Questionable Partnership
Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of Hailstorm Vol. 2. No guest review questions today so let's dive on in!
Shie Hassaikai Underground Hideout
The situation had gone from manageable to bad real fast. Thanks to Mimic's boosted quirk, the main group had all been split up into smaller parties by a number of walls. Clay and Rock Lock had been caught somewhere in the middle and to make matters worse, the League of Villains had finally shown its face with the arrival of Himiko Toga, who'd managed to take out Rock Lock after he was distracted by a double made by the villain Twice. Clay himself managed to dodge out of the way of what he surmised was a double of Rikiya Katsukame before firing one of his currently spike-ball shaped clouds at Toga, forcing her away from Rock Lock as the hero-in-training landed next to him protectively.
"Oh look who it is," sang Toga happily as she clasped her hands while still holding her knife, "aren't you one of Midoriya's friends, cloudy seer or something like that?"
"My hero name is Cirrus," replied Clay as he did his best to discretely wrap some of his clouds around Rock Lock's wounds, "and you're Himiko Toga. Tell me, why's the League of Villains helping out the Yakuza? I thought you guys had something of a fight."
"We did," said Toga as a frown crossed her face, "that Chisaki guy killed Magne and hurt Compress. I really didn't have a choice to be here but." She took a ready stance as her manic smile returned to her face, "Now that I know you're here, that must mean Midoriya isn't far behind! Hey, if you take me to him I'll make your death nice and quick!"
"Yeah that's a hard PASS!" Exclaimed the cloud wielder as he sent his other gathered spike balls at both Toga and the Rikiya double. The blond nimbly flipped and rolled out of the way, laughing as if she was playing a game while 'Katsukame' took the brunt of the attack, receiving only enough damage to make some of his edges turn back to goo. Clay went airborne then with Rock Lock in tow to avoid a pincer maneuver from the two villains.
'Gotta keep a fair distance here,' he thought as he sent Rock Lock to float in the air above him before forming two large cloud fists and sending them downward. The Rikiya clone managed to block them with his own large fists while Toga jumped off his shoulder and scrambled up the high density clouds. Clay responded quickly as he tried reshaping them into a sphere to catch his adversary, but she was quicker and managed to leap back down before they closed around her. 'Don't waste a move,' he thought as he reshaped the cloud again into a giant buzz saw which he sent flying down at his opponent.
Ordinarily he wouldn't use such a lethal move, but given that the enemy who was currently catching and holding the attack with his massive hands wasn't even alive, he figured he could use a bit more force than normal. "Now try this," he said as he reshaped the saw into a wheel with long spikes that dug into the clone's skin, "Cloud Wheel Grinder!" The part of the cloud 'Rikiya' didn't had his hand on started spinning then, tearing into the clone at high speed until his body started breaking down from the spinning attack. Before long, he was reduced back to grey goo which was flung all around the enclosed space before he stopped the cloud and returned it to float near him.
"Wow, Twice's doubles really aren't as durable as the real thing," commented Toga, "Oh well. Guess it's just you and-BAAAAAM!" Her little remark was cut short as Midoriya busted through the wall with Full Cowling activated as Aizawa followed closely after him.
"Clay, are you in here?!" Called Midoriya as he looked around frantically.
"Try glancing up real fast," said Clay, "And we've got an enemy too!"
"Where?" Asked Aizawa as he scanned the room. Clay wondered what he was talking about until he noticed that Toga had managed to change her form into Rock Lock. 'Shit, she must've gotten enough blood to transform.'
"In front of you," Called Clay, "that's not Rock Lock down there!" His warning came just in time as 'Rock Lock' pulled out a knife and swiped at Midoriya. Eraser Head quickly turned his gaze on the imposter, causing her quirk to break apart and reveal, a very naked, Toga. 'She managed to ditch her clothes and change in that short of a time,' Clay thought in mild amazement as he flew down towards his comrades.
"Himiko Toga!" exclaimed Midoriya as he quickly backed away from her repeated slashes.
"You remember me!" exclaimed Toga happily as she continued to swipe at him, "I've wanted so badly to see you again, I'm so happy!" But before she could get in another strike, she was quickly wrapped up by Eraser Head's scarf as he yanked her towards him.
"You're done Himiko Toga," he said. A fact the murderous girl clearly disagreed on as she managed to grab his scarf and pull on it, changing her direction in midair to flip over Eraser Head and aim a knife attack at his shoulder. But it was deflected by a quickly moving, and relatively small, cloud shield which knocked her weapon out of her hand. Despite the attack not being successful, however, Toga still managed to unravel herself the rest of the way from Aizawa's scarf before leaping away.
Any attempt at pursuing her was quickly shut down as another wall was dropped in their way. "Sensei, are you alright?" Asked Midoriya with a hint of worry in his voice.
"I'm fine," replied the Erasure Hero as he checked his shoulder, "Clay managed to block it in time. More importantly, where's the real Rock Lock?"
"I got 'em," said the cloud user as he lowered the pro from the air where he'd been hovering back down to the floor, "I've been using my clouds to apply pressure to the knife wound so far, but he needs proper bandaging to keep from bleeding out."
"I'll take care of that," said Aizawa before turning to his friend, "Midoriya, Toga uses blood so collect the knives around the area."
"Right," replied the One for All holder as he rushed off to his new task.
"We've confirmed Toga is here," said Clay, "and I took out a double of Rikiya, so that must mean-."
"Yeah," said Eraser Head, "Jin Bubaigawara, the villain Twice, is around here somewhere as well."
Outer Hall: At About the Same Time
"I'm feeling excited!" exclaimed Twice as he and a copy of another Hassaikai member, a burly man with large fists, a white short-sleeved shirt and a bird mask which hid his face but not his mane of dark yellow hair, stepped out of a quickly appearing hole in the wall. "You know I was wondering what kind of heroes we'd go up against, but look at this! Some school boy in dragon scales and a normal looking businessman! What do you take the Yakuza for, get 'em big bro Rappa!"
The masked fighter stepped forward and threw an incredibly fast flurry of punches towards Nighteye and the other police officers before Slade stepped in with his arms held up in a blocking position. "Maximum density!" Slade just managed to say before he was barraged by an unbelievable number of punches which, even with his density, still felt like he was being pummeled by a mass of baseballs. 'This guy is nuts,' thought Slade, 'not only is he fast his blows are overwhelmingly strong, even Kirishima's maximum defense would barely keep up with this!' Fortunately for Slade, he only needed to hold out for a couple of seconds.
"You're quite strong," noted Nighteye as he ducked around Slade and used a powerful sweep kick to knock Rappa off his feet. Then, while his opponent was in midair, he threw out some kind of weighted weapons which knocked the villain across the room and slammed him into a wall with enough force to dent it.
"What in the world," said one of the police officers, "just happened?"
"These are my high density seals," explained Nighteye as he revealed two more business stamp-like weapons, "battle support items that weigh about five kilograms each. Given my businessman appearance, don't you think they're quite humorous?" 'As if anyone would laugh at them after seeing what you just did to that guy,' thought Slade as the pro continued. "'Make a prediction and move first.' After seeing the future of so many, it seems I can do so a little faster than others in close combat. Though even I couldn't predict the famous League of Villains would be working with the Yakuza."
"Well," Twice started to say before he noticed that his clone of Rappa was melting, "What, he melted already, what a useless Yakuza!" He didn't get to say much else as Nighteye threw two more of his seals at the villain, managing to cut off part of his mask and damage the shoulder of his costume. "Ack, damn it that hurt you bastard!" Twice proceeded to turn and flee down the hallway as the wall closed behind him, preventing pursuit.
"Blast it," said Slade as he dropped his density and tried to move forward, only to stumble a bit from the pain.
"Are you alright Mr. Mason," asked Nighteye as the density shifter took a moment to catch his breath.
"Y-yeah," replied Slade, "I just took a bit more of a beating than I expected from that guy. I'm still good to go."
"Very well," said Nighteye, "but if you feel you can't keep up I expect you to notify me or one of the pros immediately." Slade nodded in understanding as he and the rest of the officers rushed to the next wall which, for some reason, dropped all of a sudden.
"Hey Clay, is everyone alright?!" called the density shifter upon seeing his friends along with the two pros.
"We're good but the League-," Clay started to respond before a high-pitched yell suddenly filled the hallway. In the next instant, the entire hallway began warping again to the worst degree yet. The floors, walls and ceiling shook as multiple earthen pillars shot out of the wall and floor before continuing on into the hallway. The cloud wielder swore as he resumed using his cloud platforms to pull some of the less agile members off the floor and away from the walls.
'This is bad,' thought Clay as he looked around, 'it seems out of control at first glance, but everything is starting to close in.' "Can anyone locate the source of that voice?" Asked Aizawa as another screech rang through the hallways.
"It's echoing too much for me to get a fix," said Midoriya as he started looking around.
"We need to find him fast or we'll all be crushed!" exclaimed the Police Sergeant as he moved out of the way of one of the speeding earth pillars. Slade increased his density as he deflected another emerging rock formation, just so happening to glance up as he did so.
"The ceiling!" exclaimed the density shifter as he noticed a pair of eyes staring back at them. That was all the instruction Midoriya needed as he used Full Cowl to leap upwards, bouncing off the earthen columns before slamming his foot into the spot where all the screaming was coming from. The impact was enough to reveal the body of a man with spiked blond hair wearing a type of red business shirt, the true form of Mimic. This one glimpse was all Eraser Head needed as he used his gaze to stop the Hassaikai member's quirk, causing him to fall the rest of the way out of the ceiling and down towards the ground.
Nighteye reacted quickly and threw another one of his seals, striking Mimic's head while he was still in midair. "Grab him!" exclaimed the clairvoyant, prompting Izuku to leap around and snatch him before landing a short distance from Clay, who wasted no time in binding the Yakuza member with his clouds.
"Bye bye Mr. Yakuza!" sang the voices of both Twice and Toga, who'd been viewing the spectacle from atop two of the pillars before leaping out of sight.
"Did the League just, betray him," asked Aizawa as everyone else looked on with bewildered expressions.
"I think it's more accurate to say we were just used," said Nighteye with a tilt of his glasses, "whatever the case, the maze is now clear for us to proceed."
"Yeah but with everything jumbled around, it's hard to tell which direction we should go," said the Police Sergeant as two of his officers got to work tying up Mimic, allowing Clay to return his clouds to floating around him. The Yakuza wasn't out for very long as he propped back up to a sitting position. It was clear he was angry given his heavy breathing and if Clay hadn't known better he would've mistook it for that of a wild animal. "Alright Irinaka, put the walls and hallway back how they were!"
The Hassaikai member didn't answer, apparently too angry to even see straight right now. "I already know which direction Eri's room is," said Nighteye as he pointed down the disjointed hallway, "Besides, it seems whatever booster drug he was using has worn off."
"So he couldn't move it all back even if he wanted to now," said Eraser Head, "It seems Fat Gum's hunch was right on the money."
"Well we still need to worry about Toga and Twice," said the Police Sergeant before he was interrupted by the angry Mimic.
"Twice! Toga," he seethed, "I'll get you both, you filthy traitors!"
"Are there any other League members here," questioned Nighteye, "and if there are where are they?"
"Fuck if I know!" Exclaimed Mimic, "But I'll definitely find them all and when I do I'll break their skulls open!" He devolved into unintelligible shouting after that.
"It seems those two were the only ones here after all," noted Nighteye with a hint of relief.
"But even if they betrayed the Hassaikai, we can't expect them not to attack us," said one of the officers as their eyes were darting around the room.
"Given the League's crimes and reputation, as police officers we can't just ignore them," said the Police Sergeant.
"Uncle," Clay whispered so that no one else would hear, "I know you said we'd be out of this operation if it was discovered that the League is involved, but given the circumstances-."
"Why are you all still standing around talking," groaned Rock Lock from his position against the wall. He'd regained consciousness a few minutes ago after getting his wound bandaged. "Leave the League to the police and get moving! Remember what our top priority is!"
"That's true, we can hold any possible League attack off here," said the Police Sergeant as he turned to the rest of them, "You all need to get moving and rescue that girl."
"So get going!" Rock Lock practically yelled, "Don't waste all the time the others have bought you, move!" The gathered heroes glanced at each other for a moment before nodding in agreement, turning and running down the hallway.
"I'll definitely get her out Rock Lock!" Midoriya called back with clear determination in his voice. Everyone else was driven on by their own determination as they rushed down the hallway, passing by a man in a white mask who'd been taken out by Mirio before running into another solid wall at the end of the hallway. The One for All holder wasted no time in busting open a hole in the obstacle as they emerged to find the layout of the room resembling more of a crater than an actual room. Mirio was currently engaged in battle against the young leader of the Shie Hassaikai, Kai Chisaki, and behind him was the one they'd come for. Wrapped up in Mirio's tattered cape, Eri looked on in varying degrees of fear and wonder at the ones who'd come to rescue her.
At last the goal is in sight for our heroes as they face their final obstacle, the Yakuza leader Overhaul! I know this chapter was a little short but this seemed an appropriate place to end it. Hopefully you all still enjoyed this chapter and as always, feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Be sure to stop in next time as our heroes battle to save the life of a tortured girl. 'Til then.
