Mate - That chapter is just a teaser of another story, that I posted to hear opinions :P I'll eventually write it, no doubt about it.
TheGreatBubbaJ - Yes.
Detrametal - Everything going Just. As. Planned. then.
The Archivist of Nyx - She is the most terrifying Chaos Gremlin. The one that understands reason and logic and often exploits it in their feats of chaos gremliness... but equally often ignores them. So you can never know what to expect of them. Also it's not that Overhaul 'has' a PLF. More like, he is member of its leadership. Discovering who exactly is leading the PLF will be a bit more of a surprise... And yes, Suto will eventually appear, just nowhere soon :P We talk chapter 50 or something.
SmokyGhoul - Incorrect. Red herrings exist out there too :P
AngelFallenDemon - Ha! Thank you :D
(***)
The first phase of the Paranormal Liberation Front's plan for the day includes chaos being sown everywhere throughout the city. The primary instruments of that are the noumus, the mindless (yet powerful) beasts that are teleported throughout the city and told to kill everything that moves.
And so they do. With enthusiasm. All of that while Eclipse is busy giving Endeavor the fight of his life, the hero and villain battling it out on the rooftops and in the air above the city. The scale of the attack draws the heroes towards the main battlefields throughout the city, making them vulnerable for phase two of the plan.
The headquarters of the Hosu Police are attacked ten minutes after the initial attack started. Kurogiri warps two tanks, a self-propelled missile launcher and the QLF soldiers in front of it. Tanks (they were built recently, but the design predates quirks by almost a century, it's just the ancient T-72 tank) began to fire on the building, while the missile launchers covered the entire front of the building with high explosive (and incendiary) missiles.
The casualties of the bombardment are in two digits. Worst of all, the remaining policemen are shocked and disorganized. The QLF strike force proceeds into the building, meeting only minimal resistance.
The calls for heroes to help remain unanswered, because the PLF hackers and the electronic warfare department just killed the Hero Network and the civilian communication channels through the city. Everyone is fighting on their own.
(***)
Izuku makes a smart decision about waiting and defending the currently grounded train from another potential attack (and to apply the first aid on the downed hero that got punched into it). They spend maybe ten minutes doing so (and still hoping that the train would just start moving and leave the danger zone) when Tenya suddenly hears Izuku saying something.
"Oh shit." Izuku swearing is a rare thing. So rare that Tenya looks at his friends and sees him staring at the burning city in front of them. On his face is shock and horror in equal measures.
"What happened?" Shoto is the one to ask first, oddly enough. At the horizon, they see another explosion of fire. It's night, so they don't see Eclipse using her quirk. They know she is there - the Hero Network let out an alert about her being spotted in the area before it went offline. They inferred that she is fighting Endeavor, because you need a supervillain to keep the Flame Hero occupied in combat for so long.
"I know what the Paranormal Liberation Front is planning." Izuku says, and Tenya is surprised. Then again, it's Izuku they are talking about, and he proved himself to be incredibly smart. "They are going to kill Endeavor."
What?
"Are you certain of this?" Tenya says, completely ignoring the complicated expression on Shoto's face. Bakugou is now listening intently as well.
"Y...yes." Izuku is startled a bit, and looks back at Tenya. "Eclipse's quirk is about manipulating surfaces. But she is fighting an aerial battle against Endeavor, despite it meaning that she has less surfaces to manipulate around her, while Endeavor can still go all out. But this also means that it's a running battle, and… she is drawing him into an ambush site."
Tenya suddenly feels his blood going cold.
"And since the Hero Network is down and the noumu's are occupying everyone's attention, the other heroes won't even know about it." He says slowly, and Izuku nods. Their expressions of horror are matching right now.
They have the advantage of having a vantage point over the city, but with heroes all fighting on the streets… they are the only ones. And they can't even contact anyone about it.
"Shoto…" Izuku says, facing their emotionless classmate all of a sudden. Tenya doesn't know what it is about, but his class president and Endeavor's son clearly do. There are three seconds of eye contact between them before the answer comes.
"All Might… All Might would have saved him." Shoto says quietly. "Despite everything." The look on Izuku's face is that of faint pride.
Does he mean that…
"We can't!" Tenya shouts. He is way out of his comfort zone, but he knows that one thing. "We are just students and it's Eclipse! The double S rank villain! Gran Torino told us that we are supposed to stay put, and…"
"He didn't." Bakugou snarls from the side. "That fucker told us to not fight unless necessary. And being the only people who can save someone counts as pretty fucking necessary to me, Four Eyes."
Bakugou, to Tenya's surprise, has a point. To Tenya's even bigger surprise, he actually finds himself agreeing with the explosive kid. This is a stretch of logic and law, but…
Gran Torino was a demanding teacher. But also one that enjoyed doing more than one thing at a time. Training Tenya physically wasn't enough. He also decided to train Tenya's mind. Mostly by narrating to him all the situations during his career when innocent people would have died if heroes tried to act by the book.
Tenya still wants to play by the book. But while he isn't going to admit that in the open, Gran Torino managed to beat something into his mind during those days. Namely the understanding that sometimes, just sometimes - in some extremely rare circumstances - one has to act differently than the book states.
Tenya Iida simply didn't expect the first of such situations to come so quickly.
"Very well." He says and Izuku beams at him. "Just try to make us NOT fight a supervillain while doing so." He can only hope. But he knows that the chances for it are minimal.
Izuku pulls out his phone and starts doing something on it.
"Get ready to run faster than you ever did." Izuku ads and Tenya is left to wonder what his green-haired friend is plotting to do. Whatever it is, it'll probably be awe-inspiring, and maybe just a little bit scary.
Bakugou growls. His face is one that's in equal measures excited and bloodthirsty.
(***)
Stain is about to leave the alleyway (Native is still cursing him from the back, not like he cares) when he gets a message on his phone.
It's on the Villain Network. The secretive communication channel of the villains. One that, apparently, wasn't jammed when whatever shit that was going on in the city started. Or at least wasn't jammed entirely (it seems to work regionally, at least, though not globally). He recognizes the username.
SmallMight: Uncle, are you in Hosu?
PurgeTheFakes: Yes. Do you know what's happening?
SmallMight: PLF is attacking the city. Not the point rn.
SmallMight: How fast can you exit the PLF jamming range?
What is his nephew planning this time? Stain is trying to be the scary uncle, but frankly speaking, Izuku is growing into the second All Might. And being an uncle (even if an adopted one) of such true hero material is simply a pleasure to Akaguro Chizome. He finds being scary to him hard.
PurgeTheFakes: Depends on said range. But I can move pretty fast.
PurgeTheFakes: What do you need me to do?
SmallMight: I need you to get somewhere where phones are still working, and then deliver some messages from me.
Hero Killer reads the messages, feeling his eyes widen. Izuku wants Nedzu to… huh.
Izuku, you crazy son of a… well, he isn't finishing these words, because Inko would probably somehow find out. Despite it being said in his mind. That woman was scary, but in a good way.
(***)
Strike Team Hierophant succeeds in its mission after twenty-seven minutes of combat against the remaining defenders of the local police headquarters. The QLF soldiers reach the main data storage areas, letting a late bloomer with a technopath quirk start copying everything inside.
And more. Because the QLF got deep enough into the local police headquarters to actually connect to the deepest layers of the police and hero networks. It required them to partially restore the hero comms for three precious minutes, but it was worth it.
Within those three minutes, their technopath (boosted with Overhaul's special trigger) has managed to penetrate the electronic defenses and copy the majority of the police data. The names of informants within the villain world and their reports. The status of the ongoing investigations. Safehouses and the location of people under witness protection programs. Not to mention the personal data of policemen and heroes throughout the country.
Strike Team Hierophant shuts the hero comms in Hosu again and begins its retreat from the building. The local policemen are too busy being dead or dying to try to stop them. Heroes are still fighting elsewhere, unaware of the police coming under attack.
(***)
Endeavor realizes that he was led into a trap when Eclipse lands in the middle of some abandoned park in one of the worst districts of Hosu. She is clearly beaten up, partially burned and tired - the Flame Hero was winning the fight by far, no doubt. But the real problem is something else.
Noumus. Lots of them.
Endeavor doesn't care. He is confident in his strength. This is a battle that was practically made for him. Numerous enemies in a relatively small area - and enemies that he doesn't have to bother trying to take alive. So he goes all out.
Noumus burn. One by one. Eclipse is trying to assist them, but she is at best at ⅓ of her normal strength at this point. Endeavor might be slightly overheated, but he can still use his full strength for a while.
"Was that your plan, Eclipse?" Endeavor asks when the last of the noumus dies. "Draw me here and use your little pets to swarm me?" He sniggers mockingly. "Pathetic."
"No, Enji." She replies, and his hero's instincts scream at him that something is wrong. She is way too calm, way too… satisfied, and... "They were to keep you occupied while Overhaul is releasing the gas."
There are sudden explosions throughout the park. Endeavor doesn't waste time to figure out what sort of gas she was talking about - he propels himself from the ground with his quirk, trying to flee to a safe distance, and…
And that's when his quirk stops working and his flames are extinguished. Endeavor falls down to the ground. The impact is painful, and he can feel his arm breaking. Arm and probably some ribs. It wasn't a graceful landing by any stretch.
He rises from the ground, just in time to see Overhaul approach them.
"Unfortunately, I still don't have enough of the quirk-suppressing gas to take down an entire city at once." The second supervillain announces. "But it's enough for this one little battle. Your quirk will return to you in… a week, maybe?" He laughs slightly behind his gasmask. "But, of course, you won't be alive by then." He turns his head towards Eclipse. "He is yours."
"With pleasure." Eclipse says and chops off Endeavor's right arm with her quirk. The cut is clean, and Endeavor isn't going to dignify her with sounds of pain. He is going to die, but at least he will die standing. "Oh, no screams? Now that's kinda sad. You're going to bleed out quickly, so how about at least entertain me a bit before that?"
He isn't. He feels… faint. He can see the blood gushing out of the wound. How long is he going to stay standing? With so much blood loss, it's probably a minute or two, right? At best. Not like there is any point in trying to staunch the bleeding.
"Hey, Overhaul!" A voice shouts at them from the side. Enji turns his head and he recognizes Izuku Midoriya (what is he doing here?!) walking towards them through the field of burned noumus. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything?"
What?
"You." Overhaul says, squinting his eyes. "The hero trainee from the USJ. You keep being a pain in the ass to me. Eclipse, kill him. You're better at ranged combat." She moves her finger a bit and several circular surfaces appear out of nowhere above her head.
"I have just one question for you, Overhaul!" Izuku stops walking towards them, maybe thirty meters away the two supervillains and dying hero. Eclipse pauses her attack, probably out of confusion more than anything. "Do you think that your clan's boss felt it when his life support failed?"
The silence lasts for a heartbeat before Overhaul shouts something intelligible and leaps towards the student. Eclipse shouts at him to stop, but he clearly doesn't seem to listen to her. Izuku jumps backward with enough strength to send a nearby noumu's remains flying. Overhaul is pursuing him.
"AP SHOT!" Endeavor hears a shout from the direction opposite to where Izuku is running away. And so does Eclipse. She manages to move the surfaces she conjured to attack Izuku to block the attack, but it penetrates half of them before dissipating. There is another hero student from the festival, this time the rehab one with explosive quirk. He is standing twenty meters away from them, little explosions blasting around his hands. "Come at me, bitch! I'm looking forward to blasting you into pieces!"
"Is suicidal overconfidence a common trend of all heroes nowadays?" Eclipse, despite the wounds and burns, chuckles. "Fine, I'll entertain you, kid. All the way down to hell." She throws her surfaces at him, but he uses his explosions to dodge them sideways. She is clearly sluggish, with exhaustion and wounds slowly weakening her. But she feels confident when facing a first year hero trainee.
It's at this point that Endeavor can feel coldness in his wound. Not the normal type of cold. The bleeding is stopped by an icecap. Seconds later Shoto (it's his son, what is he doing here?!) walks past Endeavor.
Eclipse manages to propel herself sideways fast enough to avoid the massive ice glacier.
"This is going to be a 2 on 1 battle." Shoto announces. Eclipse glares at him with hatred. She recognizes Endeavor's son. And is probably looking forward to killing him in front of the Flame Hero.
(***)
Overhaul is so overtaken by rage that he is barely coherent. It's that kid! That damnable kid that cost him everything! The kid that took Eri away from him and that then somehow got several supervillains to raid the Shie Hasseikai' base. The same kid that killed the old boss and had Overhaul spend two days buried under the rubble!
He throws caution and sanity to the wind. There is only murder. And the kid is doing his best to avoid that outcome.
He is fast. That much Overhaul has to admit. He is fast, but not fast enough. Overhaul is steadily gaining on him (he doesn't bother using ranged attacks, he has to stop to do that and that would be just a waste of fucking ti…
Overhaul fails to notice the attack in time. He would totally do it in his normal mind, but with rage overtaking him so much, it's simply not an option. A heavy chunk of something hits him in the side, with enough strength to push him sideways and slam him into the wall of a building.
Actually, through the wall. The building feels on the verge of collapse. Whoever built it should be fucking ashamed of themselves.
Overhaul resets the damages and steps out through the hole in the wall. He sees another fucking kid hero, this time in a silver armor.
Two seconds later the kid kicks another shard of concrete wall at him but this time Overhaul evades it. He leaps towards the nuisance (he'll deal with the greenhaired shitstain a second later), only to get hit by something from the side. Again.
It's that Izuku bastard. It was a rock throw. Those kids are throwing and kicking rocks at him, but with enough strength due to their quirks to deal some actual damage. He might get knocked out cold if one of them manages to hit him in the head.
Overhaul realizes that it's going to be a pain in the ass when he tries to hit the silver armor kid by reassembling the floor under him, only for the kid to power up some idiotic rocket engines in his legs and evade it sideways.
Izuku of course uses this moment to almost hit him in the head with a brick.
They know his quirk, and they are going to keep their distance, while showering him with projectiles. All while being fast enough to dodge the attacks. And with enough teamwork to keep tag teaming him.
Overhaul realizes that he might have just fallen into a trap himself.
(***)
Endeavor's son unleashes six more ice glaciers (that she promptly shatters with her quirk) before she manages to grab the explosive kid during a failed close combat attempt. She holds him in front of her, with one of her small surfaces floating menacingly right next to his neck.
"Alright, kid." She laughs at the faces of Endeavor and his son. The former is terrified, the latter emotionless yet fierce, a really amusing combination. "If you don't…"
"I'm going to blow both of you away with my strongest attack in ten seconds." Young Todoroki announces with a facial expression of a corpse and Eclipse finds herself blink a few times under her mask. What the hell is that kid trying to pull?
"Show it to me, then." She laughs again. "I'm going to call your bluff, kid. There is no way that you, a son of Number Two Hero, would use lethal force on a hostage! Especially your classmate!" So, she waits for him to prepare the attack, because why not?
"Flashfreeze Heatwave." He says. And the world around Eclipse explodes. The explosive kid slips from her grip when something practically pulverizes her gas mask (it was exposed, but the kid had to be done in by that, yes? he was in front of her).
She is deafened and partially blinded by the explosion. Her skin hurts, her bones hurt, everything hurts. She is confused and probably concussed by the impact.
But still intelligent and experienced enough to realize that it wasn't a fire nor ice attack. It was the same thing he used during the school festival. An explosion created by rapid change of air temperature. And the kid that she was holding as a hostage had an explosive quirk. This meant a high degree of resistance to…
She was about to use her surfaces to slice everything around her to bits when an explosion-powered uppercut punch into her jaw sent her unconscious.
(***)
"It's time!" Izuku shouts, while Tenya and Overhaul are still shocked by the explosion that they just heard going off in the distance. "We're pulling back!"
Tenya puts his entire strength into his engines. Overhaul keeps throwing curses after them and is right on their tail. If Izuku failed to coordinate everything correctly (or if Eclipse was still in working conditions), they were all going to die.
(***)
"I understand that, Aizawa-sensei." Mieko Eto announces. "But I received Principal Nedzu's agreement to open the warp gate to that particular set of coordinates, and at that particular time."
Eraserhead is confused. Nedzu's message was rather scarce. He was to appear at the dorms of the rehab course students (which wasn't hard, because he just happened to be visiting his children when that happened), and then… assist.
In something.
Nedzu didn't specify what, and when he saw Mieko assembling a long-distance warpgate (it was a time consuming thing to her), he tried to point out that it's technically illegal. Only to hear this.
The Recovery Girl was also there. In the living room. Together with the remaining rehab students (minus Bakugou) and a lot of tools. After receiving similarly scarce message to come. Or, to be exact, she got the message, while the kids assembled because something interesting was happening.
"And… done!" Mieto shouts, and a large part of one of the living room's walls suddenly opens up to… somewhere else.
It opens up to a battlefield. Eraserhead would have used his quirk on Mieko if he didn't recognize some of the people in front of him.
Endeavor stumbles through the warpgate, the stump of his arm held by an icecap, and his missing arm held in his other hand. He has just enough strength left to make a few more steps and then collapses onto the floor, Recovery Girl rushing over to him.
Bakugou (Eraserhead barely recognizes him, he is just one large wound and bruise at this point) is dragging someone unconscious (or dead) towards the portal. Shoto is standing next to him, only to unleash one of his glaciers at something unseen from the dorms. The glacier is shattered two seconds later, but Shoto immediately ignites his flame side, calmly says 'Suppressing Fire' (must be a name for his new technique) and begins to shower someone or something with thousands of minuscule fire bullets.
Then Tenya shows up, fleeing from the direction that Shoto was attacking. He lands near Bakugou, grabs the body (person?) he was dragging and helps him to get to the portal faster. They manage to get through it seconds before Izuku pops up in the background (because of course he is involved in whatever mess this is), arriving from the same direction as Tenya did earlier. He avoids an attack that makes spikes emerge from earth, before leaping towards the portal.
He grabs Shoto and flies through the portal, hitting one of the couches and overturning it in the process. He was shouting something like 'CLOSE THE PORTAL' (probably) so Mieko promptly did just that.
What the actual fuck?
(***)
UA Staff Chatroom
Eraserhead: Everyone
Eraserhead: I announce a Midoriya Moment. Code Red.
Eraserhead: I need All Might, detective Tsukauchi with an emergency task force of the local police, and someone from our legal and PR departments on the UA grounds asap.
AllMight: What?
Principal: ?
PresentMic: Waking us all up is a mean thing to do, shouta!
AllMight: Isn't Izuku on an internship?
Eraserhead: Not anymore. In case you didn't notice, there is an on-going PLF attack on Hosu, and somehow he and his friends were involved in it.
AllMight: Are they alright!?
Eraserhead: You're being worried about the wrong people.
Eraserhead: They stumbled through Mieko Eto's warpgate into the Rehab Course dorms with half-dead Endeavor and unconscious Eclipse that they apparently defeated and apprehended while tag-teaming her and Overhaul.
AllMight: They what?
Eraserhead: Izuku Midoriya, Tenya Iida, Bakugou Katsuki and Todoroki Shoto have just defeated and apprehended the SS-Rank villain and the elusive leader of the Quirkless Liberation Front. Known as Eclipse.
Eraserhead: While saving Endeavor from an ambush that was bad enough to have him walk through the warpgate with his severed arm in his other hand. And promptly pass out from blood loss and shock.
Principal: Oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear
Eraserhead: The cut is clean and Eto warped him to the nearest hospital after Recovery Girl stabilized him, so they should be able to reattach the arm, in case someone was curious.
Eraserhead: Eclipse is in Recovery Girl's office, sedated, restrained and guarded by me (plus still unconscious, and frankly half-dead), but I'd really feel better with All Might around in case she woke up.
AllMight: ON MY WAY
AllMight: Izuku's mother is going to kill him.
Eraserhead: There is a queue for that and she isn't first in line.
Eraserhead: Principal You knew?
Principal: Only about the warp for emergency medevac from Hosu, which I permitted. So Mieko Eto is safe from accusations of vigilantism. The rest is a more complicated matter. Then again, knowing Midoriya, he probably creatively redefined received orders rather than acted against them. Especially with Tenya Iida being around.
Principal: We'll learn more soon. Also I'm phoning the people from the list.
Principal: Mieko Eto is probably freaking out, yes?
Eraserhead: She was while I was leaving the rehab course with Bakugou (he needed medical help too, but nothing life threatening) and Eclipse. Midoriya stayed with her to calm her down. Why?
Principal: Because she decided to become a hero in order to one day catch her villainous parent and end their reign of terror. To stop herself from living in fear that she will be one day ousted as their child to become a social pariah as a result. Or that said parent will one day remember about her existence and come pick her up or do something nefarious to her.
Principal: You are currently in the same room as her villainous parent.
Eraserhead: … oh well that's just great.
Eraserhead: Hazard pay, Nedzu.
Principal: I think that this is actually a reasonable proposal after the recent… events.
Eraserhead: Also can we just give Midoriya and his class an early hero license exam and boot them out of the school?
Eraserhead: We aren't going to survive three years with them.
Principal: …
Principal: I believe it might be the time to make first year classes attempt provisional license exam, because frankly speaking, this year's crop of prospective heroes is just downright ridiculously competent.
PowerLoader: Accent on ridiculous.
(***)
Tenya: Please, try to not make us fight a supervillain.
Izuku: No promises are made.
Twenty minutes later.
Tenya: WHY ARE WE FIGHTING TWO SUPERVILLAINS
Izuku: YOU TOLD ME TO TRY TO MAKE US NOT FIGHT A SUPERVILLAIN, NOT THE SUPERVILLAINS!
Tenya: *screams*
Please, be advised. If dealing with Izuku Midoriya, make sure that there is no way for him to loophole around you through grammar or dictionary definitions of your words.
Also the part where Shoto decides to go save Endeavor is rather important. At least to Izuku. He knows where does an excessive hatred can lead you to, and knowing that Shoto didn't lose himself to it is what made him look proud.
And while Endeavor survived, considering the achievement of the Strike Team Hierophant, I wouldn't exactly call that night a victory of the heroes...