The Sand Strikes (Hotwire)

There was another attack, as was usual for Jump. The place had a new villain or deviant pop up every week, Suzuki thought. She'd responded to nearly every one of them since her arrival with the intention of meeting Titans. She'd only succeeded in forming a shaky friendship with the one named Meta. They must be very busy if they couldn't find time to protect the city.

"This one seems troublesome..." Suzuki mumbled as she landed on the beach gently. The giant golden... bird man? Stood high in the air, riding a wave of sand as if he was a surfer on the seas behind him.

"Shurima will rise!" It bellowed, sending a huge wave of sand towards Suzuki. She dodged with guile, landing softly a few feet back and only skidding a few steps. Out of the impact site, 5 sand soldiers lunged towards her. She blocked one sand blade with her gauntlet, then drew her sword and parried a blow in one movement from another. Her eyes activated and she found herself on the defensive right away. Every sand soldier that she slashed, two more replaced.

(Azir: https://ttrpg.forumotion.com/t4965-the-emperor-of-the-sand )

A group of 4 sand soldiers would lunge at once towards her, only to be scattered by a giant gust of air that ripped them to grains. Descending from the sky came the source of said gust. Hotwire. He was being carefully lowered to the ground by some sort of flying pack that was a crazy mismatch of industrial fans and other odd machines.

He'd drop to the ground next to the girl and reach behind his back. The machines would reform around his hands, making a pair of fan hands. Other bits of tech would run to his shoes, working to keep him firmly implanted in the ground.

"Looks like you could use a hand. Or two."

 A couple more lunged at him only to be met with a horizontal whirlwind blasting them into the ground.

As 4 of the soldiers seemed to corner Suzuki, she was about to pull out her secret weapon, the Susano'o, but before she was in danger the soldiers blew away like dust in the wind. The gust made her hair and skirt blow about rapidly. She quickly shielded her eyes to make sure no sand got in them. She'd be in real danger without her eyes. When it was safe, she looked at the man lowering down with the jet pack, observing that she could use help.

"Are you a Titan?" She interrogated off the bat. It was high time she ran into a Titan that wasn't Meta. His reply was cut off by another bellowing taunt from the staff wielder.

"The weak will tremble before Shurima!" With that, more sand came. It formed a tornado, the wind current kicking up sand everywhere. That was no good for Suzuki, who would need to keep the sand from her eyes. In an instant, the tornado was engulfed in black fire. It spun for only another moment or two before crashing back to the beach, a beautiful glass tornado.

It was too late, however, the sand was all around in the air. Suzuki had to close her eyes or risk being blinded. "Can you get this sand out of the air? I can't fight without my eyes."

The sand began blowing around hotwire and the girl. Not even his fans could handle it.

"Let's see. If I can play a frequency of 15.4 Hz at approximately 170Db..." He said as a speaker flew over to him. It looked like some sort of beach concert had been going on before the attack happened. A few other pieces of audio gear joined up and melded with his arm attachments.

"Cover your ears!" He yelled. All of a sudden a wave of pressure passed over the area. Like a giant force passing through everything. It would repeat every few seconds, as the sand froze in the air before falling straight to the ground. Even the remaining sand soldiers were having a hard time standing up to the infrasound.

Her newfound partner seemed to be resourceful, easily finding a way to handle the sand that blew all over the beach like a storm. Suzuki did as he commanded and covered her ears after sheathing her sword as he played the sound. Even with covered ears, she heard the noise. After hearing it a few times, she opened her eyes curiously to see the sand seemingly frozen in mid air.

"Arigato, Titan-san." She said, smirking. The only problem was that she had to defend herself without her hands now. They were glued to her ears to block the sound that kept playing. She didn't mind the handicap though, using a few well placed kicks the now weakened soldiers fell much easier.

Azir, on the other hand, capitalized on the distraction his soldiers put up and rode a wave of sand to the parking lot. So close to his staff, the sand was immune to the sound waves. In a few moments, he started launching cars at the duo as they defended against the soldiers. Suzuki scuffed. "Susano'o."

She was a little louder than normal, letting Hotwire hear the command. In a couple seconds both her and him were surrounded by the giant purple soldier, and using both hands the Susano'o stopped the car. "Hn. Troublesome. A class A, I assume. I can use my flames to hold him in place. I think we need the staff. It's directing the flames."

Great. Magic. That's just what Hotwire needed today. Magic, magic and more magic. Hotwire managed to singlehandedly stop many of the cars mid-flight and set them down. The brute force of being thrown did very little against hotwire's technokinesis.

"The staff huh?" Hotwire said as the devices around him reformed. The copter pack reformed. "I can do that." He said kicking off and flying over the mayhem towards Azir.

Hotwire said he could handle the staff, which was convenient. Now Suzuki had to hold up her end of the deal. Holding the beast in place. She focused, which was hard as cars crashed against the Susano'o. It wouldn't hold out much longer. They had to make haste.

She trained her eye on the sand emperor. "Amaterasu!"

Starting at the feet of Azir first, the black flames erupted. As hot as they were, they'd turn the sand to glass quickly. She'd try to get his body and arms too, but another car came and the Susano'o collapsed. The car avoided Hotwire, but Suzuki had to dodge. Something hit her right arm, putting the flames out instantly. Azir remained stuck in place, but Suzuki was bleeding from her right shoulder and breathing a little heavier than normal.

Between the two heroes and the villain was at least 12 soldiers. "I'll help you get through the soldiers. Go for the staff."

Suzuki dashed forward, sword in her left hand as her right hung limp.

Harmon shot forward and would land a meter away from Azir. "Honestly. I'm tired of you mystical 'more powerful than the world' types." Hotwire said looking rather annoyed. The copter pack would break apart, before one of the motors would swing back to his hand. A cars hood would pop open and various parts would shoot out, combinging with the motor parts, resulting in a rapidly spinning pole coming straight up from his fist, almost like a sword built into his hand at a right angle.

"So give me your best shot. Or are you afraid of facing an opponent without hiding behind your spells?"

Azir seemed bothered by Hotwire's insolence. He still had his staff, whether he was held in place or not. Suzuki had jumped into the fray with his soldiers, outnumbered greatly, but handling it with ease. She destroyed one after another, occasionally using her black flames again, but trying her best to avoid it. It was starting to get taxing.

"Bow before Shurmia!"

The sand came to the lot, flanking Hotwire on either side. This close to his staff, it'd be harder to blow the sand away. His power of influence over the sand was nearly direct at this range. Suzuki believed in the Titans ability though, not worrying as the sand threatened to crush him like a trash compactor.

The blowing sand was getting worse as their opponent refused to cease his power hungry rhetoric. It began to obscure his opponent, and just getting to him through the wall of sand that was being whipped up seemed to be nigh impossible. He could reform the copter pack to fly over it, but it was super unwieldy, and as soon as he landed he'd get torn apart by the wind. No, he needed a compact way to get to him.

And when a motorcycle fell over from the intense winds, he got an idea. Immediately the suspension would fly off it an to hotwire, along with a motor and gear assembly. They would begin to integrate into Hotwire's boots, lighting up with the blue energy of his nanobots.

With a swift kick, Hotwire would launch himself into the air with his newly fashioned jumpboots. As he came down on Shurmia, he would spin the pole at him in an attempt to dissarm him.

"Bow down to this!"

Suzuki was a talented duelist. It was one of her specialties, really. There was almost nobody out there that could compete in one on one combat with her. Call it arrogance, but she hadn't met anyone in jump that made her feel weak yet. That being said, this situation was hardly a duel. She was extremely outnumbered by the sand monsters, and with only her left arm usable. Right now, however, she was holding her own. For every creature of the sand that she slashed down, more appeared. The sand emperor had a truly impressive ability and alone,, this would have been a real struggle.

"Insolent...!" The sand emperor roared as Hotwire attacked, but with Suzuki's flames keeping him pinned in place he had little defense to the attack. He was disarmed by Hotwire's attack, which made the sand storm stop. The soldiers as well halted which was lucky for Suzuki. She was breathing a little heavy, blood still dripping from her shoulder. She'd slashed down at least 14 soldiers, and left another 8 glass statues of others, still ignited with her black flames.

"Easy enough." Suzuki said, standing straight but keeping her sword ready. She jumped over to Hotwire, landing gracefully next to him and letting out a breath of relief. "You're a Titan. Do you have a place for people like this? I can glass over the rest of his body."

"You can never subdue shurima!" Azir bellowed back.

"Uh, we have a couple places for criminals like this." He said picking up the staff. "And it seems he's pretty much useless without the staff. It would appear to be the source of his powers." He added looking it over. It was rather ornate, just the kind of thing that would be completely cursed and or enchanted.

"And the titans have just the place for objects like this." He said, recalling the vault. He turned to Shurima. "It's over. You lost. Go ahead Ms... uhm..."

"Uchiha. Suzuki Uchiha." She finished for Hotwire before looking back at Azir. His retort was stifled by her black flames engulfing his face. It would be a few seconds at most before the Shuriman Emperor was silenced for good. Without his staff, his threat level was nearly zero. Suzuki put the flames out, taking a deep breath.

She'd used more power than she'd planned on. She'd cut to the chase now. "The Titan's proved to be a tough lot to get a hold of. I'm looking to sign up. What do you say?"

Hotwire thought for a moment. This girl had certainly proven herself completely competent in combat, but he wasn't sure if he should just let the girl in. There was only one thing for it. He reached to his belt and pulled out a communicator.

"I'll have to go over it with the team, and do some looking into it... but you show promise." He said tossing her the communicator. The police would slowly begin to show up to the scene, finally able to get through the sandstorm. Now aware the situation was stable, Hotwire began to reassemble his helipack.

"We'll be in touch."

With a kick of his feet, he would shoot into the air.

She caught the communicator with ease, letting out a sigh. Great, more hoops to jump through. She just wanted support to help her protect the city, was that too much to ask? At least she was making progress, despite feeling that the Titan's were toying with her this point. "Arigato, Titan-san."

Then he was gone, as fast as he came. It was irritating that she couldn't get more information out of him. She didn't even know what she had to do to get into the Titans anymore.

Suzuki would stay and make sure everything went smoothly with the police. This was a dangerous enemy and there was no point in carelessly leaving before the defenseless humans were gone.