((Colab post between Raijinslayer and Subject Zero))

[h2]The Rise of Mu[/h2]
[u][b]Alternate Title: Things get worse[/b][/u]

Second chances seemed to be quite the thing around here. Nate had spent a minute or two clearing the gymnasium of chairs after Owlman's monsters anonymous meeting and was now getting ready for his training session with Jackson or Kuro or whoever the hell showed up this time. While Nate felt like the Owlman's sentiment was noble, he didn't entirely agree with it. He was one of the rather large group who thought those people/things Cedric brought in from the underground movement should be tossed out on their asses, if not locked away. While Owlman had unwillingly been transformed into what some would call a monster, the vampires and crew had chosen it. They had chosen to become monsters. Nate wasn't about to feel sorry for anyone who had chosen that kind of life.

As if the vampires weren't bad enough, Eli Craigh was still around, engaged in all manner of douchebaggery as he continued to torment his favourite quarry, Olivia Delacroix. Again, Nate wasn't sure why Cedric didn't just toss that clown out on his ass. Maybe the boy genius had plans for him. Just like Nate had plans for him too. Although Nate's plans for Eli were probably smaller than Cedric's. Once Jackson was ready, Nate planned to have him spar with someone truly powerful, and as much as Nate hated to admit it, Opie was one of the most powerful meta's around. He knew Eli wouldn't go easy on the kid but he also knew that Jackson and/or Kuro had more than a few surprises up his sleeve and Nate wanted to get a better idea of just what the kid was truly capable of.

But for now, he wasn't ready for a fight with Eli Craigh. Neither physically or mentally. Cer would likely help the kid with the mental part but it was Nate's job to help with the physical. And so the training would continue. After setting up the gym, Nate engaged in some personal training while he waited for Jackson to arrive. With taped hands, he punched with surprising force at a punching bag with a photo of his old commanding officer attached to it.

Kuro was not happy, not at all. The reason: He had physical training today. He always hated combat training because he always ended up getting his ass handed to him in a silver platter, and that was extremely frustrating. He would've refused to do it, except for the fact that Max threatened to take away his game consoles and T.V. privileges. Kuro and Jackson were addicted to both ever since they got their hands on them, and to have taken away so soon after getting them was too much to bear.

And so, here he was, watching his instructor punch a punching bag with a picture of some dudes face on it. From how hard he was hitting the thing, he must've really not liked this guy. After about 5 minutes of watching Nate try to commit punching bag homicide, Kuro decided to reveal himself. He walked over to Nate, slipping out of the Zone as he did so.

"I'm here for my daily ass-kicking, so lets get this over with."

Fully expecting Kuro to pop out of nowhere like usual, Nate decided to play a little trick on him. As Kuro approached and informed Nate that he was ready to have his ass handed to him once again, Nate continues punching at the bag in front of him. But to Kuro's surprise, a duplicate suddenly formed from Nate and was on Kuro faster than he could react. The duplicate didn't do anything other than shove Kuro to his ass before it was reabsorbed into Nate. Nate steadied the punching bag and casually turned to Kuro. With a slightly amused smile on his face he said "You let your guard down." He moved closer to the fallen boy and offered a hand to help him up. "Sorry. Couldn't resist that after some of the crap you pull around here"

[i]Rats. The big mean ones from the sewers.[/i] Kuro thought as he helped himself up, ignoring the hand that was offered to him. He wasn't going to fall for that old trick, it was an old favorite of the last guy who taught him self-defense. I just have to figure out where to put them.

"No problem," he said, his tone neither friendly nor hostile, just dismissive and apathetic, "So, what are we going to start with, sparring or exercises?"

"Neither" said Nate as he spun quickly in his heels with his hands clasped behind his back and wandered across the gym. "You didn't react nearly as fast to that as I'd like. So I want to test your reaction speeds." He stopped moving when he came to a line of dodge balls on the ground and picked one up. Spinning the ball on his finger he asked "You can dodge a ball can't you?"

"Yeah, I would like to think so, and you're going to split up into a bunch of clones and pelt me with those aren't you?" Kuro asked as he got into a stances, keeping his attention focused on Nate, but also keeping his ears open for any of Nates clones that might be around. Dude was like a cockroach, as soon as you saw one, you knew their were likely a whole bunch more of them lurking around somewhere. As he prepared, he felt a small ache in his head, nothing major, just a low throb. [i]Must be because of that tumble I took just now.[/i]

"Well I was actually just going to throw one at you" said Nate with a shrug "But now that you mention it..." There were suddenly four duplicates beside him, two on each side and each holding a ball "...That does sound like fun" each duplicate spoke in unison, creating what sounded like a strange echo. Kuro would then find a series of balls thrown at him. But Nate would give the kid a chance. He didn't throw them all at once and instead one after another.

[i]Me and my big mouth[/i] Kuro cursed as Nate duplicated himself and began his assault. Kuro, actually paying attention this time, was able to easily dodged the first two balls, the two after that were a bit too close for comfort, and the final one managed to graze his arm as it flew by. Not tne best performance, but definitely not the worst.Dammit, all this movement is making my head hurt even more

Kuro grabbed his head with his right hand, trying to massage the pain away. "Fucking hell, why does my head hurt so much right now? I've taken worse tumbles than what you me gave met, yet this is one of the worse headaches I've ever had."

[i]"Not bad"[/i] thought Nate. [i]"When he's actually paying attention he's pretty fast"[/i] Four out of five wasn't bad. When Kuro complained that his head hurt, one Nate rubbed the back of his own head in a subconscious act of empathy while another wandered off and a third said to Kuro with an exaggerated baby-speak voice "Aw poor baby. Does your wittle head hurt?". This prompted the duplicate next to him to smack his brother on the back of the head as he said "Quit that". Nate rolled his eyes at his own duplicate and asked Kuro "You good to go?"

Nate normally wouldn't let someone slide on a training session on account of a headache but Kuro was just a kid and he had been the one that shoved him on his ass after all. The slightest twinge of guilt crept into his mind but was quickly shoved aside as he reminded himself to think of Kuro as a recruit and not just some kid.

Kuro was about to answer, but he gripped his head in pain as the ache got worse. He could only just hear something being said over the intercom about evacuation, but right now Kuro couldn't think straight enoiygh to comprehend it. Falling to his knees, he could only lay there with his head down and teeth clenched as the agony racked through his mind. What the hell is going on!?!?

[b]One[/b]

The pain disappeared, but an audible crack could be heard through out the training room as a glowing rift opened behind the figure on the floor. However, instead of disappearing, it stayed put, the light flowing around the young form of boy taking on a darker radiance than usual. He rose up from the floor, his eyes glowing with an unearthly blue light, filled with intense bloodlust and insanity.

[i]"Hello Nathan, and good-bye."[/i] Mu said with a sickeningly sweet smile, before he sent forth a solid blast of air out in front of him at high speed straight at Nate and his clones, intending to splatter them against the far wall. After the attack, Mu would turn around and make his way through the building slowly. He was in no rush, and he knew the longer he waited  to kill something, the more time he would have to play, and he oh so loved to play.

His day seemed to go from zero to 100 in a second. Nate was not ready for this. When Kuro bent forward in pain, Nate took a step towards him in concern but he was stopped in his tracks by a message from Cedric being sent over the intercom. The boss was ordering everyone to evacuate the building. Oh this could not be good. Nate and a few of his clones looked around for any sign of danger but one kept an eye on Kuro and saw the being emerge from behind him. "Oh crap" he half whispered, eyes wide. Hearing this, the others turned to see what he was looking at and echoed the sentiment.

As Kuro rose to his feet, demonic glint in his eyes, each Nate took a step back. They knew what this was. They had read his file. Nate had hoped he would never see this. This was Mu!

They knew they had to act quickly here. But as quick as Legion was, they weren't quick enough. Mu shot a blast of air at them and it all went to hell. One tried to jump sideways out of the blasts range and was only partially successful. The blast caught his legs as he dived and he was was sent spiralling across the room until he hid the ground hard. Another ducked low but was still caught in the blast and sent skidding towards the back wall but managed to grab one of the mats on the gym floor to stop him from being slammed into the wall. The two unfortunate duplicates that were caught full force by the blast were sent hard into the back wall. One died instantly as his neck snapped on contact. The other slammed his head and was knocked unconscious, crumpling to the ground and bleeding from the head.

While all this was going on, the duplicate that had wandered off from the main group had seemingly gone unnoticed by Mu. He had come to the side of the gym to pick up a kendo stick for the next part of the training session. He watched in stunned horror as his brothers were attacked but when Mu turned to leave, he knew he had to stop him. He bolted at Mu, who now had his back turned. At top speed he was on the enemy in a second. He leaped high into the air, intending to bring the kendo stick down on Mu's head. At the same time, another duplicate spawned from him and went low, intending to take out Mu's legs with his own weapon.

[i]"Cute."[/i] was all Mu said as Nate attack, the crack in reality behind him glowing brightly before a barrage of lightning Bolts shot out of it to blasted the clones back aways. As they landed, a crack would form above them, and with it comes a large wall of rock that Mu let's drop on the two. Unfortunately, Mu didn't consider the clones to be alive and was able to kill them without consequence. [i]"I'd play with you more, but I'm afraid that'd be a sure fire way to end my fun earlier than I'd like."[/i] And with that, Mu caused the ground underneath him to rise up and roll undernath a piece he was standing like he was surfing on a wave. With it, he would waste a good deal of his time moving through the halls at highspeeds, doing his best to avoid people. This would eventually lead him to the front, where all the action was. At that point, however, enough time would've past that he wouldn't have to worry about how many he killed anymore. 

[i]"Thirty. I can start to cut loose at thirty."[/i] Mu chuckled as he walked into the Chaos, creating a wall of air underneath Cedric's reinforcements, quickly rising them up to splatter them against the ceiling if they failed to react in time. [i]"Now I'm down to 5, *sigh* I have no self-control when I let lose, dammit!"[/i]

(TL;DR: Nate and Kuro train. Kuro has the biggest migraine ever. Mu wakes up and murders several duplicates.)