14 Days Before Revival Celebration
"And how…" Trumpet finally decides to say. "... are we going to keep Foresight occupied? Before the time to drop a hammer on him comes?" He isn't a tactician, his skills lie in organizing people and doing politics. But he is smart enough to ask the right questions, just not good enough on that field to come to the right answers on his own. "And without losing too many people?"
"Well, I believe that we can figure something out." Midoriya replies. "Actually, the QLF soldiers might be the crucial asset here."
Eclipse blinks at him a few times in surprise.
"Mieko, I think I told you that I'm to give the quirkless some moments in the spotlight." Midoriya says, while winking at her. "It won't be easy, but I think that having a few quirkless people hold off an SS-Rank hero in front of the cameras would do wonders for the societal perception of the quirkless."
"And how would that work?" Eclipse asks. She is now clearly intrigued. Excited, even.
"Yaoyorozu?" Midoriya decides to see if their two best tacticians (himself and Yaomomo) agree on that.
"I think that I have an idea." She admits. "You can throw his predictions off the loop if you tell his opponents to change their plans every few seconds, based on Foresight's movements. Something like 'if he jumps to the left, do X'. Some of his movements will be caused by his quirk. So if his opponents change their plans based on those exact movements, it'll make his quirk display a completely new set of predictions each time that happens. Thus limiting his quirk's efficiency significantly."
"Ah, and that's why guns might work." Eclipse realized it. "Keep two or three pairs of gunners at him. One of them shoots at him, the other two don't. Whenever he does any major move, make the pairs switch."
"That should keep him occupied for the one or two minutes that we need for the Hammer Down to get ready." Midoriya says. "I fully suspect that he'll manage to get at least some of them down, for the record. All of them, eventually. And that's even if you send your elites in. But it should be enough. Noumu will keep Valiant occupied while the QLF soldiers will do the same to Foresight. If any of them fails, Singularity will be there to stop them from going after Counterfeit and her party."
(***)
Revival Celebration Day
The USJ Noumu was barely holding its ground against Valiant. Valiant at this point could easily reach a 50% of pure power output that All Might had. USJ Noumu was technically created to fight the Symbol of Peace at his strongest, but not only did it spend years without proper maintenance but also fighting against someone with a different skillset.
The difference between blunt damage from punches and slices from a sword was a major one. Valiant was carving it apart, separating its limbs and beheading it at will. If not for its Hyper-Regeneration, the fight would have been over in an instant, and even that quirk was slowly running out of juice.
The few punches that managed to hit Valiant barely left a dent. The fight clearly wasn't going to last for long. But it should have been enough. .
Yaoyorozu's plan was more or less working. Foresight was busy dodging the gunfire of ten QLF soldiers that split off the wall of shields on that side. Some MLA troopers and Ascending Path cultists in their navy blue robes and a variety of melee weapons moved in to fill the gaps.
Naturally, the PLF's advance on that side of the plaza slowed down. Especially as Valiant was also there. Despite all of the chaos, Foresight could multitask well enough to shout warnings to his allies. SS-Rank heroes were no joke.
Thunderbolt was successfully evacuated to the back of the audience, from which he could shout his own orders while hiding behind Shieldbearer, an S-Rank hero with a powerful defensive quirk. Worst of all, they were relatively competent orders. With the audience mostly scrapped (and/or evacuated), the heroes were pulling back slowly, towards the large staircase.
Midoriya still remembers Aizawa-sensei jumping off the very same staircase to engage Entropy and her goons in combat. He also remembers the feeling of betrayal when Kurogiri warped him elsewhere after killing Thirteen in front of him. Ah, the nostalgia.
Now the enemy ranged combatants were scaling those same stairs for a position of advantage from which they could rain hell on the attackers, some of their compatriots using their quirks to shield them from the gunfire. It was no good.
Still according to the plan (well, one of its iterations, that is, and far from the most optimistic ones), but it was still a pain in the ass to deal with.
At least the hero classes weren't made of the same material as the old 1-A was. Teachers were dying one by one, and the students were (mostly) incapacitated at this point. Majority of them non-lethally, some that resisted too hard… Well, they should have realized their position and not try to play heroes.
He was waiting for something to happen. He didn't know that Midoriya was waiting for the exact same thing.
(***)
14 Days Before Revival Celebration
"Time for a big question, though." Trumpet decides to speak again. "What are we going to do when the HPSC's Fast Response Unit arrives? Because I don't think that we can do a lot against it, not without deploying our entire manpower."
Lady Murder's hand shots up. Mastermind gives her a stare of absolute superiority. Somehow it doesn't escalate into a murder attempt, but it's clear that the ISP warlord is on the verge of commiting a hate crime.
"It's a post-war development, Rini." Midoriya decides to elaborate. "HPSC was inspired by the first PLF's Vanguard Action Squad. They got themselves a long-range warper hero that can deploy reinforcements to respond to any on-going attacks or natural disasters. We talk about two more SS, ten S, and forty A-Rank heroes that can and will appear at the USJ within three to four minutes from the start of the attack.
"It was less developed back then…" Trumpet decides to add some further explanation, his head turned towards Lady Murder. "... but this is what did Miruko and Knuckleduster in. It was first deployed against the Table of Rejects headquarters, with Valiant and Foresight leading the charge as the SS-Rankers."
Total surprise for the Table members. Midoriya will truly and honestly enjoy proving that he can learn from the mistakes and failures of others. Not just his own.
"Well, I do have a plan on how to deal with it and… wait a moment." Midoriya says, before suddenly focusing his attention on one of the ISP courtiers. "You there. What did you just say?" He heard them whispering something to another of Rini's sidekicks. And it grabbed his attention.
That's the one ISP courtier that he has no idea why is so high in the ISP ranks. They actually look like the most stereotypical cat girl ever. And they look way too timid for that sort of rowdy crowd.
Midoriya even considered the idea that Rini was sleeping with her, but this didn't seem to be the case. Besides, if both of his pet hate criminals were gay, it would be really, really weird. Mastermind alone was bad enough.
"U-uhm, I said that if they warp in, then… it makes them vulnerable to ambushes?" She replies, clearly freaked out by the sudden attention she was getting. "We just have to, uhm, make sure that they appear when and where we want? And t-time it properly?"
Midoriya glances at Lady Murder. Rini shrugs.
"What, you think I could rule a ghetto with just an iron fist and intimidation?" She looks vaguely amused by his mistake. "She's my main advisor when kicking people in the face isn't involved."
Wow. So someone within the new ISP can actually think. That's a very good idea. Midoriya is going to find out if that was just a singular accident or if that girl was a decent commander material. But not now.
"Right." Midoriya, in the meantime, nods. "The point is, Cloud's presence is a massive asset to us. However, their value is greatly diminished by the HPSC having a warper on their own. So we're going to have to deal with that problem… right now."
"Wait a second!" Eclipse manages to speak first. "You mean… we're going to fight against FOUR SS-Rankers? And at least fifteen S-Rankers? This is going to be…"
She isn't the only one that's severely intimidated by the idea. Yes, the people he gathered for the League are tough, but not tough enough. Chameleon, Biohazard and Songbird are an equivalent of top A-Rankers, to begin with. Valiant and Foresight would mow them down without slowing down.
But… They are villains. Cheating is their forte.
"We aren't going to fight them." Midoriya replies confidently. "We're going to massacre them. That's what the Hammer Down is going to be about. So once we hold the line long enough for the warp to commence, this is what we're going to do…"
(***)
Revival Celebration Day
To the left and right of the stairs, something akin to small balls of light begins to shine. Each of them is at least a meter in diameter, slowly expanding in size. It was the sign that Midoriya was waiting for.
The HPSC' Fast Response Unit was en route. With enough firepower to thoroughly annihilate the PLF forces present in the USJ dome. Especially as they had almost a minute to see the feed going live from it. They knew the enemy forces present, and they probably managed to already figure out a proper formation to exit the warp in.
Bulletproof people at the front, to begin with.
"Hammer Down starts." Counterfeit says calmly into her commpiece. "Deploy smoke and pull back."
The line of the QLF soldiers - now down to slightly more than half of the numbers they had at the beginning, the rest dead or injured - immediately deploys the smoke cover. Yaomomo adds some of her own. Under it, the PLF forces pull back.
The fighting temporarily dies out, except for Valiant and Foresight that are still at it. Some random shots go through the smoke cover, but it's pretty pointless. Both sides know it, so they die out merely a few seconds later.
"You're done for!" Thunderbolt yells from his wheelchair. How or why did he get the microphone? He always was a bit of a showman, so it was perhaps understandable that he decided to yell at the villains.. Even if you remembered the fact that he didn't know that the world was still witnessing the battle. "This is…"
"...the Fast Response Unit. The HPSC equivalent of the Vanguard Action Squad." Midoriya cuts in. His face is still displayed on the large screen, even if parts of it are rather battered with some stray shots. "Fun fact, Thunderbolt. It was me who gave Entropy and Overhaul the idea to re-establish the VAS as a warp-based response unit. Do you think that I didn't analyze the weaknesses of the concept before making it a reality, Mr. Toyoda?"
"Are you insane?!" Thunderbolt decides to enter into a shouting match with a supervillain. That guy should redo his hero license exam, honestly. Even if his orders thus far were pretty good. "This is…"
"The FRU has one significant weakness. Its arrival is not instantaneous." Midoriya continues. The camera-noumu does a close-up of Thunderbolt's face suddenly palling. "The warp has already started and can't be aborted. The FRU is entirely dependent on the heroes on-sight maintaining a beachhead so that its members do not warp right into a villain ambush."
"How the fuck do you know th…" Yes, that part was a state secret. Otherwise, someone would already have the FRU die out on some suddenly deployed minefield or something similar. Unfortunately for its members, state secrets are laid bare in front of Midoriya Izuku.
"We have exactly two minutes and fifty-seconds until your reinforcement will arrive." Midoriya announces. Because of course he knows how long the warp is at that particular distance. The fact that the warp starting is announced to the destination point by the light show was a very good thing. "All we have to do is to eliminate your forces already present here before they show up."
Thunderbolt's face steels up.
"Try that, you fucker!" He feels confident. Oh, Midoriya will enjoy shattering that confidence in just a few seconds. "We have Valiant and Foresight here. You think that you can somehow get around a literal fucking precognition?"
"Well, I wonder." Midoriya smiles widely. Everything is going more or less according to the plan thus far, if you exclude the slightly higher number of casualties among the regular PLF soldiers attacking the plaza. And the fact that Noumu failed to eliminate Valiant. "Who do you think planned Sir Nighteye's death, Thunderbolt?"
The cameraman switches the camera to show Foresight up close. The man suddenly freezing mid-fight with what's left of the QLF Foresight-suppression unit, gracing Japan with the close-up on the sudden expression of sheer horror on his face.
"Checkmate, Thunderbolt." Midoriya announces, on his face the look of murderous delight. So many years of pent-up rage finally finding their outlet.
Ten seconds later the executioner's ax falls.
(***)
14 Days Before Revival Celebration
"Foresight's quirk is powerful." Midoriya admits. "And honestly, one of the coolest things that I ever heard about. But it has one glaring weakness - the man behind it."
They are all listening intently. Hearing that they are supposed to annihilate the Fast Response Unit did that to people. And they were yet to discover why none of the suborganizations heads save for two were involved in the USJ attack.
The USJ attack as a whole was merely the first phase of the Revival Celebration. The second one was going to be significantly harder. Or, at the very least, he expected much greater casualties on the PLF side during it.
"He can only see what happens ten seconds in the future." Midoriya continues. "And he can't instantly transfer his findings to all his allies. What's more, he can be surprised. He can be shocked. He can be mentally overwhelmed. The attack might occur entirely within his blindspot, making him completely unaware of it. And he only has ten seconds to verbally warn his allies, through the telepathy or not. If he fails to find proper words to convey what he is seeing in that time… he could as well be quirkless."
"... multiple simultaneous attacks." Yaoyorozu's smile is that of a predator. She connected the dots. She did mention the idea earlier and he did say that it's what they were going to do. Finally, the time has come to speak about it.
"Mostly done from the people that Foresight and the others were yet to detect." Midoriya replies with a smirk. "Or that didn't do anything thus far. Making it even harder for him to convey the warning in time." The smirk grows into a full-blown wry smile. "Make sure to make the kills as artistic and grizzly as possible, people. That's going to be your big moment. And it will only make Foresight freak out more when he sees it, maybe buy us a second or two."
(***)
Revival Celebration Day
Thus far, despite several major members of the PLF receiving their own introductory shots, the transmission was more or less live. With only several seconds of delay. This changed once the main phase of the Hammer Down started.
Too many simultaneous deaths. Too many things to show them all in a reasonable timespan. Instead, the recording showed them one by one, giving the people that took part in it their own introductory shots.
The first scene was Valiant's death.
His confidence - and thus his quirk's empowerment of his body - was already shaken by Foresight's telepathic scream of horror. It was still enough to keep the USJ Noumu at bay, especially as the monster was barely capable of moving at this point. But it did little to Fumikage Tokoyami who spent the whole time as an amorphous blob of darkness hidden within its body.
Nasty, yeah. Disgusting, yeah. Tokoyami might no longer be a human, but he still found things disgusting - and was rather vocal about it being a very bad idea in his opinion. They needed Aiko to persuade him to do it.
Who could expect a blade of darkness emerging from the Noumu's wide open mouth, moving fast enough to cut Valiant's throat apart? No one, save for Foresight, but he failed to make his warning clear enough in time.
Valiant's attention was on the Noumu's face thanks to his partner's warning, yes. However he expected a headslam or a bite attempt. He didn't expect the shadow blade out of nowhere. From the direction of the enemy whose skills he knew - and that didn't include such an attack.
He took two steps back in shock, his collapsing confidence evaporating his physical strength. The cut wasn't deep enough to end him instantly, his Regeneration pseudo-quirk doing its best.
But that's when Tokoyami emerged from the Noumu's mouth, Blackwing forming himself out of shapeshifting black matter before landing on the ground in front of the Noumu. He gets an introduction shot, introducing him to the world as Blackwing, the High Templar of the Ascending Path cult. Then he grabs Valiant's arms and tears them off at their base, before impaling him through his chest with his arm shaped into a black spear.
The second scene that Japan saw included Hypothermia raising her hand, and the entire lake behind her freezing in an instant. Before flying upward and shattering into a million ice spears that then rained upon the heroic ranged backline at the top of the stairs.
A firepower practically impossible to match, even by the SS-Rank heroes and villains. A result (together with Geten) of almost a century of eugenic programs led by the MLA extremist wing, tailored to create the strongest quirk holders possible.
Midoriya sometimes wondered to himself if Aiko wasn't the only 'deity' around him. Because Hypothermia was giving him a serious Goddess of Ice vibes, especially with her chosen aesthetic of her villain uniform.
Her attack wiped out all heroes present above the stairs, save for one which reacted fast enough to jump off the edge. He broke both of his legs in exchange for prolonging his life by less than two minutes as he landed too close to one of the Fast Response Unit's warpgates.
The one S-Rank that was up there, Greenflame, failed to respond to the attack. Seconds before she could, her head exploded. The world was then promptly introduced to an introductory shot of Mei Hatsume, the CEO of Hatsume Industries, with a handmade sniper rifle in her hands.
Midoriya could practically feel the despair of Hatsume Industries shareholders nationwide.
Mr. Blast, an S-Rank, died as well. His quirk was more of a middle-ranged one, so instead of going up the stairs, he stayed at them. Unfortunately, none of the heroes realized that Tsuyu Asui was at the premises. She exited the warpgate earlier under her camouflage ability, waiting for the right moment to strike.
He paused his attempts to shoot Counterfeit with his quirk when people began to die. His shock made him oblivious to Asui's attack until he was tased - and then, before he could fall down the stairs, grabbed by Chameleon. Who promptly shoved a grenade down his throat with her tongue and jumped backwards.
What a way of showing the world that Chameleon was still alive and a member of the new League of Villains.
Foresight managed to live for only two or three more seconds. He knew what was going to happen and tried to run - but he lost precious few seconds out of sheer shock of his own prediction. Uraraka got close enough, taking advantage of the chaos and the remaining QLF soldiers fleeing. She extended her hand towards him and used her supercharged and re-awakened original quirk to its maximum.
Singularity's name was a telling one. The result reminded Midoriya of Thirteen's quirk. Despite his most sincere efforts, Foresight was pulled in and practically pulverized by it. Once again, in front of Japan.
Uraraka lost her hand-mask in the earlier struggle. She managed to perfectly mimic the psychopathic glin of Entropy. Way to reinvigorate societal trauma.
If that wasn't enough, some warpgates opened in front of the remaining heroes, with a few Hatsume Industries-patented miniguns firing through them. Shieldbearer managed to hold the ground well enough, but the others were shredded save for a faint few who managed to dodge.
One more S-Rank was crossed out of the picture, Crystallite failing to move fast enough. The miniguns tore him apart.
80% casualty rate among the A and B-Rankers, the rest either about to die or being too shellshocked to form an organized resistance. Both SS-Rankers dead. S-Ranks down to Shieldbearer. All according to the plan. Now, time to deal with the Fast Response Unit. Naturally, with utmost style.
"W…what?" Thunderbolt looks more shellshocked than anything. Counterfeit, Biohazard and Songbird tore through the few heroes that were too close to them to get massacred by the miniguns. Tokoyami leapt in to help them.
"Well, there goes your bridgehead." Midoriya announces cheerfully. He is good enough at pretending to not make the world see the depths of relief that's hidden under the manic smile. Thunderbolt's eyes go back to the large screen.
He is going to enjoy making Thunderbolt watch what's going to happen. The third stage of the plan for the day is already starting, but he is yet to announce that to the world. Hopefully Mastermind is going to have good news for him soon.
(***)
14 Days Before Revival Celebration
Once Midoriya and the others manage to finish exchanging the ideas for their 'artistic kills' during that phase (the amount of training that pulling it off requires is rather large, then again, they are having this talk two weeks before the attack for a reason), it's time to address the issue of the Fast Response Unit.
"According to the timetable we've got, we can expect those two to arrive with the FRU." Midoriya says. Two pictures show up behind him. A woman with snakes for hair and a scale-like bodysuit resembling what Setsuna Tokage was using back then, but greenish rather than bluish. A man of a rather blocky build, in some sort of brownish robe.
"... at least it's not Invincible" Mastermind mumbles to himself. Midoriya picks it up. He completely agrees with those words. If that man was there, things would get ugly. Same with Firewing and Old Flame. Just for different reasons.
"Fair, but it doesn't mean there are no risks involved." Revenant announces. "For those who don't know…" He doesnt add 'namely, Lady Murder', but it's implied enough for Mastermind to chuckle. "... the snake hair lady is Sumiko Kazuki, also known as the Snake Hero: Medusa. Her quirk allows her to instantly petrify people she looks at and undo the petrification on touch. The blocky guy is Hamada Shiro, also known as the Slow Hero: Interdict. He has a slightly similar eyesight-based quirk that lets him freeze movements of non-living objects in front of him. In one case, it was strong enough to halt the collapse of a skyscraper for the time needed to evacuate everyone inside."
"Are they commonly used for FRU duty?" Yaoyorozu asks. Yeah, she noticed it herself. Mastermind, judging from the stare he was giving Midoriya, realized it as well.
"Yes." Revenant nods. "That's because the HPSC is a bunch of logically paranoid bastards. Medusa's and Interdict's quirk allow them to counter most attempts of ambush-on-arrival. Medusa is going to halt the attackers, while Interdict will stop projectiles and most environmental threats of physical nature. However, we're going to have exactly two advantages that should allow us to counter that."
He raises a finger.
"We know exactly when the warp will finish." He says. "I got an intel on that. I know how much time it takes for the Long Jump to finish hauling the FRU into the USJ, and her quirk's activation is pretty damn visible. This means that we can launch our attacks and time them up to hit the FRU before its members have the time to activate their quirks."
He raises a second finger.
"We have a few members with a truly overwhelming firepower at our disposal." Midoriya says. "Enough to, hopefully, annihilate the HPSC' Fast Response Unit instantly. Not only further establishing the Paranormal Liberation Front's brand as the main dispenser of fear and dead heroes nationwide, but also allowing us to avoid further casualties."
That they have to keep to the minimum. They don't have enough members to be wasteful with their lives.
Todoroki gives him a rather bloodlust-filled stare. Yeah. He knows that it's going to be his time to shine. Except… not just his.
(***)
Revival Celebration Day
"Cloud." Midoriya says, his eyes still on Thunderbolt. The man's shock and horror are… absolutely delicious to watch, to be honest. Seeing him break under the events was rather enjoyable to Midoriya.
Midoriya might be a bit of a sadist, deep inside. A tiny bit. Probably due to spending too much time around All for One. ANd, then, Entropy. Or, perhaps, it's just a warped desire for justice?
"Bring the heavy-hitters." He concludes. A few moments later, a god enters the USJ.
(***)
One of the three 'superweapons' of the government - the FRU, aka the Fast Response Unit - has been revealed. What's the casually mentioned third stage of the plan? One thing is certain, the heroes are screwed. Of course, Revival Celebration is most likely the first and last battle of the Second Paranormal Liberation War where Midoriya has so many aces up his sleeve...