Shahryar - Monoma truly is speaking the language of gods lmao.
MosesArk Reborn2000 - True, Monoma truly wishes he made a different choices in a backstory now lmao xD But hey, it's always darkest right before dawn, right? Right? *nervous laughter*. And yes, Sword of Damocles is a truly ingenious way of problem solving, except it got hit by an out-of-context problem and yeah, it hurts.
(***)
The Tomb of Armageddon, Tokoyami quickly decided, was filled with three things. Dust, old machinery and corpses.
Two of those things were understandable. The third one wasn't.
The corridors and halls of the Tomb were filled with them. Blackwing counted at least twenty near the entrance alone, all of them mummified long ago. Most of them were wearing ruined labcoats, but some were clearly guards of the facility.
"What the hell happened here?" Ragdoll decides to ask a few minutes into Fumikage Tokoyami's first true dungeon raid. The light from the flashlight attachment to her shortened assault rifle illuminates a part of dessicated human corpses lying by the wall.
There is a telling lack of hostiles thus far. The only problem is them having to go through a locked down security door. Mechanist decided to carry around the battery and use it to reactivate the door.
"Daylight, investigate." Fumikage decides that they can as well do that, he was a medical professional so maybe he'd figure something out. Besides, they're still waiting for Mechanist to open the current security door. "Rest, defensive positions."
They then approach Mechanist.
"Are we…" Blackwing asks. "... the only person who finds that sus?"
"You mean the security door/obstacles being closed down, despite the battery/power source being left outside for us/intruders to discover?" Mechanist asks, while pairing the cables with the door. "Yes/confirmation. It is extremely sus."
Good. So Tokoyami's tactical skills and combat experience didn't betray them. That's mighty reassuring.
"Parts of those people…" Daylight announces a few seconds later. "... are missing. Possibly eaten."
Well, if that ain't stellar.
Honestly speaking, Tokoyami's inner DnD nerd is vaguely satisfied with this development. This really feels like a proper dungeon, with a mystery dwelling in it and everything. Even the everpresent human corpses as part of the decor!
What a mad banquet of darkness.
Yes, they're playing DnD even nowadays. The fact that they stopped being human, became a high ranking member of a (sort of) suicide cult and are responsible for the death of a Top Hero that they butchered in front of cameras didn't really change a lot on that field.
Some of the people they play DnD with are in the room. They are good comrades to have.
Returning to the subject, however…
"I was asked to maintain the security network/cyberdefenses of some of the noumu factories during the first war." Mechanist speaks suddenly as the doors begin to open. "The design seems identical. There should be a security center/checkpoint ahead, near the elevator. If you want answers, I can look for them."
"I get the feeling…" Ragdoll replies without facing them, her gun directed at the deathly quiet corridor. "... that any minute we waste means more humans dying."
Ah, yes. Ragdoll, forever the hero. It was ironic that unlike them all, she was the one and only person among them that was merely a vestige of the quirk. No human components. She didn't go through a proper exaltation, being elevated to this state mostly due to Judgment's compassion.
She did die in Kamino, after All for One stole her quirk. A lot of heroes that her oniichan genuinely respected died there, like All Might, Gran Torino or Tiger. Ragdoll was the only one that left something behind.
It gave her a … slightly refreshingly unique perspective of things.
This sounds to Fumikage like a moral choice. It makes sense. Every adventure like this one should have at least some of those. Unfortunately to some of the people on Shikoku, Fumikage Tokoyami aren't a hero.
"Do it." They can see Ragdoll glancing at them, with a complicated expression on her face. "Midoriya was dodgy on what occured in that place. Running into an ambush could mean failing Lady Judgment, and I'll not let that occur. Especially as… well." They glance at Chart.
"Still reading movement below us." She replies. Yeah, that's spooky as hell.
Besides, Mechanist's scanners clearly picked up some of the Armageddon's Zombie Virus in the air. They were expected. The only question is by whom.
(***)
They manage to clear their way into the security booth twenty minutes later. They also encountered the first obstacle - a claymore mine. Fumikage had Ragdoll detonate it remotely by shooting it a few times.
"Mechanist, was that a new addition?" Fumikage asks. The mine looked old, and the security office was clearly full of old corpses.
Very few of them seemed to have died due to an enemy attack. But there was a handful of guards, and… well, if Blackwing saw it correctly, most of them seemed to have lined up by the wall before putting guns in their mouths and pulling the triggers.
Creepy.
"Unlikely." Mechanist retorts. "I can see signs of claymore mines/explosives detonated in a side corridor. Several damaged corpses/mummies. Those people killed each other. Long before the intruder/villain sneaked inside to activate Armageddon"
Super creepy. Almost mad banquet of darkness level creepy. Actually, scratch that. Certainly that level of creepy.
On the other hand… it was a real world dungeon crawl into an abandoned base dedicated to production of posthuman abominations that was turned into a tomb of Great Evil that could annihilate Japan.
The group of heroes (okay, villains, blame the setting) was navigating through the tunnels full of dessicated corpses of the personnel that died in mysterious circumstances, either killing themselves, killing each other or being eaten by something. Seeking to uncover the mystery and find something that could be used to stop the Great Evil that was wiping out Japan at that very moment.
And all of that while picking up some undefined movement from the lower level of the facility, meaning that they could expect some genuine bossfight at the end of the dungeon.
Fumikage Tokoyami absolutely loves this adventure. And they barely entered the Armageddon's Tomb!
If they knew that becoming a right hand for the leader of a death cult and abandoning humanity as they knew it would be this fun, they wouldn't have even bothered trying to become heroes.
Mechanist uses the superior strength of his drone body to tear the doors out of its frame and enters the security room. It takes him a while to power up the computer and search through the ancient records.
Fumikage and Ragdoll are standing next to the robot. They don't see anything on their own, Mechanist connected directly to it. After ten minutes, the machine stands up while disconnecting from it.
"I see." Mechanist replies. "The cameras didn't catch the perpetrator/infiltrator, due to running out of power long ago. However I highlighted two old security recordings that should explain what happened/occurred at this facility. I put the links to them on the desktop while copying everything else onto my hard drive/storage. I'll proceed to work on restoring the elevator/descent now."
Mechanist leaves the security room.
Tokoyami and Ragdoll exchange worried glances. Then Tokoyami leans over and activates the first recording.
It's Midoriya, much younger and accompanied by the blue-haired man slightly older than him. Decay, they saw him once or twice, apparently the second-in-command of Midoriya's Support Network.
Izuku is wearing a business suit. Decay some sort of combat outfit, including a tactical vest.
There is also some woman in a lab coat, probably the head of the facility. Neither of them can imagine a reason for Izuku to meet with anyone else. She was sitting behind his desk, facing Midoriya, with Decay standing behind Izuku's back.
("... not possible." The scientist replies. "Reverting the Special-End Noumu creation process is… look, I'll level with you, okay? Doctor Garaki would probably manage to do it. But I'm not him.")
"Timestamp." Ragdoll says. Fumikage looks at it and… oh. That was the day of the Battle of Haiboro Woods. The last day of existence of the first Paranormal Liberation Front.
("Doctor Nagai, you're the last specialist in the creation of noumus that's left in the PLF." Midoriya replies calmly. "I'm sure that…"
"In the creation of them, yes." Doctor Nagai replies. "I can do that. Hell, I can create a new Special-End Noumu if you give me enough money to do it. I helped Garaki create some of them, and I think that I have sufficient grasp on the process to do it again. But to revert them back to humans is something entirely different.")
Fumikage doesn't say anything. But it's rather clear to him that Doctor Nagai just said something very, very wrong. Although the woman herself appears unaware of that fact, at least for now.
"I think…" Ragdoll decides to vocalize it. "... that she just fucked up."
("What's the status on Armageddon?" Izuku changes the subject. Doing that so rapidly is another warning sign.
"We're ready to deploy it at Entropy's orders." Doctor Nagai appears proud of it. Not good. Not good at all. "Armageddon is ready and honestly? We're really looking forward to seeing it in action. The concept itself is terrifying, but also incredible. Doctor Garaki was a true genius."
"That he most certainly was." Izuku replies dryly. "Before I leave the base, I'd like to review your security protocols.")
The first recording comes to an end. Fumikage thinks that he knows what happened. And judging from the look on Ragdoll's face, he isn't the only one to have a dawning suspicion. But… suspicions have to be confirmed when needed.
Fumikage clicks on the second icon.
("...measures to contain the threat if Armageddon malfunctioned and attacked us." Doctor Nagai announces. They are now in what looks like a command center of the facility. It's barely staffed. There is just Izuku, Decay, a tired looking guard and two assistants. "To begin with, our lockdown system, once initiated, can only be lifted from the outside."
"To avoid Armageddon taking over crucial members of the research staff and having them lift the lockdown from the inside." Izuku comments. Doctor Nagai nods several times.
"Precisely!" She looks satisfied with that answer. "That's, naturally, not a problem. The location of this base is a secret known only to the members of the League… and, of course, you. However, there is an external communication array that allows us to send an all clear message to Entropy once we confirm that lockdown is no longer needed."
"What about the staff?" Izuku asks. "I understand that the walls and ceilings are of heavily reinforced concrete, but there are many quirks that can circumnavigate that."
"No need to worry about it." Doctor shakes her head. "The crew was handpicked from people whose quirks aren't capable of that. We've almost made sure that the exit is blast proof enough to withstand whatever explosives Armageddon could cook up from the lab supplies. Not to mention the facility being shielded to avoid any transmissions from leaving it.")
That woman truly was digging her totally not-metaphorical grave deeper and deeper, wasn't she? It's almost sad to watch for Tokoyami.
("I'd ask about the noumus, but you've sent out all the finished ones." Izuku replies. Doctor nods. "And the unfinished are mostly the cannon fodder."
"Aside from Backup, the Specialist Noumu." Doctor replies. "But it couldn't help in that, it's still being prepared and, like with Armageddon, we don't have the clearance to issue orders to it. Neither could Armageddon, by the way, even if it zombified it Unfortunately, we're running low on base materials of sufficiently high quality. If you could suggest to Entropy to send us more captives, I'm sure we could change that. But in the meantime…"
"I'd like to request a security test." Izuku cuts in. "This is our last remaining noumu factory, its security is paramount to the PLF, especially with Armageddon being here. Please, initiate the facility's lockdown."
Behind him Decay whispers something into a commpiece. It's probably set up to send messages outside through the base communication array. There is a reason why Tokoyami was ordered to repair it while he was visiting the base. It'd make communications with the outside world easier.
"Oh, alright?" Doctor Nagai says, clearly surprised by it but still not figuring out what was wrong. She leans over the nearest computer and speaks into the microphone. "Doctor Nagai to the crew. We're starting a security test. Lockdown will start in ten seconds. Please, make sure that nothing important stands in the secure doorway, we don't want to lose anyone."
A few seconds later there is a sound of alert, and an automatic announcement of lockdown being initiated. Doctor Nagai misses Cloud's warpgate opening between Decay and Izuku. It wakes the guard up, but it's clear that he's missing context.
Decay walks into it, leaving Izuku behind.
"As you can see, everything's working." Doctor Nagai says, before turning her head towards them. Then she does a double take. "Err… what's happening?"
Izuku's hand reaches the commpiece. He is clearly staring the doctor down, though with the recording quality and the screen still being rather dusty, Tokoyami isn't sure about the look on his face.
"Uraraka." He says. "Sabotage the array now." The hand goes down. "Goodbye, Doctor Nagai." Then he walks into the cloud. Doctor Nagai screams something in horror and leaps after him, but the cloud vanishes a second before she gets there.)
"That's… sick." Ragdoll announces when the recording ends.
"That's efficient." Tokoyami replies. "There were close to two hundred people in the facility. Midoriya eliminated them all despite only having three people with him."
"That's all that you can say about it?" Ragdoll asks, her face turning towards them. On it was… a distinctly unnice expression. "That it was efficient?"
Fumikage Tokoyami is the High Templar of the Ascending Path and the highest ranked and most treasured servant of Judgment. They are not influenced by her anger in the slightest.
"It was also rather karmic." Blackwing replies. "Armageddon made civilians out there bite each other to death. Midoriya made the people that seemed giddy to see Armageddon do that bite each other to death. We'd consider that to be an ironic punishment. In moments like this we truly see the familial similarity between Judgment and Izuku Midoriya."
Ragdoll is, clearly, unconvinced. Tokoyami expected nothing else from her. She was, in a way, the templars' conscience.
"Some of those people were simple guards or, shit, janitors or something!" Ragdoll shouts back. "Not everyone wanted any of that, Midoriya just…"
"What else was he supposed to do?" Tokoyami cuts back. "Warn heroes about the facility? All for One and Entropy made sure that everyone with practical knowledge of noumu creation died rather than being captured, with the data being erased before the laboratory sections of those facilities were scrubbed clean. We both know that if Midoriya decided to play it nice, we'd be facing state-manufactured noumus today. Would you enjoy seeing Ms. Joke being made into what Uraraka is today? Or maybe Miruko as a noumu?"
She was much more experienced in the matters of the world. But the old one. The one that died in Kamino. She spent almost three years as a vestige within All for One's body, then slowly learning how to exist as an exalted, all while Tokoyami was serving their goddess.
When living in the world devoid of hope and somehow thriving was involved, Fumikage Tokoyami surpassed her in experience.
She still didn't fully process the changes. You could see it in moments like these. After a few seconds of silence - one truly befitting a mass grave that they were in - she screams before slamming the butt of her rifle into the side of the monitor.
Strongly enough for it to break.
"I…" She says slowly. "... fucking hate this country." Tokoyami gives her an expressionless stare. "Let's go join the others. I really want to see whatever's Chart picking up and goddamn hurt it."
It seems that she was, after all, adapting.
(***)
"We have another outbreak." Yaoyorozu announces with a face of a dead woman. "Takamatsu City, the 14th Division and 6th Engineering Brigade seem to be setting up a defense position to the west of it, in order to defend the Seto Bridge approach, but…"
"If they lose it, it's game over for most of the Shikoku population." Izuku doesn't even have to check the map. He did that the first thing after sending Tokoyami's unit out. "Seto and Onaruto are the only bridges left, and only Seto has a railway. If Armageddon takes it out, Mindscape's evacuation plan is going to go up in flames."
There is no way that the government can evacuate a significant part of the population left through the sea and one bridge only. Especially as it was barely operational due to overcrowding and…
It was honestly a matter of time before another outbreak would occur in Tokushima, blocking Onaruto bridge permanently. The 'overcrowding' part was probably at least partially due to the local inhabitants realizing that.
"I think they know that." Momo replies. "I don't think that they're planning to leave that fight alive. The JSDF is deploying all its aerial assets to provide fire support to them, but… they're going to at best buy the people an hour or two."
"This is worse than my worst fucking nightmare." Izuku announces. Tsuyu, with her hands slightly shaking, hands him a cup of tea. He thanks her, before turning his attention back to Yaomomo. "I knew that if it was ever deployed it was going to be bad, but… not this bad."
"Well, I know about its existence for less than a day but I already hate it and everyone who ever helped in making it." Yaomomo replied dryly. "Also, I think we have confirmation that the Armageddon is targeting the naval blockade."
Izuku groans. It's not unexpected, but it doesn't mean that it doesn't suck big time.
"Unless the Maritime Self Defense Force developed an interest in sinking their own ships…" Momo adds. "... Armageddon managed to board three destroyers. I found and confirmed recordings of them being targeted by missile strikes from the rest of the blockade fleet and subsequently sinking. Izumo is on fire, but it seems to have repelled the attack, as the navy stopped firing at it."
Well, hopefully it was that. The alternative - that the whole fleet was overtaken - would be much, much worse.
"Thank God." Izuku replies. "Losing a goddamn aircraft carrier so early into a zombie apocalypse would be a goddamn joke." Not to mention further impairing evacuation efforts. "That's still almost half of the Navy's presence."
"More ships underway, but…" Momo sighs. "Most, actually. Still, it's not going well. And we're having reports of further Armageddon outbreaks throughout smaller towns in Shikoku. The army's telling everyone who can move to dash towards the coast, but…"
Yeah, so much about organized evacuation efforts, aside from the bridges or some ports still under government's control. It's going to be a total clusterfuck from now on.
The Armageddon will probably start mauling the scattered group of people waiting for the ships to pick them up soon enough.
"How the hell is it doing that?" Midoriya asks. Yaomomo gives him a questioning stare. "It's not supposed to move so quickly and efficiently. All for One gave me a goddamn powerpoint presentation, which included a theoretical model of Armageddon's 'nuclear option' that we're seeing right now. It shouldn't move that fast, especially with the Sword of Damocles crippling its forces continuously."
"I don't know." Momo sighs. "We can only hope that Tokoyami finds out something actually useful."
Midoriya Izuku is fairly certain that he knows about at least some things that Fumikage is going to find. Or has already found. He can only hope that the weapon wasn't unleashed by some deranged cannibalistic scientist that survived the longest of them all and found a way to escape the facility, because Izuku has enough things weighing on his conscience as it is.
(***)
"We don't think…" Tokoyami asks when Mechanist tells them that the elevator is ready. "... that this thing can move quietly, right?"
"I can make it move, despite the base being out of power for years." Mechanist replies. Yeah, there was apparently a geothermal power plant at the lowest level of the facility, beneath the Armageddon' storage floor, but… it was dead for a long time now. "But miracles/impossibilities are beyond me."
"That's fair." Tokoyami replies. "Chart?"
"I don't exactly see a heightmap on my quirk." She replies, her submachine gun temporarily strapped to the side. "But I think that there is a welcoming committee on some level beneath us, near the elevator. And for some reason I doubt that it's in the power plant."
"Well, then I guess that it's time for a little lesson in trickery." Tokoyami announces. They were a villain for years, they had a lot of lessons in that field to share with the world. "Mechanist, open up the elevator door, then send it down. We'll hop onto its ceiling and then, soon before it gets to the destination, we'll use my quirk to attach ourselves to the wall."
"Makes sense." Mechanist says. "I assume that I'm going to stay up here/in safety?"
"That is correct." Fumikage replies. "But I'll also have a small job for you."
The best lesson in trickery is to prepare a trick to counter the enemy's reaction to your initial trick. And seeing as the elevator is such a goddamn bottleneck, they're going to have to be rather smart about it.
(***)
Fifteen minutes later, the elevator starts sliding down. It's rather clear that it missed out on maintenance. The sound alone is loud enough to wake up the dead.
"So, what do you think it's going to be?" Daylight asks. "Some surviving scientists that cryofreeze themselves to last until today or some runaway noumu?"
He always had a… fertile imagination.
"Probably some Entropy fanboy that decided that the world didn't have enough of her maniacal evil." Deceiver comments. "Either that or hell refused to keep her so she's walking around again."
Twister chuckles. Tokoyami wastes no time. They are almost there. They use their shadow claws to anchor themselves at the wall, while changing the other one into several shadow tentacles that the others can use to make sure they don't fall.
They all promptly grab whatever they can. There are enough construction elements to hold around, and that's before Deceiver notices a side platform with its own ladder, leading to the level down. Probably maintenance access.
Few seconds later the elevator reaches the Armageddon containment level. They can hear the sound of the door opening… and then, the attack comes, the elevator destroyed almost instantly, the remnants of it falling down and crashing with a cacophony of metal noises a level beneath.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." Ragdoll comments with a voice of utter shock a moment later.
Tokoyami would have gladly said something, but they are too busy being shocked. Because of all the outlandish theories for the soon-to-occur plot twist of their bizarre dungeon crawl adventure, they didn't expect that.
A figure approaches the now open elevator shaft door, grabbing one side of it and leaning through… before looking up, their eyes meeting Fumikage's.
It's familiar, at least to Tokoyami and Ragdoll. And not in a good way. Though despite years passing since their last meeting, he didn't change at all. Even the clothes are the same, the only addition being a transparent gasmask resembling Necromancer's old villain outfit.
There is a zombie virus in the air, after all.
"It's been a while, mr. Bird." Dabi smiles, blue flames dancing between his fingers. "How's Shoto?"
Time since the activation of Armageddon: 7h
Est. number of civilian casualties: 1 060 000
Est. number of uninfected inhabitants of Shikoku: 2 400 000
Est. number of evacuated civilians: 500 000
Sword of Damocles: 40% depleted
Naval Blockade Status:
1st. Escort Flotilla
DDH-183 Izumo [Aircraft Carrier] - Heavily Damaged
DDG-179 Maya [Missile Destroyer] - Sunk
DD-101 Murasame [Destroyer] - Sunk
DD-107 Ikazuchi [Destroyer] - Sunk
DDG-173 Kongo [Missile Destroyer] - Operational
DD-108 Akebono [Destroyer] - Operational
DD-109 Ariake [Destroyer] - Operational
DD-115 Akizuki [Destroyer] - Operational
Ground Forces Status:
JGSDF 14th Division - 35% casualties, majority of heavy equipment lost.
JGSDF 6th Engineering Brigade - 5% casualties.
Shikoku Pro-Heroes: 40% casualties.
Shikoku Police Force: 27% casualties.
Evacuation Status: Ongoing
(***)
This chapter assumes that the Japanese Navy didn't change its internal structure. Except, yeah, I'm not going to pretend that the destroyers with flat upper surface capable of having fighters start and land on them are 'destroyers' simply because Japanese fleet is entirely composed of destroyers, due to them being 'escort ships' and that sounds defensive, and it's Maritime SELF-DEFENSE force.
That's a big LOL on my side, ngl.
Also, in case you didn't notice, creation of Special-End Noumus is something of a Berserk Button for Izuku. Don't push it. It WON'T end well. Just ask a certain Doctor.