Anomynousmous & realjoehundredaire - Sheesh, I know, but you have to admit that the vision of Garaki having his head eaten by large insect is hilarious lol
Naruto30 - Trust me, this chapter only expands the list of people who would found it enjoyable to punt him around the building.
TheGreatBubbaJ - Long enough to get him to Aiko :v
Darkpaladin89 - Because for those two sparing is an euphemism for something else :V But, like, not entirely. There was certainly a serious sparring involved too lol xD
Brony Dragon - I'm unbearably hilarious, what else can I say.
(***)
Yagi Toshinori gets half-way into the target coordinates before running into Dictator. The supervillain grabbed some of the hospital patients then rushed inside the secret part of the hospital, trying to use them as hostages to stop the heroes from progressing deeper into that particular segment of the underground.
That, alone, required investigations. The lack of noumus was… worrying. To Bulletstorm's tactical mind it felt like the noumus were at least partially a distraction. Deployed to make the heroes force their way through them, thus ignoring (at least for a time) some side routes. Like the one he was now walking down.
Dictator, after all, was probably ordered to stay here.
"... or I'll kill them!" The villain shouts. There are twelve terrified civilians in the room, the hunchbacked villain partially hidden behind one of them. He has them all under his quirk, of course.
"Let them go or…" Lemillion tries to speak, but Bulletstorm silences him with a gesture.
"This isn't going to work, Dictator." Yagi then announces. "You saw the wrong action movies. I strongly suggest surrendering right now. You'll get an honest trial." … and then a lifetime in Tartarus. He doesn't add that, because they both know it.
"W-what?" The supervillain is clearly taken aback by that. "What are you talking about?!"
"I mean the whole hostage situation against someone armed with a gun." Yagi replies. "When someone does that in the movie, the police snipers tend to NOT attempt a pinpoint shot because there is a risk of their fingers clenching around their gun's trigger. Or, if they have a knife, making a random movement and slitting the throat of the hostage. Alternatively, making the villain surrender is always preferable to that, but we both know that you're a double S-Rank. Which means that I'm not legally obligated to take you alive if civilian lives are at stake."
"The hell are you talking about?!" Dictator gets angry. Lemillion gets confused. "I told you to turn back this instant or those people are going to start killing themselv…"
They have knives. Medical scalpels mostly. But nowhere near their throats. Rookie mistake.
Dictator fails to react in time before Yagi Toshinori raises his assault rifle, aims and pulls a trigger. The villain's head explodes (shit, that DID violate the law a tiny bit, Tsukauchi is going to kill him, those bullets are forbidden and he was supposed to only use them against noumus). The suddenly freed people collapse on the ground.
"Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker." All Might decides to add, completely ignoring his internal freak-out.
"U-uhm?" Lemillion clearly didn't expect that to happen. And clearly didn't recognize the reference.
"... consider this an important lesson." Yagi decides to act cool, despite still freaking out over Tsukauchi's reaction, HE FORGOT TO CHANGE THE MAGS DAMMIT. "Guns are scary, and you should be glad that they aren't very popular in Japan. Just in case you ever end up leaving the country, I'm going to give you proper training on how to deal with them. For now, get those people out." He then adds. "I'm going there alone."
(***)
"... oh, well, that tells us that the Dictator didn't manage to uncover the MLA." Re-Destro interrupts the silence in the command room first. "He'd go for the carrot and the stick otherwise, threatening the hostages but also offering the intel in exchange for being left free or having his sentence reduced."
"Oh, uhm, right." Skeptic nods, still clearly shocked by the image.
"Remind me to check with the technicians if Claustro's bulletproof." Re-Destro then says to his personal assistant.. "Meta-abilities lost to guns during the first Meta-Liberation War and we don't need a repeat of that."
Those were some terrifyingly accurate shots.
"Of course." She nods quickly. "I'll do it right… wait, what's happening?" She then asks. Yeah. The former Symbol of Peace left the screen and didn't reappear on any other camera feed. Despite Re-Destro's order to continue monitoring him, as he was very interested in why he split off from the group.
"... I think that he entered a part of the complex running a separate security network." One of the technicians responds when Skeptic gives him a questioning look.
"Oh gods, what now?" Re-Destro groans. He is used to plans often requiring random improvisation to work, but 'used to something' doesn't' mean 'enjoying something'. Hopefully it's nothing serious. "Monitor the edges of the restricted zone. Switch to observing Miruko's group. Updates on Endeavor?"
"Approaching the main hall of the laboratory." The technician quickly responds. "There are four AFO clones waiting for them there, but… they don't look too good."
"Show me." Re-Destro replies. A few seconds later he shivers a bit. "Right. It looks like All for One is no longer ugly only on the inside. Monitor the battle. Also, back to Miruko."
He was… interested in what happened to Kurogiri. A quirk-suppression grenade? In the hands of heroes? How? They had to prepare for a potential gas attack if the heroes ever realized what Deika is.
He also wonders where exactly he was heading to.
(***)
Miruko kicks off the head of the last noumu between them and the reinforced door. Three seconds after Bloodblade cut and promptly paralyzed its colleague that tried to jump at her from the side.
"Stop stealing my goddamn kills!" Miruko shouts. Honestly speaking, Present Mic saw Miruko screaming at Akaguro Chizome while actually meaning what she said and it was a completely different type of scream.
"Fuck you." Bloodblade replies. Once again, there is no venom in his voice. It feels more like an inside joke, especially as Akaguro Chizome has that scary smile on his face.
Yamada sighs. Eraserhead kind of wants to go home. Oboro lets out a nervous laugh.
"They are going to freak out when they see it." He then adds. When his two friends give him a questioning look, there is suddenly a pained smile on his face. "You'll get what I mean in a moment. Getting those two here was… quite a coincidence."
Well if it ain't ominous.
A moment later the door opened.
(***)
"The main assault group engaged the AFO clones in combat." The technician cuts in (they have too many things to observe at once for Skeptic to make do). "It's… honestly, Endeavor incinerated one of them with an opening salvo."
Doctor Garaki was correct for once. Without proper awakening procedures and all the necessary adjustments, those things were massively inferior to both the originals and the earlier clones. Still powerful enough to give most heroes a pause, but… ultimately, not even close to what they could be.
Endeavor probably decided to not risk it and started with Prominence Burn. Power move. Also a good way of grasping how strong their enemies were.
Re-Destro glances at the screen. On it, Crawler's repulsion field actually managed to hold against an Air Cannon. The AFO clone that fired it gets his jaw dislocated by Knuckleduster's Overclock-powered punch a moment later.
They can't call for as many quirks as they could. Their Hyper-Regeneration isn't working correctly. This won't last for long. The final remnant of the All for One's quirk (if you exclude the inferior and now restricted version that Nine had) was leaving the world. An era was coming to an end.
(***)
"This is the laboratory dedicated to what Garaki called "Project Harbinger"." Shirakumo announces while heading towards the computer terminal.
There isn't a lot there. No additional noumus. Mechanist's combat drones were no longer around. If what Nedzu told them was true, the battle on the surface was coming to an end. Thus far it was a total victory for the heroes, even if far from bloodless.
They are still on guard. It was 'pretty much a total victory' before shit hit the fan during the assault on ISP' headquarters.
There is a series of large, human-sized tubes on both sides of the room. They are made from glass, and transparent, but it's hard to see what was inside. The lighting in the room kind of sucked.
Twenty in total. Numbered. Almost all of them were… quiet. There were some lights blinking only next to two of them, 16 and 20.
"The fuck was this project about?" Miruko asks the right question.
Shirakumo finally reaches the computer and starts working on him.
"Doctor Garaki was… interested in the concept of quirk-oriented eugenics. But had no patience to wait decades for the result." He says. The heroes in front of him already know that it's going to suck. "He had contacts in a variety of hospitals and fertility clinics nationwide. Enough to obtain blood samples, or even sperm samples and ovum in some cases of people with powerful and compatible quirks and physical characteristics. Typically heroes and villains of notable fame."
"Oh god fucking dammit." Bloodblade is the first one to open his mouth. "And here I was, thinking that quirk marriages are fucking disgusting."
"I absolutely agree with Mr. Edgy on this." Miruko shakes her head. "Why only two?"
"Complications with accelerated growth." Oboro replies. "Only one, Number 16, made it until full maturation. She spent the last few months having what can be considered a 'common sense', plus language skills, imprinted on her, and is basically ready for release."
"Brainwashing?" Eraserhead asks. The very concept is going to be a VERY sore spot for them all.
"Surprisingly enough, no." Oboro replies. "That was supposed to happen after release. You need to know what quirks are and how to speak Japanese before someone can try to explain to you what villains and heroes are and why you are supposed to hate the latter."
"Makes sense." Eraserhead nods. "What about Number 20 then?"
"She was … moved here from another project." Oboro replies. Something in his voice sounds… different. "Doctor Garaki wanted another warper like me. And… My current quirk is a combination of my own, Cloud, and a warp quirk that All for One gave me. Its original owner was a woman, and she… it was a willing quirk transfer."
Aizawa connects the dots the fastest.
"You mean…" Eraserhead almost has enough time to vocalize it before Oboro speaks again.
"She was willing to part with a few ovums for a significant monetary donation." Oboro says, his figure suddenly shrinking in his seat. The look on his face… Eraserhead has no idea how to summarize it quickly. "The rest came from me. My strengthened warp quirk and that woman's natural adaptations to it. A perfect, precise long-distance warper. There were several attempts, but only she made it."
"So… we're kind of uncles now, right?" Present Mic decides to cut the silence short. With a smile that's as nervous as it is genuine. Oboro actually chuckles at the change of subject. "Of course, I'm the cool one while Sho is… the other one.." Aizawa gives him a tired stare. "Also, please don't kill that bastard before I scream his eardrums out of his head, alright? I want it to hurt."
… that was quite a change of subject. And the look on Present Mic's face while he said that was actually lowkey scary.
Thankfully Eraserhead's facial expressions are as bland as ever. Because if they actually managed to properly portrait what he felt inside, everyone in the room would have probably fainted. Yes, including Miruko and Bloodblade.
"Alright, so we're all in the 'fuck Garaki but totally not sexually unless you consider inserting a stick covered in barbed wire into his rectum a form of sex' club." Miruko announces. Everyone in the room immediately shivers at the image. "Which is absolutely cool and shit. By the way, all that aside, who are the Number Sixteen' parents?"
Oboro says nothing. Instead, he flips a switch. Some lights in the tank are turned on, illuminating a figure floating inside.
It's a girl. 16-18 years old. Black hair. Decently toned muscles (makes you wonder how Garaki did, some sort of electric muscle stimulation to avoid them declining overtime?). Not wearing anything at all, except for some medical equipment.
She also has rabbit ears.
"Where…" Miruko says while turning towards them. Her face is terrifyingly peaceful. "... is doctor Garaki, again? Because I want to have a talk with him." She slowly cracks her fingers. "A very nice talk."
Yeah, Eraserhead isn't putting himself between Miruko and Doctor Garaki after that revelation. Judging from the look on Present Mic's face, he isn't the only one who has a self-preservation instinct.
Bloodblade, clearly, doesn't.
"Look, I get your fury…" He quickly says. "... but you can't just go murder someone. Just arrest him, make him spend a lifetime in Tartarus and laugh in his face every Friday. Be reasonable about that, Rumi."
Akaguro Chizome has a faint feeling that him being the reasonable one in the company of several veteran pro-heroes is somewhat unnatural. He decides to leave thinking about it for another time, for now he needs to somehow stop Miruko from committing a blatant murder.
Because otherwise his totally-not-kind-of-a-girlfriend-just-with-more-swearing is going to land herself in Tartarus. And it's going to suck.
"I don't want to interrupt." Oboro raises his hand. He immediately retracts it under the murderous stare of Miruko. "But, uhm…" Now he fully shrinks in the seat. "It's a bit of a genetic anomaly, but she… uhm… also developed her father's quirk."
"Really?" Bloodblade decides to change the subject for at least a millisecond to give Miruko time to cool down a bit. "And what's that?"
"She, uhm…" Oboro struggles a bit with the answer. What could be so bad for him to… "... she can p-paralyze p-people by t-tasting their b-blood."
… oh, so that's why he said the words about a coincidence before they entered the laboratory.
Silence in the room. Long, and awkward. Eventually, it's Akaguro that speaks.
"... If I ask the Recovery Girl very nicely, she'll patch his wounds after I chop his limbs off." He says, his head turning towards Miruko. "Then you can use the rest as a punching bag."
The murderous grin he gets in return is terrifying even when you aren't Doctor Garaki, Erasrhead decides.
"Okay, so now I'm going to be the sane one here." Present Mic decides to attempt suicide by stepping in. "Can we, like, get the two of them to safety BEFORE trying to murder Doctor Garaki?" Eraserhead sighs in relief. At least Yamada is still thinking straight. "Also, you know, not telling you the name, but I kind of know an awesome little listener who can rewind his injuries so you can do all of that to him several times."
Goddamnit, Hizashi.
"Well, I'll just add that if you two decide to enroll your daughter into UA…" Eraserhead decides to speak. "... I'm leaving the faculty at once. There isn't enough money in the world for me to even consider teaching your child."
He can't even imagine the resulting behavior. It'd be like Bakugou squared, wouldn't it? The pre-Gran Torino Bakugou, that is. Worst of all, judging from her apparent age, he is 99% sure that Midoriya will want to add her (and probably Oboro's daughter too) to the Villain Rehab Course. Probably to 1-C.
It's barely a Villain Rehab Course at this point (Suto Sakai, for example, hasn't committed a single crime her whole life). More like Midoriya's collection of strays with weird backstories and powerful quirks.
"Pfft." Oboro lets out a restrained chuckle. "Your sense of humor didn't change, Sho. "
"... he has a sense of humor?" Akaguro asks, with an expression of total shock on his face. It was powerful enough to make him STOP considering the details of the soon-to-happen brutal murder of Doctor Kyudai Garaki.
Eraserhead groans.
(***)
Skeptic's hand retracts from the Enter button, even before being prompted by Re-Destro.
"Am I truly that easy to read?" Rikiya Yotsubashi asks. His personal assistant is observing them both, being clearly slightly out of the loop.
"Yes." Skeptic replies. "In that particular thing, you are." He doesn't even wait for anything to be said before erasing what he wrote earlier on his computer. The order for the capsule life support system to choke their inhabitants by providing them with carbon dioxide instead of oxygen remains unsent.
Re-Destro sighs. An order to prepare that came before the full reveal of the situation happened. Before they knew what was inside the tanks. Cameras were accompanied by directional microphones, thankfully.
"Those two will probably become a menace for us further down the line." Re-Destro admits. Especially the warper - if her quirk is truly so powerful - sounds like a game changing asset that's hard to measure up to. "Stealthily ending their lives right now is the most logical outcome. But I have a daughter their age that was born blind. I get the feeling that denying those two a chance to see the world for themselves would be crossing a line. A 'Moral Event Horizon', I believe it was called. And what sort of person willingly goes through such a horizon?"
"A monster." His personal assistant says softly. "And a monster will never change the world for the better."
"Yes, my dear." Re-Destro nods. It seems that his lessons are beginning to take root. Splendid. "What's the situation of the main assault group?" He asks the technicians.
Soon the image of the heroes opening the tanks is replaced by one of the direct aftermath of a fierce battle.
(***)
Endeavor grabs the final AFO clone's head… and creates fire. All the fire that he can. Despite his exhaustion, despite his multiple injuries, despite being almost overheated… it's enough.
The deformed giant (the malfunctioning Hyper-Regeneration causing a cascading error, every notable injury making things worse) slumps to the ground. Its head is gone, nothing but the carbonized stump of the neck left.
Four inferior AFO clones. The last remaining swarm of noumus, including several that seemed to be able to talk while being much proficient at using their quirks. But the fight is over now.
Well, almost ov…
… nevermind, Gunhead just fired his quirk point-blank into the head of the final noumu. It's over.
No fatalities on their side, mercifully enough. But it was certainly the toughest battle of the whole assault. Most of the heroes aren't combat-worthy, and a serious counterattack from the villains could easily end in a disaster.
"How many of you can still fight?" Endeavor asks. Everyone raises their hands. Including a solid half of the people in the room that most likely can't fight. Well, at least the morale is high. He decides to single out one of them. "Crimson Riot, BOTH your legs are broken."
"Well, it's good then that I fight with my fists…" Crimson Riot - who at this point was approaching his retirement age, being almost sixty years old yet still kicking - immediately replies. "...hair AND spirit of manliness."
Okay, the morale isn't high. It's VERY high. Everyone's pumped out and no one seems to be in critical condition, mostly because the AFO clones were focused on Endeavor, Crawler, Gang Orca and Knuckleduster. The toughest heroes in the assault group.
But it's not exactly helpful when planning is involved.
It takes Endeavor almost a minute to sort everyone out, leave the wounded behind with the proper protection force, and then gather the rest and head towards Doctor Garaki's inner sanctum.
(***)
"... that would be all for the day." Re-Destro announces. "We've seen enough. Mechanist is about to bail out, if Nedzu and Power Loader get too deep into the lab's security network in his absence, they might find some leftover evidence pointing towards us. Skeptic, initialize the Endgame's final phase, please."
"On it, Grand Commander." Skeptic nods and starts typing on the keyboard.
Less than ten seconds later, the security network of the base begins to self-destruct. The files are deleted, before the computers and databases self-destruct through the activation of thermite charges installed within them.
The same happens with the external communication hub of the complex. The second it is incinerated from the inside, the Mechanist's drone elsewhere in the facility goes limp, its connection severed.
Naturally, the camera feed vanishes from the screen. There is no longer anything to be displayed there, after all.
"Congratulations to everyone involved in the operation." Re-Destro says loudly towards the people gathered in the room. "Send the recordings of the hero fights to our meta-ability analysis division, then you're all free for the rest of the day." He turns his head towards one of the technicians, while conjuring one of his trademark smiles.. "Miss Mai, you're also free tomorrow. I know that it's your son's birthday, go celebrate it properly. Also expect a small present for him from our company to be delivered to your house tomorrow morning."
"O-oh, thank you, sir!" The woman smiles back. "I'm sure he'll be overjoyed!"
Behind Re-Destro, his personal assistant leans towards Skeptic before whispering a question into his ear.
"So, does he…" He realizes what it is about immediately.
"Not from memory, no." He whispers back. "He remembers the face, name and quirk of every member, but remembering everything else would be beyond superhuman. I'm pretty much the counterintelligence unit of the MLA, gathering the data on everyone for him. He regularly asks me for a brief summary of the members he'll meet just so he can surprise them with such knowledge. I think he took that one from Napoleon."
"Huh." She leans back. They already exchanged the 'secret' words, so there is no need to continue to whisper. They'll still talk quietly about it. "That feels… a bit dishonest?"
"Not according to him." Skeptic shrugs. "He is fighting to make their dreams a reality. Making them feel a personal connection to him is just something to improve morale, one of the most important assets of every organization. Besides, he truly cares for them."
She noticed that. MLA had massive numbers for a villain organization… and none of the 'We Have Reserves' approach to manpower that most large villain groups had. It was an honestly terrifying combination. Especially as Re-Destro was entirely ready to sacrifice his followers for as long as there were no other options left and their deaths were going to mean something.
Joining the MLA was one decision that she certainly wasn't going to regret.
(***)
After a long trek through empty corridors, interrupted only by some obviously deactivated automatic security measures, Bulletstorm finally arrived at his destination. Large, reinforced set of doors.
On them, a symbol of a rather scary looking black crown was painted. Interesting. He didn't take Doctor Garaki for someone who was into such decorations.
"It's here?" He asks. He doesn't expect a lot, he is deep enough underground that there is barely any connection. Especially now that the base security network effectively committed seppuku and Nedzu had no idea why.
"Y…s." Despite everything, he hears it. Huh. Barely. Oh, well. It's time to see what exactly the mysterious hacker wanted him to see.
Few seconds later, the door slid open. Yagi steps in, his gun raised just in case it was a trap, his eyes skirting around the r…
No way. No. Fucking. Way.
"It's been a while, Toshinori." A voice comes. It's some variant of text-to-speech device, judging from the electronic hint to it and the slightly incorrect accentuation. It's coming from a machine standing by the wall. "Did you miss me?"
Right next to it, almost entirely covered in cables, lies All for One. Upper half of his head is still missing. Yet, against the logic, the monotonous beeps of some machinery betray that at the very least his heart was still beating.