There were few heroes present who had seen a raid get put together so quickly, and surely not with so many powerhouses. Perhaps if it was something sudden like a kidnapping, but it was unheard of for a long term investigation. Like any bureaucratic office, the Hero Commision wasn't always the swiftest. But this mission was different for one big reason, the Commision was scared.
In truth, they didn't particularly care one way or another about the little girl who was being harmed. What was one girl when they were protecting an entire nation? But they were already down their top three heroes since Best Jeanist was in the hospital with little chance at full recovery and Endeavor's trial was still on the horizon. They couldn't risk the villains getting the upper hand by losing any more of their top heroes. So as soon as they heard about a villain creating quirk erasing bullets and was on the verge of creating a permanent version, they were willing to do nearly anything to prevent that drug from being created.
They had all three of UA's Big Three there along with the heroes they were interning under. Then there was also the hero that was nearly infamous in the underground, Eraserhead, the perfect counter to a villain with a near unstoppable emitter quirk. Now, if that wasn't enough on its own, Hawks, the de facto number one hero was there as well with orders directly from the commission to shut down the operation no matter what.
There were only five minutes before it all started and just about everyone was already there since being late to a briefing like this would be shameful at best. Mirko sighed and swallowed her pride one last time as she pushed the doors open and stepped inside. She ignored the attention that her unexpected arrival brought and sat next to Jectile and Izuku.
Nighteye looked up from his paperwork with a cocked eyebrow. "I wasn't aware you would be joining the rest of your agency, Mirko."
"Yeah, well a pesky rabbit convinced me that helping a little girl in trouble was more important than hating teamwork."
Jectile looked floored and Izuku was simply thrilled to see that she showed up. "Yay! I knew you'd change your mind."
Hawks simply snorted, "Must've been some convincing speech, last time we worked together I had to literally drag her."
Mirko was ready to respond when she looked over at Hawks and saw his outfit. His fluffy coat that he normally wore on patrols was replaced with a much darker black outfit that was as tough as most kevlar and there was a helmet in his lap rather than the normal viser. She recognized that coat in particular. He wore it for two reasons that went hand in hand. Firstly, it was a warning to his fellow heroes. It meant he wasn't there as Hawks, the friendly and sassy hero everyone loved but as Hawks the trained Commision soldier who would do what needed to be done. The second reason he wore it was that he didn't want to ruin his favorite jacket with bloodstains. And if you looked closely, you could make out the horrifying amount of them hidden on the dark colored cloth.
She sighed as she looked him up and down. "So, it's gonna be one of those missions?"
All of the previous laughter drained away and was replaced by deadly seriousness. "Yeah, it is. They are making a drug that could overturn hero society as we know it and we must prevent its creation."
She hated when her friend got like this. She was one of the few heroes close to Hawks and she knew he was essentially brainwashed to hell and back. It was an odd thing, to know that regular Hawks would happily help her move into her new apartment and eat their respective mutation based comfort foods together (she would have an entire head of lettuce while he ate raw chicken that would make anyone else sick). At the same time though she was fully aware he would kill her with little to no hesitation if he was ordered to.
It didn't get past her that his mission statement that sounded pre recorded completely ignored the existence of a hostage. And since said hostage was the key ingredient for making this drug, she'd have to make sure Hawks wouldn't try to kill her as a last resort if rescuing her fell through.
"I guess that means my team will focus on getting the girl out while you focus on wiping out the Yakuza and we leave Overhaul to the rest of them."
He nodded.
It was clear that some of the interns were used to the prettier side of heroics because there was audible shock from the girl with twirly blue hair and alarmed looks from the other two.
Mirio was the one to speak up though. "What exactly do you mean by 'wiping them out'?"
"It means we'll need more body bags and fewer handcuffs." Mirko turned to Nighteye, who had handled logistics and recruiting the other agencies. "Why do we have newbies on the mission? Let's not beat around the bush, the commission got spooked by the threat of losing heroes to this new drug and now it's going to be a bloodbath until they feel safe again. If your interns can't handle the fact that Yakuza tend to fight to the death then they shouldn't be here."
Ryuku nodded, but looked a little uncomfortable, "While I wouldn't have phrased it like that, she has a point, death before dishonor is a pretty common stance in the Yakuza. My first years are good for patrols and stuff, but I'm leaving them to crowd control and evacuation on this one. They aren't ready to fight groups like this," She turned to her intern Nejire, "And if you aren't ready for this either then there's no shame in that, I'm sure they'd be happy to have your help."
Fatgum scratched his head. "Same here. Those kids should be learning how to be heroes not thrown into the deep end on something like this. But that makes me wonder why the little rabbit is part of the mission?"
"Part of the mission?! My intern is the backbone to this whole damn mission. You wouldn't even know where these bastards are if it weren't for Izuku. And we're keeping your kiddos out since they aren't ready for life or death fights, mine grew up as a prey animal in the wild, there ain't nothing out there but life or death fights."
Nighteye coughed to bring attention back to himself, since he was technically leading the meeting. "There was also the additional concern that we don't know the mental state of this child. It is likely that she was taught to not trust heroes or even fear us, so we needed a hero on the mission a six year old girl would follow. Given our available options, it was decided that a talking rabbit would be the least threatening and most endearing to a frightened child."
Mirio gave his brightest smile to the group, "I'll have you know I'm great with kids and I doubt I'd have much problem at all."
Nighteye shook his head, "No, your quirk is a perfect match against Overhaul and will be focusing on locating and defeating him. Since this is everyone on the raid, let's finish assigning heroes to the tasks and enemies they should focus on in order to do this as efficiently as possible. If all goes well we'll be able to get through them quick enough that no members escape with information on this drug."
The group of heroes was finally ready to go. They stood at the ready while waiting for the police to read the warrant. His job was simple, he didn't need to focus on fighting, just on finding the little kit and getting her to safety.
As soon as police said that the bad guys were in trouble a very big man in a funky mask punched the door off to try and fight them.
That's not good!
But then his loud blonde friend with the number outfit got all glowy with orange sparkles and punched him in the chest. The big dude fell backwards but then he got up a few seconds later and laughed as he got a bit bigger.
"Ha, everytime you hit me, I get stronger-"
Mirko jumped in and kicked him in the side of the head with all the force her bunny legs could muster. After getting hit like that directly in the temple, he dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
"Get your shit together Lemillion, you can't hold back on these guys. Now get a move on and chase down Overhaul."
He ran ahead super duper fast and passed through all of the other villains and dove into the wall of the big house. While he did that the dragon lady turned into a dragon and started fighting a bunch of the Yakuza who were outside.
It was the dragon lady's job to keep an eye on things and make sure no sneaky people escaped or spread the fighting to where people lived. Nejire helped as they both could fly and would watch from above.
Hawks stepped forward with his wings spreading out. "Surrender now or you will be dealt with accordingly."
The primary response he got was yelling and a man shooting needles at him. But he was able to for barely a second since a feather shot forward and embedded itself in his throat before returning to Hawks' wings.
He saw his lizard friend there as well, but he was quickly arrested by Jectile who used his quirk to launch a net at his friend. They needed to make it look like he was being arrested like the other villains so the bad guys wouldn't know that Spinner was actually a good guy in disguise as a bad guy.
Hawks turned to Mirko and gave a subtle nod. Clearly she knew what this meant because she jumped forward and kicked the wall in and started making a path into the tunnels below by just kicking down everything in their way.
Of all the active heroes in Japan, Mirko had the most raw strength now that All Might had retired and Lemillion was still adjusting to his new power, and she made clear usage of that as she kicked around anything and anyone that got in their way.
As they made their way Izuku finally caught the scent they were looking for. While everyone else smelled like angry middle aged men, there was one smell that was a scared little girl.
"This way! Eri was taken down this hall not too long ago!"
Everyone followed the rabbit and his sense of smell that not even Mirko could match. That was his main job in this. Mirko and Hawks did the fighting, Fatgum's and Nighteye's agencies were providing support and capturing who they could, and he was tracking down the little girl because he was a very good bunny with a very good sniffer.
Since he was focused on that he didn't really pay attention to the fighting. There was a group of three bad guys that tried to attack them (one of them was covered in shiny rock!) but Hawks stabbed them super fast even though quiet-shy friend wanted to fight them himself. The walls were moving around a bit and managed to throw Fatgum and quite-shy friend into a hole with two bad guys to fight. The walls tried to hit him too, but Mirko kicked them away and his teacher friend stared really hard at the bad guy in the wall so Nighteye could throw stuff at him.
Then Nighteye ran off after the spooky lady with knives who smelled like blood and said something about going after her and not letting the leaf get away. Izuku wasn't really sure, he wasn't really paying attention to anything except his important job. The smell was getting stronger and his ears twitched as he heard yelling and fighting.
He took off running towards the smell of a scared human kit. "Almost there!"
After running into the final room where the smell was the strongest, he found something very spooky and scary. Lemillion was fighting a very big and scary thing that smelled wrong, like it was a bunch of people squished together. His hair had big stabby things and he had six arms.
But that was a problem for the heroes there, Lemillion, his Senesei, Hawks, and Mirko.
He hopped over to the little girl behind some rocks and nudged her hand with his nose to get her attention.
She looked confused and shocked when she saw him. "Bunny?"
He nodded. "Uh huh. I'm here to rescue you and bring you to a safe and fun place!"
Eri had not always been held captive by the Yakuza. Before that she had a normal life like any other four year old. She saw the same movies as everyone else, so she knew what a talking animal coming to your rescue meant.
This led her to whispering a very important question. "Am I a princess?"
Izuku did not know much about the human monarchy, so there was a good chance that she was a princess. So he did what he usually did when his other confusing friend was confusing, he agreed and hoped for the best.
"Yes! But we have to leave right now."
As they started running down the hall together a weird voice came from the fighting room. "Do you really think they can save you?"
In any other situation the answer would have been no. Because she didn't believe anyone could defeat Overhaul. But a six year old is still a six year old and in all the movies she saw the princess could always be rescued by magic animal friends no matter how scary it got. So when a quirk forced her to say her true feelings she spoke as a hopeful six year old.
"Yes! The magic bunny will save me!"
Within a few minutes of running they were back outside again. It was way faster on the way back because all the bad guys were beaten and Mirko had kicked down all the walls that got in their way.
When he got there he found a bunch of his friends who had helped with evacuating the people nearby.
The little girl was nervous and stayed behind Izuku the whole time. He looked up at her as Uraraka and Tsu came over to them. "Don't worry, these are friends and I won't let anyone hurt you."
His floaty friend came over with a big smile. "Hey there Izuku, did you get caught up in the big fight? That was crazy. He was so huge and was fighting Mirio and Hawks in the sky!"
He shook his head, "I mostly just ran around and sniffed things for a bit then I made sure the tiny human was safe."
He wanted to talk to his friends more but the kit was more important right now, so he led her over to where the human doctors were with their doctor trucks. They sat down in the back of one together and she held him close while they drove to a new place. It didn't take long for them to get to a hospital and he stayed with her everywhere she went and sat in the hospital bed with her so it wouldn't be as scary.
He growled and thumped at anyone who tried to get close to her and didn't need to. She was scared of the humans so he kept them away except for when they actually needed to. He was her fluffy guardian angel and he wouldn't let anyone scare or hurt her.
Aizawa walked over to them, looking a little hurt but mostly fine, he stopped approaching once he saw her start to get nervous.
"Would it be ok if I came closer?"
Eri looked down at Izuku, who nodded, indicating this was a safe person. Following his lead she nodded as well. He spoke much softer than he ever did in class, but that made sense since he was talking to a scared kid not heroes in training.
"Hey there, my name is Aizawa Shota, I'm Izuku's teacher. I was hoping to talk to you so I could help you figure out where you're going from here."
So, a few things about this chapter. First off, it's important to note that this takes place roughly a month before the raid in canon. This is because of them getting the location of Eri happened the day after meeting Mirio in terms of Canon timeline. Secondly, I had the heroes take the threat way more seriously. I just always felt baffled by the idea of heroes finding out there is a large criminal network that is creating drugs that can destroy heroes and the response is to send 7 children and their supervisors.
Now, there's something I want your input on. I have two ideas on where this story could go and I want to know your preference. It will be vague though, so no spoilers.
Option A: Very cute and fluffy, kinda follows canon and the direction it is pointing. There will be a talking horse.
Option B: The tone is going to get a quite a bit more serious and canon will be obliterated. Izuku will have a high body count by the end. There will still be a talking horse.