Houzer and I were sneaking our way into the Naga tribe's camp, though we were still making our way around the fence and were in the woods right now.
"You didn't have to do that you know, I can stand up for myself." I said.
He didn't say anything, just kept looking ahead, determined to save Arcenciel. Houzer hardly ever got like this, it was kind of scary when he did. That unyielding determination to achieve his goals. It was a bit heavy on the soul to be around it.
I didn't try again to make him talk, not until we needed to. He looked around the corner, signaling to me that the coast was clear. We ran around the corner, making sure nobody saw us while we snuck behind a tent.
"Got a plan?" I asked.
"We split up. I'll look for Arcenciel while you look for the children." He said.
The rain began to worsen, making sure there wasn't a dry spot on the ground, it was also a bit nauseating with my semblance, but I'd gotten used to it after a few years. Houzer looked around before running across the camp, heading for the largest tent at the end of the camp. It was obviously the leader's tent, it had different colors than the rest, having red spikes on it instead of just beige and green, he must have thought they were holding Arceniel there.
He folded back the entrance flap a bit to see inside before disappearing into the darkness of the tent. I stared for a moment to wait for him to come out, but I didn't see anything happening, so I began to run to the other side of the camp. I was half way across when I heard an explosion. I turned to see Houzer flying at me. I didn't have time to react and was hit with him head on, knocking me into the mud and staining my clothes.
"What happened?" I asked as I got back up.
Houzer picked up his hammer and used it to support himself as he slowly struggled to get up. It was only then I noticed the steam coming off of him, and that part of his jacket had burnt away.
A man walked out of the large tent, he was pretty muscular, but didn't look too much older than I was, his scan was dark and scarred where it was shown. He didn't wear a shirt, but he did have a dark blue jacket unzipped to the base that fell below his waste instead of being worn like how a normal person would wear a jacket. He had black pants that were ripped at the bottom and black and blue sandals strapped to his feet. Covering his head was a dark blue helmet with two white lines on either side lining up with his eyes, which were protected by a red visor. A long braid of orange-red hair went down his back, blowing in the wind. He also had blue padded armor on his forearm that went onto the back of his hand, a layer of black latex layer underneath the armor, ending like fingerless gloves at his hands.
Without a word, he launched himself forward with an explosion, shaking the tent behind him with the force it exerted. My mind ran at lighting speed, thinking of hundreds of actions that didn't help. I pulled out my garrote, but he was already upon us by them, his hand extended towards me.
Before the explosion went off, Houzer pushed me out of the way, taking the force head on. His aura flashed as he fell to the ground.
"Houzer!" I shouted, running towards the opponent.
I tried to catch the guy with my garrote, but he dodged and grabbed me, holding me in the air by my face. He looked my body up and down before setting me down and knocking me out by punching me in the face.
A moment of darkness later I woke up in a cage, my hands tied to a pole in the middle. I could feel a hand on my back, I turned to see Houzer, struggling to pull himself free.
"Shit." I said aloud.
We were in a well lit tent, surrounded by wooden crates and boxes rather than caged up children. Explosion guy must have kept us for himself, of course he would, pig.
"Vasta..." Houzer said.
Though I couldn't hear him at the time, I was too busy freaking out, we'd lost control of the situation and I had no reason to believe the new guy could save us. It was over! We were doomed.
"This is it isn't it? It's over! At best we become servants, and at most likely we're slaves!"
"Vasta..." Houzer continued.
"We're don't for, oh my god, I never even got to see Atlas in person. This is my own fault actually-"
"Vasta!" Houzer shouted, momentarily breaking me out of my freak out.,"This isn't it."
"The hell are you talking about now? We're done for. At best we'll become slaves! Just face it Houzer, we don't have our weapons, our teammates, or any way out of here."
"No. I want you to listen to me for once. Stop thinking and feel. Feel in that amazing, beautiful way only you can Vasta. Think about what makes you special and feel with that!" Houzer insisted.
"What are you-" I thought he was just trying to be sweet, but then I realized what he meant.
I used my semblance to feel the vibrations in the earth. Footsteps, raindrops, footsteps, raindrops, footsteps, raindrops, there! Something strong, no, many small things acting as one. A system of small tunnels beneath the soil. Worms and ants making their way to the surface. But something was with them, small mammals following the worms digging upwards.
"What's your plan?" I asked.
"You'll see, just stay calm."
The earth next to us began to collapse. A tiny pair of claws and a long pink nose surfaced before a small furry mole came up, worm in mouth. It sniffed around the surface before quickly turning around and digging back into the earth. An army of ants then emerged from the opened hole, crawling into our cage and eating away at the rope that tied us to the pole in the cage.
Houzer rubbed his wrist had felt his exposed skin, must have still burnt from earlier.
"You alright?" I asked.
"Yeah, don't worry about it." He said.
The ants then climbed all over the crates, going inside in search of something, eventually coming out with a bunch of paper clips carried in by a small army of ants.
"Houzer, locks don't work like that." I said as he began to bend a paper clip.
He stuck his hand outside the cage and stuck the small metal rod into the lock, moving it around for a second before something clicked and the lock loosened.
"Bullshit!"
"Let's just say I'm good with my hands and get out of here." He said, pulling the lock off and kicking the door open.
He crawled out and ran to the boxes, looking for his hammer probably.
"The hell is it?" He asked himself as I crawled out for myself.
Then we heard another explosion coming from outside, that guy just have found the new guy coming in to get us. Looks like we'd have to save him too. I peaked outside just to make sure, and I couldn't believe my eyes.
A crowd of enemy bandits and formed around two people. Another explosion filled the camp with light for a moment as Arcenciel was launched upwards.
"Problem." I said, turning around to see Arcenciel still rifling through the crates.
He was about to say something, but then the earth shook beneath us, almost causing me to throw up.
The earth shook again, and then we heard it, a terrible roar in the middle of the thunder, like a mad god out for blood...
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(Ten minutes after Vasta and Houzer left)
It had been thirty minutes since I was left to sit on this rock. I'd had a lot of time to think. To think about me, this whole tribe thing, and Neo. Did I forgive her? Did I hate her? No. I couldn't help but still feel betrayed, I'd put all my trust in her, and she'd thrown it all away. But I still couldn't bring myself to hate her. Guess you can't really hate someone you once loved.
Still, I had to move on. She was in Vale and I was God knows where, placed in the middle of some turf war that I had no part in after one of the biggest betrayals of my life, trying to act like I had no memories and all for what? So I could leave my old life behind? So I could forget who I was?
Cinder had found me because of my semblance, she'd brought me to Vale, where I'd met Neo. My semblance had brought me to where I was, sitting alone on a rock in the cold rain in the middle of the night trying to find some reason for it all. My semblance had guided me for my entire life, and now, it would guide me out of this too!
I jumped off the boulder and took a deep breath before beginning my transformation. My arms and torso began to enlarge, lumps formed on my shoulders and grew reptilian mouths as scales replacing my skin. I fell onto all fours as my body became too heavy to stand on two legs. The lumps on my shoulders turned into well defined heads and long muscular necks. A tail began to protrude from the bottom of by back, growing into a massive whip like part of my being. My nails became claws and all my teeth sharpened. Everything turned slightly blurrier, but all the people below me were simple human outlines in the form of their aura. Some red, some green, blue, yellow, all sorts of colors surrounding one white and one a burning orange.
I roared to spread fear in the ants beneath me. They noticed me and began to scatter, all running into tiny boxes on the ground. I slowly moved my heads downward to study the camp itself. My left most head went down to study the two auras that had been surrounded, two of the few that hadn't run away.
The small orange one didn't seem to enjoy my company, burning my eye with fire. I freaked out in pain, shaking my head and launching them into the wall or the forest, I couldn't tell. I didn't even bother with the white one, moving on while my right-most head sniffed around, trying to use my other senses to know what was beneath me. My middle head stayed up for the most part, making sure I kept my regal, godly position above them all.
Out of the corner of my left eye, I saw the orange aura come out of the woods. A large explosion sounded out, shaking the ground as the orange aura flew towards me like a jumping flea.
I bit at them, but they dodged with another explosion. They maneuvered around with midair explosions, dodging my heads trying to bite down on them. Eventually they caught me off guard, getting next to my right head and blasting it with a large explosion, blasting it clear off. Hurt like hell. The burning sensation, my blood literally boiling at the stump.
The large explosion had launched them back into the woods. Figured they were probably baiting me out there, so I stayed put and allowed my head to grow back. You'd think it would be all gross feeling, but it was more like throwing up peeled grapes. Like it started at the top of the throat and went on as the head grew, each layer of the body regenerated one at a time, bones to muscles to scales. All culminating in the new right head opening its eyes and hissing in anger.
A large explosion went off in the distance, launching a dim light towards me. The small aura began to burn brighter and brighter as it flew quickly towards me. My left and right heads both converged and bit at the aura, which dove under me with a medium sized explosion. A bright light came from beneath me before I felt the force of a large explosion send me into the air. My back felt like it was on fire as I collided with the ground, forcing blood to exit my mouths and the air to leave my lungs. I could feel my aura waning as the rain continues to fall on me.
It wasn't often my semblance was hurt, the last time I felt this kind of pain was from the Atlas airships when... when I lost it at Beacon. After Neo...
I felt a new line of adrenaline surge through my body along with my new found anger. I picked myself up by rolling on my side and getting up, my body now covered in mud, which kinda helped with my back. Looking up I studied my surroundings, the massive mud crater I'd created upon my impact with the ground. The sky was pitch black and the rain continued to fall cold on my skin. Feeling a pain in my right arm, I reached for it with my felt, only now realizing I had reverted back to my normal body. Dammit.
Whoever that aura belonged to was probably still ready for a fight. Then again, they'd probably run out of aura, an explosion like that should have taken a lot out of them, not to mention the force launching them backwards defiantly drained their aura. Still, now I was pissed, and something was dying.
I climbed my way out of the crater with a certain amount of difficulty, hard to get a grip on the steep mud walls when they were wet, especially with everything aching. Though eventually, I did manage to claw my way out, putting my hand on the surface to pull myself out only for the ground to give out and make me fall back down.
Lucky enough, someone grabbed my arm before I fell too far.
"You've got a lot of explaining to do newbie."
I looked up to see Arcenciel holding me up, he told me to put my other hand out, grabbing it when I did and pulling me out.
"The hell was that?" He asked.
"Uhh, my semblance probably. Look I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"That was amazing kid! Seriously, scared the bandits away and took out that exploding guy. Now come on, let's get you some clothes and get out of here." He said, patting me on the back, making me hiss in pain, "Oh, apologies, didn't realize. Gonna need to patch that up when we get back."
"Clothes?" I asked, just then remembering why I didn't have clothes literally every other time I use my semblance.
"Yeah, no need to worry though, sent the children outside of the camp with Vasta and Houzer. The walls were kind of knocked over in a lot of places through, inconvenient for keeping you hidden, very good for escaping though." Arcenciel said.
I looked behind him and realized what had happened. On my rampage, I'd destroyed a lot of the camps tents, walls, and left massive impressions in the earth spread about the campground. Gave me slight flashbacks to the other times I'd used my semblance, accept everything was usually on fire, or I was already in the woods by the time my aura ran low.
"Hey, are you alright?" Arcebciel asked, bringing me back to reality.
"Yeah, sorry, spaced out for a second." I apologized
"Well come on, clothes now, talk later."
"R-Right."
Aside from Cinder, I'd never had someone support me after a use of my semblance, but something felt different about this guy, like I could actually trust him. Arcenciel didn't have deciples, he had family, a family he was inviting me into. If I really wanted to, I could've run away in that moment, go back to before Cinder, but something drew me towards the man who helped my out of the pit.
The rain began to lighten and the moon shone through the clouds before we found a pair of ripped up blue jeans in a storage tent that I'd missed. Of course they were skinny jeans, but karma was a bitch, so I dealt with it. Compared to what I wore under Cinder, they actually seemed pretty alright. Had to get my own clothes though, hand-me-downs weren't really my style. The bandit life on the other hand, now that was something that I could get used to.
--------------
I was awoken in the middle of the night by one of my bandits yelling about Peach getting back.
"Raven! Maxie came back with Peach, but the rest of their teams are still gone!" Cuabara said.
I got up and rubbed my eyes, collecting myself from the few hours I'd gotten.
"You get back to your post, I'll handle this myself." I said, putting my armor on.
"But ma'am, there could be trouble, shouldn't someone go with-"
"I'm sorry, where should you be right now?" I asked.
"My post." He said.
"Your post. Now go, when I say I can handle it, I can handle it." I said, putting my mask on.
I grabbed my katana and cut a crimson portal to Arcenciel with my semblance in the air. I may not look my best at the moment, but my mask blocked anything up with my face, and my hair was always like this, so I doubted anyone would notice.
I stepped through ready for a fight, only to find that the enemy camp had been demolished. Walls were destroyed, tenets were knocked in, and there was a large crater that was mostly inside the camp with a little across the destroyed fence.
It would take a moron to not realize that the new recruit used his semblance, accidentally or not. Aside from that, everybody seemed fine, well, besides Houzer and the new guy, both of which had burn marks on their bodies, the new guy's back especially. No clue why he was wearing skinny jeans though, didn't know he was swinging that way, but I digress.
In other news, we had some new recruits in the form of a bunch of kids that ranged from about 7 to their late teens, all starved and tired, so that was neat, had to make a lot of room for them.
Honestly, I couldn't care less about the downsides, this mission was a total success. Now I knew that the Hydra was on our side, and we had more info on the Naga tribe thanks to Peach and the spies still in their other camps. With my magic, the hydra's power, Peaches knowledge, and Arcenciel's leadership, we were looking at a total victory, and all of our enemies were looking at total defeat...