The wounded man ran, stumbling onto the ground and attempted to catch himself, only to find that there the room was a utility closet. Down the dimly lit hallway were echoing footsteps generated by the steel toed boots of his assailant. Slow and methodical the unknown figure was- the complete opposite of the bleeding and scrambling man, taking steps back and falling onto his behind. Scurrying further into the closet until his back hit the wall, he instinctively drew a pocket knife and pointed it towards the doorway. Eventually, his follower turned the corner and stared him dead in the eyes- against his head a gleaming helmet covering all features. The struggling man threw what can only be described as a woman's purse towards the man in an act of blinding him, only to watch it harmlessly hit his chest and fall towards the floor.
"W-Who are you!?" The man nervously waved his knife in the air, a tremble in his voice.
Standing before him was a 171 cm man donned in battle worn armor. It was seemingly fashioned together to fulfil as many things as possible but only enough to benefit and not hinder any ability. It was physically lightweight and probably didn't apply much defense in terms of projectiles, but with multiple bullet impacts lining his left pauldron, speculations may be completely wrong. Fabric seemed to be interwoven with the makeshift plates, perhaps for mobility purposes, but it did teeter a fine line of edginess. The most impressive part of the man's armory was the helmet that sat atop his head- a soft green gleam from its slits.
"I'm… A Hero." The armored man responded, slowly lifting a pistol which he gripped in his right hand.
"Y-You can't be a Hero!" The thief courageously yet foolishly roared, only to receive a bullet in his thigh- forcibly causing him to cry in agony, "Wait-! Stop!"
"What did you say? I'm not a Hero?" The gunman took heavy and terrifying steps forward, "And who are you to say that?"
The weakened and now hemorrhaging man struggled to breathe as he tried to crawl away from him only to remember he was already backed up against a wall. The things that he knew about 'Heroes' did not seem to be very effective here, the pillars of society that protected the civilians- and before him is no hero. Before him was a psychopath and now he was going to bleed out because this 'Hero' caught him. In a last ditch effort, he started to manifest his quirk- spitting a glob of saliva at the armored figure. Upon hitting the man's helmet it combusted in a brutal explosion.
"Try again." Standing completely fine with nothing more than charred metal on the left side of his helmet, the armored man responded.
In an attempt to survive, he tried to spit again, only to meet a kinetic attack rip through his system. For a moment, he didn't feel anything. For a moment, he also couldn't see anything. Slumping downwards, he didn't breathe either.
Midoriya rushed down the street on his bike, peddling as hard as he could to get to work. Although driving his vehicle was far more effective when it came to transit, he found that cycling to work was far harder and therefore more rewarding. Afterall, how else would he be able to keep such a powerful physique at the age of 27? A few kilometers of alternation between cruising and heavy peddling eventually brought him to the Musutafu Metropolitan Police Department. Pushing his bike into the parking lot and locking it up, he took multiple steps into the building. Thinking back, he remembered how nervous he was on his first day in the force. He also remembered what his childhood hero told him and although it hurt, he just had to accept it as the truth.
"If you want to help others, then you could also become a police officer."
Although even today he can feel its painful resonation, he persevered and continued forward in life. To him, being quirkless was not about the powerlessness of the person, but the humbleness of them. Well, he didn't really have a choice anyways.
"Captain!" A man with a shaved head called out to Midoriya, "I've been wondering about this assignment, it would be great if you helped me out."
Right. Izuku Midoriya is currently a Special Assault Team Captain. Technically, he is still a police officer- just not a normal one. The young male walking towards him was one of his operators, Ren Okiyama. Although the police refrained from accepting those with quirks, they eventually gave into public opinion and allowed people with quirks- Okiyama being one of the many accepted. To Midoriya's understanding, he calls his quirk "Omni-eye" which is just another eyeball that he can move to any point of his body. To elaborate, he can move Omni-eye from his left hand to his right hand in mere seconds, or perhaps to his nose. It can vary in my sizes and even shapes to fit certain areas- the armpit for example.
"What is it, Okiyama?" Midoriya smiled and met his comrade halfway into the office.
"Well, if you look here…" The shorter man opened his palm to reveal a little optic staring at Midoriya. Was that a contact with a penis inscribed on it?
Stunned, yet also impressed, Midoriya's smile turned into one of unique understanding. Okiyama on the other hand started to laugh at the green haired man's reaction. The captain thought to himself for a moment and came to the conclusion that some people don't really grow up. At least Okiyama was proficient in his job despite being the young age of 22.
"That wasn't too funny, Ren." A taller black haired woman on the verge of having a comedic breakdown struggled to speak, "It...I- I'm sorry..."
The 27 year old slowly turned his head towards the woman. Nozomi Shirai, age 23, another SAT operator. Shirai held a quirk as well. It was of its own unique effect and Shirai took the opportunity to give it a unique name, "Blackout". Oddly enough, she doesn't show up on surveillance systems- ever. In fact, Okiyama's Omni-eye doesn't seem to notice her either. Midoriya speculates that it has something to do with her skin's composition and researchers over at Tokyo's SAT branch believe that it is due to her existence as being a walking electro-magnetic disaster. Which is conflicting because she can still use electronics fine- just not in the timezones of 13:00 to 14:00.
"Alright. Well, you guys still have a lot of paperwork to do." Midoriya was visibly frustrated at his 'friends' and proceeded to walk over to his desk, lifting a tower of documents and distributing them equally.
Their happiness swiftly degraded into dejection as Shirai took a deep breath and Okiyama slumped forward in his desk.
"You seemed so content earlier, you guys alright?" At this point, Midoriya looked genuinely concerned but both operatives knew it was a facade so they didn't respond, "Exactly."
The day went by as it normally does, piles of paperwork and training, completely mundane. Midoriya knew that this would be all he would do with his quirkless life- after all, he wasn't a hero. Moreover, he was technically just a normal man with a few tricks up his sleeves. Even his comrades were probably more adept at their job than he was at his, afterall, quirks make the man. From his arrival at 8:00 to 19:00, nothing really occurred until eventually Midoriya's cellphone was called. Sluggishly lifting it, he brought it to his ear.
"Midoriya." He answered, resting the phone on his shoulder and pressing it up into his jaw to keep his hands open for more writing.
"Briefing room, five minutes." A familiar voice caused Midoriya's eyes to widen as he stopped writing.
"Yes sir." The Captain pocketed his phone after the call ended, looking up at his comrades, "Okiyama, Shirai. Go time."
After mobilizing and getting information, the three sat inside the armored vehicle with five additional riot police. The SAT operatives wore black clothing head to toe, strapped around their chests were thick plate carriers with multiple pouches lining the frontside. Inside each pouch were additional magazines for firearms, medical supply, maybe some jerky, and other tools. Wrapped around their bodies were also complete harnesses for escalating and de-escalating structures via rappel. The location was confined and close range, so they prepared with their USP service pistols and MP5K Submachine Guns. Essentially, the opposite things that recognized heroes bring to combat.
According to briefing, multiple belligerents were on scene and the primary aggressors locked themselves in a structure and held multiple people hostage- including three to four children. The heroes on scene couldn't seem to find a reasonable way in- so here comes the SAT. Commands were simple: Limit civilian and criminal casualties, no explosives or chemical compounds permitted, listen to the heroes on scene. Midoriya understood the first two commands, but he also wanted to go out of his way and completely rebuke the third. It was mostly due to past biases.
The armored transport eventually came to a stop, Okiyama standing up and slamming the doors open as the officers exited the vehicle. At the encounter were multiple "pro-heroes" including Ingenium, Mirko, and 'Can't Stop Twinkling'. The last name was a confusion to everyone but that was not important currently. The structure they were trying to clear seemed to be a small apartment complex, fencing around the whole thing about 15 meters from the primary structure. It had two or three floors with multiple windows either blocked by furniture or barricaded by another means. It would be easy to set an explosive charge on the roof and break right through, but Midoriya's team was not permitted explosives. Alternatively, they could fill the building with tear gas, but that was also not permitted.
"You there!" The hero under the name of Ingenium roared out towards the SAT squad, prompting Midoriya to turn towards him, "Come and listen to the plan!"
Taking a deep breath and trying to ease his nerves, he rolled his eyes and gestured his group towards the heroes. Ingenium and 'Can't Stop Twinkling' stood as two men in silver armor while Mirko was a woman in very… revealing clothing. Both of the male heroes seemed to be in their own world on planning a both 'Effective and Dashing' plan while the female hero was getting increasingly more and more frustrated.
Upon listening to their plans, it has come to Midoriya's understanding that 'Effective and Dashing' meant unreasonable and clout worthy. What they had drafted out worked in complete opposition to Midoriya's training and tactical knowledge- not to mention that the hero under the name of Mirko was refusing to cooperate with… anyone. At some point, the SAT Captain started to get nervous, they were burning time with hostages on the line. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Midoriya glances through his peripherals to Okiyama and Shirai. The three started to make their move, quickly slinking away from the heroes and making their way inside the structure.
"Blackout, head around back and prepare to breach the ground floor. Omni- sneak inside and locate. I'll be ready to open up the first floor." Midoriya whispered into his communications device and swiftly got returning responses.
The SAT Captain eventually got to the northern side of the building and threw a rappel up the side and started to climb, lining himself up to the side of a window and waiting. Eventually, he spotted the heroes starting to make their move.
"Omni, positions." Midoriya whispered.
"Six targets, North ground, living room two. West first, west bedroom three. North first, north bedroom one." Okiyama responded.
"Blackout, heroes are moving in. Change position, go to the first floor, prepare for their breach. Omni, get as many out as you can in the chaos." Midoriya took a deep breath and closed his eyes, "Ready."
It felt as if an hour passed until eventually a large crash was heard and Midoriya's eyes darted open.
"Weapons free, shoot for effect." Midoriya called, positioning himself and taking a jump to gain momentum, eventually gaining enough to go over a window and align himself, "Breach!"
The sound of screams and glass shattering echoed as the dark rooms were forcibly lit by the moonlight. Immediately, Midoriya spotted a near aquatic looking man turn towards him and react. The criminal's fish like eyes widened as he ejected a concentrated beam of water. With quick reaction, the Captain ducked below the beam and lifted his MP5K, only to realize a hostage was in between him and the assailant. The criminal knew this and smiled, opening his maw once again to blast at Midoriya. Thinking out of instinct, Midoriya watched as the beam shredded through a nearby pillow and slowly angled its way to his chest. It was akin to a waterjet- perhaps lethal if in contact with him, plate carrier or not. Rolling against his beam and barely having it hit him, Midoriya clenched his teeth and withstood the pain, rushing forward and repositioning himself into a flanking position, raising his MP5K at the fish boy.
"On the ground!" Midoriya didn't know where the pain was coming from, but he knew that he was hit, "I said drop!"
The criminal would be a threat even if he fell to his knees right now and Midoriya understood that. That's how all quirks tend to be- dangerous if left unattended. Unless he gagged the fish bastard, he and the hostage were in his lethal range. Taking a shot now would prove to be inefficient, high probability of it striking either the hostage or the criminal. To his dismay, having a hostage was a lot more advantageous than not having one and the scaled man opened his jaws once again- but in not only a disadvantageous position but unable to dodge or fire, the beam hit Midoriya clean in the chest- the amount of force sending him through the wall behind.
"You should've come with a hero, cop." The criminal spoke, taking steps forward and prodding the hostage.
Those words struck a chord with Midoriya as he let out a blood curdling roar of pain. He didn't know if he was bleeding but he was becoming increasingly more and more angry as he lifted himself onto his own two feet, the noise he was making becoming less and less human. The fish man stood stunned as Midoriya caught his surroundings, grabbing a table and bringing it up as cover. Realizing the situation, the villain took a step back and tried hiding beside the hole he created in the wall, only to find that the hostage was forcibly taken out of his grasp.
"Captain!" Okiyama yelled out as he lunged and essentially tackled the civilian out of Midoriya's line of sight.
"Motherfucker!" Midoriya brought himself out of cover and started to fire at the fish man, lucky for him, he was in cover at a crucial moment as a rain of bullets passed his scaly cheeks.
The green haired man wasn't finished however, letting the MP5K sling downwards and drawing his pistol, firing even more rounds out of pure rage at this point. Okiyama took this as an opportunity to have him and the hostage crawl out of Midoriya's rage induced gunfire and towards a stairwell.
"What a waste of a quirk!" Midoriya was seething, as he reloaded his pistol and fired more rounds, occasionally when the gunfire ended the fish man would peek his head out and fire a short burst of water in retaliation, "What a fucking waste of a life!"
After a long stand still, Midoriya stood up from the desk to see the bunny girl holding the unconscious criminal in her hands. He was visibly enraged, he was emotionally about to burst. Here he was, the SAT Captain who wanted to be a hero- struggling to apprehend a lowly quirk blessed thug. Yet, he knew that already. Although he felt like breaking onto his knees and crying, he simply glared down at the ground as she stared at him. He took a deep breath and stowed his pistol, checking his chest for any damage. Null. He took a step forward and felt a sharp jolt of pain. Seems like he did take a hit after all.
"Sooo, how long did it take you to get this guy?" Mirko spoke, "Seems like you didn't fare too well against this small fry."
Ah yes. Of course, another hero demeaning Midoriya's work. The green haired man tried to tune it out but found that she just seemingly got louder and louder. He continued to slowly make his way outside of the structure, now that all the gunfire that he started ended and the very comically noisy pummeling stopped.
"Hello? You in there? Did getting blasted mess you up that bad?" The rabbit girl was still holding the fish man, "I mean, I hit this guy once and you took how long to take him down?"
Midoriya took a deep breath.
"Aren't you supposed to be Special Forces?" The tanned woman continued, another line to add to the list.
"Shut up. Please." Midoriya grumbled.
"What? It's not my fault you're incompetent." She didn't seem to want to shut up, "Why didn't you use your quirk? Special Forces gotta have a special quirk, don't you think?"
Midoriya didn't used to have anger this repressed before, but ever since his childhood hero told him to quit on his dreams, he did. In return, he inadvertently quit on his happiness as well, leading to a very emotionally broken person. The worst part was that he knew about his problem, he just chose to ignore it.
"Cat got your tongue?"
"Please. Out of everyone you could've annoyed, why me." Midoriya made his way down the stairs and looked around, "Blackout! Omni! You alright?"
Peeking from the corners of the building's interior were his two comrades, Okiyama sending him a smile and Shirai simply sent a thumbs up. He felt a bit better knowing that his friends were safe at least.
"Hey, I'm talkin' to you." The rabbit girl took a step forward, but Midoriya kept walking.
Shirai and Okiyama wandered over, with Shirai slowly making her way to Mirko and nervously scratching her head.
"Sorry, he doesn't really like heroes." The black haired operative smiled.
"You're right." Midoriya stopped, refusing to turn, "I hate them."
The hero glared at Midoriya, her own anger starting to surface and manifest into an aura. It's unusual for officers to disrespect a hero directly to their faces, but more so for someone to do it to her. It was an insult to her pride and she couldn't really respect something like that. It wasn't cowardly, it wasn't vile, it was simply something that pissed her off. Eventually, the riot personnel took account of the now unbound civilians and the currently binded criminals. Midoriya took a deep breath and wandered off towards the side of the apartment complex, drawing a cigarette from a case and lighting it.
"Hey asshole." Mirko wasn't too happy.
"You? What do you want?" Midoriya replied, lighting the cancer stick, "Going to tell me how you save lives for a living?"
"I don't know what crawled up your ass, but you're pissing me off." She was a lot more content in arguing with Midoriya than formulating a plan to siege a building full of hostages.
"Mhm." The captain's zero word reply sent her anger flying.
Mirko took steps forward and stood in front of Midoriya, her shorter height meaning nothing as she slammed her fist into the wall beside him. The green haired man looked down, taking the cigarette out of his mouth and looking at her.
"You wanna fucking fight? Huh?" She glared into Midoriya's eyes, "Go ahead, throw the punch."
"I don't think I will." The green haired man simply took another inhale of the cigarette, "I may hate heroes but I won't go about punching them. Seems a bit unreasonable."
"What the fuck has you hating heroes anyways!?" Mirko reached up and gripped his collar, lifting him off the ground, just slightly.
Although her strength was completely unnatural, it was easy to sum it up to her quirk, after all, she is of course Mirko the number 5 hero. Trying not to explode in an uncontained emotional rage, Midoriya simply didn't do anything. No response, no problem, right?
"I'm not letting you down until you tell me, prick."
Fuck.