He had been walking for the last hour. He didn't know if the villains had patrols outside of their camp, so he decided to go for the last hour on foot so his vehicle didn't draw attention from being too close by. He was confident he could evade any patrols that he came across, and even if he couldn't he could probably handle anything they could throw at him.
What he had not been expecting was hero's to be close by. He had practically walked into The Jet-Black Hero: Tsukuyomi, aka Fumikage Tokoyami, as the hero was leaving the camp. If the hero hadn't been moving, he never would have noticed the living shadow moving through the moonlight between the trees. He had to admit that the hero's titles were well earned. If Tokoyami had been so inclined he was sure that he wouldn't be able to fight him in this environment. The hero would apprehend him in short order, especially considering that he was a physical quirk user. As resilient as his body was, his true strength lay in his ability to resist non-physical quirk effects. Bakugo Katsuki was a good example, he was confident he could face tank multiple high-powered explosions from the hero and emerge relatively unscathed. Paired up against a quirk like Dark Shadow, Hardening, or Creation he would have a much harder time.
When he got to the edge of the tree-line and had a good sightline on the perimeter of the camp, he stopped. Every fiber of his being screamed at him to destroy the camp before him. His fingers itched to feel the bones of the villains snap beneath them and to impale as many as possible with his blades. The urge to bring a reckoning, unlike anything these villains had seen, burned inside his very soul. He wanted to do it, NEEDED to do it, but he stayed his hand. He was not here to bring destruction to these demons, not yet anyway. He had a more pressing goal, something that drowned out even the part of him that raged inside for violence. He knew what it was the villains wanted from this place and what it was they were doing. He had ripped the information out of a spy for Zeus sent to HIS city, and had later paired it with the information given to him by his informant in the Hero Association.
He clutched the tree next to him for support, his contrasting desires making him weak in the knees and giving him a headache. It took some time, but he eventually got himself under control. For now, he must focus on stopping Zeus's plans, he would leave the destruction to the heroes. They, after all, had no problem killing their opponents. He however could not stain his hands with the life of another. He always stopped short, the part of him that remembered better times, professed moderation, mercy, and kindness, always keeping him in check.
He knelt in the shrubbery and just waited; two hours passed before he saw his opportunity. The shift was changing andhe had but a few moments before people would be looking back out into the forest. He dashed out of his hiding spot and got into the cover of the shadow of the building. He circled around the camp before he saw what he was after. A tent-like structure that seemed to be for storage. With a shift having just occurred, the grounds were largely empty for the time being so he had little trouble charting a path to take to get the tent.
He maneuvered his way through the camp quickly and silently, cutting open a side of the tent and slipping inside. The interior was filled with crates and other various containers, some marked, some not. He stripped off the grey-green strips of cloth he had covered himself with and stuffed them into a crevice. His tactical vest for storing his gear and armor platingbeneath standing out to what the mercenaries of the camp wore.
He started opening containers that were already open or could be opened without causing too much noise and after about twenty minutes he found what he wanted. A crate containing extra body armor and gear for the mercenaries stationed here. He switched out his own tactical vest for the mercenaries, grimacing at the comparatively poor quality. If this was the best Zeus could afford, then his resources must not have been as vast as he thought. He took the weapons and tactical gear from his own vest and from the nearby crates and attached it to his current outfit. His knives were well concealed and the armor plating obscured by the body armor. It was heavy but his disguise should be sufficient.
He spent a few minutes keeping an eye on the surrounding area, keeping an eye on the surveillance cameras and patrols. If anyone saw him leave the tent it might be seen as odd given it was late at night. When he was sure of timings and routes, he slipped from the tent into the area proper. He made his way through the camp, weaving between buildings, crates, past patrols, avoiding the cameras. Eventually, he found his way to the central operations building where the entrance to the base proper was located. He slipped inside and gave the interior a quick look.
It wasn't anything fancy, a stock standard, spartan layout with papers, ashtrays, and various others objects scattered about. There were only a few scant lights on with the most prominent one being the lamp on the table where there was a guard sitting, and who looked up at the sound of someone entering.
"Who are you, and why aren't doing something constructive." Said the officer, clearly annoyed and now sporting a fierce scowl.
"I'm here to deliver a report." the Hunter replied, stepping forward and handing over the I.D. of the spy he had encountered in the city. He kept his face low so that the stock standard hat obscured his eyes.
Frowning, the officer took the I.D. and looked it over. Then he inserted it into a card reader attached to the laptop he was at and waited. After a few seconds, he removed the card and handed it back.
"All right, you're clear to go but at least try to give us some heads up that one of you lot might be checking in this late at night." said the officer as he went back to his report.
The Hunter took the card back, put it back into a pocket, and went to the stairs on the far end of the room and started down. After a minute or two of walking, he came to the bottom where a steel door was embedded. The door had a card and fingerprint reader located next to it. The Hunter withdrew the card again, inserted it, and then withdrew a severed thumb from another pocket and pressed it to the fingerprint reader. He stood there a few agonizing moments until a green light appeared above the card and fingerprint reader and the door slid open. He put the items back into a pocket and started through the door into a long, well-light, hallway.
The hallway was a bit unnerving; it was spotless, sterile even, the floors and walls gleamed and reflected the lights creating an almost dazzling scene. He stared down the hallway, the slight unnaturalness of the place causing his nerves to ratchet up a notch.
He was halfway through the hallway when he became aware of noise increasing in pitch all around him. It started low, like a hum, but then it was a droning noise, and now it was increasing rapidly into a whine akin to that of fluorescent lights but much louder. It was also starting to become brighter in the hallway and that's when he realized that it wasn't the lights increasing in intensity, instead, the floors and walls were glowing. He had a moment to realize he had lured into some kind of trap when there was an explosion of light all around him, the whine exploded into a roar, and he felt energy pulse into him from all directions. It felt every atom of his existence was being pulled apart into every different direction at once but he couldn't move. Then he lost all feeling and consciousness, only to blink and fall to his knees. He retched on the floor and was shaking like mad all over. He couldn't see anything, as if he had gone blind and it was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.
It took him a few minutes to get his body under control, during which time his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He was in a corridor, but the polar opposite of the one he had been in earlier. He could see giant rents in the steel walls, cabling hanging from the ceiling or from holes in the wall, and what looked to be dried blood in areas. He took the heavy body armor off and withdrawing the wakizashi strapped to his chest with velcro strips withdrew the blade. He regretted not trying to bring his katana but it would have been impossible to conceal. He pressed a small button attached to his collar and he felt the darkness lessen around him, the contacts he had recently procured enhancing his sight. He had to hand it to Katsuki Bakugo, he knew how to pick his tactical gear. Now ready, he moved forward carefully, alert for any traps, or for whatever might have caused the damage in the hallway.
The changing room was silent, the only noise was that of everyone gearing up for their mission. Ochako's gear consisted of her hero suit, which was in itself a combat suit. It offered additional protection and increased her overall strength, with most of her power and utility stemming from her quirk. She had some small devices to help in the field, but by and large, she didn't require much.
Momo's war gear wasn't much, mostly her now normal skin-tight black hero suit which granted some protection and let her use her quirk through it. Otherwise, she sported two bandoliers around each thigh, and a utility belt full of small devices and specially engineered food to aid her in the field. Most of the gear she actually used for combat couldn't actually be made, even by the best support gear manufactories in the world. One upside she had discovered about her quirk, was that so long as she knew the molecular makeup of something, even if making it was impossible with modern technology. She could just create it, her quirk allowing her to create materials thought to be only theoretical. So, she had the ability to create technology years ahead of anything humans had yet to create without the direct aid of quirks. In fact, it was Momo who was behind the creation of everyone's war gear. When she had discovered the true potential of her quirk, she slaved away at working with several support manufacturing groups, including Melissa Shield, to ensure all the surviving members of 1A would have the best available to them.
Ashido's armor had a design like her original costume, a mottled mess of blue and purple with yellow highlights. Despite this, the suit was incredibly durable and could withstand the strongest acid Ashido could make, which was impressive considering Ashido could create (in small quantities) acid that made even the strongest of man-made acids look like drinking water. The gauntlets featured jets that she could blast her acid out of at extreme speed and for a fair distance. In addition, she had several special canisters that she could store acid in and depending on the design could achieve effects from a simple explosion of acid to lingering clouds of acid. Ashido was by far one of the deadliest members of 1A, if not in the entire world. The armor also had specialized openings all across it that allowed for Ashido to spew out a cloud of obscuring acidic mist if the need arose, along with holes in the soles to allow for quick traversal.
They continued to change in silence, each one consumed by their thoughts. Ochako couldn't help but dwell on what they would be doing shortly. Ochako wasn't sure about the others, but despite what Tsu had said about this not being the same as the war, she couldn't help but think of it as an extension. The prep and planning had just been what it was like during the war. They would in all likelihood be killing a great number of people soon. Those villainous bastards were like rabid animals; they would fight like demons until you finally put them down like the diseased animals they were.
In time, they ran out of reasons to put off leaving the changing room. They made their way out of the room and into the atrium where everyone else waited, similarly geared and ready. Momo gave a nod, and in silence, they all started out of the atrium. They loaded up into jeeps, and before long they were on their way to the base camp of the villains alongside two experienced squads of QSU operatives. Aria meanwhile was being transported in a separate jeep, still constrained by the black fibers made by Best Jeanist. She didn't say anything, just kept looking towards the distant mountain.
A few hours later, they unloaded out the jeeps and started making their way on foot. Until eventually they were just outside of the camp. It was dark now, and they all activated their optical lenses to give them all increased vision and night vision. After Bakugo's approval, Momo created sets for everyone as they were still technically only prototypes and not enough had been made for everyone to have a pair. Now they were relatively unimpeded by the darkness.
"Ok, Tokoyami you know what to do?" asked Momo looking over at him.
Tokoyami nodded, "Wait for you all to get into position around the camp, fly above the camp, drop the bomb into the middle, detonate it, and signal everyone else to move in." He recited.
"Good, let's get this over with ASAP and move on to invading the base properly. We will leave securing the above-ground area to the QSU." she said.
And with that, the group split up to take up positions around the camp. After about ten minutes, Tokoyami flew into the night sky dragging the bomb behind him with Dark Shadow. He maintained his position for another three minutes, counting down until he finally hit zero.
"Here goes..." he thought and dropped the bomb. It fell for a few seconds until there was a huge boom and an explosion of noise. He gave it another second or two, then hit the detonator. Nothing happened at first, then there was a boom and every electrical device in the camp shorted out or exploded outright. several of the lights burst and multiple people in the camp suffered from electrical shocks as any electrical device in contact with their skin shorted out. Tokoyami flew a bit higher to avoid the pulse, then hit his signal broadcaster.
An explosion erupted in a giant wave from the north and sending a massive smoke cloud even further, just as massive walls of ice surrounded the entire perimeter of the base containing the smoke to the base. One of the guard posts flew forward into the base from the west causing massive damage, while a huge wall of white mist flowed in from the east and disintegrated anything it touched before dissipating. Then Tokoyami launched himself downward and let Dark Shadow loose as he did so, the massive form of Dark Shadow surging outward and massive claws of shadow ripped into the buildings, pulling off roofs and throwing people about in random directions.
In the span of only three minutes the entire camp and been taken, and a quick body count put total villain deaths at about 5%. The QSU moved about in quick fashion, setting up their own gear that they had hauled from the jeeps and setting up a miniature command post in one of the standing buildings. The captured villains were all restrained, and a request had been sent for the jeeps to be moved up along the rough but well-disguised path that led to the base.
Ochako walked up to the rest of 1A congregating around Momo and stood ready to press on.
"Is everyone okay?" asked Momo looking at everyone anxiously.
Everyone sounded off, and with no wounds, she visibly relaxed. They had successfully taken the above-ground base camp, and all that remained was the long and arduous task of working through the base level by level. Momo started leading the team over to the stairs, with Ochako and Bakugo taking up the rear as they did.
"I don't like it..." muttered Bakugo.
"What is it?" asked Ochako frowning as she looked at him.
Bakugo was chewing at a corner of his mouth, his frown deep.
"I expected this place to be either crawling in extra security, or to find the place ransacked. The Hunter got here before us, so where is he? He wasn't being held captive, the camp was pretty relaxed when we got here, and there is no evidence that he was actually here. So, what was his plan for coming here? I don't like it..." He said.
Yes... that was an excellent point. Everything they knew about the Hunter pointed to someone who had a sizable grudge against villains, to ignore the base camp entirely meant there must have been something even more important than fighting the villains on his mind. It brought serious questions to mind about their own intelligence and information gathering skills, if the Hunter managed to discover something of sufficient importance to ignore the camp altogether.
"We can worry about that later, for now, we need to focus on clearing the base and putting a stop to whatever plans Zeus had going on here," said Ochako, giving her head a bit of a shake and refocusing on the task at hand.
Bakugo gave a "hmph" as he also switched focus back to the current mission.
They got to the door at the end of the stairwell and had to wait for Aria to brought to them by members of the QSU escorting her. When they finally arrived, they undid her restraints and retreated.
Aria gave a few stretches, and everyone heard the audible noise of her joints popping from being constrained for so long.
Leaving Aria to stretch and get herself ready, Momo turned to Todoroki and Kirishima.
"All right, Todoroki, Kirishima, your turn." Said Momo.
Todoroki went to the door and placed a hand on it, and a second later the whole door was frozen solid, stretching past the door and into the hallway beyond a little. After that, Todoroki made way for Kirishima, who approached the door and hardened to his maximum. He drew back his fist and with a loud shattering noise, he put a hole into the door like it were glass. He continued to rip parts of the door off like thick stubborn glass until it was broken open enough to allow for people to walk through.
The hallway beyond was only partially lit, a portion of the EMP seemed to have penetrated enough to short out some of the lights and damage the rest given they were blinking randomly, so hopefully, any alarms or traps installed had been similarly damaged or disabled. They started down the hallway with Kirishima taking point, and Ochako bringing up the rear. They were about halfway through the hallway when there an ear-shattering pop and parts of the walls shattered outward. Sparks and shards of glass-like metal flew from them, as light and electricity coursed through the whole of the hallway in random spasmodic waves. Then the lights went out, and a discordant hum could be heard. Lights flashed intermittently throughout the hallway and energy could be seen arcing from one wall to the next, or from floor to ceiling in increasing regularity.
They were too deep to try and backpedal, but not close enough to the end to try and make a run for it.
"Barriers now!" screamed out Momo over the horrible noise.
walls of ice formed at both ends of the groups, Kirishima braced himself against the front wall while Ochako used her quirk to reinforce the back wall. They stood like that for a few more seconds, and the noise seemed to recede some until suddenly it exploded into an even higher pitch and the walls shattered. They all had enough time to see the roiling torrents of energy both in front and behind them, then the energy washed over them and they all screamed from the pain.
It felt like every atom of Ochako's body was being torn apart and stuck back together, then in a swirl of disorderly movement, she fell onto the floor headfirst. Fortunately, her body was immune to G-forces, and so she got back up relatively easily and only stumbled a little in the attempt. It felt like her body was having trouble listening to the signals from her brain. She felt slow and incorrect. In time this feeling faded and the ringing in her ears with it.
She finally got a proper look about her and her mouth opened slightly at the sight of it. The steel flooring around her was scorched and warped horribly where she had landed. She was standing in the center of a large circular chamber, and she couldn't see any of her friends around her. Her immediate thought was to use her radio, but a quick check told her that her radio was inoperable. As she examined the room about her, she saw huge broken tanks all about her. The glass from them scattered all over, and well over 20 partially mummified corpses scattered all across the room, with another ten or so that were in bisected pieces. She also noticed in one corner, two much more recent bodies. As she approached for a closer look, she saw that they been completely bisected at the waist. These corpses appeared to be a few months old at best, but she couldn't be sure. Thoroughly spooked, she turned around and examined the room more closely.
Each broken tank had a console next to it, but when she tried them, nothing happened. Apparently, this part of the base was cut off from the power, which was strange, to say the least. She also noticed the dried blood, and gashes throughout the entirety of the room, testifying to some large creature putting giant rents into the floor. Based on their size, the claws or whatever that made them would have to be massive. She felt a bit of trepidation at the sight of it all and decided sticking around was probably a bad idea.
It was clear to her that she had been teleported somehow to what was likely the lowest floor of the base.
"I'm potentially sharing the lowest floor with some kind of monster with enough force to bisect a human body, fantastic." she thought angrily.
So, she started to make her way out of the ruined chamber, spinning up her gravity armor as she did so. Whatever was down here, she wouldn't let it get the drop on her.
