"Still searching," said Leopold Fitz. "It's. It's."
"Found it," said Phil Coulson as a little crosshairs appeared on the map. "Arizona near the California border. Quartzsite."
"I'm not familiar with the area," said Melinda May.
"Dry dusty and hot," guessed Skye.
Coulson picked up a handset, pressed a couple of buttons, then dialed a number. After another moment he spoke. "This is Phil. You owe me a favor. I need information. I also know you usually let the call go to your machine to screen out the really weird stuff and salespeople."
Phil paused, listening for a second, then continuing. "I will call back in four hours."
"Ontiveros Investigations?" asked Fitz, looking at a display window on the map.
"Display short file 'Hound' - personal authorization," said Coulson in reply.
An image of a thickly muscular Hispanic man appeared along with a small text label.
HOUND
Type: Mystic Minor Metahuman
Affiliation: None
Occupation: Private Investigator, Monster Hunter
Special Abilities: enhanced strength and speed (level 1), enhanced stamina (level 2), psychometry, enhanced sense of hearing and smell (level 3)
"Michael Ontiveros," said Coulson. "One of thirteen people who bear an odd mark roughly corresponding with the Chinese Zodiac. Each has a special ability. If you consider the Avengers to be 'A List' celebrities, these people are closer to extras you put in the crowd. His major ability is psychic tracking. With something personal belonging to someone - he can then track that someone and get certain impressions about the owner."
"Th-that sounds incredibly handy for an organization like ours," said Fitz cautiously.
"Two problems with that," said Coulson. "You bring two of these thirteen together and they WILL fight - as in a berserk fury. Had to repeatedly taser both Hound and Ram when that meeting was arranged. Neither of them intended anything of the sort - just reported feeling 'edgy' the closer they got to each other until they were within about a quarter-mile. Then it was like their higher functions just shut down and all that was left was rage. Before that both were friendly and mostly cooperative."
"Well, still," said Jemma Simmons.
"The second problem is that advanced electronics tend to go 'wonky' around these guys," said Coulson. "I'd bet that his answering machine is at least ten years old. Hound says it involves some aspect of their abilities messing with quantum states."
Fitz blinked at that.
"Wait. 'Thirteen'?" asked Simmons. "But the Chinese Zodiac is twelve."
"Cat," said Melinda May.
"Yes," said Coulson. "Hound is also a contact for similar people with minor extranormal abilities. Who happen to live in similar isolated areas. If that network noticed anything happening in their backyard, he's the logical contact."
"Proud Mary," said Hound, glancing at the woman in the religious garb briefly before turning his attention to the boy. "So this is the traveler?"
Proud Mary nodded. "Hound. Recovered from your latest hunt?"
"Which one?" asked Hound with a smirk. "The bunyip was a right royal pain but it wasn't bulletproof. I hate it when they're bulletproof."
Proud Mary nodded, her gaze on the boy in the bed. "He has come far, and he is a Hero-in-training."
"Oh hell," said Hound with considerable feeling. "Destiny? Adventure? The whole nine yards?"
"Indeed," said Proud Mary.
"Crap," said Hound. "Are you sure you don't want him here?"
"Positive," said Proud Mary. "SHIELD is already nosing around. We certainly do NOT want anyone to find our little community here."
"True," said Hound. He sighed. "Destiny eh? Destiny owes me a freakin' refrigerator after the last time."
"Indeed," said the woman whose codename was Proud Mary. In truth, she was neither particularly proud nor was she named Mary. It was just the name she'd gotten saddled with due to her religious convictions.
"Well, wake him up, I brought the truck," said Hound.
Wands were used to control chakra the way handsigns did, or at least that was the impression Sakura had at first.
After awhile she realized that this was not the case. Not exactly at any rate.
They had Fire, Earth, Air, Water. No Lightning element.
They had "dot-class" ninja/mages/nobles who could cast a single element. They had "line-class" which could do two elements. Apparently they could then either reinforce the first element or mix it with a second element. Wind and Water became Ice. Then there were "triangle-class" with three elements and so on.
Turning nuggets of iron into brass was certainly eye-opening. Sakura couldn't recall hearing about transformative ninjutsu before, at least not anything like that.
Louise - her "master" here was able to cast explosive spells. Unfortunately, it seemed like everything she did ended up with an explosion.
"What ARE you writing out there?" asked Louise, pausing in her lunch to consider the furious scribbling by her familiar.
"Trying to figure out the local jutsu," said Sakura. "I mean 'spells' - I'm beginning to think you're not manipulating chakra at all."
"Again with this 'chakra'?" asked Louise, looking over the scroll and brush set that her familiar had produced from another scroll. "What IS chakra?"
"Chakra is a combination of physical and spiritual energy that is produced within you, mixed in the hara region." Sakura tapped her own stomach area with the hand not holding a brush. "It is then circulated through the whole body via the coils and then threads through the body."
Louise blinked. "No wand?"
"No, we use handsigns to focus and manipulate the chakra into techniques," said Sakura. She sat back and closed her eyes as she thought things out. "Or reinforce our bodies to be able to strengthen them. No wands."
"Magic is all around us," said Louise. "We shape it through will and gestures and incantations."
"We often do something similar, saying the name of the technique as a method of focus," admitted Sakura. "Tell you what. Let's make a deal."
"A deal?" asked Louise. She still wasn't sure how to handle this odd familiar. Magic use meant she was a noble, but a familiar was a servant.
Sakura nodded, opening her eyes again and putting away scroll and brush and the odd inkpot. "A deal. I'm stuck here until I find a way home. I'll act as your ninja for now. I'll even show you one of my techniques to see if you can learn it."
Louise nearly dropped her tea. "I can learn your style of magic?"
"I really only know three techniques - the Academy standards," said Sakura. It's not like they were SECRET techniques. "Clone, Substitution, and Disguise."
"What does 'Disguise' do?" asked Louise, thinking that the image thing that Sakura had done previously was likely 'Clone' from what she understood.
Sakura quickly did the hand-sign and became a duplicate of Louise.
"Whoa," said Louise, peering close at the smirking version of herself.
Sakura released the technique, reverting to her previous appearance.
Louise considered things, and was glad that she'd decided to have lunch in her room.
Sakura continued her previous discussion. "I'll try to teach you one of those techniques, but I want a wand."
"What?" asked Louise. "A wand?"
"It's a straight deal," said Sakura. "I see if you can learn ninjutsu and I try to learn this wand-jutsu 'magic'."
And she still had that book she'd grabbed from Naruto. Maybe there was an answer there.
Sasuke snuck around the airship but did NOT understand the local language. It made things very difficult.
Sure he could listen in and start putting things together. Some symbols were obvious. That was a toilet. That was a broom closet. That pipe carried a poisonous substance.
He was an elite ninja, top of his class. Whatever this situation was - it did not appear to be something typical for a ninja.
He had his supplies, but he and the other two had been waiting for their sensei and he hadn't really expected to be away from the village for an extended period.
Sasuke Uchiha waited for the airship to 'land' before he snuck down using one of the lines. This gave him a city to escape into but he still had no idea where he was or how to get back.
However, a city meant a better chance of figuring out both of those and a lot more places to hide.
Next detail was to find food and shelter. Then he could start trying to accumulate information.
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(Posted Sun, 08 Mar 2015 07:09)
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