Storm King

Storm 10

By: BigTofu

 

Kuvira

Silent Mountain

Sitting on her raised platform, Kuvira breathed in and out, nice and slow. One in for one out as the calming freeze of the bay washed over her form. Both the blindfold and the earmuffs kept the world at bay for her. That couldn't be said about her feet though, as the world came to her as echoes of vibrational movement.

 

Kuvira felt the earth with every thrum and every beat as the world moved with life around her. The omni-tool on her wrist did a double beep with vibrational alerts to notify her of the arrival of the clean-up crew sent by the DWA. With slow and deliberate moves, Kuvira stood on her platform of solid rock and stepped forward onto another platform of rock; this time, it was made of sandstone. She did this until arriving at the edge of the parking space before removing her blindfold.

 

The light stung a little, but her rapid healing more than took care of that for her. Standing tall, Kuvira watched and waited for the crew to get themselves sorted before they came over to meet her.

 

"Ma'am?" The guy in the lead questions slightly.

 

She raised a brow at him for a second, allowing the silence to stretch, then looked down at her watch, "Five, minutes early, good." She spoke and could feel his weight shift as the man before her released a breath of relief.

 

"Name?" She questioned lightly even as she peered at those directing a dump truck to park on the side.

 

"Jacob, Ma'am." The now named Jacob replied swiftly and smoothly.

 

"Alright, Jacob your now in charge of your people." Kuvira spoke while turning cool eyes into the burly man before her. "I'll be sectioning off the beach fifty yards by fifty yards. I want three drivers, five men to be on the lookout for hazards, a set of drivers to drive the dump truck and others to keep an over watch on the truck and the local area to ward people away. This is going to be an active work zone and I don't want anyone to just walk onto it." Kuvira finished with her arms folded behind her back, a raised eyebrow and a commanding look. "Were you able to get all that?"

 

"ma'am yes, ma'am," Jacob replied as he strapped into a sharp posture.

 

Kuvira gave him a nod before with a wave of her hand, three large John Deere sized lawnmower looking machines appeared. The large difference was that instead of a mower on the bottom, there was a sheet of blue light that projected down picking up only man made materials and none of the sand.

 

Connected to what was clearly projected tractor arrays was a massive bin on the back to collect all of the garbage. Yet, when you looked closer to the bin, it also had labels of separated locations for needles, glass, paper and various other things. There was even a waste bin section for biological materials.

 

Leaving Jacob to deal with his men, Kuvira pressed forward with her geokinetic powers. Her leg slid forward as her body lowered into a horse stance. Then one stomp hardened the sand around her location, another stomp formed it into a sandstone slope. Everything would go badly if the sand shifters couldn't get back up the curb because the wheels got sand locked.

 

Then with bent knees, Kuvira boost jumped out across the beach to land exactly fifty yards out. She turned with a low sweeping kick that sent up waves of sand creating a line from her location towards both directions. One went all the way up to the dunes, the other went down towards the ocean.

 

A lean forward and a punch into the sand shut up a small sand wall, then her hand flicking to the left and right sent it along the line she made. Before the wall could fall due to gravity, Kuvira's hand shot out palm flat before curling into a claw. The earthen sand reacted to her directions as it hardened into a knee height wall made of sandstone.

 

Giving it a once over, Kuvira's decided to give a section a punch which not only crumpled a portion of the wall but also created space enough for a sand shifter to drive through. After a few more adjustments to the sand wall, Kuviera performed the action of marking fifty yards for another nine sections creating a total of ten which also stopped at the nearest local breakaway.

 

With the work area marked off, Kuvira used a sand wave across the top of the dunes to get back to the starter area. When she arrived, She couldn't help but witness the workers from the DWA moving like well-oiled machines. One of the machines was run in the front with a wide scan set with blue light shining underneath. A runner followed this up with red flags planted every time the person on the lead sand shifter pointed out a trouble zone.

 

This trouble zone was then given space by the other two sand shifters while they went about following behind the main lead shifter. With a hop and a slide, Kuvira sent herself to glide down next to the DWA works set to direct the public away from the working zone.

 

"Ma'am," One of the workers stated as he acknowledged her presence.

 

Returning his words with a light nod of the head, Kuvira flowed away with the sand underneath her toes moving as one. Already she could notice the difference through her tremor sense from her contact with the sand. It didn't take her long to find who she was looking for as Jacob was also one of the ones hammering in a red flag on a location pointed out by a sand shifter.

 

"Jacob?" Kuvira questioned as she looked down upon the red flag that was planted between them.

 

"Ma'am?" He questioned with a little fright as he was surprised by her sudden appearance.

 

Dismissing his reaction, Kuvira waved a hand at the flag, "What is this?" She questioned as she motioned towards the flag.

 

"Ohh, we found a dense pocket roughly ten feet down, the scanners can't give us a clear picture, so we marked it off for examination later," Jacob replied swiftly.

 

Kuviera gave him a raised brow before nodding her head in assent and confirmation, "Give me space, and I shall bring it up."

 

"It's fifteen feet down," Jacob replied before taking a few steps back.

 

Accepting that, she slid into a stance, both arms down at her side as Kuviera felt out the earth below her. Kuviera could feel the odd shape, so with a hard gesture down, the sand was hardened, then a sharp gesture upwards. The ground rumbled around her as the sand flowed out of the way as if it was made from water.

 

More and more sand came upwards and poured over the area even as it was then sunk back into the ground to fill the cavity as the obstruction was brought to the surface. Kuvira could sense and feel the metal before the cardboard exterior of the box breached the surface.

 

The omni-tool at her wrist started to beep, and that was all the warning she needed as Kuvira jumped up and back with a boosted lift from the sandstone. When Kuvirea landed, she swept out low with a strong leg sweep that pushed Jacob to the side. When she completed her movement, Kuviera then sent both arms forward to surround the box with more sand before she hardened it into sandstone.

 

The beeping continued from her omni-tool, but when she checked, Kuviera noticed that she was in the green zone while the area before her and around the box's location was still marked medium threat level. Then with a firm expression, Kuviera curled both hands into fists and brought them up with a sudden jerk. This motion brought up a five-foot wall of sandstone, then she did the same motion once more, erecting another set of walls.

 

"Jacob, let the others know not to approach," Kuviera called out while sending a message across the network to Cortana. Then once that was done, Kuviera erected another set of walls to close off the area. This time, the walls went up slanted to cover the top of the box's location.

 

Jacob took a couple of steps away while waving off his guys, "Ma'am, what is that?"

 

Kuviera shook her head at him. "Not sure, but it reads radiation to my omni-tool sensors."

 

All it took was for the word radiation being said for Jacob to skip back a good ten feet away from the box's location.

 

"How bad? How bad is it?!" Jacob questioned strongly as panic started to set in for him.

 

Kuviera shook her head, "Not that bad, but I've sent a report in. We will keep the area marked off, but now it's imperative to check the other locations."

 

It took a few hours, along with a bomb squad, some police officers, and the coroner, before all the locations were excavated. It took some talking and a firm foot, but Kuviera and her team were able to not only clear this section of the beach, but also all of the strange locations picked up by the equipment.

 

Across the beach, they found weapons in duffle bags, same with money, the strange radiation device. Yet the big find was clearly left over by a Tinker which no one had any clue about. The sixth hole had a man buried down in the earth, but the thing that really stood out was his frozen state within metal. It reminded them all of that Star Wars movie.

 

The cops wanted to say that it was clearly Leet's work, but it was also clearly not his MO. There was a grunt from a few feet away and Kuviera turned to see what the cops were looking at. There was a rumble from the distance and some of the police were already showing discontent as big blocky trucks with PRT labeled along the sides pulled up.

 

Sigh, it looks like word had gotten out and now the PRT was here which would not help at all. Luckily, the CDC also arrived alongside the PRT. Good, they were here for the radiation units, that was also a good thing.

 

With a grunt, Kuviera stepped forward, the ground beneath her feet shifting as her geokinetic powers took hold. The sandstone slab worked for her as it pushed across the sea of sand until allowing her to step onto the pavement of the parking lot. An idle backhand motion sent the sand back onto the beach allowing her to keep the area clear. Walking across the parking lot, Kuviera gave an idle wave to some of the men sent so she could lockdown the area, both from the DWA and Hospital.

 

"Sergeant Monroe, what's the issue?" Kuviera questioned the Sergeant on duty, glaring at one of the PRT people trying to bully their way past the caution tape.

 

Officer Monroe turned around with a grunt, then gestured towards the PRT still being kept on the other side of the caution tape. "Ohh, Kuviera, the PRT says they have jurisdiction over the crime scene for a multitude of reasons."

 

Kuviera returned an ice-cold look towards the Sergeant in charge of the crime scene, "Let me guess, it flagged TINKER so they want to usurp the entire beachfront."

 

"They also want the gear that located it, how it located it, pulled up, and a multitude of other things." Sargent Monroe replied with a grunt. Then he sighed before straightening himself proper, then walked forward to the edges of the caution tape.

 

Taking a moment to think a few things over, Kuvira sent off a request to Cortana and got a swift reply along with bullet points and outlines. With a reply of her thanks, Kuvira followed the path the Sergeant took to the caution tape.

 

"Now if you can move out of the way and turn over what you have already gathered," The PRT lead agent spoke as he held out a form, but Kuviera had heard more than enough.

 

With a jerk of the wrist, the ground rumbled and shook until everyone not only went silent but also noticed that she was the one in charge. A few other PRT goons had turned around and aimed their little foam launchers toward her, but a swift motion and a glare sent them tumbling down.

 

With a motion of her arms going wide, everything stopped shaking as Kuviera ran her hands over the metals of her cuffed sleeves. "Good, now that cooler heads have prevailed, you may now pack up and leave."

 

"You have no power to send us anywhere, our Jurisdiction is mandated to cover all parahuman…" The PRT head goon started to speak but was silenced by two hovering devices that silenced him with a bubble.

 

"You will be silent when I am speaking, or you will be asked to leave whether you would like to or not," Kuviera stated as the metal of her uniform started to shift around, the noise putting fear into the PRT goons. "Now that you have properly dislodged your head from your rectum, I'll kindly inform you that the coroner's office has collected the body you've been looking for. So you no longer have any jurisdiction here."

 

Another PRT goon raised to speak but was silent before anything could get out.

 

"As for the radioactive material, the CDC has jurisdiction over that, so again, anything you could claim to be in charge of is no longer on this beachfront," Kuviera stated as she stared at them down with a cold, even glare.

 

With a snort, Kuviera turned around, pulled out a tablet, pulling up the PRT mandate that Cortana sent her. Kuviera then handed it over to the Sergeant in charge. "I have more work with the DWA to perform, this is all yours, Sergeant."

 

She didn't even give them the dignity of a snort, turning on her heel. Kuviera walked away, then stepped onto the sandstone that rose to meet her. With a motion and a movement of her arms, Kuviera shot off across the beach, the sand rippling behind her as if stone skipped across water.

---

 

 

Rumi Usagiyama

Mirko

There was nothing sweeter than the rush of wind, and the wild tingling sensations that combat brought her as Mirko sprang boarded off a light pole. With a rotation around her center of gravity, she came down hard with a Raider Kick aimed at the big block of the escaping vehicle. The hood of the car was dented, and the wheels dug into the ground, but the engine didn't even rattle a little bit.

 

What did change though was that the stealth system of the monster shattered underneath her from the kinetic forces applied by her kick. The vehicle bucked, then the hydraulics reacted and the hood of the car pushed upwards throwing Mirko from the vehicle. The weapons on the roof activated and rounds after rounds were fired at her indiscriminately.

 

With a tsk, Mirko threw out a few devices that activated independently. This caused a blue shimmer to play out behind her as force fields went up to protect not only the buildings but also the civilians around them. She was on the building for less than half a second before she was jumping away again, a roundhouse kick primed to smash a fool's head in but her attack had to be aborted.

 

This was due to another monster truck dropping stealth as a few of the guys in the back leaned out with weapons drawn. With narrowed eyes, Mirko kicked off the air dodging to the left, she kicked off the air again, and this allowed her to dash downward and forwards. Rolling with the momentum, Mirko brought her leg up and over in one motion while the other dug into the pavement.

 

Her eyes glinted red as she kicked upwards, the heel of her boot shift right up and smashed into the crankshaft of the monster truck. The truck went upwards, all of the weight balanced perfectly for a split second, then it rocketed upwards with force. Twisting herself down and around in a capoeira breakdance maneuver, she then planted her legs and kicked off before the bullets shot at her could even reach.

 

The grin on her face was wide, savage, and filled with alot of teeth, the Merchants she was facing never saw it coming as she blitzed the third truck that decided to drop the cloaking tech.

 

"Shoot that slagging cracking munching bitch!" A foul mouth man yelled from the first merchant monster truck.

 

With a wide and mean grin, Mirko spun mid-air as if she was a tornado, the wind kicking up in a flurry as it gathered all the bullets fired at her. They all gathered into a soccer ball rotating chaotically as she gave it a few light taps of her feet.

 

"EAT THIS SHITSTAIN!" Mirko yelled as she kicked the soccer ball of air up, flipped over, and delivered an overhead bicycle kick so powerful it sent out shockwaves.

 

The roiling mass of air, bullets, and extreme forces slammed right into the lead monster truck. This time instead of it being saved by the hydraulics this time. The tires popped as the monster machine bottomed out and slammed into the asphalt.

 

"SHIT! SQUEALER GET US THE FUCK OUTTA HEERRREEEEE!" Skiddy screamed nice and loud. His voice was like a nail on the chalkboard.

 

Three more steps had her bounce from the ground off the side of an apartment building, then back into the air as she spun one way and twisted the other kicking and deflecting weapons fire aimed at her. She was a blur of speed, and they never saw her coming. Their heads rattled like ping pong balls as she sped from one to the next. Their heads rattled like bobblehead dolls as she smacked each one against the back of the head so hard it rattled their brains.

 

A few went down, others went upchuck with whatever contents they called food. Some never made it a few feet as they were kicked into parked cars and other such things. The ground beneath her cracked as Mirko went high, the rocket launched at her destroying the asphalt down below. As all of this was happening, there was a flash of yellow, and then Mirko turned to look.

 

She watched as that dickless scrub named Dauntless decided he wanted to snatch her prey away. With narrowed eyes, Mirko watched as he helped more than hundered the Merchants. Landing lightly on one of the rooftops, Mirko watched as the PRT fucked it all up with a growl barely suppressed.

 

With her frustration building, Mirko only came down from the rooftops when the police showed up. Her omni-tool printed out a basic SD card for them to receive along with a copy of an After Action Report. That fool in the hero get-up tried to smile at her, as he walked forward, the javelin being shifted to underneath one arm even as he extended the other.

 

"Hi, I'm Dauntless, we don't get many fresh faces around here." The fool spoke even as he offered his off-hand for a shake, his smile was genuine and full of charm. There was even that little twinkle in his eyes as he waited for her to shake.

 

The look she gave his hands was of pure disdain, "You let them get away." Was all she said before jumping up and kicking off the air.

---

 

Anthony Grey

Storm King

 

Music played in the background as I sat at my workstation, a mortar and pestle in hand. The Roobrush was grounded into a fine powder before me even as the ambrosia and bittergreen petals floated around as the mortar. A quarter of the bitter green petals was added to the mix next, and everything was given another once over before the ambrosia was added.

 

Everything was then turned into a nice red paste, even from where I was sitting I could smell the transitional scent of it turn towards something a little bitter. Well, I guess the ambrosia didn't keep transferring it to that sweet smell. That was fine because the next step was to add water and watch as the sticky syrup turned into a drinkable fluid.

 

Now it was my turn to frown as I unfolded my arms and summoned over a blade as I stared down at the red potion concoction. With a thought, I brought up a multitude of scanners, then the blade came to a hover next to my hand, and I ran it down my palm with a little application of telekinesis. My regeneration rapidly kicked in, but I forced it to stop and allowed my hand to bleed for a bit. Once I was certain of everything, I decided to take a drink of the potion.

 

It was like a cool breeze was pushed into me as it raced down from my chest to my hand. The wound I had made instantly lost the minor sting as it sealed right up. Ohh yeah, that was the good stuff, spying just a little of the health potion left. I pushed it to the side, summoned another mortar and pestle, and set to work on another one of the potions I planned to sell.

 

This one wasn't going to be a healing potion that would be sold inside the hospital or to the military. What I was going to make next would be sold to the fire department because, like the health potion. This was going to be the resist fire potion straight from Skyrim. Okay, with my thoughts in order, I summoned and added three tablespoons of moon sugar, ten snowberries, and a redwort flower.

 

When I mixed it this time, it did not turn into a paste, the resist fire mixture was an odd slurry that just rolled around in the mortar bowl. When I dipped a finger into the mixture, it felt a little chalky. My head went one way, and the other before I just said fuck it and added the water. I gave the cool breeze that sat in my chest its own time to fade while reading the sensors.

 

The scanners had gone to work, and I could read off all the marked improvements. Right now, I could read everything as the potion circulated through my systems. I watched as the potion checked every little part of my body as the cool breeze sensation flowed around my insides. My hands glided across the hologram keyboard. The scanners went to work as they ran a quick diagnostic over my body, a timer that was rapidly counting down appeared on the screen to track the potion within my system.

 

Sitting back, I allowed myself to get scanned as the potion worked its way through my system. The timer hit zero as the cool breeze sensation left my body, happy with that. I pulled over the benson burner with a little Tk. A twist of the knob turned it on, and I didn't have to wait long for the flames to get red hot.

 

At this point, I should have had someone do this for me, maybe even tasked one of the troopers to do it or pay some sap.

 

Okay, that's some pussy thinking…

 

Sitting up in my chair, I brought the mortar to my mouth, and I swallowed half of the potion. Ice-cool sensation ran over my skin, it was strange since I didn't even have to shiver, but that was alright. Firming up, I held my hand out over the open flame. One second, three seconds, eight, and even twelve seconds later and all I could feel from the open flame was a little bit of warmth.

 

Ohh yeah, that was really good…

 

That was all the proof that I needed, I had the scanners collect the data and compile it into a file before sending it to Cortana, Glynda, and Tsunade.

 

"Ahem…" The cleared throat of Chun Li from behind me was filled with so much exasperation that I could feel the stare digging into my back.

 

There was no need to look back as I spoke up, "Yes?"

 

Chun Li stepped forward, her hand idly ghosting over my workstation, "I was unaware of your lack of patience?"

 

 

I said nothing as I rolled my eyes, Chun Li picked up the health potion, then ran an idle finger around its rim. My hands stopped their dance across the keyboard as I turned to watch as she took the health potion sample over towards one of the scanners hooked directly into the replicators.

 

There was a swirl of lights that came down after Chun Li had placed a few commands. Once it was finished getting scanned by the replicators, Chun Li retrieved the mortar with the rest of the health potion to my workstation.

 

She cleared some space, then sat directly on my workstation. There was a ping, and I watched as her omni-tool flashed. A leg came up to run along my inner thigh as she answered the call on video mode. "Ahh, Glynda, punctual as always."

 

In the video before me, Glynda was in her soft dungeon with full bondage gear. On the other side of the video, Glynda rolled her eyes at Chun Li. "My dear, if I wanted to be stroked, I would have visited our dear leader."

 

I snorted at that…

 

Chun Li rolled her eyes at me, "Well, my dear, I was calling to inform you about the little creation our leader just finished none too long ago. And since you just so happen to be the Director of our little hospital, well. It can only go by you, my dear."

 

On the video call, I watched as Glynda narrowed her eyes at Chun Li. "Then it can obviously wait, can it not?"

 

Chun Li ran her foot up my thigh then back down as she sent a sly smile Glynda's way. "Well, it could but now that we have healing potions in a bottle. Our Platinum Trauma care patients just might like to hear about it. Military might like to buy in bulk, they are our biggest supporter after all."

 

The video went quiet for a beat, "You do know a lady doesn't get out of her playroom for anything less than a few million."

 

Chun Li sent her a smirk, then made a show of leaning all the way back showing off some mighty fine cleavage. Her hand went up and then disappeared into her cleavage for a moment, her hand moving around a bit. Then it came back and out popped a health potion. "Our dear has decided to grace us with a chance to print our own money."

 

There was a tinkle, then a sparkle, as Glynda's eyes enlightened at what she was looking at.

 

Authors Notes - Removes the - for the internet links

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