Shahryar - More like fuck everyone :v

MosesArk Reborn2000 - ... wow. That's the biggest comment I ever got on , with only few on the AO3 ever comparing.

In big part this fic is an attempt of me making a more... refined angsty story? Most of the fics out there devolve into sheer angstfests where Izuku is literally tortured by everyone because reee quirkless. It's boring. I've decided to make a world where things are bad, but in a completely new, exciting way. And I'd say that it worked xD

True. Uraraka in her current state (which might or might not change somewhat in the future of this fic) is in no way or shape to be treated as independent human capable of making decisions about anything. The thing is, I'm actively trying to make it clear that this Izuku is still the canon Izuku - fundamentally a decent guy (one that doesn't randomly go murderhappy like, say, Cloud's Mastermind), just... broken. But the old Izuku still sometime shines through.

Oh, absolutely! IzuTsu has a fun dynamic, the calm and dependable Tsuyu and the anxious and self-sacrificial Izuku. She would compliment him quite well while, hopefully, curbing his self-sacrificial tendencies a bit. Imo, in the end, Uraraka is equally fine choice, supportive and friendly. Shame she gets so little screentime despite being a love interest because HEY, BAKUGOU AM I RIGHT?!

For the record, medieval serfs were typically better off than Paragons here. The lords - technically - didn't own them, they only owned their place of living and working. A lord could sell a village to someone else together with serfs, but he couldn't sell serfs (meaning that at least families were to stay together). In that way, serfdom was a big improvement to the slavery of antiquity.

MLA was said to be against quirkless in some supplementary materials, imo because it started to look way too reasonable compared to the dumbasses that run the Hero Society. Seriously, canon MLA feels more reasonable than the HPSC, especially after Lady Nagant reveal. Sheesh.

You'll see the Sword of Damocles in action very, very soon :P

You'll get more of class B. And yeah, Stain's little family drama is a beam of hilarity in the sea of angst and I really like it :D

(***)

It all started in Matsuyama, the capital city of the Ehime Prefecture, and the largest city on the isle of Shikoku. The isle, due to its small population density, never became a battleground during the first Paranormal Liberation War.

There wasn't much to fight for. The whole isle had about four million inhabitants, half a million of those living in Matsuyama. Compared to urban sprawls like Tokyo, the place barely counted as a city.

Its only truly notable feature used to be the Ketsubutsu Academy located a few kilometers to the east of the city outskirts. Once it was closed following a significant part of its faculty and older students being implicated in a coup attempt, Matsuyama stopped being important to the country at large entirely.

The first warning that something was wrong was a sudden spike of calls to the local police precincts about some sort of riot happening in the downtown. Pro-heroes were naturally promptly dispatched, while the riot police unit began to mobilize.

The local law enforcement began to realize that the situation might be more serious than they expected when the local police force promptly lost contact with the people calling for help… and the deployed pro-heroes.

The governor's office was notified, and the call for assistance was sent to the local GSDF garrison - the police didn't expect to have to deploy it, but they certainly decided that if it's some sort of new plot of either the Paranormal Liberation Front or the New Vigilante Alliance, they'd feel better having someone to call in for help. Especially as it was going to take at least an hour for a significant army force to arrive in Matsuyama.

The governor realized that things were much, MUCH more serious thirty minutes later, when his office lost contact with the riot police unit deployed to quell whatever riot was ongoing in his city.

It was at this point that the government received a panicked call for help from the governor's office, the one that made the Prime Minister immediately notify Saiko Intelli, thus interrupting her almost-a-date with Mirio Togata.

The governor's office stopped responding to calls fifteen minutes later. Just like most of the city.

It was at this point that the news about what was happening reached the Paranormal Liberation Front.

(***)

"What's going on?" Yaoyorozu was leading the shift in the Overlook's command center while Midoriya was enjoying himself with Tsuyu and Mastermind was sleeping. A three-shift system, a basis of modern civilization.

Midoriya running inside, his eyes wild and his clothes messy, wasn't a part of her plan for the day.

"Crisis." Izuku replies. "Big fucking crisis. Call all the executives and LoV members plus Red Fang and Jetstream here, right fucking now!"

Yaoyorozu knows better than to question it. She tells some of the staff members to notify people in question, before turning her head to Midoriya, who was frantically looking through something on a computer.

"What's happening?" She asks.

"Someone just… how the fuck?" He tries to answer her, but then immediately mumbles to himself. "Get me intel on what's happening in Matsuyama, right now."

"That riot or something?" Yaoyorozu blinks at him a few times. "I know that something was happening there from the social media activity, but…"

"It's not a riot." Midoriya cuts back. "Do you know what was probably my second most heroic action in my whole life, after the… scene which recording I showed you a while ago?"

He looks at her over the computer. It's clear from her face that she doesn't know how to answer that question.

"It was preventing All for One and Entropy from deploying a superweapon that would win us the war but at the cost of most of the people living in Japan dying." Midoriya announces. "And someone just activated it. Get everyone combat ready and contact our every asset in Shikoku to get ready for evacuation through Cloud if Armageddon gets close to them. Move."

That makes her move. Izuku pulls out the phone when she leaves the speaking range.

"Tenchan, it's me." He says quickly when the man picks the phone. "I need you to hurry the Network evacuation. Do it asap."

"What?" Judging from the vaguely irritated tone, Tenko was probably napping when the call came. "That's dangerous and you know it, Selkie can only do so many courses to Verize without attracting attention and…"

"Someone just unleashed Armageddon on Shikoku." Midoriya cuts in. "I think that we've lost the entire Matsuyama city in about an hour."

"What? H-how?!" Tenko reacts as Izuku expected him to. "She's the only…"

"I'm working on it." Midoriya once again cuts in. They don't have the time for pleasantries. "How many groups are left?"

"Three, but…" Tenko replies. "... Juggernaut's group is in Shikoku. The other end of it, but in these circumstances…"

"Try to get them out before the government realizes what's happening and gets the whole island under lockdown." Midoriya replies. It was… one of two possible reactions, and Izuku wasn't sure if it was truly the worse one. "If you fail, we'll bail them out through Cloud, but I'd prefer to avoid it."

Cloud wasn't just a major asset. She was a critical one, without which Midoriya's entire game plan for the Second Liberation War would go up in flames. Unless absolutely necessary, endangering her - even theoretically - wasn't an option. And getting her anywhere near Armageddon counted as danger.

"Alright, on it." Tenko replies. "Get Cloud on standby, I'm pulling out all groups right now, Juggernaut goes first, then Fireline and Eden. If something goes bad, we're going to improvise."

Midoriya hated those words. At least with Armageddon being around. This wasn't the time for improvisation. But the whole shitstorm came from the left field, he had absolutely no counterplan to Armageddon because he buried it thoroughly after Haiboro.

He is going to have to figure something out on the fly. So, he puts the phone down and starts figuring something out.

(***)

Before the Dawn of Quirk happened, the Shikoku's garrison was composed of the 14th Brigade - the fact that not even a division was spared for its defense said volumes about the importance of the isle.

This turned to bite the government in the ass. Due to its low population, Shikoku was used as a hiding place for numerous metahumans that decided that living in current society wasn't a good idea. The government remained woefully unaware of that fact, focusing its struggle for control of the crumbling society on the mainland.

As a result, the 14th Brigade was almost entirely annihilated during a five-day long battle for Zentsūji by the forces of the Shikoku Corps of the first Meta-Liberation Army. Said battle occurred during the first month of the first Meta Liberation War, with Shikoku remaining under control of Destro's Revolutionary Government of Japan until the Grand Commander's surrender.

If one expected that disaster to change anything in the long-term JGSDF deployment, they were sorely mistaken. The Japanese armed forces rebuilt the 14th Brigade and let it continue existing mostly unchanged.

This changed in the aftermath of the Paranormal Liberation War, when the government began a process of rapidly expanding the JGSDF which proved clearly unable to match up to the forces of the Paranormal Liberation Front.

As a result, the 14th Brigade was changed into a 14th Division. And even the divisions as an operational unit were expanded nowadays, meaning that three thousand soldiers changed into twelve thousand. With further three serving in the theoretically independent 6th Engineer Brigade, that was also stationed on Shikoku.

As all units of the Japanese Army - aside from 7th Division in Hokkaido and 20th in Fukuoka, both of which were designated as Armored Divisions - the 14th Division was a combined arms unit. Composed of infantry, armored, and artillery units, combat support units and logistical support units.

Now, its forces began to approach the city, gathering up pro-heroes from the towns they were passing by.

Seeing the situation as a clearly major crisis, Lieutenant General Masanori Muramoto - the commanding officer of the 14th Division - decided to play it safe. He deployed the division's reconnaissance combat battalion - equipped mostly in wheeled armored vehicles for fast movement - ahead in order to enter the Matsuyama's outskirts and realize what exactly were his units facing.

The Reconnaissance Combat Battalion of the 14th Division was all but annihilated within fifteen minutes from the contact with the enemy, but the reports from its soldiers made Lieutenant General realize several crucial things.

Starting from the fact that the threat was clearly of chemical or biological origin. This singular discovery - combined with the order for his soldiers and pro-heroes accompanying them to don gasmasks - changed the soon-to-occur 14th Division's last stand into something resembling an actual battle.

The 14th Division barely had the time to deploy most of its forces into something resembling a cohesive defense line - over the roads leading east of the city, towards Takamatsu - when the enemy vanguard arrived.

(***)

"Armageddon's true name is Romero Fujimi." Izuku announces when everyone is gathered in the Overlook's command post. "Villain name Necromancer, formerly part of Nine's crew and through him, a member of the first League of Villains. Considered MIA during the first Paranormal Liberation War."

The group in front of him is yet to realize the exact depth of fuckery the world (or, well, Japan) just stepped into. Except for Uraraka, Hypothermia, Cloud and Quicksilver. Which probably explains why those four freak out so much, even the normally emotionally scarce Hypothermia.

"He was secretly modified into a Special-End Noumu… although seeing him as something different than Singularity, a lot of people referred to it as an Ultimate-End Noumu." Midoriya continues. "His prime quirk is called Zombie Virus. It's a gaseous quirk that makes people in his vicinity act like zombies, while having their endurance and strength improved slightly and their quirks fire at random. They can spread the infection instantly by biting someone. His quirk also doesn't give him the ability to control them."

He lets them soak up in the summary for a moment, before continuing.

"Unfortunately, Armageddon's version of this quirk…" Izuku says. "... was severely altered in order to eliminate all of its weaknesses."

"How exactly?" Momo cuts in. "I thought that the quirks couldn't be significantly altered, even with All for One and Overhaul, and…"

Izuku glances at Apocrypha. Who has the decency to not look particularly happy about it.

"I helped with that." The living god speaks. "I didn't know any better back then, and All for One took advantage of that. My quirk lets me fine tune the quirks of others. It's like transfering points for example from firepower to control and vice versa. Except, All for One merged several empowering meta-quirks with Zombie Virus to give me more points to transfer."

"And the result is…" Yaomomo glances at Midoriya, now looking significantly more worried.

"Armageddon's zombies are capable of moving as fast as they were when they were 'alive'." Midoriya replies. "It can also control them, to the point when it is actually capable of making them use quirks, weapons and equipment in a coordinated manner, although typically to a much lesser level of proficiency than their original users. And in some cases he can't do anything, for example I don't think he could actually use Yaomomo's Creation, due to it being heavily knowledge-based."

"How many…" Mastermind, it seems, has realized the real problem. "... zombies can it control simultaneously?"

"Thanks to a Parallel Processing mental quirk…" Izuku replies. "... about a thousand. There is also a range limit. Which, on its own, would be bad but still manageably bad. Unfortunately, All for One decided to change 'manageably bad' into 'apocalyptically disastrous' with the introduction of but a single quirk."

(***)

Japan nowadays might be a nasty place to live. Soldiers of the JGSDF might be complicit in that, being the defenders of the regime. But, in the end, it's not like it automatically makes all of the soldiers into monsters.

Most of them enlisted to protect the country ravaged by crisis after crisis. Majority of the officers lived through the first Paranormal Liberation War. Majority of the NCOs enlisted during or around the time of the first Paranormal Liberation War.

There were elements of the army that weren't particularly happy about the direction the country was taking. Rumors of a number of high-ranking officers being tangentially connected to Aizawa's plot were abound for years, even if never officially confirmed.

In fact, many whispered that if Miruko and Gang Orca's Table of Rejects attempted a coup two or three years later, a larger part of the JGSDF would side with them and the history might have played out differently.

In the end, the 14th Division soldiers weren't monsters. Which was highly detrimental to them when Armageddon started the battle by hurling civilians at their defensive line.

The civilians weren't defenseless, and their looks were… different. They rushed towards the soldiers with their faces terrifying in their emptiness, their utter lack of vocalization eerie and inhuman on its own.

Soldiers hesitated for a few seconds. Especially as Armageddon was intelligent enough to engage in psychological warfare. What soldier or hero wouldn't at least hesitate when there were so many children and teenagers in front of them?

In the end, they opened fire. A fact that probably wouldn't have happened if they didn't know that their comrades from the Reconnaissance Battalion were wiped out already but the undead tide in front of them.

And even then most of the soldiers fired above the tide in question, desperately wishing for it to stop. For the people in front of them to snap back from it at the threat of guns. Only when the tide continued without pausing for a second did the cannonade actually focused on the undead legions.

Despite the mild strength enhancement they all get, it wasn't a fight. It was a massacre. Crowds and crowds of people run into the gunfire, only to die. A type of warfare that none of the soldiers were ready for.

Modern wars weren't like that. Modern warfare included more asymmetric and fluent engagements, both sides typically attempting to limit casualties while securing ground and crucial locations.

Most of the 'casualties' were those that were injured, surrendered or ran away in panic. Such a large-scale massacre that could only result from masses of people charging blindly against machine guns and cannons rarely happened ever since the fields of Flanders during World War One.

As a result, it was the morale of the soldiers that began to break first, their line of fire beginning to shatter under the strain. Long before the masses of people in front of them actually reached them.

The precise artillery strikes against the attackers, slowly changing the field between the Armageddon's vanguard and the soldiers did little to alleviate the problem. Merely delayed it slightly.

Ironically, it was Armageddon that saved the 14th Division from collapsing entirely. Once his massed assault secured enough ground, the second wave arrived.

Ehime Prefecture Riot Police Unit. Soldiers of the two infantry battalions stationed in Matsuyama when the outbreak started. Local pro-heroes, taken over by Armageddon and forced to attack the people they were sworn to protect. The cannon fodder allowing them to get close enough to actually hit anything, despite their notably impaired targeting skills.

In short, the enemy that the soldiers were trained to fight. And that they had an advantage against, in both quality and quantity.

What made the situation hopeless was that the wave of civilians didn't stop. Merely slowed down.

Then the miracle happened.

None of the three crew members of that particular Type-10 (a tank whose basic design predated quirks, kept alive by numerous modernizations in the world where the technological progress slowed to a crawl) considered themselves to be particularly heroic.

Just people working for pay, making sure that no one invaded Japan and getting popular with the ladies. Now, all of them were just as terrified as the soldiers around them. Especially when the tank of their platoon's commander had its hatch torn off by a zombified hero with superstrength quirk, several civilians crawling inside and biting the soldiers inside.

That particular fragment of the defensive line was collapsing, soldiers around them fleeing left and right, a few brave ones (together with most of the pro-heroes picked en route to the battlefield) clearly trying to stay behind to hold the tide and give their comrades a chance of making it.

That's when the tank commander noticed something out of place.

A human figure standing in the back of the crowd of zombies. Tall, probably taller than it should. Wearing a transparent gasmask and leather coat, looking out of place due to the fact that unlike everyone around it, they weren't rushing towards the army line. Merely standing there.

The commander had no idea what pushed him to do that. He should have been trying to maneuver his tank to avoid the front of the tide that was almost as him. The driver was certainly yelling at him to find them a way. Instead, he calmly ordered the gunner to target the figure.

A moment later, a 120mm High Explosive round practically blew Armageddon's body into smithereens, the zombies on this particular fragment of the frontline losing cohesiveness. Some of them continued their attack, others seemed to wander around in daze, the former soldiers and heroes suddenly losing the ability to use their weapons and quirks.

The message was spread. After several more pinpoint attacks, remnants of the 14th Division managed to pull back. During the frantic twenty-minutes long massacre, the main JGSDF unit on Shikoku lost four thousand soldiers and almost the entirety of its heavy equipment that it had to abandon to leave the battle before the second wave appeared.

This did nothing to delay Armageddon's march to the north and south of Matsuyama, with only some scarce police units and pro-heroes attempting to delay it in order to buy the time for evacuation to happen.

(***)

"Twice?!" Yaomomo recovers her ability to speak first. "He gave it Twice's quirk?!"

"A weakened and modified version of it, yes." Izuku confirms. All for One never got his hands on the original, thankfully. "Five hundred thousand citizens can be completely controlled with five hundred Armageddon' copies. Four million inhabitants of Shikoku with four thousand. One hundred million inhabitants of the Japanese isles… well, do the math." He adds, while leaning forward and trying to wipe his face.

He was… sweating. A rare occasion, at least when temperature wasn't involved. Then again, seeing as Japan was just on the verge of ending, it was…

They are either terrified or horrified. Even Rini (of course accompanied by Stain) is… a combination of both, to be honest.

"This isn't a zombie apocalypse from a movie." Izuku continues, while straightening himself in the chair. "Those are zombies that are methodical and are driven by a human-like intellect, not to mention Armageddons' having also some weak mental-link quirk to coordinate their operations. Most of Armageddon' copies are probably busy combing through Matsuyama for survivors. Any sign of non-infected life will be thoroughly investigated by tireless legions that can and will use tools and quirks to find anyone hiding there. Before all the infrastructure will be laid waste too, so that the horde won't have to worry about the city being repopulated once it leaves… and then the process repeats again in another city."

"It has to have weaknesses." Mastermind wakes up from his stupor. "They need to eat and drink, that's just basic biology and…"

"The mechanism of the quirk partially if not mostly negates their needs." Midoriya cuts in. "They'll start collapsing, yes. But in several months. And before you ask…" He sighs. "... All for One merged the Zombie Virus with a Perpetuity metaquirk. The only way for them to stop being zombies is for Armageddon to decide to do that… and it won't decide to do that, unless explicitly ordered by whoever unleashed it upon the world. Every person caught by that quirk is effectively dead."

Silence. Japan just lost, what? Half a million people in two hours top? How does one respond to a massacre of this scale and speed?

"Why, ribbit?" Tsuyu surprises them all by speaking, her eyes locked onto Midoriya. "Why did he create it?"

"I don't know." Izuku replies. "Officially, it was a perfect weapon for almost bloodless victory. Just unleash Armageddon against the enemy army, turn it against itself, catch everyone under it… and then release them at your leisure, probably while they are already bound or downright imprisoned. Re-Destro, Overhaul and I had always vetoed its deployment, because we didn't trust All for One or Entropy to limit themselves to just that. We feared that they would decide to let Armageddon kill millions on their whim. I… no, we buried this abomination and tried to forget that it ever existed, but I guess we were wrong to do that."

Silence. Izuku sighs while massaging his temples. It was… yeah. This was now officially one of the few worst days in his life, and given the competition for that title, this meant a lot.

"The only good news is that it was developed before the Sword of Damocles was set up." Midoriya says. "If the Prime Minister didn't figure out that the Armageddon copies are the key for delaying the tide already, she will soon. And with the Sword of Damocles, she should be able to significantly delay its march, while probably initiating a large-scale evacuation and deploying the Navy to stop Armageddon from crossing over to the mainland. That gives us time."

"Time for?" Yaoyorozu blinks at him.

What, is she suspecting him for wanting to suggest evacuating Japan? Oh, no. That was Midoriya's fuck-up, he was going to clean it up.

"Time to unfuck this mess so that we can all return to plotting the demise of the Japanese government in peace." Midoriya promptly replies. "The only and only true weakness of Armageddon is that its copies can't copy itself, an intentional flaw installed into design in case of some serious malfunction or Armageddon being mind-controlled by our enemies. If we eliminate the original, the Sword of Damocles is going to exterminate the control nodes of the army, letting the pro-heroes and soldiers sweep through what's left, thus making sure that there is still a Japan left for us to conquer after this."

"I assume that it's not as simple as following a tracking beacon implanted into the original or something like that, right?" Yaoyorozu wakes up again. "That would be awfully convenient, all things considered."

The fact that she doesn't complain about trying to play heroes in the middle of the war against heroes says everything that needs to be said about the scale of the current crisis. It was a borderline apocalypse in the making.

"Actually, that's exactly what we have to do." Izuku replies. Oh, now she's surprised. "However, there is a catch."

"There is always a catch." Mastermind comments dryly.

"In order to locate it, we have to send an assault party to the old PLF' research facility that I changed into its tomb." Izuku replies. "Because the computer tracking its location is located there, and trying to remotely snatch the connection from it is pointless if we want to make it in time. All of that while repairing its communication array, because I had it sabotaged years ago."

Hopefully whoever gets sent it won't lose any modicum of respect they had towards their Grand Commander. Izuku was… angry, back then. Oh, so very angry. At himself, at Entropy, at the PLF as a whole, and at Doctor Garaki for creating such an abomination as Armageddon.

And he made it known.

"What are the chances…" Momo asks. "... of whoever activated Armageddon NOT changing the complex into a trap?"

Of course, she asks the right question. Unfortunately, Midoriya will have to provide an answer to it.

"Small." Izuku replies. "The worst case scenario, the whole complex is rigged to blow. But we need to get inside, locate the original Armageddon and HOPEFULLY figure out who the hell just killed at least half a million people." Silence in the room. "Mei, did Mechanist manage to make one of his drone bodies already?"

"It's rather basic…" She replies. "... but it's operational. Smart, if it's destroyed, Mechanist won't be injured. And the assault party will need a computer expert. Besides, it's zombie virus-proof. I'll send him a message to start running final system checks on it."

Good to be understood.

"Aiko." Izuku then turns his head to face his sister. "Theoretically speaking, are your exalted capable of surviving a really large explosion? Because I know that they can no-sell zombie virus easily."

"Not without preparation." She replies. "But I can temporarily keep fragments of them on me. If they die when that's a thing, they'll regenerate from the fragments I'm safekeeping. But it's a short-term deal, so they'll have to hurry before the seeds wilt."

"Tokoyami, gather a party." Izuku tells Blackwing, who promptly glances at Aiko. When she nods, Fumikage returns their gaze to Revenant and nods as well. "You have a mission."

Time since the activation of Armageddon: 3h

Est. number of civilian casualties: 485 000

Est. number of uninfected inhabitants of Shikoku: 3 500 000

Est. number of evacuated civilians: 0