Branches shifted above his head, swaying in the warm breeze.
Warm breeze? No, that's not…
Izuku Midoriya cracked his eyes open, and found a faceful of grass. He threw himself back, landing on his rear, and wiped the dirt from his face.
Another round started? With no warning at all? That's unusual.
He picked himself up, quickly checking his surroundings. It was a forest, illuminated by golden morning light. The trees were deciduous, but the temperatures felt nearly tropical. Patches of flowers grew in the pools of sunlight between the shadows of leaves, but Izuku couldn't recognize them. A low sound, with enough bass to rattle the laces on his Gamma suit shoes, passed through the trees. He spun, searching for the source, but could not find it.
What is this place?
"Good morning, warriors!" boomed a voice from overhead- though Izuku wasn't quite sure how he could tell it came from overhead. It felt just as much like it came from his left, or his right, or behind him.
The Master of Games, then… so, he started a round without warning or prep. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.
"Apologies for mixing things up," the Master of Games continued, not sounding the least bit apologetic. "But things have become rather droll lately, and I've decided to inject some tension into our little competition. Welcome to the Survival Eon! This is a special round that will last longer than normal, and will test the limits of your abilities!"
Izuku swore he heard something move behind him, so he turned to search for it. He didn't see anything, but a patch of flowers looked unusually upturned. He slowly crept forward, staying quiet both to avoid alerting whatever might be nearby, and to listen to the Master of Games' instructions.
"In the Survival Eon, each team has a unique objective to complete, but you won't know what it is until you defeat another team! After completing that objective, you'll be brought forwards in time to a new arena, where you'll have another objective. This will continue until only one team is left standing! If you need a competitive edge, keep an eye out for the supplies I've hidden… that is, if you can get to them in time!"
The flowers were pressed down, smushed into the mud.
It doesn't look like a footprint.
He traced the tread with his finger- three narrow lines, converging at a central point, like an arrow. Checking to his left, he found similar depressions in the grass, and to his right, a few others in the soft dirt that surrounded a tall, gnarled tree.
"That's right, I should mention… if you don't complete your objectives fast enough, the arena you're playing in will suffer a terrible disaster! I'd try not to stick around too long."
Izuku took a deep breath and channeled the power of One for All through his body.
"Who's there? Come out."
A quiet cooing came from behind the tree, in a halting pattern.
It almost sounds like someone talking, but it can't be. That's not a human. But then… what is it? There's no sense dragging this out, especially considering the Master of Games put us on the clock.
With a small fraction of his strength, Izuku pushed off of the ground, dashing around the trunk. He was certain he was ready for whatever was lurking back there. When what came into view seemed to be a nine-foot-tall bird, he tripped on an exposed root and travelled the rest of the distance on his face.
Wait, is that…
The birdlike creature strutted towards him, flapping its short wings to display emerald feathers. It tilted its head from side to side inquisitively as it closed in.
"Hey! Stay back!" yelped Izuku, scrambling into a sitting position. He would have stood up, but the creature was now looming directly over him, clicking its broad, shovel-like beak open and closed.
"Listen, I'm… I'm warning you!"
Come on, think! What are you supposed to do when you encounter a dangerous animal?
Izuku, unsettled, picked the first option that came to mind. He clapped his hands together, and screamed, making as much noise as he possibly could. The creature reeled back and squawked in kind, ruffling its feathers out to make itself look larger. With a shriek, it began to charge back towards him, and Izuku instinctively shielded his head with his hands. He braced for the impact, and heard it scream again, followed by two wet thunds. Hesitantly, he lowered his arms.
"Ah, Midoriya. I was wondering where you were."
Standing in the shadow of the tree was a knight, clad in mail and plate armor. A ragged tabard hung over his chest, emblazoned with a hand-painted sun. At his side was a straight sword, red with the freshly-spilt blood of the creature, which lay on the ground at his feet, its crane-like neck severed halfway up.
"Solaire! How did-"
"I arrived here only a short way hence," he said, gesturing behind him with his sword. "I heard you cry out, and found you being accosted by this drake, so I slew it."
"Well, thank you, but-"
"Ah! No thanks are required. 'Tis all in the spirit of jolly cooperation."
Izuku decided it would be too difficult to explain that he hadn't intended to kill the creature. From the time he had spent around the knight, Izuku could tell that Solaire definitely came from a… simpler time.
"Yeah, jolly cooperation," Izuku replied, rising from the mud. "That's what a team does. But what was it you called this?"
"A drake," said Solaire, his voice eternally muffled by his heavy helmet, which Izuku had never seen him without. "Though it looks like nary a drake I have ever beheld."
"I think it might actually be a dinosaur," said the boy, kneeling to examine the creature's corpse. It was very birdlike at first glance, but as he lifted one of its crumpled wings he found a set of long claws. The creature's thick tail lent credence to his theory as well. "Before I got into my hero phase, I had some dinosaur toys as a kid. This one doesn't look like any of those, but I'm pretty certain that's what this is."
"I've never heard of these dinosaurs," said Solaire, "but it seems your estimations might be sharper than mine. In any case, they're no match for us."
"This one may not be much of a threat, but I know there are other ones that could be. Bigger, scarier ones. And if the Master of Games' description is anything to go by, I think we're going to see a lot more of them."
"Then we ought to rendezvous with the rest of the party, yes? If you and I started close together, they can't be more than a stone's throw away, either."
"You're right. Let's see what we can find."
Together, they set off in the direction Solaire had come from, scanning the woods for any sign of their other teammates. They did not get far before Izuku noticed a faint sound above the chirping birds and buzzing insects.
"Ssh," he whispered, gesturing for Solaire to stop. The knight obliged, and without the clanking of his armor, the sound became more clear. It was tinny, and very soft, but it seemed to be music. The source seemed to be a gulley towards their left. Izuku motioned to Solaire to stay put, and began to creep towards the sound. He resolved that he'd have the guts to punch anything that got too close- he didn't want a repeat of last time. He crouched down on the side of the gulley and peered over the edge. It was a deep cut into the earth, formed by the slope of the land and torrential rainfall, no doubt. Roots and rocks protruded into the tiny canyon, and the dirt walls had cracked with age. In the center was a young woman performing what seemed to be a choreographed dance routine.
"Da-da… give up, hold da da da and reach the top… da na na na what you have got," she breathed, bouncing along to a rhythm Izuku couldn't fully make out. Her outfit seemed to be mismatched, pairing athletic tights and running shoes with a military bomber jacket, crisscrossed with a bulky mechanical harness. A pair of earbuds ran down to a rectangular MP3 player tabbed into one of her jacket's pockets.
"Lena! Hey, Lena!"
The woman looked up, snapping to attention with almost cartoonish urgency.
"Uh! Um! Oh! Izuku! How… how much of that did you see?"
"I saw you dancing, if that's what you mean."
Lena sighed and sprung up out of the gulley, landing next to Izuku on the edge. "It'd be charitable to call that dancing," she groaned.
"You were having fun. There's no reason to be ashamed of it. What were you listening to?"
"Some classical music," she explained, unclipping the MP3 player from her pocket. "This is some authentic old-school stuff. Take a look," she said as she handed the device to Izuku.
"S Club 7? That's classical music?"
"Sometimes," said Lena wistfully, "I feel like I was born in the wrong generation."
"Where did you get this?"
"There was an odd-looking box right next to where I started out, and this was in it," she explained. "It must be one of the supplies that the Master of Games was talking about."
"I don't see how this is really supposed to help though."
"You and me both. But I can't complain about having some tunes, on an authentic first-gen iPod, no less! Retro as hell!"
Solaire, having deciphered that the sound was not a threat, clanked over and joined them.
"Ah, Lady Oxton! Mayhaps you've seen another of our allies?"
"No, I-"
A distant growl of "GET OFF!" echoed between the trees.
Deku raised a finger, lowering it in the direction of the voice. "That sounds like-"
"Pyromancer," scoffed Solaire, who raised his shield and charged towards the scream.
"Come on, Izuku, we don't want to be late," smirked Lena before jetting away on a trail of blue particles.
Izuku gave chase, but he only managed to catch up to Solaire- outrunning Lena simply wasn't something he was capable of. They came to a thicket of shrubbery, half of which was burnt to a crisp. Standing next to the ruined foliage was Chandra, doing what Izuku fully expected her to be doing.
"Damn bugs," she swore, stomping on something on the ground, though there really didn't seem to be anything left. "Oh, Nissa would say, 'Don't kill it, live in harmony,' but I don't thinks she realizes that these things suck blood! And spread disease!"
"I, ah, think you got it," said Lena sheepishly.
"You're damn right I did. I hate those things."
Chandra used magic, that much Izuku understood. But her exact nature remained to him a mystery. Her clothing was bizarrely anachronistic, with medieval-looking materials bolted to clunky turn-of-the-century machinery. She, like Lena, had a fondness for goggles, but the most striking thing about her appearance was her hair, which currently wasn't hair at all, but a raging inferno rising from her scalp. As she calmed down, the tongues of flame settled down into red strands. It was uncannily similar, Izuku noted, to the pro hero Endeavor, and Chandra had a temperament to match.
"Done?" meekly asked Eleven from the bottom of a nearby tree stump, where she had been cowering.
"Yes, I'm done. For now," snarled Chandra.
"You scared her," Izuku said, crouching next to Eleven.
"She shouldn't spook so easily."
"You can't just order people to not be afraid, Chandra," said Lena.
Chandra gritted her teeth. "You're right. I'm sorry. I won't torch bugs without warning you first."
"OK," grunted Eleven.
"Perhaps you shouldn't be torching insects at all, Chandra," said the gravelly voice of their team's leader, who was crossing towards them through a gap in the trees ahead. Scurrying next to the Titan was a small spherical creature, wholly a soft pinkish color with the exception of two dark eyes in the center- the team's final member, Kirby. "Consider if that bug had carried a seed that could grow into a plant that would nourish people. Nature is unafraid to dole out death on its own terms. We hardly need to intrude."
"Poyo," Kirby added.
"Indeed," said Thanos. "I'm assuming all of you heard the Master of Games' broadcast as well?"
He was met with five nods, and a kind of acknowledging grunt from Kirby, who without a neck could not nod.
"Then we need to find and defeat another team. Lena, Kirby, Midoriya, Eleven- you'll form a scouting party. Solaire, Chandra, and I will look for high ground. If you spot any teams, or anything unusual, report back using Kirby's Warp Star."
"Damn, I wish I could be on the front lines," cursed Chandra.
"You'll get your chance once we've found the enemy. Does everyone understand the plan?"
The group voiced their understanding, but Izuku raised his hand.
"Yes, Midoriya?"
"It's not a problem with the plan, I just thought you should know- Solaire and I ran into, well, I think it was a dinosaur."
"Oh, great," grunted Chandra. "If only Huatli were here to wax poetic about it."
"A dinosaur?" said Lena, perking up. "What kind? Ornithischian? Saurischian?"
"Um, I don't know what that means."
"Listen, we'll talk more about it later."
"Do you think these dinosaurs will pose a problem for us?" asked Thanos.
"The one me and Solaire found wasn't much of an issue," said Izuku, who noticed Solaire feigning a cough. "But there might be stronger ones around."
"We'll keep our eyes open for them," giggled Lena, grabbing Eleven's hand and darting away, followed by a flickering beam of blue.
"Not again," Izuku moaned, tucking Kirby under his arm before desperately racing after his teammates.
"So you have heard of these 'dinosaurs,' then?" Thanos asked Chandra.
"Yeah," grunted the pyromancer. "They're from a Plane called Ixalan. Big, dumb, hungry lizards. But I don't know if that's where we are."
"The Master of Games has created hazardous environments before. But I have a feeling this Survival Eon of his will be more insidious. We should remain cautious."
He juked left and right, dodging trees and roots as he darted through the green-gold forest, watching for the shapes of creatures on the edge of his vision.
"Come on, come on! We've got to find the dinosaurs faster!"
Izuku was sure he could go faster, but he didn't want to push his Full Cowling too far.
"How about you slow down instead? I don't want to drop Kirby!"
"Poyo," gurgled the puffball of a creature, giving a sickly look up at its courier.
"Fine, fine," Lena acquiesced, and the blue beam from her chronal accelerator harness flickered and faded into stray particles on top of a rocky bluff ahead. Izuku eased back and leaned against his momentum, sliding to a halt next to Lena and Eleven, who had no trouble decelerating at all. The boy teetered at the edge, glancing down off the cliff at the surrounding lowland. A spring emerged from the bottom of the cliff face, feeding a small brook. The trees stopped closer to the cliff, no doubt discouraged by shallow soil, so the rock created a semi-circular clearing. The edges of the high ground bent inwards, dumpling-like, before joining back with the low ground.
"Again," said Eleven, smiling at the young woman. Lena simply wagged a finger and replied with "Later."
"Could you calm down? We need to be careful. We're in a round, you know," Izuku protested.
"You're right. I'm sorry. It's just… this place. I mean, not this one, but the Grand Combat. It's weirdly liberating, being able to just bounce around and have fun. You savvy?"
"I think I do," nodded Izuku.
"Back at home, there's missions and civilians and terrorists and bad things happen when you mess up. But here… nothing ever seems to change. In some ways that's awful, but in other ways, it's freeing."
"I get it. But we can't get carried away. There's… well, there's something on the line. I'm sure Thanos might have more of that figured out."
"He sure does seem to understand a lot, doesn't he? But at the same time, it's hard to tell what's going on in that big raisin. Haven't the foggiest, sometimes. But, the dinosaurs! What did you see?"
"It was a little bigger than me or Solaire. It looked a lot like a bird. It even had feathers."
"Oh, oh! It must be a theropod, then. It's those dinosaurs that became birds, down the line."
"You seem to know a lot about dinosaurs."
"I was a fan when I was a kid. But after my accident, after getting unstuck in time," she said, pointing at her harness, "I kind of wondered if it would be possible for me to go back, and really see them. Winston said that wouldn't be possible, but here we are! Now, in your world, did scientists decide on the whole ornithoscelida business?"
"I don't know what that means."
"Ah, don't worry. Just know that when it comes to dinosaur spotting, Tracer is your girl!"
"People spotting," murmured Eleven, pointing down from the bluff. Izuku, Lena, and Kirby carefully peered over the edge. At the opposite edge of that clearing emerged a rifle. A single soldier in green and tan drabs walked forward, scanning left and right with his scope.
"Clear," he said, motioning forwards with his off hand.
A second soldier with a larger weapon entered, and two more followed, carrying a heavy hard case. Izuku had seen them before.
"It's Killjoy, Inc.," he whispered.
"The ones you fought before?" asked Lena.
"Mmm hmm," nodded Eleven. "Send Kirby," she whimpered.
"I don't know if we should," said Izuku. "The Warp Star is fast, but it's not stealthy. They have guns- if we make the wrong move, they could shred us before Kirby could get back."
"Then we should put some distance between Kirby and the team before sending him. You and Eleven stay put. I'll cover Kirby," Lena suggested. "Just signal when you're ready."
"Got it," Izuku replied.
"Poyo," confirmed Kirby.
Kirby and Lena crept back, and Izuku turned his attention back to the soldiers below. Tombstone squad advanced forward, and placed the hard case at the base of the cliff just below him. The one Izuku recognized as the sniper from before extracted a walkie-talkie and made a call.
"Clear," he said. In response, several more figures emerged from the thick forest beyond the clearing. There was the bald man in the suit, whom Izuku had seen before. But with him were a few new faces. A hulking mountain of a human, barely wrapped in a red shirt, flak jacket and combat fatigues, hefted a minigun over his shoulder. Next to him was another large figure, their body completely shrouded by a glimmering set of futuristic power armor. Following behind them was what seemed to be a fifth soldier, though his uniform and gear seemed to be custom-made, capped with a face-obscuring bronze-and-black helmet. An assault pistol was holstered on each hip, and a submachine gun was carried nonchalantly in his left hand. The hilt of a sword peeked up over his left shoulder. The way he carried himself was completely different from the other soldiers, who looked so alert and tense behind their raised weapons. Izuku could tell that this one had to be in charge.
"Where is fire support?" growled the huge man with the minigun through a thick accent, as the team gathered around the base of the cliff.
"I sent up a flare a minute ago. Spectre should get here soon. The trees are likely slowing him down," said the bronze-masked man with a voice as dark and smooth as refined oil. "Tombstone, let's see what we have got."
Tombstone Three knelt down and undid the clasps of the hard case, opening the heavy lid. Inside was what appeared to be a heavy-duty laptop and a set of small, silverish canisters.
"Battlefield command and control suite," explained the soldier. "It'll keep tabs on the position of each member of a squad and can report on their status as well. And each module is a communicator with individual bands, too. This is ultra-advanced shit."
"The tactical advantage cannot be denied," the masked man oozed. "And this location seems like it will be ideal as a staging ground."
Izuku was worried. Where was Rachel? Surely she would be with them- unless she had turned into a bear and was stalking around in the woods. But the rest of the team seemed to be acting like everyone was there. He looked back over his shoulder, spotting Kirby and Lena down the hill. He raised a hand, and Lena raised one back. He curled his fingers into a thumbs-up, and the puffball pressed what looked like a cell phone to the side of his body-head. Within just moments, a sparkling star descended through the trees and slammed into the ground with a shimmering, otherworldly wail, after which it glowed and hummed aggressively on the ground, as if it was perturbed by having been plucked from space. Kirby touched the five-pointed craft and it instantly sprang back up into the sky, carrying him with it.
"No," gulped Eleven, grabbing Izuku's arm.
"It's okay, we've got it," he replied, attempting to calm her.
"However, and ideal staging ground is usually free of enemies," said the voice of the masked man. Izuku looked back down the hill, and the mask's single visible eye slit was staring right back up at him, even when the rest of the soldiers seemed unaware. "Spread out. Check for intruders. Heavy, you guard the case."
"He's got something," Tombstone Two shouted, and the rest of the team began to spread out, moving further back into the clearing. The figure in power armor stayed put, and Izuku watched as the metal began to rearrange itself, forming a sphere around its wearer. The ball then began to roll towards the cliff.
"Come on," grunted Izuku, hefting Eleven into his arms. The girl may have been young, but she wasn't easy to lift without engaging Full Cowling. With his Quirk active, it became an easier, if no less awkward, task. He charged back towards Lena.
"What?" she asked.
"They're-"
A tree to Izuku's left shattered into splinters as a metallic wrecking ball punched it in two. The sphere crashed to the ground and quickly unfolded into the power armor from before.
"Got you," grunted a female voice from inside the armor's hazy green visor.
"Got you," giggled Lena, as a pair of blasters unfolded from her gauntlets. The pistols erupted in a cacophony of blue bolts, which skittered off the shining surface of the armor.
"Oh, bother," gasped Lena.
The power armor's right arm underwent a similar, but more complex transformation, settling on the shape of a large gunbarrel. Orange energy began to glow within the weapon, but before it could be released, the armored woman flew backwards into a nearby tree. Eleven dropped her arm and wiped away a drip of blood from her nose.
"Put. Down," she growled. Izuku did as he was directed, but noticed the woman in the power armor already beginning to free herself from the splintered tree trunk.
"The pulse pistols won't scratch that thing," Lena warned.
"I'll hold it off! Get Eleven out of here," Izuku shouted.
"I'm not leaving you behind," asserted Lena. "I can distract the others!"
The power armor pried herself free from the tree and lunged towards them. Izuku channeled his strength and threw himself at their attacker, swinging into a kick that knocked the woman back to the ground. Tumbling to the ground, he spun around into an elbow drop, which seemed to do little against the lustrous armor. "And Eleven?" he grunted, hopping back to his feet.
"I'll keep her safe," Lena replied, reaching for the girl's hand, but Eleven pulled it away. "What are you doing? Come on."
"Stay. Fight," she snapped. "Only me!"
"You'll get yourself-"
The woman in the power armor interrupted Izuku with a headlock, hoisting him off the ground and pressing the barrel of her weapon arm to his head. Izuku winced at the heat he felt building inside the blaster.
"Deku!" Lena screamed, pointing her pulse pistols uselessly. Eleven, on the other hand, simply grimaced and raised a hand. Almost immediately he felt the power armored woman's grip shift, then fall away entirely. He rolled away as quickly as he could, scrambling across the ground. The woman's hand rushed to her red helmet, her fingers looking as if they might rip into the metal.
"Wh-what are you- my head- grrraaagh!" she screamed, thrashing wildly. Her cannon arm discharged and set a nearby tree alight, but Eleven simply remained focused.
"St-st-stooop, p-p-please," came the wail from inside the armor. "You can't… kill meee!" The woman threw herself against the burning tree, smashing her helmet against it repeatedly. Her shrieks became more and more desperate until she stumbled away from the tree, turned towards them, and painted the green of her visor a solid, sickly red. Her body fell against the ground with a clattering thump. Eleven fell to her knees, blood flowing steadily from her nose.
"You did it," gasped Lena. "Gross, but you did it!"
"Hurts," Eleven groaned, trying and failing to clear the blood from her upper lip. "Too hard."
"She can't keep that up forever," Izuku cautioned. "There are too many of them for just us."
A twinkling ringing echoed above them, followed by a meteoric impact further down the hill. Lena grinned.
"They're back! We can do this!"
Distant shouts dimmed their prospects slightly.
"Over here, eyes on! Move up!"
Izuku scanned the tree line and spotted soldiers cresting the hill from both directions.
If they close in, they could mow both us and our allies down without breaking a sweat. We need to give the rest of the team time to recover and advance up the hill to support us.
"Lena, you take the right. I'll take the left. Don't worry about damage, just waste their time!"
The young woman gave him a nod and darted away, blue energy radiating from her harness. Izuku looked up the hill again, tracking the soldiers between the trees. It was Tombstone Two and Four, the man in the suit, and the one with the bronze mask. He had only been up close with the Tombstone squaddies before- the other two were unknown quantities.
I need to get up close to slow them down, but that will make me vulnerable. But I don't have the time to plan anymore, I have to act.
He focused on his Quirk and broke off at a sprint, closing the gap with the soldiers ahead. Tombstone Two raised his medium machine gun.
"Not again, you leprechaun-looking bitch," he snarled, firing an extended burst in Izuku's direction. The boy juked right, allowing the bullets to mulch a tree trunk.
"Aren't leprechauns supposed to be your thing, Irish?" asked Tombstone Four, aiming down the holographic sights of her submachine gun. She fired, and Izuku felt his right arm wrenched back, followed by the heat and ripping pain of the bullets. He screamed but grit his teeth and used his free hand to grip the wound. He still had his legs, and they were equally as dangerous. He leaped upwards into the canopy, with a hail of inaccurate fire whistling through the leaves behind him. He pushed off of the tree's branches and launched himself downwards, landing behind Tombstone Four. With a heavy kick, he sent the female soldier flying towards her male counterpart. The two collided, resulting in Irish's machine gun misfiring wildly.
Izuku didn't have time to check whether it had completely knocked them out, because he immediately came under fire from the man in the suit, who had drawn two large pistols. He advanced towards Izuku calmly, firing one gun after the other. The boy threw himself to the right, but one shot found its mark, lancing through the very left edge of his torso. Blinded by pain, he failed to catch himself and instead crumpled to the ground.
"Target eliminated," said the man in the suit coldly.
The masked man ambled up behind him. "You've done good work, Forty-Seven. But our opponents here are often far more resilient than one would expect. Don't let your guard down."
Izuku did not feel particularly resilient at that moment. The bullet hit something, maybe an organ, he didn't know. All he could feel was agony spreading slowly through his core, and that he couldn't move the way he wanted to. But he couldn't stop now. He had to hold them off, just a little while longer. With all of his effort, he lifted himself back to his feet, his stomach wound screaming against his progress. Forty-Seven nodded, and shot him twice more. Izuku couldn't even tell where the shots landed, only that he was thrown back and that everything was getting fuzzy around the edges. He landed face-up, staring into the leaves overhead. Something small darted between the branches but he couldn't make out what. He felt pain, and warmth, warmth inside where it wasn't supposed to be. Then, a warmth outside, against his skin. Like a campfire. Or maybe-
A bright strand flicked across his vision, springing taut against something he couldn't see. A muffled scream followed. There was shouting, and light, red flickering against the trees. A familiar shining form leaned over him.
"Midoriya, rise up. We still need you," said Solaire, placing a hand in a puddle on his chest. The knight began to chant words that Izuku did not understand, and the world came back into focus. The buzzing, consuming pain diminished into a mere soreness, and feeling returned to his stomach and arm.
"Get up," he said, offering a gauntlet. Izuku grabbed hold, and Solaire hoisted him back to his feet. "We'll get them now."
Izuku nodded, and channeled his Quirk once more. The power of One for All flowed through him, confirming that he had made a complete recovery. Solaire's healing magic had saved him just in time. He wasn't going to let that go to waste. Ahead, Chandra threw a fireball, knocking the submachine gun from the masked man's hands. The man responded by drawing his sword, rushing in towards the pyromancer. Izuku bolted into action, tackling Chandra out of the path of the masked man's blade.
"What are you doing? I could have torched him!"
"Or he could have sliced you in half!"
"Just get off," roared Chandra, kicking her way out of Izuku's grip. "I can take care of myself."
"Fine," Izuku winced, stepping back. Solaire rushed in and drew his own sword, and he and the masked man crossed blades. Chandra clenched her fists and engulfed them in writhing flames. She flicked her wrist and sent them cracking towards the masked man in the form of a whip, binding his arms. She pulled back, and he stumbled off balance, for just a moment- long enough for Solaire land a thrust straight through the masked man. The man grunted in pain, and fell limp over the blade, which the knight then pulled free.
"Ho ho ho! That'll show him!" Solaire chuckled. "Jolly cooperation indeed! But where is Miss Oxton?"
"Lena?" asked Izuku. "She went over the hill the other way. We need to go help her."
"Onwards, then!" Solaire called, raising his sword above his head before charging up the other side of the hill.
Izuku was about to follow, when he froze in fear. "Chandra, where's Eleven? I left her behind to hold off Killjoy."
"Thanos has her. He'll keep her safe."
"Okay, good to know," he replied, but internally he scolded himself. He had simply forgotten about her in the heat of battle- that wasn't particularly heroic. Or, was it like what Rachel had said? In that scenario, was Eleven an acceptable loss to pick? He didn't like that as an answer. He decided to think it over more later, as he rushed across the hilltop towards the right flank. He could only see one soldier still standing, the large man with the minigun. Flustered, he spun around, spooling his weapon in preparation to fire, but a flicker of blue light whipped past him, and Lena materialized behind him.
"Come on, then! Can't you move any faster?"
"Maybe YOU should SLOW DOWN!" he screamed, dropping his weapon. He whipped around and swung a punch at her, but Lena dodged it with ease. She blinked upwards, landing on top of his shoulders in a crouch.
"Nah, where'd the fun in that be?" she laughed.
The accented man didn't bother with a comeback, and instead reached up and locked a meaty hand around her neck. He threw her to the ground, stunning her.
"You slowed down," he huffed, pleased with himself. Izuku sprung forwards, throwing himself into a full-body kick.
"Get away from her!" he yelled, his boot landing squarely in the center of the huge man's chest. The kick blasted the man back, throwing him into a upturned boulder.
"I'm not letting you have all of the fun," Chandra snarled, having caught up. She opened her right hand and bathed the man in flames.
"AAAAARGH!" he screamed, flailing up from the rock. "I'M BUUUUURN!"
He stumbled back towards them, his bandolier of ammunition exploded, causing him to twist back in agony. "WHERE IS GIIIRL," he roared.
"Over here, love," said Lena, standing next to a body Izuku recognized as Tombstone One. She hefted the large sniper rifle up from the ground and took aim. "Cheers."
The large-caliber round tore a hole through the man, who slumped forward and extinguished most of the flames.
Solaire clanked over, breathing heavily. "When… when I spotted you from over there, it seemed as if you were doomed! How did you escape?"
"Recall," Lena explained, pointing to the glowing cutout in her harness. "I just moved back to when he hadn't grabbed me."
"Fascinating. I know the flow of time was distorted in Lordran, but you can manipulate it to your own will! A remarkable feat!"
"Well, it's not all rainbows and butterflies. Without this chronal accelerator, I'd just… I wouldn't be around at all. But hey, now I've got this slick rifle!" she said, patting the reappropriated weapon. "Now I can be a real sniper, all 'one-shot-one-kill,' hon hon hon!" she crowed, putting on a crude French accent.
"So is that all of them?" Chandra asked. "I torched the baldie in the suit."
"I got a couple of the soldiers, and Solaire got the one with the two-sided mask," Izuku recalled. "And Eleven took out the one in the power armor."
"I got both of my soldiers and that big oaf there," said Lena. "That's all of the ones we saw, right?"
"I think so," confirmed Izuku, remembering that he hadn't seen Rachel at all. "Except, didn't they mention something about a specter?"
"Oh, yeah! The… the fire support," Lena said, her tone becoming grave. "Oh."
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Chandra. The ground lurched beneath them, and they all got an idea of what it was supposed to mean. Birds called in the distance, and the snapping crunch of a toppled tree echoed through the lowlands below. Then there was the sound of another destroyed tree, and another, and a low stomping sound building beneath it.
"Get ready," Izuku ordered. "We're not done yet."
The trees at the far end of the clearing nearly dissolved as a massive shape barreled through them. It was a huge bipedal machine, held upright by wide, talon-like feet on reverse-jointed legs. Its central torso was elongated and hunched-over, with two appendages that could generously be considered "arms," but seemed to solely be weapon pods. Above those arms were two large boxes with uncountable shuttered openings- Izuku guessed they contained missiles. The machine skidded to a halt, and the upper body rotated along a heavy joint, the small, centrally-located cockpit searching the area.
"Looks like I'm late to the party," chuckled a cool, aloof voice from the machine's loudspeakers. "And you guys already crashed it."
"You must be Spectre," Izuku said.
"Damn straight."
"I have to warn you, we're going to defeat your team in order to learn our objective. It'd be much easier for you to surrender," Izuku continued.
"I think I could say the same thing. You have no idea who you're dealing with."
"You're a guy in a big robot. It's not that hard to get," Lena smirked. "Let's get on with this."
"I'm not going to argue with that," he said, as a bright green beam of energy from the mech's weapon pods sliced the tops off the trees above them.
"Move!" Izuku yelped, and the fighters split just in time to dodge the debris. Izuku tumbled forwards off the cliff, bracing himself against the vertical face and sliding down. He rushed towards the machine's right leg and kicked. The looming armored pillar did not give as easily as Izuku expected, and in fact seemed to push back. He bounced off of the limb and skidded across the ground.
It's like it uses some kind of synthetic muscle under there. I'll have to try harder to break through.
"Take this!" Lena shouted, opening fire with one Pulse Pistol and her stolen sniper rifle. Both weapons bounced off of the machine's thick armor. "Damn, nothing here! I can't get through!"
Both of the weapon pods tilted downwards and took aim at Izuku. He took off as fast as his Quirk could carry him and didn't slow down until after he felt the wave of heat behind him dissipate. He turned back and saw vents on the side of the weapon pods open, releasing a shimmering mirage of hot air.
Those beam weapons create heat… if they have to vent every time it fires, it has to be vulnerable to it.
The clatter of metal announced the arrival of Solaire, who had slid down the cliff on his shield, which he picked up and dusted off.
"Oh, hello there, Midoriya. I don't suppose you could use some help? Perhaps this creature's weakness is below it?"
"I'm not sure. It seems heavily armored everywhere."
Izuku pushed Solaire aside to dodge another beam blast. Again, the pods vented excess heat.
"Armor?" asked Solaire, sounding distressingly oblivious. "You know, I have a miracle that can help defeat armor. The sacred text of Lightning Spear."
Just then, the entire mech lurched backwards, sliding back towards the forest it had emerged from. A familiar shape dropped down from the front of the machine, and looked back over his shoulder.
"Did I miss much?" asked Thanos, flashing white teeth and purple gums.
Izuku breathed a sigh of relief. "How's Eleven?"
"Weak, but recovering. I got her settled in with Kirby when I heard the fighting start again. I'm going to assume you have a plan?"
"I've been putting one together. Break!"
The warriors dodged to the sides of the ravine, and a barrage of missiles turned the grassy scrubland into a cratered divot.
"It has a lot of weapons, but it can only focus on one target at a time. That means we only need one person to distract it. After it fires, it generates a lot of excess heat."
"Chandra, did you hear that?" Thanos called.
"Yeah, I've got it. Blast it after it fires," the pyromancer shouted down.
"Then you can hit it with that Lightning Spear, Solaire. That should keep it stunned for a moment."
"Long enough for you and I to hit it at full force, and crack that armored shell," said Thanos, predicting the next step of Izuku's plan perfectly.
"Oi, if you need a distraction, no one's better than me," waved Lena.
"All right, let's do it," Izuku said. "Plus Ultra!"
Thanos chuckled at the catchphrase, and waved Izuku back towards the cliff. The two leaped out, their superior strength making the obstacle a breeze.
"Guess I'm tagged in," Lena said, setting down the stolen rifle. "Tracer to the rescue!"
She blinked down into the lowlands, and then blinked up the mech itself, sprinting up its limbs in accelerated time. She pirouetted onto the cockpit and pressed her face against the glass.
"Knock knock, anybody home?" she said, sticking her tongue out at the inaudible but visibly infuriated Spectre. "I've got a package for 'Big Dumb Meka,' I'm guessing that's you?" She unclipped a three-pronged disk from her harness and placed it against the cockpit glass before recalling back to the ground.
"Aaand… boom," she whispered, as the Pulse Bomb opened into a sphere of volatile blue energy. The cockpit rattled from the explosion, but the armor held. However, as the mech turned its weapon pods on her, Lena saw a definite scar on the reinforced glass.
"Opened up a weak point! Don't miss!" she yelled, hoping her teammates would hear.
"Well, I can't miss if I hit everything at once," said Chandra, who had been focusing her mana. Keeping quiet and eking the energy from the world around her was a skill that ran against her hot-tempered nature, but it was one she had forced herself to learn in unlocking her full potential. She braced her right arm with her left and steadied her breathing, waiting for the perfect moment to unleash her pyromancy. Lena zipped back and forth in the crater, making herself a difficult target. But the trick was becoming an easier target- Spectre wouldn't shoot otherwise. Chandra watched Lena carefully, studying her movements. She kept blinking, forward, left, forward, right, stop. There. The machine unleashed a barrage of attacks, every weapon it had, and Lena simply rewound herself through time, placing herself back where she was a few blinks ago. Chandra pulled the trigger.
"Ravaging Blaze!"
She exerted all of the mana she could, pulling energy from the mountains and the anger burning within her own body. Her willpower manifested in a gigantic jet of flame, almost a muzzle flash, that scorched across the low-lying land and completely surrounded the machine. What little grass remained turned to dust, and the trees around Chandra combusted instantaneously. And just as quickly as the titanic blast had manifested, it faded away in an instant. Sections of the machine's armor glowed red-hot, and the entire vehicle radiated a shimmering heat haze.
"Go, Solaire! Now!"
The knight, who had been frantically scurrying out of the way of the attacks Lena was baiting, was overheated enough before. But inside of his heavy armor, he was practically cooking. Still, he blinked the sweat from his eyes and recited his favorite miracle, gathering righteous energy in his talisman, before hurling it forwards, striking the machine just below the cockpit. Electricity arced across the mech's body, and its footing became unsteady.
"The beast has been weakened! Strike the final blow!"
Izuku and Thanos had taken up a position halfway down the hill. Izuku tightened the laces of his boots and looked up at his mentor.
"That's our cue, then," Thanos said.
"Right."
"What's that saying of yours? 'Plus Ultra'?"
"Yeah, that's it," Izuku said.
"This seems like an appropriate occasion," Thanos said, holding out his fist for a bump.
Izuku beamed with pride and reciprocated, placing his small hand against the titan's.
"Yeah! Plus Ultra!"
Thanos took off at a slow jog, but steadily accelerated. Izuku found it easy to keep up at first, but by the top of the hill it seemed almost as if he was falling behind. As they crested the cliff top, Izuku spotted the damaged cockpit, the jagged scars on the glass illuminated in the morning sun.
"There! In the center!"
The titan grunted an acknowledgement and the two launched themselves towards the weak point. Izuku drew back his right arm, fueling his muscles with his Quirk. They only had one shot, so he couldn't afford to fail. He pushed beyond his Full Cowling limits and braced himself for the damage the punch would do to his arm. As they closed in, he could see the pilot struggling at the controls, unable to rouse his unresponsive machine.
"One For All! One Hundred Percent Smash!"
The two punches landed simultaneously, but the effect was more akin to an explosion than any strike. A shockwave radiated out from the points of impact, extinguishing the flames Chandra had lit moments before. The mech's legs gave out immediately, shearing off of their joints as the torso crashed into the ground, punching through the bedrock to form a chasm-like crater. The glass of the cockpit turned to powder and the armor caved in, leaving a bowl-shaped indentation in place of the central chassis. The cracking of the earth and screaming of metal swallowed everything for a moment, and then, silence.
Thanos pulled his left hand free from the wreckage. Inside the cockpit's remains was a reddish sludge that must have once been the pilot, before the shockwave reduced him to his current state.
"That's it."
"We did it," Izuku breathed, wincing at his arm. "That's all of them."
"Excellent work, everyone," said Thanos, stepping off of the machine, the bulk of which was now mostly submerged in the ground. "You've all demonstrated exactly why I chose you for this team- you have such potential. This shows just what you all are capable of."
"I think I burned off an eyebrow," said Lena, poking at a patchy spot above her eye. "'Ave I got the potential to get that back?" she giggled.
"All in good time," Thanos smiled. "Midoriya, how is that arm of yours?"
"It's seen better days," Izuku grunted, attempting to test its range of movement. "It's not broken, but I don't think it will take much more punishment. Solaire, how many of those healing miracles do you have left?"
"Only two. And my flask can only heal Undead such as myself," the knight replied.
"Save it, then," Izuku said. "This is my fault. I should have gone with a kick."
"Don't blame yourself too much, Midoriya. The synchronized attack was more effective," Thanos reassured him. "You'll just have to be more conservative with your punches."
"Yeah… I need to remember that this round will last longer than the others. I can't go all-out all the time."
The warbling, unearthly chatter of the Warp Star announced Kirby and Eleven's arrival. The girl smiled as she hugged the puffball, then gently stepped off the hovering astral body.
"All done?" she asked.
"Yep," Izuku said.
Eleven's eyes widened. "Don't forget," she said, pointing towards the hard case nestled at the bottom of the cliff face.
"Oh, yeah!" exclaimed Lena. "The command and control gear! Now it's ours!"
"And shouldn't we be getting our objective somehow?" asked Chandra. "We defeated a whole team."
"Mayhaps something scribed in orange soapstone?" suggested Solaire.
A large black shadow passed over the gathered warriors, who readied themselves for another battle. However, the interloper was not exactly what they had feared. It alighted on top of the destroyed mech, its long pointed head held aloft by an even longer neck. Short, matted fur clung to its bony body, stained as if it had been recently eating fresh meat. Long raylike shapes jutted out from its long forearms, folding back behinds its comparatively tiny body. It cawed, a long low cry, then gurgled ominously.
"A dinosaur," Chandra whispered.
"What, that? Ha-ha, no, no way," Lena scoffed. "That's not a dinosaur."
"What do you mean, that's not a dinosaur? Isn't it a pterodactyl?" Izuku asked.
"Pterosaur," Lena corrected. "Specifically, that head crest looks like a Quetzalcoatlus. They're not dinosaurs, just… just related to them. I can't believe I'm seeing one, but there it is. It's really real. It's kind of beautiful, in a horrifying way."
The majestic creature leaned its long head forwards and vomited onto the ground.
"Really… really awe-inspiring," Lena continued, her enthusiasm squelched.
"Whatever it is, I think it hurled something shiny," Chandra said, casting a reluctant glare towards the creature.
"If you are familiar with these dinosaur creatures, perhaps you should investigate, Lena," Solaire said.
"Fine, fine," sighed Lena. She walked cautiously towards the creature, which tilted its head sideways to eye her suspiciously. It took to the sky when Lena ejected a pulse pistol into her hand and fired a burst into the air. She poked around in the pterosaur's mess with her shoe until she pried out a small, golden disk, which she carried back to the rest of the group in a distant fingertip grip.
"Ugh, it's a medallion or something. Nasty," she groaned.
"Nasty, awe-inspiring- I suppose that's two sides of the same coin," said Thanos, removing the trinket from her hand. He held it up to the light and narrowed his eyes.
"'Kidnap the heir to the throne and give him to the usurper,'" the titan read. "I doubt there's any kingdom around here. Any ideas?"
"Oh, dear," mumbled Lena. "That's not good."
"What is it? What does it mean?" Izuku asked.
"If that pterosaur was a Quetzalcoatlus, and… and that said, 'an heir to the throne,' like… like a king…" the young woman pondered, "I've got it, all of it. I know where, and when, we are. And I know what we have to do. And I know what's going to happen if we don't."
"Tell us," Solaire prodded. "We shall partake in this quest together!"
"This is… somewhere in the Hell Creek Formation. Or rather, wherever the Hell Creek Formation used to be. Sixty-five million years ago, in the place that would become the United States of America," she said, her tone both reverent and troubled. "This is when the age of the dinosaurs ends. The Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. It's about to happen. That's our timer."
"So what is it that we have to do?" asked Chandra. "It can't be that bad, can it?"
"The heir to the throne. The son of the king. Tyrannosaurus rex," she whispered. "I think we have to steal a T. rex egg."
"Oh," said Izuku. "That's… pretty bad."
"Difficult, but not impossible. These challenges are always doable," Thanos said. "Well, it sounds like we have work to do. Lena, you help Eleven set up those communicators. Let's aim to move out in a few minutes. We have some regicide to do."
The man in the mask began to breathe again. He threw himself back, off the ground, and his dried blood ripped away from his pierced armor. He gasped, filling his regenerated lungs with air. After a minute of collecting himself and assessing which wounds had healed, he removed a walkie-talkie from his belt. It was his only link to Killjoy's client.
"Stark," he rasped.
"Well, if it isn't Mr. Deadstroke!" crackled the jovial voice in reply.
"Deathstroke," Slade corrected.
"I'll get it one of these days," replied the voice of Tony Stark. "What's up? Did you snag those communicators I spotted for you?"
"We ran into some… friends of yours."
"Really? Anybody left?"
"I'm the only one calling, aren't I?"
"Damn. Keep tabs on them if you can. We'll snag an extra objective for you."
"That," Slade grunted while plucking his sword from the ground, "I can do."
"Go get 'em, Deathstroke. See? I got it that time."
Slade didn't bother congratulating his client before ending the call. Frankly, he found Stark's antics insufferable. But his team had enough power to pull plenty of favors in return, which made them very reliable Killjoy clients. Of course, he had his own agenda, too. Stark's just ran parallel to his own.
He sheathed his sword and picked up his submachine gun, checking the weapon for any misfires. That boy, who had forced himself to stand after taking a .45 to the kidney, that was the one Rachel had mentioned. Izuku Midoriya. Yes, he had a spark of passion about him. Slade pushed the charging handle back down into its track and flipped the weapon to safe. He might have lost a star player, but there were lots of stars in the sky.