Himiko Toga witnessed her captors get increasingly stressed and worried as the building shook around them. A rescue was being attempted, and the heroes were well beyond the response the mercs could muster. The white-haired Mafioso was just barely keeping his cool as he communicated in several languages on a cell phone and two walkie talkies, coordinating the defence of the base. At the beginning, a lone attacker had hit the perimeter, so they had sent mercs after them. It wasn't enough, and vehicles had been sent, including tanks and a mech suit, as well as a gigantic bear man. Toga didn't need to see the size of the bear guy to know the threat he posed, just hear the tone on the Mafia boss´ voice.
After that, the boss that dispatched the surviving Mountain Brigade commandos to one of the paths to the cells, a Nomu wrangler on the other, and a ton of mercs to the rooms between. Less than ten minutes later, explosions had started to rattle around the building, with weird vacuum sounds on some and common fragmentation on others. When the Mountain Brigade went silent, the Mafioso started to lose his shit. "Where the fuck did these guys come from? Someone bring me the security cams!" A merc with a laptop entered through the metal door and showed it to the boss. "We were supposed to throw Toga at those fuckers in five hours after dealing with the Americans and their allies…how did they get here so fast? No transport Quirk can take people all the way from Japan in an hour. Looks like the boss screwed a prediction for the first time, gents! Get ready!"
More mercs gathered in Toga´s holding cell, and she could see even more inside Izu-Izu´s, who was still unconscious. What´s gonna be their plan now? Are they using some sort of Kurogiri type to extract us? Will they fight Izu-Izu´s friends? The Mountain Brigade guys were no joke, and who knows how many soldiers they have here…The issue was how to get free first, cause the mercs may as well put a bullet in their heads if the heroes reach them, at least that was what Toga would expect them to do.
Toga focused on the blood running through her veins. She hadn't drunk anyone else´s blood in weeks, and drinking her own wouldn't give her any benefit, she wouldn't transform at all, so she couldn't use it to escape the gag in her mouth or the cuffs on her arms and legs. I´m still at the same situation as an hour ago. Fuck.
Ten minutes after the Mafioso had told his people to get ready a commotion started outside. Toga could faintly hear the sound of a horde of Nomus, and the footsteps of a massive creature, several tons heavy, increasing its pace. Is that the bear man? Another giant guy? Motherfucking Mount Lady? She briefly wondered about Gigantomachia´s fate after being used as a colossal distraction when the League had attacked Tartarus. She hoped the big guy was okay.
The mercs around Toga flinched as they heard two mighty roars battle, a Nomu´s mindless howl, and the shriek of a bird of prey. By the sound, they were very close. By the sound, they were pretty fucking big. "Fuck, we are not getting paid enough to die fighting that. Grab the kid and start the launch seq…" Light beyond the room flooded the wall panels, turning them translucent. Now Toga could see they were in a large dome with a small opening on the roof. The source of light in front of them was a metal door opened to reveal five figures; a tall man in armour, a bird headed short guy and two women, accompanied by a spectral raven at least twice as tall as the people. Izu-Izu´s friends were here.
"The mech, for fucks sake! The mech!" the Mafioso abandoned her room, rushing to get Izuku to whatever means of escape they had. A helicopter, maybe? A VTOL? "Boss, what do we do with the girl? Boss? Boss!" one of her guards yelled through his balaclava, completely ignored. At the entrance, Izuku´s friends were rushing towards the glass prison cells. As they closed in, Toga distinguished the women as Ochako Uraraka and Mei Hatsume. Ochako´s hero suit was torn and covered in blood and Nomu brains, her ridiculous helmet was cracked around one of her eyes, filled with anger and hate. Hatsume wore a dusty, dirty black mechanic´s overall, a thin exoskeleton connecting dark red thruster gauntlets, a vambrace on her left arm, and sleek armoured boots, which also propelled her forward. Her (clearly inferior) pink hair and creepy eyes were hidden behind a nifty black helmet with red accents.
As the heroes were some thirty meters away from the cells, a metallic whirr announced a burst of fire from a heavy machine gun. Judging by the size of the bullet holes on the ground it had to be a .50 calibre gun, and it was followed by two seeker missiles. The heroes´ reaction time was superb; before the machine gun´s shots connected, Iida had thrown Hatsume to the air, had grabbed Ochako and pulled her out of the way, and had kicked the ground with enough momentum and force to break a brick sized piece of cement, launching it at one of the missiles. Tokoyami had taken to the air as well, gathering his evil spirit under his cloak, banking to the side of the dome as Hatsume threw a grenade at the second missile, catching it in an implosion, turning it into a ball of compressed shrapnel, falling harmlessly to the ground.
Toga turned her head to see the mech, a bipedal tank that would have been right at home in Shigaraki´s tactical espionage videogames. It stood some ten meters tall and eight wide, its legs were thick and mechanical. The cockpit was sort of T-shaped, and on its right side it had what looked like a rail gun, charging with electricity, aimed directly at Tokoyami. Izu-Izu´s friends were in deep shit.
Mei Hatsume was somewhere between heaven and hell. Heaven, as she witnessed the bipedal tank, that all the inventor forums rumoured as a secret project, come to life in all its glorious metallic power. Hell, as it was currently trying its very best to kill them.
Her assortment of Babies was dangerously low, and ill suited to fight the mechanical beast. A smoke bomb would give them time to strategize, but only if the pilot didn't have thermals. Mei had no EMP weapons, but perhaps she could overload one of her drones to jam the tank´s sensors? "Baby drones, jam that piece of crap!"
Behind the smokescreen, she caught up with Iida, Tokoyami and Uraraka. "My Babies will give us a few seconds…" "Tokoyami-kun, we can take it. Ochako, you and Hatsume have to save Izuku!" Uraraka barely listened and nodded absentmindedly. If Uraraka hadn't been fearsomely capable so far, Mei would have been very worried about her teammate. They may not be the best of friends, but Mei never wanted to see Uraraka like this again.
"Three, two, one, GO!" Mei sped off towards Izuku´s cell, equipping her last grenade, a chain grenade, and threw it with all her strength at the glass wall. The chains burst out, shattering the panes and making a hole for her to go in. Two goons were hauling Izuku to the back of the cell as she got closer, with a white-haired guy hot at their heels. Mei looked back and saw Uraraka sprinting towards the other cell. She was going after Toga instead of focusing on rescuing Izuku!
Mei had no time to focus on keeping her friend from murderous, jealous revenge, she had a best friend to rescue, wake up, and equip with a hero suit, so he could punch out the bipedal tank and the big ass Nomu, so they could all go home and make Babies in peace.
Bursting through the hole in the glass, Mei rocketed towards the unconscious Izuku, barrelling through the armed guards in her way, headbutting one of the goons holding her friend directly in the diaphragm. The merc fell down choking, dropping Izuku to the ground. Mei blasted both hand thrusters at the chest of the second merc holding Izuku, blasting him at the other guards, taking them down briefly. "Baby drone explode!" her last drone, a small flyer with four rotors, became a ball of flame and plastic shrapnel. The guards caught fire and were stuck by sharp plastic, a few fell down. Mei turned to the white-haired guy, who was drawing a pistol from a shoulder holster. Before he could aim, Mei used the grappling hook on her vambrace, catching the man´s forehead, and activated the mechanism, pulling him directly towards her armoured fist. The man´s nose bent and bled, and he fell to the ground stunned.
Grabbing Izuku in a dragging carry, Mei sped away with her boots, aiming for the glass wall. Her exoskeleton would prevent the glass from cutting anything vital, she hoped. Mei closed her eyes and burst out of the cell, feeling as if a dozen knives cut her back, tearing her overalls to ribbons. She fell over with Izuku still in her arms, a couple dozen meters away from the cell. Her shoulders burned as she reached over for the pouch with Izuku´s compressed hero suit, which she placed over him and pressed a button, covering her friend with a basic version of his outfit that fitted around him. Now just to wake him up…she had two options; trust her logical side, or her emotional side…
"It´ll have to be next time, Izuku" she said as she injected an adrenalin shot into his neck. In retrospect she would later tell herself that "true love´s kiss" wasn't a very realistic option to wake up a tranquilized person, and to always trust in science in the future.
Izuku woke up a second later with a start, taking a deep breath and looking around in a daze "Himiko?" he asked as he blinked, looking into Mei´s eyes. Something hurt for Mei, and it wasn't her broken ribs or the cuts on her back. "It´s Mei, Izuku. We are here to get you back, I´ve got a ton of things to tell you, but we need to get away right now, okay?" Izuku nodded, blinking a few more times, flexing his right hand a few times, gathering raw power around his fingers. "I´m ready."
Toga squirmed slightly in her chair as a rod of rebar two meters long arced through the glass wall, straight into the chest of a merc beside her. Fuck! Ochako is hardcore, I may have to re-evaluate my opinion of her…wait, there´s a drop of blood on my cheek…get in, fucking drop! Toga tilted her head, trying to get the drop through the duct tape, until she snorted it accidentally. I guess that´ll do! Transform and roll out, bitches! Her Quirk produced the perfect disguise of the merc above her skin, pushing her wrists and ankles painfully as the chains stretched slightly to accommodate her new size, and sticking the duct tape to a coarse black beard.
She didn't bother replicating the clothes and didn't even wait before the transformation was complete before returning to her own skin partially, sliding wrists and ankles through her melting disguise, letting the duct tape fall off. She was free, and her captors were dying around her, pierced by the makeshift javelins.
In a second, Toga had armed herself with a bayonet and a nightstick from the fallen mercs, and was throwing herself at the two remaining guards, disarming the first quickly and taking down the other with a flying scissor leg. The disarmed guard tried to take out a knife of his own, but Toga was on him too quickly, controlling his hand with knife and stick to flip away the knife, and break his arm to incapacitate. Before the guard could react further, she wrapped her arms around his neck, choking him till he passed out.
A huge boulder crashed down on the glass wall, shattering a giant hole on it. Through it walked Uraraka, rebar on her hands, death in her eyes. Ochako spoke softly at first. "You fucking whore." She threw the rebar directly at Toga, using her Quirk to lessen the gravitational pull and make its trajectory straighter, releasing as it neared the target, adding a boost of speed. Toga spun aside, landing with a somersault and jumping away from the javelin´s second strike. Ochako had tied a wire to the javelin to pull it back quickly. Clever bitch, you can keep me away like this. Or more accurately, you can bloody well try!
Toga needed to get close if she had any shot at putting down Uraraka. Non-lethally, for Izu-Izu´s sake. "You stole him from me! You took MY DEKU!" Toga evaded for less than an inch with a cartwheel. "WHY?" The javelin broke the floor behind Toga as she jumped aside. "You are a murderer! A killer! A MONSTER!" The javelin winged Toga´s thigh, cutting her shorts and opening a shallow cut. "What is it, Ochako-chan? You are jealous? Am I not supposed to be the yandere here?"
A toothy smile earned her an inarticulate yell from Ochako, and another scrape from the javelin. I just have to learn the trajectory… "Don't hate me for being proactive, darling, Hatsume-chan would have swiped him off otherwise. Hell, half of UA could have stolen him with a tiny bit of self-confidence!" That set Uraraka´s rage off, and she threw with all her strength. A big mistake, as she overshot Toga by a foot, allowing her to step on the javelin and pull the wire, breaking Ochako´s balance and making an opening.
Let´s dance, darling. Five quick steps, a feint and a pirouette, opening with the nightstick, low slash, move under arm, strike the ribs. Feint with knife to the face, strike the knee. Distract with stick, armlock, apply pressure with dull edge of knife, control arm. Escaped! She´s better than last time, much faster. Block high kick, block knee, block finger contact! Ruse, knife hand snared with wire! Slight advantage, break fingers. Uraraka yelled in pain as Toga slammed the nightstick on her fingers, her attempt to remove gravity from Toga interrupted. "Did meanie Toga give Ocha-chan an ouchie? Who will kiss Ocha-chan´s big, ugly fingers to help them heal?" The enraged hero ignored her Quirk as she got inside Toga´s guard her thumb going for Toga´s right eye, her leg sweeping and taking them both down.
Toga managed to close her eye before the ugly thumb connected, but it did little to lessen the pain. She heard herself howling "Yes! Scream! Scream louder!" But pain, no matter how burning, didn't erase Toga´s muscle memory. She kneed Uraraka in the crotch, slipped her leg inside her enemy´s guard, and push kicked her stomach, throwing Ochako away, but not far, as they were still connected by the wire, so Toga moved to disentangle her wrist. The second she was free, Ochako was on her and managed to wrest the bayonet from her hand before they separated.
Two meters apart, both combatants probed each other´s guard with quick jabs and strikes. Toga knew the next assault would determine the fight, and she was facing an opponent particularly suited to fight her. A single mistake would end it all. Toga stopped circling around Ochako and launched her attack.
And then the bipedal tank crashed beside them, separating them with the remains of the mech´s rail gun. Toga clambered over the magnetic coils and jumped at Uraraka, who aimed the knife directly at Toga´s throat. She would bash Ochako´s skull in and get gored in return, like a fat, glorious king against a boar. Mutually assured destruction, Ochako-chan!
"Himiko wait!"
"Ochako, no!"
Toga didn't feel the cold steel of Uraraka´s knife open her neck. She didn't feel the spray of blood and grey matter on her hands from smashing Uraraka´s skull. What she felt was a strong back stopping her body from moving on, soft green hair tickling her face, an armoured hand crushing her wrist.
With a twist of her arm her weapon was taken away in a black and white glove, just as the person who had stood in front of her turned around and caught her in his strong arms. "Izu-Izu?" The knife had stabbed his right arm and gone through. "It´s just a glancing blow, could you pull it out? It´s at an awkward angle…" He smiled sheepishly. Toga complied, pulling the weapon out in one smooth motion. "Wahhhh!" he yelped. "One of these pockets should have a bandage…" "GET AWAY FROM HIM! DEKU! STOP" Uraraka yelled at them as Iida restrained her gently. "Ochako, that´s enough! You need to focus! You are a hero, damnit! We need you, I need you!" That managed to calm her down enough to stop screaming, at least.
"Midoriya, there is still fifteen Nomus by my last count, including a very large one. Tokoyami-kun has a broken leg, you saw Hatsume´s condition, and now Ochako has a broken hand and a sprained ankle. Todoroki-kun and Yaoyorozu-chan may not be able to reach us before the Nomus. We can take them on?" "Tenya, you can´t even open your left eye because of all the blood from that cut, you should stay here. Himiko, can you fight?" I can´t even open my eye but I can still kill, baby. "Any time, my love" This may be new, but I do need something to make you blush, Izu-Izu. "Perfect…I have a plan."