TOPCAT-59 - Thank you :D
Shahryar - Regretfully, heroes are surprisingly strong :P It wouldn't be even nearly as easy.
(***)
Seven Days Ago
The atmosphere in the meeting room was, naturally, awkward. Truly an atrocity upon the concept of a strategic meeting.
Then again, the leadership of the New Vigilante Alliance and the Paranormal Liberation Front was crammed into a single (if big) room. In Naruhata, of course, since neither side trusted the other to allow themselves to be warped into either the Overlook or the Marukane Ward.
At least, not before the day of the battle for the latter.
The vigilantes took one side of the room. The villains took another. Then both sides promptly did their best to ignore each other's existence.
Aside from the Four Natural Disasters, the vigilantes also had Ryukyu, Gang Orca, Yui Kodai (or Downsize, as she called herself nowadays), Crawler and his closest lieutenants, and, naturally, Spyglass.
Miruko and Ms. Joke were present as well, pretty much as the representatives of the new NVA recruits.
Midoriya brought Aiko, his executives (Mastermind, Counterfeit, Lady Murder, Eclipse, Skeptic, and Clockmaker), plus a selection of major League of Villains members.
In a way, the PLF delegations were composed of three groups. Because Yaoyorozu refused to show up without Songbird, Biohazard and Frostfire, her personal group of sidekicks. Hypothermia, Quicksilver, Singularity and Chameleon were there because Izuku was there. Aiko refused to show up without Tokoyami, her precious High Templar, but Dark Crystal and Ragdoll were brought simply because she refused to be outshone by Yaoyorozu and Midoriya.
She was sometimes a bit childish, even as a god. Maybe especially as a god.
The fourth group, in the end, were 'others'. Incense from the CRC, as the head of the PLF medical corps (Fleshwarp theoretically joining it nowadays, Shishikura's quirk was useful with patching wounds, but he didn't get to join the conference). Red Fang was there as the ISP's entire brains department.
Stain considered showing up, but Izuku made it clear that wanting to give Miruko a smug look of superiority wasn't enough of a reason to involve him in a diplomatic meeting. The Hero Killer took it like an adult should - in other words, he left to beat a sandbag to super death just to unwind.
Jetstream showed up just to observe and learn, sitting between Skeptic and Ragdoll. Landslide was clearly having complicated feelings about Ragdoll being there, especially as her old friend (that was supposed to be dead) was clearly acting like she used to, Kouta actually enjoying her presence.
"... that's how we'll dampen the JSDF initial assault." Midoriya concludes his brief thesis about the applications of the Natural Disasters' quirk in the ancient art of destroying tanks. "I want the tanks out of the Marukane Ward, because once the PLF rolls in, this is going to be an all-out battle of quirks, and while guns can find themselves outperformed by quirks, I can't exactly say the same about tank cannons."
"So, to summarize, the plan for the first phase of the battle is to deploy my Anti-Air defense…" Crawler comments. "... to deal with the missile strikes and enemy air force, then have my artillery battery occupy the attention of their conventional artillery… and then draw them into the Marukane Ward abandoned urban landscape while using traps and tunnels to strike against their tanks. Did I miss anything?"
"No, that's a pretty good summary." Midoriya nods.
"You know that it won't work, right?" Crawler asks back, Nakahara watching him quietly from her position right next to Midoriya, facing the crowd. "Don't get me wrong, the idea is sound. But I have twelve self-propelled howitzers in total. And while my crews are good, they trained in simulators, not in real life. The army artillery is going to crush them in five minutes flat, unless you'll have Mastermind assist with targeting and pray that we get them before they score hits."
That was an entirely logical assessment. Mastermind clearly looks suddenly interested in the subject. However…
"I believe that involving Mastermind so early will be a massive mistake." Midoriya replies, Nakahara nodding her agreement.
"Intelli is going to be on the lookout for any signs of PLF involvement." Spyglass then speaks. She is probably their best expert on Mindscape as a person. They fought against each other long enough. "If she sees anything as suspicious as impossibly precise artillery fire, her first thought won't be 'they were lucky' or 'Nakahara got herself an intelligence quirk holder'. And if she has even a hint of suspicion that the NVA and PLF allied with each other, she'll order a general retreat."
"So, what's the plan?" Crawler asks, his eyes drifting from Nakahara to Midoriya.
"Well, that depends on whether you have any sort of force field generating quirks in the NVA." Midoriya replies, before glancing at Nakahara, who squints.
"We do have someone, but they aren't strong enough for this." She replies. Naturally, if their force fields could withstand artillery barrage, they would be an S-Rank villain by now, and Midoriya would know it.
Then again, those are rare. Martyr is an SS-Rank hero precisely because he fits the criteria.
"That can be amended rather easily." Midoriya replies calmly. "There are ways of boosting one's natural quirk power, and by far."
"Trigger, seriously?" Crawler appears to dislike the option. "It's useful in certain situations, I give you that. But it's unreliable."
"What if there was a better option?" Midoriya asks him. "Because I have one."
Now, that was interesting.
"It's going to be a novum to many in this room, but I was actually never quirkless." Midoriya announces. "I was born with a meta-quirk that amplifies the control and output of other quirks. Since it only works on quirks already in my body, it's honestly rather useless on its own."
Nakahara stares at him. She was probably rapidly reassessing her knowledge about him. Such as the potential secondary adaptations of such a quirk.
Midoriya didn't care. He was going to announce that to the world during the battle either way. If only because he wanted to have an unholy amount of guilty pleasure making the Prime Minister realize that she was now suffering thanks to her own decision to have the quirkless runt expelled - before discovering that he wasn't quirkless at all!
"And, thanks to the late Overhaul's research, recently picked up by Clockmaker, we happen to have access to the ability to bestow quirks temporarily." Midoriya then casually drops the bomb. "Boosting your force field vigilante with my Mastery should elevate him or her to the point where resisting the army's counterbattery fire should be possible."
There are some whispers and gasps from the audience. That announcement was, clearly, a big surprise to most of the people in the room.
"What are the side effects?" Nakahara asks. Her voice is dry, but her eyes are actually slightly worrying to Izuku. She just discovered the existence of some significantly dangerous secret weapon of the PLF, it's natural that she's worried.
"Introducing Mastery to the body of a quirk holder causes a significant strain on their body." Midoriya replies. "It's not lethal or significantly damaging on its own, but only if the quirk you've boosted it with wasn't 'strong' to begin with. I suspect that injecting any of the people in this room, maybe aside from the complex mutants and rare exceptions like Mei Hatsume, would be instantly lethal. What's more, using it multiple times will cause permanent damage to your natural quirk, even if it's of the naturally 'weaker' type."
Worst of all, he wasn't even lying. There were clear limits to this technology, which didn't change the fact that the PLF did, in fact, obtain a massively superior (if one-time use only) version of Trigger.
Midoriya didn't like relying on mad science. But this, to be honest, read to him more as using drugs.
"How long can it last?" Nakahara asks.
"Five minutes." Midoriya replies. "To make it work we'd have to borrow a lot of blood of said vigilante and inject several members of the Quirkless Liberation Front with a mix of their force field quirk and my Mastery. Since Mastery gives you an instinctual understanding of the boosted quirk workings, they should be able to replace the person in question while appearing indistinguishable to the outside observer. This would make Intelli assume that it's a single previously unknown vigilante with a powerful quirk."
"Well, goddamn shame that we can't protect my precious AA batteries that way as well." Crawler decides to ignore that part of the subject altogether. "But I guess that if we have our artillery guns apply pressure to theirs, then with missiles out of the game they won't be that endangered."
Someone was very insecure about his precious military hardware. Good to know, Izuku decides.
"Once we're done with the opening salvoes, we can focus on what's going to be the main point of the day." Midoriya replies. "Namely, the actual ground warfare. We're going to be using your underground tunnels to circle people around while using Earthquake's quirk to selectively collapse the tunnels that the enemy will attempt to enter in pursuit, all while having the NVA forces slowly withdraw towards the center. This is going to be the crucial part of the battle."
"I can imagine why." Yaoyorozu comments. "There is no harder maneuver on the battlefield than the successful retreat against a superior enemy. If the NVA retreats too fast, they risk their lines collapsing or the enemy realizing that they are being drawn into a trap. If they retreat too slowly, they risk getting decimated by the enemy vanguard."
That was an undeniable truth. Even Midoriya fucked that part up in Aichi, although in his defense, he blames Entropy for having too horrible of a hangover to follow his orders properly, resulting in the rearguard being overwhelmed by the heroes and the JSDF and the battle turning from an almost victorious repetition of the Doom of Korusan to a complete clusterfuck and a disaster for the Front.
"Good news is that there is a high chance that the heroes will deploy their SS-Rankers in the vanguard, seeing it as the only potential counter against the Four Natural Disasters' and their hit and run tactics, and in an attempt to minimize the casualties their forces will suffer as a result." Midoriya replies. "Having several SS-Rankers battle it out should make the engagement appear genuine enough.
Of course, he doesn't add that, but this is going to be the moment of the battle that's going to be the most dangerous… to the NVA.
Then again, they are experienced enough to know about that.
"I think that we're going to start that segment of the talk by summarizing the enemies you might encounter during that segment of the fight." Midoriya continues. "Because, clearly enough, proper quirk analysis is an almost forgotten art nowadays."
Shame that Eri wasn't with them. She loved dissecting people's quirks and considering their application, strengths and weaknesses (not to mention ways of improving them) just as much as her father did.
(***)
Today
Officially, the NVA was utterly and completely cornered. And while its leaders were - technically - traitors to the government, this didn't make them cowards. Quite the opposite - to rebel against the government in its pre-Second Paranormal Liberation War glory required a lot of bravery.
Or, to say it in simpler words, madness.
As a result it was absolutely no surprise to the heroes when Ryukyu and Gang Orca were spotted on the battlefield, used (alongside the Four Natural Disasters) to reinforce wavering vigilantes.
Intelli, naturally, responded by moving the SS-Rank heroes closer to their position, while collapsing as many tunnels in the vicinity of her forces by a variety of quirks available to local S and A-Rank heroes, in order to limit the enemy mobility.
Soon the first clashes happened.
(***)
Seven Days Ago
"First one we're going to go through is Masaaki Iseri, also known as the SS-Rank hero Old Flame." Midoriya announces. Firestorm growls something angrily. "Thank you for your contribution to this talk, Kamiji-san."
She flips him the bird while glaring at him angrily. Yeah, that was some rather intense amount of hatred.
Despite Old Flame being the person that killed Eraserhead during the collapse of the latter's conspiracy, Midoriya Izuku is rather neutral about it. His opinion on his old teacher was a complicated one. Old Flame is going to die during the battle, but not because of Revenant trying to take revenge.
The image on the screen is that of a man built similarly to Endeavor, just without burning hair and significantly younger (in his thirties at best). Although his uniform resembles Endeavor's significantly, at least in terms of colouristic, but - perhaps to go with the times - his resembled a combat armor more than a bodysuit.
Above his hand, a small bird made of fire floats.
"An ascended fanboy of Endeavor, as one can guess from the uniform alone…" Midoriya continues. It was also the reason for Firestorm being pissed off, then again she was already pissed off due to Midoriya being there and her being forbidden from murdering him. "His primary quirk is called Fire Construct. It allows him to create a variety of things made of fire. In the case of animal-like things, you can expect them to behave like appropriate animals, at least until dispersed."
"Yes, yes, we know that." Nakahara decides to be impatient. "You think that we didn't do any information gathering on our own?"
"Well, I assume then that I do not speak of his secondary quirk, right?" Midoriya asks back, glaring at her angrily.
…
"His what?" Nakahara replies in shock.
"The government has managed to recover some of Overhaul's research as well." Midoriya replies. "Enough to, in total secrecy, be capable of granting people permanent, if typically weaker, secondary quirks. They are doing that only for the SS-Ranks whose loyalty they are certain of and…" He pauses, staring at her for a few long seconds. "Wait, a moment, you have a spy among or near SS-Rankers."
"Yes, and it's absolutely adorable how you immediately assumed that we truly knew shit about the government despite fighting them for almost three years." Nakahara replies dryly, some of the vigilantes chuckling at it. "Feel free to elaborate on what secondary quirk he got, it's one of the things we're lacking intel on."
Midoriya clearly didn't like what just happened, but decided to not comment on it. Probably to avoid being accidentally humiliated again.
"His secondary quirk is a variant of Shock Absorption quirk." Midoriya replies instead. "It fixes his biggest weakness, namely the fact that while physically strong, he is still an otherwise normal human. Shock Absorption makes him nigh-invulnerable to gunfire, unless you involve heavy weaponry or score a critical hit at places like eyes, and majority of normal physical attacks."
It wasn't the USJ Noumu-level of Shock Absorption. All Might in his prime would have overpowered it with a single blow. But his single blow could change the weather. Guns simply didn't compare, even if their impact was much concentrated. Besides, that man had actual body armor.
"My natural predator." Gang Orca comments from his seat. "I'm vulnerable to fire, and most of my attacks are either physical or require me to get close."
"True." Midoriya sighs. "He can't just bathe you with fire if you'll try to wrestle him like Endeavor would, but on several occasions he created an additional limb for himself, like something resembling a scorpion's tail. Not to mention things like a shield and a sword of flames that he can actually wield like normal weapons." He says. Then after a second of pause, he adds something. "Naturally, I'm almost certain that Intelli is going to send him after you, Gang Orca."
Gang Orca sighs. This is going to be a pain in the ass, isn't it?
(***)
Today
Gang Orca reacted fast enough, thanks to one of the vigilantes surrounding him shouting a warning in time.
The Killer Whale Vigilante turns into the direction of the massive lion made of raging flames, before unleashing his hypersonic blast at it point-blank. The lion is dispersed, bits of its flames scattered around, burning some of the vigilantes (shit).
It's hot. It's going to make his skin dry rather quickly. He can't fight if his skin is dry. They have several water-quirked vigilantes in the vicinity to intervene, but… an SS-Rank Hero is an SS-Rank Hero.
It's going to hurt.
Old Flame walks forward. As Midoriya suspected, he is going all out from the start. The shield of flames is there, to keep Gang Orca from getting too close. An almost three meters long spear of flames is there, perfect to poke Kugo Sakamata from a distance where his hypersonic blast isn't strong enough to end the fight in an instant.
He probably has a scorpion tail of flames, but it's coiled behind his back, hoping to surprise Gang Orca by using it to burn his eyes out if Sakamata decided to charge through his flames and tackle him.
The mask of flames covering his flames is mostly for aesthetics. But it does cover his eyes, while somehow not limiting Old Flame's visibility, making it harder for Gang Orca to realize where the hero was looking.
To take care of the vigilantes surrounding him, Iseri is deploying more mobile constructs. Several wolves of orange flames, their eyes flashing with white flames.
"Water on me, now." Gang Orca orders. The nearest vigilantes suddenly unleash their quirks on him, all of them made of water.
Old Flame stops in that instant, realizing that the enemy was prepared. That's when Gang Orca starts his charge.
The wolves are redirected at him, throwing themselves at him. Wolves against an orca? Hilarious.
It hurts, but it's also hilarious.
Gang Orca tackles Old Flame, closing his eyes for a heartbeat to avoid having them burned, pushing him back and slamming his back into a wall of a building. The impact is strong enough for the wall to partially crack, the building taking a step closer to its inevitable collapse.
Kugo Sakamata then blasts his head point blank with his hypersonic blast. On such a distance and held up for so long, it should end him.
Alas, it didn't. Perhaps Shock Absorption worked against it to a degree (Midoriya suspected that it was a possibility), maybe Intelli boosted him with some reinforcement quirk from one of the remaining heroes along the way, expecting Gang Orca to try something like that.
"ABOVE!" One of his vigilantes (still spraying him with water from behind him) shouts a warning.
Gang Orca isn't in a position to open his eyes, Old Flame is probably waiting for it. So, he jumps back, before looking up. The massive snake made out of flames (goodness gracious, it's at least ten meters long) misses its bite narrowly.
Iseri must have made it earlier and had it wait behind the building, to intervene if necessary. The heroes, unfortunately, aren't stupid.
The hero in question stands up. It's clear that the blow connected, the man is swaying visibly, but the fact that he stood up means that the initial attack plan failed. Especially as the flames envelop him a moment later, more figures (some of them human, some of them animal) start throwing themselves at the vigilantes.
Gang Orca braces himself for the fight.
(***)
Seven Days Ago
"What about Emoji?" Lady Murder clearly couldn't hold back her overflowing interest in one of the few SS-Rank heroes that focused on melee combat.
A simple question to answer, in Midoriya's opinion.
"If you see him, run." Revenant replies calmly. "You can't win. In terms of capabilities in close quarters combat he is second to Invincible, and yes, I include villains and vigilantes in this ranking. His primary quirk is an absolute pain in the ass that makes him nigh-undefeatable aside from some very particular sets of circumstances."
"Big mood." Crawler says before Lady Murder could speak again.. "Learned it the hard way." he then adds while patting his eyepatch with his index finger.
"What's his primary quirk, then?" Lady Murder asks. Someone, clearly, wants to prove Midoriya wrong and fight Emoji.
Ehhh.
"Shizuoka Kuno's primary quirk is called 'Peace'." Midoriya decides to satisfy her curiosity. "It works by automatically suppressing hostile intent directed at its holder. Emoji is, basically speaking, an unattackable individual. Attempting to use physical violence, quirks or guns against him will invariably fail, due to the attacker suddenly finding themselves unable to raise their hands against him." Midoriya sighs. "AoE attacks work, for as long as their target isn't Emoji himself, so I actually planned to use Crawler's artillery battery to shell his surroundings in hopes of scoring an accidental kill."
"Would be a nice revenge for my eye." Crawler comments. "I thought I could take him on, only to realize that I couldn't even attack him. You can evade and escape him alright, but he is damn fast. My vigilantes only got him to run out of Naruhata when they attempted to box him in the room by barricading the doors, in hopes of keeping him imprisoned until dehydration or starvation gets him."
"I think…" Lady Murder grins murderously. "... that I have an idea. Let me fight him once I show up, alright?"
What?
(***)
Today
Landslide was retreating after another mini-landslide that enveloped several soldiers, surrounded by a handful of her vigilantes, when she saw him.
Violet hoodie. Belt with a handful of work tools (such as tasers or reinforced handcuffs, and a sheathed sword to deal with tougher defense). Face covered with an electronic mask, displaying a smiling face (that immediately morphed into some rather spooky, ghost-like face).
Emoji.
Shit.
Landslide touches the ground under her. Her attempt to attack Emoji fails instantly, but she knew it was going to happen. Instead, she erects an earth wall (not very thick, not enough earth around, but…) between them, before shouting at the vigilantes to run.
Not quick enough.
One of them screams a warning to Landslide. Who has just enough time to notice Emoji closing in on her, his hand touching her face, the taser installed into his gloves electrocuting her into unconsciousness nearly instantly.
Hearing that he has a speed amplification quirk was one thing, knowing just how strong it actually was (despite being a secondary quirk), was another thing entirely.
Emoji then casually puts handcuffs on her, completely ignoring the crowd of vigilantes surrounding him.
"You're advised to surrender." He then says while standing up from the unconscious Landslide, his voice slightly modulated by his mask to make it appear slightly electronic. For aesthetics, perhaps. "Being tased hurts like hell, and you can neither run away quickly enough nor fight me."
Some try to run. None of them manage to get far enough.
He then reports to Saiko Intelli about the first vigilante big name being arrested.
(***)
"Looks like…" Midoriya comments in the command center. "... they are almost deep enough into the Ward for us to launch Furnace."
Gang Orca slowly losing to Old Flame. Landslide arrested by Emoji. Ryukyu clashing with Behemoth, and clearly fighting to survive rather than win. NVA steadily pushed back, despite the resistance being harder than they expected.
Crusader heading to assist Old Flame. Nejire-Chan on her way to change Behemoth's slow victory into a quick one. Lemillion appearing to be closing in on Tornado's position.
The NVA's complete defeat was an inevitability now. Of course, that was the plan.
"Furnace in one minute." Nakahara replies. It's time. " Revenant?" She then adds, glancing at the supervillain right next to her.
"Cloud is ready." He glances at Crawler. "I assume you'll want a lift once Furnace happens."
"Much obliged." Crawler replies. He is really looking forward to it.
At the Marukane Ward outskirts, the heroes enjoy the last minute of their one-sided victory.