He begins to flex his arms, extracting his orange claws at will like Wolverine.
Breaking out of my stupor, I look over at Mamoru and see he's still heavily bleeding and focused on Hachiman to do anything.
I had barely a minute left in my galvanic state, but I had to stall until Mamoru came to his senses and came up with a plan.
Drawing my pistol, I sprint past Mamoru, picking up his katana as I did.
Approaching Hachiman, I open fire on him aiming for his head.
He smiles as he sees me coming close and uses his claws to block the shots.
Using one hand, I swing the katana towards his stomach.
He nonchalantly extends a single claw down, stopping the blade.
Pulling the blade back, I swing it diagonally towards his chest.
Once again he merely stops it with a claw.
Bringing it back, I aim for his neck.
Seeing what I was attempting, he lets out a devilish smile on his face.
He doesn't bother trying to counter the blade and lets it swing towards his neck.
My eyes grow wide as the blade stops as soon as it touches the orange aura he releases.
Recovering from my shock, I level the pistol at him, firing at his head point blank.
The tiger on his head extends opening its mouth catching each bullet.
I keep firing long after I hear the clicks of an empty clip.
Stepping back, I pocket my pistol and grab the katana with both hands.
"You show greater talent than the grunts that come my way.
The downfall of the Shimada is imminent. Work for the Hashimoto.
At your level in a couple of years you're sure to get a high rank as long as you show loyalty."
Hachiman says.
"What will I be doing?" I ask while behind the blade.
"Nothing much, just using what Mamo taught you to help dismantle the Shimada.
After that, whatever you want. There's little that hinders us, we even have a benefactor that supplies us with our guns.
All we have to do is meet our benefactors with reasonable demands." He explains.
I think about what he's said and once again I can only think of one group that would support the Hashimoto.
"You're supported by Talon?" I question.
He begins to laugh.
"Well shit. You're good. You've done your research if you already knew that. They love working with intellectual people." He says as he stops laughing.
The pieces were starting to come together.
"So after the fall of the Shimada I bet I'll be helping with the kidnapping of people for Talon." I respond.
He snaps his fingers pointing at me. "Exactly. You might even get offered a position in Talon if you show some promise."
I think about his offer for a second.
If I joined Talon I could probably get a high seat like Moira and Maximilien and call the shots.
Until Doomfist came and took over.
All I would have to do is work my way up their ranks with the Hashimoto.
Kidnapping innocent people who are already struggling and more so when the Omnic Crisis starts.
Maybe Talon wasn't even doing anything bad to them.
I sighed as I knew I couldn't be ok with that.
"No thanks, I won't have innocent blood on my hands." I say defiantly.
He smiles again, "Pity. I guess we have to do this the hard way. Talon can be really persuasive. If I bring you to them, I'm sure you'll change your mind."
Having said that, he disappears, and I feel a presence on my right suddenly.
Reacting all too slow, I begin to jump away from him, but he back hands me and it feels like I just got hit by a truck as my skull rattles and I get sent flying.
Landing painfully on my side, I struggle to stay conscious, breathing heavily.
As my vision begins to slowly fade, I see Hachiman walking towards me.
In a desperate attempt to not get knocked out, I will the bioelectrical energy within me to spread, entering into my Galvanic state and my mind forcefully snaps into attention.
Jumping up, I assess the best way to take him down, knowing that I have at least 30 seconds before I unofficially join Talon.
I dash towards him picking up the fallen katana along the way as I do, and his eyes grow wide at my sudden increase in speed.
Coming in low, I stab at his leg, making him jump in response.
I change the direction of the blade, sending it towards his chest and he puts his arms in front of himself as a shield.
His aura deflects my blade attack but that's fine as I got what I needed as I retreat momentarily as he lands on his feet.
He takes the initiative, charging at me.
This time as my brain can focus on him his movements are much slower allowing me to react faster.
He swings madly at my head again, intending to knock me out.
I duck, as his massive arm swings dangerously close to my head as I stab at his leg.
My blade slices cleanly through his leg and he grunts in pain as he falls to one knee.
Pressing my advantage, I jump up, bringing my knee up which connects with his chin.
His head snaps up but he quickly recovers, as he swings at me with his left arm.
I spin and his arm narrowly misses me as it grazes my back.
Halfway through the spin, I bring my right elbow back, smashing it into his face.
Completing the spin, I stab towards his other good leg.
He brings his left arm back deflecting the blade away from himself.
The sheer force knocks the katana out of my hand and it clatters near Mamoru.
Feeling fatigued, I know I have a couple of seconds left before I have to cancel the form or I'll black out from overuse and permanently damage myself again.
Drawing my knife, I dash at him.
He sees my approach and swings with his left arm.
I duck under it last second and feel the wind from his hit pass me, as I get in close and bring the knife up towards his chin.
Inches from connecting with this neck, the tiger on his head drops down and bites the knife, stopping it in its tracks.
Suddenly a giant hand grasps my arm holding the dagger.
Trying to resist his iron grip is useless, but using the last seconds I have, I bring my left hand and punch him in the face.
As I cancel the state I watch as he moves his jaw back and forth before spitting a tooth out.
His other arm comes around and brings me into a bear hug as he stands.
There's nothing I can do as his grip begins to tighten and I begin to struggle to breathe.
"I don't know what you did there but Talon would be happy to have someone like you to study.
Maybe after they're done experimenting on you, they'll let you come work for us."
He begins squeezing tighter and I can feel my bones creaking under the pressure as I can barely breathe.
Using whatever strength I have left, I frantically thrash about trying to free myself to no avail.
Just as he tightens his grip some more, I can no longer breathe.
Using both my hands, I push against his chest in an effort to give myself some breathing room but that's useless as well.
As my head feels lighter and I slowly lose consciousness, I begin to sense something.
I can feel the electricity flowing within him and because he was in whatever this was, he had a lot of bioelectrical activity.
I've never tried to absorb electricity into my own body for fear of any consequences but desperate times call for desperate measures.
I will the electricity in Hachiman to flow through my hand into me.
For a couple of seconds nothing happens, but then a rush of electricity flows into me and I feel a boost of energy.
Hachiman's grip loosens greatly and I gasp for breath.
He lets me go, falling to both knees as I back away from him.
I look at Mamoru to see if he's recovered yet and see him slumped.
Running to him I see that he's lost a lot of blood and is pale.
Placing both my hands on him, I close my eyes and focus.
After a couple of seconds, I feel the pulse of his bioelectrical activity, but it's faint.
The energy I absorbed from Hachiman in his form overflowed whatever my current capacity was, so I was more hyper than I was used to.
I start a current of the extra energy I have into Mamoru, then focus on his injury and the currents send signals to cells in areas that need healing.
I watch as his wounds heal in a matter of seconds and the color returns to his face.
Amazed that it actually worked I notice that he hasn't woken up yet, so I send a painful jolt through his body and he sits straight up.
Taking a look around, his eyes sadden as he remembers what happened so far.
Holding his head down in shame he says, "I bring shame to the Shimada name by losing to the killer of Lady Shimada.
Shawn I apologize for leaving you to handle such an opponent."
"Now is not the time for that old man, get up and let's finish this." I say trying to rush him as we don't have time for whatever he was about to do.
He picks up his katana that's nearby and stands to his feet.
"When this is over, we're going to go get some apple pie." He says making sure to mention my favorite dessert as a reward.
I smile going back into Galvanic form, "Let's make this quick then."