#ma powers

[britishassistant]

Ma Powers: I know Johnny can be a bit violent, but he did have a terrible childhood.

Nana: I’m having a terrible childhood right now.

[britishassistant]

Ummmmm are you still doing the OC ask meme? Please do it with Nana! :D I wanna know more about him~

Of course! 

Just give me a number from the ask meme with what you wanna know about him, and I will happily provide!

I would do all the numbers at once, but I figured that would just lead to a mountain of text that might be too long to read. This way, I get to do something slightly more detailed for each number! (Although no. 1 might be giving too much away~)

Both he and I are really please that you’re intereted in him, though!

[britishassistant]

So, who is Nails Nathan? Can you do 02 and 11 with him?

2. Best Friend: Johnny Powers, unfortuantely enough.

The pair met on a counsel estate on the outskirts of London. At the time “Nails” was just a 9 year old kid who bit his fingernails occasionally, and spent his time trying to build things that went fast. His pride and joy was an old cart that he’d manage to rig up with a semi-working motor built from scrap.

He met a new kid who had just moved in, 7 years old with a mother who seemed to be recovering from some serious injuries. The kid seemed sad and lonely, so Nails took him on a joyride that had him kind of scared of how fast the child insisted they go. When the boy’s Ma came out to call him in, the boy looked at Nails and told him “ya’re gonna be my best friend forever.”

When the boy and his Ma left the estate, Nails went with them. He doesn’t really remember his old family and friends anymore. He can barely recall his name, on bad days.

11. Worst Fear: Johnny Powers

As time went on, Nails came to learn exactly what his best friend was capable of. Johnny was driven to become powerful enough that he would never need fear the Man with the Scar again, and he conducted his dealings and repaid his grudges with the kind of ruthlessness and cruelty only children can possess.

When a rival gang lord broke a territory agreement, Johnny had the man’s nephew lock him in his hideout, alongside his gang and his family, and burn all the occupants alive.

Those who failed him would often be ordered to kill or cripple those close to them, including family members, neighbors, and pets, before committing suicide.

One incompetent private eye who managed to struggle dangerously close to Johnny’s smuggling operation was forced to tie his younger brother to a bomb, and then was left to try and decativate it before it exploded. He was unsuccessful.

Nails knows that Johnny likes him. It’s what “saves” him when he makes mistakes, or when his skills as a getaway driver fail him. But Nails also knows he wasn’t cut out for this gangster business. And it’s only a matter of time before Johnny loses interest in him for good and decided to trade his old best friend in for a new one.

[britishassistant]

Nana: Part 4

Johnny Powers belongs to Anthony Horowitz. I just made a version of him for the Nanbaka universe, which belongs to Futamata Shou. Warning for violence.

Somewhere in the outskirts of Tokyo, far from the island Nanba Prison was situated on, a group of Englishmen were celebrating.

They were a fairly large group, all crammed into the closest equivalent of a pub that could be found. Their rowdiness and threats towards anyone who happened to glance over for a moment too long had caused all but the most unperturbed and unnoticeable patrons to leave the establishment.

The manager ought to have kicked them out long ago, but all he was doing was standing in the back, giving orders to his staff to facilitate the group’s drinking and feasting, smiling so widely that all of his teeth were showing and his eyes were tearing up from the force of it. The wait staff and any of the chefs who had left the kitchen to see what was causing all the ruckus bore the same expression.

The high school girl who was the only Japanese member of the party seemed to have it carved into her face, as she giggled at a pitch similar to a scream and translated everything her English compatriots told her to, leaning into the arm of the boy who seemed to be at the center of it all.

For the seventh time that night, one of the men stood on his chair, his beer sloshing unsteadily in his glass. “A—a toasht!” He cried, “A toasht t’ the besht, sm-smartesht, and shtrongesht bosh of— of the whole bloody world! The firsht man to break outta—outta—whatever the hell that prishon was called!! To Johnny!”

All the other men in the room cheered and downed as much of their liquor as their mouths could hold, some of them overestimating their capabilities.

Johnny Powers gulped down his rum and coke, and smiled.

Everything had gone off smoothly in the end. Sure there had been a few hitches, but what could ya expect from a bunch of bozos who were better at scraping and cowering than thinking for themselves?

Still it was a little ridiculous that it took seven tries for them to find a suitable replacement. The kids they brought back were downright insulting— too much acne, too chubby cheeks, squinty eyes that were too close together, crooked teeth, big ears with detached lobes, the wrong jawline—honestly, he had an image.

If a kid arrived at Nanba who didn't at least somewhat resemble his own good looks, there was no way they would have been able to pull it off.

“Don't use that kinda language in front of my boy, Stevens.” Barked a stern looking middle-aged woman with a bruise on her right cheek and muscles to rival some of the most experienced fighters in the world.

“Sh-shorry Ma!” Stevens tried to make a conciliatory gesture, and fell off his chair, cracking his head and his glass on the table, much to the mirth of the room.

Johnny looked up at his Ma with adoration. Of course she’d be the one to sort this all out, even at her own expense. She was his Ma after all. “‘S your cheek alright Ma?”

“Never better Johnny. Can't even feel what that brat did to it anymore.”

“I’m glad.” The thirteen-year-old beamed happily. It was the same smile he’d give to bank guards asking where his parents were before unloading a clip of bullets into them. “I still think ya should’a let me repay him for that. I wouldn't have cut him up that much, honest.”

Ma Powers stroked her boy’s soft hair. “But we’d gone through all the trouble to find one that looked like ya, Johnny boy, we didn't have time to get another one after you got through with him. Besides, he’s paying for it already by taking your place, isn't he?”

“Suppose.” Johnny shrugged. The seventh replacement was the closest to his ideal looks, but only just. Kid had pissed him off by pretending to be brave and growling that he didn't know who Johnny was, but he was going to make Johnny regret this.

It was hilarious when seven started screaming as number six offed itself by slamming its head into the the boat’s wall over and over, legs scrabbling on the floor and body straining towards the imperfection against the guys holding him back, begging it to stop even after six’s lifeless body had slumped to the floor. Six’s death wasn't as entertaining as when five had chewed through his own wrists, but it got the job done.

The fear in seven’s eyes as he realized that Johnny had done that, and that would happen to him if he disobeyed the orders which embedded themselves into his very being was something that Johnny would treasure for a long time.

Nails Nathan, cheeks flushed from trying the Japanese rice wine he called “sake”, began giggling to himself as he nibbled on the stubs that served as his fingernails. “We did good by getting that one, didn't we Johnny? That one was almost a perfect match for ya?”

“Yeah, yeah, ya sap.” Johnny flapped an arm in his direction, wrapping the other around the arm candy he’d picked up back in the port after they’d successfully dropped off the seventh replacement. “How’d ya get that one, anyway?”

Nails puffed himself up. “Well, me and Ma was driving along this one road to get to the port where they was going to be shipping you off from Johnny, when all of a sudden I see this kid standing on the side of the road, thumb up like hitchhikers do, ya know?”

The fifteen year old tried to imitate the gesture, giggling uncontrollably when his hand wavered under the effects of all the alcohol he’d consumed.

Another gang member yelled “Get on with it!” as the others also settled in to hear the story, conversations dropping to a low lull.

“So, so I tell Ma to get into the back, and once Ma’s in the back, I pull up and ask the kid “hey, you wanna ride?” And now I’m close I can see the kid looks a lot like ya, Johnny, and the kid says “yeah, I need to get to town” and the accent is English, so it sounds a little like ya if, like, ya were making ya voice really high-pitched, right Ma?”

Ma Powers grunted. “A little.”

“So I tell the kid to hop on in, and when she does and closes the door, Ma slaps the chloroform over her face! Kid put up a fight, elbowing Ma in the face, kicking the windscreen and me before the drug finally kicks in, then the kid’s out like a light until we’re already on the boat and out to sea! Think I did a good job on shaving her long hair all short, kinda like yours, and giving her the tattoo, though she woke up during that part so I got worried that she would move too much and mess it up. But that kid really did look almost exactly like ya, didn't she?! Shows that y’are just as pretty as a girl, doesn't it Johnny?”

Everyone in the room had fallen quiet as all gazes pinned the storyteller and his primary spectator. Even Ma Powers and the perpetually grinning high school girl shifted away minutely.

Johnny had stopped smiling. “Nails.”

“Y-yes Johnny?” Nails, even in his drunken stupor, suddenly began to feel slightly uneasy.

“I think I must have heard wrong. Could ya correct me? ‘Cause I could’ve swore I heard you say that the kid you picked up to replace me in a male prison was a girl.”

The unfortunate teenager turned ashen. He gulped, fingers twitching.

“L-look J-Johnny, it-it was—th-that kid looked just like ya, yeah? A-and none of the o-other boys were-were good enough, so-so I figured that-that anyone wo-would do, and—pl-please Johnny, I-I’m sorry, God, pl—”

“Nails.” Johnny ordered, his Conquerer’s Voice taking advantage of the squirming adolescent’s fear to impress his orders into the boy’s being, so even his own mind could not prevent his body from carrying them out. “Go break every bone in your fucking hands for ever thinking that it was a good idea to send a girl in drag into a men’s prison as MY replacement, You MORONIC RETARD!!!”

Nails Nathan stood up, tears streaming down his spotty cheeks. He walked to the bar at the back of the restaurant, pushing past a server who half-heartedly tried to stop him from going behind the bar. There was a steel door that had been left open for the servers to come and go from the kitchen.

Nails Nathan placed his hand in the frame, and slammed the steel door on it as hard as he could.

His scream could be heard from the street outside. He moved his hand up, and did it again. And again. And again. Until every last bone in his hand had broken and his throat was nearly hoarse from screaming.

Then he started again on the other one.

The gang kept their heads down, trying to avoid flinching at every sickening crack and screech. The wait staff’s expression never dropped from the smiling rictus they’d been ordered into, though several of them had tears streaming down their cheeks as they mechanically continued to serve. The high school girl was unable to even do that, as she had been ordered not to a day or so after she was kidnapped from her home on the coast by the boy next to her.

The boy himself was breathing heavily, almost hyperventilating in rage. His fists shook and his eyes were wild like a mad dog’s as he muttered a never-ending litany to himself in a high-pitched voice. “Need to find another, truth will be out too soon, need to get out of here, cover will be blown, need to get an eighth—”

“Easy Johnny boy, breathe.” Ma soothed. “Even if Nails did something stupid, its alright—”

“HOW!?! HOW IS IT ALRIGHT MA?!” The voice that escaped the gang leader’s throat was like that of a hysterical child preparing to throw the biggest tantrum in the history of tantrums.

“—because if it wasn't alright, we wouldn't have made it this far away, would we?” Ma continued, unperturbed at the tone her son was taking with her. “It’s been two weeks, Johnny. If anyone was gonna find out about the replacement, they woulda done it in the first few days. That we’ve lasted this long without that means the kid’s following ya orders. She knows she’ll die the moment someone finds out, so she must be doin’ a really good job hidin’ it.”

Slowly, Johnny’s breathing calmed. His hands relaxed from their clenched fists. “…Ya’re right. Ya’re right, Ma. They woulda…it’s still safe. Can't defy my voice. No one can defy my voice. Still, I wanna get home to London quick-like, just in case she cracks in the next few days.”

“That’s fine, Johnny. That’s just fine.” Ma soothed, stroking his hair. “We’ll drop the slag off at a waste disposal and catch a plane first thing in the morning, ok? An’ I’ll make ya favorite moussaka when we get home.”

“Hot and bubbling with cheese melted on top?” For the first time since coming to Japan, Johnny sounded like a hopeful and excited, like a boy his age should, instead of like he was an old man who enjoyed the pain and suffering he caused wearing a young child’s face.

Ma Powers smiled. “Just the way ya like it.”

Johnny relaxed, and chatter started up among the gang again as they sensed the danger had passed.

Nails stood up from where he’d been curled in a fetal position behind the bar and hobbled back over to his leader. His hands were bruised black and blue, with several of his fingernail stubs bleeding. “J-j-Johnny, I-I’m sorry, I—”

“Ah, stop blubbering, ya great baby. It doesn't hurt that much.” Johnny ordered. “Water under the bridge and all that.”

Nails’ pinched expression loosened as the aching in his hands vanished. “Y-yeah. W-well, something like that won't happen ever again, Johnny, I-I promise.”

“Good.” Johnny stretched out, wrapping an arm around the high school girl and taking no notice of how she had been trembling ever since Ma had mention getting rid of her in the waste disposal. “Now ya lugs better enjoy yaselves while ya can, cause tomorrow we fly for home.”

“Yes boss!” The men cheered, and the party resumed in full swing.

Nobody, not Johnny, not his Ma, not his gang, not the high school girl, not the wait staff, noticed as a salaryman got up, paid his bill, and quietly left.

Walking home in the cool night air, the man turned over what he had learned in his mind.

A famous English criminal at large in Japan! One who was brutally violent and had mysterious abilities to compel others to obey him! Who escaped from the inescapable Nanba Prison no less!

The reporter smiled to himself.

He never expected that he’d get the story of a lifetime when he went to get dinner tonight.

[bookbandit]

Broken Circle (2017) by J.L. Powers and M.A. Powers

Summary (from Goodreads)

Adam wants nothing more than to be a "normal" teen, but his reality is quickly leaking normal. Afraid to sleep because of the monster that stalks his dreams, Adam's breakdown at school in front of his crush Sarah lands him in the hospital.

As he struggles to cope with his day-to-day life, Adam can only vaguely comprehend some sort of future. His mother died when he was only four and his eccentric father--who might be an assassin, a voodoo god, the reincarnation of the Buddha, or something even stranger--is never available when Adam really needs him. Even his paranoid grandfather, who insists that people are "out to kill the entire family," is no help.

Adam's life takes an even weirder turn when a fat man with a gold tooth and a medallion confronts his father regarding Adam's supposed "True Destiny." Adam is soon headed toward a collision with life, death, and the entities charged with shepherding souls of the newly dead, all competing to control lucrative territories where some nightmares are real and psychopomps of ancient legends walk the streets of North America.

Thoughts

Broken Circle was one of the most interesting and unique books that I have read all year. I was pleasantly surprised at the complexity of the character and the world that the debuts authors constructed. The characters feel real and relatable. Their struggles are somehow simultaneous fantastic and believable; the perfect parallel to the world they exist in. Once again, I find myself being partial to another book set on the streets of NYC, more specifically Brooklyn. Time and time again the city forms the perfect backdrop for contemporary fantasy.

My one critique: I felt like there was no resolution at the end of the book. The sorry progresses very slowly and there are almost too many questions left unanswered by the time you get to the last page. It is obviously set up to continue as a series. And that’s fine. In fact, I would be likely to continue reading this series if the second book makes it to publication. The pace and unanswered questions make this book feel like a 200+ page introduction to a story that has barely begun.

Overall, my impression of this book is positive. I enjoyed the characters and I think that the story is going somewhere new and exciting. I just wish more of that story had been covered in the first book.

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