Death

by tmb1112

Death is a Quirk that can only kill. A perfect Quirk for a villain, but what if the boy who manifested that power just wanted to be a hero? Enrolling in U.A. might not be enough when all your Quirk can do is kill people. Follow Zach Sazaki from his first day in Class A on a story that spans years, as he learns to be a hero, finds out more about his Quirk, and too much to summarize!

116. Chapter 116

A/N Hey guys! Been a few days, but I've been busy writing my thesis and this chapter turned out being the LONGEST chapter of Death I have written yet. I was not expecting it going in, but anyway... Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 116:

Sueguon, United Korea

In a port city on the east coast of the Korean peninsula, a black limo rolled down a packed street full of vendors, pedestrians, and bikers. The most common vehicle in the city was a motor-scooter, and the scooterists were zipping in between people and honking loudly, though one of them honked at the wrong time when they got close to the limo that had just stopped in his path. "Out of the way!" He honked again, then he started pulling his scooter to the driver's side to drive around despite the crowded area on that side of the narrow street between the limo and the vendors.

The scooter started driving down slowly, and he shot an annoyed look at the driver's side only to see nothing but a tinted black window. Then the back door of the limo flew open, and the scooter stopped short, not able to drive past as there was no longer enough space. A man stepped out of the back seat, standing six feet tall with over another foot on top of his skull thanks to the Pincers he had. The curved appendages stuck out of his bald head, and each of them were covered in little spikes with a bit of fuzz covering them too. The pincers almost touched at the tips after curving out, but they opened up a bit more as the tall man stepped out of the limo and stood directly in front of the scooter.

The Korean man on his scooter did not honk again. He stared at the muscular figure in front of him with a nervous look on his face under his helmet. The man before him wore a black suit with a white undershirt below, had a dark look on his light-skinned face- angry, with him. Grabble glared at the scooterist and he brought his hands in front of him, reaching up a bit and pulling his white gloves down his wrists to tighten the material over his hands. While he was doing this, his jacket "accidentally" pushed to the side at the middle a bit and revealed the pistol tucked into his waistband.

The scooter backed up, turned around, and drove the opposite direction as the man in a hurry had been going. Grabble kept his lips flat as he watched the man head off, then he stepped to the side and held the opened door while staring straight forward. The passenger side front door opened as well and another tall, muscular man stepped out whose head was rounder, but flat at the top and below his jawline before his neck. Jughead stepped out six and a half feet tall, and he walked around the front of the limo and then stopped on the other side of the open door as Grabble.

At this point, the crowded road of people was a bit less crowded, though the people who mostly remained were just pretending not to look over or really were diverting their gazes elsewhere. Jughead was holding a briefcase in one hand when he stepped around the limo, and the burly man more muscular than Grabble tapped his hand on the driver's side window twice.

"Everyone try to use Korean as little as possible," Mark reminded over his shoulder from the driver's seat. "You're all really bad at it."

"Thanks Mark," Darling said with a roll of her eyes while sliding her arms through the sleeves of a furry jacket on the seat with her.

"And hey," Seraphim started, leaning across the seat from her side where she and Maelstrom were grabbing their things. Darling looked into the older woman's purple eyes, and she looked closely at those eyes for a few seconds from up close. Can't even see them, Darling thought in an impressed way as she knew there were contact lenses in Seraphim's eyes. Darling started frowning though as Seraphim continued to her, "Don't freak out in there. This is just a part we're playing."

Maelstrom glanced at Darling nervously too as it was something she had not mentioned before but had been thinking about for a while. She had her orange hair down straight instead of up in pigtails as usual, just as Seraphim had her hair down instead of in a ponytail. They were all three wearing dresses and fur coats or vests they just put on over them since the inside of the limo had been heated and they did not need to keep up appearances yet. Darling glanced back and forth at the girls across from her, then she opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by the man on her right, "Let's go ladies." The three women looked towards the American man at Darling's side who pulled at the red cuffs of his blazer and then smirked at them with his handsome white face.

"Coming Underlord," Seraphim said, smiling back at the man who looked to be in his thirties but was really only seventeen.

This thing isn't even itchy. I thought it was going to be terrible, Underlord stepped out of his limo and was still grinning in a confident manner while he extended his hand down into the door of the limo.

The limo driver up front rolled up the divider between the back and him, and Mark pushed down on the rim of his hat while darting his eyes around through the front windshield. No one looks suspicious. Interested, but not suspicious. Nor do they look surprised. Suppose most of the ones who stuck around are used to this sort of thing. "Charlie Team, status?" Mark questioned, and everyone in the Army of Death in the city heard his voice. The micro-earpieces in the ears of the group currently standing outside of the limo or getting out, in the limo driver's ear, and in the ears of a half dozen others around Sueguon transmitted Mark's message around the city. The message was also transmitted out into the Yellow Sea between Korea and China where The Cloak was currently flying above some very well-timed clouds.

"Driving around but staying within five minutes. Should we begin to head over?" Shang questioned. The Chinese man in the driver's seat of a white van slowed down as he neared an intersection, deciding which route to take and getting a honk from a scooter behind him.

"Yes, Alpha Team just arrived. They'll be heading inside in a minute." Mark waited for the third woman in the backseats to get out with Underlord, then Grabble closed the door and Jughead tapped his window again. "Get in your position. Commence the operation," the man coordinating the mission, as Underlord could not from inside the building, started to drive his limo away to the garage he would be leaving it in. Mark checked his rearview mirror, his side mirrors, then he took in a deep breath and relaxed himself as he was all alone with no one tailing him. The former CIA operative stayed calm and said in a low voice, "Raylei, you ready?"

"On standby. Delta Team is ready for extraction at any time. You just give me the word."

"Rampart?"

"Hold on a minute," a voice cut in, and everyone in the city had to stifle a groan. "I was looking forward to this mission. Should've waken me up sooner-"

"Rebel, we already started. I'm not going over everything again, give Rampart point."

"Are you-" Rebel paused, then a sigh went over the earpieces that was very loud and exasperated, but relieved all the people in the field who were not in the mood for an argument over this while the mission was starting. "Fine. I'll just third-wheel it back here."

"Well, sat images are up. Police channels tapped," Rampart paused for a second. "And I'm just now getting word that three heroes from Seoul are heading into Sueguon now."

"Reason?" Mark asked.

"Villain attack at the docks. Nothing big, but a couple boats sped off and this group is…"

The conversations going on were quiet in the ears of the team of six who walked off the street while Mark drove away. Raylei controlled their mics' sound, as the earpieces were so small that the group could not do so manually. The earpieces that doubled as microphones were also at low volumes for every member of the team of six, as their conversations were unnecessary for the rest of the teams to hear. Raylei was ready to turn up Underlord's mic at any time if she heard a certain word, and her blocky fingers on her left hand were already hovering over one keyboard while she coordinated other efforts with her right.

Underlord stood between Darling and Maelstrom who were both shorter than him unlike Seraphim who was almost his height. Although Darling had the largest bust of the three girls, Seraphim was drawing the eyes of the people on the street around them. She had a slender figure, sexy, and she was doing the best at her role of one of Underlord's floozies already with just the way she was looking at him and getting annoyed with the old man standing in front of his shop the longer the guy talked to Grabble. Jughead stood behind the group of four, leaving Grabble to talk to the man who was confused and questioning at first, before nodding along and looking back at the group behind Grabble.

The old Korean man advertising his wares outside his shop noticed the briefcase in Jughead's hand, then he shifted his gaze towards Underlord who had a golden necklace partially sticking out of his collar, and whose women were dressed very richly and each had some jewelry on them. The man stepped to the side and motioned in after looking back at Grabble. "Go ahead," he said, speaking better English than the broken accent he had used while questioning the man confusedly a moment ago.

"Thank you," Underlord said while stepping into the opening, looking to the old man and flashing him a smile. It was a dangerous smile, warning, and yet at the same time with so little care in it as he immediately shifted his gaze back down to the brown haired woman at his right side who said something to him that made him laugh in a boisterous way. I really do like acting, Zach thought, while looking forward through a store that had some clothing and cloths on the walls, and a hallway towards the back that had beads falling from the ceiling in lines that made it difficult to see past, but made it clear that behind it was a private hallway where there were no wares to buy.

Grabble pushed the beads to the side and looked down the hall towards a steel door that opened up. Jughead was walking past the man in the doorway outside, and he heard whispering in Korean from the man who then went back to calling out advertisements for his displays outside the shop. Jughead kept his eyes off the old man but thought, Don't see a microphone on him either. That means it's some high-tech stuff. Doesn't fit the slums of this port at all, but I'm guessing the basement's going to blow me away then.

Grabble walked up to the man at the steel door and talked to him for a moment, then the man in that doorway stepped to the side and looked at Underlord who lowered his arms from his women and stepped forward confidently and with a warm smile on his face. "Mr. Underlord, I presume?" The thin man before Underlord lifted an eyebrow as he said it, because the man outside had been unable to get a more specific name from Grabble who only replied again with "Underlord" upon getting asked a second time.

"That's right, Mr…" Zach started, lifting his eyebrows back at the man who had yet to tell him his own name.

"I am Mr. Kim," the man replied. He was a Korean man who looked around the same age as Underlord, with similarly black hair only more combed than the wavy way that Underlord had his hair styled with a flip in the front instead of bangs. "This is your first time here, is it not?"

"It is," Underlord replied. "I heard all I needed was a recommendation. Pincers there mention-"

"He did say-" Mr. Kim froze.

The flaring red eyes of the American man before him settled down back to hazel. "Please don't interrupt me," Underlord said, his voice the same calm and almost cheerful tone he was just using. The shift in tone was subtle, almost unnoticeable, but with the flash of his eyes a second ago it was very clear. "Sanjuan Lee told me many great things about this place, including the class, and respect, of it's employees. I would hate it if you were calling my friend a liar."

"My apologies sir," Mr. Kim bowed his head a bit in apologetic respect. He lifted his head and then hesitated, and Underlord lifted his eyebrows in a questioning way at the man's expression. "And my apologies for the wait as well. Mr. Lee is a valued member of the 100 Club. Any friend of his is welcome here. Please, come in." Mr. Kim stepped to the side and extended his arm back for the open doorway that a pair of men were standing on the other side of, moving aside to make a wide opening for the group to move through.

Looks like Underlord's reputation on the dark web checked out, Underlord smirked while walking forward before either of his guards into the room ahead. Holding off on handing The Wolf over to the police was definitely a good move. If this works I'll have to bring him in somewhere without death penalty. Have to stick to my word when I've made the deals or villains will never believe it. They already have begun realizing that Death will show mercy, considering that last group that faked surrendering and… Villain boss. You're a villain boss. With beautiful women. Zach reminded himself of these things because he was about to think of a comrade of his who did not make it when the surrender turned out to be a planned response by a villain group who had known information about their base may have been leaked.

"Three minutes out."

Zach heard Shang's voice in his ear though it was getting harder to hear over music and loud talking as he started down some steps towards a set of double doors below. The red doors were studded with blunt golden spikes around the outsides and had dragon designs in the wood, but Zach ignored them and just walked forward and pressed his hands into the doors. He opened them up, and he stepped out into a room that looked nothing like the basement of a clothing shop in the slums of Sueguon.

He had just entered into a room that had two tiers in it. There was an outer balcony surrounding three quarters of the room, though not the opposite side as where Zach just entered because there was a stage over there with the red curtains drawn. There were steps on either of the sides of the entrance wall of the room he was on, and two more staircases at the ends of the side balconies leading down near the stage. The balcony on this side was the widest which gave it space for the stairs down as well as paths around the corners to the other sides of the second floor, where there were a couple of tables and well-dressed people talking while leaning on the railings or just standing around.

Grabble and Jughead walked down behind him but to his sides, while the girls all stayed close and came up to him, brushing up against him and Darling grabbing at his right arm. Zach pulled his arm out of her grip without giving her a glance, just stepping forward with a smug grin on his face and looking off the railing in front of him and down to the floor below. He stepped right up to the rail and put his hands down on it to his sides, leaning forward a bit and just appearing to enjoy seeing the place for the first time.

"Mr. Underlord," Mr. Kim's voice spoke behind Zach.

He looked back and then put his arms back on the railing while leaning into it. There was a chandelier behind him, illuminating the casino floor behind him full of different games and surrounded by people who looked like him and had groups similar to his around them. He was the only one who had three different women in his posse though, as most villains he saw down there who did have people with them were men or women with more of Grabble or Jughead's body types. "This place is nice. You gonna be the one bringing us some drinks, Kim-san?"

Kim opened his mouth to respond, then he held his tongue and just closed it for a second. Fucking Americans, thinking Japanese and Koreans are the same. The Japanese boy in disguise in front of Kim smirked but his eyes got more dangerous as Kim hesitated. "Actually, sir," Mr. Kim began again. "I have to ask you and your group to come down to the check-in counter with me. I assume you would like to transfer your money into chips… and, I must request that you all be subject to a pat down. It is not allowed for there to be firearms inside the casino."

Grabble and Jughead both glared at Mr. Kim, but he did not budge from their looks one bit. Zach did not even look at Kim though to see that look, just turning to his guys after hearing that and nodding, "You heard the man. Their house their rules, should I take off my shoes too?"

"No, shoes are fine," Mr. Kim said, turning without looking annoyed and leading them to the closest staircase on their right.

Doesn't look like everyone has to follow the no-gun rule. Zach smirked at Mr. Kim's back after making the joke about traditional Asian culture again, while his eyes shifted around still in an impressed way at the fancy room around them covered in expensive art and beautiful tapestries. There were decorative lights on the walls, and the red carpets beneath their feet that covered the entire floor felt soft and expensive beneath him too. Wonder if anyone'd get mad if I spilled a drink on their fancy rugs? I should do it just to fuck with them. That's something Underlord would do, plus fuck these guys. Fuck this place! Not that a stain on the rug will actually inconvenience anyone though, considering this place is going to be fucked soon anyway.

Zach darted his eyes around after thinking it. He started down the stairs after Mr. Kim, leading the girls who were watching his back and giving threatening looks to other women who looked his way, while Grabble and Jughead walked closer to his sides and just behind him. Seraphim walked forward faster than the other two girls with her, and Darling gave her a dirty look for a second but returned to giving those looks to other women instead as she reminded herself what Seraphim said as they were getting out of the limo.

Seraphim had just gotten very close to Underlord however, as she stepped up to his left side and leaned her head up so her lips were right next to his ear. "The armed ones are all Kabo's men. 12 in total. Coincidentally, we have two other targets from other information gatherings in the room. High-roller back there, is Reno Grande. Don't know what he's doing in Korea, but he brought his two of his top sicarios, and the Mule is with him."

Well shit. That's good, but things are getting complicated here. Those Seoul heroes gathering at the port are still going to be there when the operation goes down. Underlord laughed and he lowered his left hand down Seraphim's back before stopping on the lower small of her back just above her ass. He turned back and whispered into her ear while Seraphim turned forward with a small grin on her own face, accepting the movement as part of their disguises and just appreciating that Death did not actually grab her ass as he just as well could have. "Aight-"

Raylei spun the dial her left hand was hovering over in The Cloak while she had a padded headset over the top of her head drowning out all other sound. Zach continued without hesitation as he knew Raylei was about to do that for him, "Secondary targets, Farolio Cartel. Seraphim's going to mention another set of secondary targets in a moment, Raylei raise her sound and lower mine." Seraphim pursed her lips with a smile and darted her gaze to the side like Underlord had just said something dirty to her.

Underlord grinned in a conquering way at the woman at his side, but he glanced forward to where Grabble and Jughead were handing off their weapons, and he sighed before stepping forward to them himself. He reached down and lifted his red jacket for a moment to pull a golden pistol off the right side of his waist. He placed the heavy pistol bigger than either of his subordinates' down on the counter and then lifted up his right foot and placed it down on the counter too before reaching down and yanking a knife out of his boot. Mr. Kim was standing on his left, and the Korean man eyed the knife more carefully, only to avert his gaze as Underlord noticed it and looked his way still with that blade in hand.

"Hey," Zach said, looking at Mr. Kim while lowering his leg but still holding his knife. He pointed the blade behind him towards the woman at his back, "Do you have a place for their coats? It's nice and toasty down here, and I want to show off what I've got."

Darling pushed her chest forward and the fur vest she had on that already barely fit shifted to the sides of her impressive D cup breasts.

Maelstrom was a bit more modest, though she started taking off her jacket too like the others as Underlord nodded at them to do so. Mr. Kim offered to take them, and then Underlord said to the man while the guy's back was to him, "And how about those drinks while you're at it? Man, the service here is just fantastic. Haha," Underlord turned back to the counter and looked at the man on the other side of it. There was a burly figure next to the teller who had all the chips below the counter, and the burly man was looking carefully out at the three in front of him who put their weapons down without first being frisked.

"If you would please allow Mr. Don here to, search your persons," the teller started to the three ahead of him.

"I just gave you everything," Underlord said, tossing the knife onto the counter. "I heard it was just firearms too, but here I am giving you my knife in good faith buddy. What's up with the distrust?" The teller looked uneasy, but Mr. Don stepped to the door of that back area in the corner office and stepped out to Grabble's right side. "You trying to pat down my girls too? That the real reason?" Underlord asked, leaning in towards the window in front of him. "Give Mr. Don there a nice time with my girls? You know, I really don't appreciate that."

"The women are fine," the teller started. "But the three of you must be patted down. Club policy."

Underlord lowered the corner of his lip for a second, then he sighed in acceptance and turned to step up between his men who were giving the equally big Mr. Don harsh looks. The security guy seemed used to looks like those though and just got to patting them all down.

Good move getting our coats taken first, Seraphim thought while looking at Underlord's back. She was in a purple dress that glimmered with the design on it, tight at the thighs but with pre-made slits ready to rip apart should she yank her legs to the side quickly. Darling's red dress and Maelstrom's orange one were tight as well, leaving little to the imagination with their arms fully exposed and their legs too. Seraphim had a scar on her upper left arm, and her right forearm, and Darling sported a thick scar on her right leg, as well as her left shin, and both arms had a couple of scars as well. When Mr. Kim took their coats, he found himself more disgusted than before with the man behind him who he had already thought was rough around the edges. Most people avoided looking at those scars though, and the women were not treating them as anything big or like they were being forced to be there either which gave a certain air around them.

Maelstrom noticed a few looks in her direction when she took off her coat, and she tried to keep herself from getting nervous. Stay in character. Same expressions as the other two. I, I can't create a character like they can- but I can't keep trying to look like both! They've both already decided how they're acting down here. I need to pick a persona and stick with it.

Seraphim leaned down for the side of Maelstrom's head, a taunting look on her face as Underlord started getting patted down and was not looking towards them. Maelstrom was surprised, and then she got an angry look on her face fast as she saw Seraphim's taunting face and thought about the way she had just been talking to Death. Be the jealous one! Like she's rubbing in my face what he was just laughing about and that he touched her!

"…less important than the cartel, but don't ignore them either. Neither they nor the cartel seem to be armed. Kabo's men have control over the place right now. The 100 Club staff don't want to upset him, or he just forced his way in. Either way, things are about to get hot down here. Shang get to the back exit."

"Just arrived," Shang said, while Raylei lowered Seraphim's microphone volume again.

A white van pulled up on the back side of a clothing ware shop, in a narrow alleyway the van had a hard time pulling down through in the first place. There was a fishing company logo on the outside of the van and company name written in Korean, and the back of the van opened up with two members of the Army of Death who spoke Korean back there. Xia and Sogdo stood in the back of the van in white uniforms, wearing hats and looking dirty as they started dragging metal crates towards the back of the van.

Access glanced back towards the two in the back of the van from his spot in the passenger seat where he had a laptop on his lap with twenty faces piled up in different windows on it. Seraphim's contact lenses sent the images back to The Cloak, to Rebel's command in America, and to Access just outside the building where he was checking out the kill counters on each of the faces of men with warrants inside the building. He shook his head in frustration as he saw another man who Seraphim finally got a good look at as he looked towards Underlord's group. "Murderers all over the place down there. It's a bad move bringing Maelstrom into situations like this…"

His muttering got Shang looking the other way instead of out his window at the side mirror pointed at the back door to the casino. "I believe in English they call that, a crush?" Shang teased softly on Access' left. Access darted his eyes to the left at the man who said that quietly but whose voice could have gone through the earpieces of their mostly quiet comrades. Although Death's group inside had their volumes low too, they could hear their comrades' conversations outside as well.

Access got a frustrated look on his face quickly to replace one that was almost flustered. "Nah, she's cute and all, but I'm saying so 'cause she's a powerhouse. And she can conceal us for slipping away, and hiding in the clouds. Risking her in a stealth mission doesn't seem right to me." Shang lowered his smile a bit, then he darted his eyes back out the driver's side window as he heard a metal door clanking open in the back of the building.

The man in the passenger seat slid down in his seat a bit, despite already being hidden from the back of the van where the open doors were. I don't have a "crush." It's just common sense. Why'd Grabble joke about guarding her to me before we left The Cloak? Is it really that obvious- Shit. Concentrate. I wish I tried learning more Korean. I should for next time we're here. Access slid down in his seat more as the two in the back of the van started arguing with a burly man in a black suit who came out of the back of the building.

Sogdo was trying to make a point, and Xia just kept dragging another crate while the man behind the building snapped again, "You cannot park here. You must get out right now-"

"Listen, we've got an order of forty lobsters to this location. I know they want them in there-"

"You have the wrong building. Now leave before this gets serious," the man slid his hands to his waist and put them on his sides like he was being stern with them. As he did it though, he lifted his shirt a bit and showed he was strapped which made Sogdo pull back with wider eyes.

Xia looked over her shoulder while bent over dragging another crate, and she got a pissed off look in her eyes as she saw the man showing off his piece. "What are you doing?!" She shouted, standing up and stomping to the back of the van while glaring down at him. The short Chinese woman yelled in Korean at the man who leaned back at her expression, "We are being paid for this delivery! You can't make us come out here to the middle of butt-fuck nowhere to deliver lobsters and expect to turn us away! Who do you think you are?! You think we deliver high-quality shellfish to fucking lowest common denominator punks like you? Get whoever ordered these lobsters out here right now!"

"No one here ordered any lobsters-"

"Are you sure about that?!" Xia yelled down at the man who shot a look over his shoulder and towards a more main road hoping nothing was drawing attention down there. He was also nervous as he glanced back at the building he just came out of where there were people inside who definitely could have ordered lobsters. Xia got angrier at his unsure look and started yelling at him for wasting her time and telling her off if he did not even know what was going on. Good, Xia thought. The Wolf said there were refreshments there and occasionally food delivered in, but no food being prepared down there. No real delivery better show up here right now…

Access ignored the conversation in the back and he spoke in a low voice to the group inside. "Back door is secure. Don't know how much time we can give you but Xia's doing a good job so far it seems like."

"…Lopez, Quirk- Flip. If he touches you your dominant side switches. It's worse than it seems, everything gets screwy when you don't know which foot to step with first or which hand you normally grab something with. I don't really get it, but avoid close quarters with the one with the beard. The man next to him, tall guy, it's Tuco's boyfriend Vasquez. Not a sicario like Tuco, but he started off as his bodyguard. Quirk- Store Blast. Take him down fast, with as little damage as possible. He stores up damage and releases it, and he can store it for a white so he might already be charged up for some big attacks…" Raylei continued listing off information they knew on the figures Seraphim had detected so far. She had three monitors in front of her she was scrolling through and looking up info on. Behind her in The Cloak's command room, and around the room looking at the front windshield where some of this information was up, were a dozen other members of the Army of Death who were not on the mission.

Michael leaned back on a computer station that was empty at the moment, and La Brava darted a look over from the opposite side of the room with an annoyed look on her face. She decided against saying anything to him about leaning on their expensive equipment, focusing back on her computer screen instead. Get ready Gentle, she thought, not a very worried look on her face but still an anxious one since she was not out there with him.

The briefcase on the 100 Club casino's counter got closed by the teller who pulled it back and slid it under his counter. He came back up with a golden chip-holder that he started putting different colored chips onto, then he slid it forward for the crime lord in front of him who grabbed his gambling chips while looking at them with a big grin on his face. "Nice," Underlord turned and started towards the casino floor, and his posse walked behind him into a room of villains. Places like this, villains gathering and feeling safe, Underlord smiled as he looked over a table and watched a criminal Raylei just told him about tossing dice and getting a 7 on the two of them.

People cheered out for him, and the dealer pushed some chips towards the African man who had some golden rings on his fingers and a young, very young woman on his side who held onto him after he won that game. Fucking sick. I hate this. I hate this place. All of them having fun, enjoying the life of being villains. They don't look afraid that anything is coming. They feel like places like these are safe, too many precautions, too much security, too secret. I will teach you all… to fear Death.

Underlord turned and looked straight towards a poker table where the man he was after was sitting with a few others. All of them are likely here with Kabo, Zach thought as he looked around the other men. Facial recognition didn't have them as wanted criminals, just well-known Korean businessmen. Showing them an extravagant place like this, probably offering them some money while surrounded in armed guards, while unafraid of heroes or the police. Show the businessmen that he's not afraid, and they won't be afraid to do business with him. Doubtful they're related to Fergus Conglomerate, or there wouldn't be much convincing necessary.

"This seat taken?" Zach walked straight up to the seat across the table from Kabo.

Every armed guard in the room looked straight towards the newcomer who asked that while looking straight towards their boss. A hand had just finished, and Underlord was already pulling out the seat without waiting for an answer from anyone. He patted his right hand behind him on Darling's leg and said, "Go find Kim and get our drinks will ya?" It was not as much a request as him telling her to do it, and Darling nodded at him before turning and hurrying off to find Mr. Kim.

Underlord could not wear a black glove over his right hand. It would draw attention. He had been nervous during the frisk as he held his arms out to the sides, but Mr. Don was only patting down what was concealed. Still, that was the closest Zach planned on getting to his right hand touching someone unclothed tonight. "Deal me in this time, what's the anti?" Underlord looked around the table, and he saw the three men there with Kabo all look at him hesitantly or in annoyance. Kabo's face was unreadable as he faced Underlord though, and he lifted his right hand with a couple fingers lifted like he was telling people to wait. Underlord pretended not to notice a couple of tensed men easing back as if they were ready to move in and drag Underlord away.

Showing his civility in front of his new associates. Being just a friendly host. Or he's interested in me. Maybe he's impressed someone walked straight up when he's clearly running this place. Maybe he thinks I want something from him. He'll test the waters. Time to be Underlord. This isn't the long game, Kabo. You're going down tonight. "Deal in our new friend," Kabo said, speaking English as he had been to the Koreans. His accent was not one Zach recognized, and he did not know where Kabo was from initially anyway, since the organization Kabo was in charge of spanned several countries.

"Great! Get ready to lose your money men, because I like to win." Underlord smirked and leaned back in his chair, his arms over the sides of it and his shoulders pushed back so he looked super confident in his ability to win right here. He looked over his shoulder and at Seraphim who he smirked at specifically, and she grinned back at him but lowered her smile a little when he looked back forward.

After she lowered her smile, Seraphim lifted her gaze across the table and her purple eyes looked into Kabo's similarly purple ones. His were a little brighter than hers, and she stared into them for a few seconds before she noticed his eyes wander on her body even while keeping eye contact with her. And her eyes shifted from Kabo back towards the armed guards behind him near the wall, then to the ones up on the balcony, then back to the man who did not have as cocky and confident a look as Underlord. He was not flaunting his confidence or power at all, and yet he gave off a presence of the most powerful man in the room, and Underlord walking up and talking loudly to him made it seem like he was trying to be one of those big shots who he just wasn't yet.

Seraphim lowered her eyes down to her feet for a second, her lips pursing and staying in a smile. She lifted her gaze slowly back up and then bit down on her bottom lip while looking at the most powerful man in the room, and the right corner of his lip lifted up a bit as the most beautiful woman he could see in this room was suddenly looking towards him in want. Seraphim shifted her gaze back down to the back of Underlord's head as he seemed to be turning for a second while talking about how he loved poker, and her smile became less enthusiastic again.

"You think that you are 'good' at poker?" Kabo questioned, looking straight at Underlord who stopped talking mid-sentence when the villain boss spoke. Kabo chuckled and he shook his head once, slowly, "Any man who claims to be so-"

"I have a great poker face," Underlord cut in, just as Kabo had done to him in his last sentence.

Kabo paused and closed his mouth. He looked straight at Underlord and his expression was calm. Things got a little quieter at the table, and the dealer slowed his shuffling while darting Underlord a nervous look. The casino was in control of Kabo and his men at the moment, and the dealer believed the man who just sat at the table was asking to be killed right now. Kabo had different plans however, and his eyes shifted up to Seraphim again who looked back at him in a bit of surprise and then a lot more as the man shifted his gaze down to the scar on her arm. Then he looked in her eyes with a strong look on his face, powerful, like he was the most powerful man in the world, and he just motioned with a nod of his head to his side.

Kabo motioned directly to his side while looking at her, and Seraphim darted her eyes around the room. She looked nervous suddenly, shifting her gaze back to Underlord who did not seem to notice what Kabo did while he started looking at the two cards slid to him by the dealer who finally started up a new game. All five players had put in their antis, a starting bid of ten million won, which was around the same amount as ten thousand US dollars.

Darling was heading back with the drinks, and she noticed what Kabo did. She saw Seraphim considering it, and she shifted her gaze over towards Grabble and Jughead who looked towards her and the drinks instead of towards Seraphim who was doing her thing. She works fast. I turned away for like ten seconds! Darling walked up to the men behind Zach first, handing them drinks before giving one to Maelstrom. She begrudgingly started reaching for Seraphim, only to look at her in confusion as Seraphim turned and started around the side of the table. Darling nervously got up next to Underlord and started putting his drink down next to him, but Underlord turned his head left and he stared in confusion at the purple-haired woman walking around the table.

"Where are you looking?" Kabo began, and Underlord turned his head back to the man across the table from him. Underlord's smile had lowered down, and the group behind him was staring from Kabo over towards the sixth member of their party who glanced back their way deviously for a moment before continuing around. "It is your bet, Underlord," Kabo said, saying the man across from him's name without ever asking for it.

How does he recognize me? Does he have an earpiece in and someone- no, someone probably came up and told him as soon as they let me in the front door. In fact he was probably the one who let me come down here at all, not the actual 100 Club. Underlord glared towards Kabo, then behind him at the woman who walked right up to Kabo who just exuded so much power with that single move.

Underlord stared straight at Kabo, then he put both hands in front of him on the table and smirked as he grabbed all of his chips he had just stacked up there. Kabo's small smirk lowered into a flat lip, and everyone around the table and nearby stared towards the table with their jaws lowering as Underlord pushed all of his chips into the middle of the pot on his first move before any cards were flipped. "I'm all in," Underlord said. He smirked wide and grabbed his drink, leaning back in his seat and then saying in a smug voice, "You see, there's a difference between that kind of subtle power and my kind of over-the-top power, Kabo."

He said that pretty loudly, and everyone stared towards Underlord with their eyes huge at the balls of this man. Kabo had immediately started glaring despite his calm expression at the man across the table from him. There was a chance that Underlord really did have a great hand, and this was not just a display to counter how one of his women had just walked over to Kabo and now stood next to him. Then again, the odds of that were slim, and the fact that Kabo had a great hand himself made the decision easier. He reached for his chips and pulled some stacks away, starting to count out how many billions of won would match Underlord's all-in. The men around the table folded one by one as they realized this was actually a hand about to be played, and then Underlord's smirk dropped as Kabo was not folding.

The drink in Underlord's hand shook a little bit, the ice in it clinking around as he lowered it back to the table in front of him. "I thought you had a great poker face," Kabo said, and all attention in the room shifted straight towards Underlord who put his drink down on the table.

Seraphim's hand pressed on the back of Kabo's head, and the crime lord's eyes rolled back as she used her Quirk- Brain Trap on him. Her other hand was between her breasts while his eyes were still rolling back, while armed men around the room were all spinning already towards their boss and reaching for their weapons. "Nobody move!" Seraphim shouted, with a knife up to Kabo's jugular as she yanked his head back by his hair and exposed his neck fully.

The room was full of hardened criminals. No one screamed, though the other businessmen around the table let out yelps and two of them fell from their chairs while the other just jumped out of his and moved back from the table. Seraphim turned her head and snapped behind her, "Move and I'll slice. Wouldn't take a second."

"The fuck is happening over here?" Reno Grande called out, an interested look on his face as he saw a woman with a blade to Kabo's neck. "Let's not be hasty here," he started, holding up his hands defensively to try and get her to stop, and try and get himself a favor with Kabo. His sicarios moved up behind him, while the Mule looked over from the other side of the table where the long-haired blond man from Florida was hanging with a beautiful woman in his arm.

"Let go of the boss."

"What are you doing?"

"Put the knife down."

Mr. Kim looked over nervously at the woman who he had been so smugly watching when she left Underlord's side. Sweat covered his face as he imagined what would happen if Kabo was killed in their casino, and the rest of the casino staff were as nervous as him. Most of Kabo's men were more calm however, keeping their hands near their weapons or already on them yet not drawn which could make the crazed woman cut their boss's throat.

The man across the table from the unconscious Kabo stood up. "He's just unconscious," Underlord said, and everyone shifted their gazes as they realized this woman was not just acting on her own. People who had seen her go to Kabo's side, seen the looks on Underlord and his men's faces like they thought she was betraying them, all got nervous as Underlord stood up and calmly said that. His smile was gone, his lips flat. "And no, we're not police," Underlord added, as he saw some nervous looks around the room starting up. "But I did tell you all, I was coming for you."

"OH FUCK!"

"RUN!"

The Mule stumbled back and fell over a chair that just slid back from a table an African man started running away from. Half of Kabo's men abandoned their boss immediately, while half of the remaining six pulled out their weapons and trained them on Death. As Death was finished speaking though, the room fell into complete chaos and a darkness erupted from Death's position. Seraphim did not move while still glaring at two men directly behind Kabo who had not drawn their weapons yet did not start to flee. One of them made an 'o' with his lips and started to whistle, but he froze as blood trickled down the side of his boss's neck from Seraphim putting the smallest amount of more pressure on the blade.

Four close-rangers. Reno running with his sicarios, one's trying to grab the Mule, getting separated. They're the fastest to run other than some of Kabo's goons. Two medium-long, one all around. Long distance sharp attacks but slow, I can dodge easier than bullets. Sound waves, two sensory's. Let's block the exit. Death moved fast, while thoughts raced through his head and his red eyes darted to look all around the room. A sphere of condensed darkness formed on his right hand and he threw it while jumping into the air of the first floor of the casino. The sphere flew towards the main exit of the basement, and it exploded to take down seven people while at the same time stopping everyone else from running straight out.

Two men running up the stairs on the right side of the room turned their heads and let out yells, right before a jet of water slammed into them and smashed them into the paintings behind them they knocked off the wall. Jughead's wide cylindrical head squeezed in a bit at the sides, then he turned his head and opened his mouth again, firing another strong jet of water at the opposite staircase and knocking someone else back down it. Then he turned and ducked down, before spinning on one foot and slamming his right arm behind him. "My Quirk's not too strong," Jughead started in a deep voice, while his fist collided into the side of an African man with flaming arms. Ribs cracked on his fist, and he followed through his punch with his whole body weight, throwing the villain through a table behind him and into the wall. "But don't think that means you can beat me."

"There's no point in running," Underlord, now believed to be Death to the villains around the room, called out to everyone as he landed back down on his own poker table. His left foot landed on his own cards that were actually horrible despite him going all-in with them. A few people looked back towards Death in terror as he yelled at them, his body surrounded in a fully black aura that was so thick that nothing showed inside it at all. He was just pure black, with even his red eyes masked under the thick black veil he kept over his entire body at all times. His voice was scratchy and deep, and he announced in a dark voice, "It will only prolong the inevitable."

All of them had had him in the backs of their minds. They all knew, Death was out there. They had all seen his message from the walls of the palace in Hatto. They had heard the rumors since then. None of them had been afraid that he might arrive at the casino, but all believed it immediately and most were beyond terrified of what was happening.

Why here?

Out of everywhere!

It isn't fair!

Where's another exit?!

"You! Kim! Get us out the back, NOW!" Lopez pressed a pistol into the head of a man who was already scared shitless.

Kim's eyes opened wide, then he nodded quickly as that sounded like a great idea to him too. "Follow me," he said, and he darted towards the stage. "Mr. Don!"

Grabble changed directions and he leapt to his right, kicked off of a table that had enough support that he was actually able to bounce off of it, then he slammed his right fist down into Mr. Don's face with all the power of coming down from the table with him. He leaned forward and opened his Pincers, and he clenched down on Don's sides, pressing the man's arms into his thick body and squeezing the life out of him, then Grabble spun to his right and pulled his pincers apart to throw the man who weighed more than he did over towards one of Kabo's guys who was aiming towards Darling.

Darling swung her arms together as soon as Underlord stood up. She connected her arms in front of her body, turning them into what looked like a cannon. Already though, three different nets had fired out of that cannon and slammed two people into walls where the spikes on the outsides of the net pushed so deep inside before hooks sprung out that the people slammed there could not escape. The third net completely wrapped two men up into each other and they were rolling around on the ground in a panic trying to get out, only for one to use his Melting Quirk to break out of it.

Fucker, Zach swung an arm down and swept a Death Wind towards the two men as one started screaming bloody murder from his body Melting through. He did not know if the guy who was partially melted would survive, but Zach took his eyes off the unconscious men fast and darted his red eyes to the bodyguards of Kabo who were still standing. We're here for Kabo, so I can't go after them yet. His men are likely more dangerous than the Cartel's. Umbagu's crew went down quickly. "Grabble after them," Death said, his voice scratchy and deep.

Grabble picked a pistol up off the floor and sprinted towards the stage. "Maelstrom, go too," Darling said, looking to the orange haired girl next to her who was caught with her jaw dropped and not doing anything. "Don't let them escape."

Maelstrom nodded fast, realizing she was just standing around and turning to run after Grabble who was a good friend of hers in their army. Grabble reached down and grabbed another gun he held out for the short woman running up towards him. "Legs and arms," Grabble said as she took the gun from him while staring straight at it like she was nervous. "Let's get them."

"Yeah," Maelstrom agreed, nodding at the man who had been in the Army of Death for longer than her but had helped initiate her and get her used to things on The Cloak.

The Army of Death operated well under pressure. Despite most of the room still being in chaos, Zach gave out his orders calmly. Raylei had raised Alpha Team's earpiece volumes to have everyone connected now, so everyone in the mission could hear each other. Grabble called out to Charlie Team that the Farolio Cartel were on their way up but he and Maelstrom were stuck fighting the Mule and his bodyguard at the bottom of the stairs. Death growled at Kabo's men to put down their weapons and surrender before he is forced to kill them all, and Seraphim repeated to them that a single wrong move and she would slit their leader's throat.

"Kabo would rather die than go with you."

"For the boss-"

Seraphim pulled Kabo away and tackled him to the floor. Darling and Jughead fired towards villains and Zach shot towards them as fast as he could. The three of them were fast, and weapons dropped as the villains used Quirks instead while prioritizing staying away from the dark aura they had seen knock out many people already.

At the back of the building, Mr. Kim pushed open the door and ran outside. Enrique Lopez was right behind him, but he stopped short and then pulled back into the doorway, swinging his arm the other way to stop Reno Grande from running out. Tuco and Vasquez stopped behind them at the top of the stairs to the back exit which was sometimes used for food deliveries, where there was a van outside and just to the left of the doorway, where a taser had just shot out into the first man to get out and dropped Mr. Kim to the floor next to another 100 Club employee.

"Tuco! We need help back here!"

Tuco looked behind him down the stairs, and he heard loud fighting and gunfire coming from the basement still. He grabbed Vasquez by the shoulder tightly and his boyfriend glanced back at him, and they both nodded before walking up in front of the boss.

"We shouldn't have given up our weapons," Reno Grande started.

"We never should have came to this fucking country, but it's too late for that now," Lopez countered to his boss in Spanish. "Expansion was a bad move with Army of Death on the loose."

"I want him dead," Reno snarled. "I want his men, dead. I'm putting a fifty million dollar bounty out on him as soon as we get out of here."

Another fifty million on top of what everyone else is already offering, Lopez thought to himself but did not say to his boss who was already too excitable as it was with the insides of his nose covered in white.

In the white van out in the alley, Access leaned out of the passenger seat and looked behind the van for a second. "Keep watching it," he warned, as Xia and Sogdo were not attacking anyone else yet. He turned back to Shang and leaned into his seat while typing away on his laptop. "Get ready to drive away fast when Alpha's all out of there."

"Still in drive," Shang replied. "Foot's just on the brake-"

"There!"

"Take this!"

Xia and Sogdo darted to the sides of the alley and easily dodged Tuco's ranged spikes that looked like normal green balls as they were shot but exploded out with a dozen sharp protrusions as they reached where the enemies had just been. Sogdo, who chose his name based on the Korean word for 'Speed,' ran right up the wall on the right and then jumped off and did a flip up in the air as Tuco and Vasquez both looked up towards him. He aimed the gun in his hand down as he was lifting over Vasquez's head, and he aimed carefully before pulling the trigger of the silenced pistol.

Blood splashed out the left side of Vasquez's left arm, the bullet just grazing him through his muscular bicep. The muscular man ground his teeth in anger and then started running for the spot where the Army of Death member was going to land, moving in a serpentine pattern to avoid other shots. As he darted to the left at one point though, his head spun to that side and his eyes opened wide at the short Chinese woman who darted towards him in a burst of speed before slamming her right arm forward. Her stature was not very intimidating, and her body did not look to pack much of a punch, but Shang was only ten meters away from her so her punch dented into the side of the muscular Hispanic man and then threw him eight feet away down the alley.

"We're heading up with the prisoners."

"No time to question here, Death's knocked them all out and we'll figure it out later."

"Just took care of the Mule's bodyguard, have the Mule surrendered on the steps where Maelstrom tackled him."

"Nice work-"

Bang! Bang bang bang bang!

Access ducked down as a clank rang out through the van behind him, a bullet hitting the inside of the vehicle that's doors were still open. He rose a hand over his head and his laptop fell from his thighs and on the floor in front of his legs. "What the Hell?!"

Shang pulled back towards the door on his side too, but his heart lurched and he felt a strange sensation in his head that had him getting woozy all of a sudden. Access pulled back into the space between the front seats first, looking back behind the van where the gunshots went off. He looked back there and his heart fell, though his eyes still darted around fast as he tried making sense of what just happened. Enrique Lopez, Reno's top lieutenant. Where did he- Access' eyes shifted to the unconscious man just behind Lopez, the first man who was out there arguing about the lobsters with Xia and Sogdo. The man had flashed the gun on his waistband during that argument, the gun that Lopez had seen while standing just on the inside of the doorway and watching the other two fight the Army of Death members.

Lopez glared into the van and Access' eyes opened wide at that look. Tuco stood up from where he was sitting on his ass, and Vasquez grabbed at his left arm but called out in Spanish to the door of the building, "Sir! We've got to run!"

Access started to move out of his seat, Shang was finally moving into the aisle, and then Access froze as Lopez pointed the pistol still in his hand down at a woman moving a few feet away from him. He aimed the pistol at her head as she crawled on the floor, Bang. Her head slammed into the floor harder and she stopped moving.

Access could not see her well out the back of the van with the floor blocking his vision. His teeth ground and he started reaching for his gun, about to get out of his seat to run back there and stop the Farolio Cartel from escaping after what they just did.

Ba-dum

The van shook. The entire van trembled, and Access felt chills down his spine. Lopez started backing up, and he turned to his boss who bent down and picked up a silenced pistol off the floor. "Let's go boss. We need to-"

"Holy FUCK!" Access pulled as close back to the passenger side door as he could.

"What's happening up there?!"

"Access!"

"RAAAAA!"

Access ducked down and a swinging arm tore through the top of his seat and the windshield of the van that just started rolling forward down the alley. Shang charged straight out of his seat and his bulking body rippling at every muscle and tearing through his clothes broke through the seats and walls around him. "Shang's going wild! Xia just got executed in front of him and-"

"Oh no."

"Fuck it's both of them."

"What are you talking about?" Maelstrom asked, spinning to Grabble in confusion.

Death dropped Kabo and sprinted up behind the two on the stairs as fast as he could. Grabble ran up with him with the others all running up as well towards the back door, but Grabble spoke while he ran, "It's the same thing that happened when Shang died in the Dragon's Den. Xia went wild, Twin Power suddenly switching up from needing to be close to each other to just a fucking berserker rage thing. Death needed to knock her out, but since Shang's already been brought back now, Death won't work on him!"

Oh fuck he's right. Death spun his head and looked back behind him, his dark aura gone now and his Caucasian mask still on. "Seraphim! Get behind him and knock him out before he hurts anyone in his rage! I'll distract in front. Everyone else, go get the prisoners! Beta Team don't let Reno Grande get away!"

"Roger that," Gentle sat up on the roof of the tallest building in the area where he was keeping a close eye on the front of the building that only three people had run out from so far including the man working the door. He had not broken his position for any of them, and he was still awaiting any order to stop from being so bored on what was turning out to be an interesting night. "Now let's see," Gentle said, standing on the ledge of the building and watching a crew run out an alley and down the main street, before cutting down another alley. "They are heading to the east, keep my dot in your visors and move below." Gentle elasticized the floor below him and bounced up high in the air, rising over an alleyway with three villains in it and glancing down at them to see them slow for a second and start discussing something.

"The van's fucked, it's going to draw too much attention," Access said while now in the driver's seat of said van. He had to hop over and slam on the brakes before the busted up van he was in rolled out onto a street that still had a few pedestrians on it, despite the nearby gunshots.

"Heroes on their way to you," Raylei announced as well, while Death and Seraphim were trying to deal with Shang together. They were struggling to keep him in the alley and not chasing after the sicarios, the three who remained at least since Lopez was in two halves splatted against walls on either side of the alley. Raylei called to them and to the others throughout the city, "I'm making the call." She cut off her comms from everyone else, and she called the police to let them know there was a shootout going on in a certain basement. The heroes would swarm into the casino's basement and find many unconscious people, several with warrants out for their arrests who were not part of the group that Death had his comrades dragging out of there.

Raylei was in the middle of her call when she saw a blinking on the computer on her right, and text appeared translated into English in a display of a different call the police were currently having on another line. Raylei snapped two of her blocky fingers with a hand she lifted quick while still speaking to the police herself, and La Brava glanced back her way before looking forward and at the windshield of The Cloak where the transcript of the call was being roughly translated.

Michael uncrossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at what he was reading on the screen. "How do they know already?" Michael muttered.

"Heroes heading to your locations," La Brava warned. "They know the Army of Death is in the city. That's who they're after, not the villains-"

"…there are three men, they look to be from South America. Please hurry, they have guns and they have been shooting into the crowds. There are men chasing them," Raylei changed up what she was saying a bit, and she watched a few seconds later as the transcript of the other call started changing up a bit, as the heroes became more focused on targets other than their comrades.

"It looks like the cartel have more than just their casino group in the city," Gentle began from the roof of another building closer to a more main road of Sueguon almost out of the slums. "Two vehicles have just driven up, and Reno Grande's crew have climbed inside. They are heading north on U-41 in the direction of Xili Bridge. On my mark, prepare for capture." Gentle pointed a hand behind him and turned the air Elastic. Alright. Judge this perfectly, he added another Gently Rebound on top of the first one, to give it a little extra oomph.

"Get Xia and Sogdo in the van, I'll revive them on the way to the secondary escape vehicles."

"How's Shang?"

"He's hurting bad, but he should be fine when Xia comes back. When she woke up and he was fine, she was back to her normal self." Seraphim lifted up one of Shang's muscular arms and started dragging the unconscious man stuck in his own mind towards the van that Access reversed back right up to the backdoor of the building. The doors of the van had somehow stayed on, only swinging around as the van had rolled one way, and because they were already pushed out to the sides Shang did not have to tear them off when he barreled out of the vehicle before.

"Don't feel bad about that Lopez, Death," Access said as he saw Death looking back towards the corpse in the alley. Zach turned away from the man ripped in half and towards Access who had a low frown on his face under the white hat of his delivery uniform. "Shot Xia in the head like it was easy when she was crawling away. Like he had done it a hundred times before."

"His confirmed kills alone were forty-two. If that helps-" Raylei was adding that on herself.

"Everyone focus," Death said, while stepping over to Grabble to take one of the prisoners from him since Grabble was carrying a bit much in an attempt to get all the prisoners they dropped on the steps out in one try. Zach turned back on Nightmare form for a second and he put his hand on the Mule who was still in Grabble's arms and let out a yelp of panic before passing out. Death touched Grabble but did nothing to him, just as it had done nothing to Shang who Zach had punched and kicked while surrounded in a black aura only to have to dodge away from his bulked up and naked comrade (since Shang had ripped straight through all his clothes). Zach turned off his aura and then took the Mule and dragged him to the van he tossed the man inside, unceremoniously right on top of Kabo and Umbagu's bodies. He got tossed his black glove from Access he slid on quickly before hopping into the back with his comrades and beaten enemies.

"I want Reno Grande alive. His sicarios too," Zach ordered over the comms. "If Tuco and Vasquez actually care for each other, could be an easy way to get the three of them to turn on each other. We barely know jack about the cartel right now, which is why we haven't headed to the Americas for a while. The whole world needs to know we're coming…"

"And mark," Gentle said, while flipping over in the air past the front of two black SUVs when no other vehicles were currently around them. "Rebound Wall!" Gentle announced, and the first of the two vehicles slammed into a giant translucent barrier from Gentle all the way to the street below that it spread across the whole width of. The SUV bounced back and slammed into the one behind it, the back riding up on the hood and on top of the cabin of the vehicle.

The man in all black flipping in the air took in a deep breath, then he dropped down out of the air and bounced off his feet a few feet up before coming back down and just bouncing on the soles of his feet for a moment. He stood in front of his Rebound Wall and stared through a purple visor into the windshields of the cars sitting nearly on top of each other now. Windows rolled down or were smashed through if they were already cracked, and guns pointed out and ahead at the man whose feet were still bouncing a bit as he was having trouble slowing to a stop. "I wouldn't," Gentle warned, though he was smiling in his helmet as he did.

Bang bang bang bang-

Gunshots rang out and bullets slammed into the man ahead of them who got thrown back by the force of the blows since his feet did not have any friction on the ground. "Elasti-Armor," Gentle said, while his back pressed into the huge translucent wall behind him, and while all the bullets that slammed into his front went flying back into the black vans ahead of him. "Hold on a second," Gentle added after hearing a voice in his helmet. "When I say, center the removal directly below me." Gentle bounced off his wall to the floor and then pressed the soles of his feet down hard while his whole body was still surrounded in his Elasticity. He bounced up in the air into a front flip, and he came down on top of the cabin of the first SUV which the doors opened up on.

"He's above us!"

"Disparale!"

"Shoot him!"

Tuco Garcia had gotten out of his vehicle and ran to the side to aim up at the man in a purple cloak and black uniform who he recognized well. Lopez is down, the Mule's missing, we're so fucked- Tuco was aiming up at the man, when his eyes darted down and he started stumbling backwards. Tuco was the only one far enough away from the vehicles that he was able to jump back and make it away from the square that opened up in the road. Cars had stopped back behind him, but the citizens in those vehicles had gotten out and turned to run away as the gunfight and Quirk battle went on ahead of them. Sirens were getting closer and flashing lights filled the corners of Tuco's vision, but his eyes were aimed straight down at the road in front of him that had just disappeared in a giant square shape.

Missappear dropped back down from the ceiling of the sewer. She darted away as a pair of large vehicles started dropping down along with a couple of men who had been standing close around them. The young woman with the Quirk, Matter Displacement, sprinted down the sewer to get as far as she could from there as possible for at least a minute or two. Above the surface, Gentle slammed Tuco into the hole then turned his head to the right and said, "Paveway. Have you arrived-"

"I'm sprinting! Almost- almost- you see me?!"

"Hurry it up."

Paveway pressed his heels down harder and sprinted down the road in his black uniform. A couple of passerby's looked at him and dropped their jaws, then they turned their heads and watched as he ran in the direction of where they had heard the gunshots going off. The light-skinned man sprinted towards Gentle who had just put up his own Elastic barrier on the floor below the street level to temporarily stop anyone from getting back out. Paveway pressed his feet down hard as he got near the edge of the hole, and his feet morphed into the ground and turned black the same as the pavement. The surface of the street in front of his feet started to ripple, then it started to extend back out and a floor of pavement spread out across the square opening.

All the while, the lights were getting closer and the sirens louder. Gentle looked over his shoulder and towards Xili bridge where he could hear multiple police cars on. He heard La Brava yell into his ear to get out of there, and Raylei added that there were several heroes approaching as well. Paveway pushed faster and then finished filling the entire hole, and Gentle swung an arm behind him and bounced himself at Paveway without hesitation. He slammed into Paveway and swung an arm below them that he pressed both feet down into in an instant, and he rocketed the two of them up into the sky. Both of them flew up into the night sky of Sueguon, and they looked down as they reached the top of their arc.

Paveway was nervous and had a terrified look on his face there for a moment, but he grinned and then started laughing nervously as he watched the cop cars rolling up on their old position from multiple sides. They pulled out of alleys and down the road from either side, and the cops and arriving heroes looked around in utter confusion as they were on an empty road in the exact location where they knew there was supposed to be a gunfight going on between villains and the Army of Death.

Below the thick road, in the pitch black sewer under Sueguon, a cluster of villains stepped backwards or pulled back in their seats in the vehicles that had fallen in through the floor. They pulled back because in that darkness, despite having night vision helmets on already, one of the two Army of Death members down there turned on a light. Missappear had run back to avoid the fight, but she was peaking out around a corner at a bend in the sewers. She was up to her shins in sewage, but she ignored it completely while looking around towards the hulking figure in the darkness who she could see in her green-tinted vision, but to the villains was only red.

"Blade of Judgement."

I didn't know he could change the wavelengths, messing with the color of his Light particles. Missappear gulped as the dark red blade that extended out of Exodus' curled right fist started to lift up. The red tint covered the huge dark figure's body, in a sewer that smelled like shit and was damp and horrifying to the villains trapped in it. The ones already out of their vehicles turned and started running. They had no idea if the monster in front of them was the only one down there, but they knew they needed to get away from the scary figure who did not even have a face they could look at as that red light just illuminated a black helmet.

"None shall escape Death." Exodus shot forward through the sewer, and screams filled the tunnel that just were not loud enough to be heard over the sirens and shouting above.

"Cops have no idea where we went," Paveway called out.

"They look absolutely befuddled," Gentle agreed in a smug tone.

"I will have the cartel incapacitated shortly. Shall I bring them all, Death?"

"Reno Grande, Tuco, and Vasquez should be enough. We'll let the heroes know after we're gone where we left the rest with their vehicles," Gentle replied to the man below the ground who was a part of his Beta Team. He had a more pertinent question for Death and felt he had the response ready for Exodus already that Death might say. "How is your escape going? I only see a couple of heroes back at our previous location. I do hope none are coming for you."

"I don't know if they are. We definitely drew a lot of attention over to this garage. Mark, where are you?" Death asked while his comrades were unloading the shot-up and broken van to get their unconscious comrades, and knocked-out villains into other prepared vehicles.

"Things were not going well, so I headed to the docks where the small villain group we were going to send a tip on is located," Mark stood in the shadows of one dock behind a shipping container. He lifted his arms while continuing to speak, "Raylei, call in the location now. The heroes will have just cause to go straight in as well, as the villains will all be out in the open around their base." Mark rose the tides on either side of the dock and flooded the building, making rough waves outside with his Liquid Control and focusing to make it intense enough that the villains may think the flooding was a result of rough conditions outside and not an actual attack.

"I'll help out with that," Maelstrom started. She was getting into the passenger seat of the truck Grabble was climbing in the driver's side of, but she hesitated to close the door.

"No," Mark countered. "You start a storm in the opposite direction where you're heading for extraction. Don't make it too rough for Delta Team, I'm heading to the rendezvous point as well. Everyone let's begin extraction."

"Exodus, Missappear, bring the prisoners out through the backup pot-hole on South Lee Street," Zach ordered while getting into the driver's seat of a different vehicle that Kabo had been loaded in the back of. Darling got into his passenger's side, and Access, Jughead, and Seraphim climbed into the back to guard the prisoners. Xia, Shang, and Sogdo were all unconscious in the other vehicle, and Grabble's pulled out in front of Zach's before he pulled out too. "We're heading that way from here," Zach continued, turning to follow after Grabble who already knew why Zach was saying this. "Too much hero presence in the original sewer extraction site. Make your way to the backup quickly, we can't stop for long even in vehicles disguised like this. They might try checking us if they declare a Code Blue in the city."

"All the fighting's practically over, you really think they'd-"

"Not 'practically,'" Exodus corrected. "We are on our way. It will not be a minute."

Always so fast, Zach nodded in a satisfied way as he was a bit worried for a second that they were coming up too fast. This was Exodus after all though, and he reminded himself not to worry and kept a calm look on his face instead. He lifted his eyes up like Darling to his left towards the sky and the dark clouds they saw swirling around in it. "Slowly Maelstrom," Death warned. "Don't want it seeming unnatural. They might actually call a Code like that."

"Sorry, Commander," Maelstrom apologized quickly.

Zach took a deep breath and he leaned back in his seat. This went well. Really well- Not in my head. "Slow Grabble, like you're having car troubles."

Zach waited until they had finished their extractions to fully relax. All of Beta Team getting into the two land vehicles, and Delta Team heading to the rendezvous to pick them all up, they were finally at a part of the mission where it now felt impossible for things to screw up. "Maelstrom," Zach said, as they pulled onto a highway away from the city and to a secluded area where they would be getting picked up in the emerging storm. "Good work on your first combat mission." She's mainly helping keeping us hidden on The Cloak, and being used for distractions and other important strategic jobs. I want everyone ready to fight though, and training can only do so much. Everyone needs tactical experience, and Maelstrom's a cute girl, worked well with a mission like this with low risk. There turned out to be a few complications, more targets than I expected, but no one died… for keeps.

"Access, glad at least someone from Charlie is still awake to hear me, but you let them get past the back door." Access's bottom lip dropped and he gawked across the back of the vehicle at Jughead who smirked at him for a second only to gain a more serious look like Seraphim had on Access's left side. Access got a more serious look himself too as Death continued, "I made you team leader, but half your team died. They're alive now so don't let it get to you too much, but you know what it's like to die." Seraphim and Jughead lightened their intense looks a bit as Access lowered his gaze to the floor, his fists clenching at his sides in the back of Death's truck as this was told to everyone listening to them.

"But I'm glad you made it. I couldn't have brought you back," Death said the last part softly, then he turned on his blinker and pulled off onto an exit off the highway. "Other than that, everyone did great. Raylei, keep track of the situation back there and see that all the villains we left behind are getting caught."

"Understood."

"And also, Seraphim," Death said. The woman with long purple hair in the back of his truck who was currently tying that hair up in a ponytail turned her head to look up front. She wondered what Death had to say to her, then she just froze as he said, "That was awesome. You made that opportunity, and you took down Kabo in like… it was quick. And efficient. Really, really, just great work back there. It's because of you all of us are making it back tonight."

Access shook his head around and lifted it with a smile that he gave Seraphim who looked shocked as she stared towards the front of the truck. Jughead was surprised Access was bouncing back fast, but he looked across the unconscious villains sliding around on the floor between them and nodded in agreement at the woman sitting across from him. Missappear smiled to her side at Seraphim who looked around at all the others smiling at her in congratulatory ways and also grateful ones as they all believed what Death just said. Seraphim looked back towards the front of the truck and just replied though, "It was a team effort."

Zach shook his head while still smiling and looking through the windshield that had the windshield wipers on full speed. He noticed Darling frowning towards the side of his head like she was upset he had not said anything specific to her, and he covered up the ear that his micro-earpiece was in. "I'd say you looked too jealous of Seraphim," Zach began. "But you knew you were going to, and you played that part well. If you were actually playing a part," Zach added, giving Darling a small grin out the corner of his mouth that she smiled brightly back at the sight of.

Zach lifted his left hand while saying that to her, and he dug his fingers under his chin as he realized something. "Finally," he muttered, while slowing the truck and dragging his mask up at the same time. The road was straight so he did not have to worry for a moment, but Darling still reached over and helped steady the wheel as Zach pulled the itchy mask off of his face. "Ugh, I know I needed the mask, but still," Zach tossed the mask behind him and shook his head around, letting his longer black hair wave about above his head and curl up behind and to the sides of it.

"How did you enjoy playing the part of Underlord?" Gentle questioned from the vehicle ahead of Zach's that was also slowing to a stop near a clearing off the side of an already smaller road off the highway. "Am I right in saying that you fit into the part just fine?"

"He was a natural." Seraphim stated.

"Passed off as a villain like it was nothing." Grabble added.

"I believed it." Maelstrom said next to the smirking man with Pincers over his head.

"Hey," Zach said in a deadpan voice, getting a bead of sweat on the side of his face at how quickly his team responded there.

Jughead was just laughing at the others' responses, and Access leaned back in his seat and tried to focus on how he could have helped his team more but was finding it difficult with the conversation going on. The truck slowed to a stop though, and Access looked back in front of him at the ten prisoners they had captured in total. "We've got some new passengers for The Cloak. Raylei, got the brig ready?"

"They aren't staying for long, right?"

"Normally we'd just do the interrogation on location, but in a city that big we kind of need to get away fast. We'll drop them all off with heroes where they're wanted soon enough."

"…" Zach frowned and looked at his hands on the steering wheel as he came to a stop.

"Delta Team coming in hot."

"No mention on any radios about our disappearance yet. They're looking around the city for you, even considering making perimeters back on the highway to stop us from getting away."

"Is Mark back?"

"Yeah, I'm on the other truck."

"Didn't even see you come in. Thought you were behind us or something."

"Is Epsilon Team ready?" Death asked, cutting off all the other conversations going on.

La Brava looked surprised and she tapped a button on the console in front of her while spinning her chair back fully to face it. "Y-Yeah. They're just waiting on-"

"Send them out. I'll meet them there." Death climbed out of his truck, a flat lip and a serious look on his face. "Tell them to bring my costume. I'll get it on when I arrive. Gentle, Mark, finish up and get The Cloak heading to Frunoco for the next main mission."

"What happened to going back to The Cloak first?"

"This will be quicker, I'm not tired," Death surrounded in Nightmare form while his troops were gathering around him outside of their parked vehicles. Rain fell fast and hard around them, and helicopters were moving through that rain towards the parked trucks. Death lifted his arms at his sides, and out of his back emerged large black wings that spread out to his sides ten feet in either direction. The wind from the helicopters pushed some Death off of his wings and into the floor, but his added appendages steadied while his body's flaring aura tightened up a lot to his body.

"Wait, Death," Zach turned his head a bit and watched as a girl ran up to his side. "Let me come too. I'm not tired either." Darling looked up into his red eyes, "Please. I know it's a small one but-"

"Alright," Zach replied. "Here," he motioned his arm in front of him, and Darling smiled wide before running right up in front and then pressing her back into his chest. Dark aura wrapped from Zach's body around the sides of Darling's, and around a lot more and almost all of her as he curled his arms in at her sides and pulled the shorter girl into a hug. Then he stepped forward and he flapped his wings down, and Death shot up into the sky above his army watching from the ground.

"Tell Faye to bring my uniform too!" Darling called out.

"Yeah yeah," La Brava replied in some annoyance. "Good luck you two. Don't wear yourselves out."

"See you Death!"

"Good luck!"

Zach's red eyes narrowed and he flapped his black wings again to shoot himself higher into the air. Maelstrom's storm makes it harder. I haven't practiced much in bad weather, I didn't realize it would have any effect on Death. Well, whatever. It's fine. I'm a bit tired from earlier, but I didn't use too much. I should be fine for a quick flight. Worst happens, I have to tell Epsilon to swing by and pick me up. Well actually, worst thing that happens is all the heroes show up right now and get all the others right after I left… But Gentle, Mark, and Exodus all back there. Seraphim too and… and all of them. They'll be fine. Even in these missions that go great though, sometimes we lose people. Never let a mission go without being there. Never slow down. I can't be everywhere at once…

But I can try to be.

---

"…Approaching fast."

"Don't bug out, that's him," Rebel announced. The pilot of a helicopter hovering just above the ocean's surface nodded his head and relaxed in his seat a bit. Yusef had a headset over the top of his head with the padding around the ears to drown out the rest of the noise around him other than the comms lines, though the sound of the copter's whirring blades still hummed in the background.

Rebel leaned back in his chair across the world from Yusef's helicopter and he put his hands behind his head. The chubby dark-skinned man had gotten fatter in recent months, and he lifted up a paper bag with some burgers in it that Rampart had just went out and got for him. He lifted a burger and watched a screen in front of him that had a satellite image of a certain area over the ocean where the Army of Death helicopter was hovering. In only a few months, Rebel shook his head and watched as a dark silhouette with wide black wings shot over the surface of the ocean. He's getting so much stronger. Not just his Quirk either.

"Radar's pinging," Cherasaw started behind Rebel who glanced back his way. Rampart had gone over to a cot on the side of the room and passed out soon after bringing back the food for their team at the end of his shift. It was only the two of them working right now, and Rebel looked at the screen directly in front of Cherasaw on his back right. "They're going to miss this one too."

"Nah," Rebel said, spinning back to his screen and leaning forward. "Death you've got a couple minutes max. The sub's already heading back, won't get another shot at it for a few hours at least."

Death flew into the open side of a helicopter and the other four in the back of it moved away from him and the darkness surrounding him. Zach's Nightmare form faded and the four in front of him as well as Yusef in the front looked back to see him lowering his arms, and Darling stepping away from the front of his body. She was smiling and had pink cheeks, and she was wearing a tight red dress that accentuated her curves. Death wore a red suit jacket over a button down and they both looked way too fancy compared to the four soldiers in all black armor with helmets on their heads.

"How'd Korea go?" Dead Silence asked the man in front of him who just landed in the helicopter and started taking his jacket off right away.

"Your uniforms," a woman on Zach and Darling's right said, lifting up a seat cushion and pulling out the costumes for their comrades who they were told were coming before they even left The Cloak. They had not been waiting there for long, but The Cloak had been closer to their next mission's location than the previous one's that Death had to fly from. "Do you need a break-"

"He's fine Faye," Darling said, grabbing her uniform and giving the older woman a skeptical look. "He's not even tired."

Definitely not true. Used a lot to get all the way here, though I'm managing to waste less Death the more I can keep it from covering my entire body. And as long as each flap of my wings I keep strands of Death or even wisps from coming off my wings, I don't get weaker on the way. "Korea went perfectly. Let's keep up the momentum." Death slid out of his white button down, ignoring how the helmets of everyone on the helicopter shifted a bit towards him or a different direction but still in an angle that they could all be staring at him, which he knew they were. Even in an army of soldiers, a lot of them having scars, I really keep getting fucked up. Zach reached to his pants and started sliding them down, a trick he had picked up long ago in the locker room of U.A. to get everyone to stop staring at his scars. He barely even cared about that though, the main reason he just dropped his pants so fast being that he could hear Rebel telling him how much time they had in his ear.

"These things are getting annoying," Darling mentioned, looking to Death as she slid out of her own dress. Zach looked up then pulled his head away fast and his eyes darted around, but everyone else in the helicopter had already turned from the girl who just got almost naked except for her underwear. She had reached up to her ear when she said it though, and Zach nodded in agreement even though he only kept her in the corner of his vision now. "Back to normal comms, that we can control ourselves," she added, muttering the last part in annoyance because Rebel's voice suddenly got louder in his ear as he asked why she was taking the tiny earpiece out.

Zach had a very tight pair of black underwear on from halfway up his thighs to his waist, and he slid the tight but thick black pants of his uniform up over them. Then he grabbed his costume's shirt and brought that down over him, quickly attaching his belt on his waist and knife straps over his shoulders. He looked towards the swords still sitting under the popped-up seat cushion, then he glanced out the side of the helicopter. Less water resistance without them. "Two minutes. Everyone ready?"

"Yes sir," the four who were already in the back of the helicopter said. They had been told to be ready as soon as Death arrived, and they all already had on the black flippers on their feet that Death and Darling were putting on now.

"Faye, do it. Yusef, take the helicopter a safe distance away and wait for us to resurface before coming back."

Faye stepped to her right and Slipspace nodded back at her friend. Faye reached up and pressed her hand on the side of Slipspace's neck, then she tapped her on the shoulder and pushed for the side of the helicopter. Slipspace dove out of the helicopter, then Dead Silence jumped out behind her, and Replay after him. Death stood up and stepped to the side of the helicopter, took a deep breath, then Faye pressed her hand on his neck. Zach could feel his neck morphing, as Faye used her Quirk, Amphibious, to give him a set of gills. They felt so strange as it was the first time he had her use her power on him, but Zach took in another deep breath and just felt a bit strange as he was still able to use his lungs despite what else he knew he could do now.

Zach dove off the side of the helicopter and put his hands together in front of his head. He dove into the water with little splash and swam down towards his other comrades. Water filled his helmet, and panic set in for a second as his mind told him not to open his mouth and breathe. He ignored that thought though, and he breathed in, and he kept swimming down without choking on the salty water around him. A smile crossed over Zach's face as he breathed underwater. He looked around through the visor of his helmet that started glowing light and illuminating the water in front of him that was getting darker the farther down he went.

"This is crazy," Dead Silence said after stopping near Slipspace and looking back up.

"I know, but stay whelmed," Zach replied.

"Whelmed?" Replay asked. English was her third language, and she thought she was good at it but was suddenly unsure about that.

"Not overwhelmed," Zach answered. "Stay calm I mean. The sub's thirty seconds away. We need to get lower down, everyone swim faster. Darling, Faye, hurry it up."

The others just below Zach turned back down and started swimming as their leader had not slowed and just kept swimming past them. They stopped focusing on how crazy it was that they had gills and were swimming around quicker like fish, instead focusing on the fact that they were nearly a hundred meters beneath the ocean and not yet deep enough that they would reach the submarine in time. "Darling, hold onto me," Faye said as she swam up next to the brown-haired girl farthest back in the group.

"Alright," Darling replied, deciding not to argue after Death just told them to speed up. She figured Faye had a reason for saying it, but she did not expect the woman to suddenly kick her legs so hard and fast that they shot deeper and deeper and caught up to Replay in a few seconds.

"Everyone start swimming the same direction it's going, stay above it and then drop down as it's going past. Dead Silence, time it perfectly. Slipspace, even more important. Don't fuck up people."

Death slowed a bit as he gave his orders. Faye stopped moving as fast with Darling and let Replay catch up. They saw lights behind them pointed forward, and they all stayed higher up and instead of swimming down they all started moving the opposite direction as the lights were coming from. "Cut our lights," Death ordered, and Rebel turned off all their helmet lights so the group could barely see a few feet around each other. The surface above was still visible though, and they became clearer to each other as the lights from the submarine behind them illuminated the darker area of the ocean.

Inside a submarine deep below the surface of the ocean, at the edge of the Yellow Sea where the underwater elevation got deeper and darker, a couple of men sat on the sides of a table in the middle of the sub. The submarine was large enough that there was space on the sides of the center hallway for gathering places other than the sleeping quarters, and this room just outside of the kitchen had a couple of villains sitting in it bored since there was not much to do until they arrived at their base.

The man in a pair of horn-rimmed glasses on one side of the table grinned as he looked at his cards, and he put some down in front of his comrade who frowned deeply at the sight of them. "Bullshit. You're fucking cheating. No one gets five aces-"

"You're an idiot Gregor," a woman walking to the left of the table said, shaking her head at her skeptical comrade who looked at her angrily as she said that.

"Really! He has to be cheating to get that again!"

"I'm just lucky," Tykar countered with a smirk.

Irene shook her head, wondering how the big man behind her was stupid enough that this was actually something Tykar could possibly convince him was not cheating. She kept walking, straight down the center corridor in the direction of the bow of the submarine. She was only ten feet away from the men behind her, when five figures slipped through the wall of the submarine and onto the other half of the wide room that two men were in playing cards.

The men turned their heads with their eyes bulging huge at the sight of the dark wet figures who just emerged next to them. There was a sixth figure in the group, however their body was stuck literally inside of a dividing wall between this room and the room behind them farther towards the stern. "What the fuck?!" Gregor yelled in panic and anger as he got to his feet, sweat covering his face while his arms moved to his waist to try and grab his sidearm.

Tykar's head snapped to the right and he yelled, "The Army of Death is- IRENE!" He screamed it towards the woman, but she was just walking away towards the bow with a small smile.

Irene shook her head, and her smile lifted into more of a smirk. Wonder what Gregor'll do to him if he hears he really has been cheated all this time. Tykar deserves it- She turned her head sideways, and her eyes bulged and her jaw dropped. Irene stared behind her in utter shock as she watched Tykar get slammed silently into the ground and knocked out by a dark figure with knives all around his body. Gregor was already slumped over the table, his gun discarded on the floor to the side.

Irene opened her mouth and screamed, but Dead Silence had spotted her first and expanded Mute's range in her direction. All of his comrades could hear her shout too, and they all spun towards the woman who backpedaled a step before turning and starting to sprint for the front of the ship. Dead Silence lifted up his grappling gun and fired it down the central corridor of the sub, wrapping it around her right leg and tripping her up. She spun after hitting down on her front, lifting both arms and popping all the tips of her fingers off to reveal the insides of them were hollow.

"Don't!" Zach yelled towards the woman, then he dove to the side as her fingers flashed anyway. The others in the Army of Death dove out of the way, and they spun backwards as the cluster shot she fired from her hands slammed into metal walls and pipes. Slipspace pulled Replay back on top of her, and they were both panting as the younger woman who had gotten stuck in the wall would have been hit in the face had she still been in that wall a second later.

"Shit," Dead Silence said, as the bullets fired all slammed into metal walls and pipes outside of his Mute's range.

"What was that?"

"Hey! Who just took a fucking shot?! You want to get us all killed down here?!"

It didn't puncture the hull, but stealth is out the window. "To the front as fast as possible," Zach said, and then he shot out around the corner and sped down towards the woman who had lowered her hands for a second only to lift them again in panic and try firing while yelling for help. Zach slammed his right foot into the woman's right hand, knocking it into her left and then stomping down on both of her wrists while kicking his other leg forward and up under her raising chin. He snapped her head back and the back of it into the floor, then he sprinted straight past her and into the next hallway down through a narrow doorway where he saw a man leaning around to see what the commotion was about.

His screams stayed quiet too, though the people in the command of the sub did turn around as they heard yells come from much farther back in the submarine. The captain of the submarine standing in the middle of the command at the bow looked behind him to the other standing member of the crew up there. "Go figure out what they're yelling about-" his jaw dropped and the man with a scar over his right eye and muscles sticking out of the ripped sleeve of his stolen sailor's uniform dropped his jaw at what he saw behind his comrade and farther back in the sub. "Oh my G- call the base!"

"We're still-"

"NOW!"

"Delay that order!"

The four men sitting in chairs around the command room looked over their shoulders at the sound of that dark scratchy voice. And then all four of them with widening eyes slumped in or fell out of their seats as darkness surrounded them like it had the co-captain. Death stepped towards the captain who backed up with a terrified look on his face for a second, only to grin and lean forward instead. "Death, you came for me? I'm so honored-"

Death's right hand rose up and his aura vanished as he drew a knife from his right shoulder strap. He reached his knife forward and pressed the blade into the neck of the man in front of him who froze with his mouth open. A blinking red light appeared on a computer panel on Zach's right, and a voice came out of it, "Hello? Why'd you call us?"

Shit.

"Our radars show you're still more than a mile out. Captain Philgers? Who hailed us?"

"Answer that you just wanted to check in that you will be arriving shortly," Zach said, leaning closely to the man in front of him whose eyes were huge as Death ordered him to do that. "Or I will slit your throat."

Zach grabbed him with his left hand and shoved to man to the side of the sub with the red light on it. Darling ran up behind him, and Dead Silence was just behind her with a frown on his face under his helmet. This isn't going great. We knew it would be chaotic when we got inside, but Replay getting stuck in the wall, Faye getting hit back there. It's not- oh shit.

"Death's onboard!" The hesitating captain who had just nodded at Death before pressing a button next to the red light shouted. Zach pulled back from the captain with his eyes wide in his helmet. The man looked over his shoulder and continued pressing the button while yelling, "He plans on sneaking onto the base using our sub. Prepare for him!"

"Holy shit," Darling whispered.

"Everyone get up here now," Death said in his helmet in a dark tone. "Right now."

"Ha, hahaha, hahaha!" The captain started laughing at the man in front of him as he turned to face him. "What now, Death?" He asked, smirking in a taunting way at the dark figures before him. "The second this sub docks, they'll have an ambush ready for-"

"Thanks for the notice, Captain," a shrill voice started over the radio that made the captain grin. Then everyone in the bow of the sub looked to the front computer that had a radar on it, where a blinking white light started heading directly towards the front of their undersea vehicle. "You're loyalty is appreciated."

"They fired a torpedo," Dead Silence muttered, something everyone except for Philgers was already half-expecting. He spun his head and yelled, "Slipspace hurry it up!"

"Wh-What?!" Captain Philgers spun back to the panel behind him and started yelling at his comrades. "Wait! We're still all on-"

"You are the man who helped kill Death," the shrill voice started over him. "You will be remembered. Well, by us at least. Everyone else will know it was me. HA!"

"You fucking bitch!"

Zach threw a knife past the captain and into the equipment that sparked and dimmed as the strong knife pierced through the machinery. The captain turned, and he looked in panic at Death who glared straight back at him, then turned to the right. "Quickly, give them gills."

"Commander-" Faye started.

"Now!"

"Slipspace!"

"It's coming!"

"Ten seconds!"

"We're so fucked!"

"Everyone together!"

"REPLAY!"

"There's no time!"

"NOW!"

"WAIT!"

Eleven people slipped out of a submarine, and five of them dragged five others away from the sub that kept moving behind them. Philgers freaked out as water surrounded him and rushed into his nose and mouth, then he spun around in confusion as he was able to breathe, then he crossed his arms in front of his body and let out an underwater scream as the submarine was hit by a torpedo and erupted in a massive explosion. The flames went out quickly, the exploding sub cracking and water filling it up, and the broken submarine started sinking down to the bottom of the ocean in pieces.

"Fuck," Slipspace whispered. She lifted a hand up to her helmet and grabbed the front just outside of her helmet, "Fuck fuck fuck. She was, so close. I should have-"

"I told you to go," Death said, looking to his side at Slipspace who lowered her hand and turned to him with so much frustration in her eyes.

"That went terribly," Dead Silence muttered, an angry look spread over his face as he watched the sub sinking in front of him. He watched it lower down, and he turned up the brightness of his helmet's visor that was pushing light out into the dark ocean below him.

"Replay was…" Faye whispered, looking around as she realized what had happened. It all moved so quickly, and she was still giving the last of the unconscious crew at the front of the sub gills. She looked back down and her heart dropped as she imagined her friend she had just been talking to in the helicopter before Death arrived.

"You," Zach growled. He swam to Captain Philgers who looked back at him with his eyes huge and terror spread across his face. Zach swam straight up to him, then he snarled, "Your gills won't last forever, and the surface is far above us. I just saved your life." Zach reached out his right hand and wrapped it around the man's neck, choking him deep below the surface. He yanked the man's head into his visor and snarled in a lower voice, "Take the others we gave gills, and get to the surface with them. If you try swimming to safety, I won't be able to find you on the surface when I'm done here, and you'll drown for sure long before you reach the shore. It'll be a terrible death."

Death released Philgers' neck, then he looked back towards the others behind him who had let go of the men they dragged away from the ship. "They think they just killed Death. I'm sure they're all celebrating despite how many of their comrades they just massacred." Death turned the direction of the undersea villain base they had planned on infiltrating a different way.

Philgers stared at Death's back with his eyes huge, then he lifted his gaze up to the surface, then back to the man in front of him who was just letting him go like that. His fists clenched at his sides, then he ground his teeth as any thought of helping his former comrades at their base wiped from his mind. "Thanks," Philgers muttered, swimming past Death and towards the others in his unconscious crew.

Death turned and glared at Philgers in annoyance for saying that. It's your fucking fault for not being more of a coward. Bastard. Death looked down and he said in a low voice, "We'll head for the base in a couple minutes once the celebration's started full blast. First," Death started swimming down, and his comrades looked towards him with their eyes wide and then started swimming down after him too. "Let's see if we can find Replay's body down there. It was her first life, and I'm guessing her body's intact enough to revive."

"And once we get her," Darling said in a low voice.

"Let's go crush those team-killing fucktards," Faye snarled, grabbing at her left arm as she swam down but speaking through the pain of the shot that had gone straight through her bicep before.

"We can keep a stealth infiltration for this one," Dead Silence added. "Move room by room. Take them all down before they even know what's happening. Better than in a narrow sub."

"And more space so no one gets stuck in the wall," Slipspace said softly.

"We fucked up," Death said. "But we still have the opportunity to make this a perfect mission. Nobody else die, got it?"

"Understood, Commander." Darling said it fast, and then the other three said the same things almost in unison after her.

"Good," Zach said, and he swam towards the slanted bottom of the ocean where the pressure down on him was much heavier than before. He moved towards the wreckage of the sub and narrowed his eyes as he got ready to search the ghost ship for his comrade's body. My plan was flawed. My intimidation wasn't thought out enough, wasn't thorough enough. Philgers looked like a cold mother-fucker, but he grabbed his comrades before swimming up. Maybe he didn't deserve to die. He didn't. He warned his comrades knowing I might slit his throat. Honor among thieves, is something I need to destroy. Get them all to know they can't trust each other. Especially not when faced with Death. If I tell them every time that they were snitched on though, they'll get too afraid to snitch to me knowing that other villains will find out it was them. Find the middle ground… If they're captured by heroes, no one will suspect they snitched. So if they snitch and we turn them over to heroes who are willing to take all the credit… no one will ever know it was them. Just let them know how I found them, not who it was who made it possible. Make them all more inclined to snitch, more than they already are.

Fucking cowards, the whole lot of them. They're giving me too much information that the Army of Death can't separate to go after. I won't allow it. I need to move faster. Get from here straight back to The Cloak. I need to fly faster, and work faster, but not so fast that I skimp on threatening prisoners so they aren't too afraid of me. Always diligent. Using everything. Thinking constantly. Moving at all times. Never stopping. Never taking a break. Never sacrificing my comrades' lives. Always winning. Every time, I need to win. The Symbol of Fear cannot be defeated by anyone. Death, can't be stopped.

---

"Selkie and the Aquadogs just showed up at the Hydrale underwater base," Raylei said over towards Death who was standing behind another computer station in The Cloak's command center.

Selkie huh? It's not too far from Japan, but… I should check, if Froppy's there too. Don't ask about it though. I'll just look myself.

"Surprised you guys managed not to flood the whole station after that sub incident," Mark said on Zach's left down the same station he was sitting at. Mark had a news program up on his screen and he leaned back while listening through a headset over the top of his head through his short brown hair.

Raylei continued talking about what she was hearing on the underwater base they had passed on an anonymous tip about after finishing their mission there. As she talked though, La Brava walked around her station and up behind Mark between him and Zach. She leaned in and looked at the screen Mark was staring at, and the younger woman with short pink pigtails hummed in confusion after trying to read the titles on the bottom of the screen for a few seconds. "What're they saying?" She asked, turning to Mark who glanced her direction for a second before turning back to the screen.

La Brava recognized the symbol in Korean for 'Death' since Sogdo had the same symbol on the back of his uniform. The program Mark was watching was in Korean, and Mark said as he continued to watch it, "They're blaming us for the villain death in the city, talking about how the heroes caught a bunch of villains late last night, our brutality, you know, stuff like that."

La Brava got an annoyed look on her face as Enrique Lopez's mugshot popped up on half the screen while the Korean news hosts kept talking on the other side of the screen. "Of course they're putting it on us. They always-"

"La Brava," Zach started, turning towards the short woman whose head was only about as high as his despite him sitting down. The annoyed woman turned his way, and Zach said, "Actually, it is kind of our fault this time." A few others in the room looked over towards Death who was leaning back in his chair and continued in a low voice, "Yeah, we get blamed for a lot of stuff that's not our fault, but this isn't one of those."

"Xia got killed right in front of Shang," La Brava muttered. "And it's not his fault that Twin Power's got that-"

"That wouldn't be an excuse for a hero anyway," Zach countered right back. "But it is for me, and Shang's not in trouble for it," he added as he turned back to his own computer he was doing research on. He checked the same calls that Raylei hacked and read the transcripts of to figure out who was taking the underwater base he had just taken over with his team only a couple hours earlier. No Froppy. She's still with Ryukyu, but I know she worked with Selkie earlier so…

"How are they doing by the way?" Zach asked, clicking off the conversation he was reading and going into another file on the computer.

"The twins are both still out," Mark replied, then he pulled his hands off his keyboard and turned his chair to face Zach. He's trying to take on way too much. But micromanaging stuff in here after going nonstop for the last twelve hours. He needs a break. "We can handle things until we reach our next destination," Mark started, and Zach looked away from the world map in front of him to face one of his first comrades. Zach had just been staring at the different red dots scattered around the map, over a dozen of them with one glowing and the symbol for The Cloak pointed in its direction moving across West Asia.

"Get some rest, Death," Mark continued, giving Zach a small smile and a reassuring nod to tell him he had things there handled.

Zach frowned and glanced back at the map, then over towards the front windshields and into the open sky ahead of them. Darling already went to get some. I told her I'd get some soon too when I told her to go. If I head to that dot in Kazakhstan though, I could catch back up to The Cloak before they reach the North African Immortals. I can fly now. Full flight, opens up all the options. I can be anywhere, and everywhere, and I can be at every mission the Army of Death takes on as well as all the smaller ones, and save all the heroes as they die. Sleep, means I'm missing out on… Zach lifted up his left hand and rubbed his forehead, closing his eyes and then pushing his hand down over them.

"You're right," he muttered as he dragged his left hand down his face. Don't make decisions like these after twenty hours of straight consciousness. Plan out all my next moves when I'm fresh after some rest. We're seven hours out, so I'll just go for four hours and we can plan out the next one for- Zach had just stood up from his station, when the intercom of the command center turned on.

There were speakers in every room and panels for people to speak into if they needed anything, so it could be anyone in the ship asking for something from anyone else on an open channel. "Death," the voice started though, and Zach stopped getting ready to go get rest, becoming alert immediately. "Kabo is awake," the voice sounded nervous and Zach recognized it as Maelstrom's. That made him frown more knowing it was her as he started out of the command room and down for the lowest deck.

Maelstrom watched Seraphim take him out like it was nothing. I wish it was anyone else. Someone who had not seen how intimidating and powerful Kabo could be already I'd expect that tone from. Maelstrom isn't too experienced though, so maybe that's it.

Zach went down an elevator to the deepest deck on The Cloak. He could feel the ship moving a bit more down here, and he stepped out of the elevator into a wide room before the two hallways that went straight down the middle of The Cloak from his side near the bow all the way back to the stern below the ramp on the hangar above. The hallways were full of cells made with super-powerful steel bars, electric locks, and the prisoners inside them had on handcuffs that glowed blue too. There were cameras in every cell, and the majority of the ones on The Cloak were empty which Zach could see from the wall of screens on his left as he entered the wide room at the start of the brig.

He looked down the hallway on the port side where he saw a few soldiers in all black with their helmets on standing around. He reached to his belt and lifted up the helmet clipped there, putting it on and then heading down the hall past a half dozen empty cells before he finally reached people. Three Hispanic men pulled back far in their cells after moving close to the bars to yell at whoever was going past them. The intercoms in the ship above could not be heard down there as well, unless it was specified for it and the call before had been targeted only at the command center. None of them had known who was coming, but they all shut themselves up and pulled back in the cells as they saw the dark figure walking by in his full black uniform, knives and swords strapped around his body and a dark helmet over his head.

"Muerte," Vasquez whispered, and he imagined tapping his bruised forehead, chest, then either shoulder to make a cross as he fell to his knees with his hands bound behind his back. Tuco stayed silent while backing into the far wall from the bars. Reno Grande opened his mouth to call out, but Death walked by and out of sight while he was hesitating.

Then Zach walked by a cell with a couple of African men in it, only one of whom was awake as he was the one Death had not knocked-out back in Korea. The man yelled out at him angrily, not that Zach understood what he was saying. He just walked by and then past the cell that had a couple of Kabo's men in it, all of them unconscious too.

Death walked past Maelstrom who was out of view of the bars two more cells down from the other ones that had prisoners in them. She looked at him nervously through her visor as he walked by, then she followed behind him and back towards the other two still standing in front of the bars. Sagitus turned towards Death first, while Jackhammer kept staring forward because he was frozen as Kabo stared straight into his eyes. He finally was able to breathe and pull backwards as Kabo turned though, straight towards Death who stopped and looked through his visor right back at him.

"You're finally awake," Death said, his voice its normal tone as he spoke through his helmet without modulating his voice at all. He spoke in the same voice he used when he was Underlord, though a darker and lower tone than before. "Kabo."

"You have just made, a fatal mistake," Kabo stood directly in front of Death, and he took a step forward so he was closer to the bars. He stared between the metal bars and at the shorter man in all black who did not flinch as he got closer to him. Kabo's arms were behind his back with his hands cuffed together at his waist, and the man standing there had a completely calm look on his face despite the anger in his eyes as he looked into Death's visor. Zach felt like he was looking the man in his eyes, and Kabo continued while keeping that eye contact he could not possibly have, "Death, I underestimated you. But taking me, is a mistake you will not live to regret. You should have killed me in Korea."

"Maybe, but then I wouldn't learn about the League of Shadows," Zach replied. "I want you to tell me all about it. I know you have connections to-"

"I do not have connections," Kabo's head bowed a bit and his eyes darkened as he continued to stare straight at Death from only a few feet away. "I am the League of Shadows."

Maelstrom pursed her lips and stayed silent. Jackhammer tried calming his breathing, despite Kabo's expression that made it look like the villain thought he was looking at a bunch of corpses. Sagitus stayed still on all four legs, but all four were trying hard to pull back. "So, you're a Shadow Boss?" Zach questioned.

Kabo glared at him and the right corner of his lips lifted up the smallest amount. "You don't know anything. You don't realize how big we are, how much power we truly hold. If you did you would never have done something so idiotic. I may not be a Shadow Boss myself, but what you have done will bring the wrath of the entire League. My brother will kill every last one of you." His eyes shifted slowly around at the other three before stopping back on Death. "Then he will kill your families, once he takes off all of your helmets. And he will kill them all too. Then he will kill any person who ever associated with you. Your ideal will die, as it becomes known what happens to those who join 'Death.' No one cared about you when you were just a nuisance, a thorn in our side. Now though, you will have the full attention of the League of Shadows. Taking me is the last mistake you will ever make."

"Ha!" Zach let out the laugh and then shut his mouth quickly like it came out involuntarily, though he had laughed intentionally and tauntingly at his enemy. He was also laughing like that to reassure his scared troops around him who he could feel fear radiating off of despite not being able to see their faces in their helmets. Zach laughed and grinned in through the bars at Kabo who lowered the corner of his mouth so it was flat again. "I thought you were actually hardcore and might keep your mouth shut," Zach said it in a taunting way that was also laced with malice and a threatening undertone as he eased his own head towards the bars. "But it's when someone stares Death in the face that they show who they really are."

Death pulled back after saying that in a hiss at Kabo from only a few feet away. He glared at the man on the other side of the bars who had shut up now. He was silent, and Zach said in a dark voice, "Your men misjudge you. Everyone does, as I can see you are clearly a talker." Kabo kept his mouth shut and just kept glaring darkly through the bars at the leader of the Army of Death on the other side. "It's too late to pretend now," Zach said while looking back into Kabo's eyes again, this time the one in control which his three soldiers around him all looking in noticed and felt shocked and awed by. They quickly reminded themselves who it was they were following, something they occasionally forgot when he would walk around The Cloak without his helmet on, training with them, eating in the same room as them, fighting by their sides and most often ahead of them on the front lines against the strongest enemies.

"I know that you will crack now, so time to talk. Tell me everything," Zach said it flat out, and he crossed his arms while looking at Kabo expectantly for him to start speaking.

Kabo stayed silent, and he just stood there in the middle of the cell without saying a word and with a stoic look on his face. "Alright, bring him up to the hangar," Zach said, and he turned without another word and started away back down the hall. His men turned and looked at him in confusion, and Kabo shifted his eyes a bit too with a hesitant look on his face at how quickly Death just seemingly gave up there. Why to the hangar? Kabo, and all three of Zach's soldiers thought.

Ten minutes later, Zach stood in the hangar talking to Mark in the center of the room far near the stern of the ship. "And everything's secured?" Zach asked, then he turned his head while Mark responded and watched as a couple of men were walking through the hangar bringing Kabo towards him. Zach nodded at Mark, then to the men who threw Kabo forward and down at Zach's feet. "Go up to the second level and grab the railings," Zach ordered the two in front of him who nodded fast and then ran off to the right side of the room.

"What are you doing?" Kabo growled, lifting his head and glaring in a way that Zach thought could cause weaker men to piss themselves. I am not weaker than him though. But he doesn't believe that yet. He thinks he's too high above me to ever be afraid of what I threaten him with. Zach reached down and he grabbed Kabo and then started dragging him towards the back of the ship which Kabo looked at in an even more hesitant way. He stared at the huge steel doors with the crack in the middle of them, and he snarled with his thick accent, "You think I am afraid of you? I am-"

"Open the doors," Zach called out.

Kabo stopped short and started panting, Clank. The doors started opening, and Zach pressed his feet down hard but still had to force himself back for a few seconds before the ship re-pressurized and the pull stopped yanking on him so hard towards the doors. Kabo spun his head back and forth and saw all the vehicles around him were strapped down to the floor and blocked up with barricades to keep the wheels from rolling. On the sides of the room there were dozens of soldiers in all black standing still and just staring towards him too. Kabo looked back forward and watched as the bottom half of the door lowered down as a long metal ramp. "You wouldn't," Kabo said, turning his head and glaring at Death with a disbelieving smirk on his face. Death started dragging him for the ramp and Kabo snapped, "I'm not afraid of this!"

Zach yanked Kabo up to his feet and then lifted his right hand that he had not been dragging the man with. "This is a microphone," Zach said as he pinned it into Kabo's shirt right up near his collar. Kabo looked down with his eyes huge and he yelled at Death again only to freeze as Death yanked his head forward right up in front of his dark visor. Kabo spit on Death's visor. A glob of spit just slammed into the front of Zach's mask, and the villain who spat stood there panting after doing it while the man holding him did not move an inch. Then, in a calm voice, Death said, "Let me know if you change your mind."

Death turned and walked down the ramp towards the huge opening in the back of the Cloak. Kabo pulled back against him, but Zach yanked him forward and the taller man opened his eyes huge as he stumbled, and then he opened his mouth and yelled, "Wait!" Zach reached the bottom of the ramp, tugged his arm forward, and threw Kabo out of The Cloak. "Wai- FU-" Kabo's voice cut off in Zach's helmet for a moment, then he just heard panting in it instead as he stood there near the bottom of the ramp, a strong wind pushing into him but nothing he could not handle. He still took a few steps back to get away from the ledge at least.

"Holy shit," Michael whispered, a bead of sweat rolling down his face. The ship was still moving forward, so after Death tossed their prisoner out the back they were able to watch him drop for a couple of seconds before he got too far down that he was out of sight. "How far up are we?" He wondered to his side at Mark who was still just shaking his head with his jaw half-dropped in his helmet in disbelief that Zach actually did that.

"Forty thousand feet," Mark replied. "So he'll be falling for a few minutes at least," he added, shaking his head again in amazement. How does he come up with stuff like this just on the spot?

Death lifted his right arm and wiped his sleeve across his visor to get Kabo's spit off. It smeared it a bit and he frowned, and he wiped some more before turning towards some comrades who were heading over. A man with a purple cloak waving around fast behind him stepped onto the ramp before the others, and he steadied himself before moving down the gradual slant a bit towards Death. "We need to get magnets in our boots," Gentle said, as he stepped down close to Zach who took a few steps back so the others did not have to go as far down.

Zach could see behind him and to the vehicles that were all still shaking around despite being strapped down more than they usually were just sitting in the hangar. He knew they could not use straps themselves, but he turned back to Gentle and wondered, "How would that work?" Gentle looked at him in semi-confusion, then he furrowed his brow as Zach continued in an even more confused voice, "How do magnets even work? Can they be turned off?"

"Well, I would assume," Gentle replied, though now that he was thinking about it he was not as sure. "I have seen movies with magnetic boots before that could be turned on… but we should get our R&D team on it anyhow."

Zach and Gentle lifted their heads and watched a woman in a black uniform fly over their heads using her large fiery wings. She had to flap them hard in front of her to stop herself and land on Death's other side as Gentle. "Should I start after him?" Iblis asked her leader who glanced back at the open back door like he had almost forgotten that he just threw a man out of their airship.

"I don't want Kabo thinking we'll catch him before he starts talking," Zach began. "So we need to wait until he's shouting about it to even-" Zach cut himself off as a voice shouting in his head changed its tone a bit. "Go now," Zach said, and Iblis's eyes shot open wide but she nodded and then sprinted down the ramp and dove out.

Iblis was the fastest flier in all of the Army of Death, as she could control the size of her wings that she had been using since she was a kid. The South African girl with coal black skin made her wings larger and larger, flapping them above her and rocketing herself out of the sky like a missile. She shot herself backwards too, knowing they had moved a distance in the past minute and their prisoner was pretty far behind them. Iblis flew really far down, then her eyes widened as she noticed they were above a mountain range, and she flapped even harder with a somewhat nervous look on her face.

Iblis shot towards Kabo who she finally saw after only dropping below the very last cloud layer. He was screaming in absolute terror and for someone to save him, and Iblis wondered why she found the man so intimidating a couple of minutes ago. She swooped out of the sky as the man plummeting to his death was watching his life flash in front of his eyes dozens of times. Iblis caught the villain who gasped the same moment the woman grunted at his weight jolting in her arms. She made a swoop as she caught him so it would not be so hard, but she still grit her teeth as it took a lot of strength to start flying back up in the very same swoop she caught him in. Her massive flaming wings snapped down on either side while Kabo lifted his head in shock that he was actually saved when he was screaming for it.

The muscular man who got caught looked back down out of the sky towards some snowy mountains down below, though they looked mainly icy to him right now. He snapped his head back up though in fury, an enraged look on his face yet fear and panic in his voice as he yelled, "Just drop me!" His voice nearly cracked, and it was not from screaming his lungs off a minute ago as he was faced with near certain death. He finally got a moment to think about it and decided he wouldn't talk despite all the promises he had just made while falling.

Iblis glanced down, then she heard her leader's voice in her ears, "Loosen your grip."

Iblis' hands loosened on Kabo's arms, and the man's face covered in sheer terror. His hands were still bound behind him so he just hurt himself when he tried reaching up in that moment to grab Iblis by the wrists so he wouldn't fall. A look of pure frustration covered his expression now and his face scrunched up. His eyebrows narrowed and then curved, and his eyes shook as he yelled, "Do it! Do it fast! Already!"

"If you are to fall," Iblis began, her voice feminine but deep and ominous. "It is going to be back from the start. So you can enjoy another full trip down."

Death smiled back at the top of the ramp of The Cloak. It was a nice threatening move saying that, and he was glad he did not have to be the only one acting super evil and threatening all the time. As much as he already hated everything about Kabo, from what they knew about him as a villain, about his organization, the fact that he was aligned with the League of Shadows, and now that he was a coward… Zach hated that he just threw the man out of a plane. His fists had actually clenched painfully at his sides while he was trying to distract himself with the conversation about magnetic boots he had with Gentle, but he told himself to calm down for when Kabo returned in front of him.

Iblis returned to The Cloak longer than it took her to go down and catch Kabo. She landed on the ramp and tossed Kabo up in front of Death's feet. The man started to slide a bit, and he curled his body up and tried pushing himself farther into the ship so he did not get sucked back out. He was panting and he shook on his legs that he never thought would feel solid ground again. As he looked, curled up on his knees and shoulders with his butt up in the air, he was one of the least threatening people the Army of Death had ever seen. The crime lord who always exuded so much power, was reduced to this embarrassing form that he was trying to yell at himself was not befitting of someone of his status.

"Just kill me," Kabo growled, lifting his head and glaring in the most hateful way imaginable straight into Death's visor.

Death stepped down the ramp a step and then leaned down in front of Kabo. He reached out and grabbed Kabo, yanking him to his feet and then stepping down the ramp another step. "Fine," Zach replied, which made Kabo look at his helmet in dread from right next to him. "I'll toss you out again," Zach continued, but he turned and looked at Kabo as he stopped on the ramp only halfway to the edge. "But you'll just crack again when you've almost dropped, and I'll send someone to get you, and you'll have to go through it again, and again, and again, as you regain your sense of duty and loyalty, only to lose it after falling twenty thousand feet or so." Kabo pulled his face back, scrunching it up so hard with his lips twisting apart and a look of despair and hatred and terror spreading across it. "But," Zach continued in a darker tone, and he started dragging Kabo on shaky legs farther down the ramp even as the man tried pulling back, his face turning only to fear now. "You promised to tell me everything last time, so now I won't believe that you're actually going to talk."

Kabo's eyes opened huge in shock, and then he let out a scream as Death threw him forward. He was not yet at the edge, so he threw Kabo and the man on shaky legs fell onto the floor and rolled once, tried to stop himself on the edge and grab on, then he rolled out of the ship and let out an even more horrified scream as he started another plummet towards his death. He screamed from the very start this time instead of having a lot of time to think about it before the realization hit him and he had started pleading to Death.

This time as Zach tossed Kabo out of the ship though, a lot of the soldiers around the sides of the room started looking around at each other hesitantly. Michael did not smirk this time after staring down in shock, as he did not doubt Death was going to throw him out this second time. Hearing those screams come from Kabo gave him no enjoyment, but he just stood there with his arms crossed and did not move like Mark while some others around them did start murmuring against what was happening.

"Death," Skater started. He had come over before after Zach first tossed Kabo out, but this time he could not keep his mouth shut. As much as he trusted the man who had brought him back to life before, he needed to say something. "This is, it's inhumane."

"This is the last time," Zach replied back. "I was lying about the over and over again," he explained to his comrades who were all staring at him halfway down the ramp. "Kabo's already screaming to bring him back up, but we won't do anything. Soon he'll actually start yelling the things I want to ask him anyway, screaming valuable information. Some might be lies at first, so I'm not sending anyone out to get him until the last second."

"I hurt my arms a bit, swooping him out of the air," Iblis started to her leader, warning him that she might not be able to do it again.

"Gentle," Zach said. Gentle started down the ramp, and Zach glanced next to him and opened his mouth, then he closed it and just nodded at the man who jogged down the ramp and then leapt out of The Cloak. Zach had things he wanted to tell Gentle, but Gentle had gotten annoyed at him over micromanaging him recently, so Zach just trusted his comrade he sent out for Kabo not to let the man die and not to mess up how much they had broken his will already.

Gentle bounced himself out of the air by making Gently Rebounds across the sky. He bounced himself even faster than Iblis despite not actually being able to fly. He bounced himself down through the freezing sky and towards Kabo who he spotted before the man was even as far down as he was last time when Iblis caught him. The surface below was much lower this time than the last time they tossed him out, so the drop was going to be longer anyway. As Kabo saw Gentle approaching him, he stopped screaming secrets for a second and opened his mouth to yell at the man to get away. He froze though with his mouth open like that, and he stopped to shout instead, "Bring me back up! Do it! I'll tell you whatever-"

Gentle looked straight at Kabo's shirt and the microphone attached to it. Then he lifted his helmet to look at Kabo's face while falling next to him. He called out to the man yelling at him to catch him already, "I am just being sent to collect the expensive microphone from the liar's corpse." Then Gentle bounced himself much faster out of the air than Kabo was dropping, and the man screamed after him at the top of his lungs.

"I'M NOT! EVERYTHING WAS- Alright! ALRIGHT! I'll tell you EVERYTHING! The truth is…"

Gentle smirked as he bounced down towards the surface. He listened as Kabo screamed that he was not a liar, until the man above saw the ground approaching fast and roared how he would talk. Then he actually started shouting all the 'everything' he promised to tell, all the information that he hoped they would believe, that they could back up, that they would know was the truth somehow and change their minds to save him from his imminent death.

Everyone on The Cloak smirked at what Kabo started shouting. Then the smirks lowered down. They lowered not because he was lying, but the opposite. They got dark looks on their faces at all the things Kabo started screaming at them, things that had everyone getting super intense and causing every one of them to feel a huge pressure on their shoulders. They all felt that pressure and found themselves unable to smirk or even say a word, as they believed it when Kabo yelled what he knew about everything, everyone, and everywhere.

---

BRrrroooOOOO BRrrroooOOOO ERR ERR ERR ERR "Villains spotted to the north of Mundogomo. Militia report to the north side of town until Dreamscape and Pointer arrive from Tunko." BRrrroooOOOO BRrrroooOOOO "All citizens stay indoors. Clear the streets for emergency personnel. This is an emergency broadcast for Mundogomo. Lockdown is still out of commission, militia report to Mayor Humdi and Chief Kandoko outside the tailor's on the north side…"

"Come on," an eleven year old girl ran down an alley in northern Mundogomo, dragging a boy behind her by his right arm. The small town in Frunoco had streets of packed-down sand, the buildings around them were made of adobe and clay, and only a few in the whole town were made of stone or steel. The desert town in one of the poorest countries in Africa was on high alert, with sirens blaring out of the emergency broadcast system the national government had set up around the country, the only measure the government had taken so far to help the people this far out from any highly populated city.

The town was left mostly on its own against whatever villains acted this far out in the desert, so the mayor of the town who was elected on the policies now enacted, had established a militia. He created it among the men of the town with a few exceptions of women who ignored the original mandate and trained their Quirks anyway to be able to help at times like this. A small girl running down an alley dragged her even shorter friend despite him being eleven too. The boy pulling back on his arm weakly could not resist T'kala who ran them right up to the edge of the alley, and then sprinted into the sandy road out of it to cross the street to the line of buildings farthest on the north side of the town.

Om'bambu looked to his right and his eyes opened wide as he saw a few militia men running towards the tailor's shop in the opposite direction as them. He sped up himself with a nervous look on his face that paled a bit from its dark complexion when he thought about his dad catching them there. Om'bambu Humdi was the son of the mayor and he could not imagine what would happen if he got caught right now. Dad might have to come deal with me, and everyone will be left alone, and the town will get overrun! And I'll get in trouble! "T'kala come on," he pulled back harder for the first time as they ran into another alley where there was a ladder up against a wall ahead on their right that she was dragging him to. "We shouldn't be here."

"Stop being such a baby. My mom's been teaching me how to use Sandbody. If the villains break through the front lines, it's up to us!" T'kala turned away and let go of her friend's arm, running to the ladder on her own and climbing up it fast with an excited smile on her face. "Besides, I want to see these villains before Dreamscape and Pointer show up and take them down!"

"Stop being so loud," Om'bambu hissed up towards his friend who he ran beneath. He did not want to be there, but he was not leaving her to be here on her own and he started climbing up the ladder after her. The little boy halfway up the ladder felt a buzzing in his pocket and he reached down, holding on by one hand for a second to check his phone. He gulped at the message from his mother, then the boy dressed nicer than his friend above him glanced up as she popped over the top of the building. The Mayor's son pocketed his phone and kept climbing after T'kala, then he dropped down on the roof and crouched as he ran up to the north edge of the building.

Om'bambu dropped down next to T'kala who pulled out her own phone a much older version than her friend's. Hers was given to her from some distant place in a charity program where old phones sent given to poor countries by people who no longer needed them. She still thought it was great though, and she lifted it and opened the camera function to zoom in on the distant sand dunes where they saw sand rising up. "I still think this is a bad idea," Om'bambu whispered next to her.

T'kala ignored him and she zoomed in as far as her phone could, then she tssked and turned to her friend. "Let me use yours. It can see better!"

"Stop shouting," Om'bambu whispered harshly at her. Not that anyone's probably in this building. Everyone ran the other way, where we should be! Om'bambu pulled out his phone when he saw his best friend opening her mouth again, "Alright. Here."

T'kala grabbed it and smiled. The boy next to her always did whatever she asked as long as she pushed hard enough, and she snatched the phone and then pointed it to the north while opening the camera better than her own. As she aimed into the distance, she tapped the record button as she finally caught sight of the front of a vehicle racing across the sand. Her eyes widened a bit and she stared out there with her bottom lip lowering, a nervous expression replacing her excited one. She slid back on her knees a bit from the short wall on the north side of the building, and she lowered the phone a little while starting, "Maybe we-"

"What the…" Om'bambu leaned the other way as T'kala leaned back. She looked at him in surprise as he leaned forward towards the ledge, and then she looked back in confusion as he said, "They're not coming at us." The kids looked out into the distance and stared at the sand-colored vehicles driving across the desert. The jeeps and trucks were not heading south though towards Mundogomo, but instead to the west so they would just be passing by the town at a distance it looked like.

"Maybe the emergency broadcast," T'kala began quietly. "Was just so we would be ready in case they did turn and come for us?"

Om'bambu nodded his head slowly. "That, makes…"

The kids looked behind the convoy of vehicles speeding across the desert and dragging up sand behind them. They looked back farther to the east past a gap after the motorcycles speeding across the desert behind the bigger vehicles. They looked over a gap that made it seem to them like the group of villains was just so huge that it could not all stay together in one pack. The vehicles moving after it were black though, and the kids leaned over the edge of the building with their eyes huge as they finally recognized what it was they were looking at.

"Whoa."

"All forces, cut south but keep a wide berth of the town. Don't spook anyone, but make it so if the Immortals try to cut in we can intercept them before they reach."

"Commander, at least some of us should stay with-"

"Death!"

The motorcycle at the front of the eight black all-terrain humvees and jeeps sped forward with a cloud of sand picking up behind it. A single figure on the back of the motorcycle wore black armor that he was sweating inside despite it being the middle of the winter, as it was blazing hot out in the desert. Zach Sazaki twisted the throttle and then took in a deep breath as he looked ahead towards the convoy he was not gaining on fast. "Time to test it," he muttered under his breath, and his thumb moved to the side of the throttle he was twisting.

Zach pressed his thumb into the black button on the side of his handlebars, and he popped the front tire of his bike up at the same time while still speeding across the sand. The front wheel that lifted off the ground spun, the opposite direction as it normally spun. The wheel flipped horizontally and then stopped, and the center circle of the wheel inside the rubber glowed blue. The wheel was coming back down at the sand, but it bounced up before hitting the ground, and then the back wheel turned and pushed the bike off the ground too. Zach was wobbly on the hoverbike for a moment, then he stabilized and a grin covered his face for a second.

His grin flattened out and his eyes darkened through his visor out towards the villains' vehicles ahead of him. North African Immortals. As long as they stay off the radar, heroes in Frunoco don't bother with them. Almost all their operations are outside of the country, so they've been acting with impunity, until now. Zach pushed down on the front of his bike and twisted his throttle to full, no longer needing to worry about his motorcycle getting stuck in the sand or a bump in the ground dislodging him from his seat.

Most of the Army of Death's vehicles turned a bit to drive diagonally in front of the town to their south, as Death could be right and their enemies could try driving into the town to make it harder to fight them. They needed to avoid bringing any civilians into it too, so they could not argue that Death was just doing this to take on all the villains on his own. Still, two black humvees sped across the desert straight after Death instead of turning a bit which would make them lose speed and fall farther behind.

"He's too fast with that thing," La Brava snapped from the passenger seat.

"You may need to take the wheel," Gentle replied calmly from next to her. He had his foot to the floor on the accelerator but there was not much else he could do to catch up from inside the vehicle.

"Death, we need some of them to make it all the way back," Darling said from the backseat behind La Brava and Gentle. "We still don't know where the base they're running to is exactly."

"Or just don't knock out all of them," Mark mentioned from the other jeep still driving after Death's motorcycle. "I'd rather not have as many there during the siege."

"Whether Death takes them down here or later, the Immortals shall not escape us." Exodus sounded calm in Mark's passenger seat, and he just stared through the windshield up ahead over the sand towards their fearless leader.

Zach sped up more and more, until the motorcyclists ahead of him guarding the back of their convoy looked over their shoulders and finally decided it was time to stop just running. Ahead of Death's hoverbike were the two motorcycles in the back, then a few sand-colored jeeps, three pickup trucks, and a few more motorcycles farther up in the pack too. Everyone in the Immortals looked in their mirrors or over their shoulders in wide-eyed panic, as the speeding hovering motorcycle behind them covered in a dark veil. An aura of darkness surrounded the rider and the bike, pulling off of him and making it look like a flame that flared around and dragged off his body.

The militia gathered at different places around the northern edge of Mundogomo stepped back. They stared out towards the flaming black bike with their eyes huge, and two children on a roof on the northern edge of town too leaned backwards before pushing right back forwards with giant eyes. T'kala lifted her friend's phone and zoomed in as far as she could, and the phone focused right as the black hover-cycle got close enough that the two riders in front of it pulled out weapons and aimed back at it.

The motorcycle on Zach's front right had a man whose bike did not swerve as much as he activated Nightmare mode. That man pulled out a submachine gun and pointed behind him, firing off rapid-fire without really looking back too often as he focused on the desert ahead. Zach's red eyes darted back and forth in his dark visor, and then the completely black form lifted his right hand from his handlebars and rose it at his side. He pulled his motorcycle to the side as he saw a bullet actually coming close for once, then he swung his arm forward and a thick whip of darkness shot off of his hand and straight at the man on the motorcycle to his right.

The whip got thinner with the wind pushing against it and the distance Zach was throwing, but he wrapped the whip around his enemy like throwing a lasso, then he yanked as hard as he could to the left and tried throwing the man at his comrade. His whip broke apart midway through the yank, and Zach tssked as he did not toss the man close enough to get his comrade to freak out and swerve his motorcycle to the point of crashing. The other man did look right and fumble his weapon in his hand though as he saw his comrade hit the sand and bounce twice before rolling to a stop. It made him slow down a bit in fear of what would happen if Death knocked him off, and the villain shouted ahead to his comrades to slow down and help him fight.

None of the other vehicles stopped, and the man turned his motorcycle to the south instead to try and just drive off to Death's left. He doubted Death would change directions just for him, and he started speeding up again as turning made him come almost to a stop. Death was riding up behind him, and he twisted the throttle to race himself away. His eyes darted to his left at the convoy that was going to try and intercept him on his way into the town, but he knew that if he could just get inside he could- A shadow passed over the man's head, and he started turning with a look of horror spread on his face.

Zach was racing past behind him, when he punched his left arm out to the side with his hand opened up and a large black claw forming on it. His arm extended for a second off of his body, then it broke apart at the wrist, yet Zach's larger black claw kept expanding towards the enemy since Zach had condensed Death in that claw at first. The claw first expanded before the wisps pulled off of it when it got thin enough, but it was still thick enough together that when Zach closed his left hand into a fist back on his hoverbike, the Flying Death Claw closed in on the screaming villain who flipped over the front of his motorcycle and crashed into the sand.

Then Zach's hoverbike sped up move, and he raced towards the rest of the convoy that did not have its rear guards anymore. He grabbed the handlebars and pulled his ride to the right, then to the left, and he did not slow at all while dodging the gunshots and thin red beams of light firing back at him from the larger vehicles. Their convoy was starting to get more spread out as the men in the vehicles were telling their ride-mates and themselves that it was every man for themselves, as much as they were shouting at each other all to work together. They fired back towards Death but could not hit the speedy figure on the hoverbike who could see their shots coming before they even fired just from the angles of their guns aimed out the windows.

Zach's red eyes focused on the sides of the jeeps where a couple men leaned out and were looking back at him completely. Some in the pickup trucks were getting up and kneeling on one knee while steadying their weapons too. They're getting too organized, too accurate. Time to make them afraid. Take the risks. Zach whipped his grappling gun up in his right hand and aimed at the jeep farthest back on the right side, which was still a little ahead of the farthest one back more directly in front of him. Zach fired, and the jet-propelled metal hook with sharp edges shot from Zach's hoverbike all the way to that jeep's back left tire. The hook and wire were covered in a thin black veil, though that black veil faded and showed the wire taut and connecting Zach to the jeep that started swerving as one of its tires popped.

The jeep swerved to its left, into the path of the one driving forward in front of Zach and with two men leaning out of its sides. One of the men leaned back in as the other jeep was about to slam into its side, while the other got jolted and swung out of the side of the vehicle he dangled off the side by one arm for a second before losing his grip and falling off into the sand. Zach saw the man's arm bend the wrong way and the guy let out a bloodcurdling scream as a leg broke too, but he did not get caught up under the tires which Zach figured was one positive. As he sped past the man screaming on the ground too, he kicked his leg out just short of the guy but close enough that some strands of Death hit him and knocked him out cold.

Then Zach sped up more, towards the jeeps that were pressed together side to side and slowing down because of one's popped tires. The ones on the jeep on Zach's left pointed their guns at the one on the right and yelled at the others to turn, while at the same time men in another jeep and one of the pickup trucks started firing at Death more accurately than before. Zach swerved left, right, and he kept his grappling gun in hand the whole time. Bullets were flying at him too close, and Zach yanked up on his hover-cycle. He heard the clanks of the bullets into the bottom of his vehicle. Smoke came out, and at the same time his right arm jolted as he pulled back but the jeep up ahead kept moving. Zach's bike that had pulled up at the front suddenly did a nose-dive into the sand, throwing Death off of it and far forward much faster than he should have been thrown from the vehicle.

Zach retracted his grappling hook right as he was thrown, then he let go after speeding up for a second as he did not want to go crashing into the sand behind the back tire. He swung his arms behind him and pointed his body completely straight towards the top of the jeep slumped down to its back left, and a flare of aura shot out behind Zach making him look like a comet of darkness. He smashed into the back of the jeep and straight through the opening in the back of it so he was in the trunk. He reached up and grabbed the bars over his head, flipping himself up above and then pressing his feet down between his hands on the bars, crouching and then jumping off towards the other jeep that sped away from its comrades' a second ago.

The jeep Zach jumped on first swerved out and started slowing down as the driver was unconscious. The men in the second one aimed up and fired at the monster landing on top of them, then they yelled out in panic as other vehicles aimed towards them from their right and left and fired. The driver of the second jeep slammed on the brakes, and the pickup on their right unloaded into the motorcycles that had pulled back on the second jeep's left to fire at Death as he focused on their comrades. One of the motorcyclists was hit and thrown from his vehicle, the other swerved and then crashed, rolling in the sand and yelling out in more panic than anything. He scrambled up and tried getting back up on his bike, looking over his shoulder and seeing two black humvees racing towards him.

The man got back on his bike and started speeding after the others fast, aiming ahead and towards Death. His thought process was that if he was the one who killed Death, his comrades would have to slow down and get him for sure, or maybe they would just turn on the Army of Death knowing that they had beaten their leader. So he fired towards the jeep that Death leapt off of a second later, towards the pickup truck that he slammed his right fist down on the back of and popped the front tires up just as all the vehicles up ahead fired simultaneously where Death was landing.

Bullets riddled the bottom of the pickup truck, then it slammed back down and started skidding on the ground on all popped tires. Smoke and flames came out of the sides from the bottom, and Zach slammed his hands through the back window of the truck's cabin, grabbed the two men in the front seats, and he ripped them out of the truck and tossed them unceremoniously behind him. Their screams cut off while he tossed them in dark hands, at the same moment that the front of their pickup truck got shredded by machine gun fire. Death leapt up and over towards a jeep swerving back and forth on his left as the driver was slumped on his steering wheel with blood pouring out of his chest. Zach turned his head a bit and glared back towards a motorcyclist firing up towards him, then a fist of ice punched up and slammed into his body and knocked him off the top of the jeep.

The man on the motorcycle in the back sped up and fired up at Death, the guy in the passenger seat of the jeep who was one of only two left in the vehicle grabbed the wheel and tried to stabilize, and the other two pickups slowed down as they saw Death get hit like that. Another motorcycle kept speeding past the front of the trucks, the rider not looking back as his only goal was getting to safety as quickly as he could. The drivers of the pickups looked at each other through their windows and nodded though, and the men in the passenger seats climbed out to join the others on the pickups' beds to fire out from.

"Dropping Landmines," a man kneeling on the back of the sand-colored pickup on the left said, leaning out of the truck and popping small round devices out of his hands that burrowed into the sand as soon as they touched down.

"Solar Flare, everyone close your eyes, then fire when they're blind."

"Locked and loaded."

"Kill Death here, and he won't be able to attack the base!"

Zach snapped his arm up and fired another grappling hook towards the back left tire of the front right pickup this time. The villains about to attack him all stumbled around as the drivers saw Death's head snap their directions. The problem though, was that the driver of the pickup on the right swerved one way right as the back tire popped, and it popped on the side that made them swerve the same way. With the momentum they already had, the wheels on the left lifted up into the air and the whole truck leaned on its right side. The other one on its side sped up more to try and escape being crashed into, making one of the men on its side fall over the edge and the man leaning back dropping Landmines to slide out of the truck while he was in the middle of dropping another one.

BOOOM!

An explosion blew flames and sand and smoke around, and then a pickup truck hit down on its side and bounced up since it was still moving nearly a hundred miles per hour. The truck bounced on its side and started rolling sideways, throwing villains from it while others tried to hold on and not be tossed away like ragdolls. Two men were still holding onto the truck that the driver was getting thrown around the cabin of, when the truck hit down on its right side, and then two footprints slammed into the left side while the driver was near it so the man dropped his jaw in horror. Death smashed down on the side of the rolling truck, bending metal around his legs as he dented it down and slammed the truck harder into the floor while it was in mid-roll. The truck rolled straight through an explosion right before Death came flying through that explosion, slamming down on the side of it and then springing off as the truck continued to roll itself, using its momentum and his own jump to send him flying through the air in a leap all the way towards the final pickup.

A man aimed a rocket launcher up at him and fired, and Zach spun his body in midair, the RPG passing inches in front of his body while he was in mid-spin. Then he finished turning in a three-sixty and did a flip down towards the top of the truck, passing over it with an extra push of Death out behind him so that he could reach the front of the vehicle instead of the back where two men were trying to kill him. They spun instead and had to hold off so they wouldn't shoot the driver, not that it would matter in a second anyway. Death slammed down on the hood of the car and stopped the tires short as he pushed them down into the sand, flipping the rest of the vehicle over its front into a complete front flip that made it spin a full three-sixty degrees before going some more to still land upside-down on its own cabin.

Zach had to dive to the side at the start of the flipping to avoid behind hit by the truck. He rolled on the sand and shot up to his feet panting, his head snapped towards the west and a trail of rising sand he saw moving away from him. He started running, then he slowed down and stopped as he realized he was chasing after a motorcycle on foot. I could catch him. I could, I need to… Let him go. Zach lowered his arms down to his sides and took in a deep breath, calming himself down as much as he could. "Have a cloaked drone follow and don't let him see it. We're not losing him," Zach ordered, then he turned his head to look for the closest of his vehicles he could hop into. "Everyone regroup on me then we'll-"

"Holy shit, Death!"

"That was fucking epic!"

When Zach looked back, he was only searching for the vehicle closest to him. He had trouble seeing it though, as Gentle and Mark were both having a hard time getting to him across a desert covered in destroyed vehicles. There were flames and smoke rising from vehicle carcasses, and unconscious and moaning villains laid scattered across the sand. Zach stared at it all and he took another deep breath to try and steady his breathing, though he realized it was not from exhaustion at all that he was breathing that fast. The adrenaline rush he had felt was not going away very fast, and he was struggling to lower his heart rate. He turned his head back towards the west again. That's a good thing though. This isn't over. "Everyone focus," Zach said to his comrades while turning off Nightmare form to conserve some of his strength. He got his soldiers to stop talking for a second, and he said in a low and serious voice, "We're in mid-battle. Gather on me and we move for the Immortals' base. Mark, send an anonymous call to the heroes heading to Mundogomo where Death's leaving these villains. A chunk of their forces are cut off here now but we know there are going to be many times this number at their headquarters…"

---

"It's too heavily defended!"

"Darling, Exodus, Gentle, Mark, push up!" Death called out. He started rushing forward through the sandy desert that was devoid of all obstacles and buildings, but had more dunes in it than anywhere else they had been so far. There were so many dunes that they could not drive their vehicles much farther forward, and it was so difficult that rising over the tops of the dunes would give the enemies too good of targets on them. The enemy castle was over a mile away, but the Army of Death did not stop despite losing their use of vehicles.

"Gentle!" La Brava called out, running forward towards the man in a purple cloak about to sprint off after the other four. "Lover Mode," she reached out and grabbed him tightly by his sides. Sand popped up in little tufts near them and on the tops of sand dunes being shot at from afar. "Be careful," she said worriedly to the man whose body erupted in a pink aura thanks to her Quirk, Love.

"Of course, my dear," Gentle replied, while putting a hand on the side of her helmet like pressing it to her cheek. Then he turned and made the sand in front of him Elastic. He bounced himself high in the air, much higher than Darling just bounced using the springs she created in her knees and ankles. The two of them took straight down the middle, and Gentle bounced off the air and then made a barrier below Darling that he himself never used but made a quick hand signal to her that there would be one below her. Darling pressed her springs down on already Elastic air, and she rocketed herself so much higher up into the sky this time that it gave an unpredictability to anyone who was trying to shoot them and could not get a judge of the patterns.

Mark pulled the pin on a smoke grenade and threw it over the top of the dune he was crouched behind. Then he sprinted to the right side of the sand hill and over to another one that he kept running to the right of, while the villains on the castle ahead fired into his smoked dune and shredded the top of it apart with turrets and then a rocket launcher. The sand dune that exploded started swirling around and a sand tornado rose out of the ground and high into the sky which Mark looked back at with a bead of sweat on his face. Liquid Control in the desert, not really that useful.

"BBRAA~AAMMM~MM!" One of the loudest noises any of the five sprinting at the castle of sandstone had ever heard rocked them. They dove for cover and tried grabbing at their ears only they had helmets on so it was pretty difficult. "RRAAEE~EEMMM!" It sounded like some had a guitar plugged into a hundred amplifiers and then put megaphones in front of all those amps. The entire desert vibrated with the strum and all the sand shook on the surface from the noise that was making it impossible for any of the soldiers to hear each other's orders.

Death ground his teeth and then stood up behind his dune while raising his right hand up high over his head. La Brava had run back up to get on top of a humvee after Gentle had bounced off. She was grabbing at her ears too while grinding her teeth in pain, and though she was having a hard time focusing on different voices in her head over all the screams of her comrades, she spotted Death far ahead and raising a hand as a signal they all knew for times like this. Hand signals from now on. Time for some silence! La Brava reached up and held a button on the side of her helmet down for five seconds. A hum filled her helmet and the low buzz did not go away, filling her ears with a constant white noise that did not sound so loud but cancelled out all other noise at the same time it started working.

La Brava held up the same signal for everyone else to see, shouting it aloud too in case anyone could hear what they were doing. Over on other turrets behind La Brava's vehicle, Grabble and Michael both cut off their headsets and all sound instead of waiting for someone to stop that noise as they had been. It was clear the noise was not going to stop for a bit if they were making this decision, and no one was complaining about it anyway since all of them felt like their ears were bleeding. Grabble and Michael then grabbed their turrets again with both hands and aimed towards the castle of sandstone that had swirling sand towers on the corners of it that spiked at the top and kept a constant whirling funnel of thin sand above the building.

Their helicopters couldn't risk getting close with Sandstorm using his Quirk like that, and it had already destroyed some drones they sent in trying to get a better recon of the area and the enemy's base they knew had walls around the outside but did not know the layout of the inside yet. They did get some information from the villains Death defeated not long ago though who were not knocked out but who were very willing to talk when a bit of pressure was put on the appendages that broke as they fell out of their vehicles. They knew Sandstorm had the Quirk- Sandstorm, and their leader Tyreke had a Regeneration Quirk, hence the name Immortals. They knew some of the defensive capabilities and a couple of other Quirks, as well as a general feel of how many enemies they were up against. It was not as much information as they wanted, but they pushed on anyway.

La Brava fired towards a spinning sandy tower on the front right of the castle, and her turret fired a blast that exploded on impact with a line-drive straight from her turret to the impact point. Her feet left the seat for a second as she fired the weapon with such high recoil, then she gripped the sides of it harder and re-aimed the gauss turret somewhere else on the wall of the enemy's castle. The gauss cannon worked as a high-powered railgun, and it had a short recharge time before La Brava could fire it again at a different part of the castle's strong front walls. The dust cleared and her attack showed very little damage to the building. She tssked and aimed her turret elsewhere just firing near the front walls to blast up sand and obstruct views around where bullets were firing out from inside.

Michael vibrated as he pulled back on his turret and fired a constant stream of heavy caliber bullets towards the castle. He couldn't hear shit, but he still shouted at the top of his lungs while firing, "SUPPRESSING FIRE!"

A couple of jeeps parked behind the heavily armored humvees farthest up had soldiers all around them gathered up in teams waiting for more orders. The backs of the vehicles were opened, and the short-range fighters and all the medium-rangers too all started pulling out assault rifles and rocket launchers, most of which they had stolen themselves from the Immortals or from other villains they had attacked recently. The Army of Death had very few weapons like them in their arsenal, but not anymore. A dozen soldiers ran up to the humvees parked farthest up, then they popped out and fired pot shots towards the enemy castle that stopped firing as much towards their five tanks at the front as too much fire was hitting their castle.

The decreased density of fire caused Darling and Mark to rush out as they were the farthest ones back out of the five tanks rushing at the building first. Mark popped the caps on the jugs strapped to his back by forcing the water up through them, and he created five water shuriken in the air above him. He flung them towards open windows where he saw villains still poking guns out of despite all the condensed fire slamming into the castle. As his shuriken were about to hit however, a wall of sand blew past the front of the building, and then the entire desert shook and Mark could hear a blasting noise over the hum in his ears that was supposed to be blocking those sounds out.

It's going to short out our noise blockers, and we won't be able to move any closer! Zach realized it as he heard that last blast himself and saw how everything was shaking around him from the noise. He must have a limit to take breaks like those, but the next time or one after, we're going to lose our ability to stop that noise. We have to get in and take whatever headsets their guys are using to repel that noise, or just take down the sound-Quirk user first. Zach stopped charging at the castle and he swung both arms up in front of him. He turned and rose up his right hand, making a huge hand signal while a wall of darkness covered him and made it so the villains firing his way could not see the motion he just made.

Then Zach reached down and pulled out a needle that he rose up to his neck. It was not the signal he just made, telling everyone to charge, but he knew he needed to move fastest and was planning on drawing all the fire when everyone else started moving in. Zach injected with bright purple Trigger, the best stuff from the Trigger lab they raided recently which they kept for themselves instead of leaving for heroes to confiscate.

"That was the signal!" La Brava yelled, turning as she yelled it even though she could not hear her own voice. She gave the same signal to the people behind her and then spun around again as bullets slammed into the steel shield around the long barrel of her turret, sparks flying around the sides of her face as people shot at her. The short, pink-haired woman fired furiously towards the castle, while Michael reached down and tapped on the shoulder of the other man still in his humvee. Michael hopped out of the vehicle's turret seat and pulled the assault rifle off his back. He opened the bottom of it where there was a round tube shape, as he just saw Death make a different signal straight towards him after turning back around.

"Everyone forward!"

"Back up Death!"

Men and women in all-black uniforms ran forward and swung their arms forward, pointing their hands out at the building. A couple looked around at each other and pointed, then made waving motions to the sides signaling for them to flank. Sand tornadoes ripped across the desert ahead of them, looking hard to control as they sped right by Gentle who stopped short surrounded in his flaring pink aura, only for the tornado to keep going past him.

Three helicopters landed down behind the jeeps, not risking getting any closer to the castle where the tornadoes were making gale winds. Six soldiers hopped out of the backs of each one, and the passengers in the front popped open the doors and ran forward too. Seraphim pressed her hand onto the side of her helmet for five seconds, then she jumped out of the pilot's seat and started sprinting forward past her comrades and up towards the rest of the army too. Yusef looked over and saw her hop out, and he hesitated while reaching down for his sidearm. The man who had died back in the Dragon's Den gulped, then he threw open the door and started sprinting forward letting out a roar even as he turned on his own sound-blocking system.

Vince watched as the other two pilots ran forward, but he kept hesitating in the seat of his helicopter. He was still thinking over what to do, since no one was giving out any orders through the headsets. He saw people waving their hands up ahead of him, and he could barely hear a thing as it was with that blaring guitar noise blasting everywhere. "Vince! You still in Bird 3?!"

"Raylei?!" Vince shouted back, wondering if he really just heard that, though the blasting noise outside did quiet down for a second.

"Shang and Xia just woke up at the same time! They want to come help-"

Instead of sitting here doing nothing, Vince pulled on the sticks of his helicopter and sped up the rotors again above it. "I'm coming to get them!" He yanked the helicopter off the ground and spun it around back towards the black cloud in the west, rolling in for the castle in the east where villains were nervously looking at the oncoming storm that helicopters kept moving in and out of.

Access revved the engines of his humvee and then pulled his head away from the window as he heard a dink on it. He looked back and saw cracked glass around a single point, but the cracks in the glass did not let the bullet stuck in the thick glass break through on the perfect angle it was on to hit him. A smirk covered Access' face, "Lady luck strikes again!" He put the humvee into drive and smacked back on Grabble's leg before spinning the wheel in the direction of the castle.

A sand dune ahead of them exploded, and then a line of sand shredded up as a turret pulled across the desert towards Michael. Michael's head covered in a thick bushy golden mane, and he was on all fours darting to the right, moving like the king of the savannah. He dodged the bullets, but he looked behind him for a second and snarled as he saw the bullets slam back into the humvee he had jumped out of, right over the top of it into the turret seat where his comrade had just taken over. "RROOAAAAARRR!" He snapped his head back and roared out of sharp teeth, then he spun from the blood-soaked humvee and darted towards the castle of Immortals.

"Move move move!" La Brava let go of her turret with one hand as it recharged, and she swung her right arm in front of the turret's bulletproof shield. She swung again and again, and soldiers behind her started running out into the desert battlefield to cross it and join with their Commanders. La Brava saw something falling out the right corners of her eyes, just behind her humvee and in front of the one where Pez was slumped over his turret covered in blood. From the moment she saw it in the corner of her eyes to when it hit the ground she had no time to think, but she did start opening her eyelids up wider as she recognized the shape of what was falling.

BOOM The mortar hit the ground and La Brava's vehicle rolled forward with the back of it bouncing up and getting shredded by shrapnel. The front of the humvee behind hers caught fire, and the bulletproof windshield was shredded through by the same shrapnel that slammed all over the back of La Brava's humvee. Even with the sound-distortion on in her helmet, La Brava heard a ringing as her head swirled around in shell-shock. She turned her head, and she looked down at her right arm and started moving her hands around to feel up her body. I'm fine? La Brava looked past her hands that her vision was focused on, making everything behind them blurry. "Oh shit," she whispered.

"AHHH! FUCK!" Blackstar was on the ground, his hands up in his face grabbing it in pain while blood spilled between his fingers. His right leg from halfway down his shin was blown right off though, and there were a couple of other soldiers in black uniforms just sitting on their butts near him in complete shock as they saw Blackstar writhing in pain.

La Brava shook her head around and then yelled at the people behind and below her, "Hey! HEY! Fuck," La Brava reached down and pulled off a pistol, and she threw it straight down and nailed Skater on the top of the head with it. Skater looked up from his best friend and at the short woman who made hand signals at him and all the others back there. "Where's Hank?" La Brava muttered to herself while spinning back from the others and firing towards the loud castle again. "Fuck, fuck fuck. We didn't bring anyone down here. So… Mark! Damn it. MARK!" La Brava spun her turret and aimed towards a man farthest back out of their tanks rushing the castle over a mile away.

She fired past the front of a humvee that swerved a bit, Access spinning his head and looking back at La Brava like she was crazy. La Brava started making frantic hand motions though at someone past them, and Access looked forward and his eyes widened before he spun the wheel in the direction of the man who stopped rushing forward to look back at the crazy woman shooting explosions at him. I'm a soldier not a doctor damn it! Mark thought as he understood the injured signals La Brava was motioning directly at him. Mark started running back, then he changed directions towards the humvee driving his way. Grabble kept firing from the automatic turret on top to give Mark cover as he ran up and jumped into the passenger seat, then the humvee spun around to get the man back to the main portion of the army.

Mark was actually going to be brought behind the main portion now though, as the Army of Death was charging forward across the desert where less bullets were flying and less mortars were going off every second. They made way for the humvee so Mark could go and stop Blackstar's bleeding as well as a couple of others who got hit so far, but more than fifty people kept sprinting forward over the desert on foot in the direction of the three huge colors they saw up ahead.

Darling jumped up on legs of springs and fired four rifles sticking out of her arms at different parts on the walls. She jumped again and this time much higher up to get an angle on the front gates of the huge building of sand and sandstone. All the sand towers around the building started falling, the tornadoes collapsing and breaking apart as a wave of Death had sucked into one and knocked out Sandstorm whose comrades started shouting at him inside the sand castle. Michael stopped charging forward as a lion for a second and loaded up another grenade into his assault rifle's grenade launcher. The last one he had fired was thrown off course by the fast winds of the Sandstorm, but now he had a clear shot. Death looked back to motion at him to do it only to see Michael firing already.

"Go go go!" Zach yelled, and his body with a thin but incredibly dense aura of Death around him turned into a pillar of darkness. Gentle pressed multiple Gently Rebounds behind him, compressing the air more and more and then leaning far back into it, as far as he could which was farther than usual surrounded in a bright pink aura of Love. Exodus aimed his hands behind him, his whole body surrounding in a white aura, and he fired two white beams out behind him that blasted his body forward at the front gates of the castle. A grenade slammed into the castle's gate and exploded on contact, and Exodus ripped through the left side of the entrance, Gentle smashed through the right side, and Death busted in from the middle. Bullets fired from Darling's rifles between the three of them, the best shot in the entire Army of Death sniping straight past the others and into the villains who all turned and started running at the horrifying sight before them. The exploding door slammed into villains, and Death and his commanders started their rampage in the castle of the Immortals.

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A/N Thanks for reading! Fwew, this one took a while to write, and just about 5 hours to go over completely editing and spellchecking and the works. Originally I just had 3 ideas for stuff the Army of Death could be doing as a couple of scenes, but by the time I was done with the casino part I realized I either split it up or make it into a bunch of smaller chapters. Went with going all at once so I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter that is over a third of 100,000 words. Gonna reach that 2 million mark in no time XD! Anyway, when I started up the Army of Death chapters I considered doing more time skips (like I did with the very beginning of it from when Zach left the Lifebringer Incident until Mongoloid). I kept having so many ideas though for Army of Death chapters to actually develop everybody more and have a lot of fun writing these, and they were all things that were going to happen anyway but that I had originally considered just making as mentions later on (and possibly flashbacks). I'll try not to let the story lag, and I think this chapter was fun as we see a lot of different aspects of the Army of Death, Zach, his relationships with his comrades... really, just a whole lot of stuff happened here as we get what probably amounted to a single day in total. Well, let me know in a review what you think of the chapter! Finals week next week so might be another slow one but you can bet I'll be procrastinating enough to get another chapter out soon! Been editing for 5 hours straight now so I'm holding off on review responses this week (chapter's long enough as is anyway). See you soon!