Jpx0999 - Time will tell what Aiko was up to there. As for the S&S? Yeah, she was terrifying one.
TheGreatBubbaJ - And the trend is going to continue.
Shahryar - Uraraka's certainly doing fine. Not saying anything about Aiko.
(***)
Seven Days Ago
"This…" Midoriya says as the new image takes the screen. "... is Kenta Sugita. Also known as Invincible, the Symbol of Hope and under a dozen more nicknames, all of them screaming trouble."
He looks like the most Japanese-looking Superman you could imagine, which - ironically - gives him a colouristic resembling Omniman. Contrary to that comparison, that guy was - if you excluded the whole 'main enforcer for a dictatorship' thing - as heroic as you could possibly get.
He was strong enough to apprehend even the most dangerous villains instead of killing them. And for as far as Midoriya's intel went, he had no skeletons in the closet. That man wasn't even breaking the speed limits while driving.
"His primary quirk is Tactile Telekinesis." Midoriya continues his lecture. "It's actually rather similar to what Captain Celebrity, present Number Two Hero of the United States, has. He can wrap his own body in a telekinetic field, allowing him to simulate superstrength, superhuman-level of endurance and fly or levitate. This is honestly an SS-Rank Hero material from the start, but regretfully to us, Kenta Sugita is a training freak who diligently pushed his quirk to the limit pretty much from the day it manifested."
"Sounds like my sort of man, ha!" Lady Murder comments. "With a quirk like that and a lot of strength he probably got some scary combat skills, eh?"
"True." Midoriya agrees. It would be much easier if the SS-Rank Heroes were focused on being celebrities, feeling confident in the power that their multiple quirks granted to them instead of actually training as hard as the villains did. "He can deploy telekinetic constructs outside of his body, for as long as they remain in contact with his personal telekinetic field. He can apply pressure on your carotid artery to knock you out for as long as he touches you for a few seconds, he can make invisible telekinetic shields to protect his comrades and civilians in the area, and he can create a crowd control things such as invisible whips to trip his enemies by sneakily wrapping them around their ankles and pulling."
Seriously speaking, Midoriya's life would be MUCH easier if the guys on the other side were incompetent. Alas, here they are. Trying their best to figure out a way to take down a physical god.
"His main combat style is that of a superpowered boxer resembling All Might…" Midoriya continues. "However, he managed to weave all those tricks and more into his own personalized fighting style, together with an awful lot of compatible martial arts. His ability to aid himself by making stable telekinetic platforms in any environment whatsoever thanks to his telekinesis means that he can fight to 100% of his capabilities even in the deepest of swamps or while being in the air. He is also capable of holding objects as big as a skyscraper by wrapping them in his telekinetic field."
"So can Captain Celebrity." Crawler comments dryly. "Although I don't expect Skyline to be ready to slap his enemy in the face with said skyscraper. This is, on the other hand, his weakness… or should be, am I right?" He asks, staring at Midoriya.
Midoriya nods.
"Captain Celebrity's quirk's main weakness is that when he exerts his quirk on the outside of his body, it makes his personal defense weaken proportionally to the strength of the external field." Midoriya replies. "It worked the same way for Invincible, except, well, here comes the tricky part."
Izuku takes a deep breath.
"You all know that most loyal SS-Rank Heroes have received one or more secondary quirks, naturally far weaker than their primary ones." Midoriya replies. "This, unfortunately, isn't the case with Invincible. Soon after his involvement with the program, Sugita Kenta was found to be of a rather peculiar physique. He is basically speaking a biological anomaly, a man with the largest recorded quirk factor among the Top Heroes, and by far. This allowed the HPSC to equip him with not one or two, but fourteen secondary quirks, all of them performing to the same level as they did in their original owners."
"F-fourteen?!" Nakahara didn't expect that number. Then again, it was a state secret to a level incomparable to most others. "And they aren't weakened? How the hell did he…"
To be honest, the audience is mostly shocked speechless, if you exclude a few quiet curses. Aiko alone was unreadable.
"The running theory I have is that he had All for One in his family tree a few generations ago." Midoriya replies. "Kenta inheriting his monstrous quirk factor and a suitably strengthened quirk of someone else."
To be honest, Izuku is lying through his teeth. There is another, much more likely explanation. Because All for One wasn't the only person with a 'monstrous quirk factor' running around.
Sugita Kenta might have been a biological descendant of one of the past One For All Holders. Midoriya even has a theory as to which one might be responsible for that, although it's a very fleeting theory, one based entirely on his quirk, as their looks carried no similarities.
What else was Blackwhip if not a (visible) telekinetic field, capable of (among other things) grabbing things?
"Unlike All for One…" Midoriya continues. "... the Government had access to the quirks of nearly every person in this country, together with a proper registry to look through. The result is the creation of probably the most terrifying multi-quirked combatant in the history of the world. Not just the past, but also the future."
Midoriya himself finds it hard to imagine a more dangerous combination. Oh, sure, Armageddon beat Invincible by far in terms of his capabilities for mass destruction, but in one on one? It would be over in a second.
Invincible was a champion of the Hero Society. A new All Might, made to surpass the original. A man to engage the most dangerous of supervillains out there and dispatch of them easily, boosting the hopes of the population.
And in that role, he had no equal.
"His additional quirks can be separated into three categories." Midoriya continues. "First one are weakness patches, supposed to counter his weaknesses and make him, quite literally, Invincible. Then there are the improvements. And, finally, others. We'll go through them in this sequence."
The picture behind him changes to a list of covered bullet points, marked with Weakness Patches at the top. Hey, why not bring a powerpoint presentation while at it?
"Point one is, honestly, also the biggest reason for why Invincible is, well, it makes his hero name into something damn near to a statement of a fact rather than a boast." Midoriya sighs. Then, a bullet point is uncovered.
Flect Turn's Reflect.
"Holy…" Ryukyu manages to speak first. "... shit."
Big mood.
Flect Turn was a legend. Yes, his plan failed in the end, Humarise being dismantled by the heroes worldwide (in big part thanks to Star and Stripe getting involved), but his quirk made him singlehandedly hold ground against dozens of heroes.
Yes, he was ultimately defeated and was successfully apprehended (once again, by Cathleen Bates). But he also came damn near close to successfully committing the largest genocide in human history. If All for One and Entropy were the closest thing Japan's population had to demons to be feared, Flect Turn was the same thing to the world.
Midoriya himself wondered how the hell did the HPSC obtain Flect Turn's blood sample. It was probably an interesting tale.
"Reflect deals with two problems at once." Midoriya then continues. "First problem is the weakening of Invincible's personal strengthening field when he exerts his telekinesis outwardly. With Reflect on, he can do that freely, the quirk capable of repelling, practically speaking, all imaginable physical attacks while serving as an automatic counterattack measure. Who can guess what's the other problem that this quirk fixes?"
"Touch quirks." Nakahara, naturally, realized it almost instantly. "They are almost always extremely powerful, many of them capable of causing instant death, like what Entropy and Overhaul had. But with Reflect, Invincible can't be touched."
"Dingding, we have a winner." Midoriya deadpans. He doesn't enjoy ruining the morale of his side before a major battle in the slightest. "Yes, Reflect renders all instant death touch quirks invariably useless against Kenta. And that's only the first of the weakness patches quirks he got."
Even Lady Murder appears to have gone slightly paler by now. It's one thing to know about him being powerful, it's another thing entirely to know details and realize how badly you were outmatched.
"The second and third one are rather simple." Midoriya adds, two more bullet points revealing themselves on the screen behind him. Under them, names 'Fire Resistance' and 'Frost Resistance' are written. "Those two quirks render Kenta nearly invulnerable to both high and low temperatures. It doesn't make him completely invulnerable, however you need temperatures below -200C or above approximately 1300C to cause any damage to him."
He then sighs while massaging his temples.
"This means that both Firestorm and Frostfire should be capable of injuring him." Midoriya admits. "However, be advised - you'll have to go all out. It's because Reflect and his Tactile Telekinesis are covering his body in a shield that will repel the flames themselves. It can't do the same thing to the superheated air and temperature itself. Naturally…" He then sighs again. "... Kenta knows it. So, you can expect to be targeted first."
(***)
Today
Shoto Todoroki remembers being paired with Bakugou Katsuki to fight All Might during the exams right before the Summer Camp Massacre. Two of the class heavy-hitters against an enemy that they couldn't reasonably defeat, with completely different and very incompatible personalities.
Not to mention Bakugou hating Todoroki's guts for the sports festival.
They ended up failing their exam, because of Bakugou throwing himself at All Might, who was skillful enough to fend off his attacks while making sure that Shoto couldn't sneak past him and get to the exit gate.
Shoto learned a lot that day. Such as the fact that a man such as he was - of rather, let's be real here, average physique - was going to lose horribly against a superstrength quirk whose user will be fast or smart enough to get close before Shoto will have the time to create a glacier between them.
Shoto Todoroki learned his lesson from that day. After the Summer Camp (that he barely survived, Muscular almost walking right through him, further reinforcing his understanding of his own weaknesses) he focused on finding a way to use his quirk to survive a close quarter engagement against strength quirk users.
He got a few super moves before ending in Tartarus. He trained to be able to use them reflexively after being freed from it (well, he trained them again to use them reflexively).
As a result, Invincible's fist missed his head by a few centimeters, thanks to a super small variant of Flashfreeze Heatwave that he detonated right next to his head, trading his right ear and half of his hearing for his life.
Almost knocking himself out of the fight and getting a nasty concussion was a comparably better idea than having his head instantly squashed like a watermelon. Because, judging from the speed of the punch and what Midoriya said about Invincible's strength, that would be the result of the attack connecting.
Shoto Todoroki was at the fucking back of the group, Invincible casually ignoring everyone else.
He was too out of it to realize that he only prolonged his life for about three seconds, Invincible's extended hand coiling around his head, the other one moving forward together with their telekinetic strengthening, Kenta planning to break his neck.
Quicksilver moved faster, grabbing the back of his uniform, pulling him back before Invincible could kill him. A moment later Kenta is bathed in flames, Firestorm blasting him from the side with her maximum temperature flames.
Invincible retaliates with a wide-area telekinetic blast that pushes her flames back, clearing his line of sight. Before Moe Kamiji has the time to respond (he doesn't give her the time, he knows she is dangerous), a telekinetic whip coils around her head.
Curator - a massive whale mutant - tackles him two seconds later. The weight and size alone make him hard to kill, you need incredible strength to get anywhere it hurts. He doesn't tackle Invincible with his full strength, knowing full well that Reflect would provoke an equal reaction.
But the impact is still substantial. He is trying to buy time, a man with physique such as the one he has being able to at least somewhat wrestle Invincible (even if he can't hope to cause any actual damage to him)
It's one second too late to save Firestorm, the whip tearing her head off. And three seconds later Curator - to his own shock - found himself on the receiving end of the overhead throw, despite his weight approaching two tonnes.
(***)
Seven Days Ago
"The next weakness patch is…" Midoriya raises his hand. The screen above him displays the words Mental Immunity." … is this. The HPSC located a case of a person presumed quirkless no-selling Dictator's control during the First Paranormal Liberation War, and managed to correctly interpret the situation. The man in question was incorrectly diagnosed, possessing a quirk rendering him immune to all mental quirks."
It was one of those things that All for One never managed to obtain. That man's reach was long, but the Underworld saw only so much. You might hate bureaucracy, but the endless documents that it spawns are filled with information that is hard to obtain otherwise.
"As a result, Sugita Kenta cannot be mind-controlled or fall for illusions that work by influencing his mind." Midoriya continues. "This means that Mirage's quirk could work, because her illusions 'exist' separately from their target, being visible to everyone in the vicinity. Any more 'personalized' illusion, the sort that only their target sees or hears, won't work. Lie detecting quirks do not work on him either. I believe that even Spyglass' quirk refuses to work on him, am I right?"
"That's right." Spyglass commits, clearly sour about it. "My quirk readings about his quirks come out as 'nothing'."
Midoriya smiles faintly.
"The next of his weakness patch quirks is another big pain in the ass." Midoriya then says, another bullet point revealing itself. This time it's Energy Resistance. "This is a bit of a composite quirk that I believe was created artificially. Chronostasis must have gotten some proper research data about Kurogiri, and decided to replicate the process of merging compatible quirks into a singular, stronger quirk."
"Sounds…" Miruko announces dryly. "... fucking fabulous."
Izuku is honestly surprised that she managed to stay quiet for so long.
"Yeah." He sighs. "Chronostasis found a willing quirkless subject and bestowed several quirks of similar theme onto him, all of them being about resisting various sorts of non-physical attacks. Once the quirk merged, he then copied it and implanted it into Invincible."
Human experimentation, to be honest. But the man used for it was now no longer quirkless and was happily working in one of the Japanese nuclear power plants as a technician, for reasons that were going to be almost immediately apparent.
He also knew the risks involved and volunteered for a chance to obtain a quirk.
"The full extent of what the Energy Resistance covers isn't clear even to the HPSC." Midoriya admits. "But it has been confirmed beyond reasonable doubt that it renders Invincible almost completely resistant to gamma radiation, electricity and most 'attraction quirks' that appear to be working through some variants of diamagnetic force, such as Magne's quirk. It is also highly likely that he is resistant to sufficiently powerful soundwaves, rendering quirks such as those of Songbird useless."
Did he already mention how much of a pain in the ass dealing with Invincible was going to be? Seriously. He has hated the HPSC his (almost) entire life, but even he had to admit that their work with Invincible was simply breathtaking.
That man could fight All for One, and probably from a position of advantage. Mostly because the demon lord LARPer never put even nearly as much training into his quirks as Invincible did. Yes, AFO had hundreds of quirks, and he would most likely find a few that could injure Kenta through dealing unorthodox damage types, but…
Most of them he didn't train an awful lot. Hell, most of them he never trained at all. And with his standard attack mode? He would need his Ultimate Quirk Combination to have a shot at piercing Invincible's Telekinesis + Reflect defense, and if there was one thing that Izuku was certain about the present Number One Hero, was that he wouldn't wait for the demon lord to finish calling up so many quirks.
And in a fight against such a villain, Invincible would go for the kill right from the start.
All for One was, in the end, an evil clown who was probably a villain for the entertainment and the demon lord aesthetic the whole time. Invincible preferred the no-nonsense approach to things. No boasts, no monologues, no flashy moves. Taking supervillains down in seconds - typically in intimidating silence - made all of those redundant in Invincible's rise to the top.
"There are two more weakness-patching quirks." Midoriya continues. Above him, the name 'Light Refraction' is revealed. "A relatively simple quirk that allows him to refract light around him at will. It's there to give him a way to resist lasers and other forms of concentrated energy rays. He has to consciously use this quirk, making those attacks still work if he is completely surprised. If he isn't…" Izuku sighs. "... expect him to redirect them right into the nearest enemy."
Not like they had attacks like that in their repertoire. Especially not ones powerful enough to take down Invincible with a single blow. And it would have to work in a single blow.
Aside from Extinction Ray. And that's what the plan was about, in the end.
"And, the final quirk of this category is…" Midoriya says as the final name is revealed on the screen. Static Air. "This one requires a small backstory. It originally belonged to some drug addict in Kyoto, who discovered that he can get drugged without a drug. He was arrested after murdering someone in a state of intoxication. Chronostasis must have been interested enough in the 'drugs without drugs' mechanism to decide to investigate. It turned out that that man's quirk was severely misunderstood by its owner."
Seriously, quirk counselors out there were a joke. This was one more proof. You needed to find a literal genius of quirk sciences (like Midoriya, All for One, Overhaul, Doctor Garaki or, to a smaller degree and in this particular case, Chronostasis) to realize something like this.
"Static Air works by allowing its owner to 'set' composition and pressure of air in direct contact with their body, in and outside of their bodily cavities." Midoriya elaborates. "The composition set remains the same, regardless of outside influences. Invincible uses this quirk to cover himself in a thin layer of normal, breathable air, one that he keeps up at all times. This renders him entirely immune to poison gasses, sudden changes in air pressure caused by nearby explosions and asphyxiation of all imaginable forms."
"Shit." Yaoyorozu lets out. She is rapidly reassessing her earlier opinion on Invincible as being a symbol more than a true threat (then again, he mostly shook it out of her long ago), and she just heard that her main means of attack wouldn't work at all.
"We could warp him outside of Earth's atmosphere…" Revenant then says. "... and he would be fine thanks to a combination of cold, heat and radiation resistance with Static Air's set air composition and pressure. Naturally, Tornado will have to get slightly more creative with his attacks if he wants to be useful in this fight."
(***)
Today
Curator, despite the overhead throw and being smashed into the pavement as a result, is more or less fine. He stands up and blasts Invincible with his Sonic Click, a paralyzing hypersonic wave almost point blank.
He confirms Midoriya's suspicions that Energy Resistance works against sufficiently powerful sounds, as Invincible ignores the paralyzing blast completely before hitting Curator in the face with a right hook powerful enough to send the whale villain towards the stone wall.
Before he has the time to end the fight, Miruko appears out of nowhere, trying to perform a Luna Tijeras attack, her legs wrapped around his neck, while Tornado erects a barrier out of shattered pieces of concrete, kept floating between Invincible and almost unconscious Curator with winds coming from several directions at once.
Contrary to how it looks, Miruko's idea was sound. Invincible's defense was akin to a thin but incredibly powerful armor around his body. Trying to kick him would be useless, but if Reflect would deny more static physical pressure into Flect Turn's body, wearing clothes or sitting on a chair would become problematic too.
Besides, the armor is Invincible-shaped. Miruko actually manages to pull his head backwards by pulling at the armor layer under his chin, quite near to the point of breaking his neck, but that's when her back hits an invisible wall.
Shit.
Invincible knocks her unconscious by holding her on his back with his telekinesis and applying just enough pressure on the carotid artery to stop blood flow to the brain. The former Rabbit Hero is unceremoniously thrown to the side.
Tornado did his best, pressing as many concrete chunks against the Invincible's body with his air as he could. Trying to at least limit his visibility, maybe push him back a little or at least force Reflect to be active fully in order to - hopefully - push Miruko off him.
His best wasn't enough.
He realized that painfully when he avoided death by a few centimeters, dodging to the side as a vertical telekinetic blade almost split him in half, Tornado detecting it at the last second through the distortion of the air.
It still severed his right arm. And bought him maybe two or three seconds before Invincible dashed forward through the concrete chunk wall, dispersing it completely in the process, his elbow hitting right into Tornado's throat.
Both the dash and the hit were reinforced with his quirk. Tornado was dead almost instantly. Curator joined the list of dead a moment later, the telekinetically enforced kick practically crushing his head together with the wall of the building behind it.
(***)
Seven Days Ago
"His 'improvements' category includes the following quirks." Midoriya decides to rush the subject a little. The screen behind him changes accordingly. "Super-Eyesight, which improves his eyesight to a superhuman level while granting him in-built night vision and thermal vision. Improved Hearing, which grants him massively improved hearing that doubles as echolocation. If he puts his ear by the surface of a collapsed building he can detect heartbeats of people buried underneath, up to twenty meters deep depending on the consistency of the collapse."
"There goes most of the illusion quirks." Yaoyorozu complains. Thermal-vision alone was hard to fool. "And let me guess, can he detect lies through heartbeat measurements? Unless you're a very good liar?" Ah yes, Songbird.
"I don't know about that, to be honest." Midoriya admits. "He probably needs direct physical contact, which explains why Crusader wasn't outed." He doesn't open the can of worms titled 'what Mastermind is thinking about theoretically being his brother's ally for a few days'. "Then come two quirks the government borrowed from Gigantomachia."
It was like an RPG loot, just… different. Invincible was the one to finally slay the giant in the Haiboro Woods.
"Namely, Morale and Energy Saver." Midoriya continues. "The former restores his physical exhaustion and empowers his quirks proportionally to how high his morale presently is, the latter allows him to operate on about an hour of sleep a month, and a comparable amount of food and water if needed, although he can eat and drink more if he wants to."
Perfect to further establish his legend, Invincible taking down villains left and right, scoring sometimes openly outlandish amounts of villain captures per day and week.
"The last category of Invincible's quirks are 'others'." Midoriya is about to conclude the lecture. "The first one is an On/Off meta-quirk, which allows him to switch other quirks on and off at his will. This is mostly to counter Reflect's side-effects that drove Flect Turn to villainy. Then comes the Perpetuum Mobile meta-quirk, something from AFO old quirk storage."
"Sounds scary." Nakahara comments dryly. Aiko says nothing, but she recognizes the quirk in question.
"It allows Invincible to make the effects of certain quirk permanent, without expending energy or having to maintain them with conscious thoughts, in exchange for not being able to change their properties anymore." Midoriya replies. "He uses it to maintain his telekinetic shields around him 24/7 without having to think about it, to avoid sneak attacks somehow strong enough to overwhelm Reflect. On/Off allows him to switch-off Perpetuum Mobile to regain conscious control whenever he wants."
"That's thirteen secondary quirks." Nakahara says. In Midoriya's opinion, she looks mentally exhausted. "What's the fourteenth one?"
"He didn't have enough quirk factor left for anything actually useful." Midoriya replies. "So he picked one that, together with On/Off, lets him make his eyes glow red. Intimidating as hell."
A man of culture, even if one of their archenemies.
(***)
Today
Quicksilver finds herself standing between Todoroki (barely standing up and clearly still dazed) and Invincible. Who just took down four (and a half, if you count Todoroki) supervillains, and didn't even look exhausted.
She would say some version of 'well, fuck' if she could speak. Instead she decides to run away, only to feel her ankles grabbed by something.
She is pulled towards Invincible (his eyes glowing in a rather fearsome shade of red), her attempts to free herself futile, before being knocked out in a way similar to Miruko.
Todoroki finds himself facing Invincible alone, the ringing in his ears (or, more like, ear) still there. Thankfully, that's when the second part of the plan starts.
Status of the Anti-Invincible Task Force:
Firestorm - Dead
Tornado - Dead
Curator - Dead
Frostfire - Injured
Quicksilver - Incapacitated
Miruko - Incapacitated
Status of Invincible:
Unharmed
Time since Invincible's arrival:
37 seconds