Along Came the League

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of Hailstorm Vol. 2! While this chapter is admittedly shorter than expected I think it's got plenty of stuff happening. But naturally I'll let you decide on that. Of course, if you need a little something extra to read feel free to check out my book, Plains Riders, on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited! And I suppose I should mention I've finally resumed The Adventures of Team WA Vol. 2! Been a minute on that one. Now then, since we seem to have no guest review questions this week, let's dive on in!

The Ruins of Jakku City

To recap, the battle was going less than swimmingly. Tomura Shigaraki, or rather Tomura Shigaraki's body possessed by All For One, had taken a massive beating over the course of the last several minutes. He'd been repeatedly knocked around by One For All at full power and burnt to an absolute crisp more than once in no small part to Endeavor's efforts. What remained of him at the moment looked more akin to a barbecured corpse than a fully functional human being.

That was the good news. The bad news was that in the process of all that beating and burning Endeavor had overheated from continuous use of his quirk and gotten impaled a bit. Bakugou got impaled even more, and Midoriya had backlashed the shit out of himself while using One For All at maximum force. Now only Clay and Todoroki remained standing but the half cold half hot user would be preoccupied for a period of time while he tended to everyone's injuries. Which pretty much meant one thing.

'It's just me against All For One,' Clay thought while trying not to sigh, 'how the fuck did it turn out like this? I'm not the one who was granted a compacting power meant to bring this guy down or a quirk that lets me reduce city blocks to rubble with a flick of my wrist. I'm just a guy who wanted to help out a bit, I never cared about reaching the top spot, only about being the best I could be.' "Before we get to the inevitable conclusion of this battle," All For One spoke up, breaking Clay from his thoughts, "I must admit a mild curiosity. How and when did you deduce that I was controlling Shigaraki?"

"Call it context clues," the cloud wielder replied, "your creative use of radiowaves and I'm assuming another quirk to wreck nearby communications was my first clue. Shigaraki got woken up while he was in the tank, so he hasn't had time to even go over all the quirks he's been given. Yet somehow he can use them in such a creative fashion as if he, or rather you, already knew he could do that. Then there was the desire for One For All, something Shigaraki never mentioned before until now but you have, to my understanding, ever since you found out about how it manifested from your brother. That plus Tomura struggling like he was being controlled were the two biggest slipups that gave you away."

"Commendable," All For One said, "so it seems you know the whole story. I'd suspected the current holder of One For All might've slipped up and told one or more of his best friends, so he must trust you a great deal."

"I mean I am standing here between you and him," Clay replied as he motioned with his hand. His clouds shifted and morphed, turning into multiple barbed spears along with a quartet of round shields, "so you could say I've proven reliable in the past. And as things are, I don't really see a reason to stop now. I'm only up against the most fearsome villain in the entire world, no big deal."

That's right, isn't it? His uncle had pounded into their heads on day one that life wasn't fair and that it was a hero's job to combat unfairness to one degree or another. So bad matchup or not he was going to fight with everything he had if it meant protecting his friends. "Hahaha, I'd applaud you right now if my hands weren't currently holding me up," All For One laughed, "you can be proud of one thing for certain, Clay Cero, you won't die a coward this day."

"So glad I can meet with your approval," Clay replied sarcastically as he used the remaining clouds in his costume to float up while also shifting his fingers. The cloud spears began spinning rapidly then, like large drill bits ready to bore a hole in whatever they were sent against. "Now let's see if you approve of this: Vortex Formation: Vortex Spear!" The rotating weapons raced towards their target then, prompting All For One to try dropping lower to avoid them.

Clay anticipated his move, however, and directed some of his clouds to assault the lower part of the black tendrils protruding from his fingers. The bottom of the tendrils was shattered by the high speed clouds, causing the villain to plummet a short way before more tendrils emerged from his back and jammed into the ground, again acting as a support to hold him several feet in the air. Not only that, two of the tendrils slithered up his arm so that All For One could raise his right hand. Clay moved out of the way as the villain's favorite air cannon attack fired, sending a blast of pressurized air his way.

The cloud wielder could still feel some of the force of it despite the attack missing but he wouldn't let that deter him as he turned back and directed more of his clouds towards his opponent. The tendrils reacted more readily this time, flexing and then jumping, propelling the limp body into the air before his own floating quirk kicked in. More blasts from the air cannon quirk in his hand followed, less powerful but quicker as the hero in training dove and maneuvered away from where his friends were. He sent his vortex spears to attack from multiple angles once he righted himself and flew upwards towards his foe.

All For One dodged the first couple but was grazed by the third and sent spinning through the air by the impact of the fourth vortex spear. He retaliated with his black tendrils the moment he righted himself. Clay responded by moving one of his round shields in front of himself, spinning it at high speed to deflect the lethal appendages. He directed his vortex spears once again, changing tactics this time as he angled the constructs to move like spinning tops instead of spears.

Again the monster of a man evaded the initial attacks with his floating quirk by shifting around in the air but he didn't anticipate Clay quickly reversing the course of one that went by him, bringing it back almost as soon as it passed. The villain was taken by surprise and knocked through the air where he met the other vortex spear and then another one after that. It was almost like watching pinball in a weird, twisted way as he was bounced from one spinning vortex to the next. Obviously the league of villains leader wasn't all that amused by it and finally shot air cannons from both hands, blasting the spinning clouds away while sending a much larger number of his tendrils towards Clay.

The U.A. student quickly moved all four of his shields to the front and spun them at an incredible velocity. Yet even at maximum density the clouds could only take so much of the onslaught, breaking one after the other before some of the tendrils got through. One cut into Clay's side, another his upper left leg, a third cut the side of his neck and a fourth tore into his mask and goggles, knocking them clean off. "I've taken worse hits than this!"

He retaliated by slamming two of the spinning clouds together, trapping All For One between two opposing rotations. His attempt to protect himself with his black tendrils only worked temporarily as they were ground down by the vortexes until his own body was being assaulted. Once again, he managed to escape by blasting the clouds away with air cannon. The two of them continued to trade and evade each other's attacks as the group below, those who were still conscious, looked on.

'I hadn't thought much about it before,' Todoroki mused as he glanced up at the fight occasionally to make sure no stray attacks came their way while he was tending to his friend's and father's wounds. 'Clay isn't quite on the same level as any of us down here. His quirk is versatile and his hand to hand is among the best in our class. But he always lacked destructive force in comparison to people like Midoriya or my father.'

But looking at the battle unfolding before him now, Todoroki realized something. Despite not having an inherently destructive quirk he was holding off the most powerful villain in the world singlehandedly. Sure said villain was severely injured and the number of quirks he could use at this time was quite limited but that didn't mean the man wasn't still dangerous. Yet here Clay was, fighting him tooth and nail and actually pushing him back now.

'Were you, always this strong,' the half cold half hot user mused as he watched Clay trap All For One again, this time in the middle of four spinning vortex spears. "You are proving to be….a surprising annoyance," All For One admitted as he struggled to move against the onslaught surrounding him on all sides of his body, save for his head and feet.

"You think I'm annoying now," Clay quipped as he combined two of his extra spears while also channeling electricity within them, "then you're gonna hate this next one: Volt Spear!" The attack dropped on the villain's head like a hammer, electrocuting his body as it also sent him flying down to the ground where he impacted with enough force to crack it. The hero in training readied his now five spears for another attack before an air cannon blast erupted from the smoke. Even though it didn't hit, the force of the attack was enough to send him tumbling backwards a few feet.

This momentary respite was all that was needed for his foe to fly back up from the ground with more tendrils sprouting from his spine. Clay directed his vortex spears downwards while All For One fired his air cannon at close range. The cloud wielder grit his teeth as he put every last bit of effort he could into holding his constructs together. He succeeded for the most part but there were still wide enough gaps in his defense for a single tendril to get through and cut into his right shoulder.

Clay bit back a yelp against the pain before reforming his clouds into massive buzzsaws he sent flying towards All for One. The spinning blades moved too quickly for his injured body to fire off another air cannon and he was hit multiple times before spinning backwards several feet in the air. Amazingly, All for One righted himself just before he hit the ground. 'Gotta hit him harder,' Clay decided, 'now might be a good time to…sit back and watch what happens next.'

The reason for this sudden course of action was the unexpected formation of an ice ramp that reached up to where All For One currently floated. Todoroki, apparently having finished his task of treating the other's wounds, was rocketing up said ramp with the flames on his left hand and foot propelling him. Clay also caught sight of Iida down below and even better, Nejire was flying in with the yellow energy of her quirk charging in her hands. "Nejire Flood!Jet Kindling!" The two students exclaimed as their attacks overlapped and raced towards the villain.

In his current state there was no way All For One could dodge such an attack and his air cannon seemed to have finally stopped working. The only thing he could do was raise his arms defensively as the combo move approached. With all of these factors it seemed a sure hit, which was why everyone blinked in confusion when a sudden blur flew through the air and yanked All For One out of the way of the attack. "Damn, that was way too close," exclaimed the newcomer with a glance back at the resulting explosion, "I think my shoes melted a little."

'Who in the fuck,' Clay thought as he now had a better view of the mysterious new individual with giant gargoyle-like wings. But he only had a short time to look before a building-sized monster of sorts came in swinging his gigantic claws. "Clay, Todoroki!" Nejire exclaimed as all three of them were sent flying through the air from the force of the creature's attacks.

The two flyers managed to right themselves in the air while a well-placed cloud stopped Todoroki from hitting the ground too hard. "Master," the giant's voice rumbled as he held out his hand.

"Got 'im right here big guy," the winged villain said as he dropped All For One's injured body into the large being's hand. As this happened, Clay noted the enormous villain was retracting his claws and lowering his jaw. His spikes were also shrinking. 'Did that monster come all the way here from Gunga Mountain Villa,' the cloud wielder wondered while also noting the creature's heavy breathing. His exhaustion was about the only good news so far.

"I am here master," he rumbled while looking at his hand, "what are your next orders? I will do as you command."

"You get right on that," the bat-winged villain said before flying closer to the airborne heroes, "as for me, I just realized an introduction is in order." He stopped several feet from the two, his wings flapping slowly but strongly enough to keep him suspended in the air. "Good afternoon U.A., been quite a day so far, hasn't it?"

"Who are you," Nejire asked while energy gathered in her hands. She could tell, given by his interactions with the beast and All For One, that this wasn't a low person on the totem pole in either the League of Villains or the Paranormal Liberation Front.

"You can call me Chimera, the League of Villain's newest member," the flying villain responded before indicating the giant, "and that powerhouse over there is Gigantomachia. He kinda works under Shigaraki only, so just think of him as more of a personal bodyguard."

"All For One's personal bodyguard," Clay decided to point out, getting a quirked eyebrow and an amused expression in response.

"You figured out the big boss is in there already," Chimera sounded like he wanted to applaud slowly to that, "guess that saves us time with one less dramatic reveal, which reminds me." He held his hand out, indicating a figure coming into view on Gigantomachia's back. "It's time we shifted the spotlight onto our next topic. Dabi and the fake hero society!"

"Now let's see, ah, there you are Endeavor!" The flame villain called from his perch while shaking up a can of something in his left hand, "and is that Shoto down there too? You all look so tiny from up here."

"Dabi!" The number one hero exclaimed through gritted teeth. Even despite the distance the pyro still seemed able to hear his name as a wicked grin crossed his face.

"That's mean," he said while dousing his hair with the liquid in the can, "you should call me by the name you gave me." The color drained from his hair as he said this, revealing a mane of messy white locks underneath. "That splendid name that I haven't heard in years, Toya!" That got everyone's attention as they directed their gazes at the charred villain. "My face got messed up, but I thought my family would still recognize me."

"It's cruel, sad really," he continued, "I was born as the first and oldest son of the Todoroki family. It was out of my father's ego and despair at not being able to surpass All Might that he forced his wife to marry him. But I was a failure, the first of many and before long you abandoned and forgot about me. But I never forgot! I've spent all of this time wondering how I could make you suffer and then this wonderful opportunity presented itself. Long hair, play the video broadcasting my personal history on the internet and every TV in this country, let me trample on his life!"

He clapped his hands over his head and spun around then, "I don't know why but I'm really starting to have-SMASH!" The villain paused and looked over at the noise along with the other surprised members of the League of Villains. Dabi's eyes widened then as he recognized Slade Mason and the fact that his now very dense foot was crushing Skeptic's laptop to bits.

"AAAAAAAAH! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Skeptic yelled with eyes so wide they could be seen under his almost waist length long hair.

"I Think I just stepped on someone's big moment," Slade commented while further grinding his foot on the laptop, "so sorry about that."

"You," Dabi said in a low voice as he adopted a lazy stance with his arms just hanging by his side, "you're one of those U.A. brats." Blue flames sprouted from his hands and shoulders then as a mad look crossed his face. "Don't you know, you shouldn't get between a man and his family!" Slade lowered his density and leapt up, jumping off one of the spikes as a blue inferno was sent towards him.

The attack was wild and scorching hot with no seeming regard for anyone else on the back of the giant as Compress, Spinner and Skeptic were all forced to move away from the location of the U.A. student, lest they get incinerated along with him. "An opportunity like this, to expose this fake hero society for what it is doesn't just come up every other week!" Dabi exclaimed, "everything aligned perfectly, my complete reunion with my dear father and brother that was to destroy the number one hero! But here you are, interrupting our wonderous dance in hell!"

"You expecting an apology," Slade called down as he continued to dodge out of the way of each and every flame blast while trying to get more height and distance from the madman, "your old man is a bastard by the sound of it but whatever he did to you hardly compares to what you've done!"

"What do you know?!" Dabi shot back, "did your father also force all of his ambitions on you and then toss you aside when you weren't good enough?!"

"I know there are thirty people who had fuck all to do with your issues and you killed them anyway," the density shifter exclaimed as he leapt over Dabi's head and started down Gigantomachia's arm, "if you got a problem with your father take it up with him instead of throwing together this elaborate bullshit!" As for the others, they were watching this unfold with a mixture of shock and confusion, or at least most of them were.

"Damn, that was a letdown," Chimera commented, "dude trys to drop a tactical nuke sized bombshell on the country and the whole thing gets stopped by a guy's foot. Guess a monkey wrench really is all it takes sometimes." He directed his attention to Clay and Hado while also glancing down at the ones on the ground, "but it looks like it did accomplish one thing. The top hero ain't looking too focused right now."

The U.A. students risked a glance of their own down at Endeavor and noticed that he'd collapsed to his knees. No doubt a look of utter disbelief was on his face and Todoroki was yelling at him to snap out of it. "Nejire," Clay said, "you think you can keep this guy busy for a minute?"

"I can do better than a minute," she assured him with a look of determination on her features while holding her hands up in her signature combat stance.

"Appreciate it, I won't be gone long," he informed before sending a couple of his vortex spears at Chimera. The villain dodged them easily but hitting him had never been the point anyway as Clay rocketed down towards his friend. "Slade!" The density shifter didn't need to be told twice and leapt off the giant's arm as far as he could while also avoiding Dabi's blue flames.

Clay transformed one of his clouds into a solid platform for his friend to land on before pulling up to avoid Dabi's flames. Problem was, he was 'extremely' pissed, so much so that his whole body was starting to be covered in flames. "You know what, I can still makes this work," the pyro exclaimed, "even if the world doesn't know what a piece of shit you are now it soon will! But before that, I'll incinerate you and your so-called greatest creation!"

He leapt off of Machia then and headed straight for Todoroki and Endeavor. 'Shit, I had to turn away because of the flames,' Clay cursed as he attempted to race back towards his friend. As for Dabi, he was generating his flames in a pattern reminiscent of a familiar super move. "Flashfire Fist: Prominence Bur-UFF!" Just as the flame wielder's body had been at the apex of its power, his fire was abruptly extinguished as a large black cable suddenly struck from the air and constricted itself around his body.

This was only the first of many as even more massive cables came down from the sky and wrapped around Spinner, Compress and even Gigantomachia. The surprised heroes and villains all looked up towards the source, a collection of floating cable winches bordering on the size of cars. What was most surprising, however, was the man floating in the air, controlling all of them. "Sorry for the delay," the hero said while straightening his hair, "Best Jeanist is on the job again, starting today!"

Reinforcements for both sides just keep popping up, but which one will be the deciding factor in the end? And what will be the effects of Slade stopping Dabi's ambition? We'll find out soon, but until then feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. And don't forget to check out my book, Plains Riders, on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited! Finally, Be sure to stop next time as our heroes continue their desperate struggle against the newly arrived League of Villains members! 'Til then.