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A man and a woman, husband and wife, sat on a horse drawn carriage. They were travelling through a forest, along a cobblestone path connecting two towns. The sun was beating down overhead, and they were both taking shade underneath their headwear – the husband wore a hat; the wife, a bonnet.The journey might have gone peaceful and without a hitch, were it not for the bandits who had taken to patrolling the route and preying on unsuspecting travellers. Within seconds they had emerged from the trees and surrounded the carriage, causing them to stop.“Excuse me for intruding,” said one of the bandits, swaggering up, hand resting on the gun at his belt, “But I believe you’re carrying something that belongs to us.”The husband spoke, not raising his head. “It’s not yours.”The bandit laughed. “You didn’t think we’d find out you’d changed your route? You’re gonna give us what’s ours, and everything else in that carriage.”The bandit’s eyes wandered to the man’s wife, sitting next to him.“And then,” he said, walking closer, “I think you’re gonna give me a bit of… one on one time with the Mrs.”“Oh, I think you might wanna reconsider that last part,” said Nomad, now raising his head and looking the bandit in the eye, “I married a powerfully ugly creature.” Okami raised his bonnet-covered head in shock.“How can you say that?” Okami said. “How can you shame me in front of new people?”“If I could make you prettier, I would,” Nomad said, and he could tell Okami was loving the way his plan was playing out.Okami gasped. “You are not the man I met a year ago!” By now the bandits were confused as all hell, and the two Huntsmen seized the opportunity. Okami stood up, his hands whipping down to his holsters and drawing two hand cannons. Nomad dropped the reins and ripped his coat off, revealing his metal arms, held up in a guard.Keeping one gun trained on the bandits, Okami used his other hand to remove the bonnet from his head.“Now think real hard. You’ve been bugging these towns for a while now. They wouldn’t mind if we put an end to you. Now you can come quietly and end up in a jail cell, but if your hand touches metal… I swear by my pretty floral bonnet I will end you.”The bandit leader raised his hands, keeping them away from the metal at his hip. He glanced at his buddies, keeping the carriage surrounded, and made eye contact with one on their right.“Get ‘em!” He shouted. Okami turned to the side in time to see the bandit on his right aiming a rifle, but before either of them could shoot, the bandit was thrown to the ground, an arrow embedded in his chest. Okami looked to the back of the carriage and saw Artemis hanging out, another arrow already nocked in her bow.The back of the carriage opened up again and another Huntsman stepped out, carrying a flail with a spiked head over his shoulder.“Oh, excellent,” said Zap, letting the flail head clunk to the ground, “The fight!”The bandits all raised their guns and Nomad leapt off the carriage, colliding with the nearest one. He went to town, beating them again and again until their aura shattered and then twice more for good measure. He picked them up and tossed them aside. He fired his hands at two more bandits, and they shot off his arms, attached by cables. He grabbed both bandits by the neck, and retracted the cables, dragging them towards him. When his hands connected back with their wrist sockets, he tightened his grip on their necks and smashed their heads together, and threw them away too.Okami jumped into the air and planted his feet on the side of the carriage, then pushed off as the bandits opened fire. He twisted in the air, dodging the bullets, and then his wings opened in a blaze of orange light and swept them all off their feet. Hovering there above them, Okami released a precise flurry of bullets from his two cannons that rained down on the bandits below. One of them grabbed their forearm with one hand and extended their other hand, using his Semblance to create a shield that Okami’s bullets couldn’t break through. He swooped downwards, flipping one of his guns around so he was holding the barrel, and a blade extended, turning his hand cannon into a sword. He landed on the ground next to the one with the shield, crouching. The bandit looked at him and Okami saw his eyes widen. He winked and swept his sword at the bandit’s legs, knocking them out from under him, and while he was in the air, Okami smacked him in the stomach with the butt of his gun. The bandit crashed to the ground, winded and down for the count.Zap swung his flail and let the momentum carry him forward into a leap. Upon landing, he looked around to find himself surrounded, but if he was fazed, he didn’t show it. He swung the flail once, twice, and it started crackling with electricity. He raised the flail above his head and pressed a button on the handle, and all the spikes shot out. The bandits flinched, expecting the attack to land, but when they opened their eyes, they saw all the spikes had missed, and stuck into the ground in between them. They laughed, and began to advance, readying their weapons. Zap’s eyes sparked, and he cracked a grin as electricity travelled from his hand into his weapon, coursed through the chains connecting the spikes to his flail, and electrified everything that resided in their perimeter. The bandits fell, smoking and still crackling with electricity.Artemis had climbed partway up a tree and was firing shots at the battle below. A manifestation of her Semblance, a shadow-creature resembling a wolf, also ran rampant, jumping from bandit to bandit and taking down target after target. She heard a rustling in the tree above her and leapt to the edge of the branch, keeping her balance as she broke her bow into two knives. A bandit dropped down onto the branch, swayed a little, but regained his balance. He drew a tomahawk from a sheath on his back, and twirled it with a smirk on his face.“I’m gonna turn you into a carpet, Faunus,” he leered.“Gross,” Artemis responded, striding across the branch towards him. He swung the tomahawk downwards, and Artemis dodged to the side to avoid it, nimbly stepping around him and kicking him in the back. He stumbled, straightened up, and turned to face Artemis again. Anger on his face now, he advanced, swinging the tomahawk. Artemis blocked the strike, their blades colliding with a clang, and the bandit spun the other way, bringing the tomahawk around with deadly speed. Artemis ducked, and it sailed overhead, but as she stood up, it came back once again. She flipped both of her knives into reverse grips and extended the bowstring, connecting the handles of her knives by woven strings. As the tomahawk came down, she stretched the string tight and wrapped it around his wrist, leading the bandit’s arm in a circle until he was forced to bend when she applied pressure. She kicked him once in the chest and he fell from the branch towards the ground. The shadow-wolf on the ground, her Semblance, perked up as it heard his screams. It abandoned its previous target and sprinted for the falling body, leaping into the air to meet it. But before its jaws closed around the body, the creature morphed into a bird resembling a Nevermore, and it gripped the bandit in its claws, flying high into the sky, and releasing him. The bird vanished, and a cloud of dark matter came rushing back to Artemis.The main bandit, the leader, had been hanging back, hoping his crew would deal with the Huntsmen. When he saw they hadn’t, and that his forces were dwindling before his eyes, he decided it wasn’t worth it.“Guys, he’s getting away!” said Nomad, grappling with two bandits at once.“What should we do, Okami?” Zap asked.Okami flew upwards, surveying the battle. The bandits were all but defeated, but the leader was making his escape. He pressed a button on his earpiece, connecting him to the rest of his team. “Nomad, get Zap up here.”“On it.”Zap ran to Nomad, who grabbed him and threw him with all the strength he could muster. Zap flew through the air, but he began to slow, and he didn’t quite make it to Okami. He started falling and Okami yelled “Artemis!”Artemis quickly drew a zipline arrow, one with a flexible string attached, and fired it at a nearby tree. The arrow stuck into the trunk with a thud and she grabbed the other end of the string and pulled tight. Zap landed on the string and it absorbed his momentum, then sprung back, flinging him into the air like a trampoline.“You’re welcome,” Artemis muttered to herself. Zap shot straight up, and he made it to Okami easily.“Alright, you see him?” Okami said, straining to hold Zap.“I see him,” Zap said, holding out his hand, “He’s screwed.” Zap’s Semblance was the ability to discharge a lightning bolt from his hand that got stronger as the distance between him and his target increased. And up there, in the sky, there was a *lot* of distance between him and his target.The lightning burst forth, streaking through the sky, until it connected with a loud crash, completely taking the bandit leader off his feet, frying him from head to toe.There was a celebration in town that night.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The Grimm were coming. Residents of the small town were frantic as they were ordered into their homes by a Huntsman – that was where they’d be safest. The Huntsman moved through the town, carefully pushing his way through the masses, making sure everyone made it to safety and no one was hurt. Someone tripped and fell, and he extended a hand, helped them up, and kept walking. As he walked, people were asking him why he’d raised the alarm, why they had to hide. The Huntsman told them nothing, because to do so would be to cause unnecessary fear. And the Grimm fed on fear. He just insisted that they get inside and stay there.Standing at the town’s gate, he could see them. A dark patch on the horizon, growing ever closer. He could hear the thunderous footsteps of the Beowulfs, but if he was worried, he didn’t show it, standing with his hands behind his head, idly tapping his foot on the ground. The Huntsman heard the town behind him go silent, and he turned to look. Sure enough, everyone had gotten themselves safely inside, and all doors were closed.*Play Caffeine ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ94uM_e4P4 )*“Excellent,” Okami said turning back to face the oncoming Grimm, “No holding back.”Okami whipped his hand down to the hand cannon holstered at his hip and pulled it out, spinning it on his finger as he did so. When he had raised it to shoulder height, he stopped spinning it and pulled the trigger. The gun kicked, and a Beowulf in the distance turned to ash. Okami started running towards the Grimm, closing the distance even faster, firing off shots and turning more Grimm to ash as he did. The Grimm were right on top of him now, and a Beowulf leapt at him. Okami slid under it, raising his gun and firing a single shot into its chest, then came up out of the slide, stumbling backwards as the horde of Grimm rushed him. His other hand shot down to his other holster, and he pulled out his second cannon, training both sights on the Grimm in front of him. Okami fired again and again and again, raising clouds of ash, but there were too many of them, and he became surrounded. One leapt at him from behind, and he spun, firing underneath his arm, and then he raised the other gun, firing off two shots, vaporising the Grimm nearest to him. Another three Beowulfs charged at him, and he aimed both of his guns at the ground and fired, propelling himself into the air. Before he started falling again, he changed his grip on one of his guns, holding it by the barrel. A blade extended from the barrel of the gun, and he wielded a hand cannon and a sword as he landed, no longer surrounded by Grimm.A Beowulf wasted no time trying to take him out, but Okami held out his sword and the Beowulf impaled itself. Another one clawed at him, but he deflected its strike and sliced off its arm. It shrieked, and tried frantically to bite him. Okami jammed his sword in between its teeth and dropped it with a shot to the head from his hand cannon. He stepped back, taking a wide, stable stance.“Ok guys,” he said, spinning his gun on his finger and retracting the blade on his other gun, “This has been fun, but it’s gone on long enough. Back in your cages.”The Grimm growled and snapped and didn’t oblige.“I said,” he stopped spinning the gun, holding it so it was pointing straight up, “Back in your cages!”Set off, the Grimm attacked once more. Okami fired one bullet from each of his guns, disintegrating two Beouwulfs. One got too close and swiped at him, but he fired his guns into the ground again and the force pushed him back to a safe distance. He staggered, regaining his balance, and took a good look at the Grimm running towards him. The remaining group was significantly smaller than before, but it was definitely enough to overrun the town if he didn’t stop them now. Which is exactly what he planned to do.In one swift motion, he holstered the gun in his left hand and raised the one in his right. As he aimed from the hip, he brought his left hand to the gun and started fan-firing it. As he rapid-fired his hand cannon, he swept it from side to side in a wide arc, quickly turning the Grimm to ash. When his gun clicked empty, he hit the hammer a little harder so it spun backwards, and he holstered it, and in the same movement he drew the gun he’d put away earlier, now fanning the hammer with his right hand. The Grimm were powerless against the constant onslaught of bullets, and before they could reach him, they had all been disintegrated. He spun the gun in his left hand and blew smoke off the barrel, then slid it into his holster on his hip. Job done, he turned and walked back to the town, clicking his fingers in time with a song he had stuck in his head. He reached the town gates, and raised his hand, about to tell everyone it was safe to come out, but he lowered it slowly when he heard the flapping of wings. He looked back and saw a Nevermore rising into the air.He ran back, away from the town, drawing the Nevermore’s attention, pulling out both of his guns and firing at it. It swooped low and Okami ducked to avoid its claws. As the Nevermore flew higher, coming back for another swoop, Okami knew he needed a stronger weapon. He connected his hand cannons so the tops of the barrels were touching, and the guns’ handles formed a makeshift crossguard. A bigger handle came out from between the guns, and from the other end, a massive blade extended.Okami hoisted the huge sword onto his shoulders, and faced the Nevermore. It was coming down fast, and Okami didn’t have time to ready his blade in defense.“Oh fu-” His sentence was cut off as the Nevermore closed its talons around his body and flew straight into the air. They climbed higher and higher, until Okami was finding it hard to breathe.And then the Nevermore released him, and he fell.Okami sped towards the earth, his speed increasing, but rather than panicking about his imminent demise, he enjoyed the adrenaline rush – because he had one last trick up his sleeve.He focused on manifesting his Aura, and he did so in spectacular fashion. Blood-orange coloured wings sprouted from his shoulder blades, his Semblance, and his descent slowed. He took a moment to get his bearings, floating high up in the sky, and then he saw the Nevermore swooping down at him again. He swung his blade into a ready position, flapped his wings, and soared through the sky to meet it.