Adjust [Chapter 4]

[esp_dragon]

Fandom: Noblesse
Summary: When Tao gains consciousness after being attacked by an agent, he finds that his body has changed in one very obvious way.
Rating: PG-13
Contains: Violence that is a little more descriptive than canon. Tentacles.
Aaaand for the more lighthearted 'contains' section: more xeno than Side Effect and Pace the Night put together. Tao's thought processes. Crackish premises taken seriously. Way too much crack in general. But this also a lot more serious than Side Effect and Pace the Night.
Notes: Set post-season 4, and before season 5.
Written for tentaclebigbang. Yeeeep. Art post is here!
Thanks to Kaelin, Kai and Dogmatix for their help while I was writing this! :D And thanks to Kaelin for also beta-reading this! ♥
I feel like I have to say something about the unholy amount of crack in this fic, because there really is an unholy amount of crack in this fic.
Been working on this since January, ahahaha. XDD
Genre: Family/Humour/Action
Word count: 4,972
Total word count: 23,245
Status: Complete



Tao leaned back on his chair while Takeo and M-21 did the dishes after breakfast and looked down at Miss Seira's kilt, humming thoughtfully. It had been a couple of days since he'd started wearing it and it was due for a wash.

"What are you thinking about?" Takeo asked, not even looking over his shoulder.

"Skirt shopping," he said truthfully. "Wanna come?" It wouldn't work if he transformed his legs while he wasn't wearing one, but it was faster than ordering a kilt online. There wasn't much else they could do until the agent revealed himself again.

"Someone's going to have to," M-21 said dryly.

"Hey, it's fine if you don't want to," Tao said, shaking his head. "I can ask Miss Seira instead." She'd know better about sizes and what should fit him.

"I think she and Regis are doing homework right now," Takeo said, looking towards the living room door.

"Ah. Hm, wouldn't want to disturb them while they did that." Not after they'd been busy with the agent business over the last couple of days. "Any volunteers?" he asked, tilting a grin at both of them.

Takeo and M-21 shared a look and then sighed.

"I take it that means both of you?"

"…Yes."

* * *
Tao flicked through the clothes rack, dismissing a lot of the skirts at a glance. Too shiny, too thin, too light - ooh, that one looked perfect. Tao pulled it out, turning to Takeo and M-21, holding it up. "What do you think?"

"Are you buying for your girlfriend?" the shop assistant asked, the one that had been hovering around them since they'd entered the women's section.

"Yep," Tao lied blithely. He heard M-21 cough suddenly. "She likes black, but doesn't really have a preference."

She eyed the skirt critically for a second. "Is it for a party?"

He shook his head. "No, she doesn't go to them."

"We do have another section with skirts; if you'll follow me," she said, and Tao did, hearing Takeo and M-21 trail after them.

* * *
Bags filled with skirts (a couple for him; most were skirts that Tao thought Miss Seira might like), Tao, Takeo and M-21 started to make their way home again.

"That went better than expected," Tao said, swinging his bags slightly.

M-21 snorted, but then he halted, his expression confused.

"What's wrong?" Tao asked, both him and Takeo stopping next to him.

He studied Tao, his expression still the same. "You aren't…" M-21 turned his face away, and Tao could see him sniffing covertly at the air.

Tao raised his eyebrows, remembering the last time M-21 had done that. "It'll just be one of the students." If M-21 didn't think he was scent-marking everything at that moment, that had to be what M-21 was smelling.

M-21 shook his head. "It's too faint for that."

Tao wanted to guess it was someone from the school who had passed through a while ago, but when M-21 took a few steps away from them and then looked up, Tao knew what M-21 was about to say.

"The students don’t stand on rooftops," M-21 said grimly.

That meant it could only be the agent M-21 was smelling.

The agent had been to the school; if he had kidnapped any of the children… Tao quickly quashed his flare of anger. So much for his instincts being under control. Dammit. On the one hand, surge wasn't as strong as before, but that could be because they didn't know yet.

"Guess it's a good thing we went shopping," Tao said as M-21 started slowly leading the way. Both because they'd found the agent's trail because of it, and if there was going to be a fight, he had skirts handy in case his tentacles shredded his trousers again.

Tao texted Miss Seira and Regis, informing them what they'd found. A few seconds later, he got a reply from Regis, telling him he had just left with the children to go the PC Bang and Tao let out a relieved breath. That meant the children were all right; he would keep them safe. If other children had been kidnapped though… At the end of the text, Regis asked if they needed assistance and Tao hummed, watching M-21's back. Tao sent back 'No' – they didn't know if the trail would actually lead them anywhere and they might draw attention if they moved in too large a group. Once he'd sent the text, Tao briefly considered telling him, but eventually slipped the phone back into his pocket – if they told him what was happening, Tao had no doubt he would come straight over, and if there was a fight… No, none of them wanted that.

They went up to the rooftops and started heading west. A couple of times, the wind shifted and M-21 lost the trail, but he was able to find again soon after.

They eventually found themselves on the outskirts of the city, at an abandoned warehouse on the waterfront. There weren't any buildings near it, an empty space filled with litter all around it.

M-21 took one look at it and snorted.

Tao's own lips were twitching as he pulled out his pocket computer and set down his shopping bags. It was a bit nostalgic, seeing the life they'd had before they'd been adopted into the household.

"Number 4," Tao said, throwing M-21 an earpiece, "you're going in alone; Number 2 will cover you." Takeo and M-21 both nodded, Takeo pulling out his gun.

Tao sat down on the roof and started hacking into the security cameras of the surrounding areas, checking what they had seen as Takeo settled down next to him and M-21 made his way down.

There weren't any cameras that directly looked at the derelict warehouse, and Tao sighed, expanding his search to the closest buildings that did use security cameras, hoping the agent had been caught going into the area somewhere. If the agent had moved around via the rooftops though…

Tao hacked into one building's security system, and he pursed his lips, when he felt his attention start to slide already. Yeah, he wasn't going to let the instincts have their way this time. He shook his head and shoved them away, focusing on the task at hand.

"There's no-one inside," M-21 murmured.

"Good." No kidnapped kids. "Still trying to find him. Number 2?"

"Nothing."

It was still too early to relax and Tao continued trying to find the agent.

"I can see where he's been sleeping. There's at least two - shit!" A crash.

Tao froze, straining his ears, trying to hear anything. "4?"

"He's here." A smash, and then Tao couldn't hear anything from M-21.

Dammit! "Number 2," Tao said, pushing himself faster to hack into the security systems, feeling the instincts start to drum at his skull. He couldn't go in with Takeo, as much as he wanted to - M-21 had been about to say there were at least two agents, and Tao didn't know if the second agent was in the warehouse or not. If they were, Takeo would definitely be able to help; if they weren't, that was why he was staying put.

"Got it." Takeo jumped over the edge of the rooftop, and between hacking into the systems, Tao kept glancing over the top of his pocket computer, trying to pinpoint where M-21 was, if he could see any movement inside. He couldn't, but if he could - there, he was finally in a building to the north's system.

He got a glimpse of Takeo speeding towards the warehouse on his screen, but Tao turned his attention away from that, scanning for broken windows, anything that could help him see inside.

Smoke obscured everything inside, the dirt caked onto the glass not helping at all, and Tao leaned forward, hoping he could see something, how the fight was going, if the second agent was there so he could warn Takeo.

Movement reflected on his screen.

Tao threw himself to the right, and whirled around, hearing his pocket computer clatter as it hit the roof.

There was a woman was above him, bronze scales rippling up her arms as she landed, cracking the rooftop and sending dust clouds up into the air. Tao didn't waste any time, unfurling his cable with a flick of his wrist, the tentacle-instincts already screaming at him, wanting to be used. He cautiously took a few steps forward – he didn't like having the edge of the rooftop so close to his back.

When the dust settled, Tao gawked for a brief second before he leaped back when the agent rushed at him. She no longer had legs, but she didn't have tentacles either – she had one thick tail that started at the hips, and was probably about twice as long as his tentacles, covered in bronze scales. She was faster than Tao expected, the tail propelling her easily across the rooftop and Tao's stomach sank – he couldn't use either of the D drugs in case they killed him before he could do anything with the enhancement but-

"Number 1?"

Ah. "Found the other agent," he said tersely. She'd found him, but the difference didn't matter at that point. "Keep going."

"Understood."

Tao yanked the earpiece out and crushed it, to make sure he wouldn't be distracted. He leaped out of the way of her slash, not liking just how close it had been.

"Where did they find a piece of gorgon to use on you?" Tao asked, anchoring his cable around his arm as he waited to see what she would do next. It explained where the base of the poison had come from though; really, they should have expected that.

He wasn't really expecting an answer, but if she did reply, it'd give him a couple more seconds of breathing room, and maybe give him a few hints of what he could use to his advantage.

"It doesn't matter," she said, her voice not as raspy or hissing like Tao had thought it would be. "You will die soon."

It was unoriginal, but Tao couldn't call her out on it when she had already raised her arm, pointing her palm towards him. He tensed, waiting to see how he should react.

Tao had just enough time to see something whizzing out of her wrist and ducked.

"Heh," he said, "your poison didn't work the first time-" He would have said more, but she charged again. Tao flicked his cable down, feeling it burrow through the roof and he calculated where she would be, sending the cable there and he directed it upwards just as she passed.

When he had looped it around her tail, Tao realised he hadn't thought properly about what wrapping his cable around a tail meant, because the agent didn't stop at all, sliding over them.

Tao clenched his hand, electrifying the cable, and now the agent stopped, howling.

At least he knew that worked on her.

Snarling, she crouched down low and Tao only understood what she was about to do when the section behind where his cable was rose up higher than the rest.

He hastily loosened the cable from his arm, but he wasn't fast enough – she snapped back, dragging his cable with her, tearing it up through the rooftop. Tao hissed when the cable was ripped from him; he could feel his sleeve was in tatters, blood trickling down his arm, but he ignored that, watching for what she would do next.

"Even if it didn't work on you," she said, sneering, "can you say the same of your teammates?"

Tao froze, the air caught in his throat as the tentacle-instincts crashed into him.

"Maybe I'll drag you over when I'm done," she continued, advancing on him while Tao struggled to contain the instincts, his head buzzing, refusing to think about anything else, refusing to let him move, "let you see their corpses before I kill you."

Dammit, Tao knew what she was doing (the other agent must have told her what had happened before and how he'd reacted to a threat to Takeo and M-21), but the tentacle-instincts were drowning out the rational part of his brain, demanding he stop fighting and go to their sides.

Tao saw her tail speeding towards him, but it was far too late to dodge and Tao was only able to lift his arms at the last second, bracing himself for the blow.

It was like he'd been hit with a car, and Tao sucked in a breath as he flew through the air. The shock from the impact broke Tao's concentration for a second and when he crashed into the rooftop, his tentacles splayed out, trying their best to make him stop, but all they got was the skin scoured from them.

Tao shoved away the fact that the world was spinning, that he felt the familiar stabbing pain in his chest that said he had a couple of cracked ribs, because staying still on the ground in the middle of a fight would only get him killed.

It was easier to right himself with tentacles, even while he didn't know which way was up; he got up just in time, hearing a 'thunk' from where he'd just been, the tentacles near it flinching away.

He had to keep a tighter hold on his instincts; Tao wasn't sure he'd be able to survive another blow like that, one way or another.

"And you don't know my comrades," Tao said, forcing a grin on his face, even though every breath hurt, every word hummed in his chest. "They aren't easy to take down."

There was an explosion behind the agent, from the warehouse, and Tao's grin eased, turning more natural. "See?" The explosion could mean anything – the tentacle-instincts were shrieking that it was the end of the fight, but Tao quashed them before they could try to overwhelm him again. In the very least it was a sign – there was the familiar staccato of gunfire and Tao relaxed, the instincts slightly mollified, but not entirely – he still wasn't sure how M-21 was, but at least he knew Takeo was still alive. "That doesn't sound like they're dead," he drawled out, kicking the instincts back bit by bit with each second he stalled for.

"For how long?" she shot back, charging at him again.

He didn't bother with a retort as he lunged out the way – okay, the bonus of tentacles was it at least meant he was faster and he wasn't jostling his ribs so much with every step.

He dashed past her, keeping an eye on the agent's tail just in case. He caught sight of his cable and he tore towards it, a little wary of the hole that had been left when the agent had ripped it out.

The tentacles grabbed the cable as he went past without slowing down – and Tao's mind raced when he felt the rooftop shift slightly under him, the vibrations travelling up his tentacles. With enough weight on it and the weakness from the hole… The rooftop wouldn't collapse by itself, but with help…

Tao more sensed the projectile aimed for his head rather than heard or saw it and he snapped the cable around his arm as he whirled around and span his cable around the projectile and directing it back to her. It missed, but it felt good to have his cable back (especially now that he'd had a better look at the projectile – it was a thick spike the length of his hand, bronze as the agent's scales) and Tao clenched his hands, just double-checking his grip and how well he could move his arm. He had less mobility in his arm, but that wouldn't matter as much.

"You think that will save you?" the agent mocked as she charged again.

"It could," Tao said, grinning as he cracked the cable in the agent's direction. She flung herself to the side and Tao swung the cable around, wrapping it around the arm she'd hastily raised to block it. Before the cable had finished wrapping around her arm, Tao charged it.

He loosened his cable and yanked it back, in case she tried to repeat what she'd done before. Before she could recover, Tao snapped his cable down, burrowing it through the rooftop again. He tore through the supports, a little grateful the building was on the older side, making it easier to destroy.

The agent jerked back at that, and Tao quickly directed his cable up through the rooftop again – if she thought he was attacking her, then it was better if he played along so she didn't know what was going to happen next.

He missed, the agent no longer there when the cable surfaced, but he didn't mind that much, not when doing that was helping his plan along. He did mind when the agent lifted her arm and shot another projectile at him though, and Tao dropped his cable again to dodge.

It whizzed by far too close for comfort, the stabbing pain in Tao's chest making it harder for him to move as easily.

Before Tao could properly recover, the agent charged and he hissed, lunging away from his cable. The rooftop didn't shift, or at least not enough for the agent to notice.

Tao ducked her slash and blocked her other swipe. He gritted his teeth as his tentacles started to writhe, not sure what they were trying to do, definitely not caring, and he stomped down on the impulse. He twisted his arm and grabbed her wrist – she snarled when he channelled his electricity through his hand.

She recovered far too fast and Tao was too slow to pull back when she lashed out with her other fist. The blow landed solidly and he flew through the air, crashing heavily into the rooftop.

This was not a habit he wanted to keep having, Tao thought in a daze, every single scrape throbbing, his head ringing.

But he'd landed on top of his cable and he sluggishly picked it up with his tentacles, glad he could still control his cable through them as he tried to right himself, sending it through the rooftop again.

He heard her scales scraping on the rooftop and Tao heaved a deep breath as he tried to turn around. There wasn't any time left – he directed his cable to rip apart the area where the agent was standing.

He felt the instant when the rooftop started to give way and he scrambled backwards as a rumble made itself known.

The agent paused for a second, eyeing him suspiciously and Tao used that moment of distraction to yank the cable back up through the rooftop, making as much damage as he could.

It was enough, and between one blink and the next, the air was filled with crashing and billowing dust. Tao coughed as the dust invaded his lungs, scratching his throat, and he winced every time a cough wracked his chest. His eyes weren't that much better, the dust making his eyes water and blink too much.

Tao carefully straightened himself, his tentacles handing him his cable back. He slowly wound the cable around his arm, trying to avoid previous injuries, keeping his ears strained for movement, but he couldn't hear anything. It would be far too careless not to check though.

With his ears pricked, Tao approached the gaping hole, still not hearing anything. The dust didn't help either, and Tao waved a hand in front of his face, trying to see through it. After a few seconds, he finally could and he peered down the hole, stretching out his tentacles for extra balance, in case more of the rooftop gave way.

The agent was there, half-buried under the debris, not moving. Tao let out a small breath of relief, slumping his shoulders as he relaxed. Okay, now he had to –

A tumble of rocks against each other.

Tao snapped his attention down again and saw the agent lunge out from where she lay, her palm outstretched.

Tao snapped down his cable, but he couldn't concentrate properly, pain snarling at the sharp movement. He missed the projectile but managed to wrap the cable around her wrist.

He electrified the cable instantly, knowing he wouldn't be able to dodge in time – it was aimed too low, too centred, he couldn't jump out the way, but if he could at least knock her out at the same time-!

Tao had been too distracted with the agent to pay attention to what his tentacles were doing until they reared up in front of him, like a group of cobras intending to strike.

His eyes widened when he realised what they were going to do, his electricity stuttering briefly before he continued. If it worked, then…

Tao's tentacles lashed out at the projectile, swatting it out the – the spike shattered, the fragments slicing a tentacle.

Tao had a second to wince, feeling his blood trail down from the wounds before he hissed, fire scorching up the tentacle.

What - poison.

He could feel it racing through his body, and he fell sideways, his elbow scraping the rooftop a second before he cracked his head on the rooftop when his tentacles crumpled underneath him.

He lay there, trying to see straight, hoping the world would stop spinning soon. The ringing in his ears was back and all Tao could do was wait for it to fade as he felt the poison course through his veins.

Tao gingerly turned over, in case the agent still wasn't knocked out; he had to close his eyes at the sudden wave of vertigo, sucking in a breath.

His hearing came back slowly but Tao's eyes snapped open when he heard the rasp of scales on concrete. The agent had slithered up the pile of debris the rooftop caving in had caused, and Tao's tentacles barely responded to him, only listlessly twitching when he wanted them to move.

Dammit, his cable was nowhere in sight (probably on the floor below) and Tao gritted his teeth when she neared, her tail nudging his tentacles as she loomed over him. "As you pointed out," she said, glowering, "my poison didn't kill you the first time, but you won't survive my poison and a crushed neck this time."

That was unfortunately true. Tao couldn't do anything as she crouched down; his tentacles were the only part of him that were listening to him, but all they wanted to do was futilely push against – no, they weren't even doing that, just trying to cover as much of her as possible and if they had been his hands that would have been fine because then he could –

That's what they'd wanted to do earlier.

Tao charged his tentacles just as he felt the agent wrap her hand around his throat and squeeze – she screamed a second later and Tao choked when her hand spasmed, gripping his neck. He jerked back as much as he could, and was rewarded with freeing himself.

He coughed, feeling where her nails had scratched his skin and heard the agent drop down next to him. Tao peered at her, his breath ragged, his neck throbbing - her eyes were closed and that was enough for him.

Tao just tried to breathe in and out as gently as he could, trying to not make his aching…everything worse but his hands flew to his neck, as much help that would do when his lungs seized up.

He struggled to drag air into his lungs but every breath felt less and less and the world brightened, searing Tao's eyeballs.

"Tao!"

Tao's vision was suddenly filled with purple, with a mix of silver. He smiled, glad they were still alive, before everything whited out.

* * *
"-ao? If – can you – back?"

What…?

"Transform your legs – you can-"

Oh. "'Kay, Boss…"

* * *

Tao gained consciousness by degrees, hearing the regular beep of the heart monitor, the sound of pen on paper.

There was the familiar ache everywhere after being in a fight, but Tao smiled tiredly at the feel of toes. That was nice.

The writing stopped and Tao struggled to get his eyes open as he heard someone approach, muted footsteps on the carpet.

"How are you feeling?" Boss murmured, setting the clipboard down on the bed.

"Sore? Haha," he wheezed. It felt good, being able to breathe without difficulty. …Relatively, anyway.

Boss sent him a small smile. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to do a few things before you rest again."

"Heh, sure, Boss," Tao said. He was about to heave himself upright, but Boss stopped him with a shake of his head.

"There's no need for that – it won't take long."

"All right," Tao said, settling down again.

"Can you change your legs to the gorgon limbs?"

Tao blinked at him and then snickered. When Boss raised an expectant eyebrow, Tao just waved a hand; knowing the Boss, that was the correct term, but Tao still preferred using 'tentacles' to describe them.

He let out a long breath, concentrating on thinking about his tentacles, but nothing happened. It was like when he couldn't change the tentacles back to his regular legs, but this was far less panic-inducing than that. More relief-inducing, really. Just in case it was a similar case to that, Tao did the same thing as he did before, recalling every single detail he could, painting the image of it in his mind. It was harder to do, and Tao could only really think of impressions rather than what the tentacles looked like, but the result was just the same.

"No, I can't," he said, shaking his head.

"Good," Boss said, nodding. "Now, are you still experiencing that headache?"

"I – huh." Tao quirked a grin at him. "No. Hadn't noticed I wasn't-" A yawn blindsided him, and Tao lifted a hand to cover his mouth, suddenly feeling droopy.

"Just one more thing," the Boss said, holding his hand out, and Tao reached for it. When their palms touched, Tao waited a second, still almost expecting a reaction, but there wasn't any.

"Nothing." Tao paused to yawn widely again. "Sooo, I have a clean bill of health?"

Boss chuckled. "Yes. M-21 and Takeo were able to bring more than enough samples of the original poison, so I was able to find out how to reverse the process."

Tao wanted to whistle, but he chuckled instead. "I know you're a genius, Boss, but I didn't think you'd be able to work that quickly!" Not that he wanted the Boss to work slower, obviously, but it still surprising just how much Boss could achieve in so little time.

Boss looked at him wryly over the rim of his glasses. "It's Monday afternoon."

"…Ah." He'd been unconscious for two days, then.

"I had to risk using my initial solution to stabilise you," Boss said, sighing. "As I far as I can tell at the moment, there isn't any permanent effect from your metamorphosis or from my solution."

"But you'll still be monitoring me, just in case," Tao finished for him, just before he yawned again. Not that there was anything wrong with that, of course. He would much prefer to be poked and prodded for the next little while than regrow the tentacles. Or die.

Boss gave him a warm smile. "Of course. Now go to sleep."

"Yes, Boss," Tao said, settling further into the bed.

He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

* * *
Tao could hear a lot more people the next time he woke up. And he could smell ramen.

"Morning," he said before he'd even opened his eyes. He stretched, luxuriating in his body responding to him easily. And only having two legs. Tao knew he was going to be enjoying that for a while.

"Evening," Regis corrected after the room hushed for a second.

"Is it still Monday?" Tao asked, finally opening his eyes and sliding himself up the bed to lean on the headboard. On the bedside table was a still steaming bowl of ramen. With squid.

"Yes," Takeo said.

"Heh, all right," Tao said as M-21 handed him the bowl.

"You're feeling better?" M-21 asked and Tao nodded as he sucked up a noodle.

"Mm!" Tao said once he'd swallowed it, remembering a few things he hadn't asked the Boss. "Two things I wanna know," he said, holding up two fingers.

He waited for the others to nod before he continued. He put down his middle finger. "What happened to the skirts?"

Miss Seira smiled at him while Takeo and M-21 breathed an exasperated sigh.

"Takeo and M-21 told me you'd bought most of them for me," she said.

"Yeah," Tao said, nodding, tilting his head back as he thought. "I guess all of them are for you now, since I don't need them anymore."

"Thank you," she said, dipping her head, and Tao smiled back at her.

"And the second thing?" Regis asked.

Tao grinned, looking at M-21. "What happened to your shirt?"

The grimace that flashed across M-21's face told him all he needed to know and Tao shook his head sadly as he leaned over and patted his shoulder. "You'll be able to do it someday."

M-21 swatted his hand away, giving him a dry look. "Finish your dinner."

Tao snickered before he started digging in again.

"Sooo," he drew out after a minute, and he waved his chopsticks to prove he was still eating, "after Boss lets me out, wanna help me set up cameras around the city?"

There was a brief pause, and then everyone nodded.

Grinning, Tao got back to finishing his ramen.

______________________________________________
Haaa, when I started writing this in January, I half-stole the 'projectile from the wrist' from their other webcomic, Ability. And then I found out later the Another could actually poison people too. Orz;;;; And then Kalvin came into Noblesse… orz;;;;;; AND THEN THERE WAS THE THICKNESS OF THE ROOFTOPS ANDALJOAIEHOE. Basically, canon has been kicking my butt for two months straight, ahahaha… Either that or I've been pretty prophetic, but my predictions only came to light afterwards. XDDD;;; Apart from the rooftops. I am never getting over that.

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