Oh, okay. Some remotely negative reviews. Time to adress those, because frankly, they do bring up logical arguments to the table.
1. YES I'M AWARE THAT I'M OVERUSING CHATROOMS. I just don't feel comfortable writing action scenes with my limited english skills (not a native speaker), and I might have read some very textroom-heavy fanfics and I've ended up leaning on that idea to give readers words without doing things that are hard for me. I can only apologize for that, then again I did mention chatrooms in the first chapter so... ugh.
I'm actually trying to get myself out of that habit. I've wrote four more fanfics (well, not entire fanfics - first is at 14 chapters, second on 24, third on 5 and fourth on 2) and I can clearly see some progress. Especially the fourth one is going to be almost chatroom-free. SORRY ONCE AGAIN.
2. Yes, I'm also aware that there is some... crackiness, here and there. Yes, I know it's mostly serious and it might give you some mood whiplash. I'm just a devout believer that Earth is neither a crapsack hellhole nor a paradise, and it will never be either of that - you get comedy and drama in more or less equal measures. Hence the comedic parts in this. Also Mirio is technically playing videogames with a supervillain but is also attempting to make said supervillain commit a mistake, tell him too much, and then have him finally arrested.
The part where Izuku outed his long-term plan to him? Frankly, I can see the reason for the critique. Personally I think that Izuku's deep love for heroes is making him subconsciously seek heroic validation for his own great plans (at least from Mirio - whom he respects - and the dead heroes in his head). It's actually a rare case of Mirio managing to make Izuku commit a mistake. Togata simply didn't follow on it (at least, yet).
3. Overhaul knows that plans don't survive contact with the enemy, which is why he has plan B :V
(***)
Zealot is reasonably angry. And lost. Mostly lost. His spatial awareness is… lacking, to say the least. He has no idea where he is, and he has no idea which direction is which. He is too lost to be able to focus on his anger.
And he has a lot of it.
His life is, objectively speaking, a mess. Being born to a supervillain is bad enough. He can't express with words alone how much he relates with Midoriya Izuku. Only his supervillain parent was charismatic enough to make him do some extremely bad things before he changed his mind.
The change happened mostly due to him reading about the religious sources of the CRC. He had no idea how much of the CRC teachings were just petty hatred coated in words of people who would have wanted nothing to do with clan members. Although this is perhaps a wrong thing to say - most of those people would have wanted Purity dead or jailed. They were mostly against inactivity in the face of evil.
So he threw out everything that felt like re-packaged hatred, turned towards some actually constructive teachings of long dead people. But he still felt guilt. He couldn't become a hero, but he could be a vigilante.
How exactly he became a villain was a mystery to him. But it wasn't a bad type of a villain, all things considered. So he could still use his quirk. He still remembers how it basically died out on him when he realized that he was doing evil things to undeserving people as a part of the CRC. Persuading himself that he is worthy of his own power took him a while.
He still could power up to Gear Five (his maximum) only when facing people like Purge. People whose evil he knew and understood personally. People whom he couldn't see as anything other than monsters. Monsters seeking to harm the innocents for their own petty gain.
Only Gear Four otherwise, and even this took a lot of effort. Like facing the polar opposite of his old 'family', the ISP.
Overhaul sounded like someone to beat that record. Zealot barely restrained his desire for murder when boss narrated to him and the remaining old followers of Stain what Overhaul did to his sister.
But no Overhaul in sight. Eventually he did run into someone, but those certainly weren't people warranting the attention of his quirk.
Students. He didn't recognize what course they were from. Seven people, three of them badly wounded and carried by their friends. They were running away from something, judging from some of them glancing behind them. But then they froze when they saw him emerge from the woods in front of him.
"Wh… who are you?" One of the students asks. Ironically enough, a complex mutant quirk carrier. A kin of the people he once killed for the CRC. Some mammalian creature.
"Not an enemy." He replies. "Who is following you?"
"Mo… monsters." She replies. "Our class, they…" She fails to say anything more. She is choking on her tears. Zealot doesn't ask. She might be crying but she is still carrying a wounded friend to safety. Admirable.
One of her other friends screams - the abominations began to emerge from the woods behind them.
"Keep running." He says and starts walking towards them. "Don't look back."
They do as he say.
Gear Four.
He feels his body grow, the addictive feeling of power and fury overwhelming his every limb. How many people - kids, maybe not a lot younger than him, but still kids - did they kill? How many did they wound? How many of their victims were here because they wanted to help others? To be heroes?
Gear Five.
He closes the distance and punches the nearest noumu through its abdomen. It flies back, screeching and howling like Zealot would imagine a demon would.
He destroys the monsters left and right, but they just keep coming. Is that their main force? Is he going to die here? No help in sight. Just enemies. Crawling, walking, running and flying towards him. He can feel his arms tire, he can feel his skin getting cut and bruised. Gear Five doesn't make him invincible, not against those many enemies.
Is he going to die? Just like that? To be remembered as a villain that fell in battle against other villains?
But… will it be that bad if the kids get to safety? Will it be that bad to die if his last act will be saving a kin of those he once killed? Wouldn't it be great to at least die like a hero should?
Gear Six.
Zealot kills ninety-four Noumus - including four High Ends - before getting overwhelmed by their numbers. His last stand buys the students gathering at the training field in the middle of the camp fifteen minutes.
He dies happy.
(***)
Legion lands in the middle of the forest. He can hear a cacophony of the sounds of battle in the background. Distant gunfire, quirks and explosions mix up into an orchestra he would never want to listen to.
He is alone. He shouldn't be alone. Something didn't work. He connects to the chat with his speech-to-text device.
SmallMight: REPORT
CatProvider: Something scrambled the warp, I'm alone in the forest.
Gremlin: same
Others do not answer. They are either in combat, or… worse.
No. Don't think about it.
SmallMight: Gremlin, get your recon drones airborne
SmallMight: if you can, try to bring hero comms back online
If the attack is anywhere near as prepared as he expects Overhaul to be, this is going to be a massacre if the heroes are scattered through the forest with no means of coordinating their movements.
He has no idea where to go. So he heads towards what sounds like the nearest battle. He fails to reach it before he gets a report.
Gremlin: It's a disaster
SmallMight: what
Gremlin: at least a thousand enemies, hero comms still down
Gremlin: at least a hundred humanoid noumus
SmallMight: WHAT
Gremlin: Nedzu's fortress under siege (tanks, noumus, infantry and artillery fire)
Gremlin: several hero classes overwhelmed or on the run
Gremlin: the attackers are pressing towards the center of the area, where the main camp buildings and the training field are located, the scattered students gravitate towards those places
SmallMight: well that's just fucking great
(***)
Eraserhead understands that they can't hope to win this battle when several students come running to the training field and start shouting about an army of monsters on their tail.
The underground hero would have questioned the idea of 'army of monsters', but whatever is still happening in that direction is clearly scary. Someone's fighting there, and he feels like he's watching All Might fight with full power. Trees and humans (or humanoid monsters, as the kids claim) are literally sent flying.
Yeah, not touching that.
"Vlad, we're leaving." The other underground hero looks at him, visibly frowning. "Main camp, now."
They have the majority of their first year classes with them. Together with the Wild Wild Pussycats. The location is basically undefendable, and if the enemy commander has a brain (he probably has), their current location is one of the priority targets.
"Are you sure about tha…" Vlad fails to finish the sentence.
"OH LOOKIE HERE!" They all hear a shout. Eraserhead's eyes jump to the figures emerging from the woods. He recognizes the speaker. "So many kids! This is going to be fun. I knew that joining the House of Red was a good idea!"
Eraserhead had that name once. It was apparently an organization of serial killers, but no one believed that it could actually exist. It was just an urban legend.
"Muscular!" One of the Pussycats shouts. Their kid, Kouta, looks like he just saw a ghost.
Eraserhead recognizes two others. Moonfish, the cannibal murderer. And Magne, serial killer. There is a crowd of lesser villains behind them.
"I'm sorry, but we aren't supposed to let you retreat." Magne sounds almost apologetic. "Not until the noumus get here. So excuse me for that, but please die."
Eraserhead unleashes his capture scarf. Other heroes and trainees who can actually fight tense up and prepare for battle. They are ready for it - but not for Stain and Decay suddenly leaping from the forest to the left of the villain group.
And certainly not for Stain decapitating Muscular with his katana, driving a knife in the side of Moonfish's head all the way to its hilt and slitting Magne's throat before disappearing in the woods to the right. All while Decay spreads his quirk over the crowd of lesser villains behind the three, killing no less than twenty of them and sending the other half fleeing back into the woods. Before vanishing in the woods after Stain.
The entire process took less than half a minute. Decay spent most of it chanting "EXP EXP EXP EXP" repeatedly. Stain was intimidatingly silent.
"I really think that we should go." Eraserhead announces in the resulting silence. This time nobody complains. Mandalay sends an open warning to everyone in the vicinity that the main training area has fallen, and heroes and students are to retreat to the main camp.
When the noumus finally arrive at the training area, they found nothing but corpses of their allies.
Eraserhead's group encounters the vanguard of the former QLF forces before they manage to get to the main camp. The fierce fighting erupts throughout the forest.
(***)
Somewhere else in the forest, Kamui Woods and a bigger part of the 2-A class encounter a company sized force of the QLF with heavy noumu support. The surprise is total, but the wood hero manages to entrap most of the QLF soldiers with his branches.
The students flee while the remaining QLF soldiers turn their guns on the hero. He manages to buy enough time for the students to escape before joining the list of casualties.
(***)
"It's not a hacking attack!" Power Loader shouts back from the main communications room. "It's some form of technopathy quirk, probably boosted with Trigger. We should get comms back on once Eraserhead uses his quirk on the perpetrator or after he gets off Trigger!"
(somewhere in the forest a pink haired girl shouts triumphantly and tells her crush that she is ready)
"It will take at least an hour." Nedzu replies. He is calm. Oh, so very calm. Or that's what he is trying to tell himself. It doesn't work. "We don't have an hour. Students and teachers are fighting alone, we can't give them artillery support or deploy robots without communications. We need…"
The large screen in front of the principal flares up. On it is a picture of a chibi-fied Gremlin armed with a comically oversized chainsaw making a V-sign with her other hand, with a text 'Villain Industries' beneath it.
More words pop up underneath. 'Presents a Baby #347: Independent Drone-based Field Communication Network'.
Then it vanishes, and Nedzu is greeted with a familiar sight of the command map. The situation on it is way, way worse than it was the last time he saw it.
"You owe me for that, Nedzu." He hears a voice from the speaker. "A fucking lot." Different voice adds.
"Legion?!" Nedzu is shocked. For the first time tonight, it's a positive shock. "What are you doing here?"
"Saving your rodent ass and hopefully trying to kill Overhaul." Legion replies. "League is scattered around the forest alongside the heroes. I'm god knows where, you have a comfy command post with an ability to see everything. I told the League members to listen to your orders. So start issuing them."
The command system is optimized to work well with his High Spec quirk. The information flashes before his eyes, Nedzu's brain taking in and analyzing entire pages of text within miliseconds.
The situation is critical. No less than thirty students and heroes are already dead. Majority of the remaining ones are either wounded or scattered throughout the forest. He sees many groups composed of one or two heroes and whatever students from broken classes that manage to latch unto them.
The crowd of noumus approached from the east, the main QLF forces from the west. They practically severed the area in half, overwhelming the main training area that acted as the geographic center of the UA facilities. The camp in the southwest will be attacked next. The fortress in the northeast is still under siege by a detached force of the Paranormal Liberation Front.
Another detached group attacked the field hospital. The attack failed spectacularly due to All Might visiting it for the medical check-up (with his entourage of 1-A students), but it was the only positive of the situation. Well, that and the fact that the League intervened.
The situation is critical. But Nedzu lives for moments like these. He already has a plan. A lot of those.
He hits the button.
"Nedzu to all students and faculty in the area…" He says loudly. "I authorize all students for combat. Due to the severity of the situation I officially change engagement protocols. Heroes and students, fight to kill, I repeat, fight to kill. Do not try to apprehend enemies. I'm taking full responsibility for that. Do not engage League of Villains members, they are our allies for the time being." He doesn't have time to listen to sounds of surprise, and switches the channel.
"Power Loader, send out the robots." It was time to lift the siege of his fortress. "Extermination Mode, please." Power Loader nods on the screen and gets back to work. Nedzu switches over to Snipe.
Judging from the image of the screen he and a group of 2-B students are defending a ridge against an advance party of the QLF soldiers supported with some noumus. Excellent situation for a person with a gun and a Homing quirk.
"Snipe, you have another group of QLF soldiers about to flank you from the north." He hears a mumble of acknowledgment. "Retreat southwest, I have a job for you." But first he has to find other people to help in it.
(***)
"They got their… uuuugh… comms back." Overhaul announces. Doctor Ujiko winces oddly on the screen.
"Why? That shouldn't have happened." Overhaul had a decent amount of respect for Ujiko's knowledge. All for One had a good taste of co-workers. But he was an awful commander material, and they both knew it. Which is why Kai was the one in charge of the operation. "How do you know that?"
Way too jumpy.
"Because six 'scattered' groups of students and teachers just simultaneously converged on one of my QLF companies and are in the process of annihilating it." He sees a two-meter wide stone boulder rolling through one of his tanks, not stopping at all despite encountering the armored surface of the vehicle, exploding it in the process. Some officer is trying to shout orders before an improbably accurate bullet blows his head off.
Snipe and Boulder. Overhaul is absolutely overjoyed.
He switches to another camera, this time the one showing the assault on Nedzu's fortress. Right in time to see a 3-Pointer robot unleashing a rain of missiles on several vehicles, shredding the soldiers around it with shrapnels. One of the tanks manages to nail him, but Overhaul can see more robots emerging from the fortress. Including a looming giant of a 0-Pointer. No way his tanks take THAT down.
"Well, that's just great." Overhaul announces. "Attacks on the fortress and on the field hospital have failed, uuuuugh. We captured the training area, but we lost half of the noumus from the main group and the defenders had time to retreat. Enemy now has an information advantage and has begun to deploy robots. Plan Maximum no longer feasible, uuugh, unless we decide to field the Purified or the 3rd Gen Noumus."
"Too early for that." Ujiko replies promptly. "Not enough of them to surely win, and if the enemy captures them, we'll lose the advantage of surprise." Overhaul disliked how cowardly Ujiko could be. But this one time he decided to not argue about it. They had an alternative. And he more or less agrees with the Doctor.
"Plan Minimum it is, then." Overhaul replies promptly. He starts barking orders. The former QLF personnel around him obeys unquestioningly.
"What about the quirk suppression gas?" Ujiko decides to irritate him further after a few seconds.
"We have an entire two warheads left." Overhaul replies. One was for Musutafu, one for the I-Island. "I'm going to need both for something." One in case heroes found his base, and one to blow up Ujiko's face afterwards (as he is the most likely traitor to lead the heroes to his hideout). "Eclipse has been too… generous with them. Uuugh."
With the destruction of his vanguard company, the group from the training area managed to retreat to the main camp. They had some casualties, but nothing major. Thankfully, that was only a passing concern.
He had his main forces remain coherent near the center of the area, but spread the rest and told them to look through the woods and kill everyone wearing UA uniforms or hero costumes. There were many survivors hiding in the forest, and he was planning to sweep them all. All of that… a distraction.
He discovers that Nedzu found his command post when the first artillery rounds start to fall around him. The second one hit right in the middle of a crowd of his staff officers, sending some body parts flying.
He had himself warped out by his Eclipse copy. The warp scrambler had no way of preventing that, as he was among the body parts.
"Well, fuck." Overhaul mumbles to himself after emerging in his secondary command post. This was going to hurt. And certainly wasn't part of the plan.
Plan Minimum was still in the game, though.
(***)
Legion is still hopelessly lost in the forest somewhere to the south of the enemy's main force when he got the message from Kurogiri.
"Nedzu, Kurogiri can warp freely now." He says. Few kilometers to the north of him a certain rat perks up in his bunker. "The source of the warp interference moved to the south-east. Do you need Giri to give someone a lift?"
"How ok is he with being a living ambulance for the duration of this mess?" Nedzu asks back. Izuku chuckles.
"Taking kids to safety? Oh, he'll be overjoyed. Just send him the coordinates and keep him away from the south-east." Legion replies, he can hear Nedzu saying something that he can't hear. Somewhere away from him a warper changes position and thoroughly spooks several wounded members of the 2-B class before teleporting them to Recovery Girl's hospital.
"Overhaul's changing his strategy." Nedzu returns his attention to Legion. "His main forces are in the middle of the area, but I can see many smaller groups, typically a squad of QLF soldiers and one or two noumus, scattered around the area. Ideas?"
"You asking me?" Legion replies. "Am I supposed to see this as a compliment? Also, no. I have no idea. I don't know him that much, but tell me if something changes."
What is Overhaul doing?
Three minutes later Nedzu finds Overhaul's second command post. He chuckles maniacally alongside Power Loader when they start shelling it.
(***)
"I realize that this might be a bit awkward." Dabi announces to the group of students in front of him. "But you heard the announcement about the League being your allies. And I might need a hand."
His younger brother, Shoto, doesn't seem awfully happy about the very idea. Then again, his face is so expressive that he just doesn't seem. Whatever emotions you add after those words, the sentence will make sense.
"You are a villain." Shoto finally says. Dabi adds 'making his two-coloured brother into an emotionally disabled wreck' to the list of reasons why he hates Endeavor. "I couldn't believe it when I saw the footage from Hosu."
He has a few friends with him. They must have gotten separated when Eraserhead's group run into QLF vanguard. The french guy was shot and is bleeding badly. Shoto is being an obstructive ass.
He hears shouts. Not heroes. QLF found them.
Kurogiri knows they need a lift. So time to hold until he gets there. The French guy can't continue moving with a hole in his stomach either way.
"Sure, sure, little bro." Dabi decides against pressing the issue. "We'll talk some other time. Listen, I'm going to burn those assholes alive. Can you use your ice to cool me down when I inevitably overheat?"
He is vaguely conflicted about the idea of making Shoto kill people. This surprises him. He considered killing him to hurt Endeavor before he ran into Stain and then Legion. Is Midoriya rubbing onto him?
"Yes." Shoto replies. "I'm ready to freeze you."
Well if that ain't ominous.
(***)
Elsewhere in the forest, Gremlin finally loses it.
Her mental state is precarious. She doesn't mention a lot of things to Izuku, because he worries too much. Like, alright, she does keep seeing her dead parents telling her to murder people, but it's not like she listens to them, so it's alright, yes? And her Ma is often telling her how to make some newest combat baby, so it's alright, yes?
Okay, the 'kill them all' part is relatively rare. And mostly in situations like these. When she really has to kill people. So it's encouragement! Not a mental disorder! She just has her dead parents in her head, giving her words of praise and telling her to do better. That's great! Not bad! Like her own cheerleading team. But others would probably misunderstand. Especially Izuku.
But now the situation is critical. And nobody notices how Gremlin slips down further than ever.
She stumbles from behind the trees. In front of her is a tank and twenty people armed with guns. They are all wearing Rikiya Yotsubashi's faces.
"Kill him, Mei!" Her parents shout at her from their backseat in her brain. "Show him your babies!" Oh, she will.
"RIKIYA-SAN!" Gremlin shouts cheerfully and waves her hand at them. Gadget, her dog and a personalized second gen noumu is following her obediently. The recent, wonderful present from Izuku. She loves him so much. He is the only person that understands her. "I'm so happy to see you!"
"The fuck?" One of the Rikiya's asks, visibly dumbfounded. "Do any of you know her?"
"Hell no, no one here with that name." Another one, his upper half emerging from the tank's turret. "You think she hit her head or something?" They are all confused with her. Why? She doesn't understand. Aren't they all close? Practically a family!
"You remember telling me to make my babies for you? You know, after killing my parents and kidnapping me?" Mei asks, with more and more of the Rikiyas' in front of her having an unfamiliar look of confusion on their faces. "I have some just for you! Look here, it's the Detnerat's Special Baby Number Seventeen!"
Gadget blinks, unloading his dimensional storage. Inside of it are a few hundreds of Mei's inventions. Including the Detnerat's Specials. This time the dog obediently brings out Number Seventeen. Like all other Specials, her mom instructed her how to make it. Probably. Her mind is a bit cloudy when it comes to things like it.
"Let me introduce…" Mei smiles cheerfully. "White Phosphorus Anti-Personnel Missile Launcher!"
They react a second too late. What follows is fire and pain. When it ends, Mei continues walking through the forest, humming to herself and thinking about what other baby she'll get to show the world tonight. She has so many wonderful things stored in Gadget! Including thirty nine more Detnerat Specials' that she just HAS to show to Rikiya-san!
(***)
1. Yes. Stain is way more powerful here than in canon. In one of the other fanfics he is still standing (if wobbly) after All Might's 100% punch to the chest. And Muscular, however insanely powerful he is, had a horrible match-up here - his combat style is that of a berserkerish brawler, Stain got his blood quickly (while tanking a punch) and then chopped of his head.
2. I don't like Magne. She is getting super positive portrayal in many fanfics, which is something I personally don't get. Like, okay - she is a part of generally understood LGBTQ (probably, this is a world were people can look very different, her quirk is about genders so she could as well has a quirk adaptation that makes her look mannish despite being biologically female and I'm not going to judge), but she also killed several people, attacked a lot more and is beating up children and their teachers during her first appearance in canon. And is clearly enjoying it. And unlike Himiko, she is a completely sane individual, so you can't blame her actions on a mental disorder. C'mon.
It's like the second dumbest thing after the trend of giving Kirishima two mothers in fanfics, which really makes his almost obsessive quest for masculinity in his life NOT look like a endorsement of such relationships if you think about it for more than ten minutes before commiting it to the paper. Ugh. And I'm not even entering the ships swamp because holy shit.
3. In at least one alternative fanfic I wrote, Mei Hatsume actually has a Class-Six intelligence quirk that makes her into an impossibly genius inventor but also makes her... unhinged. And the Scope quirk is just a deception - a pair of implants she made to appear like she has a slightly less 'valuable' quirk (not like it helped her much). Whether it's the same in Cure to Evil AU (but everyone overlooked it) is up for your interpretation.