The trip back to the roof went as smoothly as they could have hoped for, it was so smooth in fact that the woman started to give them details of her family's time at the compound. They already knew most of the details of course and the ones they didn't know weren't exactly relevant. It was something best brought up with the medical personal, police, and heroes; but they let her talk anyways, she probably needed it. She gave some details about her husband and child as well and constantly muttered to herself out of worry for the two of them.
As the group filed up onto the roof the first thing they noticed was a hero and Kiyori carrying Tsukoyomi onto what looked to be a blue cloud. When they set him down on it, they noticed the group that had just emerged and paused.
"Mrs. Kato I assume?" asked the hero.
"Y-yes." she stammered.
"It's good to see you are safe, your husband and child are being secured as we speak. If you'll come with me I'll transport you to the medical team." He said gesturing her forward.
She looked at Izuku, unsure of what she should do.
"Go with him, we'll be heading down to aid in the rescue of the rest of your family," he said encouragingly.
The woman looked back at the hero, then back at Izuku, and nodded. Then she made her way over to the blue cloud where the hero helped her on and a few moments later the cloud lifted off and started to fly towards where their forces had medical staff on standby.
As they flew off Izuku radioed in to report that they had secured Mrs. Kato and that both she heading to the medical with Tsukuyomi with the hero Cloud Rider, then informed them that his team would be heading to assist in securing the husband and child.
After he got an acknowledgment from command, he turned to his squad.
"Get to the rappels, we'll get the ground then make our way to the other building to help in securing the others." He said.
The squad nodded and made their way to where they had placed their pitons, reeled up their lines attached themselves to them again, and just like they had started their mission, started making their way down the side of the building.
When they hit the dirt, they started to make their way around the side of the building. As they did so, Izuku sent a short-range communication out to let any allies know that they were approaching. This turned out to be wise as there were several guards stationed out in front of the apartment complex.
The guards were dressed like QSU, but one glance at the patched indicated that they were a sub-group. One with a decimal designation to indicate that they full ranking members, but were assigned to a more experienced squad to assist on missions. It was the third and final stage of training for QSU squads, when they were done, they would be given their own full designation and then assigned to a prefecture. The group nodded to them as they jogged past, which Izuku and his squad returned.
By now this area had been well secured, with the assault groups present in the area checking for injured and securing surrendered foes. Shortly though, they would be heading out to join other confrontations across the compound.
As Izuku's squad got closer to the other apartment complex they started to see flashes of light and explosions. The fighting was still fierce apparently, but it wasn't until they rounded a corner that realized just how bad things had gotten.
The entire area in front of the apartment complex had turned into a chaotic melee, with heroes and villains duking it out, blowing holes in the ground and nearby structures. Izuku looked up and he saw a multitude of explosions in the air.
"That's probably Bakugo..." He thought, his mind flashing back to the days of his youth when they had still been friends.
He shook himself free of the past, now wasn't the time to reminisce. He had a job to do, and that was to get into that apartment complex and help in rescuing the captives.
"We're punching straight through, ignore the skirmishes, and let's get into the building." He said, and on a three-count, they started sprinting to the door.
The squad formed a tight formation, weapons flashing as they gunned down who they could and helping their allies wherever possible. They had to scatter a few times to avoid a roving 1v1 duels between heroes and villains, and at one point had to take cover in a crater when a three-man villain squad broke off from their fight to pursue Izuku's team.
As they fought their way through the battle, it became clear that the attack on Mufustafu hadn't really included the core of Zeus's forces. The villains they saw weren't some twenty-something idiots brainwashed into following Zeus. These were seasoned fighters, something Izuku and his squad became aware of when the charred remains of a hero smashed into the concrete near them. The body exploded into a shower of charred remains and ash. Before now, casualties on the hero side had been limited, but it was clear that Zeus was taking things more seriously now.
The villain that had just burnt the unknown hero to ashes looked down and saw Izuku's unmolested squad as his next target. Held aloft by two bird wings of silver fire, he shot a hand forward and a large wolf also made of silver fire erupted from his palm and ran through the sky towards them. Izuku preferred not to tangle with a sentient, likely unkillable wolf made of weird fire and promptly fired a round from his MRAD. The BMG round punched through the wolf, doing nothing as he expected, but put a large hole through the villain's collarbone. The villain promptly fell out of the sky and hit the ground with a sickening smack.
During the time it took for the villain to hit the ground and then die shortly thereafter, the wolf had gotten on top of the squad. One swipe of its firey claws burned through Izuku's armor and racked across his chest, causing burns in its wake. Despite it being made of fire, it apparently had mass though, and following up with its claw attack it tackled Seiya to the ground where it tried to latch its maw around his neck. The rest of the squad though grabbed it from behind, and despite the fire passively burning through their armor, managed to pull it off Seiya before it could take his head off.
It was around then that the villain expired and the wolf exploded into a billowing wave of fire. It crashed over the top of the entire squad knocking them over and traveled for nearly five meters outward, injuring anyone caught in the blast and lighting the concrete and other surfaces on fire.
Izuku got shakily to his feet, the claw attack had ruined the armor on the front and caused severe burns on his chest that were excruciatingly painful. He pushed through the pain though and crawled over to Seiya who was closest.
"I'm all right sir, what about you?" Seiya asked, sitting up and looking Izuku over.
"I'll live, it didn't cut through the bones beneath my armor but It's pretty bad anyway. Third-degree stretching outward into second and first I'd guess based on the fact I can't feel any pain from where the claws struck directly. Only the areas surrounding the wound hurts." Izuku said, breathing heavily. The pain was bad, but it didn't even compare to getting struck by Zeus's lighting all those years ago.
"Do we need to get you out of here?" Seiya asked as he helped Izuku to his feet, with the rest of the squad getting up as well.
"No, it's not fatal, we need to get inside. KEEP MOVING!" Said Izuku, to Seiya then shouting to the squad as he grabbed his rifle and started running again.
They didn't run into any more problems after that, managing to get inside. There wasn't anyone in the foyer, but it was clear that there had been a lot of combat. Most of the furniture was smashed or slowly burning, and a trail of destruction stretched into the hallways. Izuku ran to the staircase door, slowly opened it, and checked what he could. When it was clear, he wrenched it open and started running up it, his squad following closely behind. The sounds of distant combat echoed down the stairwell.
They went up several floors checking each hallway as they went, a few had signs of damage, but for the most part, they were relatively undamaged. It wasn't until they got to round the middle floors that the damage picked up, as did the bodies. They could hear combat above them now, and so they slowed. They stopped at a door, where shouts and gunshots could be heard. Izuku cracked open the door and saw a horde of villains piled in the corridor, all trying to force their way into a single room.
A few were spraying bullets with AK's through cracks into the room, while others struggled to remove whatever impeded their progress into the room. Them being grouped together was perfect, and Izuku gestured for Daichi to take point. Daichi came up, grenade launcher in hand, and looked down the corridor. He let out a small chuckle and loaded up what Izuku recognized to be a shrapnel round. Daichi checked his weapon, then sidestepped out of the door into the corridor and fired two quick rounds, then stepped back into the staircase landing.
The explosions ripped into the congested crowd, shrapnel flying everywhere. While Daichi had been doing that. Izuku switched out his sniper receiver for his assault rifle receiver, and when Daichi stepped back into the stairway Izuku and the rest of the squad stepped out and sprayed the hallway with bullets. The hail of bullets tore through the remaining enemy combatants, bringing the one-room siege to a grinding halt. They halted their onslaught and waited to see if there would be any movement.
When nothing happened for several seconds, they started to move down the corridor. They checked the bodies for survivors, executed any they found before stopping at the barricaded room.
Izuku keyed his radio for broadband transmission, "This QSU Squad R2, the hallway is secure, you're free to come out." He said.
There was a long pause, then they heard someone go up to the barricade. Then the sounds of stuff being moved could be heard. Izuku and his squad worked from their end, and after about a minute of work, the blockage was finally removed.
A man in his mid-thirties was revealed, in QSU armor and blood running down the side of his face. His helmet they saw was on the floor, utterly destroyed.
"Bout time we got some reinforcements, we've stuck in there for several minutes. We have the husband and child secured, and we got to get them out of here." He said, gesturing to the back of the room with a thumb.
Izuku nodded and his squad entered the room. Apart from the bullet damage, it was in decent shape. The bodies of guards were dragged into one corner, and the rest of the man's squad came into view from a bedroom. They were mostly unharmed, only bearing a few minor injuries. Then the man they had been sent to retrieve came into view, bedraggled, wide-eyed, and the child in his arms, wrapped in a cloth and clutched the man's chest protectively.
"We'll take point, you stay behind us and cover our six." Said the senior squad leader, forming up his squad at the door. Izuku did likewise, guiding the man with the child into the center of the formation and they started on their way out.
As they made their way through the hallway, Izuku couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. He kept glancing behind him, and all around as they moved.
"What's wrong?" asked Seiya, noticing Izuku's obvious nervousness.
"Something's wrong, I can feel it," Izuku said, feeling jumpy almost.
"Something was bothering me in the back of my mind too, something about this seems off, but I can't say what." Said Seiya grimly.
Izuku didn't respond, just stared ahead of him at the man they had rescued. Not really seeing him, his mind desperately trying to ascertain what was wrong. He noticed how all the fighting outside seemed to have calmed down, an eerie quiet settling over the group as they made their way.
When they got to the staircase, the echoing of their boots stood out starkly against the newfound silence.
Izuku stopped, finally understanding what was wrong.
"The baby hasn't made a noise this entire time... You'd think it was asleep, but no child could sleep through the sound of gunfire, or the fighting happening outside." he thought, his mind racing.
"Don't move another step!" He yelled, leveling his rifle at the rescued "captive".
"What the hell are you doing!? Lower your weapon!" Yelled out the senior captain, leveling his own rifle at Izuku.
A second later both squads were pointing weapons at each other, the man huddled on the ground, clutching the "baby" to his chest. In such a way where Izuku couldn't see the baby's face, only the back of the head.
"He's not the real captive, check him more closely! How in the hell could a BABY sleep through gunfire so close by, not to mention the yelling, and the fighting from outside. That "child" should be yelling and screaming, not as silent as the grave." He said, never looking away from the man, his expression becoming stiff.
No one spoke for a second, then the senior captain jerked his head towards the man while looking at one of his squadmates. The soldier lowered his weapon and bent down, reaching out a hand towards the man.
The man's expression changed into a snarl and his appearance rippled like a heat haze and second, later a blue-skinned man with white eyes took his place. He snarled and lunged at Izuku, clawed hands extended; the baby vanishing with the illusion.
A dozen rifles roared and flashed, and the blue-skinned man crumpled to the floor, riddled with bullet holes.
"Command, this is D1, our rescued captive was an enemy agent in disguise. We do not know where the real captives are, likely evacuated through secret passages. We need a full sweep of the compound and surrounding area, call in for backup as well. Have someone inspect the wife as well, she's likely a fake too." Said the senior captain into his radio.
"We'll search the room where they were found, the secret passage must be in that room, they never could have gotten the captives out of the building without us seeing." Said Izuku.
"Understood, key us into your frequency. If you find the passage let us know and we'll organize from there while you go after them." replied the senior captain.
After they had linked their radios together, Izuku's squad headed back the way they had come. They walked into the vacant room and started ripping furniture away from the walls. They destroyed everything they could find, searching for hidden switches or levers.
Izuku was going through the area beneath the sink when he heard someone shout from the bathroom. Izuku got out from beneath the sink and along with the rest of his squad peered into the small bathroom. The tiled wall of the shower had swung inward, revealing the secret passage.
Izuku called in they had found the passage, then taking point, he climbed into the secret passage.
It was relatively easy going, small light bulbs lit the way down the very steep staircase. They just had to go slow to ensure they didn't fall, as they would certainly become injured if they did. The staircase was very steep.
Eventually, though, the staircase started to level off, and Izuku realized they must be beneath the compound now since the staircase had finally given way to a straight passage. It had also widened out, and Izuku's squad could now fit comfortably side by side rather than being forced single file. The passage was now big enough to admit a moderately sized vehicle, and Izuku guessed they ferried supplies and men through the tunnel. That would have been foolish tactically though, so Izuku reorganized the squad into a wedge formation as they proceeded.
The passage went on for quite a long time, and they occasionally saw other passages along the walls, likely connected to other buildings. Keeping track of their direction as they went, Izuku figured they must have left the compound area and were heading towards the outskirts of the city. After another five minutes, the passage started to slope upward and Izuku saw bits of dirt and grass on the floor. Then they stopped as they finally hit the end of the passage.
A set of huge metal doors that opened outward blocked their path and Izuku could see an electronic winch system along the sides of the walls. He decided against using the automatic system though as it was likely to be very loud. So he went up to the doors, letting his rifle drop and hang by its strap he put his hands to the underside of the door and pushed. It was heavy, and alone he only managed to lift it a little, but that was enough to see outside and see if anyone was standing guard. He also noted that it was locked on the outside via a large slide lock.
He didn't see anyone in the immediate vicinity, which was good, but there could very well be a sentry out of sight. The door opened out into a wooded area, and the reason the door was so heavy was due to the grass that had been planted onto the door. Very likely the villains had disguised the door by affixing a grow bed on top of the door, then planting grass. Heavy, but it'd fool any casual eyes.
He let the door drop and took a deep breath. "Doors locked, think your quirk and unlock it?" He asked Kiyori.
Kiyori went to the door and put a hand on it, there was a small flash of light and Izuku heard a sliding noise as the slide lock disengaged.
"All right, three of us will throw one of the doors open, the other three will sweep the area. Lifters in the middle, sweepers surrounding us in a triangle formation." He said.
The squad nodded and formed up. Izuku got himself ready in the center, as did Daichi and Kiyori. They counted to three then threw all their strength into opening the door. The door opened steadily and quickly with the three pushing and a moment later they had it high enough to allow the other three to clamber out. No one had opened fire as they all clambered out, and the three lifters were able to lower the door silently to the ground so that half the entrance was open.
When Izuku straightened up, he saw Fikusā, one knee on the ground scanning the nearby area.
"I think they went that way," she said, pointing to the northwest. "Roughly a group of 14."
"A dozen guards and two captives, looks like we're on the right track." thought Izuku.
"Likely trying to meet up with reinforcement to drop off the captives. We'll have to move fast to catch up to them before they reach their destination, assuming they haven't reached it already." Said Izuku, grabbing his gun that hanging by his side. "Let's move."
They ran through the trees, night vision at max following Kiyori who would stop once and while to check the trail. After about the third stop to check the trail, Kiyori looked back at the group.
"The marks are fresh, plenty of crushed foliage and even a cigarette, still warm. We'd best proceed slower from here, I also recommend spreading out. We can wrap around them and surround them. Taking out all the guards should be possible if we get the drop on them and play our cards carefully." She said, jabbing a thumb in the direction.
"Good idea, Seiya, Daichi, you two take the edges, reverse wedge formation, spread it out," Izuku said.
The squad formed up in short order, and then they set off, being as quick and quiet as possible. Along the way, it started to rain, not hard, and fortunately not enough to wash away the trail they were following, but it would become a problem eventually. Yet another reason for them to hurry.
A few minutes later, Seiya's voice came over the radio.
"Got eyes on the enemy, half a click ahead of us and taking their time. Looks like the civilians are slowing them down, they look dead on their feet. They are probably taking a break before moving on, it's a golden opportunity either way." He said.
"All right, you and Daichi move ahead of them. We'll move up behind them, when you're in position, we'll do a five-count and you'll open with flashbangs. Don't throw them into them though, we don't want to injure the captive, the baby especially. Just enough to disorient them, when they're startled, we'll open fire. Starting with the innermost guards and working our way out." Said Izuku.
There was a chorus of acknowledgments and the line went silent. Izuku pressed forward and before long he was shadowing the group. He had his rifle trained on one of the rear guards, who was directly behind the captives. He kept shadowing them for another minute before Daichi and Seiya reported being in position.
"Counting down now, get ready." Said Izuku, keying for a five-second countdown.
A series of beeps started, and when it hit 0, there were twin flashes of light ahead of the group. There were cries of alarm and shock, then a series of gunshots rang out. A half dozen guards near the captive dropped, followed by two more. The other four managed to get behind trees however and started firing blindly into the darkness. The captive meanwhile had dropped to the ground, both parents shielding the baby underneath their bodies.
Izuku swung around from behind his tree and tried to get an angle at one of the attackers when there was the sound of Daichi's grenade launcher firing and the whole area was lit up in light from above. The light temporarily blinded Izuku due to the night vision, but it adjusted itself automatically in response to the light. The light revealed the location of his target clearly, and Izuku was able to easily gun him down from the side. A few moments later the sound of gunfire ceased altogether, the only sound remaining being that of the baby crying loudly.
Izuku went up to the captives and turned on his shoulder-mounted flashlight. The captives winced away from the light until their eyes adjusted.
"You're safe now." He said.
"Who-who are you people?" said the husband, automatically putting himself between Izuku and his wife and child. The rest of Izuku's squad emerged from the trees as well.
"We're with the police, we and a contingent of heroes were sent here to rescue you."
A look of relief washed over the man's face and both he and his wife sank to the ground. The knowledge that their imprisonment was finally over, robbing them of their strength.
Just then Izuku heard a booming noise from behind them. He turned and looked up, the noise drawing closer. The rain was starting to pick up, starting to fall harder now.
"Scatter!" he barked into the radio, he turned around and hauled the man to his feet, while Seiya did the same with his wife. They ran into tree cover just as something impacted the ground in an explosion.
There was a blinding explosion of light and then it faded. Revealing Dynamite, or as Izuku knew him, Bakugo Katsuki, in the middle of the pile of dead villains, looking around in evident confusion.
Izuku took a deep breath, content in the knowledge that Bakugo wouldn't recognize him in the helmet.
"You stay here until I signal for you to come out," he said to the man. Before taking another deep breath and stepping out into view.
Bakugo immediately held up a glowing hand towards Izuku, a sight he had seen numerous times when he was young. It almost caused him to stop, but those days of weakness and powerlessness were far behind him.
He strode towards Bakugo unflinchingly, and before long he lowered his hand.
"QSU huh. You secure the hostages?" he questioned.
"They're safe and unharmed," he replied, intent on keeping his responses short.
"Bout time, now we can finally-" the rest of the statement was cut off when there was a ripple in the air next to them. Both of them spun towards the distortion right as a group of black-armored figures materialized, along with some kind of huge hideous insectoid creature.
Bakugo let loose a massive explosion, as gunfire erupted from all around as Izuku and his squad opened fire. Caught flatfooted, most of the black-armored figures were cut down immediately, but the ones behind the insectoid creature ran into cover.
Leaving the monster to Bakugo, Izuku ran to the side and slid into cover. He poked his head around the corner and saw one of the villains he thought was dead raise a hand into the air and release some kind of static wave.
There was no avoiding it so Izuku could only duck behind the tree and hoped it would help. Naturally, it didn't and as the wave crashed over him every electrical component on him started to short out and explode. Izuku quickly ripped the helmet off and threw it to the side, but it exploded too close to him and he was blasted away from the cover of his tree and into the open.
He crashed into the ground and immediately crawled to the corpse of one of the black-armored figures. He grabbed it and using it as a shield started to back away in a crouch. He felt attacks hit the body and Izuku feared it might explode at any moment, not knowing what other quirks the villains might have.
He was spared wondering however when he heard Daichi's grenade launcher fire, and a couple of trees ahead of Izuku exploded. Then the body of the insectoid creature went sailing past Izuku from behind and crashed through a couple more tree's the body charred and smoking with a large hole blasted through it. Then Bakugo zipped past him and was on top of the remaining soldiers.
Izuku let the body he was using as cover drop and just sat there for a moment, resting. He was still a bit disoriented from the helmet exploding. That thought cause him to sigh as he slowly got to his feet.
"Ahmya's gonna kill me for losing her helmet." He muttered to himself, picking up his rifle he checked it for damages.
Satisfied there was nothing to worry about he looked up and froze.
Bakugo was standing a few feet away, wide-eyed, staring at Izuku. Izuku for his part could only do the same as well, his blood running cold.
They both just stared at each other, as the light from the flare above them, started to die and the rain poured down.
