Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia
Chapter 161:
"Are you sure they can't see us?" Bubble Girl whispered. She stood at the front of the stealth submarine up close to the thick glass panel wrapping around the cockpit. The sidekick stood next to another young woman with blue hair though Sirius' was straighter and a brighter shade than Kaoruko Awata's. Awata wore her usual skimpy Bubble Girl uniform, just as Centipeder was wearing his usual costume behind her on the "bridge" of the submarine being used by Japan's heroes for their mission.
A few of the heroes on the sub had on special uniforms meant for deploying underwater, while Sirius' pro hero Selkie's costume was already meant for use underwater. Selkie stood at the bridge with Centipeder, along with the two in charge of the mission: Amajiki Tamaki and Hado Nejire. Nejire's sidekicks stood behind in the separation between the front room of the sub where the older heroes were and the longer back section that extended past the room just behind them with the pool that dropped to the water below the sub to allow for mid-use deployment of heroes. It was not Selkie's usual vessel, but he had used it from time to time on operations requiring stealth for a greater number of people.
Sirius nodded at the girl next to her after hesitating for a second, because the white floodlights panning underwater had almost hit them again after Bubble Girl's question. "We shouldn't be detectable from this far away." Sirius grimaced and thought to herself after as another strobe almost caught them, despite how their sub should camouflage into the ocean as well. The one time I wish the water was just a little more polluted, Sirius thought. The girl with two large blue fin devices on her ears to help with her Quirk: Good Ear, leaned closer to the glass and closed her eyes while putting her hands up to her ears again. "Any closer and they'll spot us though."
"What's the status on the negotiation?" Centipeder asked, looking to his side at one of his other sidekicks at the computers around the room full of his and Selkie's. Centipeder had taken over the Nighteye agency after his former pro's death, but although being older heroes, he and Selkie combined did not have as many arrests in the past year as either of the younger heroes in between them had on their own.
Two of the former Big Three of U.A. stood next to each other staring around the room at the different computers and then back through the front glass window towards the oil rig ahead. Behind the young pros, a pair of teens who had only graduated nine months earlier from Shiketsu watched the others work. Camie Utsushimi looked around the room with interest at every new thing she was seeing for her first time on a sub. Seiji Shishikura had a more intense look over his face, staring ahead and awaiting his orders from his pro hero who despite the situation was smiling and full of optimism. For a moment, Shishikura's eyes started to narrow at the bubbly older girl with long blue hair falling to her mid-calves, but as Nejire-chan turned to Suneater to mention something she noticed on one of the screens, her sidekick eased himself back at how calm she looked even in this intense scenario.
U.A.'s were taught by the best of the best. If it had been Shiketsu, then we would have been considered Number 1. Thus there is merit… in learning from someone like Negire-chan. Shishikura took in a deep breath through his nose, and he steadied himself again to refocus on the mission and not the complex he was still working on getting over. There are seventy-three innocent lives on the line. We must act quickly to save them all.
"Negotiation is still at a standstill," one of the sidekicks dressed as sailors sitting on a chair to Selkie's left reported. He turned his chair around while holding a hand up to the headset over his head, and he told the pros looking at him, "Both the Chinese and Americans have promised to pull back the heroes in their response teams after the last threat, and the villains are receiving updates every ten minutes from the negotiating teams. They have their own backup plans to maneuver other heroes around in longer routes the villains won't see coming-"
"But we can't leave the hostages in their hands any longer or we may lose one," Suneater said. His voice was not overly confident, but he spoke it like it was common sense that they needed to act now and the others around agreed with him. Nejire gave Suneater a strong nod at his decision, and she smiled while looking at the side of Tamaki's face as she could see him formulating a strategy in his head right now. Her shy and soft-spoken former classmate wore his white cloak of a uniform, but in his pouches and pockets was a lot of seafood he brought along in preparation for this fight. "The last we heard of the hostages' status, they were tied up in several different rooms and guarded by many villains each."
"No firearms," Nejire added around to the team in the room with her. "And the security team on the rig noted in their last report that the villain they took down was frustrated they didn't have any Trigger."
"Just their Quirks is still dangerous though when we know nothing of what those Quirks are," Tamaki cut back in, as he felt Nejire made that sound too optimistic for a moment.
"We can't bring the sub any closer," Selkie said, looking to the two younger heroes with a firm look on his rough seal-like face. "So from here on we'll have to swim."
Suneater nodded and turned to Centipeder who looked to be awaiting his specific orders too, though Suneater could not tell very well with Juzo Moashi's head looking like that of an insect's. The centipede-man in a tuxedo nodded as he saw the younger man wanted to tell him something, and Suneater spoke in a low but steady voice to him, "Our first move will be disabling any sensors they have. We'll let you know when they're down, and you'll bring the sub to the surface platforms."
"I've got that," Sirius assured while heading back towards the middle of the room. She was more familiar with the sub, and since Selkie was going with the first team she assured Centipeder of it and gave him a thumbs up.
"We're, getting some new information," one of Centipeder's sidekicks, Volarum started while holding a hand over his right ear where he had a soft headset over. His eyes were wide, and he turned to the heroes who all faced him with more gravity at the look on his face. "The rig…" the red-skinned man speaking out the top of his two mouths paused, and then he took off his headset and lowered it down with a more intense look over his face. "We just received a call from official Kumono Ozo. He was in contact with American and Chinese officials trying to learn all he could about what we're heading into. He told them that we're moving in, and they informed him of what this place really is."
"Is it not an oil rig?" Bubble Girl asked, stepping back towards her comrade and looking at him in confusion.
Shishikura and Utsushimi both stepped farther into the room and looked towards the red hero who was wearing a wetsuit and had his breathing gear attached and ready to go with only his helmet still off, just like Camie. Volarum paused and shook his head at Bubble Girl's question, "Publicly, this rig is a joint venture between two companies to drill in the South China Sea. Since the rig is half owned by the United States and half by China, zoning issues are circumvented. So it avoids a lot of attention-"
"Get to the important part. What is it really?" Centipeder questioned his sidekick.
Volarum nodded and spoke in a lower voice, "It's a joint-governmental research lab designing weapons using Quirks." Every person in the room frowned just at the sound of that, and Volarum continued, "It seems the villains already knew what was really going on there when they attacked. They tried to move quickly, but the rig's security detail was stronger than they suspected and when they knew heroes would be on their way soon, they decided to change it to a hostage situation."
"Now we know why those security guys were as good as they were," Sirius said with a look towards Selkie who nodded in agreement.
Taking down a villain and getting useful information like that out, Selkie thought, having already been interested in it but deciding to push it to later to think about.
Nejire-chan looked around the room and let out a small sigh at the looks that covered everyone's faces. "The security detail, although admittedly 'sketchy,' had every right to fight the villains." Nejire smiled around at the crew who all turned to her upon her saying it. Even if they were not thinking about it, the connotations of everything going on right now were not sitting right with them. Nejire continued, "In both America and China, there's a law permitting the use of Quirks on anyone who breaks into your home if you feel the need to defend yourself. And since the security detail would have lived on the rig, the technicality allows them to combat the villains as if they were defending themselves."
"So it's not an armed force working for the rig," Suneater said in a much flatter tone, though Nejire did relax him a bit too right there. "Just the same as any other security guard. And the work being done here was private, but we'll determine whether or not we need to look into it more, once the hostages are safe and secured. Understood?"
"Understood," most of the room responded back at him. Suneater did not even sigh or get nervous this time as they said it to him. There was no more time for hesitation. They had a better idea of what they were going into now though, and Suneater looked to his side to tell Selkie they should get moving. In the corner of his eye though, he spotted one of the other sidekicks of Centipeder's agency looking somewhat surprised and then confused as she spoke to another team on the line. "Heliam?" Suneater asked.
Shishikura frowned and stared at Suneater in a frustrated way. The younger boy and graduate from Shiketsu darted his eyes to the glass at the front of the sub towards the bottom of the oil rig in the distance that had lights on it and lit up the sea in that direction. We need to get moving.
"The surface team to our east just reported in that Beluga noticed strange activity underwater moving in our direction." Heliam paused, and the young woman with spiky red hair nodded while listening to something else she was hearing from the other team. "Something else," she added, looking back up at the main heroes of the mission. "They say the water's getting choppy, and there's apparently a storm moving in…" Suneater stared at the girl with his eyes growing wide, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face right as it formed. "They hear thunder, and it's rolling in from their east, so, also in this direction."
"The underwater movement could be a problem," Selkie began. He narrowed his eyes and turned towards the pool in the back, "If there are scouts moving around outside checking for hero activity, they may have already reported our comrades' positions."
"And if they're moving from them straight to the rig, they're going to run into us and see us sitting here," Shishikura added in case no one else had realized it yet.
"Meaty's right," Nejire said. "Move us around to port, but keep us equidistant from the rig."
"Selkie, take half the team and intercept the ones coming from behind us if that movement Beluga picked up turns out to be villains," Centipeder started. "Suneater, you should still get to the rig as fast as you can. If they haven't reported in about us yet, or worse if they already have, the hostages are in imminent…" Centipeder stopped himself from finishing his warning of how dire this situation was.
Suneater looked towards the radar, but he did not see anything blinking behind them despite their radar picking up clearly the oil rig ahead of them. He looked to his right where Heliam kept talking to the surface team, and then back through the front windshield and towards the rig. What do I do here? He thought, while raising his head up and staring at the top of the sub in a nervous way.
"What? Scared of a little thunderstorm?" Nejire asked her friend, prodding in a joking way but also raising an eyebrow at his strange behavior.
"I think we have company," Suneater muttered.
"The villains know we're here?" Selkie asked, getting ready to rush to the pool to dive. "Aquatic team get ready," he ordered.
"It's not more villains," Suneater said hesitantly. A bead of sweat rolled down his face unlike it did in their whole preparation for fighting these villains. "They're coming," he muttered.
Most of the others on the sub with Suneater stared at him in confusion. The ones who were putting their helmets on turned back with Selkie towards their team leader who said it was not villains coming up behind them like they thought. Nejire realized it, which made her two sidekicks come up behind her and ask her what was going on at the big smile that just flashed over her face. "Oh, you're in for a show," she said with a look over her shoulder at the two teens who just got even more confused by that.
Selkie's eyes grew wide as he put it together himself. "'They bring the storm,'" he said, and others around him looked towards the pro hero who started back forward through the bridge towards the front window. He turned to Suneater and stopped after walking past midway, "I've heard that phrase before."
"Where?" Shishikura asked, confused at all of this. "Who brings the storm?"
Suneater turned to his side and spoke to the red-skinned man looking at him with huge eyes. "Contact Endeavor," Tamaki said. He took in a deep breath after saying it, and then he said in a low voice for the sub to hear, "The Army of Death is here."
"What?" Camie asked, her eyes bulging as she spun to Suneater. "How do you know that?"
"Even if they are," Nejire began, turning fully to her friend and giving him an intense look less smiley than usual. She gave Tamaki a serious and disapproving look, and she said, "The hostages' lives take precedence."
Suneater frowned at the girl in front of him questioning his last order like that when they were supposed to be co-leading this mission. He saw Volarum hesitating too, and he took in a deep breath and clarified, "Calling Endeavor will not put the hostages' lives at risk. Because, by the time he arrives to deal with them, they'll have already defeated all the villains."
Tamaki said it not so much as in a hopeful and confident way that he was optimistic the Army of Death could handle it. He sounded more accepting of an inevitable fact, making Nejire step back and nod her head with huge eyes at the way in which he just spoke. You never tell me why it is you quit the Task Force, no matter how much I ask, Nejire Hado turned to Selkie and smiled again back in her optimistic mood. Mirio's so into it still, and I've noticed you two have been weird about it lately. But I didn't realize how much you really… Nejire froze as she started telling Selkie to get out there and start the mission anyway.
"How did that thing not show up on radar?!" one of Selkie's crew exclaimed while jumping out of his seat. The sub shook from the movement directly below them, and everyone on the bridge stared through the front windshield at the creature swimming past them that was longer than their sub itself.
"It's, a whale," Camie said, cocking her head to the side.
Suneater sweatdropped more. If that was just a whale being the suspicious movement, could the storm just be… a regular storm?
He was not the only one thinking it, and Volarum got the most anxious look on his face as he heard the ringing over the line as he was finally getting transferred to Endeavor. The whale was not on line to hit the oil rig, but the farther it got towards the rig, the more noticeable it was going to get. Lights pointed at the whale, and underwater drones around the base of the rig's steel support pillars turned to move along with it as it neared and came close to the platform.
"Um," Volarum started, sweat covering his face as the gruff and angry voice of Endeavor asked him what was so urgent he had to be interrupted while in the middle of fighting villains himself. He looked towards Suneater, and Tamaki nodded once in a confident way that had Volarum immediately reply to Endeavor.
The confident way in which Suneater nodded made everyone who thought this might have been overthought spin to him and then back towards the rig. It was harder to see the rig now than it was to see to the left of it where the whale was passing by. An attack of some kind hit the water near the whale, and the huge mammal let out a loud noise as it turned and swam the other way from the green liquid in the water making the ocean around it bubble.
"Are you sure it's really them?" Shishikura asked, spinning to Suneater again with a frustrated look. The way Suneater had been so confident that the villains would be handled by the time Endeavor arrived, along with all this mysterious stuff happening around them he did not understand, angered the teen with such a strong view of heroes.
"They're far ahead of us," Tamaki said, while pulling seafood out of his costume and spinning around. "Keep careful not to be spotted, and follow me," he ordered it while running back towards the pool in the room behind him. Everyone stared at Suneater in shock, wondering what they just missed that he had seen, but the aquatic team all ran after him and dove in the pool as soon as they were ready.
Far ahead of the heroes, two teams of soldiers in all black uniforms neared the lowest platforms of the "oil rig." The first team that had gone straight down the middle past the top of the submarine but closer to the surface, had avoided being spotted thanks to the whale taking most of the attention away from them. The second team, which had been hiding inside Dongwu's mouth as the Chinese man who had transformed into the biggest whale he could muster swam close to the rig, had dropped out of his mouth when he opened his mouth to make that noise of panic and pain.
Fly-By swam forward in his team of five with his comrades surrounding him all invisible thanks to his Quirk camouflaging anyone within fifteen meters of him from everyone except for people within that range. It was not too useful once it came to fighting in close combat, but he had a waterproof sniper rifle on his back due to that fact anyway.
Nice work Dongwu, just wait away from us until things get loud before coming back. Beta Squad's leader looked back at his team and made hand motions around the surface platform they were nearing. Fly-By nodded at his leader, and he turned to the two who he got motioned at to send around the other side of the thin part of the platform they were nearing. Then he swam down from the rest of the group before he reached the platform himself.
Two heat signatures, Blackstar thought as he stared up through the surface at his platform. He turned his head to the right and looked over towards Charlie Team who were still out of range of Fly-By's ability. Can't stay under any longer, Blackstar thought, and he nodded at the other team who were too exposed over there despite being made up of quicker movers underwater and generally more stealthy members of their forces. Blackstar pointed a finger up, then he lifted three fingers. He started counting in his own head while rising up to the surface, and he listened as the two men on the lowest platform he was just below were talking about how they had heard of heroes who could transform into whales.
Blackstar rose up over the surface and he swung his arm up over the platform. His arm transformed into a long steel two-pronged hook that caught on either shoulder of the man closer to the edge he was on. He yanked backwards and tugged the man straight underwater in that instant, and he wrapped his other arm around the guy's neck and choked him out as the man flailed around. The villain was too panicked to use his Quirk in the few seconds he had, and Blackstar had him unconscious and docile soon after first emerging. He rose back up over the surface and lifted his free arm that was back to being a normal hand, and that hand was grabbed by a comrade who already got onto the surface platform while he knocked out the guard.
Blackstar turned to his right after getting on the platform, and he nodded over at the other team on another one that had pulled up both of their unconscious villains as well who had gone down without alerting the rest of the villains above. Fly-By swam back up and was the last to surface, having needed to drop down to almost out of Beta Squad's range so as not to catch the guards above, and risk the ones on the other platform from noticing their comrades suddenly vanishing on them. He turned off his Quirk once surfaced, as once they ascended the stairs there would be a risk of problems happening when his Quirk worked through the rig's walls and ceilings. "Heroes are coming up behind us," Blackstar said, and he motioned with his right arm at the same time for Charlie Squad whose leader just looked over at him.
Incite nodded at Blackstar's movement, and he rose up his pistols he took from his sides that each had suppressors on them. The three team members he had behind him moved forward quickly towards the ramps up; the platform Charlie landed on had only long gentle ramps to make it up to the rig's main first floor. Blackstar's team had a more regular staircase ahead of them, and Blackstar moved forward towards it with his team while lifting up a rifle of his own he popped off his side and elongated. "Fly-By, Ledge, scout forward and get to the Nest," Blackstar ordered, referring to the pre-determined sniper point for Fly-By by the codename they gave it. They had acquired blueprints for the rig and each person had memorized the layout on their ride there. The Nest would be far enough away from the others that Fly-By could keep himself invisible while firing, and Ledge was to go with him in case a team was sent to him so there would be a better close-ranged fighter on the team.
Fly-By and Ledge, who was twice as big as his partner, sped up and kept weapons raised as they neared the top of the stairs that would drop them out right onto the rig's main floor. They did not slow down despite the cameras aimed at the top of the stairs, just as they were not worried about the cameras that had been watching the surface platforms. The cameras were not originally a part of the oil rig, and therefore not planned for by the heroes who had been planning on coming in from the same side but would have been spotted by the new security cameras that had been installed. Despite being new for the rig though, the system itself that was put in place was an older model, one that was very easy for the woman hovering ten thousand feet above to crack into and loop footage of.
"Sure you don't need my help?" Rebel asked, leaning back in his chair with his legs propped up on the edge of his desk. "Looping so many cameras, I wonder if even your magic fingers can take it?"
Rampart rolled his eyes at the man in the command room with him across the world from the incident actually taking place. The woman Rebel was talking to got a slightly more agitated look on her face though, but Raylei spoke in a deadpan voice, "Stay off the comms." The woman with a blocky, rectangular-shaped forehead, moved her sixteen slender fingers quickly over her keyboards from the cockpit of a stealth jet she was coordinating the mission from. Two other jets were on her sides, and she finished typing for a moment right as the plane she was on shook from the intense rumbling around her. "You almost here, Maelstrom?" Raylei asked after feeling that.
A fourth jet on its way to the other three had to move slower while inside of the center of the storm rolling in towards the oil rig. The storm itself had already surrounded all three of the other planes as well, but the ship Maelstrom was on directly in the center was actually shaking the least of them all. Her comrades could not stop staring in shock at her as lightning shot around their plane without hitting it, and the strong winds of the storm did not hinder their flight in the slightest. Rain even moved away from their cockpit window to give them a clearer path ahead. "Almost to you. Going to lower the clouds to the north of the rig, get their attention over there."
"Alpha Squad, ready to drop?" Raylei questioned.
"Awaiting the signal," Jetflame replied.
"Use equipment only," Death said. He looked next to him while saying it, and Jetflame gave an affirmative nod at his comrade. Jetflame had been slower than most to start following the new Death's orders as quickly as they all did the old one's, but he agreed there fully that he did not need to illuminate the sky with flames during this stealth mission. Death saw that affirmative nod, then he turned himself and nodded towards a short woman standing next to the side door to their jet that was the biggest of the three hovering together already in the storm. La Brava slid the door open and wind blew in at the group of five standing inside, and Death spoke in a calm voice to his troops already down below, "Have all hostage rooms been marked?"
"Final one just marked," Blackstar replied. "A large number of forces are gathered in the control room at the top of the rig. They don't have any hostages with them, so they don't want them hearing what's going on. Or, they don't need any of the hostages to find what they're looking for."
"And have you found what they're looking for?" La Brava asked.
"Looks like they had some trouble getting into these wings," Incite replied. "But the doors are cut down and-" Incite stopped talking.
Down on the rig, in one of the mid floors in a secure wing of the research lab, a group of four villains were moving towards Incite and his three comrades. He and his team moved to the sides of the hall silently, and they watched as the unarmed villains walked right past them. Evader turned her helmet to Incite for a second, in a way as if asking him if this was really the best move. Incite just held up a palm though, as one of the men walking with the others was not talking to them and instead had a hand to his head and was talking to someone above. "…not responding to comms? They're still down there though? If you can see them then it must be- fine. Fine! We'll go check it out."
"Time's short," Incite said. He motioned at his team and started running back the direction they came from towards one of the markers. "We need to move within a minute. They're going to check the surface platforms."
"Drop."
"Hostages take priority. Simultaneous attack on all hostage rooms in T-minus twenty," Raylei ordered.
"Count off hostiles," Blackstar added.
"Four hostiles in room designation A."
"Three in B."
"Four in C."
"Four here too," Blackstar finished.
"T-minus ten," Raylei said.
"Move in," Blackstar ordered.
Gentle put his arms down harder at his sides and pointed his body as vertical as he could to speed up his drop. Should have had another minute. "Dongwu, move back for the surface platform," Gentle ordered. "Soon as they see the dropped others, take them down."
Dongwu's body shifted. His skin morphed, and the right side of his head hurt where he had implanted the headset for this mission and which shifted around in painful ways when he transformed. It was not too bad though, as his Quirk adapted to the outside tech just as it could adapt to his clothing when he transformed into animals of a reasonable size proportionally to what he normally looked like. A massive whale was not one of those creatures that his clothes would shift around and work with, and neither was the humongous one-eyed squid shooting back towards the research lab out on the water.
The Army of Death already knew about the lab being out there, what it really was unbeknownst to the public, but the check they had already made on it a while ago came back clean. Having this closer inspection would be nice, and they were planning on searching the lab thoroughly while they were there, but that objective was secondary considering Japanese heroes were already there. Those Japanese heroes were shocked by the giant squid rapidly approaching the oil rig, but Suneater knew they had to use it and ordered, "Move in now!" The lights on the bottom of the rig focused on the squid, and this time there was no question of it being a coincidence, as the animal was headed straight for it and moving much faster than the whale had.
Same person? Camie wondered, though she refocused on Suneater's back and swam after him faster as he sped up with Selkie so they would arrive at the platforms first.
Selkie and Suneater jumped out of the water at the same time. As they emerged from the surface, they saw that the platforms both had two unmoving bodies of villains on them. It was something they already suspected from what they saw at a distance while the lights around the rig were pointed outwards and not in at the attack going on past its defenses. What they were not expecting was the second villain squad that just got halfway down the stairs and turned to the platforms they now had a good angle on. None of the villains had firearms, but one reacted quickly and rose up his arms that popped open at the wrists to look like cannons. Another of the men yelled into his headset, "Heroes are here-" as he was shouting it, a tentacle wrapped around his body coming up from the other side of the stairs as where the team just spun.
The other three in the squad spun back, the one with arm cannons turning in a terrified way right before he got smacked by an arm of suction cups. Three of the villains were lifted up, while that one who just got smacked flipped over the railing of the stairs and dropped down into the water. As he was making his splash, and the other three were getting yanked down, explosions went off above that shook the whole rig and made Suneater and Selkie snap their heads up. "Do you know what's happening?" Selkie asked, spinning to Suneater who he knew had some experience in this.
"No," Suneater replied truthfully. At the same time though, he was expecting something to happen and was already prepared to lift up his communicator. "Everyone move in. All teams advance to the rig now."
Stealth was out the window. Suneater had hoped to arrive before the teams who had taken out the lowest guards could get above, but apparently in the last two minutes they had already fully prepared and were starting their attack. Suneater also noticed a camera up on steel bars above him that made his eyes grow wide during the initial shake of the platform, and he cursed internally as he thought about why it was up there. The rest of the aquatic team rose up on the platform, and Suneater decided to save that 'what if' thought for later, as he called to the others around him to get the hostages down to that spot for extraction.
On the main floors of the rig, the hostages had been split up into four different rooms because the villains thought having them spread out would make it more difficult for heroes to free them as freeing one room would mean the hostages in all the others would be in danger. The villains searching the lab rooms shot up and spun around as the rig shook and they heard the blasts. The ones in charge in the control room monitoring everything and giving out orders while they discussed what to do moving forward, yelled out at their subordinates demanding to know what was going on.
For the fifteen villains in charge of watching the hostages, it was a very stressful environment. The hostages were tied up, but any one of them could have a Quirk that would allow them to fight back if they chose to break free from their binds. Splitting them into smaller groups was also to prevent that, but having fifteen to twenty hostages in each room meant there was margin for error there. Two of the rooms were small too, which made it harder to separate from the hostages or separate them from each other. They had been gagged to prevent them from coordinating a plan with each other for escape, and the villains assured their hostages that as long as the heroes played nice then they would all be released safely, so there was no need to try and be heroes and throw their lives away. That strategy had been working at keeping things under control, but the villains remembered all their misgivings and fears about watching their hostages as soon as their doors were exploding inwards.
Most of the fifteen villains had a hostage in there they had already picked. They knew the possibility of heroes attempting a rescue was high, and they knew which person they were going to grab to either use as their own personal shield or hostage, or who they were going to kill first before grabbing their real hostage to show that they were serious. They all had a person, though some of them were going to try and fight first before going to that backup plan of getting a personal shield to assist them in fighting. Thirteen of the fifteen hesitated though during the explosions, while two were able to ignore the shock of the sudden attack to just immediately start moving. Those two who started moving right away though, still felt that secondary impact of terror when the dark soldiers came into their rooms.
When the storm was heading their way they had been assured by their leaders that it was a natural thunderstorm. They had made jokes about it and even laughed, as no one was going to pretend like they did not all think about it as soon as they heard the first rumble in the distance. DEATH!
Evader ran into the room with two others, and only the four villains in their room did not have that realization that the Army of Death was there. Her Quirk, Targeted Ignorance, made it so that up to 5 people could not see up to 5 other people. Her and her two comrades were invisible to the four villains in front of them, while the eighteen hostages in the room all watched these three sprint inside lifting up pistols in their hands. Evader pulled out two, running in between the two female villains in the middle of the room who were reaching down for hostages. Vintage stopped short before getting up close to his enemy, as the man was opening his mouth while aiming towards a cluster of five hostages. He fired his shot first, and a dart flew into the villain's neck making him gasp out.
The other three in the room could not hear his gasp over the sound of the shouting of their own comrades, but that man's voice as he began to yell did cut off making their eyes dart over to see him start falling from the fast-acting tranquilizer. Three more shots hit the villains as they saw him falling, and all three of them fell to the ground with their shouts cutting off too. Vintage slid his pistol back into his holster quickest and he pulled out a pair of knives from his belt. He darted towards some of the tied-up men and women who had seen the villain opening his mouth to fire some sort of Quirk at them, and he slashed their binds ignoring their muffled shouts of protest. The scary figure in slick dark armor slashed at them, and suddenly their legs and arms were no longer bound.
"Follow us to the heroes," Evader told the hostages before they could all pull out their gags and start shouting. The ones just about to do that froze, and Evader added in a soft voice, her modulator off, "We'll get you to safety." She turned and ran to the door, and she pulled back out the rifle from her back that she pointed around outside the door. She moved out and Oscillate darted out just behind her, pointing his rifle the other way to watch her back. "Move," Evader called out.
"Go the most direct route to the surface platform," Vintage told the people in front of him. He made like he needed to get out too, getting them all in a rush to get out of there so he could get past and guard their backs. All the hostages had been workers on the rig, so he figured, correctly, that they would know exactly what that route was considering they had not been blindfolded and knew exactly where on the rig they currently were.
"We've got three hostiles going down through the bridge, four out on its balcony," Fly-By's voice filled the headsets of his comrades thanks to Rebel patching him through to everyone based on what he was saying. Rebel held a soda up in his other hand and took a big sip, then he tapped two other buttons on his keyboard, separating Blackstar's voice from the full comms to just speaking to Beta and Charlie Squads. Then he reconnected Death's mic to everyone instead of just the dropping Alpha Squad he had just been talking to. Rebel checked all the cameras, (the actual angles they were showing and not the rigged ones), and he announced, "Hero sub is-" Rebel paused and lowered the giant smile he just got, "at the surface platform. More heroes emerging. You've got Nejire-chan, Meaty, Centipeder, Sirius, Volarum- and another hero team only two minutes out by the boat they're racing to you."
Rampart covered up the mic on his headset and smirked over at Rebel. "Aren't heroes and subs the same thing?" Rebel spun with the biggest grin on his face, as it was all he could think of after he had said 'hero sub' but decided to save for later and not disturb the fighting Army about. The two of them spun back to their screens after getting a kick out of that, delving back into the current combat situation neither of them ever had to worry about but respected enough not to bother them with something like that.
"Room B's hostages have met up with heroes and are on their way out," Incite reported. "Heading to the bridge."
"Hit from below, get all attention off the sky," Death replied. Pincer them.
"Whoa- we've got a cloner!" Fly-By reported in a bit of a panic.
"Shit, they're flooding out of the halls-"
"They cut off the hostages from Room A. Engaging now!"
"Find the main body… how many can this guy create?!"
"Focus all efforts on getting the hostages out," Death ordered.
"Grab as many hostages as you can!" Reyansh Dhiren shouted down at the villains running about on the deck who had somehow missed the fact that they were already under attack by heroes. Their cameras still weren't working in the bridge, and all they had heard was the cut-off shout from the team they sent to check on the surface deck squads. The Indian villain co-leading this mission and funding the whole group through his small but legitimate tech industry had on a red mask over his face and a high-tech costume on that few of the other villains on the ship possessed. "We can renegotiate with the heroes-"
"Screw that! Kill them all!" Asura shouted. The villain who named himself after the evil Hindu Gods shouted through the comms, "Use the hostages as shields. Kill them, and force the heroes to retreat seeing what their tactics are causing!"
The villain cloning himself once every three seconds agreed with the second option. He had been preparing for an attack from the inside of the ship in an isolated room where none of the people who had seen him so far would be able to get a message out to heroes on their new numbers. Their group of villains had just increased four-fold, and despite his clones not having any Quirks of their own, each of them unable to even clone themselves, his clothes and weapons cloned with him to a certain degree. All he needed to clone was the one knife he had on his person though, and that, his Quirk could do.
"Get behind us!" Suneater shouted at the civilians he was running towards, as he saw the wave of identical enemies running at their backs all wielding knives with serrated blades. There was a chubbier woman running behind the pack, a pair of glasses on her face that fell off and made her stumble as she had a second thought of stopping to pick them up. The look back showed her how close those villains were to her though, and despite Suneater running thirty miles per hour on newly furry legs, he was not going to reach her in time. The villain reaching for her back grabbed a handful of her shirt, and then his right shoulder blasted backwards with blood flying out of it. The woman stumbled forward and fell to the ground, and Tamaki ran past her anyway to get between her and the villains still charging at her in a wave after the first one.
"When the clones take damage they react like normal people, but they disappear with time," a voice announced over the entire oil rig. It blasted out of each of the helmets that the announcement just relayed through. Blackstar stood up from the bloodied body of one of the clones he had dragged into an isolated corner, and he left the corpse of that clone covered in a dozen gashes to disappear in twenty minutes. His voice got lower, and he said calmly, "So killing them is fine."
The second closest clone to the fat woman who had fallen and was trying to scramble up, did not get hit in the shoulder. Suneater watched from only a foot away as the clone's eyes were growing wide from hearing that announcement, and then its head snapped to the side with blood flying out. The others behind that one hesitated. Suneater had been following the falling one with his eyes, but they scanned back and grew even wider at the looks on the other clones' faces. Despite not living for very long, he could see in that single moment that each one of them would prefer to just disappear over that allotted time. They don't want to die- Three more of the villains went flying off their feet, their tan-skinned heads pierced through or the neck for the third who turned and ducked before sprinting for cover.
Fly-By adjusted his aim a bit, looking over from where Suneater finally started helping that big woman get out of there, to a different group of hostages being met by more than just clones. He fired, then he said in a low voice, "Need less wind down here."
"That's not me," Maelstrom began. "But I'll see what I can do." She made for the side of the plane, and she opened the door and jumped out without waiting for anyone behind her to say anything.
"Four moving for the edge of the rig on the opposite side as Fly-By. Looks like they're going below."
"Whole lot of heroes down there."
"Dongwu assist."
"He's dealing with the heroes right now," Raylei countered. "And he can't explain well while squid-ing. Jetflame get down there."
A speeding motorboat shot under the edge of the rig and only started slowing where going any longer at full speed would mean crashing into a platform. "Take the first group of civilians away on this boat!" Gunhead called out towards some sidekicks ahead of him who he saw trying to get the hostages to calm down and be careful when trying to board a submarine. The civilians were more confident seeing Gunhead arrive with new heroes, and they ran over but were more calm this time as it seemed the heroes had a handle of-
Four villains dropped off the side of the rig and swung towards the platforms while already in the middle of using their Quirks. The unsuspecting parties below turned and shouted, but even the pro heroes could not do much against the icy hail, poisoned spikes, green acid, and earsplitting shout that came their ways in the second after the villains rappelled down for them. "Get back control of the surface platforms!" The announcement echoed over the rig, and the villains who were already going down there realized in that moment as they attacked with the element of surprise, that they did not necessarily need to run. Running would only mean more heroes would catch them out on the water. The hostages were still there. If they could take this area back, they could prevent anyone from boarding the rig again-
Unless they came from the air.
The heroes and sidekicks and civilians all winced and closed their eyes. They huddled and grabbed at their ears as the scream hit them in the eardrums and felt like someone was shoving knives in them. Some of the heroes managed to grab civilians and try and protect them with their bodies, like Gunhead, but the projectiles never came. Gunhead spun back around and he stared through the holes of his mask with wide eyes at the mass of flames that blew away all of the other projectiles other than the scream. The attack had been aimed at the projectiles and not the villains themselves, but as Gunhead looked up he saw through the fading flames a figure in all black firing jets of fire out of his hands and feet to keep himself moving at nearly seventy miles per hour through the air.
Jetflame darted back and forth in front of the villains and behind them, turning them around and slamming flaming fists and kicks into their bodies. He burned the ropes they were using, and he lit them on fire while they were falling only for them to splash into the water and be put out a second later. "Dongwu, get them out," Jetflame said in English with a turn of his head towards the giant squid some of the hero sidekicks were accosting with Volarum at the front. Volarum stared towards the flaming dark figure, and the hero was frozen in place as it felt like that man was suddenly looking at him and waiting for him to say something. Dongwu moved though despite Volarum's previous shouts that moving any closer to them would give him cause for attack… and luckily nobody attacked him.
Meaty and Mirage met up in a hallway of the rig after making sure the hostages they had run into were all behind them. They had not intended to bump into each other, but Mirage had made a half dozen guys who all looked alike start imagining a victory party in a nearby room she barricaded behind them, then she sprinted down the hall and bumped into Meaty coming from a similar engagement in the opposite direction. The clones Meaty had run into though, he had been about to attack with his Quirk when three figures in all dark armor sprinted straight through them. He had barely blinked, but they rushed in from one side of his enemies who had been focused on him, and they cut down or gunned down every single one without hesitation. As Utsushimi asked him if he was doing alright, Shishikura could still just see those five bloody corpses in front of him and the backs of those figures in black who had not stopped to even respond to his shout.
"This is crazy, right?" Mirage whispered as they jogged quickly but cautiously deeper into the rig. They had word on all four groups of hostages, a number that Selkie had been told by one of the dark soldiers there were total. The fourth was still cut off from the routes to the surface level, and the second to last to escape below had hesitated with many of them trying to turn back as they had heard an explosion down below and some saw the flames from the top of the steps. All four had groups of heroes on them though, and they were receiving new orders now.
Suneater's voice filled their heads, "…The AoD are gunning for anyone who looks like the clone creator. They'll kill the main body without hesitation at the rate they're going."
"What do we do about them?!"
"Do not engage," Suneater specified very clearly. "They will scatter if you do, and Endeavor is on his way."
Tamaki said it, while he stared in front of him straight at a man whose palms lost their white glow. The large man taller than Tamaki and much broader at the shoulders nodded once in gratitude at him, then Exodus turned around and transferred that information around to his comrades. Suneater frowned even deeper in the next moment, his eyes darkening and his teeth gritting together. The man in front of him was one who Suneater recognized from the raid on the League of Shadows headquarters. He recognized him from even earlier when they went over the strength of their enemies who they had knowledge of. And he had just seen his strength again as Exodus had dropped down on top of a villain who had just caught him with a surprise attack as he faced off against several at once close to the bridge tower.
The one who went for the surprise attack was dented into the floor in front of Suneater's feet. Another was slouched against a wall to Suneater's left, burn marks all around that wall behind him. Another villain was slouched over the railing of the floor above them, while two others had been thrown completely from the rig. When Exodus had done that, Suneater had grit his teeth in anger despite his surprise and gratitude, because there was a reason he was trying to fight as many of the villains as he could right now. After that second of gritting his teeth though he had stopped, as Exodus had ordered someone named 'Dongwu' to catch those falling from the rig.
"They called Endeavor?" La Brava asked in annoyance as the message was relayed across the Army of Death. "There's no way he'll be able to gather a force quick enough."
"But he'll come himself, and that's enough. If he grabs one of us, it will be impossible to get them back," Jetflame countered.
As the fight continued, the villains' leaders had gathered back inside the bridge. "These cameras are useless!" Asura yelled. "The Army of Death is here! When the fuck did they get here?!" He spun to Reyansh, but the man in a red costume covered in tubes that attached to a mouthpiece breathing device over the bottom of his face had a frustrated expression too at how this was turning out. "Well what are we going to do about it?!"
"Stop shouting you imbecile and let me think!" Reyansh yelled back.
"Don't call me stupid you fucking prick!" Asura roared. Cracks formed on his skin and started glowing red, and his muscles bulged in his anger as he stomped towards Reyansh.
"Neither of you two know what you're doing," Craig growled. The white man from Minnesota stomped forward, and he swung his right hand forward extending it in between the other two about to charge at each other and see who could kill the other first. Craig's arm stretched out from his body, looking fainter the farther it got from him so it was translucent by the time it reached the wall. His hand went through the wall with ease and all his fingers opened up.
Craig grabbed the man on the other side of it and pushed backwards, then pulled towards himself and into the wall. He smashed Incite's head into the wall, then he did it again, then Asura smashed down the wall completely as he realized his anger was not really all directed at Reyansh right now.
Incite fired his dual pistols up into the arm gripping him by the helmet, but his shots went through the translucent arm like it was nothing. There was not enough arm there for the bullets to cause pain, but there was enough hand to give his enemy a grip. He dropped one of the pistols while getting back to his feet, and he jumped away while drawing a knife with his new free hand. He pointed his pistol, the same pistol used to kill his friend Upload, a thick black piece that weighed a lot, towards Asura as that beast of a man charged at him. He fired, and Asura slammed his right arm forward with the cracks glowing brighter. His fist shattered the bullet on impact, and it broke through the gun too though Incite managed to pull his arm back and only get a couple fingers broken there as the gun shattered.
Incite hit the ground and rolled, slashing up despite shouting in pain, and cutting through Craig's arm still tugging on him to try and keep him where Asura could just beat him down quickly. Smoke came out of some of the tubes on Reyansh's body, but Craig told the man next to him to relax and focus on figuring out how to get them and the "goods" out of there in all this chaos.
Incite ground his teeth and swept the knife through the arm grabbing at his head. This time he fully cut through it, and though it reconnected right after, he was able to yank his head backwards and straight through the fingers in the instant that Craig's full arm was not connected. Asura jumped up in the air over Incite as he stumbled back no longer having that pressure pulling him the other way. Incite took one too many steps and rose his broken hand as well as the one with the knife while falling backwards in the room next to the command center at the top of the stairs. He wished he had taken one more step to just fall down the stairs instead, as now- I'm gonna die!
Asura smashed both of his glowing red arms down, his fists put together to bash onto Incite's skull and pound him into the floor. His hands slammed down hard in a fatal blow… but they stopped before reaching Incite and slowed down, pressing against something that stretched down at Incite and pushed into him but at much less force. Incite hit down on his butt, and then Asura's fists bounced back at him hitting him straight in the face while he was bounced backwards straight back through the wall and into an unsuspecting Craig.
Death flipped up into the room from below Blackstar under the stair's top platform. He bounced off the air over Incite with a quick look down where he saw Incite looking up at him. Then his head turned forward and he shot through the forming cloud of smoke into the man whose breathing device he kneed with his right leg so hard it shattered. The villain started coughing as he spun out and hit the floor, gasping for breath with blood coming out of his mouth full of broken teeth, and his lungs filling with his own smoke. Gentle could not be bothered by it due to his own helmet's breathing mechanism, though he was bothered by the pair of hands that gripped him by the ankles in the middle of that smoke.
Death swung his arms behind him, and he bounced in the direction of Craig moving far faster than Craig was expecting as he opened his mouth to say something to this Army of Death member. Death did not care what he had to say though, and Craig's arms retracted back to normal size before Gentle clocked him in the back of the head which was easy since he was still pinned underneath Asura's enlarged body. Then Death surrounded his right leg in Elasticity, and he kicked Asura as that big man with a bloody nose and glowing red skin was starting to stir back up.
Asura bounced off Danjuro Tobita's leg, and the man formerly known as the Gentle Criminal swung his left arm in front of him, throwing a distanced Gently Rebound behind Asura before it expanded to cover the wall. Death used the same hand he tossed that barrier with to put one in the air right in front of him. Asura started bouncing off one Rebound into the other over and over again, flipping around and spinning into the floor and the ceiling he bounced off until he was no longer looking able to keep going.
Then Death moved back in and covered his right arm with Elasticity, and he pounded Asura in the side as he was flying one direction, flipping him over again with a crack of some of his ribs just in case he was thinking of getting back up even after all of that.
"Gent- Death," Incite walked up towards Death, grabbing his right hand by the wrist as his fingers were in a lot of pain. "Thanks."
Gentle had a remark to make about what Incite just did recklessly, but he held off on it for now. "Extraction."
"Endeavor's on his way to you guys. Should be there within… twenty minutes!" Rebel exclaimed in a sarcastic panic.
"Bringing transports back down," Raylei announced in a less sarcastic tone than Rebel's, though she also sounded relaxed herself.
"This clone guy is still hiding somewhere, and we haven't cleared out the inside of the rig," Blackstar called out, still in the middle of fighting these clones. Meaty and Mirage looked towards him in confusion as he called that out unprovoked, though they figured he had a headset and was talking to people they did not hear. Meaty and Camie were each finishing off a group of clones themselves. The farther they got into the middle of the rig, the more likely it felt to them that they were the ones on track to finding this clone guy, as more and more of the clones kept coming straight for them while they were hearing more of all-clear signals from around other areas of the rig.
"Packing up the Nest, moving to extraction point Zeta," Ledge reported in.
"Flight Squad take to Eagle View," Jetflame ordered.
"Usual Flight or all of Alpha?"
"If you aren't currently fighting, evacuate or move for extraction point Zeta."
"First two transports will arrive in two minutes and counting. Anyone who stays will have to wait three minutes for the secondary transport."
"Think they'll prevent us from going after the first extraction?"
"Beta Squad move out, but Nines meet me near Zeta for diversionary tactics," Blackstar said, his voice lower this time. "We'll make sure no one's watching when the birds come uncloaked and go back up."
"Worst comes to worst, you'll just have to fight Endeavor yourselves," Rebel joked.
This time, despite the sarcasm, Blackstar still felt that intimidating presence he felt every time he saw Endeavor in person while in this suit of illegal battle armor. He had spoken quieter that time so the younger two behind him did not hear him, and though it worked, it wouldn't have if the two would just come up and help him out already. Blackstar ducked under the swiping of a serrated dagger and he blocked another coming for his ankles from a clone diving around the legs of the one slashing near his throat. His right arm's metallic form turned more loose and reshaped into a scythe he slashed across the front of his body, and his left turned wavy and curved up to dodge a throwing knife coming through the blood of one of the other clones. That arm turned from wavy back to normal, and Blackstar pulled out a knife of his own he flicked right as the blood was dropping, sending it flying into the eye of the one who just leaned down to pick up a discarded other knife that he could use to fight with.
Blackstar kicked to his right as a clone tried to flank him from there, then he pulled out a second knife and rose it up, blocking a sword coming down at him that had the teens behind him rushing forward again only to freeze once again too. The new attacker was not just another clone but an entirely new villain who had just blended in with the others in the hall behind him because of his similar body size. As he pressed his sword down into Blackstar's knife, blades stuck out of the toes of his shoes that he kicked forward after jumping over a clone to get that swipe. Another clone flanked from the left of Blackstar, and one who the new villain jumped over went around the colliding blades to Blackstar's right where that flanking villain had just been kicked backwards. Blackstar pulled his body to the left, making the kicking villain's left foot miss. The sword he was pushing down too knocked the knife away, but Blackstar let go of it in a slow way while turning the blade so the sword would slide the other way as him, missing his right shoulder by inches and slamming into the right-flanking clone's foot as it stepped forward to try and stab Blackstar.
Blackstar's left arm turned into a straight longsword that pierced through the clone on his left who had had stepped towards, catching the clone through the chest while its arms were raised with the knife lifted in his hands together. Blackstar then swung his left arm around the front of his body. He used the clone he had impaled's legs to kick two other clones still trying to rush forward even in this, then he released the clone he swung around into the other man on his right knocking him into the clone with the stabbed foot. "Switch," Blackstar called out, and he jumped backwards towards the two younger heroes who were surprised to hear that but both attacked as they realized most of their closest enemies were on the floor and could easily be taken down.
Meaty stomped forward and growled while using his Quirk- Meatball to gather up more and more of the villains and clones down the hall into lumps of meat. "Your tactics are brutal and cruel. Unbecoming of someone who fights against villains. Whatever goal you had in coming here today, it is us heroes who-"
"Hey Meaty," Camie started to her old classmate.
"What?" Shishikura said in a low, dark voice as he wondered if Mirage was going to counter him right here.
"He ran off before you started talking," Mirage said, and she smiled more and started using her Quirk- Glamour, as Shishikura spun around with shock covering his face that none of what he said was even heard by that Army of Death member. It's not that I don't agree with you, Meaty, Camie thought, while her opponents started running back towards the original as they imagined the original just ordered them to. One of them mentioned how it was weird since they only just left the room, confirming Camie's belief that these were the newest batch of clones and their target was just ahead. But they don't seem to care what we think very much, Mirage thought as she neared her final enemies.
"Where are you going?"
"We have injured," Blackstar snapped at the hero in front of him who had countered the Death member when Blackstar told him the rookie heroes were back there still fighting clones.
Centipeder frowned after Blackstar for another second, but he turned to Bubble Girl and said, "Let's go. We'll deal with them later."
"Birds one and two are away," Cleater called out from the pilot's seat of Bird 1.
Blackstar slowed down on his way to extraction point Zeta. He grimaced, then he pushed his feet down and ran harder for the place he had said he would be. He ran into Nines near Zeta, and he said, "Sorry. Got held up."
"It's fine," Nines replied. "I had someone better for distractions." Nines glanced down at Blackstar's left side while mentioning it, as he saw a cut in his comrade's armor between his side and his left arm were there was some blood coming out of the gash deeper than any of the other superficial slashes that did not break through his armor.
"Better?" Blackstar asked.
"Me," Maelstrom said, making Blackstar turn to see his comrade sitting on top of an escape boat resting upside-down at the edge of the rig. "Figure if Endeavor does show up early, you should have someone down here who can take him."
Blackstar sweatdropped, When did she get so cocky? He smiled though and actually did feel some relief on hearing that confidence. He sweatdropped again though while Maelstrom got a tick mark on her forehead as Rebel burst out laughing over the comms in the most obnoxious way possible.
"I'm going to make it rain across America nonstop next week," Maelstrom said suddenly while Rebel was still laughing. She smirked and said, "I know I'll get you somewhere-"
"You know I never leave my room," Rebel said, then he laughed even harder while Maelstrom just grumbled to herself at his counter.
"Well that's sad," Maelstrom taunted back after a moment, figuring it was a better comeback anyway.
"Stay off comms," Death ordered right before Rebel could make his own new comeback.
"We're tracking Endeavor from up here," La Brava brought back up. "We have plenty of time. Transports three and four are on their way down. Dongwu, Blackstar, Nines, Incite, Maelstrom, Alpha Squad, and Death all need to evacuate. You have ninety seconds."
"Incite?" Blackstar questioned.
"With Death," Incite replied.
"I'll grab Dongwu," Firefly reported. She flapped her four thin, long wings very fast and shot off back down towards the edge of the rig. Firefly dropped below the side and she made a sweep over the water. A fish jumped up in the air, and Firefly swept back while ignoring the calls for her to stop from many of the heroes and sidekicks gathered on the lower platforms with some former hostages they had yet to evacuate. Firefly reached down her hands and bobbled Dongwu as he jumped again this time into her arms still all slippery and scaly.
Dongwu's body started to change while Firefly held him, and she grunted as he gained weight while transforming. "Not human," she said, looking down at the figure who froze mid-transformation. "You're too heavy, plus I don't want to see your dong, Dongwu," Firefly smiled as she said it, then she smiled more as Dongwu changed his transformation midway and turned into a beagle over the course of eight seconds. Everything between a tuna and a beagle was horrifying to look at, but it was a nice final picture.
"Arf!" Dongwu barked up at Firefly.
She laughed and kept flying up after looking down at his cute face when he barked. "Yeah yeah, you've heard that joke a hundred times."
"You aren't going to stay and clean up at all?" Tamaki asked the large man in front of him as they jogged the same way over the rig. "There are still villains around here we're sure. And if anyone's died-"
"You said it yourself, Endeavor is coming," Exodus replied.
Suneater ground his teeth again from behind the figure in front of him. His eyes darted down at the floor, then he stopped and brought his head back up as he saw Exodus stop too. Exodus turned around and faced him fully, "I am grateful." Amajiki Tamaki's eyes opened wide at the statement, as it was he who got saved by this man not a couple minutes earlier. "I hope there is no need for us to meet for a third time," Exodus added.
Tamaki froze. His heart clenched up, but he just nodded at Exodus and stayed in place this time when Exodus turned and ran off. He glanced up in the air and watched as a dark figure flew over head holding another one up under his armpit. They went in the same direction as Exodus, and Suneater started walking after them. He wore his slick dark blue wetsuit with his soaked white costume over it, and he was getting wetter as he walked towards the side of the "oil rig." He stopped and stared to the edge of the rig where two planes were hovering in the rain with the sides open just a few meters from the ledge. The planes shifted closer until they were practically touching the rig, spinning jets in the wings holding them up and hovering them so precisely that it looked effortless.
The wings closer to Suneater lifted up a bit as the members started jumping or flying into the plane. The pilots did so to even out the weight distribution of people jumping on, and they did so a little more when Nines and Exodus jumped on. As the members with their backs turned all got on those planes, Suneater stared at those backs and the various languages that spelled 'Death' down the middles of them. His expression hardened and he focused on the one that had 死 on it, then that man turned around and Suneater stared straight at his visor as the man lifted up in the air. The planes rose higher into the clouds before they turned invisible, and the clouds did not move down to meet them but instead seemed to be thinning out like it was harder for that jet to escape from sight than they desired. Lightning cracked through the sky above Suneater though, and he lowered his head and shook it in a dark way.
They bring the storm. "The rig is secure. I repeat, the rig is ours. We have secured all hostages, and the final villain has been neutralized."
"Quite a mess in here."
"They tried to use these weapons…" Mirage began. "They're dangerous. Beyond normal firearms, and even those are outlawed."
"Doesn't stop some people," Meaty growled.
"But it did keep the villains today unarmed…"
Suneater turned his head when the chatter started up among the other heroes. He turned towards the rig that he had to check out now after hearing what Mirage just said. He paused though and turned his head, looking up into the sky and squinting his eyes as the rain started coming down much harder than before. He was on an open section of the rig too unlike most areas around it that had some sort of overhang or balcony above, so he stared straight into the downpour after the AoD he just allowed escape. I just let them go without a fight, Suneater thought, but he ground his teeth for a different reason as he lowered his right hand down to one of the pouches on his costume he kept his food for transforming.
Suneater thought about Exodus again, and he closed his eyes in regret but then snapped them open with a stronger resolve that he had had earlier when he acted. "Leaving the ADTF is your choice. I will not stop you. Many have made it already. Suneater, I will tell you the same thing I told them…" Suneater opened his pouch and he pulled out a tiny black receiver, and he looked at the red light on it that was not yet glowing but could be turned on with a single flip of a switch. "…Take this with you. Even if you will not fight them, you need to allow me to do my job. Someone has to stop them. If you see them again outside of the Task Force, attach one of these to them. They are only meant for the Army of Death, not for other hero activity…"
I don't know what's right, Tamaki thought while staring up into rain that did not feel like it was falling as hard as a few seconds ago. But I had the opportunity and made my choice. Suneater lowered his head and he started for the inside of the rig where he could get to work on coordinating everyone and figuring out what to do about what was about to be a very, very sticky situation considering China and the USA both already knew about this place and what it really was. As much as that should have been all he could think about though, he knew inside that once Endeavor arrived he would be taking charge of that too. Which meant he could not help but think about what he had just done, and how he had the chance to still turn around and toss his receiver over the side of the rig.
The world is safer now than when I quit, Suneater thought, pocketing the device again with a determined look over his face. He ignored the feelings he had been having since planting it on the man who had saved him, pushed them down and hardened his gaze as his fists clenched at his sides. Instead he thought about the villains whose heads were being pierced by bullets while their eyes were full of fear. The one shot through the neck who fell to the ground grabbing at it to try and stop the bleeding, but who bled out in only seconds right in front of Suneater. Maybe it was the right move to leave back then but still stop them now. I no longer know if there is a need for the Army of Death. Could I have ended this on my own? I could have… failed.
Sure, today there were no casualties. But if their plan had failed who would have been held accountable? The brief hesitation Tamaki just felt faded, his resolve hardening more. I was willing to take that accountability myself if my own plan failed. I would have taken the heat, stepped down, it would have been my failure as a leader and as a hero if that had happened. Them, however, if they had failed they would have disappeared all the same. I know they would not have taken the same punishment. They do not take accountability for what they do, and at any time today they could have killed those villains. They have the ability to do so, and to get away with it, as they have before and will again. The time of zero accountability must be over.
I'm sorry.
A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the chapter. It was a lot of fun to write. Army of Death still carrying out operations, but although Suneater's long quit the ADTF, he's placed a tracker... Anyway, once again I hope you guys had fun reading this. Still working on the next chapter, but I'll get it up soon as I can.
someguy1011 chapter 160 . Jun 11
its great to see you back at it, awesome job once again! zach's PTSD coming through hard these last few chapters but now the LOV is back and once again they made the wrong enemy like even if they get zach thrown back in tartaros Death is still gonna come around eventually besides i now have to know if zach will kill dabi and raijin or not. Also the hunch im getting is that zach will martyr himself fighting raijin, dying to stop the now strongest group of villains, that is what i think his plan is.
Thanks for reviewing! Glad you enjoyed the chapter. You're right, Death's still out there even if Zach gets tossed back in jail, but will they be out there forever with heroes cracking down? Zach's having a tough time of it, and we'll see what happens when he finally meets back up with his old "friends." No spoilers, but nice predictions!
orangelarcenist chapter 160 . Jun 11
Sooo, this is kinda of topic, but Does the Meta-Liberation Army exist in this Universe? I feel like they would somewhat sympathize with Lifebringer for his views on Quirk usage.
Great Chapter btw. Shigaraki, Dabi and Raijin finally resurfacing! It feels like they are afraid of Zach and want to get rid of him as fast as possible... I mean who would want to be chased by Death itself/himself anyway, right?
Probably, maybe, I don't know yet. So here's how this goes: I don't want to put anything into the story that might come back to bite me later on. Like, when I introduced Gentle and La Brava, their character arc was over and I knew exactly what their full story was, their max abilities, etc. If I had introduced them as a certain way only at the start of their manga appearance, and then discovered more about them later that made things non-canon, it would start to bug me... Anyway, until the Liberation Army arc is done (if it really does end in just one arc), I'm probably not going to put them in. If they're destroyed by the LOV or arrested, I might make a mention of them in the story as part of the lore of Death, perhaps edited around to make sense with the kind of LOV that formed in this story comparatively. Maybe they never needed to surface at all in a big way, and their forces kind of faded off because things in this world have changed a bit to allow more Quirk usage. Maybe Re-Destro will contact Zach about recreating it, or maybe he's been dead for years. I won't know until this arc ends, and that's when I'm going to decide what to do with Gigantomecha, the MLA, etc. Thanks for the review! And we've got our main LoV villains back, and looking to get rid of our boy Zach/Death... we'll see how that goes for them.
Tetsuzora chapter 160 . Jun 10
Did you actually plan for all this stuff that far back?
I now realise, everything you write has a purpose, and that is terrifying.
Yes. In order to write out Zach and Kaminari's epic plans... I need to become Death, and Raijin...mwhahaha. Lol if I'm writing a scene and I don't feel like it will progress the plot at all, it gets bland to me and harder to write, so most everything I write in this story does progress it in some way. Thanks for noticing, and hope you enjoyed the reveals and the new chapter!