Jpx0999 - Surprise :v

Miqila - mischevious laughter

Fencer29 - Yes... and not :3

(***)

"Excuse me for saying this, Defiant." Aizawa clearly decides to avoid referring to him in public as 'problem child', thank the Lord for this blessing. "But I think that I preferred the world before quirks happened."

They are returning from the monster containment building. Midoriya isn't sure about the insides of the Hawks' APC, but the jeep is certainly much quieter than it was on the way into the mountains.

"I don't mind." Izuku mumbles. "I think I can relate."

He of all people should have remembered that superheroes and supervillains also mean superscience. Or, to be exact, supermadscience. Actually seeing it in flesh… yeah, it was going to stay with him.

"If you find the off-switch that won't kill any of the metahumans…" Paladin decided to comment, while also proving that he was switching over to the Network's terminology. "Feel free to push it. Humans found a lot of ways to be horrible to each other while restrained to the laws of physics. Blessings are…" He sighs. "... we tried to use a more positive name, because frankly, whether they'll be a blessing or a curse to the world remains to be seen."

Yeah. Defiant can relate to that as well.

(***)

The delegation returns, minus Counselor Inui who was going to take slightly more time to finish the inspection. Naturally, they get to share the news.

Izuku honestly couldn't say who was more horrified by them. Mirai Sasaki or Chiyo Shuzenji. Probably the former, but it read as less horrified due to the man's better self-control.

"That's just…" Sasaki tries to say something, before shaking his head. "... no. Just no. We have to attack this facility, get the people responsible for that in Tartarus and make sure that whatever scientific knowledge they obtained is either in our hands or buried forever."

"Absolutely." Aizawa agrees. He looks twice as tired as normally. Unlike Izuku who at least had his horizons widened by all the superhero genre stuff, he spent years cleaning the streets up from muggers before being thrown into the world of mad scientists. "But if what the Knights told us about that abomination's combat skills are true, and they have more of them, it's going to be… nasty."

"Should we scale up the operation?" Izuku asks. The eyes converge on him. "I don't know about the police, but the Network can call reinforcements from other branches. Repulse alone would be a major help."

"I… honestly don't know." Aizawa admits. "It's out of my league. Considering the scale of problems we might face, I should at the very least call for the JGSDF to form a defensive perimeter around the facility in case of things going seriously bad, but how am I supposed to explain that to Governor Yagi?"

'Yeah, governor, there is a small problem, we discovered that the base is a lair of a mad scientist creating superpowered abominations in unknown numbers and… why are you calling a mental hospital?!'

Yeah, that's pretty much how Aizawa imagines the talk to look like.

"Besides, if we have a battalion of soldiers witness a battle between superheroes and supervillains, how are we going to explain that to them?" Tsukauchi decides to let himself know for a moment. "I thought that we were trying to get the system operational before making the government realize the full extent of the crisis."

"This might be… no longer viable." Principal says.

"Elaborate?" Aizawa says, his eyes narrowing.

"I think the Reveal Day is almost upon us." Mirai Sasaki says the words that make Izuku's blood freeze. "Two days ago a child was born in Qing Qing, in China. A normal occurrence, all things considered, if not for the fact that the child was born glowing brightly. Unfortunately for us, a local TV station actually took the report seriously and it broke headlines, resulting in the regional government sending their equivalent of the CDC unit to investigate. It's still an internal Chinese affair, but…" He sighs. "... I give it a week, unless the government decides to crackdown on the story seriously, but seeing as the child in question is a son of one of the highest ranked party members of that particular secessionist government, it's unlikely. They're going to launch a more thorough inquiry, and… well, I think that said local newspapers are already looking into cases of 'strange people' in their surroundings and trying to investigate them properly."

"So the society as we know it has about a week left." Aizawa replies dryly. "Well, that's just stellar. I guess that we're going to have to use the system as is then, and hope that the government will support AND it won't fuck anything up. Also, I guess we could involve some of the army for the raid, we just need a good explanation for that."

"Connect Mustard's gas attacks to the facility." Principal decides to be helpful about it. "A risk of chemical weapon attacks should be enough. Just take the officer in charge of reinforcements to the side before the attack and tell them to expect the unexpected, or they might end up freaking out and shooting people on our side."

Good point, Aizawa and Midoriya realized it at the same time. Damn, it's going to be another Meta-ability Introduction Scene, wasn't it?

"This might work." Aizawa admits. "So I guess that we'll only end up borrowing the metahuman part of the Knights for this operation. At least, if this works."

"I'd wait for Inui's opinion first, but otherwise, I think that the answer is yes." Principal Sasaki leans back in his seat. "Before that, Chiyo?"

"I'd like that monster to be moved to Tartarus." She announces. "With necessary security in place, of course. We have a fully staffed medical office there, enough to run at least a general examination on whatever that thing is. We should also see if Eri is capable of rewinding it back to its human state."

"That… makes sense." Aizawa admits. "If we could get an inside witness of the facility, that would be extremely helpful. "Shouldn't be a problem, I believe that the problem child has mentioned that we might be interested in borrowing it either way."

"I am…" Izuku decides to cut in. "...not a problem child."

It might have gotten out a bit more hostile than he intended, honestly. But, yeah, it's slightly pissing him off at this point.

"Alright." Aizawa sighs, clearly not interested in dying on that hill. And probably knowing thanks to Principal Sasaki that his problem child was actually eighteen years old. "Problem adult, it is."

Ugh.

"The thing is, are we ready to announce to the Knights that we have a warp quirk holder?" Aizawa decides to return to the subject. "Otherwise, the logistics of evacuating that thing might be a pain in the ass."

"I think that if we're truly going to cooperate with the Knights…" Izuku decides to speak. "... we should be playing open cards with them. Besides, I wouldn't be surprised if the Chancellor already managed to calculate the fact that we have a warp quirk user merely from tracking our deployments, and is now waiting for us to come forward with that or not to gauge how committed we are to the cooperation."

After a few seconds of thoughtful silence, Aizawa sighs.

"You know, I'm really happy that you're here, because honestly, that didn't even cross my mind." The Commissioner says, while Principal Sasaki nods. Yeah, figuring out the intricate implicacies of quirks was the only field that Izuku was genuinely confident in. "I might have spent at best a few minutes talking with that guy, but this certainly sounds like something he'd do."

"Personally, I'm incredibly intrigued by his quirk." Principal Sasaki adds. "And I believe that Maijima will have a similar opinion on the subject once hears about it. An intelligence quirk that lets you reach the mental processing power comparable to a computer? The implications that such meta-abilities exist in the field of mathematics and more generalized science are just breathtaking."

"Right." Aizawa decides to not continue dwelling on an unfamiliar field. "I believe we also have the summaries of the quirks of other members of the Knights, though there are only three truly powerful ones, Chancellor included. Thorn has a quirk that allows her to control her thorny hair while also spreading some sort of spores around in order to cause rapid growths of more controllable, tentacle-like vines for as long as there is some soil for it to take roots in. Dangerous, especially outside of cities, otherwise straddling the fence between a superhero and a sidekick, most likely the former eventually. Paladin has a variation on Frenzy's quirk."

"It's Insomnia now." Izuku comments from the side. "I heard from Repulse that she's behaving properly, so…"

"Alright, Insomnia." Aizawa concedes the point. "All-rounded amplification of strength, endurance, speed and self-healing proportional to, let's say, the 'feeling of moral righteousness'. The more 'just' he perceives the cause he's currently fighting for, the stronger he is. Defiant, I believe, has shown Chancellor a recording of Carnage's rampage in Aldera." He glances to the side at the hero.

"I did." Izuku admits. "Unless Chancellor was bullshitting me, Paladin can reach Carnage-level of strength and resistance when fighting sufficiently nasty villains. And unlike Imasuji, he's a well trained wrestler and boxer. Superhero without a doubt. Frankly…" Izuku sighs. "... we need people like him on our side if we want to survive the Reveal Day."

"That's true." Mirai Sasaki admits. When Aizawa gives him a questioning stare, he replies. "Yes, we both know that when it comes to day to day operations of the police and rescue services, sidekicks like Earworm or Hijack are much more valuable than superheroes. However, once the Reveal Day happens, it'll be the superheroes that will be responsible for takedowns of the supervillains, especially those more destructive and dangerous. This will naturally put them in the spotlight, and…"

"... and we need marketable superheroes in the spotlight, to make people actually trust the hero system enough for the society to remain somewhat stable." Aizawa catches it up, before groaning loudly. "This sounds like marrying showbusiness with law enforcement, and I hate it. But I have no better option, so I'll just treat it as a public relations thing."

This is fair, Izuku thinks.

Paladin is, honestly, a critical asset in that field. Big, muscular, quite handsome, a quirk that literally screams HERO (well, for as long as he doesn't end up becoming an extremist that corrupts his own quirk with his own biases and hatred), quite charismatic and generally pleasant in manners - unless it was an act.

But if it was an act, then it honestly didn't change a lot.

For as long as they'll manage to hide the whole Knights of Amakusa business from Japan at large, Paladin is a walking PR campaign for the Hero System. Especially if he apprehends a nasty supervillain or two and gets credited for it in the media.

For as long as he's a part of said Hero System. In Izuku's opinion, him continuing his operations against his mother (and Shie Hassaikai as a whole) would at worst make him a vigilante.

And then, well, then there is Chancellor.

Even Aizawa seems to be rolling back on his pre-summit 'we don't need more allies, especially religious extremists' stance. Those two alone are a major asset or a threat, and it's not like Commissioner Aizawa can make them leave his prefecture.

"So, I guess we'll admit that Eclipse exists to the Knights, while making Chancellor and Paladin know that it's a top tier secret and that the Shie Hassaikai can't find out." Aizawa concludes. "Of course, it all depends on Counselor Inui's opinion on the subject.

Right. In the meantime, it's time to continue their own preparations for the raid.

(***)

"So?" Principal Sasaki asks when the man enters the room. "Your opinion?"

"They passed." Counselor Inui replies before sitting on the chair on the opposite side of the desk. Clearly tired, but also clearly unharmed.

Mirai Sasaki is relieved. But he doesn't make it known. Then again, that's about what he expected, most of the Knights were clearly coming from families that were already Christian or neighboring those that were, so even in the worst case scenario there wasn't much of a reason to force the issue.

Then again, he's ready to believe in someone… but this doesn't mean that he won't check for the truth either way. Especially not in times like this.

"Elaborate, please." He asks. Inui sighs.

"Look, I'm going to be honest about it." Inui replies. "They are trying to get their wards to convert, but subtly enough and mostly by teaching them about their faith and trying to act as positive examples. Which works especially well among the mutants, as for many of them the Knights are the first group that has fully accepted them. There is no abuse involved. No use of force, no threats, no guided peer pressure, no preferential treatments for those that converted. They are maybe slightly more blunt about it than an average Christian-funded school out there, just more successful thanks to the circumstances."

That was… reassuring. Mirai Sasaki wouldn't enjoy arguing against that particular alliance, especially as the summit made it clear that the Metahuman Network and the local police force needed the Knights.

Honestly, they needed absolutely anyone they could get on their side. Knights were just a large package of competent and pre-trained people, which made them valuable.

"How's their education level?" Mirai Sasaki asks.

"Subpar, although that's not exactly their fault." Counselor replies. "They are doing their best with a school in a small town in the mountains, despite having so many troubled kids under their wing, but it's not like they could send people like the Chancellor to study at a university. He is a genius at physics and mathematics, a part of training his quirk, but he's largely self-taught. And that's… well, that's a problem."

Sasaki nods. He is acutely aware of that. In his opinion, there wasn't anything more dangerous than a smart and driven man self-studying extensively, especially when humanities were involved.

Getting taught about it in school, even in university was one thing. You were going to be guided by the teachers towards certain topics, allowing you to - unless your country was overtaken by some ideology - at least theoretically learn things in a balanced way.

Not to mention being able to interact with others like you during the process, the whole thing resulting in people generally more willing to believe in what could be considered a general consensus.

But when you went into a rabbithole by reading through various books (or internet pages) yourself, without established authorities explaining to you how to separate works that were a total bullshit from those that were actually valuable (something that most of university education was about, really)... well, that's how most of extremists were born.

To say that Mirai Sasaki wasn't amused by the concept of people like Chancellor and Paladin indulging in self-studying while being leaders of a superpowered community (and an armed militia surrounding it) would be an understatement.

"We'll end up suggesting their older members to attend UA." Sasaki decides. "We'll also try to get Chancellor a backdoor into some friendly university in the area, if only to let him interact with people with similar interests."

"Only the older members?" Inui asks, his brow raised.

"Midoriya is, let's say, constructively paranoid about the aftermath of the Reveal Day." Principal replies. "There is a reason why he is maintaining the relatively secrecy of the local headquarters of the Network, even from their allies in the police. I believe that he decided that, their religious beliefs aside, having a highly secretive and armed group already used to helping metahuman kids on a speed dial might be useful if the … local public response to the phenomenon won't be favorable."

Inui sighs, while deflating slightly.

"Yeah, I think I can see the logic in that." He admits. "I hate it, but… the UA is way too high profile to be of much use if the worst case scenario occurs." Neither of them found it likely, unless some rampaging metahuman destroys a country or two out there, but… "He probably isn't happy about us knowing their names, isn't he?"

"He realizes that it was a necessity." Sasaki replies. "If he didn't have direct access to our hospital, at the very least Kirishima might have died due to Firestorm' attack before Eri would be involved. And that's without mentioning Poltergeist. Most of the superhero genre tends to give covert heroes some friendly medical professionals to use when that happens, but we both know that you can only help that way once or twice before things get sketchy."

Midoriya was striving for the golden ending, with the society realizing that the heroes were needed and supporting them in the way that some groups were supporting them covertly right now. But he was genre savvy enough to also make the preparations in case of the bad ending.

Mirai Sasaki continued to be impressed by Defiant. That kid was going to become someone truly great, a jewel in the crown of the principal's personal educational wall of fame, for as long as the stress and his past traumas weren't going to sink him.

Or, well, if Overhaul wasn't going to get him instead.

That was, unfortunately, still an option.

"I'd suggest investing some assets in them, under the table." Inui adds. "We could certainly forward them some additional teaching materials or funds to obtain more on their own, not to mention finding a few retired teachers we can trust to stay silent, to improve the general level of education."

"That can be done." Principal nods. "Any other recommendations?"

"I'd also drop some qualified pediatricians, someone with access to what Shuzenji managed to figure out about mutants' physiology thus far. And, well, a psychologist or two." Inui says before sighing. "The religious beliefs, for as long as done in moderation, are beneficial to mental health, especially when they go hand in hand with the sense of community and a feeling of acceptance, yes. But it's still not a substitute for holistic psychological help, especially as some of the kids went through a nasty stuff."

In Mirai Sasaki's opinion, most of the kids in the country needed that to some degree or another. In the meantime, they are going to focus on the kids that carry a risk of large human casualties if they snap.

He can help only so many people.

"I'll contact the rest of our council to let them know that the alliance, well, merger can be made official." Mirai Sasaki decides. "Good job."

Inui nods, clearly tired. Yeah, that was a many hours long inspection and then travel back.

(***)

The monster was moved to the Tartarus through Eclipse' warpgate. They didn't want to risk moving it anywhere where it can even theoretically go on a rampage, or.. .well, they trying to explain its existence to too many people, even those already knowing about the meta-abilities, was a pain.

Eri rewinded the monster a day later, after Chiyo Shuzenji took as many samples of as many things as possible. Among other things, quickly confirming the Knights' findings about the DNA.

The result was a 40-something man, who was later confirmed to have disappeared on the other side of the country, one of the quirks of the monster probably belonging to him originally, unless they were all implanted onto him.

Unfortunately, it was a 40-something braindead man.

"It seems…" Aizawa announces when he hears the report. "... that we won't need to pull our punches when fighting those if we can't heal them."

He'd still prefer to have some inside intel from the facility, but… well, he'd also prefer Overhaul to die in a random car crash or after choking on something (not like that was possible, he would just fix the issue with his quirk, but a man can dream), but somehow, it's not happening.

He is used to slight disappointments in his life.

(***)

"Well, if that wasn't a clusterfuck." Aizawa groans after leaving the briefing room. "But at least it confirms a few things."

"Like the fact that some of the military is remotely aware that some superpowers exist, but is still in the dark over the exact scope of the issue, save for, probably, some units that had a personal history with them?" Hawks ask. Gargoyle and Defiant, their presentation aids, walk after them.

The officers and NCOs of the 72nd Infantry Battalion that was supposed to participate in the Gunga Mountain Raid at Governor Yagi's request were just now enlightened to the true scope of the meta-abilities AND the fact that they were supposed to serve as a perimeter containment around a real fight between superheroes and (possibly) supervillains, with a (possibly) whole lot of posthuman abominations deployed by the latter.

Frankly speaking, their reactions were a whole spectrum from hyped acceptance to existential dread.

At least it covered the issues of accidental friendly fire. Probably. Joint operations were a massive fucking pain, and the soldiers had two days to memorize the hero uniforms of as many superheroes and sidekicks mobilized for the raid as possible.

Aizawa already hated his own operation plan, but it was the only thing he had to go by, so…

"We've also updated the Knights with the list of known villains and supervillains." Defiant adds. "We don't really expect anyone from them to drop by, but… honestly, with such a massive deployment, right before the Reveal Day… well, I can't help but be worried."

"Not just you, kid." Aizawa replies dryly. He can hear the groan clearly enough, so he decides to concede the point. "Alright, not just you, young man. Better?"

"That makes it sound like something that a mother tells their son when he is in trouble." Defiant complaints. "I'm an adult, dammit."

(***)

Almost five hundred JSDF soldiers forming the cordon around the facility, together with two hundred police officers. A large detachment of emergency services (firefighters and paramedics) nearby in case something went disastrously wrong.

Thirty members of the Special Operations Unit, together with further forty of the prefectural Anti-Firearms Squad, now cleared of potential Overhaul informants and thus trusted to do their job in crisis, as the backbone of the main assault group.

All of that supported by superheroes Defiant, Repulse, Eclipse, Amplitude, Tornado, Rabbit, Blackwing, Paladin and Chancellor, together with almost seventy sidekicks (including the entirety of the Musutafu' branch of Metahuman Network), spread among the cordon forces, the emergency services and the main assault group, depending on where their quirks would be most useful.

Frankly, they brought way more firepower than even possibly required for this particular operation. They didn't expect more than a few dozen guards, it's the unknown metahuman presence that made them all gear up, expecting trouble.

"Alright, gentlemen." Aizawa announces to the people gathered in his command post at the edge of Gunga mountain. "It is time. The operation starts in five minutes."

(***)

One Day Later

Aizawa enters Governor Yagi's office, taking a passing note of people gathered in front of him. There is Death Arms (or, well, lieutenant general Dai Taniguchi of the 19th Division stationed in Musutafu from which the 72nd Battalion hailed from), there is chief prosecutor Yuki Hamada, there are several department heads of the governor's office, all crowded by the wall.

The rest got chairs for themselves to sit. Aizawa, clearly, got nothing. So, he stood up in front of the desk, his eyes on Yagi.

"Commissioner Aizawa." Yagi says. "I vaguely remember telling you that you have a free range, for as long as you manage to restore order in Musutafu. Am I remembering things wrongly?"

"You don't." Aizawa replies.

"Thus far…" Yagi continues. "... your achievements in that were, and I don't use those words lightly, stellar. Which is the one and only reason why we are having this talk, instead of playing things officially."

Yeah, it's nice to be recognized. Although, judging from the circumstances, it's a bit…

"So please, Commissioner Aizawa." Yagi says as dryly as humanly possible. "Could you be so kind as to explain this monumental disaster to us?"

Not exactly the words he'd use, but… close enough, sadly.

"I believe…" Aizawa replies slowly. "... that I should start from the beginning."

It's going to be a long day for him.

(***)

... oopsie? The Gunga Mountain Raid Arc starts no, and you can already see that it didn't go according to plan. Let me just tell you that it's such an incredible clusterfuck that having Aizawa narrate it (with a long section of text that's pretty much flashbacks to what happened, a bit like chronologically reverse Revival Celebration attack from Exiting the Stage) is the only way to more or less sensibly describe it all.

And damn. Just, damn. The amount of revelations, plottwists and reveals that's going to rock you in the next few chapters is going to be simply intense. On the other hand, a chunk of next chapter is going to be Yagi discover the amount of things (including the Quirk Suppression Unit, illegal detention center for supervillains, superhero system and so on) that Aizawa was doing behind his back and wow, poor All Might.