fencer29 - That would only occur if Overhaul wanted to conventionally occupy Shizuoka and he has a few dozen thousand too few men for that. The army vs Shie Hassaikai battle won't happen.
Guest - :D
(***)
Defiant was warped back home together with Hijack, Carmilla and Blackwing. Right in time to witness a state of general shock and panic. And complete lack of confirmed information, except what they heard on the TV.
He changed into his hero uniform and had Eclipse warp him to the UA, where the emergency meeting was supposed to be held.
Both sides were already there. Principal, doctor Shuzenji and professor Maijima for the UA. Aizawa, Backdraft, Tsukauchi and Torino for the police and fire department. But they were all clearly waiting for Midoriya to arrive. Although Torino looked like he was about to explode out of the need to wait.
Izuku practically leaped to the only free seat, as Eclipse was closing the warpgate behind him.
"What the hell happened?" He quickly asked. "I heard…"
"Overhaul decided to conquer Shizuoka's underworld." Principal interrupted him. "While simultaneously decimating local police, so that they couldn't stop him from that. We don't know much, but he deployed his full rooster and crushed both the villains deployed by the Abegawa Tenchu Kai, local crime syndicate, and the heroes from the Shizuoka' Heroes Alliance."
"Wait a second." Aizawa wakes up a second before Defiant. "You know the name of their heroes organization, but somehow it's the first time I hear of its existence?"
"I was in the process of trying to convince their handlers to merge their organization into the Metahuman Network." Principal replies. He almost certainly expected that reaction and had an answer in mind already. "Things were going relatively well, unfortunately, that's when the attack happened. As far as I know, the police officers in charge of the Heroes' Alliance all died during Overhaul's attack on the prefectural police headquarters, but I'm in contact with the Alliance' remnants. They are heading south right now, and should enter Musutafu within the next few hours."
"What numbers are we talking about?" Defiant asks. He isn't how large the Alliance was, and… well, it's not like they have an unlimited living space available right now.
"Four." Principal replies. "One more is in critical condition in one of Shizuoka's hospitals. Evacuating her before Overhaul singles her out of the crowd of injured civilians and police officers is probably a priority now."
"I'll locate her." Chiyo Shuzenji springs back to life. "And establish if she can be safely moved out in conventional ways. If not, we should have Eclipse kidnap her from that hospital. What's her name?"
He writes something on the paper and shoves towards her. Of course. Police officers in the room. Security being tight, and so on. She grabs it and leaves the room in a hurry.
"Four more didn't make it." Principal then announces. "Including the leader and her second-in-command. According to what I managed to find out, the last stand of those two is the only reason why the remaining four and what's left of the Shizuoka Riot Police Unit managed to escape."
"Names?" Aizawa asks. It's not very important anymore, but… it might sound surprisingly idealistic for someone like him, but heroes like this should be remembered. By name, if possible.
"Itsuka Kendou, hero name Brawler." Principal replies. "Partial gigantification, coupled with strength and endurance enhancement. Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, hero name Bulwark. Quirk very similar to Gargoyle's, except it turned him into steel."
There is a moment of silence. Close to a minute, in fact. No one ordered it. It simply happened.
"They kept Carnage and Overhaul's praetorians occupied long enough for the rest to flee." Principal resumes his report eventually. "Dabi, Kurogiri, Whiteline and Duststorm were killed in combat, but Shie Hasseikai managed to recover all of the corpses, except for Whiteline's, who is now officially deceased."
"What happened?" Izuku decided to intervene. From the initial reports it sounded like Overhaul swept through the locals almost without resistance, this sounded more like a result of a war. "I thought…"
"Overhaul learned a lot of things about both sides." Principal replies. "He kidnapped a group of police officers and the family of the Abegawa Tenchu Kai boss, while leaving evidence pointing to the other group being responsible. Add some falsified messages, and suddenly an open warfare erupted in a downtown area of Shizuoka between the Heroes Alliance supported by the Anti-Firearms Squads of the local Riot Police Unit and the Abegawa Tenchu Kai. When both sides exhausted each other, he warped in through Kurogiri with all of his villains and his praetorian guard, and attacked them both."
"Crafty fucker." Torino comments. It seems to describe everyone's opinion on the subject well enough for no one to have anything to add.
"The only reason why things went slightly awry for him was the fact that both realized they were set-up and teamed up against him." Principal continues, ignoring the interjection. "They were too exhausted from their fight to win, but they managed to score several kills. Whiteline was apparently killed by Brawler and then warped away from Overhaul's reach by the Abegawa Tenchu Kai' warper."
"Another warper?" Aizawa asks, clearly surprised. "Seriously?" They all hoped that those were extremely rare. Everything else was… dangerous.
"Evidently, yes." Sasaki replies. He is as emotionally scarce as always. Then he returns to the narration. "At this point Chisaki realized that his enemies knew about his resurrection ability and changed the tactic significantly. The defenders failed to permanently eliminate anyone else, but still scored a few more kills." He sighs. "Unfortunately, they failed to take down Carnage, who rolled through them together with Chisaki's elites. And then Overhaul had them attack both the prefectural police headquarters and the mayor's office, in order to cause total chaos throughout the prefecture."
Army was going to keep peace on the streets, but let's be real. It was only a stopgap measure. With the police broken down on the prefectural levels, Shizuoka was going to start looking worse than Musutafu soon enough. Maybe even as bad as Hosu.
Worst of all, if Overhaul organized it well enough, the army would at least partially crack down on the Abegawa Tenchu Kai, thinking that it was responsible for the whole mess. So it was going to actually help dismantle his local enemies, allowing his eventual take-over of the prefecture once the army gets recalled or its overwatch becomes less watchful.
The GSDF wasn't going to do the same for Musutafu, at least not without a VERY serious reason. This, with the NPA being practically dead, meant that even if the government knew who was actually responsible, they would task Musutafu police with apprehending them. And if the Musutafu police actually COULD apprehend Chisaki, none of this would have happened in the first place.
"What about the Abegawa Tenchu Kai villains?" Tsukauchi is the one to wake up first this time. "Are they…"
"Three fatalities." Principal replies. "Togaru Kamakiri, villain name Mantis, an A-Rank I believe. Sei Kaibara, villain name Drill, another A-Rank. And Kashiko Sekigai, villain name Cartographer. D-Rank." Izuku briefly wondered if the hero/villain naming thing spread there from Musutafu or did they come up with the names on their own. "Once the battle ended, the remaining five were trapped in a quirk of one of the heroes. They are heading here escorted by what's left of the local Heroes Alliance. Yes, that includes their warper."
"How the hell are we even supposed to arrest a teleporter?" Torino takes point. "Can that hero keep them under their quirk for long?"
"I suggest asking him that question." Principal replies. "We should send the Quirk Suppression Squad and some of the heroes to meet them. Through Eclipse's warpgate. Overhaul seems to have lost sight of them, but I'm almost certain that he is looking for them to finish the job."
"Tsukauchi, phone Hawks and tells him to prepare for an emergency sortie." Aizawa says, agreeing with the Principal. It's really not the time to try to keep hiding Eclipse from the QSS. And it's also not the time to be arguing back. Mirai Sasaki had a good idea, simple as that.
Tsukauchi replies with a nod and quickly leaves the room.
"What about the wounded hero?" Defiant decides to say something. "I'm all for being deployed like that, but if we're going to need Rewind, I'm the only one who knows where she lives. "
Principal Sasaki quickly checks his phone. Shuzenji probably already sent him a message. The little doctor worked blindingly fast when needed.
"Rewind's power will be required, I'm afraid." He says. "The hero won't survive being transported here. In fact, she won't survive until tomorrow. Shuzenji has some contacts in that hospital, and they'll all look the other way while we have her treated and evacuated. But we'll require…"
"...both Rewind and Eclipse for that." Defiant says while standing up from his seat. "Alright, I'm going to pick Eri up right now, send her to the hospital with Blackwing and Hijack and then go meet up with Hawks and his unit. With most of our superheroes."
He was probably going to have to sneak Eri out of her room without telling Bakugous about it. And probably enlighten Eclipse as to where she was living to save some time. Then again, he trusted Mieko.
"Warp me to Tartarus first." Torino rises up from his seat. "I need to make preparations."
"I think that it's the call that the meeting is finished." Aizawa replies while standing up himself. "We all have work to do."
The hospital group in the end was composed of Hijack, Blackwing and Split. Setsuna Tokage was visiting Eclipse (her new best friend for life) in the Takoba branch when shit hit the fan, and she volunteered to take part in the operation.
The group was temporarily joined by Eclipse for warpgate sake, slightly pumped-up Eri who was looking forward to saving another person, and Chiyo Shuzenji. Who was there to assist in the process with her medical knowledge (Rewind wasn't an universal rescue quirk, having her there had a point).
Eclipse dropped at some hospital room, with a thoroughly brutalized girl connected to way more machinery than Hijack (the theoretical leader of this operation) could name. Chiyo directed him to where her medical file could be found. Or, to be exact, pretty much a nameplate.
Split, in the meantime, deployed her eyes elsewhere. They needed someone to observe the hospital entrance, just in case Overhaul found them.
It was night outside. The distant glow of the fires caused by Dabi was visible through the window. There was some intense movement happening downstairs, ambulances coming and going.
The uppermost level of the hospital was mostly quiet. Perhaps because Chiyo warned the locals that the girl might be targeted by the people responsible for the mess. So they played it safe until she was evacuated.
"Reiko Yanagi." Hijack reads off the nameplate. "Alright, that's the woman we're looking for. What now?"
"Now I'm going to disentangle her from all those cables." Chiyo replies. "Eri-chan can't use her quirk on her when she is like that." Especially as half of them are INSIDE her body to a degree. Eri looks ready to save someone. Even Hijack decides that she's kinda cute. If only the color of her clothes didn't resemble Midoriya's hair… Worst of all, that was probably intentional. "Eri-chan, be ready to use your quirk when I tell you, we don't know how long she'll keep breathing without life-support."
That was the problem. They never got to test where's the moment when Rewind's quirk stops registering you as a living organism. Breathing? Heartbeat? Brain death? The healing has to be done as quickly as possible.
"How long?" Hijack asks. He doesn't feel safe here. Not with the city burning behind the window. Not with Eclipse and most of the Network's firepower not being here.
"Five minutes." Chiyo replies and gets to work. Eri keeps her tiny hands on the unconscious hero's hand, ready to activate her quirk when told to.
Thirty seconds later they all realized that this wasn't going to be an easy mission.
"Uhm, guys?" Split suddenly says. Seeing her face basically not being there (everything above her nose was gone) was freaking Hijack out. A lot. "We have a problem. I'm seeing a bunch of armed people entering the hospital. They look like Chisaki's praetorians."
"Shit." Hijack mumbles to himself. Then he quickly calls Eclipse. She can be back with them in… about five to six minutes. Hijack gets the sudden desire to hurl curses around. He only stops himself because Eri is there and Defiant would murder him for that. Shit is bad enough, he wants to live.
"What are the chances that Carnage isn't somewhere close, ready to jump at us when Chisaki's elites report through the radio that they encountered resistance?" Fumikage asks the right question. Shadow is swirling around him a bit, clearly antsy for some bloodshed.
"Low to zero." Hijack replies. Overhaul is probably somewhere near as well. With most of his assault party butchered by the locals and him losing Whiteline, he is probably planning to do his best to avoid further casualties. "Can you hold him back?"
"For as long as it's dark enough, yes." Blackwing replies. "But you know that praetorians have flashbangs and they will probably use them when they encounter a bulletproof creature of darkness, yes?"
Hijack has a gun. A pistol. That he can actually use, more or less. He is acutely aware that it won't help him one bit. Those guys were professionals. A small army of Hawks'es. They wouldn't even notice him being there. His quirk could help, but… what were the chances of pros like them being chatty to their victims?
"I…" Split decides to say something. "... think that I have an idea."
Looks like it's time for Hijack to discover if his assessment of a true combat helping them discover Setsuna Tokage's true face was a correct one.
There are ten praetorians in the hospital. Everything that's left from the unit after the battle with the local police force and the Abegawa Tenchu Kai. They didn't lose anyone permanently, but the resurrection lag was keeping the rest of them out of commission for the moment.
Most of them were wounded in the battle to various degrees. Chisaki healed them all. He could still do that (gunshots require small changes to fix, thus making it easy on his quirk) if they died again, and they knew.
Seven walked up the stairs. Three took the elevator, just to make sure that they won't miss anyone trying to sneak out that way. They knew where the hero was after persuading the personnel on the first floor to share the personal data with them. Guns are useful for persuasion.
Who were they going to call for help? The Riot Police Unit of Shizuoka was practically wiped out, losing something like 50% of its members. The rest were wounded, scattered or abjectly terrified. The army wasn't here yet. And they can deal with local police officers.
Both groups arrive at the top floor simultaneously. Only to discover that it's pitch black. The light from the fires outside is the only source of light. They can feel the glass breaking under their boots. Someone smashed all the light sources on the floor. Except for the faint light coming through the door to one of the medical rooms. The one they were looking for, in fact.
They are expected. Their commander reports that to Overhaul. Carnage is on standby, ready to leap from the rooftop of the building next to the hospital directly onto the floor they are on. The assassination just changed into recon by force.
(Chisaki doesn't know about the Metahuman Network having access to a warper, if he did, he would send Carnage immediately. Secrecy pays back.)
They walk forward, flashlights on and their guns ready to kill everything that moves. They fail to notice a black figure lowering itself from the ceiling behind them. It's moving soundlessly after all. The shadows covering it make sure of that.
They also fail to notice when the shadows envelop the praetorian at the back of the group.
Shadow enjoys being let loose - and it's much stronger than humans. Especially in complete darkness, that also always makes him more bloodthirsty. The elite's neck is broken almost instantly, his last scream hushed by the shadows.
Fumikage Tokoyami's quirk has limits. Even in complete darkness. He can't kill everyone in front of him quietly. Besides, he is supposed to be a distraction. Being a distraction requires you to get noticed.
The praetorians hear the sound of the body of their colleague collapsing on the floor. They turn back in an instant as Shadow roars in rage. He is fully enveloping his host's body now, its matter essentially invulnerable to attacks. At least when it's this dark.
The first five seconds of the fight aren't worth calling a fight. It's a massacre. Three praetorians die or are incapacitated as their gunfire fails to damage the attacker whose claws tear them apart or throw them at the walls (and, in case, out of the window). They have flashlights, but it's not bright enough to make the difference, especially with their numbers dropping so fast.
Fumikage failed to kill their commander. And unlike his underlings, he seems to have learned about quirks to figure out a countermeasure quickly.
Flashbangs are thrown. Shadow leaps through the window, its claws piercing the wall outside to stop him from falling. The flashbangs' light does not reach Blackwing. But the praetorians now know that the light is the key.
Then again, he was a good enough distraction.
"What the hell was th…" One of the praetorians says. It's at this moment that he hears a clicking sound. He looks towards its source, expecting… a lot of things. They all saw enough weird shit ever since Kai Chisaki became Overhaul.
But he didn't expect to see a floating eye accompanied by two disembodied hands, right next to his belt. The hands currently busy emptying themselves from…
Grenade pins.
The praetorians all used to belong to the elite formations of the army, police or navy. Their reflexes were lightning fast. They knew what to do in most circumstances. Their reactions to threats and attacks were ingrained deeply and mostly automatic. The only real way to catch them off-guard was by using something that they simply couldn't be prepared for. Such as meta-abilities.
But they were prepared for grenades. And they knew that death is a fleeting thing for those who work for Overhaul. The living bomb throws himself towards the direction from which they came, yelling a warning. Two nearest praetorians leap at him, ready to act like living shields.
The three remaining ones turn their backs on their comrades and dash towards the room that contains their target. Ignoring the explosion of three grenades behind them.
There is no longer any light coming from the room. The doors are open. Sound of gunshots, the flashes illuminating a figure mostly concealed behind them. It doesn't do a lot to them, not even the one bullet that finds its target (though it does hurt like a bitch, in praetorian's opinion, even if the bulletproof vest stopped it).
They forgot about Blackwing. Tokoyami leaps back into the hallway through the window, moving quickly enough to grab the praetorian that stayed the most behind and slam his head into the wall. The wall cracks, the helmet breaks, the skull is shattered. One out. The other one stops his charge and turns towards Fumikage, pulling out flashbangs.
Shit. Blackwing leaps towards him, thoughts of Fumikage and Shadow agreeing for once. The detonation weakens them immensely (while burning the enemy's hands). Their attempt to grab the head of the elite fails when their arm retracts under the light. But it's not enough to save him.
Their arms end in claws. And they still reach his face, carving through the balaclava concealing it and everything beneath. Eyes, nose and mouth. He screams, suddenly blinded. A second later Blackwing's other hand, shadows covering it forming into a spear, pierce through his chest. The bulletproof vest failed to even slow it down.
Shadow roars in victorious fury. It enjoys it. Every second of it. Every heartbeat extinguished, every skull crushed. It was promised fighting interesting enemies (aside from the more pacifistic entertainments, like anime, especially with magical girls) and it relishes in the moment when it can finally let loose.
The other one fires at Hijack. There is a yell and the hero is thrown back. The praetorian realized at this point that he probably won't make it to the door, not with Blackwing right behind him. So he grabs a grenade and throws it. The throw is precise.
"GRENADE!" Tokoyami yells a warning.
(Hijack is down for the count, but Split reacts fast enough - when the grenade bounced off the door and flew into the room with Eri, Chiyo and Yanagi, it met her disembodied leg. Even with only one eye, she still nailed it. The kick bounces the grenade back, while Hijack manages to roll back and shut the door with his legs, adrenaline helping him ignore the pain).
Grenade explodes in the corridor. Not harming anyone, except for the man who threw it and was a bit too close to it. A second later Blackwing grabs him and has Shadow unceremoniously throw him out through the window.
"That was…" Fumikage thinks.
"... fucking awesome." Shadow finishes for him. Incorrectly. Fumikage would prefer to use words such as 'terrifying', 'heroic', 'adrenaline-pumping' or 'intense'. But if Shadow thinks like that, well, it's his right to do so. "Ah shit. Quirk signature incoming." What th…
A second later Carnage enters the corridor through the window, smashing through it together with a segment of the wall. He landed in front of Fumikage, between him and the door to the room they were supposed to protect. Cutting Blackwing's retreat route.
Shit.
"Hey there, hero!" Carnage grins at him. "What's your name? It's no fun beating you to a pulp if I don't know the name of the hero that I got to kill."
Fumikage, deep inside, is a perfectly normal teenager. Unlike most of the Network, he didn't have any combat experience. He didn't spend time on the streets. He didn't get to witness a lot of the ugly part of Mankind. The closest thing to a true evil that he got to see with his own eyes were one or two antagonists of DnD campaigns that got themselves a drawing.
This changed now, as he got to see the madness on Imasuji's face.
It was at this point that Fumikage Tokoyami realized that lawful good DnD paladins attempting to mend the ills of the world by wiping out evil had a point. He knew that the person in front of him simply cannot be allowed to live.
It might have been a childish comparison. But for that moment, it worked well enough. And for the first time forever, he and Shadow truly worked together.
"We are Blackwing!" They shouted together as they charged forward. Carnage met them midway, his quirk activated to the fullest. Mending whatever wounds and exhaustion the earlier battle gave them was child's play to Overhaul. It was Goto Imasuji at his full strength.
Their arms met. Shadow's formless matter latches himself onto his wrists, holding it in place. It's a pure contest of strength. And it's dark enough for Shadow to be marginally stronger.
Carnage is pushed back. Meter by meter. Despite him pushing back with all of his strength. It only makes him more excited for the battle. He lives for killing people, and the strongest ones are the most enjoyable. He loves to see them break before him when they realize that he is stronger than them.
He is practically at the front of the Yanagi's hospital room when he decides that enough is enough. Blackwing is strong enough for this to be enjoyable, but Goto has a job to do. And more heroes to kill.
His hands are occupied, but he has his muscles. His control over the muscle fibers is detailed enough to do some subtle manipulation. Such as pulling the pins on the few flashbangs that Overhaul gave him before his departure.
Chisaki heard his praetorians' hurried report about a beast of darkness that temporarily fled from the flashbangs. It really wasn't hard to add one to one and get two.
The grenades explode. The shadow in front of him shrinks. His arms are free. He takes a step back and overcharges his right arm's muscles to maximum, The punch will end the puny (and terrified) teenager in front of him instantly.
He failed to realize that the door to the room he was in front of was partially damaged by the grenade. He could be seen from the inside. The newly arrived hero wasted no time in trying to figure out what he was doing.
The vertical surface slices through the door, severing Carnage's arm in half. Goto reacts instantly, knowing full-well that another attack might be coming, and leaps back.
The slice went through the entirety of the door. The half of them that is no longer connected to the doorframe, falls off. Blackwing realizes that he was just spared from death and leaps through them.
Carnage pumps himself out to the maximum and jumps after him a few seconds later. Hoping for some quality slaughter.
He finds the room empty and quiet.
(***)
I'm sorry. But that was a really heroic way to go out. I had to let Overhaul score some kills, even if off-screen and... well, let's just say that there are more familiar faces that died during the Shizuoka Massacre (on both sides). The Heroes' Alliance survivors are actually all OCs, but you are VERY familiar with one of them if you read my other fics and it's going to be terrifying. Or not. Time will tell.