Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Eye of Eternity ❯ Part 4: ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
[D:]

Armsmaster was riding around on his bike, doing his usual patrol in the neighbourhood at night. It was a rather uneventful patrol, with nothing happening. Which was good news since the streets of Brockton Bay were not safe at night. He had not gone far, just passing through one or two neighbourhoods when something happened. Around him, the streetlights flickered and then dimmed into darkness. The traffic lights ahead dimmed into darkness as well.

'Huh? Power's out,' he thought.

"Hello Dragon. Armmaster here. Could you call the power company and tell them to send someone to check the power grid? There's a power outage and all the lights are out," he said.

"On to it," Dragon cheerfully chimed in.

"That's strange ... there's a power surge through a section of the grid and it's tripping all the energy grids statewide. Picking up a massive energy drain coming from ... an abandoned warehouse next to the Dockyards."

"I'll go and check it out. Could be some rogue Tinker with some energy-intensive device," Armsmaster answered before heading off in the direction of the Dockyards.

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Once again Taylor opened her eyes, being stirred wide awake from her restful sleep by her dreams. Her thoughts were now focused on the fateful encounter between Madara and this strange man ... no ... kshatriya her subconcious corrected ... called Arjuna. From what she knew, it was clear that Madara did not know Arjuna prior to this meeting ... yet the strange man had known him and called him by name even when Madara was travelling incognito.

But that wasn't all. What made the situation even more surreal and unbelievable was the fact that Arjuna had mentioned the name Danny Herbert, her father's name ... which stretched her suspense of disbelief and bordered on the level of incredulity. It couldn't be a genuine part of Madara's memory, could it? she wondered inwardly at the thought.

Taylor was quite sure that Madara or whoever it was that the memory had originated from, had lived or died a very long time ago judging from the attire they were using, their fashion sense and the way they carried themselves. She briefly wondered if she might have imagined the whole thing but found it a rather difficult conclusion to accept as she had neither heard of a name nor seen any person using a name like Arjuna or even Madara before.

It also raised a whole host of disturbing questions with it. For example, what did Arjuna mean by saying that Madara was going to encounter Danny Herbert a lifetime from then? Did that mean that Madara was still alive? She was quite certain that Madara had been slain by Naruto Uzumaki somewhere down the line so he could not have been anywhere alive at the present time.

She was also quite sure that Madara could not have known anything remotely familiar or similar to her father's name so that left the unbelievable conclusion, no matter how impossible it might seem. But she would have to check the WorldNet first just to be sure. She got up from bed and turned on the old computer her mother had bought for her as a birthday gift many years ago. The screen remained dark. She switched the computer off and then on again. No change. Not even the slightest sign of life from it.

Instinctively, she turned on the light. The room remained dark. There was no sound, even from the ventilation system. She went to the door of her bedroom and opened it. It was completely dark and silent in the corridor. Not even a sound from the refrigerator. Taylor activated her Sight. Once again, she was able to see faraway from her house. She looked in all directions around her house from outside. The entire neighbourhood was shrouded in darkness. Even the usual dimly streetlights were out.

Taylor looked farther with her Sight. And she saw it ... fire ... several buildings and the Dockyard itself was on fire. Getting concerned, she moved her Sight to find out how big the fire was and discovered ... to her shock ... the parahuman criminal Lung fighting her father!

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The battle was truly an epic one, Oni Lee concluded from the sidelines. He had left the field just in time before he got struck by a massive wave of electrical energy being released by the unknown cape into the surroundings which had come very close to killing him. If he had been a split second late in leaving, he would have ended up dead or in critical condition. He frowned at the thought inwardly. Well ... that and Lung's personal entry into the fight had forced him to depart permanently from the scene.

He had been studying the intensifying battle between Lung and the unknown cape for some time now. From what he could see, the fight between Lung and the unknown cape was going to take a long time since neither seemed capable of truly harming the other. The leader of the ABB was fighting the unknown cape with a seriousness he had only seen with strong or powerful opponents, Oni Lee mused, from a faraway building.

Still one glaring little fact disturbed Oni Lee deeply. Regardless of the strength Lung had put into his blows or the amount of heat Lung had put into his flames, the unknown cape, remained unhurt, looking none the worse for wear by his attacks. It was as if the unknown cape was completely invulnerable to Lung's attacks.

Oni Lee had no idea how close he was to the truth. Every attack, be it done by physical blows or burning flames invigorated Danny, strengthening his body, improving his overall health in ways that he could not even imagine. His body cells greedily absorbed the energy, storing it for future use or instant use.

Unknown to both him and the leader of the ABB, the harder Lung attacked Danny, the stronger Danny became which in turn, made Danny hit back at Lung harder than ever before. Not to be outdone, Lung was of course ramping up as the fight progressed, becoming bigger and stronger by the minute.

He was now easily fifteen feet tall, towering way above the unknown cape. Not to mention becoming more and more draconic with each passing minute, the flames leaving his body burning hotter and brighter than ever before to the point that even the gravel that came into contact with his clawed feet was melting and smoking slightly.

Oni Lee did not even dare to get close to where the two capes were battling it out as the heat was becoming all too great for him or anyone else to get near without risking a severe burn.

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Brockton Bay had become rather dark and silent ... like the city of the dead, Armsmaster thought rather morbidly as he piloted his Tinker-made bike to his destination ... the warehouse by the Dockyards where the massive energy drain that Dragon had detected was taking place. As he was about to reach the place, he spotted gouts of flame licking the ramshackled and decrepit buildings in the area.

'A fire?' he wondered as he called Dragon to alert the fire department about it.

Suddenly, the large figure of a fifteen-foot long flame-covered dragon flew through the air past him to smash into a large wooden two-story building in front of him with a loud crash.

"Wait! Cancel that order. Lung is involved. Alert the PRT and Director Piggot," the leader of the Wards summed up the situation as he watched the large wooden two-story building caught fire in front of him.

Quickly, he took out his tranquilizer darts and loaded them into his gun. They were designed to take Lung down ... theoretically ... that was the hope anyway. He had never had the chance to test them out and wasn't sure if these experimental weapons would work on the fire-breathing dragon man the way they should. His eyes caught sight of a six-foot tall man in a winter jacket and work clothes stepping out onto the road.

Oddly enough, the man did not seemed to be bothered by the heat or the burning structures around him. Armsmaster was about to ask the man whom he thought to be a civillian to leave when he caught sight of a crackling arc of electricity moving around the man's hands.

'What the hell? This man is a cape and he's not wearing a mask?' he wondered while his builtin camera recorded everything he saw.

"Dragon ... identify the cape in front of me," he ordered.

"The cape in front of you matches the identity of a man called Danny Herbert, forty-two years old and current leader of the Dockworkers' Union. His wife, Annette Herbert is officially deceased, having died in a road accident ten years ago. He has one daughter, aged fifteen, by the name of Taylor Herbert, a student at Winslow High School," Dragon answered.

'Sophia's school?' he wondered as he resolved to ask Sophia to get close to Taylor to find out more about her father.

His thoughts were interrupted,however, when a loud roar erupted from the building. Lung leaped out of the burning two-story building to tear into Danny Herbert with terrifying speed ... only for Danny to throw a strong punch at him that sent him flying back into the burning two-story building ... and out again into the wall of a warehouse that caved in on top of the leader of the ABB.

"I need you to come with me to HQ to fill in a report on what is happening," Armsmaster spoke to Danny for the first time.

"Beg your pardon? Kind of busy here," Danny replied matter-of-factly, his attention fully on Lung as he saw the ABB leader digging himself out of the rubble.

The flame-covered dragon that was now twenty feet long suddenly charged forward at Danny in a burst of energy again. With a well-aimed karate-style kick, Danny struck Lung a mighty blow that sent him flying out of the neighbourhood into the sky. Armsmaster's widened slightly.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Danny asked, his attention finally turned to Armsmaster.

"Have you ever thought of joining the Protectorate?" he asked.

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When Taylor caught sight of Lung fighting her father, her first thought was to get her father out of danger. She reacted instinctively when she saw the blue flames Lung was breathing out, engulfing her father.

Shinra Tensei!

And directed a well-aimed gravity distortion pulse towards Lung, knocking him backwards towards a worn-down brick wall, shattering it and melting the gravel beneath his body. Her father looked a little startled to see Lung flying away from him but got over it quickly to unleash a highly-concentrated blast of electricity on the ABB leader from the palms of his hands. The crackling arc of electricity connected with Lung shocking him into paralysis and causing him to twitch uncontrollably for a whole minute.

Eventually, Danny let go of the connection to let Lung drop to the ground. Lung's wounds regenerated quickly and he launched himself at Danny again only to find himself flying away from his target, courtesy of another Shinra Tensei attack from Taylor. The draconic-looking parahuman was flung out over two houses to crash into a ramshackle and decrepit two-story building that caught fire as soon as he entered it.

Danny advanced forward in the direction of his opponent.

"No Dad! Don't!" Taylor cried out as she saw the direction her father's footsteps were taking him.

She would have to get him out of there before Lung had another chance to attack. Taylor was about to do get there via a Transmigration of the Soul when she saw them.

Armsmaster standing beside his hi-tech bike.

And Oni Lee ... watching silently from the top of a building.

They were both observing the fight. Taylor badly wanted to don a mask and a costume to get her father out of there but she was afraid that her father wouldn't recognise her if she did so. On the hand, if she went there without a mask or costume, she would be outed as a cape in short order.

What to do? Oh ... what to do? She pondered before deciding to get rid of the onlookers ... starting, of course, with Oni Lee.

Shinra Tensei!

She shoved Oni Lee against the wall, hard, with a gravity pulse, catching him by surprise ... and to her relief ... Oni Lee dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes and did not get back up again. She turned her attention to Armsmaster only to see Lung leaped out of the burning building in the direction of her father. She unleashed another Shinra Tensei attack on Lung just as Danny connected with his fist in the ABB leader's face. Lung was flung so hard in the opposite direction that he practically exploded his way through the wall of the burning building that he had just got out of, into another old and empty warehouse.

Shinra Tensei!

The entire warehouse collapsed down on top of Lung, burying him alive. Taylor turned her attention to Armsmaster.

"Use Tsukiyomi," a familiar voice stated.

Taylor was about to use it when Lung burst out of the collapsed warehouse in a loud roar of anger. To her surprise, her father struck Lung with a karate-style kick that sent Lung flying into the sky.

'Wow!' she thought.

'Since when did Dad become so strong?' she wondered and turned her attention to Armsmaster.

She activated Tsukiyomi and the Protectorate leader collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Without wasting anymore time, she went to her father's side via Transmigration of the Soul.

"Taylor, what are you doing here?" he asked in a mixture of startlement and disbelief.

"We have to get out of here, Dad, before more people arrive," she answered.

"What do you mean by that? Let them come! The more, the merrier! I am having a great time! Join me!" her father beckoned.

"We could turn Brockton Bay upside down! I can be the new King! " he stretched out his arms as if to encompass the area he was in.

"And you can be the Princess! "

At that moment, the memory of Arjuna's words echoed through her mind.

Teach the meditation techniques in it to Danny Herbert. He's going to need it to counter the shard's influence on his actions.

The shard's influence? Taylor wondered about that.

"Dad! If we stay here any longer, everyone will know that we are capes!" Taylor spoke quickly.

"Let them know! It isn't proper for a King and a Princess to hide their identities from their subjects!" her father declared in a loud voice.

Arrrggghh! Taylor was about to scream in frustration.

Somebody is bound to be arriving soon! she thought frantically.

Be patient with him. The shard's influences are quite strong.

Arjuna's warning came to the forefront of her mind.

"Please Dad! Just for me! So that I can become a superhero!" she pleaded, using her puppy-dog eyes.

Danny looked at her for what must have been an eternity.

"Alright! Fine! We'll hide our identities though I think it just isn't right for a King and his daughter to hide their identities from their subjects," her father grumbled.

"But he already knows who I am," Danny pointed at the fallen Armsmaster.

"Not to worry Dad. I changed his memory so he wouldn't remember what happened. All, he would remember is the burning place. That's it," Taylor cheerfully replied with a smile.

"Alright! You naughty girl! Let's go home," he said.

She wrapped her arm around her father and the two of them vanished in a whirlwind of colours. Meanwhile, lying on the ground, right next to them earlier, an unconscious Armsmaster's suit continued to record everything that had transpired.

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