Quirky Row Chapter 46: Tower Terror

Chapter 46: Tower Terror

(Tuesday, February 18th, 2124)

It was past midnight when the Saints finally managed to assemble enough forces on such a short notice, but they were successful, and currently, a dozen vehicles were making their way to the Tohoku Towers and parking around it.

“Big,” was what Johnny grunted as he looked up at it.

“Sure is,” Skunk hummed, feeling a little daunted. Assaulting the place was going to be a tricky deed.

“It’s the second largest skyscraper in the city after Ultor’s Philips Building,” Mink helpfully informed them from the driver’s seat of the car they were in.

“Hmm. Got it,” Skunk muttered, before fishing his phone out and making a call. “Defender, you in position?”

“Yeah. But we gotta be quick. The heroes will be on our asses the moment we start mucking around,” Defender warned over the phone.

“I know,” Skunk agreed. “We do this hard, and fast.”

“That’s what she said,” Mink giggled. The supervillain rolled his eyes fondly, before returning his attention to the assault, dialing up a second individual.

“Twenty-One, do you have access?”

“It wasn’t easy. If I hadn’t known this was a Ronin front then the sheer amount of cyber security would have tripped me up, but since I know what to look for thanks to the backdoors we installed into their systems, the whole place is ours. I’m locking down the elevators and triggering a fire alarm to get the normies outta there.”

“Good work,” Skunk praised his lieutenant in charge of technology. “Send the signal for our guys to move in.”

In the distance, the Tohoku Towers began to blare loudly as fire alarms were triggered. At the same time, dozens of Saints rushed in, pushing past the civilians.

There weren’t many people out and about this late, so for the moment there wasn’t much resistance. As the alarms woke more people up, that would change, but by then the decapitation strike would hopefully be over.

Stepping out of the car with Johnny at his side, Skunk marched into the massive building, ready for violence. The Ronin were taken off guard, not expecting to be assaulted in their own base. Furthermore, most of them lived and worked on the upper floors, and would thus take some time to make their way down.

‘And with the elevators locked down, they’ll run straight into the Saints,’ Skunk thought, grinning viciously.

Johnny grunted, impatiently tapping his foot against the floor of the car while his fingers drummed against the grenade launcher in his hands. Skunk shot him an annoyed look, which his second-in-command just stared back, raising an eyebrow.

“Go on, then,” Skunk sighed, waving his hand at his best friend, who smirked and then bolted out of the car, eager to rampage.

“I should really go after him,” the supervillain grumbled, and Mink laughed before kissing him on his gas mask.

“Keep your friend safe,” she urged. “I’ll keep the engine running.”

Skunk smiled, and then slipped out, closing the door behind him.

“What’s the situation?” he asked one of his Saints as he strode across into the building.

“Our boys and girls have almost finished evacuating the building of non-Ronin,” the gangster, one of his lesser lieutenants, informed him, falling into step at his side.

“And the Ronin?”

“Thanks to Twenty-One being in control of the system, they’re locked down on their floors. We’ve taken a few casualties when they tried to sortie out, but they’re pinned in place right now,” the lieutenant replied.

An explosion rang out several floors above them, and Skunk winced. “I should have swapped Johnny’s weapon with something less… destructive.”

“Probably,” the Saint shrugged.

“Have any of the Ronin surrendered?” Skunk wondered as they got into the elevators. They weren’t safe to take for anybody except the Saints.

“No. The ones left… they’re the fanatics,” the lieutenant replied solemnly. “The only ones we’ve been able to capture alive are the ones we can knock out.”

‘How did Raijin cultivate such loyalty?” Skunk demanded incredulously. From everything he’d heard, Shogo Akuji was a little shit with too much of an ego.

“We may have underestimated just how influential his father was,” the Saint admitted. “And, well, I hate to say it, but the Ronin were – and still are – the richest gang in Stilwater. Money can buy a lot of things. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that any family these Ronin may have had are now a few grand richer.”

“Damn it,” Skunk scowled. A moment later the elevator dinged and opened its doors, letting the two of them out onto the forty-second floor.

“Hey, boss!” Defender cheerfully called out upon seeing him as he leaned against the wall, wiping some blood off of his modified SWAT riot shield.

There were a dozen Saints gathered on the forty-second floor, the majority clustered around the entrance to the stairwell. Johnny was among them, grenade launcher resting against his shoulder.

“What’s going on here?” Skunk asked as he approached.

“The final push,” Johnny declared. “The next two floors all belong to Raijin himself. That’s where we’ll find him and his pops. But the Ronin have heavily fortified the place, so we’re going to have be careful and hit ‘em with all we’ve got.”

“How many Ronin are up there?” Skunk inquired.

“I don’t know. Ten? Twenty? Probably not more than thirty, though,” Johnny admitted. “They’ve barricaded the stairwells leading to the upper floors and drop grenades and Quirks on our heads if we try to ascend.”

“I thought Twenty-One controlled the hotel’s system including the cameras, how can she not tell how many people are on the upper floors?” Skunk demanded.

“The Ronin have a guy who has an EMP Quirk. They disable all the cameras on the top five floors of the hotel when they realized I’d seized the systems, blinding me,” Twenty-One reported in, her voice crackling through the speaker in somebody’s phone.

“I see. Why are we standing around then?” Skunk wondered impatiently. The heroes would be here any moment!

“We’re waiting on Rafflesia. She’s bringing up a few more Saints. Then we’re going to break on through their defenses,” Johnny announced.

“Yo! I’m here, I’m here!” the villainess in question called out, hurrying forward with two squads of Saints at her back, all of them heavily armed.

“Looks like the gang’s all here,” Johnny smirked.

“Defender, take position,” Skunk said, and the member Inner Circle moved up as he channeled his Quirk through the riot shield, making it nigh indestructible. He would lead the strike team from the front, blocking any attacks sent their way.

“Here’s the plan,” Skunk began. “We push up to the forty-third floor, wipe out the Ronin so they can’t flank us, then finally move up to the forty-fourth floor to bring down Raijin and his father. Anything to add?”

“Nah, let’s just get this party started!” Johnny shouted, kicking the door down and rushing out with Defender beside him. Skunk held back the urge to groan at his companion’s recklessness but motioned for the rest to follow as the sounds of explosions began to ring out.

Grenades, Molotov cocktails and other improvised weapons were hurled down from the Ronin guarding the landing to the forty-third floor, but Defender’s enhanced shield blocked everything. Johnny let out mad cackles as he fired upon the Ronin with his weapon, launching explosive rounds into the air that tore apart chunks of the railing and steps. One blast tore apart the leg of a yellow-clad gangster who fell with a shriek, and a second Ronin fell back with his chest full of shrapnel.

Defender reached the landing first, ramming his shield into the face of one of Ronin and knocking them flat on their ass. The final Ronin tried to detonate the remaining bombs on her person to take them all out, but Rafflesia hurled a throwing knife with expert precision, piercing her throat before she could.

“Only four?” Johnny grunted with annoyance as Defender bent down and zip-tied the still living thugs.

“There’s not enough room for more to just stand around,” Rafflesia pointed out. “The rest will be waiting for us on the other side of the door.”

That was a good point, and everyone waited for a Saint who could turn their limbs into different kinds of hammers to knock down the door to the forty-third floor.

As soon as the door fell, gunfire rang out, rattling against Defender’s shield. Skunk sprayed a burst of noxious gas down the hallway from over his lieutenant’s shoulder, causing several Ronin to gag and retch.

One Ronin with a Quirk able to manipulate fabric tore up the carpet from the floor and used it to try and entangle the Saints, but a Saint with a cutting Quirk sliced apart the tendrils of carpeting while another one sent freezing wind through the hall that froze several Ronin in place.

The battle was fierce, with neither side giving quarter. When the Saints had entered, there’d been fifteen Ronin guarding the corridor and fighting desperately to keep the Saints away from the entrance to the forty-fourth floor. The number started to dwindle.

“Get some, fuckers!” Johnny roared, firing wildly into the enemy forces. He’d ditched his grenade launcher once it ran out of ammo, and was now pumping a shotgun. Three Ronin fell, bodies ravaged by buckshot, while a fourth died instantly as his head was turned into chunky salsa by a point-blank follow up blast.

“Push forward!” Skunk ordered. He fired his revolver, killing a Ronin whose body was covered in crystals, while Rafflesia tased a Ronin who had the head of a carp.

In desperation, a Ronin chucked a bomb at the Saints, but Defender slammed his shield into the ground, covering the grenade before it went off. The enhanced object smothered the explosion, though it seemed that his Quirk had finally taken too much damage and the riot shield started to break apart, unable to contain the stress it’d received.

“Pull back to the rear, Defender, and grab a new shield!” Skunk ordered.

“Yes, boss!” Defender replied, retreating from the frontlines.

“We’re almost finished here,” Rafflesia informed Skunk. “There’s only a few Ronin left on this floor.”

“Then let’s push in,” Skunk urged. He loaded a few stink bullets into his gun, and peppered the last remaining group of Ronin. They began to wail as their eyes started to water and sting. Johnny just laughed mercilessly and charged in, firing at them.

“Is that it?” he spat out when the shooting stopped, looking around for any more opponents to fight. When none appeared, he growled a bit, before glaring upwards.

“Come on,” Johnny uttered, stalking off towards the stairs.

“Right behind you,” Skunk said, before glancing at his Saints. “Get the injured out of here. And make sure you let us know the moment the cops show up.”

“Yes, boss!” one of the Saints said with a salute before hurrying off and taking the wounded members of the gang with him.

“Everyone ready?” Defender asked as they approached the doors to the next floor.

“We are. Break it down,” Skunk ordered, and the door was torn apart by a barrage of Quirks, revealing the top floor where the leader of the Ronin’s personal quarters were located.

As the door slammed open, there was nothing. No gunfire, no shouting, not even heavy breathing. Frowning, Skunk stepped through, looking around.

“It’s empty,” Skunk muttered, squinting suspiciously at the surroundings. The forty-fourth floor was strangely devoid of people. There was evidence of people having been up here. Doors were ajar, footprints and trash could be seen on the floor, and there were signs something had gone down here, but it was eerily silent.

“Spread out and search the place,” the supervillain ordered, and everyone began to tear apart the apartment, trying to find evidence of where the inhabitants had gone. In the end, though, all they found for certain was an open window overlooking the city.

“How did they escape?!” Johnny demanded furiously as he stomped around the penthouse, knocking over furniture as he tried to find traces of the Akujis.

“It must have been Lee, one of the Ronin’s lieutenants!” Twenty-One informed over the radio. “He has a flight-capable Quirk! But he shouldn’t have been strong enough to carry both of them to safety!”

“I think I found out how he did it,” Rafflesia said in distaste as she picked up a syringe with a tar-like residue clinging within off the floor of the living room.

“Trigger,” Skunk guessed, and Rafflesia nodded.

“A shot of the stuff could have given him the boost needed to get his bosses outta here,” the green-haired villainess commented.

“Should have expected that,” Defender groaned. “That shit comes straight outta Japan, so of course the Yakuza would have some!”

“For a country that likes to brag about having the lowest crime rates in the world, it sure exports a lot of its problems to the rest of us,” a Saint scoffed.

“We can’t be certain that that single vial is all the Ronin have on hand,” Skunk said. “They’ll likely keep the rest in reserve for now.”

“Sounds about right,” Defender agreed. “We should have our street dealers keep an eye out for anybody trying to peddle this shit on our turf. It might give away a hint as to where the Ronin are hiding.”

“I’ll get right on that,” Rafflesia promised.

“Damn them!” Johnny snarled, kicking a chair over angrily.

“Boss! The heroes are here!” Twenty-One suddenly called out. “Spincycle and Amber are fighting the boys in the lobby!”

“Shit, we’re outta time,” Skunk grumbled. “Johnny! Time to go!”

“Fine. Just let me take of something real quick,” Johnny Gat grunted, taking a bomb from somewhere on his person.

“Is that an incendiary grenade?!” Rafflesia asked incredulously.

“Yup,” Johnny drawled, pulling the pin and then tossing it into Shogo’s bedroom. Everyone rushed out of the apartment as the bomb went off, spreading fire everywhere across the walls, floor, and furniture.

The traditional – and highly flammable – Japanese décor went up in smoke, the flames rapidly spreading.

Down the stairs and a quick jaunt on the elevator later the villainous Saints stepped out onto the ground floor where the pair of heroes were waiting for them, several of the low-ranking members of the gang already beaten up, bound, and groaning in pain on the ground.

“Surrender, Skunk!” Amber demanded, forming a pair of amber-hued shields in front of her.

“You heard the lady. Turn yourself in!” Spincycle added.

“Ugh, you two again?” Skunk complained, not surrendering at all. If anything, the annoyed tone of voice revealed just how little he thought of the two heroes.

“Excuse you?” Amber hissed.

“Look, it’s not… well, you’ve been hounding the Saints ever since we started taking down the Brotherhood,” Skunk explained. “We’ve run into you two more than any other heroes, save perhaps Banana Loco. It’s just kinda… getting old?”

“Also, this part of Stilwater isn’t your usual stomping grounds,” Rafflesia pointed out. “Don’t you two normally hang out in the southern areas?”

“Yeah, that too,” Skunk nodded. “Are you stalking us?”

“We’re not stalking you!” Amber shrieked while Spincycle looked constipated. Or angry. Skunk couldn’t really tell due to his helmet obscuring most of his face.

“Really? Are you sure?” Defender asked.

“Yes! Yes we’re freaking sure!” Spincycle uttered. “Ugh! Can we just fight already?”

“Yeah, sure, okay,” Skunk shrugged. He then pointed his gauntlets at the duo. “Stink bomb!”

A jet of pressurized yellow-green fumes shot out of the nozzles on his gauntlets, spraying into the faces of the heroes before they could react in time.

“New upgrade?” Johnny asked as the heroes began to choke and gag on the foul stench that had hit them dead on.

“Yeah, I thought it was a missed opportunity to not be able to spray my Quirk at people like a real skunk would,” the supervillain in the gas mask replied. “Now come on, let’s go before more show up.”

Unfortunately, saying that seemed to jinx the escape, as Reversa and Crabulon appeared a few seconds later to back up Amber and Spincycle just as the Saints burst out of the building onto the sidewalk.

The newly promoted Number Ten, Reversa, was dressed in a black and white striped leotard that made her look like a zebra. She wore a black and white domino mask and had arrived to the battle in a sleek black motorcycle with white highlights.

Meanwhile, Crabulon, the Number Eight hero, was driving a hilarious lobster themed convertible car, his red armor complimenting the crustacean theme he was going for.

“I forget, does Crabulon’s mechanical claw have a laser cannon in it, or does it have some other gimmick?” Skunk whispered to Johnny.

“It has a couple of gimmicks he can swap out. He really likes the sonic cannon, though,” his second-in-command replied. “And it’s got a nasty grip, too.”

“Surrender, villains!” Crabulon demanded as he jumped out of his vehicle.

“Or don’t, and see what happens,” Reversa sneered. Several police cars were approaching as well, their red and blue sirens flashing in the distance.

“Can’t we just live and let live?” Skunk asked.

“No,” the two heroes said in unison, and the supervillain sighed.

“Oh, well. I tried,” Skunk grunted. “Non-lethal takedowns only, folks!”

There was a brief moment of silence as both sides stared each other down, before Johnny made the first move. He’d swapped his grenade launcher for a shotgun full of beanbag rounds, and he fired it into the heroine’s face. Reversa’s Quirk sent it flying back at him, but now everyone else was bursting into action.

The heroes were outnumbered, even with cops backing them up. Reversa’s Quirk was powerful, but it could only redirect physical objects, and only one at a time. A jet of Skunk’s Quirk to the face immediately had the heroine writhing on the ground since her mask did not cover up nearly enough.

Crabulon was far more resistant to the torrents of foul odors and smoke Skunk could unleash thanks to his crustacean Heteromorphic Quirk. Not to mention, Crabulon’s mechanical claw was firing beams of sonic energy at the villains, who were stunned and knocked over by the concussive force of the attacks.

Yet even he could not contend against Rafflesia rushing up to him from behind and jamming a taser into his left arm, which shorted out his artificial limb. A swift kick to the crotch with her steel-toed boots soon ended the fight.

All of the guys watching, hero and villain alike, winced and crossed their legs in sympathy as Crabulon groaned and toppled over clutching his bruised family jewels.

“Damn, Rafflesia, you’re scary,” Defender muttered.

“I know,” the villainess said smugly. “Now come on, let’s go!”

The Saints didn’t need any more convincing, and they ran off into the night, leaving the heroes behind.

“Tonight was a bust,” Johnny growled as he got inside Mink’s getaway vehicle with Skunk and Rafflesia.

“It was,” Skunk agreed bitterly as Mink drove off, abandoning Tohoku Towers to the swarm of police, emergency services, and firefighters.

“We killed a couple Ronin and took out at least two of their lieutenants,” Rafflesia said, trying to find a silver lining, but Johnny shook his head.

“If that had been our goal, then maybe it would have been acceptable. But we were trying to eliminate Shogo and his father. We failed that mission, and that means they’re still out there,” the gun-toting villain replied.

“We got ride of their main base. That’s got to count for something, though!” the flower-themed villainess said.

“It helps, but like Johnny said, we failed the main objective,” Skunk said as he took his mask off. “Not to mention we openly fought the heroes and humiliated them. Again.”

“So? We tend to do that a lot,” Rafflesia pointed out.

“Yeah, but now there’s only the Ronin left in Stilwater that can be considered a major threat. The minor gangs and petty criminals won’t be enough to keep the heroes’ attention and they’re going to be doubling down on going after us,” Skunk replied.

“We’ll have to keep our heads low after this,” Johnny grumbled. “Until we can find where Shogo and his pops are hiding, that is.”

“That reminds me, I need to call Carlos and let him know he can let Dane Vogel go,” Skunk said, belatedly remembering that they still had a hostage back at the base.

“That shark will try and bite us,” Johnny warned. “He’s already turned on the Ronin now that there’s blood in the water. Nothing’s stopping him from pulling the same shit on us in the end.”

“I am aware. But we promised not to hurt him so long as his intel was good. And it was. Not his fault that the Akujis got away,” the leader of the Saints said.

“We sure about that?” Rafflesia wondered. “What’re the odds he might have been playing both sides? Telling us where the Ronin are, then warning them about our attack?”

“Hmm. Not impossible Vogel did that,” Skunk admitted. “But we have no proof. Twenty-One didn’t find any evidence of that in the Ronin’s systems, at least. So, for now, he goes free. But don’t worry, Johnny, we’ll be keeping a closer eye on Ultor, especially now that they have their eyes on us.”

That got an approving grunt from Johnny, who was still frustrated by the lack of vengeance for his wife.

Meanwhile, Skunk texted Carlos, and the lieutenant agreed to let Vogel go unharmed. That was problem solved for the moment. But Skunk couldn’t help but wonder what the Ronin’s next move would be.

111 &&&&& 111

“What do we do now, chichiue?” Shogo asked, looking over at his father. The patriarch of the Akuji Clan stared out of the window of the safehouse. It was one of many scattered around Stilwater, and with luck, would go unnoticed for a while.

If not for Lee, neither of them would have escaped from the hotel in time to reach this place.

“For now, we wait,” Kazuo stated. “We wait for an opportunity to strike when the Saints have their guard down.”

“And the gang?” Shogo wondered. With the Ronin weakened and divided, it would be a while before they could anything openly.

“They’ll lay low as well. Can’t risk being caught by the heroes,” Kazuo replied.

“Right, yeah, that’s smart,” Shogo nodded. His father rolled his eyes at his antics, but said nothing.

After a moment Shogo slunk away, and Kazuo sighed despondently.

‘Where did I go wrong with him?’ the Akuji patriarch wondered. ‘If only Jyunichi had been born with a Quirk, then he would have been my heir, illegitimate child or not.’

For a moment, the Yakuza Oyabun pondered the idea of contacting the Shadow Emperor for a favor. The infamous Demon Lord of the Underworld had gone underground after his battle with All Might, but there were those in the know, those of the old guard, who knew the truth, as well as how to contact him.

Kazuo had had been negotiating for a Quirk from All for One for Jyunichi to use, but with his death, Kazuo had to come up with a new plan. A second Quirk for Shogo might help him survive when it was time to take down the Saints.

After some thought, he nodded to himself. Yes, that would be for the best. And perhaps he’d introduce Shogo to the true nature of the world at the same time. Maybe meeting the shadowy Quirk broker would finally convince the boy that there was more to things than meets the eye. That the game of heroes and villains was but a smokescreen for the true games that went on unnoticed in the shadows of society.

One could only hope.