huh, why?”
“Well, I plan on heading out of here soon and it would make me feel better if you came with me. I also have a score to settle with the alter user that destroyed your village. He took something important from me when I was little and I have been looking for him since. If you help me I’ll help you. I’m also an alter user and I’ll protect you until you decide that you don’t want to hang around with me anymore. You can leave any time you want. Oh, and if you can cook better than me I’ll consider it an equal trade.
I really didn’t expect her to agree to this so I turned around to leave but what I heard surprised me,
“Okay, sure, I’ll go”
When I turned around I saw that she had a smile on her face and seemed much more relaxed than before. We’re really not boyfriend and girlfriend but we’ve been together ever since...
“All right, All right.” I say exasperated “I’ll get in contact with that guy Kimishima, he usually has pretty good jobs for me”
“Doesn’t he usually hang around with that Kazuma guy? Isn’t he an alter user too?”
“Yeah, he’s pretty good too. I’ve fought against him a couple times while on assignment and it’s always ended in a draw.”
“Isn’t he supposed to be Kimishima’s main guy?”
“Yeah but I should be able to get a good assignment from him.”
“Alright, finish up and I’ll see you later.”
“Okay, see you Megumi”
Before I left I got my signature camouflage trench coat and put on my lucky helix chain necklace. Once I got those on I was ready, I had become my alter ego, the infamous Demon Blade.
About an hour later I pull my buggy up to the old doctors office where you can usually find Kimishima. It’s kinda dangerous here (especially for me) since this is where that guy Kazuma lives. He may be a hot headed idiot, but he’s a really good fighter and extremely dangerous to fight against since his style of fighting is so unpredictable. I steel myself walk up to the door and cautiously knock on the door. After a couple seconds the door flies open, I hear someone say “YOU!” and I get grabbed by the front of my shirt and shoved into the wall. When I get my bearings I realize that Kazuma has me pushed up against the wall ready to shove his fist through my skull.
“What are you doing here?! If you’re here for a fight you’ve got one!” he said
“Hey, whoa, take it easy man, I’m not here for a fight. I’m just here looking for Kimishima.” I said as calmly as I could.
“Why?”
“I need to talk to him about a job, I know he’s got good connections.”
“It’s alright Kazuma, put him down. He’s cool.” I hear Kimishima say from behind Kazuma.
“Fine.” Kazuma says as he reluctantly puts me down. “Just keep him away from me.” He says as he slowly walks past me into the house. “I’m keeping an eye on you” I hear him say.
When he goes inside I turn to Kimishima and say “Yikes, what a bulldog.”
“Well you should know better than to come to his house and knock on his door.”
“Yeah, well, this was one of the places I was sure you would be. I really need to talk to you about a job.”
“Okay, Step into my office.” and he motions toward his car.
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Part II
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“Hey man, do you think my buggy is gonna be alright?”
“Yeah, it’ll be fine, don’t worry.”
As we drive to the job Kimishima fills me in on the details.
“Here’s the thing, there is a HOLD labor camp that is using inners captured from surrounding villages to expand the city’s borders. This includes women and children. They make them do back breaking labor all day and they barely get any food. The facility is guarded by a B-class alter user from HOLY. He’s rumored to have never lost a fight to any native alter. The job pays 3500.”
“Really.” I say, “This should be very interesting”
“Just be careful.” he says as we pull up near where the camp is.
“Relax, this won’t be a problem.” I say, “Stick around, I’ll observe them for the rest of the day to get their routine down and attack tonight. This is gonna be a good show”
“You got it. I need to verify that you complete the job anyway.”
Twelve hours later
I’m standing on a cliff above the compound looking down into it. I’ve determined that there is a garrison of about twenty to twenty-five soldiers, various support staff, and the one HOLY agent. After observing for the majority of the day, the way the captured inners are being treated and the behavior of the soldiers and that HOLY officer have sickened and pissed me off more than I thought possible. I could not wait for the shift change at midnight to sink my blades into those guys.
Then I see the guys at the perimeter guard stations get up and leave for the shift change. It’s very sloppy of them to leave gaps in their defense like that, but I guess if your just watching defenseless people you don’t need tight defenses. I’ll make them pay for that mistake, invading our homeland, and hurting these people. As I stand up I hear Kimishima say “It’s showtime, huh?”
I close my eyes and focus my mind, I channel my anger and all my other feelings into the center of my being. As I do I feel the familiar surge of power well up inside of me. When it reaches it’s peak I open my eyes and flex my arms and legs. My hair begins to rise and stick up as I concentrate. Portions of the ground and rocks near me suddenly break down into the alter mist and begin to flow towards me. My mind gives shape to the mist as it swirls around my forearms and lower legs. As the mist begins to coalesce dark green and black armor begins to grow around my forearms and shins. The gauntlets are heavily plated but light as air to me. Each of my fingers end in wicked looking claws and a bladed spine sticks out past my elbows. They allow me to grow various blades and claws from my hands. The greaves on my legs look like a insect-like exoskeleton molded to my skin and they go all the way up to my knees. They increase my agility and allow me to move almost silently. The overall effect of the armor is that it increases my strength, speed, reflexes, and agility by tenfold over what they usually are. There is also a dramatic increase in all of my senses which helps me fight in environments that would be a disadvantage to those without the sensory boost.
Finally it’s over. It always seems like the change takes forever when, in reality, it was only a few seconds. I let go the breath I had been holding and smile at the familiar feeling of power my alter gives me. I look behind me at Kimishima and say “See ya in a few minutes.” and I disappear silently into the dark a second later.
I race down the cliff as fast and silent as a shadow with my trenchcoat flying behind me and I can feel my anticipation and the smile on my face growing as I speed towards the compound. Just before the wall, I leap as high as I can and make it about three fourths of the way up the wall. When I get close enough I extend the blades from each of my fingers and the front of my feet and dig them into the wall. Once I’m secured I begin to scale the wall like a spider towards the top. Even now I can hear the inners sleeping in their shacks and the guards talking and walking back to their posts in the compound. I hurry and make the top of the wall and quickly jump on top of one of those armored tank-things those assholes from the city like to drive and crouch down to hide.
“So far so good.” I think to myself. “I haven’t been seen....yet.”
I hear talking below me and I peer down from my perch to see my first victims. They have no idea I’m there. As they walk through the space between two of the armored vehicles I leap down with my claws extended and section the head of one of the guards like a grapefruit. The other guard turns around, sees me, yells and levels his weapon at me. Before he can fire I extend a blade from my right gauntlet and pin him to the side of the armored vehicle like a bug. The third guard was farther away and sees me standing over their bodies in the shadows with my claws dripping blood. He screams and runs away towards the command center. I realize my cover has been blown as the alarms sound and I dash out from the hiding place and get ready to face whatever is coming. As soon as I come out I am blinded by bright spotlights. As soon as my eyes adjust I can see I’m facing the entire garrison with their weapons drawn and trained on me. Standing in front of the troops is the resident HOLY officer with a smug look on his face.
“What do you think you’re doing here?” he says.
“I’m here to rescue the innocent people you’re using for hard labor in this shithole.” He laughs coldly and says “I don’t see why they matter. They are simply animals that we are using to rebuild the glory of the city.”
“If that’s what you really think then you’re the animal here! I cant wait to stick my warblades into your skull.” I say angrily
“Is that so? You really don’t think you can get past me, do you?” he says arrogantly. “I tell you what, If you beat me, all of the inners can leave. If you lose, you die. Simple enough, right?”
“Sounds good to me.” I say as I get into a fighting stance.
“Just so you know, I have never lost to a native alter user. I think you’re number thirty.”
“I feel so privileged.” I say as I roll my eyes.
“You don’t stand a chance against my alter. It makes me invincible.”
“Ugh, I’ve heard that before, spare me the drama and lets get started.” I say impatiently.
“Alright here it goes.”
I see his body tense up as he begins to concentrate and gather his power. The ground around him begins to break apart and dissolve. The mist swirls around him and obscures him for a moment. When the mist clears he has changed dramatically. The most obvious change is that all of his skin has changed into a metallic alloy and it also appears that his muscle mass has increased significantly.
“HAHAHA!!! This is my alter power. I call it Iron Curtain. In case you haven’t figured out what it does, it coats my body in a unbreakable metal alloy and increases my strength tenfold. While I am like this no one can even scratch me. I am INVINCIBLE!!!”
“Oh? Really? Well, we’ll see just how invincible you are asshole!!” I say as I launch myself at him. I extend the heavy claws between my knuckles and take a punch right at his heart. He didn’t even move as my claws glanced off of his metal skin. I manage to leap back out of the way as he takes a swipe at me. He looks at me and says “Ha! Is that it? That almost tickled. Now it’s my turn.”
He raised his fists above his head and they began to glow a orange color. “SEISMIC SLAM!!!” he yells and smashes his fists into the ground and creates a fissure in the ground that travels toward me spraying sharp shards of rock at me. A split second before the attack hits I extend double scythe blades on each side of my fist and yell “BANSHEE BLADE!” the shockwave of wailing noise streaks toward the fissure and it stops or deflects most of the shards but several get through and catch me in my chest an upper arms.
“Aaauuugh!!!!” I yell as I hit the ground, bleeding from the cuts and pierce wounds on my body. “Wow, That hurt a lot.”
“Nice try, native. Though you are the only one who has been able to deflect even a little of my seismic slam attack. I can withstand anything you throw at me, my armor makes me invincible, and you can’t dodge me forever.”
I stand there looking at him, trying to think of a way to get around his armor. I am drawing a complete blank. I stare at his face and see the eyes of a killer. I will not get any mercy from this guy at all. Everything I hit him with gets deflected and his attacks cause a lot of destruction and are hard to dodge. The only advantage I have over him is my speed and agility but that doesn’t matter since I can’t hurt him. I’m going to try and hit different areas on his armor to see if I can find or make a weak spot.
“Alright anvil-head, try this one!!!!” I yell as I leap into the air. As soon as I hit the ground near him I dash off in another direction and continue to leap and jump around him, evading his punches and swipes. Once I get behind him I yell “STACCATO STRIKE!” and unleash a hailstorm of razor sharp blows on the back of his head, each one making the sound of clanging metal as it hit. Taking advantage of my moment of motionlessness, the HOLY officer reaches behind him and grabs me by my coat. He yanks me over his head and throws me a good twenty feet into a wall where the impact embeds me into the wall.
“I have to say, that attack actually made me dizzy. You’ve got real potential. You should have signed up with HOLY instead of fighting against us. Oh well. I think it’s time I killed you.” I pull myself out of the crater and try to stay standing. I’m breathing heavily and bleeding from numerous cuts on my body. I stare at the cruel metal monster in front of me with as much hatred as I can muster. He is staring at me like some kind of bug that is annoying him. I want to gouge those stupid eyes right out of his head. Wait a minute.... his eyes!!!! I look closely at his eyes and I realize that unlike the rest of his body they aren’t armored!!
“Heh, I don’t know why I didn’t see it before.”
“See what? What are you talking about?”
“I know how to beat you now.” I say triumphantly.
“Really. I guess I hit you too hard, your delusional.” he says arrogantly.
“You’re the delusional one!!!” I yell as I sprint right at him.
“You idiot!! I’ll finish you with my most powerful attack!” he shouts.
As I race towards him I see his fists begin to glow a bright green. He screams “I hope you like my NEUTRON PILEDRIVER!!!” he begins to pull his arm back to strike. But I’m too fast for him and before he can react I am right in his face. I catch him off guard and I extend the claws from the tips of my fingers and they start to glow with a black energy. I yell “DEMON’S CLAW!!” and swipe my dark energy charged claws at his eyes. I feel my claws hit their target and sink into the softness of his eyes. I am rewarded by a loud scream of absolute agony coming from the HOLY officer as the dark energy from my claws amplify his pain tenfold. As I withdraw my claws and leap away from him I can feel him lose concentration as his alter dissolves off of his body. After that he falls heavily to the ground with a loud groan.
“How...how did you....do that?” he whispers hoarsely.
“Easy, dummy. I just looked at your eyes. They were the only thing unprotected on your body. So I made sure to make those my main target.”
“But how could someone like you beat me?”
“Well, your first mistake was to believe you were invincible. That made you arrogant and caused you to overlook the one flaw in your armor and that one flaw led to you being defeated.” I say in a tone like I’m speaking to a child. “You’re second mistake.....was challenging me.” I say with a smirk.
I turn away from him and look at the soldiers who are staring at the whole scene in horror and disbelief. I can see the sweat on their skin and hear them fidgeting nervously with their weapons. I smile good-naturedly at them and say “Well, ummm, are you guys gonna let all of those people go, or do I have to say please?” To emphasize my point I extend my finger claws and make sure they glint menacingly in the moonlight. It takes a second for it to register but once it does the soldiers scramble and trip over themselves to release the inners as quickly as possible. I have an idea and I grab one guy and tell him “You know, it would be really nice of you if you guys gave all of those inners a ride to the nearest village in one of those giant armored things. Don’t you think so?” as I scratch two of my claws together, making a loud grating noise. The soldier looks really freaked and stammers “Y-y-yes s-sir.”
“Excellent!!” I say “Make sure to tell everyone else, and remember I’ll be watching you guys.” I pat him on the back and send him on his way.With that I walk out of the complex and meet up with Kimishima outside the complex. When I meet up with him he says “Fine work as usual”
“Yeah....right.” I say, sounding incredibly tired. “Look, before you drive me back, can you follow them to make sure they follow through? I really need to rest. Wake me up if there’s a problem.”
“Sure, no problem.” he replies.
The last thoughts I have before I fall asleep are of Megumi and a nice meal when I get home.
END CHAPTER 1
Converting /tmp/phpXWlAyo to /dev/stdout
Chapter 1
“HEY ROB, WAKE UP”
With that I jump so high that I fly right out of bed and slam right onto the floor headfirst. I look around groggily and yell, “What the hell was that?!”
It is then that I see Megumi standing at the door to my room laughing hysterically.
“Ugh, why do you do that? You know how I am in the mornings”
Still giggling she says “But it’s just so funny to see you freak out like that Mister super tough Alter user, and besides breakfast is getting cold”
“Yeah, whatever” I say grumpily.
I really don’t know why I put up with her. I think to myself.
Finally I drag myself off of the floor and start to get dressed. As I’m getting ready I look out the slightly broken window and see the sun rising on another day in the Lost Ground. Me and Megumi have been able to make a pretty decent life for ourselves in this place. We live inside of the ruins of an old inn or something that wasn’t totally demolished in the great uprising. It’s pretty run down, but hey,home is a home, right? I make my way to where we eat and sit down. Megumi comes over and hands me a plate of something. I look down at it, raise an eyebrow at her and say “What is this stuff?”
“It’s supposed to be eggs. I got it at the relief station this morning.”
“Yeah right, I’d bet my right arm that they don’t eat this shit in the city.”
“Well we’re almost out of food so you’d better start bringing in a bit more money, maybe you could find a legitimate job somewhere...”
I really don’t remember exactly when or where I first met Megumi. I do know it was a couple years after I lost my parents and my powers first emerged. I remember I was around fifteen and I was just wandering the wasteland when I decided to take a rest in some nearby ruins. When I got inside I thought I heard a noise that sounded like crying. I followed the noise for a little while and found where it was coming from. It was a girl about my age. She looked awful. She was dirty and looked like she hadn’t eaten in a pretty long time. When she noticed me she looked at me with the most fearful eyes I had ever seen and said, “Please don’t hurt me”
I was so shocked, I couldn’t believe that she found me that threatening.
I finally managed to say, “I’m not going to hurt you, what do you think I am some kind of thug? I’m just trying to find a place to rest for a while.”
She seemed to calm down when I said that and I sat down across from her. After sitting in silence for quite a while I asked her “So, what’s your name?”
“Megumi Taisen, what’s yours?”
“Rob Kelly” I replied, “What are you doing is a place like this?”
“I lost my parents, my village was attacked by a gang led by an alter user about two weeks ago and I got separated from them.”
This got my attention and I asked her “Was your village attacked by an alter user that could manipulate fire?”
She looked shocked and answered “Yes it was.” and then she started crying again.
My heart started to pound when I heard that, “Are you absolutely sure about that?”
“Y-yes, I-I’m sure.” more crying.
“Do you remember where your village is?”
“No and even if I did I don’t want to go back.”
I sighed feeling very disappointed, but realized I had to take care of the situation at hand. I had a scared, starving, lonely girl in front of me and I realized that I had to take care of her. We both had no one at the moment and I guess we were looking for companionship.
So I was the first one to speak.
“Hey Megumi, do you want to come with me?”
“Huh, why?”
“Well, I plan on heading out of here soon and it would make me feel better if you came with me. I also have a score to settle with the alter user that destroyed your village. He took something important from me when I was little and I have been looking for him since. If you help me I’ll help you. I’m also an alter user and I’ll protect you until you decide that you don’t want to hang around with me anymore. You can leave any time you want. Oh, and if you can cook better than me I’ll consider it an equal trade.
I really didn’t expect her to agree to this so I turned around to leave but what I heard surprised me,
“Okay, sure, I’ll go”
When I turned around I saw that she had a smile on her face and seemed much more relaxed than before. We’re really not boyfriend and girlfriend but we’ve been together ever since...
“All right, All right.” I say exasperated “I’ll get in contact with that guy Kimishima, he usually has pretty good jobs for me”
“Doesn’t he usually hang around with that Kazuma guy? Isn’t he an alter user too?”
“Yeah, he’s pretty good too. I’ve fought against him a couple times while on assignment and it’s always ended in a draw.”
“Isn’t he supposed to be Kimishima’s main guy?”
“Yeah but I should be able to get a good assignment from him.”
“Alright, finish up and I’ll see you later.”
“Okay, see you Megumi”
Before I left I got my signature camouflage trench coat and put on my lucky helix chain necklace. Once I got those on I was ready, I had become my alter ego, the infamous Demon Blade.
About an hour later I pull my buggy up to the old doctors office where you can usually find Kimishima. It’s kinda dangerous here (especially for me) since this is where that guy Kazuma lives. He may be a hot headed idiot, but he’s a really good fighter and extremely dangerous to fight against since his style of fighting is so unpredictable. I steel myself walk up to the door and cautiously knock on the door. After a couple seconds the door flies open, I hear someone say “YOU!” and I get grabbed by the front of my shirt and shoved into the wall. When I get my bearings I realize that Kazuma has me pushed up against the wall ready to shove his fist through my skull.
“What are you doing here?! If you’re here for a fight you’ve got one!” he said
“Hey, whoa, take it easy man, I’m not here for a fight. I’m just here looking for Kimishima.” I said as calmly as I could.
“Why?”
“I need to talk to him about a job, I know he’s got good connections.”
“It’s alright Kazuma, put him down. He’s cool.” I hear Kimishima say from behind Kazuma.
“Fine.” Kazuma says as he reluctantly puts me down. “Just keep him away from me.” He says as he slowly walks past me into the house. “I’m keeping an eye on you” I hear him say.
When he goes inside I turn to Kimishima and say “Yikes, what a bulldog.”
“Well you should know better than to come to his house and knock on his door.”
“Yeah, well, this was one of the places I was sure you would be. I really need to talk to you about a job.”
“Okay, Step into my office.” and he motions toward his car.
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Part II
----------------------
“Hey man, do you think my buggy is gonna be alright?”
“Yeah, it’ll be fine, don’t worry.”
As we drive to the job Kimishima fills me in on the details.
“Here’s the thing, there is a HOLD labor camp that is using inners captured from surrounding villages to expand the city’s borders. This includes women and children. They make them do back breaking labor all day and they barely get any food. The facility is guarded by a B-class alter user from HOLY. He’s rumored to have never lost a fight to any native alter. The job pays 3500.”
“Really.” I say, “This should be very interesting”
“Just be careful.” he says as we pull up near where the camp is.
“Relax, this won’t be a problem.” I say, “Stick around, I’ll observe them for the rest of the day to get their routine down and attack tonight. This is gonna be a good show”
“You got it. I need to verify that you complete the job anyway.”
Twelve hours later
I’m standing on a cliff above the compound looking down into it. I’ve determined that there is a garrison of about twenty to twenty-five soldiers, various support staff, and the one HOLY agent. After observing for the majority of the day, the way the captured inners are being treated and the behavior of the soldiers and that HOLY officer have sickened and pissed me off more than I thought possible. I could not wait for the shift change at midnight to sink my blades into those guys.
Then I see the guys at the perimeter guard stations get up and leave for the shift change. It’s very sloppy of them to leave gaps in their defense like that, but I guess if your just watching defenseless people you don’t need tight defenses. I’ll make them pay for that mistake, invading our homeland, and hurting these people. As I stand up I hear Kimishima say “It’s showtime, huh?”
I close my eyes and focus my mind, I channel my anger and all my other feelings into the center of my being. As I do I feel the familiar surge of power well up inside of me. When it reaches it’s peak I open my eyes and flex my arms and legs. My hair begins to rise and stick up as I concentrate. Portions of the ground and rocks near me suddenly break down into the alter mist and begin to flow towards me. My mind gives shape to the mist as it swirls around my forearms and lower legs. As the mist begins to coalesce dark green and black armor begins to grow around my forearms and shins. The gauntlets are heavily plated but light as air to me. Each of my fingers end in wicked looking claws and a bladed spine sticks out past my elbows. They allow me to grow various blades and claws from my hands. The greaves on my legs look like a insect-like exoskeleton molded to my skin and they go all the way up to my knees. They increase my agility and allow me to move almost silently. The overall effect of the armor is that it increases my strength, speed, reflexes, and agility by tenfold over what they usually are. There is also a dramatic increase in all of my senses which helps me fight in environments that would be a disadvantage to those without the sensory boost.
Finally it’s over. It always seems like the change takes forever when, in reality, it was only a few seconds. I let go the breath I had been holding and smile at the familiar feeling of power my alter gives me. I look behind me at Kimishima and say “See ya in a few minutes.” and I disappear silently into the dark a second later.
I race down the cliff as fast and silent as a shadow with my trenchcoat flying behind me and I can feel my anticipation and the smile on my face growing as I speed towards the compound. Just before the wall, I leap as high as I can and make it about three fourths of the way up the wall. When I get close enough I extend the blades from each of my fingers and the front of my feet and dig them into the wall. Once I’m secured I begin to scale the wall like a spider towards the top. Even now I can hear the inners sleeping in their shacks and the guards talking and walking back to their posts in the compound. I hurry and make the top of the wall and quickly jump on top of one of those armored tank-things those assholes from the city like to drive and crouch down to hide.
“So far so good.” I think to myself. “I haven’t been seen....yet.”
I hear talking below me and I peer down from my perch to see my first victims. They have no idea I’m there. As they walk through the space between two of the armored vehicles I leap down with my claws extended and section the head of one of the guards like a grapefruit. The other guard turns around, sees me, yells and levels his weapon at me. Before he can fire I extend a blade from my right gauntlet and pin him to the side of the armored vehicle like a bug. The third guard was farther away and sees me standing over their bodies in the shadows with my claws dripping blood. He screams and runs away towards the command center. I realize my cover has been blown as the alarms sound and I dash out from the hiding place and get ready to face whatever is coming. As soon as I come out I am blinded by bright spotlights. As soon as my eyes adjust I can see I’m facing the entire garrison with their weapons drawn and trained on me. Standing in front of the troops is the resident HOLY officer with a smug look on his face.
“What do you think you’re doing here?” he says.
“I’m here to rescue the innocent people you’re using for hard labor in this shithole.” He laughs coldly and says “I don’t see why they matter. They are simply animals that we are using to rebuild the glory of the city.”
“If that’s what you really think then you’re the animal here! I cant wait to stick my warblades into your skull.” I say angrily
“Is that so? You really don’t think you can get past me, do you?” he says arrogantly. “I tell you what, If you beat me, all of the inners can leave. If you lose, you die. Simple enough, right?”
“Sounds good to me.” I say as I get into a fighting stance.
“Just so you know, I have never lost to a native alter user. I think you’re number thirty.”
“I feel so privileged.” I say as I roll my eyes.
“You don’t stand a chance against my alter. It makes me invincible.”
“Ugh, I’ve heard that before, spare me the drama and lets get started.” I say impatiently.
“Alright here it goes.”
I see his body tense up as he begins to concentrate and gather his power. The ground around him begins to break apart and dissolve. The mist swirls around him and obscures him for a moment. When the mist clears he has changed dramatically. The most obvious change is that all of his skin has changed into a metallic alloy and it also appears that his muscle mass has increased significantly.
“HAHAHA!!! This is my alter power. I call it Iron Curtain. In case you haven’t figured out what it does, it coats my body in a unbreakable metal alloy and increases my strength tenfold. While I am like this no one can even scratch me. I am INVINCIBLE!!!”
“Oh? Really? Well, we’ll see just how invincible you are asshole!!” I say as I launch myself at him. I extend the heavy claws between my knuckles and take a punch right at his heart. He didn’t even move as my claws glanced off of his metal skin. I manage to leap back out of the way as he takes a swipe at me. He looks at me and says “Ha! Is that it? That almost tickled. Now it’s my turn.”
He raised his fists above his head and they began to glow a orange color. “SEISMIC SLAM!!!” he yells and smashes his fists into the ground and creates a fissure in the ground that travels toward me spraying sharp shards of rock at me. A split second before the attack hits I extend double scythe blades on each side of my fist and yell “BANSHEE BLADE!” the shockwave of wailing noise streaks toward the fissure and it stops or deflects most of the shards but several get through and catch me in my chest an upper arms.
“Aaauuugh!!!!” I yell as I hit the ground, bleeding from the cuts and pierce wounds on my body. “Wow, That hurt a lot.”
“Nice try, native. Though you are the only one who has been able to deflect even a little of my seismic slam attack. I can withstand anything you throw at me, my armor makes me invincible, and you can’t dodge me forever.”
I stand there looking at him, trying to think of a way to get around his armor. I am drawing a complete blank. I stare at his face and see the eyes of a killer. I will not get any mercy from this guy at all. Everything I hit him with gets deflected and his attacks cause a lot of destruction and are hard to dodge. The only advantage I have over him is my speed and agility but that doesn’t matter since I can’t hurt him. I’m going to try and hit different areas on his armor to see if I can find or make a weak spot.
“Alright anvil-head, try this one!!!!” I yell as I leap into the air. As soon as I hit the ground near him I dash off in another direction and continue to leap and jump around him, evading his punches and swipes. Once I get behind him I yell “STACCATO STRIKE!” and unleash a hailstorm of razor sharp blows on the back of his head, each one making the sound of clanging metal as it hit. Taking advantage of my moment of motionlessness, the HOLY officer reaches behind him and grabs me by my coat. He yanks me over his head and throws me a good twenty feet into a wall where the impact embeds me into the wall.
“I have to say, that attack actually made me dizzy. You’ve got real potential. You should have signed up with HOLY instead of fighting against us. Oh well. I think it’s time I killed you.” I pull myself out of the crater and try to stay standing. I’m breathing heavily and bleeding from numerous cuts on my body. I stare at the cruel metal monster in front of me with as much hatred as I can muster. He is staring at me like some kind of bug that is annoying him. I want to gouge those stupid eyes right out of his head. Wait a minute.... his eyes!!!! I look closely at his eyes and I realize that unlike the rest of his body they aren’t armored!!
“Heh, I don’t know why I didn’t see it before.”
“See what? What are you talking about?”
“I know how to beat you now.” I say triumphantly.
“Really. I guess I hit you too hard, your delusional.” he says arrogantly.
“You’re the delusional one!!!” I yell as I sprint right at him.
“You idiot!! I’ll finish you with my most powerful attack!” he shouts.
As I race towards him I see his fists begin to glow a bright green. He screams “I hope you like my NEUTRON PILEDRIVER!!!” he begins to pull his arm back to strike. But I’m too fast for him and before he can react I am right in his face. I catch him off guard and I extend the claws from the tips of my fingers and they start to glow with a black energy. I yell “DEMON’S CLAW!!” and swipe my dark energy charged claws at his eyes. I feel my claws hit their target and sink into the softness of his eyes. I am rewarded by a loud scream of absolute agony coming from the HOLY officer as the dark energy from my claws amplify his pain tenfold. As I withdraw my claws and leap away from him I can feel him lose concentration as his alter dissolves off of his body. After that he falls heavily to the ground with a loud groan.
“How...how did you....do that?” he whispers hoarsely.
“Easy, dummy. I just looked at your eyes. They were the only thing unprotected on your body. So I made sure to make those my main target.”
“But how could someone like you beat me?”
“Well, your first mistake was to believe you were invincible. That made you arrogant and caused you to overlook the one flaw in your armor and that one flaw led to you being defeated.” I say in a tone like I’m speaking to a child. “You’re second mistake.....was challenging me.” I say with a smirk.
I turn away from him and look at the soldiers who are staring at the whole scene in horror and disbelief. I can see the sweat on their skin and hear them fidgeting nervously with their weapons. I smile good-naturedly at them and say “Well, ummm, are you guys gonna let all of those people go, or do I have to say please?” To emphasize my point I extend my finger claws and make sure they glint menacingly in the moonlight. It takes a second for it to register but once it does the soldiers scramble and trip over themselves to release the inners as quickly as possible. I have an idea and I grab one guy and tell him “You know, it would be really nice of you if you guys gave all of those inners a ride to the nearest village in one of those giant armored things. Don’t you think so?” as I scratch two of my claws together, making a loud grating noise. The soldier looks really freaked and stammers “Y-y-yes s-sir.”
“Excellent!!” I say “Make sure to tell everyone else, and remember I’ll be watching you guys.” I pat him on the back and send him on his way.With that I walk out of the complex and meet up with Kimishima outside the complex. When I meet up with him he says “Fine work as usual”
“Yeah....right.” I say, sounding incredibly tired. “Look, before you drive me back, can you follow them to make sure they follow through? I really need to rest. Wake me up if there’s a problem.”
“Sure, no problem.” he replies.
The last thoughts I have before I fall asleep are of Megumi and a nice meal when I get home.
END CHAPTER 1
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