Pressing onwards, Midoriya started to scale the building. His first objective is to regroup with Mirko. If he was caught out again, he might come out in a body bag instead of intact. Criminals are one thing, they can refuse to slaughter or have a psyche. Terrorists are vainglorious, murderous, and they act to send a message. Unlike a criminal, terrorists are willing to die for their cause. Slowly peeking around the corners of the second floor, he spotted large amounts of debris. He struck lucky however, it seems like one of the criminals got crushed in their own explosive. Spotting a weapon in his hand, the SAT captain walked over and picked it up. It was an AKM rifle with at least 28 rounds in the magazine. Midoriya was a little confused at why it was in Japan, noticing that the service rifle here was the Howa Type 89, which meant foreign intervention or foreign black markets brought the weapons in and supplied it to the terrorists. Preparing to move onwards, the green haired man heard the scraping of boots against the now dust covered floor. Reacting accordingly, he slipped into a dark room filled with disheveled desks and papers.
"Vitalis has Valchon preparing another bomb. Forge should give us some support if we retake the first floor." One of the terrorists spoke, he seemed to have a raspy voice from what Midoriya could tell, "Make sure to stay away from all windows, they have us surrounded. We must do this for freedom, brothers and sisters. For the army."
Two of the terrorists entered the room Midoriya was hiding in, the green haired man taking extremely soft breaths as he prepared the rifle. The room was far from spacious and the amount of desks inside allowed him to be able to hide before his attack. He knew that he only had one chance at surprising them, and the moment that he failed, the ring of his rifle would alert others. Hopefully, the two figures sharing the room with him had additional ammunition. Slowly moving and slipping around, he heard the two figures start to speak.
"Hey, you ever get the milk shipment in? Base is getting cold on milk, man."
"No, I haven't actually."
Instantly, Midoriya understood the conversation was going to be of no tactical use, so he started to use his environment. Silently and swiftly, he maneuvered the room- making sure to roll on his heels into his toes instead of stomping. His objective was to get as close as possible to one of the terrorists and take him out, nice and easy. He would've taken one unconscious if they were alone, but in this case they were together. Rotating around the room at least two times, the operative finally found the perfect moment, slinking out of the shadows and rushing forward.
"Bren-!" The terrorist that Midoriya wasn't rushing towards turned to see the green haired man, but it was too late.
The figure known as "Bren" felt the muzzle of the AKM at his head. The SAT captain looked past the man and stared at his comrade who was in a state of shock. The other man stared back frightened. He seemed to be younger than Midoriya's "Hostage", probably around the age of 16 or 17. It was a shame.
"H-Hey… You don't have to do this man, we can go our separate ways!" The younger terrorist nervously spoke to Midoriya.
"Phil… Don't do it…" The older man looked at his friend.
"Brenner- Think about your family!"
At this point, Midoriya was getting fed up with their exchange. Understanding the weight and possible damage that his next attack will do, the green haired man slammed the butt of his rifle against the older man's head, using that same head as a fulcrum to re-angle his rifle as he fell onto his knees unconscious.
"Brenn-!" The younger criminal took a step back, shocked.
"Shhh…" Midoriya made the soft noise, "He got off lucky, kiddo. If he survives, he'll have his trial. For you however, you're young. You can do something with yourself."
The operative was still pointing his rifle at Phil, the young kid only staring back with fear in his eyes. Midoriya made it a point to rest his foot against the unconscious man's back- just in case he recovered early, if he ever does recover.
"I suggest you leave and surrender to the police outside." The operative gave the kid a soft smile, which quickly degraded to absolute sadness.
Phil raised his hands at Midoriya and they started to glow a bright blue. Midoriya pulled the trigger, one bullet entering his chest and causing him to fall to the ground. The advantages of an ambush were great, but the pain that came along with seeing and ending a lost soul… The captain didn't like it. Midoriya clenched his teeth and held in the taste of blood as he took steps forward and kneeled down to check if the boy was still alive. Unfortunately, he wasn't. The caliber of an AKM was devastating, and he should've known better than to use it on a developing body. Slowly, Midoriya closed the boy's eyes and walked over to the older gentleman. He made a makeshift rope with a spare roll of clear tape laying around, making sure to use all of it on his wrists and his ankles. Midoriya then made sure to drag him to a corner and make sure he had no way free. He took more rolls of tape and a sling on his rifle, keeping two extra rolls. Taking a deep breath, he left the room and continued to search for his comrade, er well, his leader?
Midoriya was now moving more aggressively, if the sound of an AKM wasn't loud enough, his faster paced movement was able to alert a close nearby vicinity. Still, he took the precautions of moving from cover to cover because he didn't have the luxury of a quirk. Exiting the room, he heard gunfire from the ground floor and some yelling soon after about 'Manliness' and being 'a Hero'. They'll be fine. Continuing to clear the floor and heading for the next set of stairs, Midoriya found himself peeking around a corner and having multiple riflemen fire in his direction.
"Shit-! This fucking cell is well armed, now isn't it!?" Midoriya angrily whispered to himself as he tried to recount his resources and scan his surroundings.
Unlike last time, there was no fire extinguisher in range- and just about nothing else. The enemy was closing in fast and the furthest point of cover was down an open hall with no doors or cover. He was in a very tough spot, but he needed to act first to add a sense of shock to his attack. Midoriya took the opportunity to let his rifle sling and blind fire his pistol down the hallway. He heard a few impacts and some panic but decided to stop after counting eight rounds. Slowly peeking out to check if he made an impact, he saw at least one person on the floor. He was sure that more people were firing at him which meant he couldn't push any further.
"The police officer? What is he doing here?" A voice caught Midoriya's attention and he swiftly snapped his head towards it, gesturing to them to quiet down.
It seems that Red Riot and Fat Gum have made their way to Midoriya's floor. The two of them waddled over and pressed up against the wall. Midoriya didn't want them to question him or even say any words, so he started to give them a field briefing.
"Call me Captain Green of the SAT. Multiple gunmen down this hall in the side rooms. One is wounded." The operative holstered his pistol and gripped his pilfered rifle, "So which one of you is going first?"
Fat Gum and Red Riot glanced at each other and then shot each other a large smile.
"What? Am I missing some-" Red Riot seemingly started to look as if he was stone and he rushed the hallway, immediately being shot at by 7.62 caliber rounds.
"Fucking… Crazies…" Midoriya whispered to himself and aimed down his rifle and fired at the assailants causing Fat Gum to stand shocked.
"Hey! What are you doing!" The hero was obviously confused at why Midoriya was returning fire, but the green haired man continued to fire.
"Go." Midoriya responded, starting to push down the hallway, Red Riot was dragging an incapacitated man out of a room while the captain headed for the man he struck down.
Midoriya proceeded to retrieve the magazines off of the two wounded men and the incapacitated one, making sure to unload their rifles completely. He had about six spare now, which should be enough. As he took a step to continue, Red Riot put his hand on Midoriya's shoulder and so did Fat Gum.
"Why did you shoot back at them? You should've let us handle this!" Fat Gum was angry at Midoriya's reaction to being shot at, "You're an officer, you shouldn't need to shoot anyone."
"I'm not sure if you're away, Fat Gum, but I'm not a normal police officer. I deal with terrorism on a daily basis. These men consigned their humanity the moment they decided to slaughter others." The green haired man checked his current magazine, counting about 21 rounds.
"You didn't have to shoot them though! We win when we can take villains in without casualties!" The hero glanced around, "You can't possibly say you're justified in shooting them!"
"If that's the case, you've already lost." Midoriya stood up from the unconscious man and peeked down the next hallway, "Look around, Fat Gum."
The SAT captain already knew that there would be civilian casualties, especially with severed limbs from the explosion prior to the raid. It would be complete denial to say that no one was killed in the initial blast anyways.
"I heard from the criminals on the ground floor that they are making another quirk bomb. Find it, apprehend them if you can." Midoriya started to make his way down the hall with his rifle in hand, "Clear the next floor, I'll be going up one."
"H-Hey!" Red Riot called out to Midoriya, only to be stopped by Fat Gum who shook his head disapprovingly of the captain.
"Don't worry, Red Riot. He's just… Different." The green haired man didn't mind the words, afterall, they were technically correct.
Mirko hopped down the hallway, bouncing from wall to wall. So far, she's taken care of two people and was actively looking for another fight. Across her face, was her adrenaline rush smile, which was immediately dispelled when she passed by a stairwell and impacted with Midoriya near instantly- feet first.
"H-Hey." Midoriya was in a complication as his head was in between her thighs, "Y-You mind getting off?"
"Uh. Yeah." Mirko got up and dusted herself off, "I thought I told ya to stick close to me?"
"Well, they have someone who can move pipes around so I got separated." Midoriya proceeded to pass the woman, "Did you find anything on this floor?"
"I hit one guy, but that's about it." The rabbit woman replied, following behind him, "No one's really on this floor."
"I left Red Riot and Fat Gum to deal with the previous floor." Midoriya responded, "We just need to get to the fifth floor now."
"You know Green, if you were like this when we first met, I wouldn't have knocked you silly." Mirko continued to walk, peeking around corners and such.
"Well, if you didn't start by talking about how useless I am, I wouldn't have nearly shot you." The SAT captain continued to stride until eventually he found a stairwell, "Don't get me wrong, I still hate heroes. I'm here because we both made mistakes and now I have to deal with the repercussions. Let's move."
"Jeez, asshole." Mirko spat out the taste his words left in her mouth.
Continuing to march in the silence, the two eventually found themselves at the stairwell to the fifth floor, Midoriya slowly peeked his head down the left side upon walking up and froze. He swiftly turned to his right and it was just as horrifying. Down both hallways were slaughtered civilians- to the point that they didn't even look human. A horrifying meshed viscera lined the hall red. Mirko walked up to see the disaster too, her smile becoming a face of anger.
"Hey… Hey what the hell…?" She whispered to herself.
"C-Come on… We have to continue…" Midoriya's morale was wavering at this point.
The SAT captain had seen some horrible things, but this was beyond horrible. This was a mass grave that wasn't even dug yet. His shoes squished against the floor and he refused to look down. Sight and sound weren't the only senses that were affected here, the stench was grotesque. Continuing onwards the two found a breach in the wall and entered it, Midoriya gasping for air and Mirko emanating a dangerous aura. Catching his surroundings, the SAT captain realized that he was currently standing in the ruin of the first explosive. Preparing his rifle, and going deeper into the breach, Mirko quickly stopped him and turned around.
"Ah… Heroes." A man in a suit started to walk past the breach they entered from, behind him a disturbing visage of bone wings unfurling- in between each set of calcified marrow was viscera strung tight, "Well I'll say… A top hero nonetheless."
"Green, step back." The tanned woman's frown slowly became an adrenaline packed smile, "This one's mine."
"Oh don't be like that. I always bring an army." The man started to smile as well, a woman falling to the ground on Midoriya's side. "Forge."
"Vitalis." The woman responded, kneeling down and slamming her open hand against the ground and drawing a pipe to use as a weapon.
Mirko and Midoriya both glanced around and spotted multiple sharpened bones getting torn out of the civilian corpses around them. The SAT captain tried to pay less attention to the gorey nature of the man's quirk and instead tried to look for cover. To his dismay, there was none. Lifting his rifle and pointing it at the newly named "Forge", Midoriya glared towards her. She seemed to also be wearing a suit- her hair blue and long and her pupils an odd white.
"I seek a new world, Heroes." Vitalis spoke, the bone spines floating over to his sides, with him as the origin, "One where all quirks are free."
"Stop talkin' let's get fighting." Mirko spoke, and for once, Midoriya agreed.
Within milliseconds of the rabbit woman speaking, the SAT captain lifted his rifle and fired fully automatic at Forge's chest. Midoriya was disappointed to see that Forge was killed instantly, but he expected that from 21 rounds at 600 rounds per minute at close range. Bullets don't need to travel as far. Slowly, he turned to see Vitalis. His eyes were wide as he manifested at least a hundred spines from the corpses around him. Reacting to this, Mirko grabbed Midoriya and started to run with him in her arms. Too busy to be thinking about how he was nabbed by her, the green haired man started to reload his rifle- under the constant moving and the fact that bone spines were now following him, it was a struggle.
"Let me go when I'm loaded." He whispered which ended with a clasp, "-now!"
The rabbit woman landed and dropped Midoriya next to a minimal amount of cover, quickly hopping into an incredibly fast lunge at Vitalis. The visceral man clenched his teeth and took flight, the spines losing about half their momentum. Midoriya proceeded to aim at the criminal, pulling the trigger only to receive an audible click. He jammed. Swiftly, he gathered his surroundings: He was near a thrown over table- that was about it. Was there anything to use, fire extinguishers, plants even. As Midoriya attempted to understand the situation, a spine landed beside him- which meant he didn't have time to think about anything. He let go of the rifle and let it dangle against his stomach- drawing his pistol and firing two rounds at Vitalis, then repositioning himself as spines flung at him.
The air offered a large amount of mobility as Vitalis seemingly swooped around and dodged the ammunition. From what Midoriya could tell, the terrorist had an incredibly gruesome quirk which involved moving bones telekinetically. Depending on the size of the bone, the more or less mental power he needs to control them, which explains the reason why he decided to use singular sharpened bones rather than throwing whole bodies. This however means that the bones comprising his wings are each separately being controlled, which probably takes far more mental capacity. This would also explain why the spines slowed down an incredible amount. The odds of the battle were in their favor, if Vitalis was airborne, Midoriya would be able to spray him down. If Vitalis was on the ground, Mirko had the advantage. Right now, Midoriya just needed time to unjam his rifle.
"Hey! Get the fuck down here!" The rabbit woman roared at the visceral man, "You know what, if you're not going to come down…"
A massive pulse of energy caused Midoriya to cover his eyes from dust and debris, opening them to see Mirko far in the air, a heavy slam was heard as Vitalis was sent back down to earth.
"I'll come to you!" Mirko was grinning ear to ear at this point.
Midoriya came to the conclusion that he was actually not the reason why the criminal would be knocked out of being airborne. Or the fact that he even needed to be here. Taking his sweet time, he leaned against a wall and proceeded to unjam the AKM. Taking a quick glance over at Vitalis, who was struggling to recover, he seemed to shrug it off. Mirko wasn't done. Midoriya could faintly hear the words "Luna Fall" as she came crashing down and a crushing sensation was what followed.
"I'm… Alright then." The SAT captain took a deep breath.
"Okay. Looks like our work is done here… Let's go and tell a clean up crew…" She inhaled through her mouth in a sort of stutter, "About the disaster."
Midoriya shrugged and walked over to the now unconscious Vitalis. The green haired man knew that if he fought the criminal on his own, he would've surely died. That was the fate of someone like him however. It's all he could really do, die to slow the villain. That was what he hated most about people that have quirks- the self sacrifice that they could make and he couldn't. For him, he could only depend on his brain to get out of horrible positions, and sometimes- even that isn't enough.
"You did a good job for being an officer. I uh… I misjudged you." The rabbit woman waddled over to Midoriya as he wrapped Vitalis' wrists and ankles.
"Mhm." Midoriya finished binding the figure and lifted him over his shoulder.
"Okay, what is it now, you hate compliments too?" Mirko clearly wasn't happy about the response.
"That's not it." Midoriya's attempt to reassure her was mediocre at best, "I just wasn't expecting this Vitalis person to be so weak."
"It's alright, you got me here, buddy." The rabbit woman slapped Midoriya's back.
He… Wasn't a fan. He was also confused. Literally two days ago she was going to rip his chest open and now she was trying to act all buddy buddy with him? He was trying to find the legitimacy in her words. It slightly angered him.
"You uh… You killed her back there." Mirko was more serious as she continued, "You didn't have to do that."
"You know, the more you Heroes keep telling me that, the less it will change. People who harm others to get ahead consigned their right to live the moment they did so." Midoriya replied, "Life isn't so easy for me to decide if I want to incapacitate someone."
"Why the hell did ya even become a police officer?" The tanned woman was confused now, the response he gave was akin to the guy they just beat up.
"Because… Because I wanted to." The green haired man seemed to hesitate as he spoke the words, piquing her interest even more.
"Uh… Huh."
Eventually, the two exited the building. Red Riot and Fat Gum took care of the bound criminals with Midoriya walking up to Fat Gum and adamantly demanding him not to take Red Riot to the fifth floor. Fat Gum eventually understood and let the captain go on his way. Slowly slogging behind Mirko as she went back to patrolling the streets, a massive wave of lethargy slammed against Midoriya like a freight train as he struggled to keep his stability- leaning against a building.
"Hey, you alright there?" The rabbit woman helped the man regain his footing.
"No. I'm hungry, and I'm thirsty, and I've been fighting a terrorist cell for the past four hours." Midoriya was clearly agitated.
"I guess we can eat. What do you want?" She held onto Midoriya sort of like a crutch, bringing him very close to her body.
"F-First, let go of me." The man pulled himself up and shook his head, "Second, Katsudon."
"Alright." She seemed to take two steps forward and open a random restaurant, peering inwards, "Katsudon?"
A mumble is heard.
"Get in." Mirko dragged Midoriya into the small space and plopped him down.
The SAT captain took a moment and scanned the room- everyone was looking at them two, probably because Mirko is the top 5 hero. After ordering their food, Midoriya ordered Katsudon and Mirko a salad with "a fuck ton of carrots". She was a lot more of a rabbit than he expected. Taking a few bites, it took Midoriya a full ten minutes to realize that his clothing was drenched in blood. There was not a high chance that they were not staring at Mirko- but him.
"Maybe… Maybe I should've changed before getting here." Midoriya nervously laughed.
"It's not a date. You're going right back to patrol after this." The rabbit woman made a crunching noise as she ate multiple carrot slices, "You're with me anyways."
"Hero privileges, huh?" The green haired man rolled his eyes.
"You need to get off this roller coaster you're on where you despise heroes already." Mirko seemed to stop munching as she glared at him, "If not, I'll make you."
"I need a drink." He was very disinterested at this point.
"Green, it's 11:00." The hero leaned back and crossed her arms, "You're not getting the drink."
"Fuck you." Midoriya responded.
"You're my bitch, just remember that." Mirko was shooting him a smug expression, "I choose if you drink, and you ain't drinkin'."
"..." Midoriya took a deep breath and quietly finished his food.
"Look. I don't want to hold your fuckin' hand." She continued her lecture, "If you act like an edgy teen all the time, I'll treat you like an edgy teen. If you act like an unhinged child, I'll treat you like an unhinged child."
Midoriya brought his head up and glared at her.
"Don't get me wrong, I still hate you just as much as you hate me. You've pissed me off an incredible amount for the past two days- Two fucking days mind you." Mirko didn't falter, "If it was up to me, I wouldn't be doing this rat's nest of an assignment, but that's not what happened now is it?"
"Your eyes of resentment, of anger- I could care less. We're going to work together, whether you like it or not, Midoriya." At this point she was gripping onto his jaw and looking into his eyes.
He could feel the veins on his forehead pop- Midoriya wasn't going to be talked down to like some sort of dog. It's always like this- the police officer gets shafted because the Hero "did all the work". Being a police officer was just another title, nothing came with it. They were not labeled as heroes of any kind- people appreciated the work of heroes more. For years, he had to deal with selfish and demanding heroes for what? Just so he could go back and forth from hauling prisoners to prison?
Midoriya preferred the old days where he could work with Nozomi and Ren. Compared to this, they treated him as an equal. They respected his boundaries and respected him. When he was angry, they helped calm him down. When he was sad, they helped make him happy- now he was subjected to the whims of an unreasonable woman who expects too much from a quirkless man like him. Of course- it was always about quirk anyways. Just when Midoriya thought some progress was being made, it was immediately overturned.
"Let's just get back to work." Midoriya threw the bill onto the table and walked out of the restaurant.
"Prick." Mirko whispered to herself as he followed him out.