Rage Return (Mia-Saga)

Mia was slow for a moment, the red had overtaken her and she could feel herself almost physically fighting against it inside her own head, a rapid shake of her head, like a wild animal unsure where a sound was coming from, or a breeze that tickled their nose. The pupils in her eyes had been enveloped by the golden glow similar to the raw nerves of her now exposed horn, breathing heavily as her shoulders rose and sagged with each hefty breath. As she started to lose the fight against the nature of her own quirk… she just knew one thing.

She was angry. Enraged. Furious.

And she knew just who to aim that at.

“GAAAAAAAAAAGH!”

Charging the distance between her and Muramasa, the now bulking behemoth of a woman brought back her fist and slammed him square in the chest. He didn’t even seem to attempt a guard or a deflection, taking her full might square on and crashing through the street they’d turned into their battleground, the raging beast pounding on the ground like a display of dominance at how far they had sent him, rearing back with another loud battle cry, their whole body tense, bulging with veins and muscle as she grew wilder and less restrained. Last time Muramasa had distracted her, sent her on a rampage with one of his goons, but this time he seemed happy to continue the fight.

“Hehhehe… good… You’ve gotten stronger…!~” Muramasa had joy in his voice, even as he winced dragging himself from the crevice he’d dug into the pavement, brushing the rubble off his shoulders and flexing out his bag to dislodge a few embedded pebbles. Despite the blow he didn’t seem to be building, which only seemed to make the raging beast even more angry. As if his lack of injury itself was a further challenge. Police by now were trying to evacuate rather than just hold back the audience to the fight, but the civilains were proving difficult. They managed to give the two a good few more houses on either side but the civilians were proving hard to disperse. While many did run right away, just as many were practically fighting to stay and watch. Some excited to see Mia prove them right, that she was a monster, some eager to see her rise above that belief and ‘beat the bad guy’. Muramasa seemed to soak it in more than Redhorn in her current state, his arms open, taking a deep breath of satisfaction.

“Ah… the cheer of an engaged crowd… as many crying for your demise as your victory… right now I doubt you care… but that’s the beauty of rage… it lets you block out all distractions. All frivolous thoughts and bothersome side attractions to your true desires… I can see the mindless look in your eye. Rage has consumed you… but let us see if you can transcend Kearney. Let’s see if you might be worth my time today…~”

Mia grunted deeply before breaking into another charge, and Muramasa rushed to meet her. The class of their fists was direct and sharp, and even with the crowd moved back, the force of their impact was enough to ruffle the hair of every civilian in attendance, and it was far from the last blow that would clash between them. Meeting eachother blow for blow, Mia’s wild rampage met directly by a much more focused, refined, swift match from Muramasa, but as Mia’s rage carried her, the speed of her wild thrashing at least seemed to be keeping the equally brutal titan at bay.

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Back with Jasmine it seemed to diamondhead that they were at least managing to keep her at bay, groaning from behind them signalling that Silver was working his way to his feat at the very least, they just needed to keep Jasmine busy till they had their main player back in the fight… but of course, as a protégé of Red Horn it wasn’t like Jasmine was going to give them much of a chance at that. Before he could really process what was going on, Diamondhead pulled back shadow from the portal he was creating in the crystals, tossing him back and away before thrusting his hands forward. A rapid growth of crystals surged up from the ground, barrelling forward as if to meet the blazing inferno in a clash of endurance against raw power. For a brief moment, he may have even believed he had a chance…

The sound of shattering crystals soon followed such a foolish thought. The burning blaze that had been curving around his defences soon broke through and burst across him, any defences he put up only mitigating the damage, leaving an almost black scorched form where the man stood. His bright yellow eyes pushed through the mask of darkness now coating him head to toe, his hands slowly trying to close into fists, the ground shifting as his cyrstals seemed about to form…. But he couldn’t hold it. He fell forward as Jasmine called her advice to the officers surrounding them. Diamondhead’s resolve shattered from that single attack, much like many of his crystals.

Notably, shadow and silver weren’t easily found behind the carnage Jasmine’s attack had wrought.

“PEAKABOO!~”

A wild cry came from about Jasmine’s feet, the yellow eyes of the shadowy blob engraved in the street before her, rapidly parting and replaced by the wild gaze of the silver haired implosion freak, his hand reared back, a vacuum held in his grasp, and trying to thrust it directly towards Jasmine. If it had the force to suck in her mighty explosions, it could likely do some hefty damage if it made direct contact with her flesh.

“Aw, look at her. Trying to play hero-hehehehehhHEHE!~” The bulging veins on Silver’s face continued to grow and bulge across his features. The injection point had been spreading further, one of Muramasa’s champions who was more than willing to give into the influence of his drug, and the more Jasmine let him feel the joy of a good fight, the rage, the anger he had in wanting to take her down and get revenge for that shot before? The stronger the effects became, amplifying his own anger and his strength with it. As Jasmine shot back down towards the ground, sacrificing her own body for that of a civilian, Silver finally took a moment to re-adjust his nose, snorting out a red loogie that hit the pavement with a sickening fraction of a squelch.

“She’s so gonna die…!~” He reared his hand back, a vacuum swirling in his palm as it sucked in the air around it, before a dark hand grasped his wrist, the much smaller shadow quirker showing a sense of fear in his eyes.

“J-job’s done! We can go now! N-no need to keep going right? B-boss’d probably want her big and strong so there’s news of her fighting red horn ag-AH!”

Shoved harshly away by a swing of the silver ones arm, his wild eyes only showed more distance from the current moment, staring through the world rather than observing it. “Oh piss off what the boss wants! You really think he’d gonna complain if I follow my ‘rageful desire’ to beat her ass to death!?”

The shadowy one didn’t seem able to argue with that as he landed on his ass. He wasn’t one of the rageful lot that was for sure, adopted by the crew for his utility in their plans and their battle styles more than anything else, he didn’t adopt the rage philosophy the others did, not by a long shot. “y-yeah… fair point.”

Rising up to his feet he dusted himself off and shakily raised his fists as if he was going to be participating in the fight, silver’s wild gaze turning back to the more readied Jasmine, his arms tense at his side like he couldn’t stop his muscles from constantly holding a state of flex.

“Beautiful words there two tone!~” Reaching back he grabbed the back of his shadowy accomplice, dragging him behind and slamming him into the ground with an overhead motion, the dark puddle it created quickly opening and closing as he dove back into the sewers below and dragged his accomplice behind him. It didn’t make his distant time instantaneous by any means, rushing out through the sloshy sewers silently thanks to the tarmac and metal now between them. Another puddle came up behind Jasmine in a moment, Sliver rising up from it and attacking more directly with his own muscle, a swinging kick coming from the leap trying to get Jasmine across the head. Any deflection or dodge just letting him fall back into the hole and close it behind him. He’d continue this repeatedly, creating a manic game of human wack a mole as he continued to pop up from random spots in the ground, a brief flash of yellow eyes the only pre-warning Jasmine tended to get before the hole opened and he came out, with a kick, a punch, or an attempted vacuum assisted strike. He was basically using his shadowy friend as a tool at this point, the speed and ferocity all his own… and the drug, of course.



The clash of titanic fists was becoming tiresome for Mia, there was the satisfaction to her animal mind of her knuckles clashing against SOMETHING, but every blow felt… less than it should be. Maybe it was the way Muramasa was able to meet them, maybe it was the fact she didn’t get to see a pained look on his face. Mia may have always craved an equal, someone who could meet her in battle… but even in her rage state, what little consciousness she had left could tell her this wasn’t that. They may have been a match for eachother in terms of brute strength, but the stronger Mia got now the less skill she had, and that was where Muramasa took the lead. She could feel it, a slither of difference spreading into a chasm between them. Each blow she got in felt slower, and each blow he got in felt even faster by comparison. She was managing to tank it all, her rough, leathery red skin like a brick wall between her and the blows… but it was starting to crumble.

“You’re a slave to your rage Kearney!” Muramasa chimed out between his blows, his voice almost to the point it could be heard to the audience even over their shared blows, but certainly enough for Mia herself at the very least. “Surrender to it! Accept it! Only then will you come close! Show me I’m not wasting my time on you!”

“GRAAAAAAAAAAGH!!”

She wanted to tell him to shove it, to can his shitass philosophy and just take a punch to the face like he deserved but it wasn’t happening. As Angry as Mia was getting in her head, the beast that had rose to the surface had enough dense rage to dig through none of her own thoughts were reaching the surface. Her eyes were dead focused on Muramasa, until a new sound hit her ear. Jasmine’s explosions had been followed by rubble impacting flesh… had she hit one of the other-

No. Jasmine. Jasmine through herself in the path of the carnage Mia had been creating… if she hadn’t been here Mia could have ki-

“TOO SLOW!”

“Rugh-!?”

A meaty hand encompassed her face, her horn pinched between it’s middle fingers. Her muscles tensed at the touch to such raw nerves and she was slammed backwards into the ground with ease. Her beastly form kicked and squirmed, grasping at the hand smothering her face and trying to force Muramasa off, the brief worry she had for Jasmine, for the Civilians, replaced once again by a one track mind. Destroying this guy.

“Sorry Kearney… but you’re just not there yet… rage is a single thought. A single desire. To burn your foes, to achieve what they said you couldn’t out of sheer spite… to burn a society that puts you down… To be distracted so easily…” He sighed, genuinely disappointed. “I’d hoped you might be one of my kin… it seems not…”

Rearing back Muramasa kept a tight grasp on Mia’s skull, flinging her up into the air above. Mia could almost feel it before it came, as she hung there in the air… she’d done this to opponents in the past. A hand grasped her ankle as Muramasa lept to catch up with her, and like a meteor she was soon tossed back to the earth, her body sinking deep into the tarmac, a cooling drizzle as the blood from her own face caught up, drizzling over her sizzling flesh.

A hefty thud. Muramasa landed a few feet away. The beast tried to rise from it’s crater… but he was approaching. His pace a casual stride, but far too fast for the beast to likely rise to her feet again.

“Grrrnngh…!”

“Rest Kearney… today wasn’t the day.”