Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 404 ERROR

I stepped out of the elevator carrying the unconscious Gwen Stacy. Back in the X-Men loft the other members of the crew stared at me wide-eyed. I had put Gwen’s clothes back on her over the ripped up Gantz suit and cleared off most of the blood, but there was a lot on me as well. 

“What happened now?” Hisako asked as I moved to the sofa. 

“Just…stuff,” I said, laying Gwen down. Lorna and Alex were soon gathering around us. “She’s fine now…I think.”

“What about you? What’s with all the blood?” Hisako asked, worried for me. 

“I’m fine. It was her blood.” The trio gave me a more confused stare. I wasn’t in the mood to explain. “I think I found a clue, but I need someone to keep an eye on my friend here. Hisako?” 

“No, I am helping you,” she said firmly. I studied her for a moment, considering what to do. I could tell from her Haki it would take a lot to convince her not to go, and honestly it wouldn’t hurt to have more help. 

“Fine, but you gotta get cool with a lot of weird shit, really fast,” I said. “Lorna, you mind keeping an eye on Gwen for me?”

“What happened to her?” The green haired girl asked, concerned, though Tabi was draped around her shoulders. 

“Attacked by a giant lizard.” I turned to Hisako. “Not Godzilla, don’t worry.” 

She rolled her eyes. “You know I’m American, right? My grandparents were from Japan.”

“Godzilla attacks America too,” I said, offended at her audacity to assume I based what I said on race. 

“Whatever,” she said. “Let me get my crap.” She was more than a little excited I didn’t fight her on it. As she dressed I looked to the recovering duo. 

“Where are Logan and Scott?” I asked. 

“Meeting with the Hellfire Club. Apparently a lot happened last night, and they want to confirm some issues,” Alex said. I inwardly cursed, I hoped no one brought up a huge black/blue cat shooting fire everywhere, but left it up to fate. “Want me to come with you?” He asked, but was more than a little reluctant to step outside. I felt they were both a little gun shy after getting drugged up and who knows what else.  

“I’m good. Hold down the fort,” I said as Hisako walked out. She had changed into a skintight black and gold hero suit. 

“We flying?” She asked.

“We’re flying,” I said. She smiled wide and didn’t hesitate to jump on my back. I walked over and opened the window. “Don’t wait up,” I said and was flying out into the night sky. 

The city was loud as per usual. Hisako simply happy to be doing something, she latched onto my back as I raised us up over the city. I considered my options as I flew. 

There seemed to be 2 main criminal activities going on. Hellfire Club and a woman Mao threw an underground auction selling mutants. That seemed it’s own little corner of the problems, and what Logan and Scott were probably focusing on since Lorna and Alex were caught in the middle. 

The main issue was the people trying to buy the mutants. During the auction Kingpin had bid on them. He had also implied kidnapping local mutants to Barracuda before I fought Killgrave and Jessica Jones. They talked about working with Connors, and after recent events that meant Dr. Connors. Who worked for Oscorp. So that must have meant they made the barrel that the blue goo I was subjected to was held in. 

The current quest I was on was to find what caused my Fusion superpower. That meant Connors and Kingpin. Emma had told me the general location of Fisk’s home. And probably knew where he lived. But it wasn’t like I could show up at his door and beat the information out of him. Kingpin was the top crime boss in the city for a reason. He probably had enough henchmen to be a problem, as well as enough mettle to not give up locations he was doing business at.

My options were extremely limited. I needed to find Connors. I had to figure out where he was hiding, and where I assumed he was testing on mutants. I finally realized that I was at a dead end in the clue department. 

“Shit,” I said.

“What?” Hisako asked. 

“Think we need to make a detour,” I said. Turning I headed toward the Nelson and Murdoch law firm, but on my way there I noticed people running across rooftops. They were very stealthy about it. Moving silently as they Naruto ran then jumped from building to building. I immediately recognized them as the same people we had run into at the auction. 

Ninjas, more of a B-movie villain than a real threat, I thought their attempts at concealing themselves was rather cute. But I had trained with real ninjas. Everything that they tried to hide was obvious to me. As I looked ahead I noticed other groups of them running in the same direction. All converging on a point near the law office.

“Triple shit,” I said and sped up. 

“What?” Hisako asked, more annoyed. 

“Prepare to fight your cousins, Hisako. We got a ninja infestation,” I said.

“Ninja? Those aren’t real,” she said.

“They very much are. Look there and there, they can be hard to spot. But they’re below us,” I said. She repositioned herself, trying to see where I was pointing. 

“I don’t see anything,” she said.

“They are there, trust me. Let’s crash their party,” I said. Finding more ahead, running toward me I guessed their target was close by. I extended my Observation Haki out and found the familiar signature below. 

“Watch the roof,” I said dropped Hisako off. “Be right back.”

“Hey,” she yelled as I dipped to the side of the building and moved to the window of the apartment below. Inside was Matilda Murdoch, eating some cereal at the counter. I knocked on the window. She didn’t jump, but her Haki was alert. “Maddy, you got ninjas inbound.” 

“Weston?” She asked, confused while walking over. She didn’t pretend to need the walking stick as she came over.

“It’s me,” I said as she opened the window. “I was on my way to try to find you at the law office, when I noticed a whole bunch of Hand on their way here.”

“Fuck,” she said. 

“My thoughts exactly. I assume you want to get into your suit? I can keep them occupied while you change,” I said.

“Thanks,” she said. “Rather not fight them in my apartment.” She turned and I flew back up to the roof to find Hisako tapping her foot angrily. 

“What?” I asked. “You wanted to come.”

“I did, until you dropped me before talking to yet another girl,” Hisako said, surprisingly jealous. 

“Sorry, some people like their identities hidden,” I said with a shrug. “Hold up. They’re here.” I saw them in the shadows. More and more jumping to the roof of the building there were soon about 30 of them, and more on the way. 

“I can’t see anything,” Hisako admitted. 

“You really don’t see them, per se,” I said, keeping an eye out for any I recognized. “Just kind of stare in that direction. Let your eyes zone out. Don’t focus on any one thing. Take it all in. Relax. They’re trained to be invisible when people are looking for them. But when you aren’t looking at anything, it all kind of blurs together.” 

Her Haki shifted, relaxing and listening. After a few seconds, “I think I saw something.”

“Like a shadow moving?”

“Yeah,” she said. 

“Keep looking. There are about 40 now.”

“40?! How are they so quiet?” 

“They’ve trained their whole lives.” The majority of them were piled up in the shadow of the roof doorway. But many were running along this or that way. They knew we were there and I could see them. Simply waiting for some signal. It came as Demoness jumped onto the roof. 

The lawyer by day, sexy superhero by night landed in her skintight kinky devil costume. I gave her a smile as the ninjas stopped trying to hide. “Holy shit!” Hisako yelled as dozens of ninjas practically stepped out of the shadows. The large roof was littered with them, and as Demoness moved beside me one of the ninjas approached. 

“You have been called out, Matilda,” the ninja woman said. She took down her face mask to reveal it was Elektra. The gorgeous Asian woman eyed Demoness and I. “And you, I don’t know you, but you as well have shamed us.” 

“I tend to do that,” I said. “Name’s Weston, but you can call me Bastard.”

“You’re sticking with that name?” Hisako asked, eyeing me as she tried not to show her fear. 

“It’s gonna stick,” I said, not convinced it was. 

“Whatever you call yourselves. The Hand will not abide by your interference of our duties,” Elektra said. 

“To be honest, I did most of the interfering. Can we leave her out of this?” I asked, thumbing at Demoness.

“Weston…” Demoness said, annoyed but also a little thankful for the attempt. 

“No, Matilda knows our rules,” Elektra said. “This cannot go unpunished.”

“What’s all this about?” Hisako asked.

“I’ll tell you later,” I whispered out of the side of my mouth. 

“What kind of punishment are we talking here?” I asked. “Battle to the death? Torture of a million paper cuts?” 

“No,” Demoness said. “The Hand only deals in absolutes. They will send every member they have against us until we are dead.” 

I frowned. The Hand usually went up against Daredevil. But it never got that far. At least I didn’t think it did. Honestly I was surprised she knew so much about the Hand. She must have been a member or something.

“There’s got to be another way to deal with this,” I said. “I’m not dealing with ninjas everytime I come to town.” I thought about it. “Although it would be pretty badass to be talking to someone then all of sudden, bam, ninja. Then I fight and kill one of you guys, then go about my day.” Hisako actually laughed in agreement. 

“Silence!” Elektra yelled, angry by my nonchalant reaction to the threat. “We will let it slide if you come back to us, Matilda.” Demoness’ Haki became annoyed, very very annoyed. There was a lot of history between the 2. History I could guess. 

“That’s not happening, Elektra,” Demoness said. Gritting her teeth I felt her eye me then focus back on Elektra. 

I let out a bored sigh. Grinding my teeth I played through the whole thing in my mind. There would be fighting. We would probably be dragged into some internal struggle that the Hand were having. Somehow we would get roped into solving their problem, all the while fighting ninja after ninja. Taking up my and everyone’s time. It was textbook Daredevil comic. I wasn’t interested in being stuck in the endless cycle. I had my own drama going on. 

An idea suddenly hit me as I studied the men and women ninjas around me. Mulling it over I went over the pros and cons. For once the pros out-weighed the cons. 

“Counter proposal,” I said, stepping forward, closer to Elektra. She didn’t overly react, but shifted her stance, becoming more ready to attack. When I was between Elektra and Demoness I sat down cross legged on the flat roof. 

“Your ninja group is very organized. I’ve seen better. But for here, I’m sure it’s top notch,” I said. Elektra tried to say something but I kept going. “Problem with ninjas in this day and age though, there are a lot of super powered people around. People with superpowers will kick all of your asses without much trouble. Throw as many as you like at me. I will kill every single-” Someone threw a ninja star at me. Instead of catching it with my fingers I turned my head and caught it with my teeth. Spitting it to the side I eyed the ninja that threw it but turned back to Elektra. 

“See, not truly scary when I can block everything you throw at me,” I said. “Now back to what I was saying. How about a…proposition? You all have some secret code of conduct, or some freaky ass goal, correct? Whether it’s reviving a god,” all of their Haki shifted, I guessed right on the first try, “or maybe trying to reach immortality. I don’t really give a shit what you do. But it does piss me off when it happens near me. So how about this? I gift you a superpower,” I said, pointing at Elektra. 

“What?” She asked. 

“Am I never clear? I swear every girl says what to me about 20 times,” I mumbled. “I said I would give you a superpower. I’m pretty sure I can. And it would definitely help you in your ninja affairs.”

“You can’t just gift superpowers,” Elektra said.

“Not all. But I have one that I can awaken in you. And it is strong. It originates in a secret clan from somewhere. An ancient style of power. Long forgotten.” 

“What is it?” She asked, trying to hide her own excitement.

“That’s a secret,” I said. “I will teach it to one person. And one person only for now. If you can prove that you are worthy of this power. I will consider showing you how to teach others. Not everyone can learn it of course. But I have a feeling you can.” I gave her my best salesman smile. “What about it? Interested?”

“What can this…power do?” 

“Depends on the person,” I said with a shrug. “Me…” I charged my pointer and middle finger with a burst of Nen and shot it at a giant video billboard on the other side of the street. The Nen blast sheared through the billboard and I sliced across it, cutting a line through it about 15 feet across.

There was a stunned silence from the ninjas and allies alike. Long seconds stretched out until finally Elektra said, “I am willing to consider this.” 

“Perfect,” I said standing up. “Shall we begin?”