CHAPTER 6: SHOCK! A SUDDEN INVASION, PART 1
"Kill the Symbol of Peace"
"Curious. The only real heroes I see here are Thirteen and Eraserhead. According to the schedule we retrieved from UA, All Might should be here, not the Big Three" the black mist spoke in a deep baritone. "So, you pieces of shit used the media as a cover to sneak into UA" Aizawa said, raising his capture scarf. The figure covered in hands spoke in a hissy, gravely voice. "Where is he? I went to the trouble of bringing along so many friends to play with All Might. Oh well…maybe he'll show if we kill a few kids, eh?" The small army of street thugs advanced towards the stairs, while the students looked down in horror.
*cue My Hero Academia Opening 1 – The Day*
"Why aren't the alarms going off?" Togata asked. "They must have someone with a Quirk that's jamming the alarm signal and our communications! Kaminari, use your Quirk to contact UA!" 1-A's homeroom teacher said, as the electric blonde nodded and tapped his headset. "Thirteen, you and Sun Eater get the children out of here! Nejire, Lemillion and I will engage the enemy!" Aizawa continued, as his capture scarf began floating. "But Aizawa-sensei, you're a close-range stealth fighter! You're at a massive disadvantage here!" Midoriya protested. The pro glanced back at his students and flashed what was by his standards a smile. "No good hero is a one-trick pony."
With that, the black-suited pro launched himself down the stairs, surprising a group of long-range fighters with his erasure powers and rapidly incapacitating them. Hado floated over the plaza, shooting indiscriminate kinetic blasts at the villains, while Togata sunk into the ground, popping out occasionally, incapacitating villains with a single hit.
The students rushed forward towards the doors, guarded by Thirteen and Sun Eater, when a vortex of black mist appeared, and the two yellow eyes of the mist villain glared down at them. "I'm terribly sorry, but I'm afraid I can't allow you to leave. After all, it would be a pain if someone other than the Symbol of Peace showed up. Our goal is very simple: we, the League of Villains, are here to kill All Might."
"I don't think so!" Bakugo roared, as he and Kirishima attacked the mist, dispersing it with a large explosion. As the smoke cleared, it the mist villain gathered himself again. "Impressive. Just what I'd expect from a bunch of golden eggs. But strength alone won't save you" the villain monologued. "Get back!" Amajiki yelled, transforming his fingers into long tentacles as the villain shot tendrils of mist through the air, surrounding them in a cocoon of darkness. "I'll scatter you to meet my comrades across this facility!"
The students were swept up in a wave of darkness. Shoji grabbed as many of them as he could in his arms and grabbed them, Amajiki pulling them to safety, while Iida managed to escape the cocoon with two more. The rest found themselves falling towards the ground in each of the various zones around the USJ. And as he finished teleporting them, he said one more thing.
"Emu Hojo, Kiriya Kujo…I have one friend in particular who really wants to meet you."
Uraraka was falling. Really fast, towards a giant lake, which was teeming with aquatic villains. As she splashed down, a crocodile-like villainess swam towards her. "Nothing personal, girlie, but my orders are to kill everyone that falls in here…and that includes you!" she said, jaws open wide and ready to strike.
And then, like an avenging green angel, Asui slammed into the side of the villainess, knocking her out. On her back, Midoriya clung on for dear life, as the frog girl snared Uraraka in her tongue and flung her through the air towards the boat. The brunette cancelled her own gravity and gently landed on the side of the boat. A few moments later, Midoriya was lowered to the deck of the boat as Asui climbed up the side of the boat.
"Thanks Asui!" Midoriya choked out. "I thought I told you two to call me Tsu!" the frog girl responded as she climbed over the side of the boat. "This school trip has kinda sucked, to be honest" she said.
Tsuyu Asui. Her Quirk: Frog! She's basically a frog-woman.
"So, we're on a boat, surrounded by villains, with no idea if any backup is on the way" Uraraka said. "I'm kind of concerned about what that mist villain said. They clearly planned this attack out very well and likely think they have a way to kill All Might" Midoriya said. "How do we get out of here, kero?" Asui asked.
"Think Izuku! Uraraka's Quirk allows her to make things float by removing gravity from them. I can attack with Delaware Smashes from my fingers, and Asui's Quirk allows her to extend her tongue and leap a long way. How can we beat the odds with our Quirks?" Midoriya mumbled. "Deku, you're mumbling again" Uraraka giggled, snapping the boy out of his trance with a crazed gleam in his eye. "I think I know how we can get out of here. We'd better pull this off…it's up to us to be the heroes today."
In the Landslide Zone, Todoroki had flash-frozen almost the entire area with a single move. "Wh-What's with this crazy kid? How's he so powerful?!" one of the villains panicked. "Pathetic. C'mon, Hagakure; maybe the next group will be more cooperative" Todoroki said, gesturing to the invisible girl behind him. "Aye aye, sir!" the pair of gloves appeared to salute before running behind him.
In the Mountain Zone, Jiro, Yaoyorozu and Kaminari did their best to fight off the villains surrounding them. Meanwhile, in the Ruins Zone, Bakugo and Kirishima tore through their foes with ease. In the Conflagration Zone, Ojiro and Mineta stood ready to fight. And in the Downpour Zone, Koda and Tokoyami held off those who would harm them.
And high above them, on one of the steel beams near the top of the dome, a dark-haired boy wearing a black jacket and bright pink pants with blue and yellow pixel designs on them sat and watched the chaos unfold. His eyes flashed red for a moment, before returning to brown. "Let the game begin."
Meanwhile, Kujo and Hojo landed in a small clearing in the trees between the Mountain and Landslide Zones. "Owwwwwww" Hojo complained. Kujo stood up and stretched, before looking to his fellow Rider. "Huh, not a lot of enemies here, eh, Emu?" he asked. "That's because I'm here to deal with you two myself without any common thugs getting in my way" a distorted electronic voice interrupted the duo.
*cue Wish in the Dark – Kamen Rider Ex-Aid OST*
The black and purple Ex-Aid walked out from behind a tree, wearing a purple gauntlet with two red buttons on his right arm. The two immediately got into fighting stances. "Who the hell are you?" Kujo demanded, as he reached into his costume and produced a green and pink belt, Hojo doing the same. "If you won't answer us…we'll have to take getting an answer into our own hands!" the other boy stated, lifting a pink game cartridge.
"By all means, please do henshin. I've been waiting for far too long to collect combat data on Ex-Aid and Lazer" the black rider said. "You asked for it…" Kujo muttered, raising a yellow game cartridge as he and his partner placed the belts on their waists, before pushing the buttons on the cartridges. "GAMER DRIVER!" the belts announced as they activated.
"MIGHTY ACTION X!" "BAKUSOU BIKE!" The two cartridges activated, creating cartoonish screens behind their users, washing a wave of pixels over the area and spitting out large floating boxes made of…chocolate (?) and small gold trophies randomly through the area. "HENSHIN!" the boys announced in unison, as they slotted the cartridges into their belts. "GASHA-TO!" the belts announced, displaying several cartoonish characters on a rotating screen around their users, who selected two characters, Hojo by tapping the screen, Kujo with a roundhouse kick.
"LET'S GAME! MECCHA GAME! MUCCHA GAME! WHAT'CHA NAME? I'M A KAMEN RIDER!" the belts announced, as, in a burst of pixels, the two teens' forms were enveloped by their two Level 1 forms. They had transformed into Kamen Rider Ex-Aid and Kamen Rider Lazer! "We'll clear this…with no continues!" the two said, before rushing at their opponent.
Despite the numbers disadvantage, the black copycat had no issue holding both his opponents off, switching his wrist weapon between Chainsaw Mode and Blaster Mode to hold the duo off. "Emu, you need to level up. I'll keep him busy!" Lazer said, breaking a trophy open and grabbing a small token with a cartoonish figure on it. "SPEED UP!" a voice announced as Kujo blitzed the black rider. Hojo, meanwhile, grabbed the lever on his belt. "Dai-Henshin!" he said, pulling the lever and opening the panel on the Driver.
"GACHAN! LEVEL UP! MIGHTY JUMP! MIGHTY KICK! MIGHTY MIGHTY ACTION-X!" With that, the boy's armor flew off and he transformed into a slimmer pink form. "Let's clear this, no continues!" he shouted, attacking his black doppelganger. "Now two against one? That's hardly fair. If you're leveling up like that…maybe I should to" the villain rider purred, before raising a lime-green Gashat and activating it. "SHAKARIKI SPORTS!" it announced, as a game screen appeared behind the rider and a green and pink BMX bike rode around him. He closed his driver and inserted the cartridge, before re-opening it.
"GACHAN! LEVEL UP! MIGHTY ACTION~X! A-GACCHA! SHAKARIKI SHAKARIKI! BAD BAD! SHAKA TO RIKI TO SHAKARIKI SPORTS!" the belt announced, as the bike floated up above the rider's head and disassembled itself, giving him bike-themed armor on his upper body and a bike helmet over his normal armor. "Prepare to taste the power…of Level 3!"
Up on the entryway, Shoji had his tentacles deployed, sensory organs on the ends. "They've been scattered across the USJ, but our classmates are all still here" the quiet boy said, much to the relief of his peers. "Iida, we have an important job for you" said Thirteen. "We need you to get out of here and run like hell back to UA's main campus. Get help for us; if Eraserhead, Nejire and Lemillion are doing this good a job of holding the villains off on their own, then with more pros we'll have this over with in no time!"
Iida looked at the ground. "But, it would be disgraceful of me to leave you all here to fight alone-!" he started, before Amajiki cut him off. "Look, to be a hero, you need to know when to retreat and call for help. This is one of those times, and you're the fastest person in class. Go!" he said. "Alright…I won't let you down!" the tall boy said, straightening up, engines deploying from his calves.
"You fools. Strategizing in front of your enemy; what are you thinking?" the mist villain asked in a somewhat exasperated, disappointed tone (almost as if he'd spent a long time dealing with disappointingly shortsighted youngsters himself), shooting dark tendrils at the students. "Knowing that won't help you, you know!" Thirteen responded, opening one of the caps on her fingertips and activating her Quirk, creating a vortex that began sucking the tendrils in.
"Are we ready?" Midoriya asked his teammates. Asui kero -ed in agreement, and Uraraka nodded. "Then here we-!" he began, before being interrupted by a giant hand of water slicing the boat in half. One vaguely skeletal villain laughed as water swirled around his hand; he was clearly the source of the attack. "I've had enough waiting. Let's kill some kids!" he said, earning the agreement of the other baddies. "Huh, this actually makes the plan easier. Uraraka…NOW!" the greenette shouted.
*cue You Say Run – My Hero Academia OST*
The round-faced girl touched all five fingers to the deck of the boat's bow, as the stern began to sink. The boat's front end slowly floated into the air, much to the shock of the villains below. "Somebody stop them!" the skeleton-faced one said. A redheaded girl with fins for ears and a man who looked vaguely like a discount Aquaman swam to the front of the group, small water bullets slowly flowing out of the water and into the air around them.
Midoriya took a deep breath, and looking down at the angry villains channeled One For All into his middle finger. "DELAWAAAARE…SMASH!" he shouted, firing a massive blast of air. The sheer force of the attack turned the lake into a turbulent mess for the villains, but more importantly, it launched the front half of the boat into the air, sailing over the Conflagration Zone…directly towards the wall of the USJ.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Midoriya and Uraraka screamed in terror, hugging each other very tightly, before Asui shot her tongue towards the roof of the dome, snagging a steel beam. The momentum of the weightless boat slowed, and its' course began to turn towards the Landslide Zone, completely missing the Mountain Zone. "Whew! That was close!" Uraraka said, before she and the greenette noticed their…close proximity to each other. They immediately jumped away in red-faced embarrassment, while Asui kero-ed in amusement.
In the Mountain Zone, Kaminari, Yaoyorozu and Jiro were doing a good job of holding off their opponents when the villains were distracted by a shadow looking over them. As the flying boat flew over, the trio attacked the villains with a redoubled fury, sending electric shocks, soundwaves and paintball blasts with little to no mercy towards their would-be torturers.
In between the two zones, the Rider battle briefly paused, with all three combatants looking up towards the flying boat. Kujo seized the opportunity to kick things into high gear. "Second Gear!" the yellow-armored figure said, opening his driver up. "GACHAN! LEVEL UP! BAKUSOU, DOKUSOU, GEKISOU, BOUSOU, BAKUSOU BIKE!" announced his belt, as his body folded and changed into…a yellow bike? The pink Rider hopped on the bike and renewed his efforts attacking his black counterpart, dodging flying bike wheels tossed by the dark rider.
At the Landslide Zone, Todoroki and Hagakure had just finished interrogating another batch of villains and determined the League's plan: use the giant, black-skinned, bird-headed monstrosity in the middle of the square to kill All Might. As the boat passed by, Midoriya called out to the duo. "Grab on!" he shouted as Asui shot her tongue out, having let go of the roof now that the boat's momentum had slowed. Picking Hagakure up bridal style, much to the girl's joy, the bichromatic boy grabbed the frog girl's tongue and allowed himself to be reeled in. "Whee!" the invisible girl shouted as they were reeled in.
Todoroki straightened up after landing on the deck. "We've found out their plan" he announced. "The black villain with the exposed brain in the middle of the courtyard is a bioengineered anti-All Might weapon. They want to use it to wear him down to the point he can be killed, either by it or by the villain leader" he related, much to the growing horror of the other passengers.
"No way…All Might can't just be killed like that, can he?" Uraraka asked. "If that monster is designed to fight All Might head-on, then we won't be able to beat it ourselves…but we can at least damage it" Midoriya said. "If we can ram the boat into it, then we can at least make things easier for Aizawa-sensei, Hado-senpai and Togata-senpai if they have to fight it." With that, the boy began running some quick calculations in a notebook left on the ship's bridge, intending to take the fight to the baddies.
In the plaza, the hand-covered man and his monstrous pet watched the carnage unfold, while the dragon man sat next to them. The two students and pro hero were making quick work out of the thugs they had gathered. "Shigaraki…I want to fight them already" the dragon growled, staring at the trio. "Hmmmmmm…it looks like perhaps the time is right, Graphite. The minibosses have been tearing our grunts apart…but if a higher-leveled player gets involved, the tide should turn pretty quick. Do it."
"That's what I've been waiting to hear!" the dragon man responded, climbing to his feet, and dashing into the fray. Aizawa saw him coming, and activated his Quirk…only to get punched halfway across the square by his undeterred foe. "How...? I should have erased your Quirk!" Aizawa said, as he stood back up, now bleeding from several small cuts on his sides and back.
The dragonic humanoid began to laugh. "Quirk? What Quirk? I am the Dragon Warrior of Drago Knight Hunter Z, the Graphite Bugster! I have no Quirk to nullify; I don't need any such crutch! Quirks are for the weak – the humans!" the Bugster gloated, before grabbing the Graphite Fang off his back and dealing several large slashes to the pro, including a massive one across his face, cutting just below his right eye, knocking the pro out momentarily.
"Aizawa-sensei!" Togata shouted, speeding towards the Bugster, dropping underground before popping up to deliver a powerful blow to his opponent. Graphite roared in rage, before swinging his weapon at the blonde boy, the attack harmlessly passing through him. "I see…a phasing ability" the Bugster noted, before glancing upward. "You are clearly unaffected by my attacks, but I wonder…is she?" he said, pointing to Hado's floating figure. Togata's eyes widened. "No."
Graphite spun his weapon around and gathered red energy, before drawing a X-shaped attack in the air with the blades. Togata used his Quirk to dive as deep as he could, then released it, shooting towards the surface at incredible speeds. "Dragon Fang of Rage!" Graphite shouted, sending the attack up towards Hado. The girl didn't see the attack coming until it was too late…but as she stared at the oncoming slash of doom, a blue, white and gold blur shot up from the ground, as Togata took the blow for her, falling to the ground bleeding from a massive X-shaped wound on his chest.
"MIRIOOOOOOOOO!"
Aizawa got back up and charged the Bugster again, intent on avenging his former student. Shigaraki scratched his neck, then straightened up, and dashed in, stopping one of Aizawa's strikes with his hand. Where the fingers made contact, the pro's skin began to crack and decay, as muscle became exposed. "You tried so hard, and got so far. You really are cool, Eraserhead. Probably one of the few pros who lives up to the hype they've been given" Shigaraki hissed. Aizawa stumbled back in pain, while the gaunt villain stood confidently. "I think it's time for our highest-leveled player to get involved. Nomu…get him." As Aizawa moved back, a shadow loomed over him, and he turned around to see the giant black villain reaching towards him…and then there was only blood.
The students aboard the flying ship looked on in shock at this turn of events. "No…we've gotta do something!" Hagakure said. "Right! You guys know the plan! Everybody abandon ship!" Midoriya said, as Asui turned the boat with her tongue, sending it on a collision course with the Nomu. Down in the square, Shigaraki turned to watch as the boat sailed towards the plaza, more specifically his living weapon.
"R-Release!" Uraraka said, the strain of canceling the gravity of such a large object finally getting to her. "Nomu, get that boat" the villain boss ordered, as his hulking monster dashed towards the improvised projectile. As the students landed in the treetops of the nearby forested area, they watched the boat hit its' target.
The result was spectacular. The boat slammed into the Nomu with enough force to drive the living weapon backwards. A chunk of metal pushed forward by the impact severed the Nomu's arm, and by the time the monster had stopped the boat, a 20-meter long path of destruction had been carved into the plaza, and the monster was panting heavily from the effort. "Looks like those kids might actually pose a problem…" Shigaraki muttered. "Nomu, you know what to do" he said, as the monster groaned, then, much to the disgust of the falling teens, regrew its' arm. "A regeneration Quirk?" Midoriya said. "Ewwwwwwww, that's a pretty grody regeneration Quirk!" the voice in his head said in disgust.
The group finally made it to the ground in one piece, Uraraka and Midoriya having floated down, Asui having slowed her descent with her tongue, and Todoroki gracefully coming down from the treetops with Hagakure in his arms. As they landed however, they heard a noise from behind them. A noise…like a motorcycle?
The black Ex-Aid burst into the plaza, catching the attention of all the combatants. The noise kept increasing in volume, until Ex-Aid shot out of the forest, riding on Lazer while wielding the Gashacon Breaker, bringing it down in a wide arc. "Who the hell are those?" Todoroki asked aloud. "Hojo? Kujo? Who the heck is that black Ex-Aid anyway? And what's that armor?" Midoriya wondered, noting the spinning wheels being thrown by the evil rider. "Interesting. A dark counterpart?" the voice wondered.
Hado seized the opportunity to attack the Nomu…but the brute began advancing towards her, unfazed. "H-How? How is that thing surviving my attacks?" the bluenette asked. "He has a name: Nomu, the bioengineered Anti-Symbol of Peace. He obeys me unconditionally; it's truly wonderful. Nomu…'sic her." Hado's eyes widened, knowing that things were about to hurt for her – a lot.
The monster suddenly broke into a dead run, covering the gap between them in no time, absorbing her kinetic blasts with his Shock Absorption Quirk, before roaring and grabbing the girl with his right hand, before slamming her repeatedly into the concrete, knocking the girl out hard. Shigaraki smiled a thin, dry smile under the hand on his face at the sight of one of the nation's most promising hero trainees being utterly demolished by his brainless pet. "An impressive little hero…but not good enough!"
As the Riders fought, with Graphite joining in on the fun after a few moments, the mist villain appeared in the center of the plaza. "Thirteen has been incapacitated by her own Quirk…but one of the students escaped" the living fog said. Shigaraki began to scratch his neck, first softly, but quickly becoming more intense, until his neck was covered in raw, bleeding patches. "Kurogiri…if you weren't our exit, I'd atomize you here and now! It's all over; we can't win with dozens of pros here!" Shigaraki said in an anxious panic, his fingers now staining red with his own blood.
"I guess we'd better leave…" the man-child said, before turning towards the bushes the students were hiding in. "But first, let's wreck the Symbol of Peace's pride a bit, and kill some kids!" he continued, appearing in front of them, hand outstretched towards Uraraka's face. All Midoriya could see in that moment was a vision of the gravity girl crumbling to dust…and he knew fear and rage in every particle of his being. The villain's hand made contact, but nothing happened. Aizawa had raised his head enough to activate his Quirk, erasing Shigaraki's power.
"You really are cool, Eraserhead. But we can't have our last spit in All Might's face be thwarted like that. Nomu, stop him" the villain ordered, as the black behemoth winked out of existence and reappeared next to Aizawa's prone form, smashing his head into the concrete and knocking him out. "Now, where were we?" Shigaraki wondered aloud. "Oh that's right, it's time for this round-faced bitch to die!" he said, reaching towards Uraraka again. "NO!" Midoriya shouted, leaping out of the bush, swinging his fist and channeling One For All, while shouting one word. "SMAAAAAAAAASH!"
A blast of air pressure blew Todoroki, Hagakure and Asui back into the trees, the wind buffeting the group at the top of the stairs, blowing out glass windows all the way in the Ruins Zone and creating waves on the lake in the Shipwreck Zone. "I-I did it? I didn't break my arm for once!" Midoriya thought, as the dust cloud parted to reveal…the Nomu, standing in the way of his attack, completely unharmed.
Suddenly, a terrible realization about the villains' plan to kill All Might washed over the boy, as he looked up at the mindless artificial human in horror. "Oho, you've got power behind your blows. And 'Smash'? Must be a follower of All Might. But it doesn't matter. Nomu" Shigaraki said, giving the beast a silent order to destroy. As it clasped a massive fist around Midoriya's arm, while Shigaraki reached again for Uraraka, all Todoroki could do was stare in horror. "Come on, MOVE DAMMIT!" he shouted at himself, staring at the sight unfolding a hundred yards or so away.
Then the doors of the USJ exploded off their hinges, and everyone stopped.
"WHO DID THIS?" boomed a tremendous voice, sending chills of horror up the spines of every villain in the facility, while waves of relief washed over the students. "WHO HURT MY CHILDREN?" the voice continued, as a massive footstep echoed through the USJ. "WHO DARED TO HURT MY FELLOW TEACHERS?" The dust cloud cleared, and there stood the Symbol of Peace…and for the first time any of the students could ever recall, he wasn't smiling.
"YOU WILL PAY DEARLY FOR THIS, VILLAINS." Shigaraki turned around, ignoring Uraraka. "Oh? Looks like we're getting a continue after all" he said, as the Nomu let go of Midoriya.
TO BE CONTINUED…
NEXT TIME ON GAME START! HERO ACADEMIA:
The Symbol of Peace has finally arrived, and it's time for a good old-fashioned slugfest! How will All Might beat a weapon designed to kill him? And were Kujo and Hojo supposed to see that? Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!
NOTES:
I knew I'd have fun playing with the USJ Arc's events, and it seems I was right. Hope you liked the 'flying ship' stunt, and the fight between Genm and the student Riders! See you next time!
Also, holy fuck, we passed 20k words in this chapter. Awesome AF!
UPDATE: As of the overhauling of this chapter on 12/7/19, we've exceeded 50K words for Game Start! Woohoo!
