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comicgeekscomicgeek · 4 years

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Their Hero Academia – Chapter 63: Final Exam part 5: Final Essay

Presenting the next raw and unedited chapter of my on-going, next-gen, My Hero Academia fic, Their Hero Academia! Please note, this chapter may undergo more extensive editing before it gets posted to AO3/FF.net, as there’s a lot of fight scenes that may need clarity editing.

Earlier chapters can be found here

At the last moment, before Kamuy had launched her shockwave, some instinct had prompted Izumi to throw up an ice shield. Desperately, faster than she ever had before, she’d leached heat from the air, forming a protective wall in front of her, reinforcing it even against the shockwave that had followed. She regretted immediately that she was unable to extend her protections to Chihiro or to any of her other classmates.

When the ringing in her head cleared and she was able to see again, a moment of fear touched her heart, an icy stab into the heat she had absorbed and that suffused her body. Chihiro, Ojiro, Aoyama, and Asuka were all on the ground, alive, but very clearly knocked out. As skilled and powerful as her classmates were, against such overwhelming force, they had no defense. She had hoped that Asuka’s Frog-Shadow might have been able to protect her, armoring her as she had during the Sports Festival, but such, it seemed, was not to be.

And all Izumi had done was protect herself. Her teachers, as well as Katsumi, would say that insuring her own safety had meant she could continue to act and protect others. But it did nothing to ease the guilt she felt.

Kamuy, it seemed, was still standing, admiring her handiwork. She’d lost a bit of mass from expelling her accumulated energy, but still remained a large and imposing foe. That she seemed to be able to hold onto the energy she absorbed until she needed it was enviable. The bands of Izumi’s regulator rig were screaming an angry red, a sign she needed expel heat and expel it quickly.

“Still standing?” Kamuy taunted. “Pretty impressive. I wouldn’t think a little twig like you would last this long.”

With some amount of satisfaction, Izumi realized that Kamuy was a very big target indeed.

“But a twig, properly propelled,” she said, bringing her hands up, “can pierce even the mighty oak.”

Izumi reached inside herself and found the heat she had been storing, like a crimson hot core inside her. But instead of changing it into fire, she put to use the training that Uncle Denki had helped her with, expelling the heat directly. The very air in front of her turned wavy and shimmery, refracting from all the heat she was putting out into it.

“Hey…” growled Kamuy, “what’re you doing…?” Already the big woman was sweating so hard it was pouring off of her and soaking through her clothes. Her breaths coming in ragged gasps, each one clearly a struggle. She swayed, unsteady on her feet, as though a stiff breeze might soon blow her over.

“Whatever you’re doing… cut it… out…” Kamuy took a few ineffective swings as thin air, as though that might stop the heat assault. But as addled as she was, they were clumsy, weak, and ineffective, with no power behind them. Izumi knew she was threading a careful line. Too much heat could kill a person easily and she had no desire to be a murderer, especially given that this was only an exam. But nor did she wish to give Kamuy a chance to recover and possibly hurt her or her friends.

Kamuy began glowing and steaming again, losing mass as she poured her energy into resisting Izumi’s attack. Step by step, she pushed her way forward, even as the concrete beneath her feet began to soften from the heat she was enduring. That was unfortunate. Processing this much heat as once, pushing her Quirk as far as it would go, Izumi could feel the strain upon herself and she did not know how long she could maintain this level of exertion. Her knees were starting to feel weak and even keeping her arms up to keep pointing at Kamuy was beginning to become a strain. Her arms traced small circles in the air as she failed to hold them straight.

And still, Kamuy came closer. The Villain took step after step after step, her face twisted in a grimace as she fought for every inch. But Izumi would make her fight for that, even if it cost her dearly, even if she collapsed. Because every second this woman spent fighting her was one that gave her classmates and friends time to overcome the other Villains.

They were counting on her. Everyone was counting on her. She could not, would not, be the reason that they failed!

And still Kamuy came onward, trailing steam like some ancient and slow moving train. “You… gotta… be… just… about… out… kid,” she hissed. “Those damn… blinky lights… are a dead… giveaway.”

Damnation, she was right! Izumi was just about out of heat to throw at her, the crimson hot core she’d been drawing on depleted, the bands of her regulator rig showing a green that would have, in any other circumstances, been reassuring.

Now, it was a little terrifying.

The wave of heat stopped abruptly, as she exhausted her last reserve. The change in the air was immediate and Kamuy instantly stood a little taller, a little stronger, though it was clear surviving the assault had cost her dearly. Her own reserves must have been nearly as depleted as Izumi’s were. Though that still left her a large and muscular foe. She could still overpower Izumi. She was a fit girl, especially for one with her chronic health issues, but there was no comparison.

So she had to end this now.

Kamuy rushed her, fist draw back to strike, and Izumi acted on instinct, her body and Quirk moving before she even had a chance to think. Thick ice shot up around Kamuy, covering her body and lifting her off the ground in an instant. On her regulator rig, the bands changed from a safe green to cautionary orange without ever even passing through the alerting yellow. The temperature around her had dropped by several degrees, enough that, for a moment, Izumi could see her breath on the air.

But when it was done, Kamuy was entombed in a pillar of ice, only her head and fingertips poking out. She hadn’t frozen her solid, so there was probably minimal risk of cell death. But she had beaten her. She had won.

And still she remained standing. Izumi had pushed her Quirk and pushed it hard. But she had not given in to her weakness, had not fallen.

But she could not celebrate her accomplishments, not now. Not when the others were still battling.

She would celebrate when they won, but the personal victory would lend her strength to continue the fight.

***

Things, Katsumi thought, had pretty much gone to shit. The Villain called Jawbreaker had grown to monstrous size and mass, towering over all of them by more than a meter. More than that in her case; height was not her friend. Now made of metal, rock, and concrete, he was shrugging off everything they could throw at him. She still ached from where he had hit her, with a fist that was nearly as big as she was tall.

But she’d be damned if she was going to go down without a fight, even if she was completely out of ammo for her disk-launchers. She hadn’t backed down in the face of a damned Nomu, she wasn’t about to back down in the face of some Villain Aiazwa had gotten from somewhere to play rent-a-goon. Some part of her was afraid though. Not for herself, but for Izzy. She knew she shouldn’t be, knew that Izzy had more than proven she was capable of taking care of herself, but the thought still remained. She pushed it down, channeling it into something she could use. The sooner she clobbered this guy, the sooner she could check on her.

Jawbreaker let out a laugh, his punch connecting solidly with Toshi. Toshi had amped up his gravity enough that he was starting to sink into the ground, but the blow was still enough to push him back, gouging deep troughs in the street. A second blow hit even harder, sending Toshi smashing into the side of a building again. Above Jawbreaker, the Iida twins swooped down again and again, ineffectively striking against him. The Villain—though faster than he looked—was still not fast enough to catch them. Both broke off the attack. Sora to check on Toshi, Tensei to get space to think through his next move.

“Okay, you two,” she told Shinso and Haimawari. “I’ll knock him off his feet, you know him down. You’ll know it when you see it. Jetset! Give me a distraction!”

Haimawari nodded. “Got it. Bring the boom.”

Shinso nodded rapidly, head bobbing like it was on a spring. “Got it!” he said. “Going to have to hit him *really* hard though! He’s tough!”

A grin spread across Katsumi’s face. “Ain’t nothing tougher than me.” She cracked her knuckles. “And Newb? Only I get to bring the boom.”

“Arms! Rocky!” she shouted. “Clear the way! Big boom coming through!”

At her shout, Shoji and Koda backed off from their assaults on Jawbreaker. Koda had fast grown a thick redwood tree and Shoji had used his incredible strength to turn it into an improvised club. It hadn’t done any good. Jawbreaker had ever taken a big bite out of it, added hard wood to his make-up as well.

Tensei Iida swooped down from the sky, smashing both fists into Jawbreaker’s skull. There was a metal on metal clang, but Jawbreaker wasn’t hurt in the slightest. He swung wildly at Iida again, and this time he Iida was just a little too slow. Jawbreaker’s fingers closed around his legs and he slammed Iida into the ground again and again. With a grunt, he tossed the boy over his shoulder. There. She hadn’t meant for that to happen… but that was her opening.

Katsumi slapped a palm on the ground, extending her explosive power through it, triggering a series of increasingly large explosions in a rapid-fire, firecracker line that lead straight to Jawbreaker. She concentrated, putting as much power as she could into the last one.

KABOOM!

For just a moment, the explosion caught Jawbreaker off-balance, sending him teetering on his feet. “What the hell…?!” the Villain cried out, arms swinging wildly.

“Now!” Katsumi bellowed.

For all the times they’ve bugged the hell out of her, Shinso and Haimawari are good at following orders. And more importantly, they can hit hard. Shinso sucked in a breath and unleashed another blast of sonic force, her own proximity to it making Katsumi wince from the noise, while Haimawari braced himself and unleashed another blue-white blast. Both attacks struck Jawbreaker dead on, with enough force to land him smack on his back. It made a sound somewhere between a building collapsing, an avalanche, and a trash can rolling down the stairs.

“Rocky!” Katsumi shouted again. “Tie him up!”

“I am on it, Bombshell,” Koda said, tossing more seeds. They began growing instantly, ensnaring Jawbreaker with thick, thorny vines, weaving all around his body and limbs.

Jawbreaker was already struggling against them, even as Koda tried to keep the pace, growing them as vast as they were destroyed. Dammit. Koda’s vines alone weren’t going to be enough. Time for what was usually her Plan A: Overwhelming Force. “We hit him,” she said. “Hard. Now. Everything we’ve got.”

It was already too late. Jawbreaker let out a laugh. “It takes more than that to keep me down,” he said. He was already getting back on his feet. Vines snapped like twine. “We’re in the home stretch too. That means the kid gloves come off!”

He lashed out and despite having seen it several times over, she still couldn’t believe how someone that big could move that fast. Koda and Shoji, the closest, paid the price for her few seconds of hesitation. Shoji threw himself in front of Koda, using all six of his arms to block Jawbreaker’s strike, but jawbreaker brought his other arm around and slammed it into Shoji from the side. He went flying and when he landed, he did not get up.

Koda lasted only a moment longer, trying reaching into her pouches for more seeds. She fast-grew a circle of trees around Jawbreaker, briefly trapping him, until he simply punched his way through and took her down with another swipe of his massive, multi-element fists.

It had all happened so fast, she hadn’t even had time to move. But now, she was spurred into action. “Get that fucker!” she shouted, rushing forward.

Behind her, she could hear the sounds of Shinso and Haimawari firing again, their blasts sailing past her to strike Jawbreaker. She had to trust that they were going to do their jobs, because the bad guy in front of her was all that she could see.

Fortunately, Koda’s failed attempts at containment had provided her with plenty of ammunition. She quickly grabbed shards of the felled trees and tossed them at Jawbreaker, peppering him with small explosions. Even putting everything she had into them… it wasn’t enough. Nothing left to make a big enough boom with.

“Hey, ugly!” she shouted, grabbing a handful of splintery pieces of wood in each hand. When he turned to look at her she tossed them all at his face, letting them explode like little firecrackers.

Here, he actually screamed, one hand going to cover his face, the other swinging wildly and easy to dodge. As his hand swung by, she slapped it with her own. The material of her gloves now let her channel her explosive power through them directly, and the explosion she created charred his transformed flesh.

“Yeah!” Shinso cried out. “We’ve got him now!” He hit Jawbreaker with another sonic scream.

“”Blast now, brag later, Shinso!” Haimawari called out. He was zipping around Jawbreaker’s other side, his feet and one hand on the ground, his other hand in the air and unleashing a barrage of low-powered blasts. They weren’t strong enough to do much—if any—damage, but they served as yet another distraction.

“Katsumi!” a voice—Toshi’s—cried out. “Give me an opening!”

She grinned again, slapping both hands on the ground again and setting off a powerful explosion. This close to it, the explosion left even her ears ringing, but it did the job, further throwing Jawbreaker off balance from already having been temporarily blinded.

She heard the roar of Sora Iida’s engines before she saw the two of them, zooming towards Jawbreaker and Sora carrying Toshi by the wrists. At the last second, she released him and judging by how big of a clang the impact of Toshi’s body made with Jawbreaker’s, he must have gone about as far up on his gravity as he could. He pushed off the Villain’s body and landed next to her. The blow managed to stagger the giant for a moment, at least.

“About time you stopped loafing around,” Katsumi said.

“Give me a break,” Toshi replied. “I’ve been hit a lot today.”

Jawbreaker reared up and was ready to strike again. Some guys just took a lot of hitting, it seemed.

***

Before Jawbreaker could strike again, a blast of fire hit him square on, setting fire to parts of his body that were made of wood. He let out a cry of alarm and smarted smacking at the burns, trying to smother them. Thick ice walls followed, briefly blocking him off. Toshi risked turning his head to find the source of the blast and was greeted with the sight of Izumi propelling herself along an ice slide to meet them.

“Glad you could join us, Iz,” Katsumi said.

“Well, someone clearly has to keep you out of trouble,” Izumi replied. “As always.”

“Was that a joke? You pick now to start telling jokes?”

Izumi’s arrival meant good news and bad news. It meant they were down to one just one Villain to deal with. But it also meant…

The sound of fists on the ice wall told him they didn’t have much time.

“The others?” he asked.

Izumu shook her head. “All defeated.”

They were it then. Six of them against a Villain who just kept taking whatever they had and kept coming back for more. It was only then that Toshi realized there was a question he’d been reluctant to ask. He shouldn’t have. One of Dad’s often told stories was how Grandpa Might and he had first met, when Grandpa Might had smashed the Sludge Villain to pieces…

It was an extreme solution. One he hadn’t wanted to suggest they try.

“Shota,” he said quickly, as cracks were appearing in the ice wall. Maybe just a couple more blows. “Has Jawbreaker ever been smashed or broken by a Hero?”

Shota’s purple eyes went wide. “Oh, a bunch of times! Sometimes, he just eats more and it grows back, and sometimes he gets so smashed up it makes him change back, but all his people parts are still there!”

“Saying we should go all out, Midoriya?” Haimawari asked. Between his goggles and bandanna, his expression was almost unreadable, but Toshi could hear the doubt in his voice. “That’s a lot to throw at a guy who’s just testing us.”

Toshi nodded. “The real world’s not a test. You hold back too much there… Villains like him will kill you.”

“Okay then,” Haimawari said. “I… might have something.”

“Make it quick, Newb,” Katsumi said.

Haimawari told them his idea. Toshi had to admit, it was a pretty good one. “Then we’ll do it like that then,” he said. And then there was no more time.

The ice wall shattered, Jawbreaker breaking free. “That really hurt, kid,” he growled. Patches of wood on his body showed deep burn marks, but he seemed just as large and stroke as eve. “My turn!”

“Hit him!” Toshi yelled. “Everything you’ve got! Izumi—containment! Everyone else… hit him!”

Izumi was first, unleashing a powerful wave of ice that entrapped Jawbreaker from the waist down, trapping his lower body in a block of ice. It was already cracking against his great strength. But Izumi was hardly alone in her attacks and it only needed to give them an opening.

Shota hit him with another sonic blast. It shattered the rest of the ice, but it hit him hard, kept him off balance. He must have taken in a pretty big breath beforehand, because the beam was strong and sustained. Haimawari quickly zipped behind him, then powered up for a focused, intense blast. He couldn’t sustain a single beam like Shota and required a moment to charge up a stronger shot, but he was bringing everything he had.

Sora hammered him with a series of rocket propelled blows, raising a small series of cracks on Jawbreaker’s body, never standing still for a moment. With what had happened to her brother, she wasn’t letting up at all. Bombarded already by Shota and Haimawari, he stood little chance of catching her.

Katsumi, freed from any need to hold back, went all out, tossing whatever she could at him, hitting him with explosions big and small. She kept herself light on her feet, never staying in one place for long, but steadily getting closer. Dodging under one of Jawbreaker’s strikes, she reached up and slapped her hand against his arm.

KABOOM!

Jawbreaker let out a scream as his left arm exploded. The sight and sound of it was more than enough to give everyone pause. Even knowing he had asked his friends to go all out, Toshi felt guilty for it. It looked like it had to hurt.

It was also the opening he needed. Toshi forced himself not to think about the harm that he had done and took a couple steps back, canceled his gravity, and jumped, launching himself at Jawbreaker like a missile.

But even in pain, Jawbreaker was ready and swung a massive arm. He hit Toshi full on, just as Toshi had shifted to full gravity. There was a satisfying sound of cracking, but so powerful was the blow that Toshi went flying anyway, smashing into and through the building across the street.

As he landed, Toshi heard a rumble and struggled to stand, but couldn’t get his feet under him. The building creaked…

And came down on him.

***

“Toshi!” Sora Iida screamed, dropping to the ground with far less grace than usual. She tapped the side of her helmet. “Toshi, come in! Speak to me!”

No response over the comms wasn’t good. It meant Midoriya was unconscious or hurt or… No. Isamu instantly pushed that thought aside. The teachers wouldn’t have allowed that to happen. They were monitoring them, of course. Watching them. If Midoriya were really hurt, they’d have stopped the test, gotten Doctor Izumi out. Hell, his grandfather would probably have already been out here, digging through the rubble.

It didn’t mean Midoriya was going to be rejoining the fight any time soon though. Which was… not good. Deprived of one of the strongest Quirks in the class, it left them were a lot fewer options for fighting Jawbreaker.

“Word of advice, kid?” Jawbreaker said. “Don’t take your eye off the Villain!” He lashed out with his remaining arm and struck Iida hard, seeming not to notice the spider-web of cracks that spread up his arm from the blow. The red and silver armored girl went flying and did not get up when she landed.

Jawbreaker dug his fingers into the ground, breaking up the street to shovel more pavement into his mouth. As he did, his left arm started growing back, now being made entirely out of pavement. Isamu wasn’t sure how much time they had left in the exam… but he was certain having a Villain like this still rampaging about wasn’t going to do their scores any good.

“And you shouldn’t take your eyes off me!” Kirishima-Bakugo, now behind the Villain, shouted. She once again placed both hands on the ground and channeled a powerful explosion through it. The ground around him exploded in a series of bangs that were more flash than flare, momentarily stunning him.

“I think I have done just about all I can,” Izumi announced. “Katsumi, gentlemen, if you would?”

“What the hell are you talking about, kid?” Jawbreaker snarled. “Haven’t you seen yet that none of you are beating me?”

“Yeah, well,” Isamu said. “That’s where you’re wrong.”

“We tricked you!” Shinso shouted. “We tricked you good!”

“What are you…?” Jawbreaker began, and only then did he notice all the spider-web cracks that had appeared all over his body, all the places he had hit and been hit. At the layer of shining frost that had formed all over his body.

When Shinso had mentioned that Jawbreaker could be shattered and reform without killing him, Isamu’s mind had kicked into overdrive. Short of Shinso’s disintegrating scream thing or Kirishima-Bakugo pumping out way more explosive power than he’d ever seen her do before, none of them could have possibly done enough damage to him to completely slow him down. They could blow off limbs, as Kirishima-Bakugo had managed to do, but that was riskier and required more precision targeting. And as they had seen, he could just consume more to regrow them.

Instead, while the rest of them kept him distracted, Izumi had slowly been leeching heat from the material of his body directly, slowly freezing him up little by little. Midoriya should have been the one to deliver the final blow, but…

As realization dawned on Jawbreaker’s face, they let him have it. Kirishima-Bakugo unleashed another wave of explosions across the ground, Shinso screamed and unleashed a powerful wave of sonic force, and Isamu put everything he had into his blast, firing his repulsion force outward in one massive shot.

The attacks hit Jawbreaker all at once, exploding the majority of his body into a shower of frozen shards. His head and shoulders hit the ground with a groan, still very conscious.

“You kids haven’t won yet…” he growled, trying to tilt so he could begin eating the street again.

But then Izumi acted again, shooting a pillar of ice up beneath him that then wrapped around the head, completely encasing it in ice.

There was a long, quiet moment before any of them could even breathe.

“Did we… did we do it?” Shinso asked.

“I, ah, I think we did,” Isamu said, scarcely believing the words out of his own mouth.

“Damn right we did,” Kirhsima-Bakugo said. “Thanks to Izzy here.”

Izumi bowed her head, then held up a hand. The bands of her uniform were glowing orange and perspiration covered her face, but she was still standing strong. He’d been worried that she might have to push herself too far with his plan, but she’d offered herself up for it anyway. “A group effort. I am owed no more praise than any other.”

Another quiet moment followed, as the rush of battle began to wear off. Isamu was already thinking they needed to check on Midoriya and the others who’d been knocked around over the course of the exam. Which he would do. Just as soon as his heartrate returned to normal.

“But,” Shinso said, “then why isn’t anyone telling us it’s over. Shouldn’t there be a bell or alarm or something.”

Damn. He was right.

“Looking for this, Heroes?” a voice called out. Across the street, in the shadow of a building, was Shadow-Thief. And she was holding Recovery Girl. Or rather… Doctor McGuffin! “Guess you’re too late!”

She disappeared again, reappearing in the shadows further up. Isamu had a good eye for distance. They’d been told they couldn’t allow Doctor McGuffin to get more than 100 meters from the shelter, or they’d lose. He estimated she’d already made it 50 meters…

“Put me down, you hooligan!” Recovery Girl snapped, smacking her fists against Shadow-Thief’s head and shoulders. “Kids these days, no respect for their elders!”

“Ow! Ow! Stop hitting me, old woman! You’re supposed to be playing along!” Shadow-Thief vanished again, disappearing and reappearing even further away.

Too far for anyone to blast her, too far for Izumi to trap her with ice, all of which were too risky to begin with. Too far for anything.

Anything but him.

Isamu threw himself forward and called upon his Quirk. He thought he’d put everything he had into that last blast again Jawbreaker. He turned out to be wrong, blasting himself forward with reserves he hadn’t thought he’d had.

It hurt, like a burning sensation in his hands and feet, and he could feel exhaustion threatening to claim him the longer he did it, buildings speeding by as he pushed and pushed and pushed every ounce of repulsive force he had left in his body.

Shadow-Thief was still getting away. Twenty-five meters until the boundary. Twenty meters. Fifteen. Ten. He was getting closer… so close…. Five meters… He just needed one last push!

There were no shadows big enough left, forcing Shadow-Thief to try and run the last five meters. Isamu unleashed every last ounce of energy within him and shot forward like a paperclip from a rubber band. He smacked into her legs just before she made it the final meter.

Recovery Girl went sailing into the air and he desperately disentangled himself from Shadow Thief, getting under the elderly woman just in time to catch her, sinking to his knees.

Somewhere, an alarm sounded, signaling the end of the three hours of their exam.

It was the last thing Isamu heard before he passed out.

#my hero academia #their hero academia #fan fiction #fan fic #my writing #toshi midoriya #katsumi kirishima-bakugo #izumi todoroki #isamu haimawari

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trollhunter-nomura · 6 years

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Ch 4 conflicting interests

As exciting as the previous night was, Nomura was hoping for a little bit of normalcy during the day, and aside from the class field trip that had come, and Strickler being ever bored, which considering he taught history in school, it was ironic that a history museum would bore him. Things were uneventful, tho one teenager was trying to find nude neanderthals or something for some reason. She never really liked teenagers, they were rather obnoxious.

Later that evening however was when things got interesting.

She sat in the employee lunchroom of the museum, enjoying a nice cup of oolong tea. Tho Blinky had given her some tea last night in Trollmarket, she much preferred her own blend. She read over some shopping invoices for incoming packages to the museum. Some were for new exhibits, and some were coded. Those were pieces of the bridge to be added when other fragments arrived.

"So, did you hear about the new trollhunter?" A voice asked, entering the room.

Nomura turned her head to the door to see a tall lanky middle-aged man. Strickler, or Stricklander as his real name was, was another shapeshift. He always wore a hideous olive green jacket over turtleneck sweaters. Even in the summer.

"What about it?" She asked, looking back to her paperwork she was sorting.

"According to Bular, the trollhunter is human. Or appears to be."

Nomura let out a chuckle. "What do you mean 'appears to be'?"

"I'm not sure, but according to Bular, the human seemed to have unusual abilities." He poured himself a cup of tea, then promptly spit it out. She smiled. Her tea was of an unusual blend, and can be rather strong if you weren't used to it like she was.

"How so?" She asked, leaning back in her chair, taking a sip of the tea.

"I'm not too sure." Strickler sat down at the table. "I wasn't there, but according to Bular, she seemed to managed to jump over his head. And as far as I'm aware, no human should be able to jump almost ten feet in the air."

"Really?" She asked, pretending to be impressed. "Where is the brute anyways?"

"Hunting." Strickler answered, rolled his eyes.

"What?" That was not good news.

"Yes, I know." Strickler continued,noting the look of apall on her face. "But he barely listens to reason. I managed to convince him to go elsewhere lest we be found out by authorities."

She nodded, pondering. She looked at the papers in front. Tho many were for bridge pieces, one in particular was something she'd been waiting for. She wondered when she would bring it to Bular's attention.

"If I didn't know any better, I would think this human trollhunter was actually a changeling." Strickler's voice brought her from her thoughts.

She gave a rather smug smile. "If the trollhunter were a changeling, you would think they'd value their live's enough to come forward immediatly with the amulet, wouldn't they?"

Strickler seemed to be trying to read her reactions. He may be older than she was, but she'd had better practice at subterfuge. He usually allowed his Humanity to get the best of him. She hated her humanity.

"You would think that. Regardless, a human or a changeling trollhunter is not the norm. If it is a changeling, they probably wouldn't last as long as most of the previous trollhunters."

Nomura looked over. "Indeed. Bular would certainly make quick work of them, human or changeling."

Nearby a clock started chiming. It was midnight.

"Well, if Bular isn't coming tonight, I need to go and sort the incoming packages. Don't you have a history class to bore tomorrow?"

Strickler scowled at her remark, but left either way. Once she was certain he was gone, she went to the safe in her office to retrieve her purse. Checking to see that the amulet and horngozzle were still there, she headed off to Trollmarket.

....

Over the next few weeks she got into a bit of routine of her trollhunter duties. While she couldn't really "answer the call" while she was running the museum, she managed to slip those between lunch and dinner and dodging Bular. Alot of the things she was asked to do were rather inane, such as clearing out a couple gnome infestations. She knew not to touch their hats, but even so all she wanted to do was punt the whole lot and their constant bickering.

Tho one request she got was really curious, from a troll named Bagdwella. She asked Nomura if she could deliver an ornate box to her sister who lived in a sewer on the other side of town, and to be very careful that only her sister can open it. Nomura looked over the box. She still had difficulty reading trollish. But she could make out some of the characters. She looked at the robust troll.

"This doesn't contain a curse, does it?" She asked wryly.

Bagdwella looked offended at the accusation. She demanded for Nomura to return it. Nomura shook her head. She didn't know the extent of the curse, but judging from the carvings it may have had to do with gravity.

"I'm sorry, but as the trollhunter, I can't on good conscience let you have this back. Whatever issue you have with your sister I'm sure it could be resolved more civil than a silly curse."

Bagdwella huffed and stormed off back to her stall. Nomira looked over the box knowing exactly what to do with it. A sensible trollhunter would lock it away in the vault. She had a better idea. She would send it to a changeling named Gladysgoro. She worked as a dental assistant and loved to torture children for fun behind the orthodontist back. She may not have liked children too much, but some things can go to far.

...

After dealing with the box she went towards the forge where she could train. Tho she felt she could hardly call it training. She wondered if Blinky was taking things slow and easy because she was a "human woman." Because lately the only thing that excited her from training was when Blinky taught her the lore. As a historian she loved learning new things.

"Blinky is there anything else that this place has to offer, I feel as if there's more to this trollhunter training." She asked, hooking her sword to her hip.

"Well Master Nomura, I don't want to overtax you."

She rolled her eyes. "Come now, I may be human, but I believe I can take much more than what your having this place dish out."

A voice laughed from the stands. Ever since their little duel, Draal has made it a point to sit in on every one of her training sessions. You'd think he didn't trust her! She got an idea.

"You think you could train me better, tough guy?" She called up to him.

"Master Nomura, perhaps it would be best that you don't antagonize him?" Blinky said, nervousness tinging his voice.

She gave the four armed troll a warm smile. "I'm sure Draal is more barl than bite."

At her remark Draal jumped from the high stand, landing a few feet from them. He walked over to them, leaning on a fist to look over her.

"If I were to train you, I would work you within an inch of your life." He growled.

Nomura smiled at him. "Well, I'm always up for more excitement. I figure you can do my physical training here, and Blinky, I'll still come by your library for the literary learning"

Blinky looked between Draal and Nomira unsure what to say, but smiled at her request he still teach her in ways he knew. He nodded.

"Very well then. As you wish, Master Nomura . I will leave you to Draal." He walked out, ARRRGGGH following.

Once they were out of earshot, Draal stomped close to her.

"What game are you playing now, Trollhunter?" He nearly spat the last word. He put as much contempt in that title than he normally would in using the word 'impure.'

"I'm not playing any games here. I want a more effective training." She smiled at him innocently.

"I don't buy that. I don't know how long you plan on stretching this scheme of yours, whatever it is. But know this: I will not let history repeat itself."

"What do you mean by that?" She asked, genuinely confused.

"Merlin's made mistakes in the past. One mistake nearly led to the destruction of troll Market. If it came to it, I WILL kill you. Even if it meant forfeiting any chance of obtaining The Amulet. I will NOT let Blinky go through that again."

She shook her head. "Draal your not making any sense."

He sneered at her ignorance.

"Why don't you just look up Tellad-Urr the Terrible." He stormed out After that, leaving her ever Clueless.

She looked around the heroes Forge, trying to pick out this terrible troll that Draal was talking about. The name seemed vaguely familiar, but she couldn't think of why. Until she saw him. she recognized the form of the supposed evil troll, but she didn't know enough of the story. She was going to need to do some research.

......

For those who do not know who Tellad-Urr is, he is a troll hunter from the tie-in book series. He was in "Age of the amulet" and essentially helped gunmar rise to power. He imprisoned any trolls who refused to subjugate humankind. Blinky was a very young troll in this book, so it was well before Draal's time. But he knows well enough about the events. I hadn't planned on mentioning anything from the books, and this might be the only time.

#trollhunters #trollhunter nomura #fic

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aion-rsa · 7 years

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Inhumans’ Black Bolt Is Sent to Cosmic Prison – with the Absorbing Man

Not only is Blackagar Boltagon part of the Inhumans’ Royal Family, he has a voice that can level mountains, so he’s used to being one of the most influential figures in the Marvel Universe. That all changes this May with the launch of “Black Bolt,” a new ongoing series by sci-fi and fantasy novelist Saladin Ahmed and artist Christian Ward which finds the titular character locked down in a mysterious cosmic prison.

PREVIEW: Inhumans Prime #1

What turn of events led him there? Who is serving time alongside him? And how will he communicate with his captors and inmates? For the answers to these questions and more, CBR spoke with first time comic writer Ahmed about penning a series that’s both new reader friendly and offers some payout to longtime fans of the title character. And then there’s perhaps the biggest question of all: how did the Absorbing Man come to have a large supporting role in the series?

CBR: You’re picking up Black Bolt after what’s been a pretty eventful couple of years for the character. So what’s your sense of your protagonist? Which aspects of his personality are you especially interested in exploring?

Saladin Ahmed: Despite the fact that he’s been around 50 years we’ve really almost always seen Black Bolt reflected in others. He’s sort of this blank slate to a degree because he doesn’t talk and because he has this kind of imperious distance as a king. So part of the challenge is getting in his head at all and starting to think about how with this being a solo title he’s always been defined by his place in the Inhuman Royal Family.

EXCLUSIVE: Art from “Black Bolt” #1 by Christian Ward

This book is a chance to think about his personality and ask what is Black Bolt like on his own? Just even beginning to ask that question has been both fun and a challenge.

As far as the past few years go, I’ve been walking a tight rope with this book. Marvel came to me as a science fiction/fantasy writer. This is my first comics project. I’m interested in bringing in some new readers; ones who don’t necessarily know who Black Bolt is or know a ton about the amazing past few years of the Inhumans comics. I’ve really loved reading those issues, but the mythology is thick. There’s a lot of material there with the history and the crossover events.

On the one hand, I wanted to take Black Bolt away from all of that and just strip him down to some essential questions about his character and this unique thing of his power being something that’s always in check. It’s kind of this curse and blessing, but mostly a curse. So there’s these thematic threads that I’d be weaving through a novel and now I’m doing the same thing with a comic. We’re dealing with this question of being silenced, not being able to talk, and silencing yourself.

There’s all these kind of abstract things that this character brings out and I’m trying to make those accessible and interesting to both to long time readers and readers who are new to Marvel Comics. I want to take a look at this almost god like figure who’s been humbled and examine what that means.

I also wanted to say that those who have had questions about or outrage over Black Bolt’s machinations from the past few years should find this to be a satisfying series. Lingering questions about his unleashing the Terrigen Cloud and [his relationship with] his son definitely do get answered. So I think there’s going to be some satisfying examination of some of the decisions that Black Bolt has had to make, especially for people who have been reading Inhumans comics over the past few years. Ultimately though I want this to be a book that’s open to new readers.

What’s it like writing a character like Black Bolt, where you can’t really have him communicate with dialogue? Will you use other techniques for the character, like an internal monologue?

EXCLUSIVE: Art from “Black Bolt” #1 by Christian Ward

I don’t want to say too much about the exact technique because both myself as a writer and Christian Ward as an artist are going to employ some neat tricks to get in there. Giving readers a chance to discover those things on their own will be part of the fun of the book, but there will be a cerebral edge to the series. So we will occasionally get into Black Bolt’s head via captions the same way that Stan Lee did some 50 years ago.

Part of what I’m trying to do, stylistically, is to do an updated version of that. The Inhumans are these epic sets of characters like the Asgardians. They’re one of the places where Lee and Kirby came closest to almost doing illustrated books. There’s this real kind of mythical sense to them. I haven’t looked at things like word count, but if you looked at an issue of the “Fantastic Four” where the Inhumans appeared versus say an issue of “Spider-Man,” I’d guess that the word counts would be higher.

So there’s this prose quality about the Inhumans as opposed to some of the other characters. I’m trying to take that into the 21st century with “Black Bolt.”

In “Black Bolt” you’re taking your character to a location that I don’t believe he’s spent much time in: prison. And what’s it like for a former monarch to suddenly find himself behind bars?

That’s the thematic core of the first arc of the book. Black Bolt is kind of a mysterious guy, but he’s also kind of arrogant. We’ll see him humbled — but it’s not a story about humiliation so much as becoming less sure of the pecking order of things as he interacts with his fellow prisoners.

The comic book takes place in a space jail with aliens and super villains, but I think the story of what happens when we lock people up, having had family locked up myself, is an important set of questions. So this is very much a cosmic sci-fi comic, but the chance to occasionally examine some of those questions is why we started here.

Will readers immediately know why Black Bolt is behind bars?

You’ll get an immediate answer, but there is a much deeper answer that will be revealed over the course of the arc.

What can you tell us about the prison that Black Bolt is incarcerated in? Is this an established Marvel facility? Or something you created for this story?

It’s something new, and that’s all I can say about it right now.

EXCLUSIVE: Art from “Black Bolt” #1 by Christian Ward

Fair Enough. Let’s talk a little bit about some of the other inmates then. We know this is a cosmic story which suggests the jail would be populated with alien inmates. I was surprised and intrigued, then, to learn that Carl “Crusher” Creel, aka the Absorbing Man, would be one of the convicts incarcerated there.

Yes! He is going to be the only other Earthling in the prison, so he and Black Bolt immediately have a kind of weird connection. Crusher is very much the co-star of at least this first arc of the book. There’s almost a buddy picture feel to it. It’s been a lot of fun playing this king off of a lifelong con.

The Absorbing Man and Black Bolt are a very unlikely pairing. What made you want to bring Creel into the book?

The fun part of this book was that I originally had developed some of the pitch as a mini-series around Crusher. Just around the time I was getting ready to pitch it to Marvel, editor Wil Moss came to me and said that since I have a background in science fiction and fantasy he was thinking about me for “Black Bolt.” I said, “It’s funny, because I have this back pocket pitch that I was going to send you.”

Then when we bounced these things off of each other they just immediately meshed. That’s where this story came from. So Crusher predates Black Bolt as far as Marvel characters I’ve wanted to write about. He’s a hero to me, even if he’s a villain. [Laughs]

Who are some of the new supporting characters you’re introducing in “Black Bolt?”

One inmate is a teenage kid named Blinky. She is an alien psychic and an ex-pickpocket. She ended up in this story because the aspect of the incarceration question where we lock up kids kept coming up in my mind. She then became this really important character.

Another cellmate is a woman named Raava. She’s a Skrull, but not like the Skrulls we’ve seen. She’s a kind of anarchist pirate.

There are some more supporting characters that will be revealed. Some are ones I’ve created and there are also a number of obscure Marvel characters in the book. I’ll leave those cameos for readers to discover.

What else can you tell us about the action and tone of “Black Bolt?”

EXCLUSIVE: Art from “Black Bolt” #1 by Christian Ward

I like good fight scenes, and Christian is amazing at drawing fight scenes. That may not have been one of my strengths in scripting, but that’s one of the wonders of collaboration. People can strengthen your weaknesses. So Christian’s fights have an almost French style manga edge to them. Characters are flying off the page.

“Black Bolt” is not a slugfest book, but there are absolutely some big action scenes. There’s a meditative tone to the book as well though. It is about incarceration in a social sense and in an existential almost Kafka sense. Some times the art will reflect that.

So Christian can do these amazing fights, but there will also be this dark, bleak tone from time to time that people won’t be used to seeing from him. He mostly does really psychedelic, colorful, cosmic stuff and he’s perfect for the book because of that. He’s quite good though too when things get grungy.

Besides the action and social commentary I always try and put jokes in my books. Readers have to laugh sometimes. So we’ll try and include a laugh at least once per issue. [Laughs] Plus, Crusher is a great source for that kind of stuff. He’s really good at deflating Black Bolt’s serious balloon with some Bronx-style snark.

I understand you want your books to stand on their own, but “Black Bolt” launches one month after Al Ewing’s “The Royals,” where your title character heads into space on a mission with his family. Will there be some connective tissue between your two books for people who read both?

I believe that over the next year or so there will be some light connective tissue between all of the Inhumans books. It may look like there’s a paradox happening in the first issue of “Royals” and “Black Bolt.” We will provide an explanation, though, of how he can be in both books.

Finally, your work on “Black Bolt” is bound to make some readers curious about your work as a novelist. What would you like curious readers to know about your prose work?

The best thing they can do is check out first my novel “Throne of the Crescent Moon,” which is an epic fantasy with a sort of Middle Eastern flair. People like George R.R. Martin have said nice things about it. [Laughs] So if they enjoy the epic scope and weirdness of the Inhumans. I think they’ll enjoy the book.

Christian Ward’s character sketches for Black Bolt

The post Inhumans’ Black Bolt Is Sent to Cosmic Prison – with the Absorbing Man appeared first on CBR.

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