Monsters
Mako was flung through the air as the pink tendrils of the villain he was fighting wrapped around his arms, legs, and torso before he was slammed onto the ground hard enough to crack it. As he was pulled back towards the villain he was fighting however, he quickly grabbed onto the ground for leverage, "Guh! Ok, this is probably one of the more grosser bad guys I've fought." Mako mumbled as he turned his head over his shoulder to see a slightly stocky man with a hole in his chest which the pink tethers emerged from which trapped both him and Miruko in their grasp, the Rabbit Hero trashing around and losing their grip on her.
Ripping a piece of stone from the ground he launched it at the man's head, nowhere near as hard or fast as he could have, but the rock collided with his head with enouch force to knock him off his feet regardless! With the organic ropes around him and Miruko loosened, the two slipped off their bonds and charged at the man from either side, however Miruko got to him first and her powerful low kick not only knocked the man out, but sent him skyward and into the side of the building that he had attempted to steal from.
Miruko grinned wickedly as she looked over at the now unconscious thief, "Aw what? That all you got!?" she barked at him.
Invincible groaned as he landed and almost dropped his hands to his knees to catch his breath, "Are you talking to him or me?" he asked as he caght his breath. Miruko's plan for helping Mako improve his stamina so far was going about as well as he could expect, exhaustingly. The past 24 hours had been, like Miruko said, a nonstop marathon of crime fighting! Everything from accidents to criminals, they had gone after across the entire city. Stopping at a local hotel to sleep and regain their strength before waking up this morning and resuming their work. And every time he slowed down, Miruko was right there to give him a boot to the ass to get him hustling again, sometimes literally.
"Nah, your keeping up! Hell if we keep going we might be able to beat my last record for how many busts in a day!" she said with wild excitement. Mako had a sudden urge to collapse, the Rabbit hero watched her pupil with a smirk, "But I can tell your about ready to fall down, so we'll call it for today." She added with a grin.
"Oh thank you god." Mako silently said.
Miruko nodded in satisfaction, she had expected him to whine and complain at least a little bit but to his credit Invincible hadn't complained once, only asking once in a while to slow down so he could catch his breath. "But you got to clean up here runt! I gotta find us a place to crash for the night!" she said before leaping off, leaving the intern to look up as she left him at the somewhat torn up street corner.
Oh now you want me to stick around and clean up?! We've been pinballing across the whole city from one crime to the next. He thought tiredly before standing upright, You know what, I'm not gong to complain about cleaning up. It'll give me a few minutes to catch my breath. The viltrumite thought as he walked over to a down lamppost and set it straight, using his foot to reinsert the bolts to the ground. Still though it is pretty eye opening, I never knew how many crimes are committed in a day, even with all the superheroes around. He thought to himself. His work with the GDA was something that was sporadic and not something he would consider 'standard hero work' all things considered.
Not to mention he was actually learning some things while on patrol, as he found out he could actually fly faster than he thought at lower altitudes without disturbing the surrounding area. However he still needed to work on his sharp turns in the city, having nearly lost Miruko when she pivoted off something and shooting off towards another crime to solve. When taking a sharp turn, Mako needed to slow down considerably before shooting off in another direction at the cost of his momentum. I gotta work on my flying in cities, maybe I can ask to use the fake ones for training at UA? He asked himself, dumping the broken glass he was carrying in his arms to a nearby recycle bin.
As the viltrumite finished cleaning up, a police car with a prisoner transport arrived, hoisting the supervillain over his shoulder, Invincible walked over to the armored van as the doors opened with officers waiting for him with cuffs and a harness to stop the Teather Tyrant from using his quirk. "Hey can I ask you guys something?" he asked as the officers slapped the cuffs on him.
"Um…sure?" one of them answered.
"How do you guys get specialized restraints for guys like this?" he asked, gesturing to the metal vest they were going to use on him.
"Oh that?" the officer asked, "Oh we got a bunch of these things for each body part we have them in the bottom of the Van and we restock at the end of our shift or when it gets too low." He explained to the teen.
"Really?" Invincible asked, tilting his head to the side, "What about for guys who quirks make them into stuff like water? Or they're giants?" he asked, recalling the sludge villain that he and Izuku encountered over a year ago now. All Might had scooped him up into a water bottle to capture him and something told him that wasn't exactly standard procedure.
"Oh you mean the special cases? Yeah we got specialists for that. Lot of support items are made for capturing and holding villains." The cop told him.
"Huh, cool to know. Thanks, uh, do you need any help with anything?" he asked, he had cleaned up most of the mess that he and Miruko had made, anything that was dangerous was put away, but he couldn't exactly fixed shattered concrete.
The officer waved him off, "Your good kid, thanks for the help." He said gratefully.
Invincible nodded before taking off from the ground above the surrounding buildings and flew through the skyline with his arms stretched out in front of him,
The area where the Kresh ship had crashed landed had been cordoned off and quarantined to the public for over a hundred miles while over a hundred GDA agents as well as Public Safety crews working around the clock to strip down and analyze the ship's individual components. Overlooking a a holographic model of the efforts was Rex Robot, drinking a cup of water as he oversaw the crew's efforts along with the drone that he had sent there to assist.
"You know you don't need to micro manage everything." Rex looked over to his side, past the glass barrier that separated him from the outside world to his girlfriend Amanda. Otherwise known as Monster Girl on the Guardians of the Globe team. However unlike the green hulking monster that most people knew her as, Amanda in her human form was actually quite lovely, despite the fact that she looked six years younger then Rex did.
Her quirk functioned with a devious side effect, the longer she stayed transformed, the younger she became. Which made the 20 year old look like a 14 year old, "I'm not minro managing, I'm just overseeing." Rex corrected with a smirk. "Now how's your recovery coming along?" he asked. In an effort to combat the side effect of her quirk, Rex had developed a belt that Amanda wore which would keep track of how much time she lost with each Transformation.
She sighed, "I lost three weeks, I thought it'd only be one, but I think having to heal my hand accelerated it even more." She admitted sadly.
Rex's small smile faltered briefly, "Well then maybe for the next two weeks you can be on reserve. That way you can recover your time." He offered.
His girlfriend turned to him with a sad look, "Rex…"
His head lowered, "I'm close Amanda, I've been working on a way to suppress the side effects of your quirk, I just need more data." He said, the young woman sighing tiredlt as he pinched the bridge of her nose. "I just…..I know I can fix it."
Amanda turned to him sadly, "Rex, maybe this is just one of those things you can't do anything about." She said gently, looing down at her hand that had been shredded in her Monster Girl form. "I might just need to retire for a while, it wouldn't be the first time." She admitted.
"But you love hero work." Rex replied, "And I know you hate not having something to do." He added teasingly.
Amanda chortled, "Yeah but sometimes to do the right thing, you gotta make sacrifices. And this isn't a big one." She said before standing up, raising her hands over her head and bending her spine until it popped, "Well, I got to grab a bite to eat, I'll be back." She said, looking through the glass at her boyfriend. She reached her hand out to the glass, her palm laying flat against it, Rex mimicked her action, the closet they could get to a casal show of affection between them.
As Amanda left the room, Rex frowned to himself, he knew that he was close to solving Amanda's problem. But not only her's, but his own. Turning back to the display, he brought up the menu and switched the camera view to the done her had sent after the Mullers, following their last encounter with Invincible. They were located in a small warehouse in the countryside of Japan, the past few weeks they had been moving gear to the structure at night for the past few weeks and Rex could surmise what the components they were gathering could be used for.
"It's like she said, sometimes to do the right thing you need to make sacrifices." He said to himself.
After doing a flyover of the city for any sign of his mentor, it wasn't until the sun had well past set and the night was starting that he caught sight of a white streak moving across rooftops to a hotel. The pro-heroine led him up to one of the top floors to where his room was located, the one across the hall from her's, opening the door to his hotel room, he saw a single large bed that he walked over to, dropping his bag onto the floor unceremoniously before flopping down onto the mattress and letting out a groan, not even bothering to pull his mask off.
I wasn't this tired after dad took me out flying the first few times. He groaned to himself, rolling over onto his back, he reached up and pulled his mask off his head before reaching to his phone in his back pocket of his costume. Pulling it out, he opened his contacts and scrolled through them until he came across Melissa's number and called her. He heard it ring a few times before she finally picked up, "Heeeyyy." He greeted tiredly.
"Hey yourself handsome, I see you've been busy all day." Melissa greeted.
Mako groaned, "You have no idea. Miruko is like one of those work out addicts, she just keeps pushing, and pushing, and pushing!" he whined. "My body feels like I just got chewed up and spat out." He explained.
"Well first off, you haven't been eaten by anything yet-"
Mako sat up, "Yet!?"
"-and secondly this is what you wanted Mako. I don't think you can really complain about it now." She added.
Invincible sighed, "I know, I know. Been a while since I've been this wiped is all. Anyway how's your day going?" he asked curiously.
"It really just started. Time Zones, remember?" she asked, making him let out a grunt of realization. "But so far we're just getting stuff ready for the Expo in a few weeks. I've been working on my project for Izuku but I don't know if it's durable enough to really help him yet."
Mako smiled at that, "As long as it stops him from breaking his arms and fingers." He said with a shutter. "Seriously it sorta freaks me out how willing he is to go to that immediately." He admitted.
"I can assure you that this will save his arms, his fingers are another story." She said jokingly. "Aside from that I'm working on a few other projects to showcase at the expo, I have this deployable life raft for active disaster zones that I've been working on for one of my classes, plus the helmet you used had a recycling air system that could really help with deep space and sea exploration." She explained excitedly making Mako smile as he got up from his bed and began to get undressed for bed.
"This expo sounds like a huge deal." He noticed, the excitement in her tone telling him as much.
"It's not like the sports festival but it's this big event we hold on the island every year…you know it's in a few weeks, why don't we plan a big date for it?" she suggested. Mako smiled at the idea, "There's this big gala on the opening night, we could dress up, get dinner, go dancing..." she trailed off. "Actually, you could spend the night with me." Mako immediately shot up in bed at that, whatever tiredness he had being temporarily forgotten at the words she just said.
Did she….suggest what I think she suggested? He thought as his throat dried up significantly. "I….I'm sorry Melissa I think I misheard you. You want me to….spend the night with you?" he asked, recalling their earlier conversation a few days ago when things had become steamy between them. He tried his best not to sound overly excited or nervous, which of course he had a healthy amount of both going through him at the moment, as he awaited her clarification.
"Yeah I mean you let me stay with you after Sinclare's whole….thing, you could spend the week with me on I-Island." She explained, making Mako exhale a breath he was holding.
While not what he assumed it was, the idea did sound really appealing, "That sounds like a great idea, it'll just be at the start of summer too. Hopefully I'll still be on break then." He replied.
"Oh that's right! Japan's Summer Break is only 40 days isn't it? We'll have to double check our dates but I think we can do it! And if not, then we can find something else that's fun to do." She said without missing a positive beat.
Mako relaxed as he laid back down onto his bed, "I mean I could just fly us to Hawaii." He suggested.
"That's…..very tempting and is a good backup." She admitted before a notification went off on Mako's phone.
Pulling his head away, he put the phone on speaker before opening his messages and seeing a text from Izuku.
Izuku: I now know why All Might was afraid of Gran Torino.
Mako winced, "Hey Melissa, real quick question, did All Might ever mention his mentor to you? Guy named Gran Torino?" he asked curiously. "He offered to train Izuku for the internship and I'm wondering what the guy's deal is." He explained to his girlfriend.
He could imagine her doing what he called her 'thinking pose' where her finger would curl against her chin and her eyes would narrow in focus, "Not that I'm aware of? Uncle Might never really talked to me about his early hero career. I know that he met my dad when he went to study abroad in America and he saved him from a lab accident, but other then that I don't think he's ever mentioned anyone like that." She explained.
Mako felt something tug at his gut, "That's…..kind of weird….maybe Todoroki was onto something?" he said, mostly to himself.
"Todoroki?" Melissa asked.
Mako nodded, "Yeah before his match with Izuku, I overheard a conversation between them, he said that there was something going on between him and All Might." He said.
"Really? That's odd…..I mean Uncle Might mentioned training him and the rest of your class but I never got anything off of that." She admitted. Mako felt like he was missing something here, All Might having some sort of connection to Izuku, his best friend getting taught by the same man who taught All Might. "It could be that he's helping Izuku just get a better handle of his quirk? I mean on the surface they are pretty similar. So It'd make sense that he'd recommend Izuku to someone who helped him right?"
Mako nodded, "Yeah that makes sense…" he said before shaking his head, "Maybe I'm just being paranoid or something. Forget it."
"Your fine, but now I'm curious about him, I'll have to ask my dad if he knows about him. Oh! Sorry Mako I gotta get going, talk to you later?" she asked
He nodded, "Sure thing, sorry for keeping you."
"Your fine, besides why wouldn't I like talking to my boyfriend?"
"I mean if you were mad at me for doing something stupid." He replied jokingly. "And yes I know I do stupid things, and yet you still talk to me and I'm grateful." He quickly added, making her laugh. He wished she was right here and he could hear the wonderful sound in person, the couple bid each other goodbye and hung up. Mako quickly found sleep after that, drifting off into sleep.
As it would turn out his sleep would be interrupted only three hours later with the sound of his door being banged on. Sitting up in bed, Mako blinked ins disbelief as he rubbed the sand out of his eyes, "Wha-?" he grumbled tiredly.
"Yo Runt! Get up we got an emergency!" Mirko shouted from the other side of the door, making Mako's eyes widen as he floated up onto his feet and quickly changed into his suit in a few seconds before rushing to the door and throwing it open. The Rabbit hero blinked, "Huh, that was quicker then I thought." She admitted.
"What's going on?" he asked as she turned down the hall and sprinted, Mako flew after her as she reached the open window at the end of the hall and leapt out with Mako lying after her. That's when he saw it, in the distance across the town he could see smoke from dozens of fires across the city! "Oh my god!" he exclaimed.
"It just came in over all channels! Nobody knows for sure what's going on but we're not sitting around to find out!" Mirko shouted to him as they made their way towards the billowing smoke cloud. As they drew closer however, Mako could see something in the sky above the buildings in the smoke.
"What the hell?" Invincible muttered before drawing close and seeing what was in the sky, "Oh no…" he muttered in despair. Flying in the air on a pair of fleshy wings was a pale white creature with long limbs and an exposed brain on it's skull, the creature bearing a similarity to the Nomu that attacked the USJ too much to be mere coincidence. And in it's elongated talons on it's feet was a young girl with glowing blue hair, crying as she was lifted up into the sky!
Invincible shot forward with Mirko, the Nomu turned it's head just as Invincible's fist bashed into the side of it's head so hard that it splattered apart in a bloody mess! The girl in it's talons let out a scream for a brief moment before Invincible's hands grabbed her by underneath her arms gently, "It's ok! It's ok, your ok." He told the crying girl as he floated down from the air to a rooftop that overlooked the destruction. "You're going to be-" he stopped when he saw the streets below where filled with dozens of Nomu creatures, "-ok…." He finished as Mirko landed beside him.
The Rabbit hero's eyes scanned the scene below, there were so many people in a panic, however only one person was going against the crowd trying to get away from the carnage, "There! Go!" she ordered him, Invincible followed where she was pointing and nodded, launching off the roof she landed atop one of the monsters, axe kicking it on the shoulder with enough force to cause it to slam into the ground and make a small crater!
Meanwhile, Invincible flew towards the crowd as a woman in her mid thirties looked around desperately, "Miki! Miki! Where are you baby?!" she called out in dismay.
"Mommy!" she looked up at the voice to see Invincible flying to her with him reaching her daughter out, the mother sobbed as the young hero handed her t her mother with the same glowing hair. "Mommy the monster! The monster came and got me!" the girl sobbed.
Invincible pushed them along, "It's dangerous here, go!" he told the mother and daughter as he turned to scene everyone was running away from. Nomu of various shapes and sizes were rampaging through the streets, one of them slammed into a car with enough force to send it flying through the air! Invicible shot through the air as it flew towards an apartment building, stopping n front of it and catching the vehicle by the bumper and underside.
"Runt over here!" Mirko called out, the student looking over to see her dash towards the Nomu that had sent the car flying, it's long arm swiped out towards her. The pro heroine flipped forward over the swipe, rolling right in front of the Nomu onto her hands before springing up, her feet shooting up into the underside of the creature's head, "LUNAR LAUNCH!" she called out kicking the Nomu into the air where it was beamed with the car that Invincible threw at it. Mirko blinked as Invincible flew over to her, "Not exactly what I had in mind but good work!"
The teen shrugged, "I literally had my hands full!" he defended before shaking his head, "Doesn't matter, we need to take these things out!" he exclaimed, directing his gaze to the Nomu whom he had beamed with a car. It was fairly strong, but thinking back to the one he tussled with back at the USJ, the car should have barely slowed it down. "Wait, what happened to that flying one, did it regenerate?" he asked.
Mirko shook her head, "Nah, that thing's head was splattered like grape, it wasn't moving when it hit the ground." She explained, causing the viltrumite to stop and think for a moment.
"Ok then that's good, it means that none of these things are on the same level as the one I fought." He realized, much to his own relief.
Mirko's eyes darted around the area quickly in observation, most of the civilains were evacuated leaving an odd dozen of the white Nomu creatures about. "Hey runt, these things aren't entirely human are they?" she asked.
Invincible nodded as he clenched his fists, "Yeah, so don't hold back!" he said, the duo shoot off from the ground, each of them engaging with a different creature. Invincible uppercutting one of the creatures into the air while Mirko dropkicked another with both of her powerful legs. While Mirko continued her battle on the ground, Invincible flew up after his opponent into the air, "You know I didn't really have the chance to say it last time, but WOW you guys are gross! And given what I've seen recently? That's saying something." The Viltrumite said, driving his fist into the creature's stomach and sending it across a rooftop.
Flying after it as it fell off the rooftop, he dropped down and slammed his feet down into the creature, crushing it's chest and making a crater from the impact. A roar to his side made him turn to see another Nomu lunge at him, this one the size of car with multiple arms with claws on the end of them. Invincible grappled with two of the arms and rolled onto his back in midair before kicking the creature up before it's other hands could grab him. "Man I gotta asks Shoji if he knows any good ways to fight guys who have multiple arms like he does." He said before flying up after the Nomu, grabbing it by the foot and throwing it back down to the ground.
Before it could get up however, the wall beside it crumbled on top of it as Mirko kicked a different Nomu than the one she had been engaged with when she and Invincible leapt into the fray. "Aw come on the last one was at least a challenge!" she complained to the creature as she flipped off and landed on the ground, her white hair curtaining around her head as she settled on the ground. "Runt how you doing?" she asked, looking up to her intern who came down hard, his fist indenting into the creature.
"Fine, these guys are like…discount Nomu's compared to the first one." He said, looking down at the three they had taken down so easily.
"Don't let that get to you, we still need to contain these guys and make sure they don't get too far. If they get away who knows how much damage they can do." She told him. Her ears twitched as she listened closely for a moment, "Ok there's one heading South, you go after that one and then do a fly around the city. Got it?" she asked. Invincible nodded before shooting up into the sky and taking off in the direction she pointed him to.
Looking down at the streets below, he thankfully saw that the civilians were seemingly evacuated to safety as the roads were somewhat of a mess, overturned cars, holes in the sides of buildings, it wasn't on the scale of destruction that his father or the alien invasion had done, but that didn't mean that this wasn't bad. Turning around the side of a taller building he saw the form of the Nomu charged down the road, this one having more bulky and its skin the same onyx color as the first one, but instead of there being a mouth beak the brain just went down to it's lower jaws.
Invincible charged into it's back, grinding it against the pavement of the ground, "Well your not though either so you guys aren't color coded!" he exclaimed before spikes shot into him from the Nomu, the sharp points not piercing his skin but still hurting and driving him off from the creature. "But you still have multiple quirks, terrific." He said sarcastically as he touched down on the ground.
As the Nomu stood up from the ground however, a roaring fire overtook the creature and burnt it to cinders! Invincible turned his head to the source of the flames to see Endeavor walk forth with some of his sidekicks following, Oh great this douche. Mako thought bitterly.
"Invincible, you're here as well?" he asked incredulously.
Mako pushed his feelings aside, "Yeah, me and the hero I'm shadowing were close by when we got the call." He explained before noticing the absence of his classmate, "Speaking of which, where's Shoto? Did you have him stay back to handle this?" he asked.
Endeavor scoffed, "Of course not, my son wants to observe me work I'm not going to put him to work at a desk." He said dismissively, "We where here in search of the Hero Killer after he was sighted in this part of Hosu." He explained, making Mako blink in surprise. "However he received some message from one of his friends and told me to find him later." He added.
Three dots connected in his head and Mako didn't like what they drew a picture of, pulling his phone from his pocket and saw that he had gotten a message in the group chat with an address, 4-2-10 Ekrou Street. That was four dots now, Izuku, Shoto, Iida, and the Hero Killer, "Shit!" he cursed before turning to Endeavor, "Listen, I'm going to go make sure that Shoto and the others are all right, you focus on these Nomu and make sure to put them down, but try and leave one alive. Got it?" he asked.
Endeavor blinked at him before a frustrated look crossed his features, the flames on his costume rising slightly, "Now hold on a moment!" Invincible snapped his head to the hero with gritted teeth, "Your more mobile then I am, meaning you can reach these Nomu faster than I can, I'll go make sure Shoto and your classmate are safe, you're needed here."
The anger left Mako as soon as it came, he was unfortunately right an that he could take care of these monsters more easily then Endeavor could and cover more ground then him. "Alright but after I'm done? I'm joining you." Invincible said before couching down and launching into the air, looking down from on high he could see a few of the Nomu left, about four of them, with one of them flying around the rest where near the center of the city where the massive fire was.
Shooting down from the sky, a Nomu on the street never saw him coming as he slammed it into the ground, splattering it's body as Invincible dashed back into the air, only to be tackled by another from behind, "Oh sorry, was that your friend?" Invincible asked, swinging his elbow back into the brain of the monster with enough strength to cause the side of it's head to cave in.
With it's grip on the hero loosen, Mako spun around and grabbed the creature by the sides of it's head before swinging it around in a circle as he flew through the air, slamming the side of the creature's body into the edge of a building they passed by, taking a chunk out of the structure an making the creature's body bend at an awkward angle.
Throwing the monster aside, Invincible looked back to the building to see the damage and make sure that the hadn't accidently destabilized the structure. Turning back to the Nomu, Mako winced upon seeing it's lower boy shifted out of place, "Oh…well….you are not going anywhere anytime soon." He said before taking off into the air. Flying back towards the center of the city where the massive fire was still raging. Coming open the scene again, he was relieved to see most of the Nomu were taken care of, however the building that was on fire was spreading!
"Hey Runt!" Invincible's head whirled around to Mirko who was close on a rooftop, she raised her hand and pointed to a building across from here with a water tower, "Grab that and use it to put out the fire!" she instructed.
The viltrumite didn't waste any time, flying over to the water tower he tore the top off of the tower before flying underneath it and pushing it up into the air and carrying it above his head. The large container weighed sustainably on Mako's shoulders, but had no trouble flying it over into the smoke and tipping it over until the water spilled out from the top and down onto the fire below, the teen gently tipped the container over until the last of it's contents splashed out into the flames below.
Floating down to the ground, he et the empty cylinder on the ground and looked up at the smoke still rising from the building, the fires were out and there was no longer any real danger to the area, "Nicely done Runt!" Mirko praised as she landed beside him.
"Yeah, thanks, look a friend of mine sent me a message, they're near here and I think they're in trouble, Endeavor went that way but I want to double check, are we all good here?" he asked, looking around the area. Most of the Nomus were taken down and the damage had been confined to this city block by the looks of it. But he didn't want to rush off if there was more that he could do to help.
Mirko shook her head, "No your good you head that way, message me and I'll join you when I get this all settled." She said with a firm look. "But if things get hairy call me." She added.
Invincible nodded firmly before taking off from the ground in the direction of where Izuku's message directed him to. Zooming through the night sky with his arms raised out in front of him, Invincible banked right around a corner down the road that had been on his GPS earlier, as he flew through the air as fast as he could, the windows behind him shaking while cars and signs on the street below wobbled from the force of him flying. As he reached a corner, he threw his legs up and as though he landed at a invisible horizontal platform and pivoted off it before shooting down the road without losing his momentum.
Down the road he could see a group of heroes gathered at the entrance to an alley, As Invincible slowed his approach however a white blur shot down towards the group from above, Shit a flying one! Invincible cursed at the sight of the Nomu.
And before Mako could do anything, it plucked his friend up from the street and began flying away with him. "Shhhhiiiitttt!" Mako hissed out as he shot through the air after his friend. As he closed in on the flying Nomu however, someone stepped off his back, "What the-" he began before a red and black shape lunged at the nomu and drove a knife into it's head, the three fell out of the sky, with Izuku slipping from the creature's grasp while the mystery man and the monster fell together.
Invincible didn't hesitate to swoop in and catch his friend in his arms, flipping himself forward so that his feet touched the ground firt, Invincible slid to a stop with his friend over his shoulder. Lunching forward, he set Izuku down onto his feet before pulling back and looking at his startled expression, "You ok man?" he asked with concern.
Izuku blinked as his brain caught up to the proceeding events, his eyes widened, "Mako behind you it's-!" he began, stepping back but faltering with his wounded eg, Mao grabbed him with one arm and turned his torso to face the man atop the Nomu as he ripped his knife free of it's head. The man was lanky, dirty, and looked like the world had chewed him up before spitting him back out. His black hair was unkempt like someone with bedhead, around his neck was a tattered red scarf with a just as tattered white faded bandanna around his eyes.
His outfit was mostly black, a tank top and matching baggy pants with armored pads on the knees and heavy boots with spikes on the rim of them. Around his back was a white beaten up vest with a number of belts on them, and his arms were covered with wraps that had dried blood on them, in his hand was a large pocket knife covered with the Nomu's blood. His eyes landed on Invincible, they were crimson red, "Yooou." The man growled out. "You are like him."
Invincible tilted his head, "Uh…like who? Him?" Mako asked, pointing to Izuku.
"Mako it's him! He's the hero killer!" Izuku informed him.
Invincible rolled his eyes beneath his mask, "Wow, really? You don't say?" he asked sarcastically.
"Listen! His quirk allows him to stop you in place if he consumes your blood! You need to avoid….." Deku said before trailing off.
"Avoid what? Being cut by a pocket knife?" he joked, Izuku's face puffing in aggravation at his friend's flippant nature, "I mean I don't know some guys were shooting at me with machine guns earlier and that didn't work but who knows? Maybe this one knife is my single weakness?" he joked.
Izuku gave his friend a tired look, "….you know what? Fine. I hope you get stabbed." He said before falling back onto his rear as Invincible turned back to the Hero Killer.
"Look pal, you as much as I wouldn't mind smacking you around for hurting my friend's brother? You're really out of your depth with me." He said as he walked forward.
The man's gaze sharpened like the knife in his hand, "No! There's only one person allowed to defeat me! All Mi-" He began before Invincible closed the distance between them and cracked him across the jaw, knocking the hero killer out cold and laying him flat between him and the other heroes behind him, including Iida and Shoto, both of whom looked up at Mako with disbelief.
Invincible noticed everyone looking at him with similar expressions, "What? Where you guys going to let the obviously insane person talk while waving a knife around?" he asked some of the other heroes whom he saw with Endeavor earlier.
"N-no it's just…..he was intimidating." One of them weakly said, making the others give him a look.
Invincible blinked, "…..dude I've fought reanimated cyborg zombies. THAT is scary. This guy is….well he's more sad than anything." He said looking down at the hero killer with some pity in his voice.
Ever since the filed experiment with Angstrom Levy, the Muller Twins had used their newfound freedom wisely to lay low. Due to the massive explosion that had killed the multiple duplicates of them from across the multiverse last month, the twins had gathered equipment needed for the possibility of one of their deaths. However….at the rate things were going that might be sooner than later, "I'm telling you that we need to reconsider our target, attacking the Safety Commission would do us no good in securing our demands." One of them said as he pushed the welding goggles he wore up to his forehead.
His clone gave him an aggravated look as he handed him another piece of curved metal, "The number of resources they have far exceeded anything that a support company like Dethranet would have access to. Privately Owned Businesses like that wouldn't have what we need, but government agencies would have access to anything we required." He argued with himself.
The one with goggles rolled his eyes at the one with the heavy duty gloves as he approached the machine's cords, "And what good would that information and resources be if our face is plastered across the internet from here to the States? Dethranet has private contracts with hero agencies, if we attack the Hero Commission then our anonymity is gone, but a corporation might not risk some hardware they're developing under a non-disclosure agreement with a hero agency go public, even to the authorities."
The one with gloves groaned, "That is a very big if. You know I assumed when I cloned you that you would have the same amount of intelligence as I would. Clearly that is not the case."
The one with Goggles growled, "Once again, I am the original! You are the clone!" he argued as the twin turned to him with a mirrored look of frustration.
"I find that despite both your intelligence it's baffing how this is even an issue." The twins stopped and turned to the electronic voice as the bronze shell of Robot walked into the room with his hands folded behind his back. "It's such a simple solution that I don't know how neither of you could see it." The automation explained.
The twin with the gloves charged forward, Robot rolled forward between his legs, his arm extended out and forcing the villain to trip while the other twin charged into the robot as he stopped, he didn't expect the machine to spring up and headbutt him in the face with his helmet, "GAH!" the Muller exclaimed with a now broken nose.
"My apologies, but you both attacked me first." The droid said as he raised a hand in peace while the other clone scrambled onto his feet. "I think we have a misunderstanding."
The blue skinned scientists looked at him auspiciously, "Hardly you're here to imprison us. Why else would you even be here? "one of them asked.
Robot turned to him, "Simple. I have a business proposition that requires your expertise." Robot explained as he walked over to the machine they were building, it consisted of a bed where a glass cylinder would he housed in. "Over the years you've been active, I've noticed that in some instances one of you were found deceased, heroes and other officials believed that when you both re-appeared that you simply have a quirk which allows you to make a duplicate of yourself." He explained before turning to the pair.
The twins smirked smugly to one another, "I however know this to be false information." Robot corrected, making the smirk disappear from their faces. "Your quirk increased your intelligence based on your physical attributes. The bigger you got the smarter you got as well. This was to the point that one of you was able to understand genetic modification and modify your body to become what it is now, hence your superhuman level intelligence. This research in genetics eventually led you to how to make a perfect clone of yourself." He accused.
The twins crossed their arms, "Cloning of course is banned by the Warren Convention after the scientists inhumane human experiments. And yet you've somehow perfected his work…interesting." Robot complimented.
The twin with the goggles scoffed, "Warren was an idiot, his theory was based on causing cells to replicate themselves based on mutant type quirks and how some are able to regenerate."
"Ours is based on mutating the cells themselves so that they replicate into a complete duplicate." The other with gloves added.
Robot tilted his head curiously, "Fascinating, however the fact that you both believe yourself to be the original tells me that you have fond some way to transfer your consciousness into another body…that's something that Warren never even got to before his arrest and subsequent tribunal." The robot observed.
The one with goggles stroked his chin curiously, "Your…..not here to arrest us, are you?"
"Far from it." Robot admitted before holding out his hand, the palm opening up and producing a vial of blood, "I'm here to employ your services."
At the Central Hosu Hospital, three of U.A.'s hero course students sat in the shared hospital room they were assigned. Each of them had met with doctors to have their injuries treated. Overall their injuries, while nothing to scoff at, weren't ultimately life threatening to any of them. But regardless they were held at the hospital for observation, and unfortunately this meant that a stint of their internships would be spent recuperating from their fight with Stain.
Mako had learned this after waking up this morning and Mirko informed him of where his friends were staying, the pro heroine giving him the day to rest and recuperate, "You actually managed to keep up with me last night runt! And you also got to take a shot at that scumbag hero killer! Gotta say that gets me fired up, so kick your feet up for today, tomorrow we're back at it!" the Rabbit hero told him outside the hospital before leaping away. Leaving the still tired Viltrumite hero standing outside the hospital, his hair barely combed and bags starting to form under his eyes which he rubbed.
"It's a day off Mako, you can't complain about that." He breathed out before walking into the hospital. Despite the events of the night prior, the hospital wasn't too busy, Mako took this as a good sign considering that the damage done was only to a few city blocks and the injuries that civilians had were overall minor.
Approaching the receptionist desk, the woman there looked up and smiled at him, "Hello sir, how may I help you?" she asked politely.
"Hi, there were three U.A. students admitted here last night? I'm here to visit them." He explained.
The receptionist happily gave him directions to their room and sent Mako on his way after filling out the visitor sheet. On his way to the elevator however, he spotted a coffee machine down the hall, and despite the large breakfast he had from room service at his hotel he was still tired from the combined events of yesterday and last night. Melissa you are a horrible influence on me. He thought as the machine poured out a pure black thing of coffee into a cup for him. His girlfriend had been the one to get him introduced to caffeinated drinks, the inventor herself being an avid user of caffeine when staying up all night to complete projects.
Slurping down the hot liquid, he was careful not to burn his mouth on the drink, despite how strong his exterior was, his interior was still pretty normal. So despite being able to take bullets, he could still burn his tongue. "Excuse me." Mako turned to the voice and looked down, to his side was a short old man in a white hero costume with bright yellow gloves, boots, and a cape that wrapped around his neck like a scarf with a black domino mask. "You wouldn't happen to be that Invincible kid would you?" he asked.
Mako nodded, "Yeah, that's me, and you are?" he asked.
The old man grinned before extending his hand, "Name's Gran Torino kid, nice to make the acquaintance." He introduced.
Mako blinked before shaking his hand, "Gran Torino? You're the guy my friend Izuku is interning under?" he asked.
"Yup. The very same." The older man said replied with a slightly tired voice.
Mako realized that it may not be best to bring up his friend who was probably in trouble, "So do you know exactly what happened last night? I mean Stain was sighted in the city so I get why he was there, but the Nomus?" he asked curiously.
Torino's expression turned serious, "That's something we're having a hard time figuring out." He began as he walked towards the elevator with the teen. "As far as we can tell there was no specific target for them. They were just causing destruction once unleashed on the city. Which considering the first one was used to target All Might doesn't make sense in terms of motive." He explained.
Mako hummed, "Was there any sightings of the League of Villains? I know that a bunch got captured at the USJ, but the main guy? With the weird hands all over him and smokey guy? They got away." He asked.
Torino shook his head, "No, but the smokey fella, the one who can cause warp gates? It's possible he was the one who dispatched the Nomu to Hosu last night. The police have the remains of the creatures now, they're trying to determine who they were." He explained.
Mako felt a twinge of anger go through him, these Nomu were like what Sinclare was doing but somehow even worse than that. As they stepped into the elevator they rode it up a few floors before the door opened. "You go on ahead kid, I gotta wait for some people." Torino said.
"Alright, nice meeting you sir." He said respectfully as he finished off his coffee and made his way down the hall before making the turn he needed. Coming up to the door, he tossed his cup of coffee away in a nearby trash can before opening the door. The three students were each situated on a bed, out of the three Iida seemed the most wounded with both his arms wrapped up in slings, Todoroki had bandages on his arm and cheek, and Izuku had some on his arms and one foot.
The trio turned to the door at the sound of it opening and Izuku was he first to react, "Mako! You're here!" he greeted welcomingly as he shifted in his bed to face him. He then saw the bags under his friend's eyes, "You look….tired."
"Well I only slept for four hours last night so that probably has something to do with it." Mako replied as he walked over to his friend and patted his shoulder, "You guys alright? I tried to join you guys but with the Nomu….."
Todoroki nodded in understanding, "You were needed more there, we understand." He replied before turning his head to Deku, "Midoriya and I have relatively minor injuries. Stain's cuts were shallow for us. Iida however…" he trailed off before turning to the Class Rep, whose head was bowed down in shame, not even attempting to meet Mako's eyes.
The viltumite's relieved expression vanished before walking over to him, Izuku opened his mouth but Todoroki shook his head, Mako walked in front of his friend's bed. "Iida…..what the hell were you thinking?" he asked in disbelief. The class rep only met him with silence, "I mean I get why. You were angry, and you got a right to be angry after what happened to your brother but seriously? You could have been killed!" he exclaimed.
Iida's head lifted up and looked at him, defeat evident in his eyes, Mako's were filled with nothing but concern. The half alien pinched the bridge of his nose, "Remember what we told you before we left for our internships?" he asked. "We told you that if you needed anything? To talk? We're here for you…." He recalled. Iida's eyes glanced down in shame, "Dude your our friend….I get why you wanted to get even but…..your better then that man."
Iida looked up once again at his classmate….at his friend, "….your right." he accepted, "I'm sorry about this Mako….to you two as well." He said, turning to the other two boys.
"What I did was unbefitting of a hero…..even Stain saw that." He admitted.
Mako could hear the same in Iida's voice, and the thought of getting called out rightfully so by the bad guy that crippled his brother? That might have hurt worse than anything he just said to him, before Mako could continue however the door opened once again. Stepping inside was Gran Torino along with another hero in uniform that Mako had seen last night, Manual, the hero that Iida was Interning under.
Torino turned to his pupil, "Kid I got a lot of complaints for you." He said, Izuku's face scrunching up in embarrassment as he tried to apologize before Torino continued, "But before that you got a visitor." Torino said before turning to the door before a new person entered the room.
He had a tall imposing figure, wearing a black suit with a black and white tie around his neck…his furry neck….of a dog's head.
…you know just when I think I've gotten used to this. Mako thought.
"This is Hosu's chief of police, Kenji Tsuragamae." Torino introduced.
Todoroki and Iida stood up at attention, Izuku attempted to as well but the chief raised a hand, "You can stay seated, woof." The man replied, Izuku and Mako both blinking in surprise. "I assume that the three of you are the U.A. student who brought down the hero killer, correct?" he asked. Mako rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, "And your Mako Metuki, or rather the hero known as Invincible. You work with the GDA, Correct?" he asked.
The teen nodded, "Yeah but like my friends I was assigned to a hero to intern with, Mirko? She should have sent a report in?" he asked, recalling that she said she would do as much.
The dog headed man nodded, "Of course. I also know that you helped contain the situation last night, you have my thanks." He said, bowing his head sightly. "But regarding the hero killer that we arrested, he had fairly serous injuries, with burns and broken bones and is receiving treatment under strict guard, woof." He explained to the group. "As U.A. Students I'm sure that you are all aware that hen superpowers were still becoming the norm, the police attached high importance to leadership standards and made sure quirks were not used as weapons." He began.
Mako felt a sense of dread begin to fill him at the chief's opening statement, "And then, the profession of 'hero' emerged to fill that gap, woof. For an individual's use of force and power that can easily kill others actions that would be considered appropriate to denounce, to be accepted officially is thanks to early heroes who followed the ethics and rules of the profession, woof." He explained.
Mako glanced around the room, feeling somewhat of the black sheep considering his special status of working with Cecil made him able to operate as a hero in full capacity. "Even up against the hero killer, uncertified individuals to cause njury with their quirks without specific instruction from their guardians or superiors is a clear violation f the rules." The chief explained, making the three students stiffen in realization as the dog man continued, "The three of you, and the pro heroes you were operating under ust receive strict punishment."
Shoto shifted forward aggressively, "Hold on a second, if Iida hadn't done anything, Native would have been killed, if Midoriya hadn't come, the two of them would have been killed. No one realized that the hero killer had appeared." He argued as Iida looked at him in shock at his refusal. "Are you saying that we should have done nothing and followed the rules and watched people get killed?" he asked as Midoriya nervously turned to him.
Mako reached out and put a hand on his shoulder to calm him, the chief replied, "Are you saying that as long as it turns out all right, it's ok to break the rules?"
Before Todoroki could reply however, Mako stepped forward, "No he's not." Mako answered for his friend, "But I know that if I could save a life or help someone, and the thing stopping was a rule that said I couldn't use my powers to do it? Then….well I would still do it." He answered on his friend's behalf.
The police chief looked at him for a moment before closing his eyes, "I see then. Thankfully, that is the official word on what the police have to say if this were to go public." The chief said, making the students falter, "However the wounds that Stain suffered are consistent with wounds that Invincible and Endeavor wud be capable of doing. So while you wouldn't get the praise that you deserve due to the punishment that comes with it, I hope that you can at least accept my own thanks for your actions." He said, giving the boys a bow of respect.
Mako exhaled a breath of relief, glad that his friends had dodged the metaphorical bus that could have run them over.
After the chief left with Manual and Gran Torino, the latter of which gave Midoriya an earful for not staying on the train. The boys of class 1A where left to themselves for the remainder of the day, Mako sneaking out through the window to grab them some real food instead of the hospital food that they would have been stuck with. "So you were just on an all day patrol with Mirko when you heard about what was happening in Hosu?" Todoroki asked as he took a bite of his soba.
Mako shook his head from the chair he was sitting in, "Dude, I did not even know I was in Hosu City. I just got to my apartment, gave Melissa a call, and dropped dead." He told him before taking a bite of the fast food muffin with egg and cheese he had gotten. "I think it paid off though, I mean I'm tired and sore but if I keep pushing myself I should improve." He rationalized.
Izuku sipped the orange juice he had, "I was meaning to ask, did you ever find out where those nomu came from?" he asked.
Mako took another bite before shaking his head, "No, I mean the theory that Torino told me is that they think that warp guy from the League just dropped them here but we don't know why."
Iida looked down at the smoothie Mako had gotten him, the lack of use that his arms could currently do limited the food options he had, "It is surprising that this all happened in one night." He admitted.
Mako nodded, "Yeah I mean…" he stopped mid bite, Izuku looked at him in confusion.
"Mako?" he asked.
His friend looked at him, "Ok I just had a thought, what if they aren't unrelated?" he asked, making the others look at him in confusion, "What if Stain is somehow connected to the Nomu attack?" he asked.
Iida and the others shared a look before speaking, "I…..I don't know Mako, the hero killer has a…..he has a warped world view. In his eyes, heroes who don't fit his idea are no better than villains. If he was somehow related to the league, why would he think that?" he asked as Mako's phone vibrated.
"Because he's insane?" Mako suggested as he picked up his phone and read the message that Mirko had sent him. His features turned curious, "Well I guess I might be able to get some answers actually, guess who just got assigned as his escort to prison?" he asked rethorically.
AN: I LIVE!
Ok yeah so this chapter is long overdue. Between having not planned this arc out in detail as other parts of the story, as well as my animation lessons taking priority over this, I've been a little too busy to work on this. But now that I'm back on the horse so to speak I'm not getting off that easy again.
Also big news, next January will be the 20th anniversary of Invincible! With news of a video game, and season 2!
Now with that over with, onto reviews.
Messiah of Authors: Yeah growth is kind of the theme of invincible, how Mako is now is not who he will be by the end of this story. And yes despite how buff rabbit wifu is, she is very short as well.
Awesomerebel55: Yeah, Mako's still got a way to go.
Fanfictioner8: Pal I don't know what to tell ya, Zack's in the story now, is it really that big a deal how? You could no prize that U.A. is a much better school then any of them in the U.S. And who cares about the classmate numbers, I mean they're adding Shino to the hero course so it apparently isn't a rule set in stone.
Angel Lara451: True, spidey did learn martial arts after his spider sense was lost and used it to compensate for that. However Invincible is more of a bruiser then a martial artist, I mean Mark tends to overpower his opponents more, it's less about skill and more about how damn determined he is. But I get what your saying, though I don't remember hearing Mirko being called a master of martail arts before.
KaijuEmporer: I looked it up to be triple sure when I saw her height. And yeah like here, Mako is kind of stubborn about doing the right thing no matter what.
Sarcasm Sage 626: Yeah I sort of wanted an excuse to have Mirko in this early, and reading other fics I've kind of loosened up on the whole idea that it needs to follow the show precisely. So some things might change pretty drastically.
Guest 1: Dude, spoilers. Keep in mind not everyone hasn't read the comics XD. Just remember to tag it next time.
Guest 2: Oh yeah totally, I mean I get that a lot of people go off the show for how strong a viltumite is, but keep in mind that the comics aren't like that, fastest a viltrumite can go is maybe super sonic. They're pretty damn fast.
Guest 3: No Shigi's quirk would affect a viltrumite just as easy as a human, his quirk doesn't affect anything differently based on the material it's made of so I assume it's just based on the amount of matter something has if that makes sense. Like it takes longer to decay a building because it's bigger than a human.
Fan8: I can understand why you would think that but viltumites are able to make their own leverage so they don't need to plant their feet on the ground. They don't need gravity to move, otherwise they wouldn't be able to fly though space on their own.
Guest 4: Yes but here Mako overhard the multiple quirks thing and told Cecil who told All Might.
Guest 5: Honestly I think not, I mean I get the explanation in the show but that's kind of…..silly if I'm being honest. I think it was more just Horikoshi explaining why they do it.