My Hero Academia: The Ties That Bind
Chapter 3: The Fall (Part 1)
Kaito was near the ground, on his hands and knees, taking deep but shallow breaths. His mask was ripped, exposing the left side of his mouth, some of his hair was singed, and his costume was battered and torn in different places. His armored boots were dented, and his gloves was missing fingers. He could feel his left nostril bleeding.
When he looked up, he choked on his breath at the sight. The building was in tatters. Fire was everywhere, and bodies scattered the floor. Some were too gruesome for his stomach to handle. He leaned to one side, pulling down his mask, and threw up. He pull up his mask again, taking much faster breaths. He looked up just in time to see a piece of the ceiling fall directly above him. He rolled out of the way to see it smash into the ground. Slowly, he collected himself and stood. He stumbled, and his head was throbbing, and his ears ringing.
"Damn it." He rested against a wall to catch his breath. The mission slowly came back to him, and he relayed it to himself as he took the fire escape down three floors.
"We got an emergency SOS signal about a guy calling himself Mastermind controlling a small army of robots attacking Akanam City. Apparently, that was his first target. A major city to begin his conquest of the entire region. He was reported to have past cases of insanity and dementia from an early age. His quirk is still unknown, but he somehow managed to build and control a reported number of over 10,000 mechanical monsters. He's being considered a threat to the region, and high and intermediate rank heroes formed a squad of 50 to combat him on the east side of the city while citizen were evacuated to the west, Mjolnir among them. It was all they could scrape together for an immediate defense effort."
Walking out onto the street, he saw the city was a mess. Buildings were ablaze or in pieces, cars were crushed or turned over, random items littered the streets, windows were broken, and damage was everywhere. "I have to find the others," he thought as he trudged forward.
"REEEEE!" Kaito turned just in time to see a six foot, humanoid metal machine lunging towards him. He sidestepped, grabbed it's arm, and sent a shock through it, overheating it and causing it to collapse in front of him. Kaito continued down the street, only to hear a cry for help.
"GAAAAAAH!". Kaito recognized the voice and ran to it. Turning the corner ahead of him was another hero who had been sent to Akanam. Dragon Man. He can breathe fire and form sharp scales on his limbs for protection or added damage to close combat attacks. He ran from a pack of five of the robots. One tackled him to the ground and started dragging him towards the others. He desperately tried to turn around to breathe fire at them, but to no avail. He tossed and turned and struggled but couldn't be released from their iron grip. One of the robot's open a hatch in their chest, revealing a chainsaw. It began to spin as the other four robots held Dragon Man in place.
"Shit!" White Lightning charged energy into his right arm and took a quick second to line up his targets. He slid his right foot back, and cocked his right arm back. In one motion, he leaned in, lifted his back foot, and swung his arm forward like a slingshot, bringing the energy from his arm into the tip of his index finger as his arm traveled forward. "Boomerang Circulation!". A thin, white bolt of lightning traveled quickly through each of the robots' heads in a linear pattern. A moment passed, then each of their heads exploded in the order the lightning had gone through them in. They collapsed around Dragon Man, who was left panting. Kaito ran to his side.
"Dragon Man, are you okay?". The fire breathing hero was panting heavily, and turned to face one half of Mjolnir.
"White Lightning!". He breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed. "You really saved me.".
"Yeah.". The two took a moment to look around. "How did this happen?"
Dragon Man shook his head defeatedly. "That Mastermind guy is insane. We still don't know what his quirk is. No one's even seen him yet, just these robots,". Dragon Man wiped sweat off of his forehead. "For all we know, that bastard may have already moved onto the next city by now.".
Kaito nodded grimly. "Have police and military arrived yet?".
Dragon Man nodded. "They've made a defensive line guarding the west side of the city, where the civilians are. However, after performing a massive headcount of the population, over 20,000 people didn't make it to the final checkpoint. So there could be people hiding around here.". He breathed a second sigh, this time in frustration, and stood up. "Our colleagues have already confirmed 5000 casualties.".
Kaito swallowed heavily, thinking back to the building he woke up in. He looked down in defeat. "I woke up in a building with about twenty civilians.". Dragon Man turned to him.
"Don't tell me-"
Kaito nodded, clenching his fist. "They're dead…".
The two stood in silence for a solid minute. 5000 innocent people had died. Who knew how many were injured. How many more would be homeless, jobless, and mourning the dead? How many people were to be left in defeat and miser? Surrounded by chaos and damage, they felt helpless. But suddenly, a new emotion surfaced in White Lightning.
Rage
Kaito began his path down the street again. Dragon Man looked up in surprise.
"Where are you going?"
Kaito stopped, not facing Dragon Man. "I need to find Mastermind.". His voice was shaky with anger.
Dragon Man shook his head. "No, we should fall back, you're blinded by anger. If we regroup with other heroes, we can go back in…hey! Didn't I tell you to st-"
BZZZZZZZZ
Dragon Man fell over, unconscious from Kaito's light shock. Kaito looked down at his comrade.
"Forgive me. But there's only one objective here right now."
Kaito began his path down the street again.
"I need to get that guy."
—
Akira was in the middle of hell. At least, that's what he thought it was.
He punched back another one of the robots, then kicked another out of the way, grabbing it and throwing it into another.
"Man, these guys are never ending!", shouted another hero to his right. Tortoise. He has a hard shell on his back that he can hide inside of. He hid inside his shell and started spinning, throwing robots off of him.
"Keep it up! We need to get to the evacuation checkpoint and regroup with the other!"
Razor Tooth hardened the hair on his head into sharp quill and whip his head around, taking down multiple robots.
"Tsugu! Manuever seven!". Akira got into position.
"Damn it, Black Thunder, use code names in the field!".
Using the leverage from Akira's arms, Tsugu leapt into the air, then landed hair-first into a pack of robots, scattering them. Akira ran towards them, surrounded by black energy, and leapt high into the air. "Mjolnir Ground Pound!". Akira crashed into the earth, making a crater, and the impact sent the robots flying. Akira straightened up. His costume had scratches and burn marks, and one of the robots had caught him with a laser earlier, making a cut on his shoulder. "Is that all of them?", he panted.
Tortoise turned to him, stomping into one of the robots' heads. "Yeah, I think we got them all.".
Tsugu let out a sigh. "They're definitely more dangerous in packs. They're like predators.".
Akira nodded grimly, then put his finger to his ear, turning on his communicator. "Has anybody found Mastermind yet?"
A voice came from one of the ends. "No, but while we were rescuing some civilians from rumble, one of them said he said a man with crazy hair inside of a bigger robot. Keep an eye out for that. He can't be hard to miss. According to a different witness the robot he was inside of was over six meters tall.".
Akira flashed back to his debut, when Mjolnir fought Colossus. "It took all fifty of us, fighting for only a few hours, to eliminate half of his army. He must have known these guys couldn't hold up against us for long. That big robot must be his secret weapon. He's planning something here."
"That's a fair point,", Tsugu said into his own communicator to get to everyone. "If that thing's as powerful as we think it is, no wonder we haven't seen it yet. He's hiding until we defeat all of his underlings. By that time, we'll be really worn out, and he'll have the perfect opportunity to finish us. He's thinking of himself as a final boss."
"If that's true,", another voice said, joining the conversation. "Than how did he plan to take over the region with just that one robot? Why'd he go through the trouble of making all of these smaller ones just to wear down fifty of us? We're not the only heroes in Japan.".
"There's only one answer for that.". Akira paused, sickened by his grim theory. "I think he has more. A lot more than this.".
"This is a mess. He only sent ten thousand for one city. How many do you think he'll need for the region?".
"Doesn't matter. Call military personnel to start sweeping the city. Push civilians further out of the city and form a tighter line around the east side of the city. Prioritize civilian rescue. This isn't about Mastermind right now. We can worry about him later. What we need to be doing right now is to be saving lives. Request immediate back up. More heroes need to arrive on the scene."
"Roger that, boss.".
Akira swallowed. "S-Sorry. I didn't mean to take charge or anything.".
"No no, don't sweat it. The leader position suits you. Over and out.".
Akira let his hand fall from his ear. "The leader, huh." He looked around him, witnessing the damage of the city. "Is that the way I can enforce peace into other heroes?.
"Black Thunder!", Tsugu called. Akira turned to his longtime friend. "Tortoise already took off towards the evacuation point. We should head there and give our report. More heroes are on their way. We should switch positions and hold down the defensive line.".
Akira nodded. "All right. Let's move. We've got a lot of ground to cover.". Akira began a run, followed closely by Tsugu.
"You know," Tsugu said. "You're not that same kid from middle school anymore.". Akira thought back to when the two met when they were just thirteen. Out of all their friends, Akira and Tsugu had known each other the longest.
"What changed?" He asked his friend.
"Well, for one,", Tsugu replied. "You used to be a runt in our class."
"Yeah, and you haven't grown an inch since then."
"Shut up!"
Akira laughed. Something he didn't expect to do in this situation. He was brought right back down to earth when he saw the chaos around him. "We need to hurry.", he said to no one in particular. He activated his quirk, putting energy into his legs to go faster.
Tsugu nodded in agreement. "Yeah, there's only one objective here."
Akira nodded, then finished Tsugu's point.
"We need to protect Akanam's people. At all costs."
—
At the edge of the city, Mastermind makes his move…
(To Be Continued)
