Monster King - :D
Darkpaladin89 - Yeah, a big fashion surprise, hmm? And yes, praise Aiko.
Naruto30 - That's a smart move :p
TheGreatBubbaJ - Overhaul, you say? Khe, khe, khe. Yeah, that would be... a thing.
AdrianVnz - If Second's quirk is some sort of 'restart the day' quirk I'm going to fucking scream. And that's a threat.
Detrametal - THE END IS NIGH also there isn't a lot of fic left V: Don't worry, I have more things to publish. I
(***)
"Heads-up, kit!" Miruko announces with a wide grin on her face while walking into the room. "We're moving out, so get your hero uniform and pack up."
"Oh, God, finally." Yoshihiro Maki grumbles. To himself. Her ears, naturally, pick it up. She looks genuinely amused by his barely hidden pain. "What are we going to do? A patrol?" The fact that he genuinely prefers fighting villains to training with her is telling.
Miruko is primarily moving around the country at random, announcing that she is in a town to the local heroes and waiting for them to point her towards some tougher local villains. It's very… Rumi Usagiyama's way of operating as a hero.
She DOES theoretically have a hero agency, because she still needs someone to be doing paperwork for her. But it's pretty much a small office where her secretary/personal assistant is doing said paperwork.
Maki spend most of his internship traveling around, with Miruko borrowing up local gyms for some intense child abuse training.
"Nah, that would be boring as hell." Miruko replies, her grin somehow growing even wider. "We're going to participate in an all-out assault against the headquarters of the Inhuman Supremacy Party. And beat the shit out of Beast, that sick fuck."
…
"What?" He asks, dumbfounded. She looks amused by his reaction.
"I'll tell you details on the way." She says. "I decided that you're going to need some practical experience in beating up complex mutants, so I demanded you be included in the operation. You're staying next to me and punching in the face whoever I tell you to punch in the face. Got it, kit?"
"U-uhm, alright?" He learned better than to try to say no to Miruko, although this still is a bit… much.
Then again, that's probably why she did it.
(***)
"The heroes are assembling for the attack." Skeptic announces as Re-Destro and his new personal assistant enter the command center.
Technically speaking, there was no reason for such a place to exist within the headquarters of the Detnerat Company in Deika. With all the communication equipment and a qualified cadre of operators, you could wage a war from that very room.
Practically speaking, it was one of the things in the city that existed for the Meta-Liberation Army, not for its front groups.
"Brilliant, all according to plan." Re-Destro announces while soaking in information from the screens arrayed in front of them. "Slidin'Go did the job, I see."
"He did." Skeptic agrees. He and Slidin'Go don't get along too well, but they keep things professional enough to work together. "We have a backdoor entrance into the heroes command network for the operation. We're going to see everything that Sir Nighteye will."
"Geten?" Re-Destro then asks. There is nothing about him on the screens, but…
"In position." Skeptic replies. "Slidin'Go has also confirmed the presence of the… Person of Interest next to Sir Nighteye."
"But of course Midoriya is involved." Re-Destro lets a small smile bloom on his face. "Well, we have Sir Nighteye's command center wiretapped. We'll see how good Valiant is currently. Which should tell us if any further 'actions' are warranted. Also, what about the security network of Beast's lair?"
Beast was just that, a beast. Re-Destro considered him a useful pawn within the PLF's High Council, but nothing more. One whose value greatly diminished once Eclipse and Liberator dropped from Overhaul's faction.
But for someone as bestial and primal as Beast, he still had a working brain. Overhaul had even more of it. There were numerous forms of early warning systems deployed in and around the Lair.
Beast was keeping an eye on Overhaul for Re-Destro. Who was nice enough to provide most of the electronic countermeasures. All of them, naturally, were delivered overseas through Glassmaker's smugglers. No connections to the Meta-Liberation Army at all. But… they might have been slightly modified before being handed to the Inhuman Supremacy Party.
"Successfully sabotaged." Skeptic replies. "They won't know about the attack until it starts."
Beast had no idea just how expendable he was. He was about to discover that the hard way in less than a few minutes.
(***)
"So, kit, do you have a girlfriend? Or a boyfriend?" Miruko suddenly asks. Maki gives her a questioning look.
They are all in the forest right next to the apparent headquarters of the Inhuman Supremacy Party. A bunch of heroes, a big part of them complex mutants of various kinds. Gang Orca is there, Shishido is there. Miruko, of course, is there as well.
Also Stain. Okay, Bloodblade. Who isn't a complex mutant. Unless there is a complex mutation out there that can only be summarized by the word 'edgy'. He and Miruko seem equally pumped up about what's going to happen soon.
Combat junkies, ugh. Although Bloodblade also feels additionally pumped-up. Is it about him actually being a hero openly right now? It's as if he was living his childhood fantasy now.
"I thought that talking about that right before a battle is an instant death flag, though?" Maki - no, he is here as the Zealous Hero: Crusader - asks.
"Absolutely!" Miruko grins at him. "That's what makes it funny. We raise the death flag on purpose, then we beat the shit out of fate by returning home alive and victorious. Right, Kugo?"
"Please don't drag me into that, Rumi." Gang Orca groans in the background. "I feel completely satisfied WITHOUT tempting fate, please and thank you"
"Eeehhh, you're boring." Miruko sticks her tongue at Orca, before looking back at her intern. "So?"
"No one." Crusader replies. Miruko's stare grows increasingly… sly. "What?"
"Absolutely no one?" Miruko leans forward towards him, her grin… honestly, he kind of wants to punch her. The fact actually means that her 'therapy' worked, and it's as confusing as it's reassuring. "You're sure about it?"
"Uhm, what is it about?" He never took Miruko for the gossiping sort, but hey. She has to have some other interests other than beating people up, right?
Right?
"Because I noticed you spending a lot of time chatting on your phone with someone." Miruko announces with a shit eating grin on her face. "And you looked like it made you very, very happy."
Crap.
"It's not like that." Maki quickly announces. "She is just a classmate." The grin is still there. "Seriously, just a classmate. She is a Christian, and very serious at that, and I think that the whole 'sinners seeking to return to the light' vibe that we have going really bought her up. She has been nothing but friendly and helpful towards us Villain Rehab students practically from day one."
"Sounds nice." Miruko's wry smile REALLY makes him want to punch her in the face. "Anything particularly cool that she did?"
He just has to keep talking until the attack starts. That will make her default to her number one hobb… wait, she isn't doing that because she decided that he is too nervous or something?
No way, right?
"When after Kamino everyone found out about Mieko Eto's parentage, and she locked herself in her room, Ibara grabbed a fireaxe and hacked through the door." Crusader says. "She then told Eto that it doesn't matter who her mother is, because she is her own person and made the right choices, and then sat with her in the room and talked with her until Eto decided to come out."
After which she promptly discovered that her classmates didn't care about who her mother was. Especially after Tagawa grabbed Eraserhead and had him tell the others that Mieko actually helped jail Eclipse.
Does he want to know why Shinsou referred to that as 'Izuku Midoriya's school of therapy in action' during their unofficial Villain Rehab joint meeting after he and the others were rescued from the PLF? Probably not.
"Oh, damn." Miruko actually laughs at that. "That's some feisty girl you've found for yourself, kit!"
"I did not." He replies adamantly.
"Then why are you simultaneously grinning and blushing when talking about her, huh?" Miruko asks and… wait, he did that?! "It looks absolutely cute on someone who looks like he is made only from muscles, you know? You totally gotta go confess after this battle is over."
"I'm NOT raising so many death flags." Yoshihiro replies.
"That's not a no, though." Miruko grins once again. She is clearly having the time of her life, and Maki has no idea why.
"Just let the kid go." Oddly enough, it's Akaguro Chizome who speaks. Saving Yoshihiro Maki from Miruko's attention.
"Oh, and why should I, mister so-edgy-that-looking-at-me-hurts?" Miruko suddenly redirects her attention to Bloodblade. "The kit's my intern."
"Yes, but I'm his school teacher." Akaguro shoots back, staring Miruko down. "And he is technically speaking under said school's custody."
"Well, that's a shame then that I've decided to make him an awesome hero after he jailed Purity." Miruko replies, utterly undaunted. "And since his mother was a total bitch and I figured out that this is a perfect way of spitting in her face, I've one-sidedly decided to be that kit's replacement maternal figure. So as his pretty-much-a-mother I'm going to do whatever I fucking want."
Okay. That escalated quickly. Maki thinks that he should have a say in that, but it's Miruko AND the Hero Killer. He isn't opening his mouth if he doesn't have to.
"Well, that's a shame then that it was me that helped Nedzu locate him and his brother." Bloodblade retorts, while staring Miruko down. "Meaning that if you are the mother of his current heroic self, then I'm its father. And I demand you to stop."
… wow. A custody battle over him. That's a new one.
"Get a room, you two." Gang Orca finally has enough. Miruko and Bloodblade's eyes are suddenly on the Killer Whale Hero.
"What the hell, Kugo?" Miruko shoots back. "That guy is a weak ass that's used to stalking the alleyways and beating up some no-name heroes while using his instant paralysis quirk to win the fight instantly. Why would I want to do anything with him?!"
"Weak ass?" Bloodblade looks suddenly very, very angered. "I'll let you know…"
"... that I'm a little bitch that can't fight properly!" Miruko parodies him, including a very 'serious' frown on her face. "C'mon, you had a few good moments in the TV station, but…"
"... that I had All Might before Kamino punch me with his full strength." Bloodblade announces, looking rather smug about it. "To win a bet. And I did, because I kept standing after that."
Silence in their little group. Gang Orca groans quietly when he sees THAT look on Miruko's face.
"Fight me." She says, staring at Bloodblade. It's as if she saw him for the first time ever.
"... what?" Bloodblade blinks at her a few times. Crusader feels relieved to have been forgotten.
"Not now, after the battle." Miruko replies, while grinning at him again. "I wanna see how tough you actually are."
"Fine." Bloodblade replies. "You'll have your fight. Just don't make it a fucking let down."
Their bickering continues for two more minutes. Gang Orca, Shishido and Crusader are all deeply relieved when the attack starts.
(***)
The battle started when Endeavor launched two low-power Prominence Burns in two different directions, cutting the escape routes to the north and west. Seconds later, Vapour began to generate and rapidly expand a poison cloud to the east, escorted by several pro-heroes.
The mobile warp coordinate scrambler - a massive, tracked vehicle, crewed and surrounded by an entire unit of GSDF' technicians - activated at the same time, cutting the defenders from the ability to get assisted by Kurogiri.
There are two of them, one to the west and one to the east, both separated from the base through either a wall of flames or a cloud of poison gas. Their range is counted in several square miles, meaning that both cover the base itself - there are two as a form of a back-up.
The primary assault unit crosses the open area between them and the base in less than twelve seconds. The area was scanned with a detection quirk (and some satellites) earlier to make sure that it wasn't a minefield.
It was a minefield. But the mines were located, and clearly displayed. Every member of the assault unit carried a modified gasmask supposed to protect them from Overhaul's quirk suppressing gas, while also having their visor capable of displaying things such as located traps and communications from the command center.
The minefield barely slowed the attack down. The defenders hiding behind it didn't expect someone to manage to cross it, especially not this fast. So even the few of them that reacted fast enough after the firestorms started, typically run in the exactly opposite direction of the base.
(***)
Bearhead - an S-Rank villain and one of the most dangerous members of the Inhuman Supremacy Party - had maybe fifteen seconds to get out of his room after the shouting started before he saw Miruko flying inside through the window.
And through the rather unfortunate dog mutant that was looking through said window, shouting back that they are under attack. Well, tough luck, buddy. If that didn't break the skull, Bearhead's expertise in vivisecting humans was all for naught.
"HELLO THERE, ASSHOLES!" Miruko yells. There are several mutants in a room, but Bearhead realizes immediately that they are going to be utterly useless on this. "Who wants to get beaten up first?"
Bearhead stands behind, observing Miruko carefully, his claws extended. He is a bear-themed complex mutant. But unlike most of his compatriots, he has a working brain. He lets the others go at her first.
It barely counts as a fight. Miruko is fast. Much faster than he can be. She is physically weaker than Bearhead, but her speed more than makes up for it. This is going to be a tough fight to win.
(there are screams, distant sounds of explosion and a sudden tremor of the ground as Grand collapses the first of the escape tunnels - but Bearhead doesn't care, he has a fight in front of him and that's what occupies his thoughts).
As the last of the small fries gets kicked unconscious, Bearhead is ready. He bulks up, grinning madly at Miruko. He has a plan. For as long as he manages to restrict her movements, he will skewer her with his claws easily. It's not a large room, but it's still a bit too big. He'll have to draw her into the corridor behind him, and…
"Alright, Bearass!" Miruko yells. "I don't have the fucking time to deal with you, and Shishido is having his ass handed to him by the Beast elsewhere, so I gotta fuck off. Crusader, he's yours!"
… what?
Another hero enters the room the same window as she did. Wearing some sort of slightly monk-like black robe with a large red cross in front of him. He looks… young? Well-built, but young.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me!" The new arrival yells. "That guy's an S-Rank villain, you can't just tell your intern to fight him off on his own and then fuck off to fight bigger prey!"
"Kit, you're fucking strong enough to beat the shit out of him, trust me on that." Miruko announces and Bearhead starts growling. "He's a brawler with zero fucking technique, if anything he's a bad match with me because all he has to do is immobilize me for a milisecond to shred me with his claws. You're practically his natural fucking predator as you're too tough for him to bite anything off for as long as you're at least on Gear Three. Git gud. Also Bloodblade is going to be here in a minute. Ciao."
Then she leaps through another window. Bearhead is simultaneously angry and confused.
"She's totally going to lose her intern privilege for this." The new fighter, Crusader, complains. "Not like she cares, since I'm the first one for her. Alright, you there. Bearhead, right? You're responsible for no less than fifty deaths, and a hell of a lot of rapes, aren't you?"
"More than that, boy." Bearhead grins. Intimidation never hurts, hmm?
"Oh, cool." Crusader decides to prove to him that intimidation sometimes DOES hurt. His figure bulks up, his robe proving itself to be very flexible. "That only made me stronger. Time to beat up another asshole hate criminal."
Bearhead realizes that it's going to hurt a lot when Crusader's first punch sends him flying through the same door that he planned to draw Miruko through. Close to 250kg of muscles, bones and instinctual desire for murder, sent flying in an instant.
Oh, and he probably broke a rib. Well, damn. This feels like it's actually going to be a good fight.
(***)
Glassmaker - the SS-Rank villain in charge of the House of Glass criminal syndicate - contrary to popular opinions, isn't a coward. She battled - and defeated - enough Ranked Heroes to know that for sure.
She is merely an immensely cautious person that has developed her own unofficial survival system.
She calls it the T&P. Or, in full name, Theoretical & Practical. She enjoys having everything planned properly - and then comparing what actually occurs to her plan in order to decide what to do.
Theoretical: The government wasn't supposed to know that this facility exists. Glassmaker certainly had no idea about it until she was introduced to it a week ago, and asked for her help in supplying Overhaul with stuff for his Mad Science™.
Practical: The heroes attacking the facility proved that the government knew about it, meaning that either someone betrayed them (fucking again) or the heroes got very goddamn lucky.
Strike one. Still enough for her to be willing to fight, and follow the Paranormal Liberation Front's orders, as long as they weren't critically stupid.
Theoretical: Everyone in the facility was loyal to the PLF, and the early warning systems were massively overhauled (no pun intended, although Chisaki DID help) after the mess-up in Kamino.
Practical: The heroes were fucking here, and the alarms were still offline. So either they had another high profile traitor like Tomura Shigaraki or the Arch-Arsonist in their midst, or their systems were hacked. So she couldn't trust anyone in the facility, including its own electronic system.
Strike two. Time to cut down the losses and retreat in an orderly fashion. She does that by calling as much glass as she can to herself and lifting herself up into the sky above the base. Which also gives her a better view on the battlefield.
Theoretical: Endeavor, the Number One Hero, isn't supposed to be here. And, most certainly, heroes weren't supposed to have the villains locked down in almost perfect encirclement before the villains realized that a battle started.
Practical: She could recognize the source of that forest fire instantly. What's more, she could recognize Ryukyu in her dragon form beating up several avian mutants that had the same idea as she had in front of her. Oh, and the fires, a gas cloud and heroes advancing through a goddamn minefield like it wasn't there were there as well.
Strike three, time to get the fuck out. Also, screw the Paranormal Liberation Front, she is a crime lord helping supply it, not a political fucking terrorist.
Unfortunately, Ryukyu realized that in time. Glassmaker had enough glass to maintain her flight platform and assemble an improvised wall in front of her to stop the Dragon Hero's charge.
"Glassmaker." Ryukyu announces. Her claws grasp the upper edge of the glass wall, her massive dragon head (with an intimidating assortment of claws), staring a comparatively diminutive supervillain down from above. A bit beyond her reach, but. "Leaving already?"
"I don't like where it's all going." Glassmaker replies while summoning as much glass towards her as possible. The base beneath her is losing windows quickly. "So I'll… advance in a direction opposite to the enemy, so to say." She is assembling a spear of reinforced glass in her right hand, planning to use it to fend off Ryukyu.
"Shame." The Dragon Hero replies. "Understandable and logical, but still a shame." Then she lifts off suddenly, leaving a significantly dumbfounded supervillain floating up in the air.
Glassmaker has maybe three seconds to react before she is hit by a laser-guided ground-to-air missile launched from a self-propelled missile launcher deployed by the GSDF right next to Sir Nighteye's command post.
(***)
"Congratulations to the missile launcher crew." Sir Nighteye announces after observing the explosion through the binoculars. "A direct hit."
He feels slightly… bad about it. Yes, the PLF is a major terrorist organization, threatening to spark a civil war if things went off badly. However, requisitioning GSDF support in the operation still leaves a bit of a bad taste in his mouth.
It reminds him of both the turbulent times of the early quirk era as well as that Hero Society is critically weakened right now.
And also of the fact that the government authorized the heroes officially to use lethal force. This was no time for half-measures.
"Do you think that it was enough to k-eliminate her?" Midoriya almost says the k-word, but decides not to. Unsurprising - it was his own idea to use Ryukyu to keep Glassmaker in place for the critical few seconds while drawing her attention from an attack to the side.
It was… dangerously close to being an accessory to murder. Sir Nighteye would have preferred to keep him at a safe distance. Killing people is a… nasty thing. And he is much too young for that.
Of course, this time the worry won't last for long.
"No." Sir Nighteye replies as a droplet-shaped chunk of glass storms out of the dispersing cloud. It's small, and if he noticed it correctly a part of it was coloured red. She must have lost most of her glass while blocking the missile's explosion, judging from how much it shrunk. "It wasn't enough."
The droplet flies away at a low-altitude, but with maximum speed. Clearly heading away from Ryukyu and towards a small gap between the Endeavor's wall of flames and Vapour's gas cloud, while making sure that another missile strike would be most likely pointless.
"I swear to the gods, that woman is worse than a cockroach." Sir Nighteye sighs. It's a sore spot for him, especially as it was his own decision that helped her rise to her current position. If he stayed around Yagi to moderate him, instead of trying to persuade him to be a tiny bit more normal by leaving his side… "At least it's one supervillain out of the picture for the current engagement." Small mercies.
Midoriya nods fervently from his side. Glassmaker is a comparatively low priority target, despite her high villain ranking. They are here for Beast and Overhaul.
One of Sir Nighteye's aides takes that very moment to announce that Eraserhead's group located the secondary objective. Looks like things were going to get way more interesting.
(***)
Miruko is ABSOLUTELY going to lose her intern privilege over this.
Also, the involvement of the JSDF is what I really missed in the canon Paranormal Liberation War arc. YES I KNOW THAT IT'S A SHOUNEN BUT IT'S A SHOUNEN BASED ON REAL WORLD AND IT'S STUPID. There should be soldiers AT LEAST setting up a perimeter defense to contain fleeing villains. And Gigantomachia should be treated like a standard movie kaiju and be at least hit by some missiles from the fighter jets instead of forcing Momo Yaoyorozu to produce ancient-looking field guns, seriously, what the hell.
It's like sending police to arrest a side in a civil war.
On a sidenote, I'm kind of looking forward to getting an update on the TV Tropes page, I think it's still on the 'pre-End of an Era' bit mostly tbh.