Making a Splash II.

<"A Tuton bold an' a child o' t' sun
Shall be nae match fir Tiddy Mun!
Eeeheheheheee!">

In the milky murk, Impakt waded through waist-deep water. The fog was so thick he could barely make out Sunlight Man just a few yards to his left. Huge, ominous shadows of half-finished buildings and construction equipment loomed up around them and by now the water had been standing long enough that it had soaked into the earth underneath, adding thick, cloying, mud to the impediments to movement. The pro hero called to his intern.

"I thought my English was pretty good, but I can hardly understand a word this fellow is saying!"

"I don't think it's your English at fault, I think it's his." Replied Bobby. The solar-powered boy was operating at significantly reduced strength due to the pervasive fog; in spite of being the middle of the day Kyoto's new swamp was so overcast it might as well have been twilight.

Their mission had been fairly simple; drive the eco-activists out of the new district under construction, and apprehend the villains responsible for the flooding. The so-called 'Sidhe-Fae' had no record of serious violence, just vandalism and industrial sabotage, and Impakt hadn't anticipated too much trouble but it wasn't going well. The criminals refused to stand and fight, and were leading them a merry dance all over the massive construction site. The two heroes had barely even glimpsed their leader, the tiny man calling himself 'Tiddy Mun', and by now they were soaked and miserable.

Out of the corner of his eye Impakt saw a little figure hobbling around the corner of a half-submerged temporary office hut.

"Contact, two o'clock!" Called Impakt, surging forward. The water was shallower here; barely knee-deep, and he was able to break into a run. He lunged around the corner, but there wasn't even a ripple to show where the tiny man had gone. Again the shrill, cackling laugh rang out from somewhere nearby.

"Eeeehehehehheheeee!!"

"Verdammt!!" Ernst exclaimed. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Ugh. This is beginning to seriously annoy me."

Weird and eerie lights flickered and drifted in the mist, and unfamiliar bird-calls echoed distantly but there was no reply from Sunlight Man. Impakt looked all around but could see nothing but the oppressive mist and the will-'o-the-wisp lights meandering here and there.

"Sunlight Man!?" He called out. "SUNLIGHT MAN!?"

The water sloshed around his calves as he moved and somewhere a raven croaked, but that was all that broke the stillness. Then a dreadful scream split the silence. Ernst battled his way through the deepening water, half running, half pushing against the resistance of the swamp and the mud beneath. It was like trying to run in a dream.

Eventually he made out a shape in the water; a body in blue and gold, floating face-down. His jaw tightened and his breath caught in his throat as he saw the spreading crimson in the water around Bobby, his brightly-coloured costume dulled by mud and soaked by bog-water. After agonising seconds of wading he was by his intern's side and grabbed for him, only for his hand to pass right through. His confusion only lasted for a fraction of a second before it was replaced by profound irritation, mainly at himself for falling for such an obvious illusion. More confusion followed as he tried to withdraw his arm, only to find it trapped as though it were set in concrete.

<"'Ave it, yer fookin' ponce!">

It wasn't the same high-pitched, cackling voice as before, although it still spoke in the same impenetrable dialect. Impakt looked up to see Tod Lowerie; a skinny teenaged boy, bare-footed and shirtless in ripped jeans with an unruly mop of black hair and… grey skin? Or was it body-paint? And his eyes were a bright red suggestive of cosmetic contact lenses. He was squatting on top of a concrete mixer which just peeked out of the water. The illusion of Bobby dissipated and Impakt saw that just under the surface of the water a pale, disembodied hand was gripping his wrist.

<"G'wan Dead 'And, tek 'im fer a ride!">

Impakt gasped as the hand zipped off, dragging him with it in a rooster-tail of muddy water.

‼‼««««僕のヒーローアカデミア»»»»‼‼

Bobby could hear distant sounds of splashing a struggle and twice he thought he heard Impakt calling for him. He called back but something about the thick fog and the towering sides of the unfinished buildings seemed to muffle sound and reflect it at odd angles. He couldn't make out where the noises were coming from and he didn't think Impakt had heard him at all.

Then a rhythmic splashing, as of someone jogging through ankle-deep water came closer. Bobby span on his heel to face the sound, his fists raised in a fighting stance. He relaxed as he saw Impakt, splattered with mud and soaked from head-to-toe coming around one of the concrete walls.

"Are you okay?" Asked Bobby.

Impakt didn't reply, instead he raised his finger to his lips and beckoned to Bobby. The young aspiring hero made his way over as quietly as he could, only to let out a yell as he found no more ground underfoot and toppled into a sink-hole, suddenly plunging into the brown water. The illusory figure of Impakt, standing over him as though the water was no more than a foot or so deep, grinned broadly before it disappeared.

Spitting filthy swamp-water as he resurfaced, Bobby angrily struck out in a breast-stroke to try and find the edge of the deep area. A familiar shrill cackle came from nearby, and Bobby saw Tiddy Mun leaning on his cane, standing in one of the empty window-frames of the second-story of the half-made building next to him.

<"Ye fight t' raise yer great, grey towers,
But wi' out yer sun-forged powers,
Ye'll likely n'er get yer way,
While t' fen's protected by t' Sidhe-Fae!">

<"Dammit, at least speak normal English you little creep!"> Bobby cried back in his native tongue.

There was no response except more laughter as the little man disappeared into the interior of the structure. Bobby ineffectually splashed water up at the window in frustration and swam on. Eventually he found soft mud under his feet again, and, wet through to the skin, he trudged up to where the bog was no more than knee-deep.

"Hello, Bobby. Long time no see."

For just a moment the voice chilled Bobby to the bone in a way that had nothing to do with being saturated with swamp-water. He looked up to see a hideously familiar form; tall, broad, powerfully muscled, his ragged black cloak whipping around him in psychokinetic winds, and a lock of blue hair across his eerily blank face. Sandatsu held the limp form of Impakt in his left hand and gestured in casual greeting with the other.

Realising almost immediately what was happening Bobby was suddenly furious at the use of his former friend as a cheap trick. He could feel a small rock against his foot, and grabbed it up, flinging it through the illusion.

"AAARG!"

The Sandatsu-shade disappeared and standing a few yards behind it was a willowy young boy painted grey and clutching his now freely-bleeding nose. The two of them briefly locked eyes, both equally surprised, then without a moment's hesitation Bobby lunged towards the boy at a dead sprint. The boy was slightly stunned at having been walloped in the face and took just a second or two to realise what was happening. By the time he gathered his wits an enraged Sun Man was bearing down on him, he turned to flee but got no more than a couple of steps before the much larger boy caught him in a flying tackle that ploughed both of them into the slimy water and the sludge beneath.

Bobby climbed back to his feet, hauling Tod Lowerie with him by the neck. The scrawny boy erupted into enormous spiders, swarming up Bobby's arm, then when Bobby didn't even flinch the spiders vanished and he found himself holding a rotting corpse by the throat. He gave the villain a shake and the corpse turned back into Tod Lowerie, but the boy was wearing what was obviously a suicide vest, with pounds of explosive packages wired into a digital timer ticking down to its last seconds as displayed in large, red numerals.

<"Knock it off!"> Growled Bobby in English. <"...And if you even think of turning into my dad I'll do a lot worse than break your friggin' nose!">

The suicide vest vanished and Tod glowered at the taller boy, blood pouring down his face, his body paint wearing off in parts, his hair matted to his head and one of his red contact lenses missing, revealing a brown eye beneath.

<"Oo foogin' baz-dud!"> Tod Lowerie whined, his broken nose making him even more difficult to understand. <"Diz iz foogin' broodalidy! I'll foogin' zue yer!">

<"Yeah, yeah, whatever."> Bobby set off in the direction of the police barricade at the edge of Kyoto's new swamp, keeping a strong grip on Tod Lowerie's neck, partly pushing, partly frog-marching him along.

‼‼««««僕のヒーローアカデミア»»»»‼‼

With a mighty yell, Impakt heaved the little smart-car out of the clinging mud with a burbling slurp and hurled it at Dead Hand. The floating extremity dodged to the side at the last moment, but the distraction allowed Ernst to launch himself forward in a great leap. He was having trouble getting to grips with the bizarre mutant; how did one fight a foe who can't be tripped, joint-locked, or choked and had the strength to lift your bodyweight several times over?

The pro hero grabbed Dead Hand's thumb with one hand and its ring-finger with the other, bending it back as far as it would go. The hand's remaining free digits writhed as though it was in pain.

"Submit! Don't make me break your finger!" Yelled Impakt.

In retaliation the hand gained altitude, ascending hundreds of feet into the air with the German hero hanging off it. It thrashed this way and that, twirling around and around in an effort to throw off its attacker.

"SUBMIT!" Impakt repeated, applying more force to the finger in his grip.

He heard a crack and something gave way, causing the hand's movements to become even more frantic and erratic. Impakt, soaked through and covered in slippery mud, lost his grip as the finger bent back all the way and plummeted several stories. He bounced off the side of the skeleton of an office building and landed like a meteor in the swamp below, sending a plume of water up into the air. Briefly stunned, he staggered back to his feet, taking a moment to catch his breath only to be tackled from the side, slamming him back into the bog-water.

<"Gotcha, ya little… oh, oops.">

Bobby picked himself back up and offered Impakt a hand.

"Uh, sorry sir. I thought you were another illusion." The young man reverted to Japanese.

"Don't worry about it." Impakt wiped the worst of the mud off his face, flicking the slime back into the surrounding swamp. He scanned the air around him, but the all-pervading fog prevented him from seeing whether his opponent was still there. "So, I've been having an immensely frustrating time, what about you?"

At this, Bobby perked up.

"Actually, I got one of 'em! I handcuffed that Tod Lowerie guy to a bulldozer over there when I, uh, when I came to… tackle you." He cleared his throat, embarrassedly.

Impakt perked up at this news.

"Fantastic! Great work! Let's go and pick him up, I have an idea…."

‼‼««««僕のヒーローアカデミア»»»»‼‼

It took the pair of heroes about half an hour to find what they were looking for. Luckily the foreman's hut wasn't completely submerged and they'd been able to find maps of the entire construction site. The storage garage was locked, but that was no barrier for two super-powered body-builders. Much of the material inside had been lost to the flood water, but there was enough for their purposes raised up off the floor on stacks of palettes.

They picked their battle-ground carefully; one of the more finished buildings, a four-story affair in a fairly shallow area of the bog. The internal dividing walls had yet to be erected, so the interior of each floor was open, with only a few load-bearing pillars and the dirtitus of construction work to break up the lines of sight, stacks of boxes and cinder-blocks piled up in the corners. On the top story Tod Lowerie was bound and gagged, and secured to an office chair with bungee cord taken from the supply garage. The boy glared sullenly at his captors, one red contact lens still in place, his grey body-paint streaked down his naturally pallid skin and dried blood down the front of his face and chest.

"Right," Said Impakt, "I think we need some reinforcements to finish this job. You go back to base and deliver this message." He handed Bobby a piece of folded note paper. "I'll stay here and guard the prisoner."

The two heroes headed downstairs. A few minutes later Bobby left the building, heading in the direction of the police cordon, while Impakt remained, standing at the foot of the only staircase.

Not long after the younger hero had set off Tod heard a soft scuffling sound behind him. Wriggling in his seat he managed to get the chair to rotate. Tiddy Mun was clambering in through the window. A few feet along, another Tiddy Mun was climbing in through the next window, and the next window after that. Dozens of tiny, bearded, fairy-men climbed into the room along with a low blanket of mist pouring in and began hobbling around. Tod Lowerie was shaking his head and making urgent noises through his gag.

<"Don't worry lad, we'll get thee out,
Thah's naught t' fear while Tiddy's about!
…
Oh bugger.">

One of the little men seemed to be having difficulty. Under each of the windows was a pool of sticky, black, tar, sourced from the building supplies. Having identified the real Tiddy Mun, the form of Impakt, clad only in his underwear, emerged from a pile of boxes in the corner. The illusory duplicates of little man disappeared as the imposing hero grabbed Tiddy Mun by the scruff of his neck and hauled him up, leaving his ragged foot-coverings stuck in the tar. Impakt smiled triumphantly as he addressed his new prisoner in English.

<"It seems that fairies aren't the only ones,
Who can summon up some illu-sions!">

<"That were a terrible rhyme."> The tiny man pouted.

‼‼««««僕のヒーローアカデミア»»»»‼‼

Impakt radioed Bobby to return, and retrieved his uniform from the mannequin downstairs, the decoy having served its purpose. The two heroes, soaked and filthy, hauled the captured villains back to the police corden and handed them over to the Kyoto authorities in a thunderstorm of flash-photography from the assembled press. Already the waters were beginning to recede, no longer being held in place by Tiddy Mun's influence, and the mist was carried away by the gentle afternoon breeze.

As Impakt addressed the reporters, Tiddy Mun and Tod Lowerie were bundled into the back of a police van. A couple of guards climbed into the rear compartment with them and affixed the prisoners' manacles to the lugs welded to the interior sides of the van. The doors slammed shut and the van rumbled to life. Tiddy looked up at the boy across from him. The young villain was trying to keep up his sullen demeanor, but there was no hiding the fact that he was scared, as any youngster his age would be in his position.

<"Chin up lad, our fates' not set,
Auld Tiddy's not out o' tricks just yet!">

The little man's beard parted slightly, and a large, pale hand, it's ring-finger swollen and bruised an ugly purple at the base, gave a quick thumbs-up to Tod before disappearing back into the tangled mass of hair.

‼‼««««僕のヒーローアカデミア»»»»‼‼

Imamu Belmitope noticed the alert flashing on his desktop screen. The machine was, of course, top-of-the-line, its screen a wafer-thin sheet of glass on the end of an elegant, chromed, armature, its touch-sensitive mat of a keyboard set into his lacquered cherry-wood desk. With a swipe of his finger he brought up a view of the secret entrance to his subterranean base from one of the tiny, hidden cameras which monitored the entrance.

Two figures were visible, standing next to the area of subway-tunnel brickwork which, should he allow it, would swing open, revealing the way into the hideout of the red finger. What appeared to the casual observer to be just another fuse-box on the wall of the Kyoto metro system was actually a well-disguised apparatus for opening the secret door, but only if Belmitope permitted it. The big man leaned back in his leather-upholstered chair and regarded the two on his screen; a skinny boy probably no older than his mid teens, and a tiny man with a long beard who Imamu recognised from his previous meeting. They had tried to open the door, which had triggered the alert. He reached out and pressed a key, and watched both of them jump a little as his voice echoed through the tunnel around them.

"Yes? Why do you request entrance?"

<"Our foes 'ave driven us away,
And now our luck 'as turned,
We seek shelter for t' Sidhe-Fae,
An' 'ope we shan't be spurned!">

As usual the heavily-accented English and the sing-song rhyming way in which it was delivered made it hard to understand.

<"...I see. You want shelter?"> It didn't help that it had been a while since Imamu had needed to speak English, and he was a little rusty.

This time the boy, streaked with the remnants of grey body-paint and what appeared to be blood down his front responded. He sounded as if he had a blocked nose and it made him even more difficult to interpret.

<"Zum baz-dud beed t'shid oud ob uz, an' gigged uz oud ob our zwamp, now we need zomwhere t' grash ver a bid. Gan we gom in or nod!?">

Imamau sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose. He pressed the button and the brickwork parted as if by magic. Apparently the Red Finger was going to have house-guests for a little while. Time to brush up on his regional English dialects.