My Hero Academia: Son of Justice

by Jayme F. Midorikawa

The son of the disgraced former greatest Hero of The Soviet Union is extended a chance at a new life by the Symbol of Peace, All Might. After having lived so long resenting Heroes and Villains, and being scared to death of his own Quirk, will he be able to step forward and become the Hero he once dreamed of, and will he be able to find new purpose through friendship, or even love?

78. Hokkaido Arc Part 13 - Town Liberation

Hello again, everyone. Well, here we are, the beginning to the climax of the Hokkaido Arc! I really hope this provides a little something for all of you to enjoy, and if so, please leave a review sharing your thoughts.

I was also recently informed over the course of this week by the latest review for this story, that 'My Hero Acadmia: Son of Justice' is now the SECOND BIGGEST MHA fanfiction in terms of sheer word count across the entire site! I can honestly tell you all that I NEVER expected to reach that kind of distinction, and it feels incredible. I have all of your continued readership and support to thank for helping this story get to that point, and it's obviously gonna just keep growing from this point forward.

I'd like to give another thankful shout-out to my two beta readers, consultants and friends, Mizu and Jonny for their continuous support and help all-around, as well as to the three artists that have contributed artwork for this story on my DA account 'ubasnaga' thus far: syyndev, Akane Kahomi and now Suki-Chan2509. go ahead and check it all out, it's all awesome!

My Hero Academia is the property of Kouhei Horikoshi and Shonen Jump. I only own my original characters, and the original events surrounding them all.

A/N: [[]] indicates that characters are speaking Russian.

Chapter 79

Town Liberation

(Освобождение Города)

[[Alright everyone, we're officially in it now! That boulder can't withstand that water pressure more than the few seconds we need to get through, even with Rule-chan's Quirk at play. Once we land, we have to keep going forward until we put an end to Pietro's plans! Everyone remember your shares of the plan, keep track of your equipment, and remember where we're supposed to meet up once you're sure you've pacified your areas! Time is of the essence here!]]

High Noon's instructions were spoken with the utmost severity as she and her fellow Pro Heroes (De-Condenser, Knightfall and Whiteout) flew through the air provided by creating an opening in the whitewater wall surrounding the territory of Gagaringrad, with all of their respective Yuuei interns loyally at their sides.

[[Let's not forget, also: as difficult as this fight is no doubt going to be, we can't let ourselves forget that the civilians are under the affect of Pietro's Quirk; depending if they actually attack us or not! If they do, we can't allow ourselves to hurt them, no matter what! Just focus on severing their connection to his Quirk's affect, and we should potentially be able to have the town proper pacified in a matter of minutes!]]

Whiteout's similar warning to her partners left them all with their hearts racing and their eyes burning with Heroic focus. She was absolutely right, and as their feet finally met the ground, they were all immensely grateful right now for all the material assistance they'd now been provided by both Mei Hatsume and Blast Beat back at the Arakisu City Hospital, as well as the local police when learning what the intrepid Heroes were going to try and do here today.

The moment they all finally landed, still bunched close together as a group, just as High Noon had warned, the enlarged boulder that had provided their one doorway in was just as quickly propelled upwards by the immense water pressure from the ground up, before ultimately proving strong enough to break the thing apart further and further into nothing but granite. Now the Heroes found themselves without an immediate exit.

Immediately taking in their once familiar surroundings of the entrance and main road of Gagaringrad; save for the whitewater roar, there was no other sound to be heard, nor any signs of life to be seen. For a moment, many of them couldn't help but worry that their waiting for Mei to make their new gear had taken too long, and Pietro and his newly founded army had already departed, simply putting this wall up as a distraction and a veil.

[[Everyone stay close together.]] De-Condenser whispered cautiously to his allies; all of them nodding in agreement, even the students, for how universally nervous they all couldn't help but feel.

THOOM! THOOM! WHEEEEEW!

The sudden distant sound of what resembled cannon fire suddenly reached their ears, immediately followed by the descending sliding whistle of what the Pros quickly recognized to be projectiles arcing high through the air, and from the sounds of it, and then the sight upon looking upward, heading right for their position.

Just overhead was a series of brightly glowing balls of light that the Kapenta Heroes and interns, as well as Knightfall and his interns, quickly recognized as the explosives created by the Serbian Ljubomir's Grenade Launcher Quirk, now apparently having been enhanced into more of a cluster-firing Mortar.

[[EVERYONE HUDDLE UP!]] Whiteout and Knightfall simultaneously screamed to the rest of their allies as they both instantaneously pulled as much power from their Quirks as they could at a moment's notice; respectively creating a blinding whirlwind of frigid wind and frost all around them that reaching high into the air, and conjuring up multiple massive collective boulders from the rocks in the ground around them, which were quickly encapsulated into the rapidly solidifying cylinder of pure ice that now encircled the Heroes as a now-reinforced form of protection, made more so with De-Condenser slamming his right hand into the side of the ice.

BKOOKOOKOOKOOBKOOOOM!

The ensuing barrage of high-power explosive power that came slamming into the side of the sudden ice cylinder thundered down to the Heroes like a furious thunder before finally running their course after a few pulse-pounding seconds. It didn't take a genius for them all to put two and two together and realize this was the result of The Giver having undoubtedly been forced to use her Quirk at its fullest charge on Ljubomir.

What was also clear was that not only had that mortar barrage done enough damage that the ice was starting to crack, as they could all soon hear it, but that they were no longer alone, as the sound of numerous different footsteps started echoing from all around their current position, before being just as quickly pronounced by the sounds of numerous different types of guns being cocked and readied.

[[Dammit, we stumbled right into an ambush.]] Tetsutetsu growled in frustration to himself, but thankfully having enough wherewithal to keep his voice down. Now that the Heroes were all still under the power of Leonid's Quirk, they no longer had the advantage of the language barrier to keep their opponents from knowing what they were planning.

[[THEY'VE ALL STILL GOTTA BE INSIDE THAT THING! HAVE FALCONBACK DROP SOME GRENADES ON THEM FROM ABOVE! DO A BOMBING RUN!]]

However, this had also inadvertently removed the advantage from their opponents as well, for as soon as they heard one of the townspeople outside say this, all the Heroes now had their eyes on the opening of the cylinder directly overhead, just in time to see someone with a large pair of wings on their back come gliding right past, only for several primed hand grenades to come raining right down their way.

[[HEAD'S UP!]] Nikolay shouted, prompting his fellow interns to duck down before he crouched down and brought his hands up over his head, facing the same opening, firing from both with full force, nearly flattening him to the ground, but similarly having enough strength to send the grenades all flying right back out the opening, and all exploding in mid-air virtually harmlessly.

[[We can't stay in here, you guys. They're bound to just start whittling this thing down, and then we'll be sitting ducks the moment they lay eyes on us.]] Kyouka noted the painfully obvious; all her fellow Heroes clearly nodding in agreement, only for Whiteout to form another pointed kitsune-like smile of confidence.

[[Then we just need to get their eyes off of us long enough to make a difference. As soon as De-Condenser-san takes his extensive density back into his body from the ice, I can shoot it all back out from us as a mist, and we can all scatter to our agreed sections in the midst of it all, but the timing needs to be perfect.]]

Knowing they didn't have time to debate who went in what group, the Hero interns were all quick to name whom amongst themselves they would go with for what portion of town, and that the Pros would head out for those same sections once this mist distraction had been made.

In less than a minute, De-Condenser was already planting his hand to the ice wall, all the while carefully watching the growing number of sections the cracking sounds were becoming more and more pronounced from all along the walls.

With the interns now formed into their groups, Nikolay was focusing as much kinetics into his feet as possible in the time they had left, all the while as Kyouka and Tetsutetsu took his waiting hands, preparing themselves to be taken for one hell of a ride to come. Right beside their trio, Tenya was gauging the best angle for him to approach the sheer ice wall the entire way up to the opening while getting into his starting sprint position, with Mina and Monoma both taking his hands as well. And lastly, Pony was focusing on steering her four now-floating horns she had waiting on standby, with Momo, Reiko and Yui all hanging on tight to their own, while she stood confidently upon hers.

The moment De-Condenser gave the signal to his fellow Pros that he'd collected all the excess density from the ice as he could, Knightfall gave a single silent nod to the interns to finally make their move.

BWOOM! VRRRROOM!

Without a moment wasted, Nikolay launched himself and his companions straight up into the air, up the height of the cylinder and shooting right out the opening, while Tenya dashed with blinding speed in a corkscrew path up the wall right alongside their fellow airborne interns; with Mina providing a trail of her Acid Slick through her free hand in order to add to Tenya's speed while she and Monoma were being pulled along. All the while, Pony was sending herself and her fellows in her group flying at breakneck speed just less than Nikolay's; all three student groups flying with glorious speed and purpose in tandem with one another.

At just the moment before they reached the end, Whiteout finally motioned her hands, and at the last possible fraction of a moment, as the students all finally emerged back out into the open, the entire ice structure exploded from beneath them into a thick all-consuming blanket of frigid mist that flooded the streets of nearly all of the center of Gagaringrad, a multitude of shocked exclamations from the waiting townspeople quickly following as their lines of sight had been instantly removed.

With their students now all flying through the air for their agreed upon sections of the town, the four Pros were all just as quick to move out to reconvene with them, listening for the coughs and confused cries of whatever armed townspeople were nearest as they left, and taking those opportunities to nail them with just the right amount of strength behind their precise strikes to their pressure points, leaving them crumpling unconscious on the ground within the blink of an eye in the process, vanishing from sight long before the mist finally dissipated, and leaving what townspeople in the area were still conscious shocked and that much angrier that their targets had escaped, quickly giving pursuit.

---

From the moment they had come flying out the opening of the ice cylinder, Nikolay and Kyouka together had to carefully aim and time their respective concussive blasts from the soles of both their shoes, quickly and surely aiming themselves for the section of Gagaringrad atop the hilly end, wherein there was still a fair amount of trees and the recently finished greenhouse, as they could clearly see even from up in the air.

Just before reaching landing within the trees, the two capable interns fired another collective pulse from their feet together, slowing down their momentum enough to where they met the ground in a hard roll; all three of them luckily managing to end up on one foot and knee by the time it was over.

However, none of them could take the time to ride out the collective stinging on their faces and all over their bodies from the landing, before the sound of several distant voices could be heard shouting from just outside the boundary of the woods: [[THEY LANDED IN THE FOREST, I CAN SEE THEM! DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY!]]

Unsure what to initially expect, the trio were soon blindsided by one assailant who seemed to just emerge from out of the bushes like magic, who began to motion her hands before a near torrent of high-speed pine needles began to come swirling and tearing through the air around her, aiming right for the young trio themselves.

[[HEARTBEAT DISTORTION!]] Kyouka immediately acted, planting her jacks into her hands and slamming her palms onto the ground, creating a massive shockwave that seemed to nearly uproot all the ground before herself and her friends, and thankfully reaching far enough to catch the female attacker by surprise and disrupt her attack.

Just as Nikolay proceeded to follow up by firing a two-handed blast straight ahead, sending her and her pine needles flying back and down the hill, Tetsutetsu barely managed to glimpse another source of movement to his left, only to find a man with what looked like bark for skin, phasing in and out of the trees ahead, almost like a ghost.

[[INCOMING!]] His snarled warning to his two partners may have reached their ears or didn't in the heat of the fight, it didn't make any difference. Tetsutetsu knew that facing an opponent bold enough to come charging head-on was where he excelled at, as he bravely stood his ground between the new oncoming attacker and Nikolay and Kyouka.

The moment he could see the bark of the nearest tree start to warp and bend, before just as quickly giving way to a human form that came leaping out with two sharpened wooden spikes protruding from its forearms, Tetsutetsu immediately channeled his Quirk; turning his skin to Iron just at the moment of impact, resulting in a sharp crunching sound as the wooden stakes shattered against his reinforced hide. The now wide-eyed assailant couldn't even look in disbelief to the sharp-toothed boy before him, before he was met by a swift karate chop to the joint of his neck and shoulder, leaving him toppling like a sack of bricks.

However, as he began to look back to Nikolay and Kyouka to make sure they'd taken care of the first opponent already, Nikolay's head visibly perked up with alertness when another voice from outside echoed: [[THEY'RE GATHERED AND DISTRACTED! DROP 'EM!]].

The unmistakable sound of a heavy machine gun slide snapping into place was what spurred Nikolay into action as he immediately launched himself forward, nearly clothes-lining his two partners to the ground as he cried: [[GET DOWN!]]

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAKK!

The ground-shaking chainsaw buzz of mounted machine gun fire immediately followed, ripping, tearing and blasting through every tree in sight, showing the three prone students in splinters and kicked up dirt; none of them willing to move an inch as long as the sound persisted. Even with his skin still made of Iron and with the advantage of the Iron straps around his arms from Mei, even Tetsutetsu wasn't willing to try his endurance standing up to a full barrage from a thing like that.

After what felt like several minutes but were really only about thirty seconds, the gunfire finally came to a stop, leaving what little was left of the forest around them bathed in the acrid stench of gun smoke that genuinely burned the three Heroes' eyes.

However, despite this, they were still quick to realize that their current attackers were giving them a chance to act. However, having taken in just how far the voices of the operators seemed to have sounded, Nikolay just knew what their real circumstances were. [[Even if we were to make a mad launch for that gun right now, there's clearly more than one person there; they'd open fire to slow us down the moment we showed ourselves.]]

[[Yeah, I don't even know if constantly injecting myself with the iron crap on these straps Hatsume-san made would be enough for me to be a shield for you guys.]] Tetsutetsu admitted begrudgingly, just keeping his ears open for when that snap of the machine gun slide would sound again.

However, a momentary glance from Kyouka to one of her dangling earphone jacks in her peripheral vision lit a spark of an idea as her eyes now focused on their target ahead. [[Tetsutetsu-san, you wanna bridge another gap between you and Kirishima-san?]]

Of course, the very suggestion had Tetsutetsu wide-eyed with curiosity and anticipation, while Nikolay simply looked to Kyouka with confusion, but just then did the sound of the mounted gun being loaded and ready again force the three as flat to the ground as they could go before the deafening buzz of gunfire tore through the air once again, whittling down even more of the woods than before now that nearly every tree between them and the Yuuei students had been blast down at the base.

After another thirty seconds of this, the gunfire once again came to a stop, and the stench of the smoke was nigh suffocating. Of course, none of the three Heroes could dwell on it, as Kyouka took that chance to finally act: [[EARPHONE JACK STRIKE!]]

With the impact between her jacks, another deafening ring resonated across the battlefield, leaving the handful of assailants around the mounted machine gun clutching their heads and yelling with delirious pain now that their heads rang so intensely.

This was just the opportunity Kyouka knew they needed as she hurriedly threw herself onto Nikolay and plugged her earphone jacks into the backs of his hands. All at once did the memories of Class 1-A's miracle victory at the Final Exam come racing back to Nikolay, and so too did his understanding of what she was envisioning them doing.

With his heart racing with focus, Nikolay all but forced Tetsutetsu to his feet and directly in front of him. [[JUMP, TETSUTETSU-SAN!]]

With his own anticipation and anxiousness running at a fever pitch, he didn't hesitate by asking any questions, instead doing as Nikolay told him, only to immediately be met by a full-blast two-handed kinetic burst from the Russian boy's hands pressed flush to his back. Tetsutetsu was sent flying like a literal human cannonball through the air and smoke, erupting from the haze in the blink of an eye just as the enemies huddled behind a mound of sandbags just before him were still in the process of reloading their gun; now all looking up to their sudden attacker with wide eyes.

His adrenaline rushing like mad, Tetsutetsu let out a mighty battle cry as he immediately swung his Iron foot for everything he was worth straight into the barrel of the machine gun, shattering it like a cheap model on impact, and sending the few townspeople scattering in surprise as he barely managed to land on his feet on the other side of the sandbags.

Even with their machine gun destroyed, the assailants were far from ready to back down, as they were already getting their own sidearms out and ready to unload in Tetsutetsu as he was already turning back to face them.

BWOOM! KR-KRAK!

With another sudden bass burst from out of the smoke to their backs, Nikolay and Kyouka both quickly came flying from overhead out of the smoke, before they both used small tuning forks and earphone jacks respectively to shatter their enemies' sidearms in their hands, leaving them momentarily unarmed.

With their weapons having been taken out of the equation, and with the three Heroes' eyes focused solely on them, the handful of townspeople quickly took off into a mad sprint further down the hill. However, having taken the time to recognize the layout of this part of town, Nikolay was quick to come to the only sensible solution: [[They're heading for the greenhouse! Come on!]]

[[You guys come on, and stay behind me this time!]] Tetsutetsu declared with exceptional bravado as he took off into another mad sprint ahead of Nikolay and Kyouka; momentarily leaving them surprised, but none too soon before another distant gunshot suddenly echoed from up ahead, and slamming straight into the leading boy's reinforced right shoulder.

[[If I never have to go up against another asshole with a gun again after this, I can die happy!]] Tetsutetsu bellowed angrily in response to the aching in his chest after taking such a high-powered round dead-on. However, that still didn't stop him, nor did the backup actually stop the fleeing townspeople from calling up to their fellows up ahead: [[Fall back to the greenhouse!]]

Despite the advantage their guns still gave them, even the other townspeople ahead did as their comrades shouted to them, and soon the lot were making a direct beeline for the now visible greenhouse, piling in through the two doors on the opposite ends of the building itself, before slamming the one at the far end shut, thus leaving only one way out and in for the three Yuuei students to pursue them through.

It was already clear that fortifications had long since been made inside the greenhouse, as the gathered townspeople already had themselves set up behind not only sandbags, but even makeshift cover of corrugated steel, and all of them with guns and Quirks alike visibly at the ready. At the forefront, with the same heavy-duty sniper rifle that had previously hit Tetsutetsu in hand, a younger man bellowed: [[If you animals want to really put a stop to us and our commander, you're gonna have to fight with tooth, nail and blood alike! We'll never yield!]]

SLAM!

With all of the fortified assailants' focus being on the three Yuuei students who had thankfully done the smart thing and stopped a good distance from the one remaining way inside, the sound of a large body suddenly landing on the roof of the greenhouse drew multiple surprised exclamations from inside, as they all simultaneously looked up to see the familiar form of De-Condenser having landed on one hand and his knees upon the roof, looking discerningly upon all the people inside.

[[DAMN FOOL!]] One of the attackers exclaimed as he immediately lifted up an assault rifle, aimed it straight at the Hero over their heads, and squeezed the trigger, resulting in a short burst of automatic gunfire…and it only remained a brief burst as every bullet actually ricocheted harmlessly off the otherwise regular glass, and sent everyone else inside hitting the deck to avoid getting hit in the process.

With De-Condenser's earlier agreed-upon distraction and reinforcing of the greenhouse glass having finally come to fruition, Nikolay, Kyouka and Tetsutetsu hurriedly took advantage of the moment, rushing in for the door and unclipping a single cylindrical object from their waists and pockets respectively, before turning a dial on the caps at the ends, and quickly tossing them inside while the assailants within were still recovering from their close call.

The sound of the one remaining open door of the greenhouse slamming shut drew all their attention to see the three interns holding the door closed with their combined body weight, just as De-Condenser similarly descended from the roof and was now holding the previously shut door closed with his own muscular mass.

PSSSSSHT!

Before they even realized what was happening, the three small objects that had been thrown in with them suddenly began to billow a pale purple gas, earning numerous shocked gasps from the now-trapped enemies of the four Heroes, all of them quickly trying to smash through the glass to no avail thanks to De-Condenser's Quirk.

Within seconds, the police-provided sleeping gas grenades finally had worked their magic, and all sounds of struggle from within the greenhouse had ceased, leaving the handful of once hostile Gagaringrad citizens sound asleep inside.

Opening the doors so the gas could air out, De-Condenser and his three young partners looked upon the motionless forms of the otherwise innocent townspeople before them. [[Hey, Sensei, are we really sure putting these people to sleep will be enough to sever that Pietro guy's hold on them?]] Tetsutetsu naturally had to ask; Nikolay and Kyouka's slightly nodding heads both displaying similarly concerned expressions, fundamentally feeling uncomfortable with having had to do such a thing like this to what were supposed to be civilians.

However, De-Condenser reflected no such doubt as he gave a resolute nod. [[If the testimonies from Maja-chan, Linguist-san and those two soldiers are anything to go by, this is ultimately our best bet, Real Steel-kun. We can't afford to start second guessing the plan this far in.]]

However, as they all began to drag the unconscious townspeople out of the greenhouse to an agreed-upon nearby spot where they would be out of the direct line of fire, Kyouka offhandedly remarked: [[What I don't get is, if that Pietro is such an experienced strategist, why would these people all hole up in one contained building so readily like that?]]

She could tell Nikolay and Tetsutetsu looked just as stumped as she did, but it was De-Condenser who ultimately gave the answer as they began to deposit the people into a nearby set of bushes: [[If his experience around Heroes is as extensive as it sounds, then he surely must know that it's imperative for Heroes to never allow civilians to get hurt under any circumstances…even ones like this where they're under his direct control. I'll bet he wants to use our codes against us so that we can't risk fighting back directly against the people.]]

His theory seemed to make perfect sense, and the fact their primary opponent was not above such underhanded tactics had the fire in their hearts start burning that much hotter.

Once they'd finally had the last of their unconscious quarry tucked away in the nearby bushes, De-Condenser and his three young allies were already looking back to the inner part of the town down the hill, and more specifically looking to the signs of the respective battles already ongoing within.

Digging through his pocket, De-Condenser suddenly instructed: [[All right, you three, go ahead and get down the hill, see if you can help the others; otherwise start heading for the agreed meeting spot. I'll start getting things prepared here so we can get these people out of here safely.]]

Realizing there was no time to argue that the Pro Hero should have come with them; the three teens quickly bid De-Condenser the best of luck and hurried their way down the hill, while the man himself quickly pulled out a tiny bus from his pocket that fit snugly between two of his fingers; a last-second solution for transporting the unconscious townspeople out of harm's way once they had cleared the town itself of hostiles; all courtesy of Knightfall's testimony of Yui's newly discovered Quirk properties.

SNAP!

The pronounced sound of a twig snapping from somewhere further within this tiny pocket of the woods had De-Condenser back on his feet, his head on a swivel as he tried to scan the area before him for the first sign of something being amiss. With the whitewater wall having cut off the entire area from the rest of Hokkaido, there was no way it could have been anything like a random woodland animal.

SSHIING! HSS!

The sudden flash of a small blade flying through the air from out the darkness of the woods caught De-Condenser's eye at just the right moment for him to swing his fist up and deflect the small projectile weapon. However, this ultimately proved to be nothing but a feint, as with a vicious hiss, the Density Hero suddenly found himself being plowed into and across the ground by what he could only describe as a citizen with a snake's head and extending neck attached to a human body.

They struck at him with the force of a speeding vehicle, and the tenacity of a starving predator, as De-Condenser not only found himself already getting wrangled and forced back into the side of the greenhouse, but his attacker was also using his snake-like neck to completely immobilize the Hero so he couldn't fight back.

[[It doesn't matter how much you may have reinforced your body or not, Hero! You're going to die here before I let you stop the Commander!]]

As the Snake Quirk-user declared this to De-Condenser with unmistakable killing intent, the Hero himself could already see the human body the neck was attached to was actually rushing his way with two bayonets in hand. With his density still placed into the greenhouse itself, he was just about as susceptible as any regular person would be to getting stabbed, and with the snake neck constricting around his midsection as tightly as it was, he wouldn't be able to simply wriggle and fight his way out.

However, even if he couldn't move his arms, he could still feel the fingers of his left hand, even if not all of them, were still able to move, having somehow managed to avoid getting entrapped within the coiling like the rest of his midsection was, and if he could manage to just close the tiny bit of distance needed to where he could touch the greenhouse and re-absorb the density into his body, then he would have a chance.

Unfortunately, with the situation as it currently was, it was quickly becoming apparent that he was going to have to make the most difficult decision yet. And thus, his instinctive struggling against the snake neck's mass finally ceased; and much like with any other example in nature of a creature's struggling only hastening their consumption, his lack of resistance resultantly led to the snake neck instinctively ceasing its tightening around him.

And that pause in the tightening resulted in their being just enough give, so that when the body finally closed the distance and slipped the tip of the front-most bayonet through the creases in the coiled snake neck and into De-Condenser's midsection, the force behind it resultantly pushed the Hero those few centimeters back enough so that his left fingertips finally met the cold touch of the reinforced greenhouse.

The Density Hero felt that personal reinforcing power rush right back into his body just at the same moment his attacker tried to slip the second bayonet in, only for the resounding ring of steel meeting what might as well have been stone to sound out, catching the snake-headed assailant by surprise.

With his Quirk restored to full strength, De-Condenser immediately took advantage of the moment of surprise by pushing against the momentarily loosened coils around him, before ultimately propelling himself up out of their grip and off the ground, before just as quickly rebounding off the ground again and grabbing tight onto the head of his opponent itself, using his momentum and strength to pin them down to the ground.

With another enraged snake's hiss, De-Condenser could already see the incoming shadows from behind his back of that snake neck getting ready to entangle him again, but his Hero's determination to end the fight quick and return to his allies' sides was too great to be intimidated by such, as he hurriedly pulled one of his own sleeping gas grenades from out his pocket, all but popped off the dial at the end, before slamming it and his hand alike into his enemy's gaping mouth.

The snake neck was already wrapping itself tight around De-Condenser's body by the time the pale yellow gas started to billow into and out the snake-headed man's mouth; tightening and pulling at just the right spots so that, increased density or not, he would only need to apply the right amount of pressure to snap De-Condenser's spine in half.

Thankfully, the Density Hero's quick thinking to pacify his enemy had been that one solitary moment faster than their own reaction, as within seconds, all that pressure and strangling strength had vanished and slumped to the floor, leaving De-Condenser on his knees but victorious, heaving for breath as he saw the Snake Quirk-user was out like a light.

Knowing he didn't have spare time to waste, De-Condenser shrugged off the coils around his body and was already in the middle of hefting this particularly dangerous local's sleeping body over his shoulder to be laid out with the others for when the time is right.

However, after doing so, he suddenly winced at a particularly unusual pain that shot up his left arm; and the moment he looked upon it, he felt his whole body go momentarily rigid with surprise when he saw what looked like two tiny pinprick incisions in the back of his left hand, with some red discoloration already surrounding them.

Upon closely inspecting his recently downed opponent, De-Condenser was quick to find a pair of syringe-like snake fangs inside his mouth. It all became far too clear what had ended up happening when the Density Hero had jammed his hand and sleeping grenade into his opponent's mouth mere seconds ago, but he hurriedly tried to shake his head and even smack the sides of his face in preparation for the further action that was to come. He had no time to worry about what this surprise injury was threatening to do to him in time; his students and allies needed him.

And so, with his current state pushed to the further reaches in the back of his mind, De-Condenser further steeled himself and ran down the hill into the further reaches of Gagaringrad, all the while hoping all of their interns were managing to hold their own so far as well as his own had.

---

Mere minutes ago…

Tenya's trajectory when he'd started his run up and out of the ice column had allowed himself, Mina and Monoma to all but fly through the air toward the harbor section of Gagaringrad. However, even from this height as they glided with his momentum, they could all clearly see multiple armed townspeople moving about through the roads, setting themselves up within several buildings and makeshift fortifications in preparation for the trio's landing.

[[Time for you all to finally see the superiority of Class B with your own eyes!]] Monoma finally declared once Tenya started pulling him forward by the hand, while the blonde boy and Mina were both using their free hands to hurriedly affix some gas masks Momo had created for everyone to their heads; Tenya's mask and helmet already providing him natural protection from what was about to follow.

With precious seconds left before landing, Monoma felt Tenya finally release his left hand; the signal for him to finally act. And so, with both fists clenched and his focus on his Quirk running at its strongest, the Class B blowhard suddenly threw a frigid flurry of wind and snow from his extended right hand, creating an instantaneous twisting and turning ramp of pure ice before him; all three Heroes' feet meeting it head on as they began to slide at breakneck speed all along it as Monoma continued to form it and its supports all the way to the ground.

The moment he'd started this, though, a multitude of automatic gunfire erupted in response. That was why, through his clenched left hand, Monoma proceeded to similarly summon up the dirt and rock from the ground below into a multitude of floating stony shields hovering directly in between himself, his partners, and their aggressors down below, holding their own against the lead pelting away at them.

[[Way to get the hang of both sensei's Quirks, Mono-kun! For a loudmouth, you're really strong!]] Mina instinctively complimented when seeing their Class B counterpart's share of their specific plan go so smoothly; the praise leaving the boy himself aglow with self-pride, while Tenya hurriedly reminded the two to stay focused.

In fact, realizing what little time they had left before their ice ramp would finally reach the ground, spurred the three Heroes to finally put the most important part of their plan into action, unhooking one of their own sleeping gas grenades from their pockets and waists, twisting the dials and counting down the seconds before each one would finally toss theirs down to the ground below, resulting in the expansion of three pale yellow misty clouds upon impact.

However, the moment they had thrown down the last of the three, Monoma was barely able to make out through the haze, the sight of a vortex of sand suddenly building up right in their path, prompting him to suddenly refocus his use of Whiteout's Quirk into making a sudden three separate paths away from the sudden obstacle for himself and his partners to be sent down.

Before Tenya and Mina could even start to ask what on earth Monoma was doing, both their own ramps suddenly started getting pelted away at by a multitude of high-speed projectiles that weren't bullets, since there was no longer any rapport of automatic gunfire. It was only through Tenya noticing something flying for his head, and leaning his head back just in time for it to merely graze the forehead of his helmet, that it became clear to him just what was being shot at them: [[STEEL BOLTS?!]]

The moment he exclaimed this discovery for his partners to act with, Monoma suddenly found his own path quickly being blocked with several strands of rope, forcing him to outright jump aside from his own ramp, now plummeting and crashing onto a nearby low rooftop, scrambling for further cover as yet more and more ropes suddenly started getting shot from down below towards him.

At the same time, a sudden eruption of a focused thin plume of fire likewise burst from down below, melting away the remainder of the ice ramps ahead, likewise forcing Tenya and Mina to jump off and out of the line of literal fire, sending them both likewise tumbling and rolling onto the unforgiving ground below.

Once Monoma had finally managed to get back onto terra firma from the roof, he quickly took in exactly what he and his teammates were dealing with, and with the three grenades-worth of sleeping gas still billowing through the roads, his confidence still managed to be at an all-time high as his eyes focused on the ramp. [[If Whiteout-sensei can blind opponents with an icy mist…]]

Uttering this to himself, he quickly remembered his mentor's specific hand gestures she'd showcased previously when it came to this specific technique to her Quirk. Like magic, the moment he'd finished doing the same, the entirety of what remained of his icy ramp that traversed all around the harbor area, immediately exploded into a freezing mist that almost immediately fogged up the visor to his own gas mask. But the important thing was that surely their enemies couldn't see any better, either.

However, he was soon answered by the echoing of Tenya's voice from not too far ahead, and it didn't sound nearly as assured as Monoma himself was: [[No! Monoma-san, don't you know what happens to gasses when introduced to extreme cold?! It weighs it all down!]]

Every one of those words pierced through the shield of Monoma's self-pride as he too began to realize his mistake as the mist began to clear already: all the pale yellow sleeping gas was no longer in sight. While it seemed a majority of their attackers had been affected by it for the short time it was around, there were still clearly others moving about, and already focusing their sights on himself and his partners up ahead.

Through his trying to buy his team some time, Monoma had unintentionally taken away their advantage.

ZZZIP!

Before he could try to react further to try and cover himself or his teammates, Monoma heard that same heavy zipping sound come rushing through the air, that had accompanied all the ropes that had been shot at him mere seconds before; but this momentary moment of stunning he'd just gone through, had left him just that moment too delayed to react, thus he suddenly found his arms and legs being tightly bound to his sides and together respectively.

Already able to feel the constraints around himself tightening to the point that he couldn't possibly be able to try and wriggle his way out, Monoma instead used his moment of desperation to try and focus on the other Copied Quirk he still had on hand. With his mind all but screaming it over and over, and his hands both clenching with intent, the dirt and rock from around his feet suddenly began to swirl and coalesce all around Monoma's body entire, even slipping underneath the ropes, and ultimately pushing its grip outwards, away from Monoma himself, as it began to solidify and reinforce itself like a stone cocoon.

The moment he knew the rock armor he'd just created for himself had ultimately freed him, Monoma wasted no time mentally ordering a large enough portion of the stone armor before him to separate and provide an opening for him to hurriedly slip out through and run ahead for everything he was worth, while the Rope Quirk-user realized her prey had given her the slip in the chaos of the moment.

However, the same could not be said for Tenya and Mina. As fast as the two were running and sliding in tandem, ducking, weaving, jumping and all but brute-forcing their way past the number of different Quirks being thrown their way, they both knew there was no way they could maintain this constant evasive approach for long before one of them would eventually find themselves getting tripped up, then it would all fall apart from there. It was already taking a great deal of Mina's focus to be throwing up Acid Veils for both herself and Tenya constantly to avoid getting hit by the bullets and other projectiles being thrown around.

Through some precise debris kicking from Tenya and Acid throws from Mina, a number of the guns being fired their way managed to get destroyed, but that still did nothing for the Fire, Rope, Sand and Steel Bolt Quirks that were hounding them up and down the harbor. Even as Mina was managing to melt down the sandbags and other forms of cover their attackers had been using, thus forcing them further and further out into the open, there was still one overlying issue that Tenya ultimately had to point out: [[We need to find a way to group them up together so we can knock them out!]]

[[But how? We already used up all our sleeping gas bombs! And that Fire Breathing-guy won't let us get anywhere close!]] Mina immediately asked, since the police hadn't been able to supply their entire group with a great deal of spares, since they needed to try and reserve as much as they could for themselves to deal with the spikes of small-time Villain activity across Arakisu City at the same time.

However, before Tenya could answer, there came another dreaded familiar sound: the sound of distant thundering booms, and that descending whistle of the same mortar barrage from the direction of the hospital.

With not a moment to be spared, no matter what he did, Tenya went with the only course of action he could feasibly do in this moment, and broke into a mad dash to intercept Mina's course and grab her, running with everything he had short of his Recipro Burst with her in tow, just as the explosives came raining down upon the harbor; the resulting heat and noise, as well as the numerous shockwaves, ultimately knocking the Class A president off his feet, and sending him and Mina rolling down the road.

As soon as the ringing in their ears had finally stopped and they could at last get back onto their feet, both young Heroes instinctively looked back to see the devastation wreaked upon the harbor, and yet, by some utter miracle, the townspeople that had been attacking them were all still standing and seemed to pay no mind to the destruction that had just occurred, as all their eyes were set upon the duo…and at the same time, the folk they knew to have been knocked out by their sleeping gas grenades previously were now nowhere to be found; leaving them both instinctively with hitched breath in their throats, as for a moment they could only assume the worst.

However, they had not even a few meager moments to mourn their failures, for out of their peripherals, they both soon noticed how more and more pieces of the scattered debris around them was starting to rise up into the air and start flying backwards into the scene of the countless blasts; coming in at greater and greater speed and force, before it ultimately became clear to Tenya and Mina that a good deal of it was actually coming their way to try and reel them in, or simply bludgeon them into oblivion.

The two were son finding themselves forced to both run and weave their way out of the way of this flying barrage, or simply try melting it away in order to buy herself some breathing room respectively. However, the scale of the destruction had been so widespread, that it looked like the incoming assault had no end in sight, and no matter how they tried to avoid it, they were still being slowly but surely sucked further and further into the epicenter of it.

When they were ultimately left with no choice but to face forward to where the destruction was all being pulled back towards, Mina was quick to recognize the sight of the shorter but stockier long-haired Hungarian, Gazsi Istvan, standing proud and determined before them, slowly closing his hands into fists as he rewound all of the scattered destruction back to him and its original place, pulling the two Heroes in for the kill in the process; his remaining standing townsfolk/comrades already in the process of sending their Quirks after the Hero duo, and sending them scrambling through the debris onslaught with not even a moment's worth of breathing room to try and assess the environment or form a plan; not even enough time for Mina to try melting it all away for both their sakes.

What was worse was that, by the time they'd finally managed to start weaving their way through it all, with another motion of his hands, Gazsi was able to have the debris still that was still flying back his way, go flying right back the same direction it had once gone, now flying outwards, and nearly plowing Tenya and Mina to the ground; the pink young Hero wide-eyed with shock: [[What the hell?! He wasn't able to do that before!]]

[[Clearly this must be what Giver-san's Quirk was able to strengthen his into. It may be able to actually tap into someone's hidden potential, like Quirk Evolution, even if only temporarily. I didn't think something like that could be possible, though.]] Tenya noted, taking everything they'd just witnessed and learned recently into consideration, but unable to hide the amazement in his voice.

[[The area his Quirk affects has definitely gotten a lot bigger, too. We can't even get close to him, especially not with the other people around protecting him!]] Mina ultimately concluded, clutching her hands into fists of frustration against the dirt the more she thought about how she'd seen all the debris from all around Gazsi come rushing in all together. Head on, they weren't going to have a chance.

Unfortunately, the continuous onslaught from Gazsi's supporting Quirk-users was forcing Tenya and Mina to scramble as best they could past all the flying debris, kicking and melting whatever they could in their direct path as their hearts raced, instinctively bracing themselves to get hit at any spare moment.

However, in the space of a heartbeat, Tenya glanced upwards, trying to find an escape route for them to rush for so they could come up with a plan, and in the process, ended up realizing something: overheard, the debris that was flying back and forth in tandem with the rest on a closer proximity to the ground, was far less condensed. From there, remembering the improved boosters mounted to his arms, an idea finally occurred to him.

With the chaos of the fighting still ongoing, he felt confident enough that their attackers wouldn't be able to make out their words, and thus Tenya hurriedly turned his attention to Mina as she was tucking, rolling and throwing her Acid for everything she was worth to keep the area immediately around her clear. [[Ashido-san, there's debris overhead, and yet he's not bringing it falling down on us. You said his description of his Quirk was simply that he could rewind; and in this case, move objects forward on the trajectory they've already taken, correct?]]

Barely managing to take the chance to look upwards herself, Mina hardly got a [[Yes]] out before she suddenly found her left arm getting grabbed by her class president.

Tenya couldn't meet her surprised gaze as he dug his feet in to stop his run, and hurriedly made a 180-degree turn, facing the oncoming debris again, just as the engines on his arms roared to life. [[Forgive me, Ashido-san, but this is our best chance! If he can't manipulate where exactly he can send the objects under his control, and simply move them along the same exact path, then we can work with that!]]

VRRRRRM!

Finally, with a mighty roar, Tenya kicked himself high up off the ground with Mina in tow, soaring higher up into the air until they were at a height overlooking the entire harbor. With the floating debris around them much better spaced apart, Tenya used his momentum and body weight to send himself into a forward spin, before finally releasing his grip, and sending Mina flying forward, meeting the first piece of flying debris with her feet, and subsequently using it as a springboard to the next.

Fortunately catching on quick to just what Tenya was giving her a chance to do, her momentum from his throw allowed her to move even faster than Gazsi's Quirk could make them to try and take away her footing, all while Tenya himself was now using his ongoing Engine power through his arms, to send himself racing through the air for the nearest of their persistent opponents down below, desperate to at least distract them enough to buy Mina a chance to take Gazsi out.

Diving off the last bit of debris before she was directly over where Gazsiw as still standing, Mina used her own momentum to throw herself into a freefalling forward roll. Even without Nikolay here to assist her, she knew what she needed to do; her half of their Resonating Rain Trap from back at the Provisional Exam's elimination round.

As she continued to roll, she quickly reached her hands out and began to focus on secreting as much of her non-corrosive acid from her hands and feet as she could, raining it all down towards Gazsi, in the hopes it would freeze him stiff and leave him unable to keep using his Quirk against her and Tenya. It was just as her partner had said: it was their single best shot.

However, as she was spinning too fast to realize; her approach was long-since noticed by Gazsi himself once she'd dove for him, and letting the rest of the debris under his control go, he immediately lifted his hands up and continued the same rewinding motion, stopping Mina's trapping acid in its tracks in the air, and sending it all reverse-falling right back for the pink Hero herself, completely blindsiding her, knocking her off balance, and ultimately sending her crashing to the ground in a nearly complete body cocoon of her own quick-drying trap.

At the same time as this, Tenya's freefall diving tactic had managed to close him in just enough to where he was able to knock out the Bolt-Shooter and the Rope-Maker among their remaining hostiles with precise nerve point strikes; but the fire-breather and sand-manipulator had been in a fortunate enough position to where not only where they able to use their Quirks in tandem with each other to keep Tenya from approaching them; but once he'd realized what had happened to Mina, they were able to create a super-heated wall of instantaneous glass to cut him off as well, leaving his partner with no immediate help.

FWOOOSH!

Just before any of the involved parties could launch another attack at one another, a blazing light that wasn't the morning sun suddenly ignited from overheard, naturally drawing all surprised gazes skyward, with Tenya's two opponents instinctively responding to the sight: [[What the hell, Grenadier's firing again already?! Shit, get back into the foxhole!]]

[[SHADOW SPLIT!]]

Instead of the descending whistle of another explosive mortar barrage as the others had clearly braced themselves for, Tenya instead heard the blessed familiar sound of High Noon's voice echoing from the heavens, just before the black-clad Pro Hero finally began to show herself from before the blazing light one of her custom flares had produced in the sky.

With the declaration of her special move as she controlled her freefall onto the site where she'd seen the two interns get held up, High Noon's singular shadow upon the ground began to not only expand, but once more split off into six different directions sprouting from the same source point, stretching across the battlefield toward the shadows of not only Tenya and Mina's bodies, but similarly the shadows of Tenya's two opponents, and two of the largest pieces of debris amid the field.

The moment she knew all her shadows had reached the point she needed them to, High Noon proceeded to turn her body into a high-speed corkscrew motion, subsequently pulling Tenya and Mina out of the line of fire as she just as quickly released her hold on their shadows, allowing them greater distance from the epicenter, while similarly swinging Gazsi's two remaining comrades about before they could try to attack again.

At the same time, with Tenya and Mina no longer in her grips, High noon began scooping up more and more debris with her two newly freed shadows, now using four of the six to send the debris flying all around and closing in all around Gazsi himself, all by their shadows. They were all flying far too fast for him to be able to focus his Quirk on any exact one to stop from getting pinched into the middle of it all. High Noon had him effectively trapped in a quickly tightening vortex.

However, that crushing force he'd been bracing himself for ultimately never came, as the debris around him suddenly all fell back to the ground as High Noon landed just off to the side of her self-made whirlwind epicenter wherein he still stood; spurring him to look her way in momentary stun, only to see just past her form, his two comrades had clearly long since blacked out from the sheer velocity at which she'd been swinging them around by their shadows. He was effectively all on his own.

His discerning eye was quick, however, to see that the Pro Hero before him was standing in just the right spot for him to blindside with his Quirk, already motioning his hands to start swinging all of the debris she'd been throwing about in the reverse direction, and getting her caught in the flow in the process.

Just as he began to order the first of countless pieces of rubble to start floating, however, he quickly became aware of another wind current beginning to grow progressively more powerful and frigid all around him, soon gaining enough power to start lifting the same rubble he'd been about to attack High Noon with, with an immediately visible flurry of snow to go along with it.

[[Nice work getting everyone else out of the target area, High Noon-san!]]

This now-familiar sight and an especially familiar female voice now had Gazsi looking wide-eyed with disbelief as he looked all around his spot, just in time to finally see the stationary form of an especially focused Whiteout standing just opposite of High Noon, slowly and methodically moving her hands in a circular motion to continue building up the power of this new freezing vortex; undoubtedly to try and entrap him just like Mina had.

With this realization sending his adrenaline into overdrive, Gazsi defiantly reached his arms out to his sides, conducting precise motions with his hands in a similar fashion to start actually rewinding the snow and wind currents around him in order to keep Whiteout from closing her whirlwind in upon him and keeping him from being able to fight back. Already the Hungarian was planning to start sending every piece of rubble all across Gagaringrad itself into a whirlwind of his own once this threat was taken care of, all with the simple task of waylaying the Heroes like the interfering pests he knew they were.

ZZZIP!

As the snowy winds began to spread out rather than close in, however; Gazsi barely caught the familiar sound of the thick ropes whipping through the air from behind his back, flying and entwining itself around his arms and midsection, effectively cutting off his ability to use his Quirk, and allowing Whiteout's Eye of the Storm special move to carry on its course; all while at the other end of that same miracle rope, Monoma was standing at his mentor's side, looking sweaty and notably bedraggled in the aftermath of the previous mortar barrage, but still smiling no less brightly with nervousness and self-assuredness, as he held onto the rope projecting from the palm of his hand for dear life.

[[Great work, Phantom Thief-kun. I've got this handled from here.]] Whiteout congratulated her quick-thinking intern, before pulling out her own sleeping gas grenade from within her kimono, turning the dial, and waiting just the few seconds she needed before tossing the small object into the current she was still channeling, itself.

With a prolonged hiss, the pale yellow gas quickly spread out and got caught in the wind all around Gazsi, soon turning the whole cyclone the same color, and leaving the Hungarian with no other option without the use of his Quirk, but to breathe it in, and almost immediately blackout and collapse like a pile of rocks to the floor. With this portion of the Heroes' battle effectively being won, Whiteout finally called off her Eye of the Storm, just as Monoma withdrew his Copy of the Roper-Making Quirk that had previously given him and his teammates the trouble it had.

As High Noon hurriedly got to work tying up the rest of Gazsi's unconscious comrades, and Whiteout was already pulling out her own shrunken emergency vehicle for these people to all be evacuated in once Yui was ready to return them to normal size; Mina was already in the process of melting her way out of her own self-reflected acid trap, hurriedly reuniting with her fellow Heroes and breathing a sigh of immense relief upon realizing their share was officially done.

[[It looks like you both owe Class B a great debt of gratitude and fealty once this is all over, Class A! But if I ever have to time the limits for my Copied Quirks down to the second in order to pick up another one like this ever again, it will be too soon!]] Even as he was expressing unwillingness to try and micromanage in such intense circumstances ever again, Monoma still had that grating tone of pure egotism speaking for him; ignoring the naturally annoyed look on Mina's face at such an attitude, before returning his attention to Whiteout and High Noon together: [[There are a bunch of other unconscious townsfolk a little ways behind me as well. I was able to use the Copy I made of Iida's Quirk to get them all out of the line of fire when another of those mortar attacks hit my ears.]]

Before either of the Pros or his partners could commend him for such quick ingenuity in the field of battle, however, as if his comment was simply the magic word, another serious of distant thundering booms and descending whistles reached their ears, but this time, they were all but waiting for it, as the Heroes all quickly huddled close together in time for Whiteout to reach her hands to the sky, and quickly form a thick dome of ice over all their heads to act as a shield.

The ensuing explosive barrage was just as deafening and rumbling through the ground beneath their feet as the last two times, but this time none of the interns were willing to let their surprised fear get the better of them, as Mina was even quick to give several precise Acid Shots to reinforce their protection under the ice dome. Several of the hammering explosions managed to break it apart at the end; but Mina's protective instincts allowed her whole team to avoid getting pelted by especially fast-flying large chunks of solid ice as a result.

Once the latest barrage had run its course, and the Heroes and their unconscious hauls were able to breathe easy, knowing they were all unharmed by it; Tenya's eyes were laser-focused now upon the direction he knew now the hospital to be in. [[As long as the Villains there are left uncontested, they're just going to keep hammering down on us with that Grenade Launcher-Quirk's added power, no matter if their own people are in the line of fire or not! If the rest of our allies are going to have any realistic chance, then that one needs to be neutralized fast!]]

Stepping up to join the white-armor-clad young Hero's side, Whiteout announced to the rest of their fellow Heroes from over her shoulder: [[Ingenium-kun's absolutely right, everyone. His Quirk and mine currently make us the fastest by default, and the rest of your Quirks are far better suited for crowd control in this current situation. You all fall back to the agreed meet-up point to rejoin the others; we're going to head for the hospital and take out that Grenadier Villain for you.]]

With not another moment being sacrificed for the sake of an ultimately meaningless argument, Tenya and Whiteout simultaneously dashed and launched themselves forward in the direction of the hospital through their Quirks, leaving High Noon to dutifully instruct for the visibly worried Mina and Monoma to follow her lead back to their meeting point further into the heart of Gagaringrad; all three of them silently wishing their two departed teammates the sincerest best of luck, and at the same time hoping the rest of their partners and friends were managing themselves as well.

---

Atop the old hospital, Pietro and his loyal soldiers were still dutifully watching the unfolding battle play out in Gagaringrad ahead, only now that Gazsi had been effectively taken out of the fight; the scarred commander's grip on his binoculars was tightening and beginning to shake, especially since he could similarly feel the same apprehension among the others. All the while, as he was similarly being forced to watch, Konstantin refused to give his old comrade and captor the satisfaction of any kind of verbal response to what he too was seeing play out.

However, Pietro's simmering anger gave way to initiative once his watchful eye caught sight of the white armor-wearing Hero intern and the snowy kimono-wearing Pro rushing for the hospital itself in tandem. His cloudy eyes were wide and still somehow able to project a driven fire as he immediately turned to Tuule at the far end of the roof. [[Comrade Gust, two of those Heroes are advancing on our position. See to it they don't get close by.]]

With a dutiful salute in place of words or questions for specifics, the spry Estonian girl immediately vanished out of sight the moment she could catch even the faintest glimmer of sunlight reflecting off of Tenya's armor in the distance. With her having been given her orders, Pietro's momentum as a leader was still going strong as he finally turned to address the rest of his present soldiers. [[Comrade Blackout, head into the basement and stand guard. If any of the Heroes are already starting to head this way, there's no doubt that's the first place they're going to try and go for. Comrades Scythe, Petto; you both head into town and suppress the rest of them. Comrade Grenadier, you stay up here and keep laying down your mortar fire. The longer we can keep them sequestered within the town, the better. Those tunnels underneath are proving a real boon for keeping our comrades safe when you do.]]

With their own orders given, Eliška, Hristofor and Danila were already on their way for the fire escape to hasten their descent, but while the shorter Ukrainian was already sliding his way down, the normally suave-looking Bulgarian grabbed his Czech comrade by the arm, momentarily stopping her.

The confused look in her pink eyes and x-shaped pupils seemed to immediately do away with Hristofor's typical Lothario-esque demeanor, as he visibly looked to be struggling to figure exactly what to say. However, this was hardly anything new for either of them. Even after knowing each other for as long as they had, he was still the same awkward boy she'd known from the start. [[Good luck out there, Eliška,]] he finally stated softly, doing away with the burden of their given codenames when in the middle of an operation.

Of course, the fact he was still able to be so sentimental when it came to the two of them brought an especially confident smirk to the young Czech woman's freckled face, right before suddenly yanking him by the collar of his dress shirt underneath his vest, and all-but mashing her lips to his, leaving Hristofor as red in the face as he always did whenever they had the chance for a moment remotely like this.

[[Hey, don't go getting all sentimental on me, alright? As long as we have each other to cheer on, then who needs luck, remember? Not me, and certainly not you.]]

With that, now that her long-time companion's rigid grip on her hand had loosened, she too let go of his collar and came sliding freely down the fire escape with an assuring wink before she left Hristofor's sight. Of course, her vote of confidence in him had his own spirit fired right back up, as he then went running back down for the basement through the roof access door; already repeating to himself that he wasn't going to let any of his comrades down today.

With the three of them gone, and with Ljubomir already firing off another devastating mortar barrage from his arm cannons thanks to The Giver's Quirk on him; Pietro saw the deeply shaken look in Konstantin's eyes, a complete betrayal to his attempt at a stoic front. Such a sight was so typical of the man as he once knew him, and that made Pietro's desire for getting into his head too great to resist, as he hurriedly closed the distance between them and leaned in to whisper directly into the restrained prisoner's ear:

[[I'm sure you're simply loving watching this right now, aren't you, Konstantin Alexandrovich? Quirked people trying to kill each other, it's almost as though they're doing your job for you. Well, here's a little tidbit of info I'm sure you're going to find quite fascinating: one of those Heroes down there, trying to stop us, trying to stop me, trying to actually save our fallen homeland from its rightful punishment…is the very son of the Sun of Justice Tunguska himself.]]

Just as he had hoped, there was a momentary flinch that reflected across Konstantin's face as those words echoed in the depths of his head, leaving Pietro smiling wide. [[That's right, you surely must have seen the boy's picture last winter when Tunguska had been uncovered in Vladivostok before fleeing. He's down there right now, fighting for the sake of you and the very same nation that tried to kill him and his father. And now you no doubt find yourself torn between wanting to actually cheer for the very same Quirked people you were sworn to remove…and hanging onto this foolish form of patriotism of yours, at the cost of the retribution that's soon to come for all the traitors back home. How's that for a sick game of fate?]]

[[Commander?]] The meek-sounding voice of the Slovakian, Jozef Mečiar, suddenly broke Pietro's focus on mentally tormenting Konstantin; forcing the deformed man to look back to the curly-haired rail-thin young man behind him; the latter visibly too awkward to maintain eye contact, even after the empowering of his own Quirk. [[I'm sorry, sir, but I was just wondering if you had any instructions for me as well.]]

BEEBEEBEEP!

With almost cosmic timing, Pietro's earpiece began to ring, prompting him to motion for his remaining soldier to remain on standby while he answered it: [[Yes, Alyosha Stepanovich? Any updates to give?]]

[[Excellent news, Pietro Dobrynich! That new recruit from the town draft earlier, Comrade Doorkeeper; she's already come back with Comrade Blowback in tow! Her rescue operation was a complete success!]]

Pietro instinctively sucked in a sharp breath of peek anticipation. Out of all the more standard Quirks that had been entered into his registry when drafting the entirety of Gagaringrad into his army; this particular Quirk from a literally mousey-looking adult woman had immediately caught the eye of himself and Alyosha altogether: a Quirk that allowed her to draw a door upon any wall, and be able to open it to any destination she wanted, so long as she knew precisely where it was.

And what better Quirk could he have ever asked for when it came to finally recovering their formerly jailed Romanian comrade from the clutches of the authorities? [[That is excellent news indeed, Comrade! Those trackers you built into our earpieces were a stroke of genius! We never would have been able to pinpoint his location otherwise! How is Comrade Blowback's condition? Is he conscious?]]

[[Unfortunately no, sir. That blonde Hero Comrade Spitfire described must have really reflected his own Quirk back at him something immense. Luckily his vitals are all still stable.]]

The sigh that Pietro gave in response to this echoed both disappointment, as well as a newfound determination, as his cloudy eyes settled on the still patiently waiting Jozef before him. [[It's just as well. If your theory about what these resurrections have been doing to my Quirk is indeed true, then this may be the only real chance we have to put that theory to the test. I'm coming down to the lab now, and tell Comrade Doorkeeper to remain on standby. I'm sending Comrade Spitfire with her for another mission.]]

Understanding what was now being asked of him, Jozef hurriedly followed after Pietro as he went down the roof access doorway; watching the scar-covered man's back attentively before finally asking: [[Forgive me, Commander. I know it's just been a while since Comrade Valera helped you last. How are you feeling right now?]]

Pietro didn't even slow down, let alone stop in his tracks, as he glanced back to the young man with an eager smile from over his shoulder. [[Comrade Giver's Quirk has been a continuous godsend for our cause, Comrade Spitfire. I hadn't felt this much at my physical peak even before I ended up in this state.]]

All the while, up on the roof, just as Pietro had hoped, a number of different seeds had been planted in Konstantin's head as he continued to watch the battle in the distance unfold. It was a foundation-shaking revelation to know that not only were Heroes actually actively fighting against Pietro and his new army for the sake of himself and his Motherland…but to know that one of them was also a wanted fugitive in that very same country, yet was still putting his life on the line for them…it was something that left Konstantin Khodamchuk reeling with something he hadn't allowed himself to feel for the past thirteen years: doubt.

---

One minute ago…

It wasn't even half a minute after they had rushed from the harbor, before Tenya and Whiteout were able to see the beginning of the roof to the hospital in the horizon, as well as the numerous bright glowing projectiles from the last few times before, rising from those roofs and whistling overhead for Gagaringrad again.

Seeing and hearing this had Tenya's protective instincts burning, as he was already about to dig in his heels and make an about face back for town, but it was the timely intervening words of Whiteout that stopped him from doing just that: [[Don't let yourself get distracted, Ingenium-kun! The others all know what to do! So do we! If we don't neutralize the Villain launching those attacks to begin with, then their shares of the mission are at constant risk!]]

Tenya had to force himself to swallow his instinctive protestation, instead only giving a solitary nod in agreement to his accompanying Pro Hero's reminder. It was his decision to do this to begin with, he knew exactly what needed to be done so that they could all—

WHAAM!

For but a split second, Tenya and Whiteout both spotted a flash of a young and instantly familiar foreign girl with short lavender hair, before she just as quickly vanished from sight, and they both felt their entire respective body weights being slammed into by an invisible wall of a person, their shared speeds being so suddenly interrupted, causing their bodies to get all but blasted to their right, through the thin coverage of some trees, before just as quickly emerging out the other side and ricocheting off the first rooftop of the northern edge of the town, before finally coming to a stop.

Both Heroes tried to catch their breath and remove the ringing in their ears, while a confidently smirking Tuule Koppel found herself standing triumphantly over them both, cracking her knuckles in preparation for the fight to come now that her Quirk's area of affect had more than doubled.

---

What had previously started as a difficult but manageable battle against a great number of essentially brainwashed Quirk-users, had all too suddenly turned into a standoff under the best of circumstances for Knightfall and his assigned intern allies; Momo, Reiko, Yui and Pony. They had been using a clever combination of their various Quirks to work their way from their landing spot on the northern end of Gagaringrad towards their agreed meeting spot in the center with the other teams, but clearly their opponents had caught on to their progress and how they were using their Quirks by now, to fortify themselves and mount a solid defense, stopping the Heroes' momentum entirely just for the sake of keeping themselves together and on their feet.

However, over the last near minute, a new face had swiftly been thrown into the mix; a face that Knightfall and his two original interns among the bunch recognized all too quickly by now as Danila Ignatenko, the Ukrainian boy with the Quirk to make devastating blades and spears from the mere swings and thrusts of his arms.

This time, though, the enhancement of his own Quirk had quickly made itself devastatingly apparent, as now he had started throwing his body this way and that instead of simply relying on his arms; with every single throwing of every part of all his limbs and even his own head creating multitudes of even faster, and far harder-hitting Air Blades and Spears; all while his nearby comrades were using their Quirks to provide him cover from anything Knightfall and his interns could throw their way.

Of course, this wasn't helped, due to the painful reminder that the majority of the Asteroid Hero's normal repertoire of techniques had wide areas of affect, and since they were primarily dealing with civilians, that left what he could do offensively very limited, although his ability to at least block each of Danila's attacks provided some room for the four female students to work out a suppressing strategy of their own.

While Knightfall's rapidly forming stone shields were able to at least take one of Danila's strikes at a time; so too was the Ukrainian's Quirk able to cut down every object Reiko could throw his way before Yui would grow it to massive size, as well as every one of Pony's flying horns. For all intents and purposes, Heroes and their opponents alike were in a complete stalemate.

What Danila and his comrades didn't realize in the ongoing chaos of this battle of attrition, however, was that Reiko, Yui and Knightfall were ultimately serving as a three-person diversion while Momo was in the process of creating a small catapult from out her back, wasting no time once it was finally formed and aimed to hurriedly tap Yui on her side to get her attention.

At the same moment Knightfall threw himself and two more collective stone shields before his three young charges to block another series of blows from Danila and the gunfire of his comrades; a multitude of small black tubes suddenly came arcing through the air from behind his back and over his head. The moment all their adversaries' eyes spotted these, they all suddenly grew to ten times their size, revealing themselves to be a multitude of gas bombs falling right for the middle of the current battlefield.

[[TAKE THEM OUT, NOW!]] Danila ordered, already throwing his arms and legs with a series of admittedly complex punches, kicks and flips in reaction, while the others immediately began opening fire, subsequently slicing, puncturing and all around destroying the incoming grown gas bombs before they could have a chance to go off.

At least, that was the thought Danila had, before realizing that the tubes now falling harmlessly to the ground were completely empty to begin with. [[What the hell?!]]

THUNK! THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!

Following right on the tail of his confused exclamation, Danila was answered by the sound of four canisters being fired up into the air at high-speed. Looking up, and then forward, he ultimately saw four regular-sized gas bombs now flying down to his position, with all four of the Heroes before him now wielding matching small single-shot gas guns that Momo had hurriedly created alongside the catapult while he'd been distracted with the decoys she'd had Yui apply her Quirk to.

With their having delayed firing for just the right amount of time, all four gas bombs detonated mid-flight, allowing the pale yellow gas to explode in an all-consuming cloud that immediately began to fill the battlefield, while the Heroes hurriedly donned Momo's gas masks the moment their projectiles burst. Danila's lightning-quick reflexes, unfortunately, gave him the forethought to start jabbing his fists repeatedly, resulting in multiple Air Spears that punched numerous holes into the cloud in his direction, dispersing it enough for him to remain conscious, while the rest of his surprised comrades proved not as quick-witted.

In the few moments he had taken to save himself from getting knocked out, Yui had hurriedly applied her Quirk to another four-set of Pony's horns before she sent them flying his way, repeatedly popping them off, letting her classmate touch them, and then sending them forward over and over again, no matter how many of them the infuriated Ukrainian was now repeatedly slicing apart before they could reach him.

Of course, having gotten used to his excellent reaction times by now, this was ultimately to be another clever feint, as at the same time, Momo and Reiko were busy running a large circle around the perimeter of the battlefield at Danila's sides, unraveling an ever-growing line of the black-haired girl's trusty heat-sensitive constricting alloy from her side (which she had made her go-to Capturing Tool since the Final Exam), while Knightfall was dutifully standing guard by Yui and Pony, continuously creating more stone shields to deflect Danila's attacks, while his actually hands had two pieces of flint on standby, just waiting for Momo's signal to strike them together, and activate the alloy's most important function in this plan.

WOOSH! WHAAM!

With a sudden rupture echoing through the air, Tenya and Whiteout both suddenly came warping onto the scene from well above everyone else, the two Heroes flying across out of their own control; ultimately ending with the Blizzard Hero crashing hard into the face of a nearby slanted roof, and Tenya only barely managing to turn his body so that his already bent legs would meet the face of the wall he was about to crash into, absorbing all the force in just the right way to avoid getting himself too terribly hurt. Even from this distance, it was immediately clear to Knightfall and the other interns that their two recently arrived allies had been put through it.

At the same time, Tuule had similarly warped into mid-air just the same as her two opponents, landing clean on her feet right beside a likewise shocked Danila. [[Comrade Gust, what the hell?]]

[[Save the question, Scythe! Let's keep these bastards away from the hospital together!]] Without further warning, but sensing her new comrade's immediate enthusiasm, Tuule hurriedly grabbed Danila's hand, and with a blink of her eye, they were both immediately gone, warping onto the corner of another nearby rooftop, only to just as quickly vanish the moment they knew the Heroes had all pinpointed their location.

However, seizing the opportunity to not depart the battlefield just yet, the two had ended up warping onto a ruined rooftop just behind Reiko's back, and with a precise flick of Danila's wrist, he ended up sending a swift Air Blade right for her; the grey-haired young Hero only avoiding a potential mortal wounding thanks to Momo's quick eye, leading her to tug upon the alloy between them with all her strength, forcing Reiko to the side just enough to where Danila's attack only ended up cutting her across her right arm, instead of straight through her midsection.

At least partially satisfied with having left that much of a mark, Danila and Tuule instantly warped out of sight, leaving the Heroes in their dust while Momo was already hurriedly creating a roll of gauze for her partner's already bleeding arm wound; Reiko's wincing face somehow managing to communicate her pain better than a normal cry would have for her.

[[After them, everyone! We'll never be able to reach the hospital with that Warp Speed girl in the mix!]] Tenya urgently informed his allies as soon as he knew he and Whiteout were both okay to continue. Needing no further explanation, Momo and Reiko quickly abandoned their old capturing strategy, and soon the two united Hero group were actively giving chase to the visible-yet-distant Tuule/Danila duo before them, racing from rooftop to rooftop (whichever one was even partially still stable at least) in order to keep them from truly escaping.

THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!

But the sound of another rapidly approaching mortar barrage forced Knightfall and Whiteout to fall back, allowing their interns to continue their pursuit, while the two Pros hurriedly channeled their Quirks together to raise up all the stone rubble, and channel as much of a sub-zero degree flurry in those few precious seconds, to create a big enough overhead ice-rock umbrella to take on the incoming explosives, and keeping their young charges from being knocked off course.

While their overall plan proved fruitful, their aim was still just enough off the mark, that one single round managed to graze and detonate against the side of their shield with just enough extra open room, so that the chasing interns ended up getting blown off their feet by the resultant shockwave, sending them tumbling off the last half-standing roof, and crashing and rolling hard against the surprisingly clear ground.

Of course, once their heads had all stopped ringing, it quickly became clear to them that they weren't any more in the clear than before, as they had now found themselves at the edge of what had been identified before as the Gagaringrad town square, with the Orthodox Church somehow still standing in one piece just across from them, and the two-story building they knew to be the school and orphanage standing just a few meters across the road to its right.

But most pressing of all, was that just to their left, at the next edge of the square over from their position; Nikolay, Kyouka, Tetsutetsu and De-Condenser were finding themselves in the middle of yet another especially pressing battle of their own, none of them even able to spare the moment to acknowledge the return of some of their allies and ask for their help.

Even just from the two seconds it took for the once-pursuing Hero group to assess their friends' situation before them, it became crystal clear that De-Condenser was trying to continue his role as a reinforced human shield for his three young allies, while the same Gagaringrad local with the falcon wings from before, was continuously gliding around the battlefield, or swooping down to try taking potshots with the assault rifle in his hands. Mere feet away, Nikolay and Kyouka were trying to work together to send a lightning-fast barrage of rubble from the ground at another attacker of theirs huddled away in what looked to be a reinforced storefront, only for the whole thing to not only immediately stop in its tracks, but actually fly directly upward in a straight direction from that very spot, almost as if whoever was inside was actually reversing the gravity of that specific area, rather than simply taking it away like Ochako would.

And lastly, mere feet away from that, Tetsutetsu was furiously trying to take an Iron swing with his fists and feet at an especially slippery-looking opponent, who upon being backed against a pile of rubble topped by a man-sized flat chunk of wall, actually let gravity take him and fall just out of another punches' range, only to then sink directly into the wall chunk itself like a living two-dimensional painting. He then immediately took advantage of Tetsutetsu's stumble, as he emerged right back out into three-dimensional space and unloaded a carbine rifle shot point-blank into the young Hero's Iron stomach, knocking him back a few meters, only to land in a backwards roll onto his feet yet again; his face twisted with pain and frustration altogether.

Unfortunately for all of them, Nikolay's group was just as quick to notice the arrival of Danila and Tuule onto the scene of battle just as quickly as Tenya and Momo's groups as well, and just from the looks on their faces, it was already clear they were aching to join in just as much as the Heroes themselves were; especially when, by both unfortunate and fortunate timing alike, they had all come to catch a glimpse of vibrant pink out of their peripherals, and simultaneously caught sight of Mina, Monoma and High Noon rushing onto the battlefield from the complete opposite side facing the harbor as well; all three of them taking in their friends' situation for themselves in less than a moment.

And just as quickly did the entire bunch of newly reunited Heroes instinctively throw themselves into action, with High noon's shadow grabbing onto the shadow of a nearby large steel beam, and with its above average strength did she fling it up to the falcon-winged attacker the moment she saw he was lining his gun's sights upon her and her two interns.

However, in a flash, Tuule and Danila just as quickly warped directly into its path, and the Ukrainian immediately sliced it up into numerous pieces with several swings of his arms and legs, before he and his Estonian comrade used both their Quirks together to launch all the pieces right back to where they had come, forcing Mina and Monoma together to fire two simultaneous Acid Shots to melt them away before they could get plowed into the ground with them.

Unfortunately, this provided just enough of a distraction for Danila to send multiple Air Spears their way right on the tail of those same steel beam pieces, but following his movements, Tetsutetsu hurriedly ran and threw himself directly into their path, taking the full brunt of it and nearly crashing through Mina and Monoma in the process.

Seeing their ally throw himself into the fray like this, Nikolay hurriedly launched himself right up after Danila and Tuule, only to get slammed from behind by the falcon-winged hostile, who immediately proceeded to send himself into a disorienting corkscrew motion, before ultimately throwing him straight down to the ground, directly into the oncoming Kyouka, who'd used another pulse from her shoes to try and go after Nikolay, now sending them both plummeting, only to barely be saved by Tenya rushing in and catching them both in mid-air.

All the while, as Momo, Reiko, Yui and Pony were trying to use all their Quirks together to try and neutralize as many of the visible hostiles as they could, the Gravity-Reverser and the Wall-Blender were proving themselves especially adept at deflecting any incoming attacks, and slipping away through the literal cracks, rendering their efforts completely useless, and worst of all, utilizing their knowledge of the current environment to ultimately catch the four female Heroes off guard, as the gravity beneath their feet was ultimately reversed; sending them all nearly skyrocketing higher and higher, only to then have the gravity turned back to normal to have them all come plummeting.

It was only through Momo's quick thinking of creating several beanbags out the palms of her hands, and having Yui grow them all, that they were able to greatly lessen their impact, before just as quickly being forced on the retreat back to Mina, Monoma and High Noon's current position when the Wall-Blending Quirk-user quickly emerged from out the nearby rubble and started opening fire on their landing spot.

With De-Condenser taking another diving strike from the falcon-winged attacker that sent him rolling back across the battlefield, the Heroes found themselves being forced to reconvene as best they could while knowing they couldn't possibly risk staying in one position while their enemies were all actively gunning for them, literally in several cases.

[[Dammit, these guys were proving tough enough already, but with Danila and Tuule's Quirks strengthened and thrown in the mix, we can't even hope to get close enough to neutralize any of them!]] Nikolay cursed under his breath as he and all his allies took off into another sprint throughout the square; all of the Heroes barely managing to stay close enough to where they could actually still communicate, while also trying not to maintain any obvious formations their enemies could target them through.

[[Yes, our only hope is going to be to somehow take them all out at once; give none of the others any time to react!]] Tenya agreed before kicking himself up off the ground and ricocheting off another nearby shot-up wall, in order to avoid the last spot on the ground he'd just been on having its gravity reversed.

[[But how do we do any of that with so many eyes watching us?!]] Mina asked, clearly anxious for someone to give her at least the beginning of an idea to work with, having to slide as fast as she could with her momentum, in order to avoid any of Danila's Air Blades as well as the bullets zipping around, throwing up an expansive Acid Veil from her left hand the whole way as a mobile means of protection for herself and any of her other allies who happened to be nearby just behind her.

[[First, we keep that pain-in-the-ass duo busy!]] Tetsutetsu declared, eyeballing Danila and Tuule as they kept warping all across the perimeter of the square; himself, Tenya and Pony all miraculously being of the same mind, especially when the duo had finally ended up warping onto a spot that was just close enough to where the trio had by now ultimately rushed to.

The moment they had; the three interns were immediately swept up and forward through the air by three of Pony's horns she had popped off and kept waiting on standby when gauging the layout of their current battlefield. With the added momentum they provided, Tenya and Tetsutetsu both swung their legs and fists alike, ultimately clothes-lining Danila together to where Tuule lost her grip on him, and he went flipping down to another rooftop.

Unfortunately, the moment he barely managed to stick his landing, his comrade had proven just as quick to warp herself back to his position, ultimately rendering Pony's own attempted melee attack useless, and plucking him back up and sending them both on their evasive warp-speed rush around the field once again; the three Heroes barely managing to stay on their tails no matter where they warped themselves. Tenya even found himself having to use the burning thrusts on all his limbs to try and speed himself up in the hopes of overtaking them, with Pony trying to focus on speeding up the flight of her horns right alongside him, and Tetsutetsu simply had to focus on staying atop his own flying horn for all he was worth.

With Tuule and Danila effectively distracted from the rest of the fight; Nikolay, Yui and De-Condenser had ultimately relegated themselves to focusing on depriving the Wall-Blending Quirk-user of any viable surface for him to sink into and escape through; using a combination of the Density Hero's self-imbued Quirk, and Yui growing Nikolay's smaller tuning forks before he blasted them mid-throw, each strike whittling away any big enough pieces of debris, and any remaining solid walls their target could rush for. Despite all this, however, his quick-drawing with his carbine was similarly keeping the two interns on the move, thus keeping them from being able to consistently deprive him of an escape route.

This ultimately left Mina, Monoma and High Noon to deal with the Gravity-Reverser and the falcon-winged assailants specifically, but thankfully, their own shared initiative had given them all the beginnings of an idea, as Mina was by now sliding across the battlefield at her best speed, calling out to Nikolay ahead: [[KOLYA-KUN, YOUR OTHER GRENADES!]]

Sheer instinct guiding his hand, Nikolay hurriedly unclipped the three Sonic Grenades Mei Hatsume had built for him from his belt and tossed them with all the strength he could on such short notice in the direction of Mina's voice; the determined pink Hero springing up with a rushing leap into the air and catching them all by their cords in one hand before meeting the ground with another flawless and speedy slide.

At the same time, Kyouka had been quick to use her Earphone Jack Strike, Heartbeat Distortion and even just her regular Earphone Jack attacks to uproot a ton of the debris directly before her, before she and High Noon both sent it all flying for the Gravity-Reverser-user still hiding out in the fortified store ahead, forcing him to focus on defending himself, and sending it all skyward to avoid crashing into his position.

What he never realized in that moment, was that all the while, Mina had also come sliding in and, using a large upturned piece of rubble as a ramp, sent herself airborne just close enough to where she could see the falcon-winged attacker overheard, counting down the seconds and her specific point along the arc of her leap in relation to him, before finally activating the three Acid Grenades she likewise had been provided, and tossing them right for him.

However, having by now seen what the pink young girl's Quirk was, the flying citizen swiftly turned his trajectory around, causing the following explosions of her Acid to be rendered completely useless. However, no exclamation of frustration ever came from her, as the moment she'd seen her target turn himself away, Mina had likewise finally taken that chance to activate the Sonic Grenades she'd had Nikolay give to her, and toss them his way as well.

[[NOW, CLASS B'S PIECE DE RESISTANCE!]] Monoma's battle cry echoed loud and clear the moment he'd seen Mina toss the last three grenades just past the Falcon Quirk-user's current position, as he dug his feet in where he stood, capitalizing on Kyouka and High Noon keeping the Gravity-Reverser busy, aiming his hands for the grenades currently behind the flier's back, and closing his fists and pulling his arms back with aggressive intent.

In an instant, the three Sonic Grenades still hanging in mid-air, suddenly began to fly right back in the same trajectory from which they had just been thrown, inadvertently plowing with great force right into the winged citizen's back, knocking him off his intended course, just before they all three detonated against him with a trio of powerful BWOOM'S echoing out across the battlefield; the sheer concussive force rippling through his body causing him to instantly black out, and come crashing straight through the face of the storefront, and knocking the Gravity-Reverser on his back in a daze.

Before the dust could even clear, now that the others had played their parts in this makeshift excuse for a grand strategy so well, Momo finally took that opportunity to rush into the caved-in storefront, and with a tiny tranquilizer gun she had since created once her fellow Heroes had started making their moves; she hurriedly planted a single syringe round into the Gravity-Reverser's leg, leaving him limp and out cold before he could even get his bearings straight again.

However, even with two of their most troublesome potential opponents in this situation removed, neither Momo nor her fellows that had helped in this particular fight could breathe easy, knowing they still had plenty more opponents to remove from the board; not the least of which now were still Tuule and Danila.

All while the rest of the interns had worked to remove two of their assailants from play; Tenya, Tetsutetsu and Pony were still just as relentless as ever in their pursuit of the two enemies before them. While Tuule was still keeping them both a hop, skip and a jump out of the young Heroes' grasp, Danila was manic in just how many of his Air attacks he sent their way, too focused on trying to take them out despite their reactions and reflexes in dodging or simply taking the brunt and powering through the pain in Tetsutetsu's case, to realize that he was actually inadvertently helping Nikolay and De-Condenser to smash away whatever big enough walls there were for the Wall-Blender to sink into and make an escape along.

This one was now finding himself in further desperate need of a means to fall back without the risk of getting annihilated, the more he realized that he was increasingly out in the open, and finally discovering that his two original comrades had been taken down.

However, his frantic eyes were quick to spot a pair of half-destroyed walls almost standing side-by-side to each other, providing a paper-thin alley he could easily be able to slip into and make his escape through.

With all the surrounding Heroes' eyes now falling upon him, his fear ignited into an almost valorous rage as he made a mad dash for the alley, hammering his finger down on the trigger to his carbine at each one he could lay his eyes on; forcing High Noon to tackle Kyouka and Mina to the ground, as well as yank Monoma down with them by his shadow, and forcing Yui to quickly grow the rock she'd just thrown his way to act as a last-second shield.

The moment his gun clicked empty, he was met with the unmistakable BWOOM of Nikolay launching himself into a blinding charge for him, especially since the boy had undoubtedly seen the sidearm hanging at the man's hip. However, his desperation was already driving him to outright throw his gun in the boy's face, capitalizing on the split second Nikolay needed to outright smash it to pieces with a single well-placed kick, to sprint for the alley, throwing himself head first into the face of wall, sinking right into it like a person jack-knifing into a body of water.

The moment he knew he'd made it into the wall, he immediately slipped himself right around the corner into the alley itself, overwhelmed with relief that the Heroes wouldn't be able to keep up the chase this time.

But his own excitement kept him from hearing the sound of Nikolay still flying across the square to the same wall, his hands opened and held in front of him and ultimately planting right up against the wall. [[DISTANT QUAKE!]]

The by-now familiar restrained-sounding kinetic pulse that emanated into the wall immediately followed, but this time the resultant release came immediately afterward, as the deafening BWOOM erupted from out the Wall-Blender's back, launching him right out of the wall he was hiding in, and crashing right through the wall opposite, leaving him with his head ringing and his body aching, trying to process what the hell had just happened.

And by the time his vision had finally started to clear, he found himself being hovered over by the sun-obstructing frame of De-Condenser, simply taking those few spare moments to make sure this all-around brainwashed civilian hadn't gotten too badly hurt, before ultimately giving a precise pinch to the nerve at the corner of his neck to knock him out for the count. It was a regrettable method Nikolay had been forced to employ to bring this specific fight to an end, but with how desperate things were clearly getting, and the seconds continuing to tick by all the while, even the Density Hero knew it was a case of doing what needed to be done.

However, reassuring his visibly remorseful intern had to wait, as the echoes of Danila's Air attacks could still be heard loud and clear. The moment De-Condenser looked across the square to see if the three interns were any closer to apprehending him and Tuule, he was met with the sight of the distant Ukrainian throwing a jab of his fist just as Tuule was making another turn to warp to, resulting in a large pointed ripple of air flying right for Nikolay's back.

K-KRAK!

The Pro Hero's body had acted on complete reflex, as he immediately grabbed Nikolay by his shoulders and swung his own body forward, practically forcing them both to swap places. The moment his feet met the ground again, De-Condenser felt that full force behind Danila's Air Spear meet his back; his own increased density stores thankfully managing to keep him from suffering the intended impalement, and instead taking the blow as though someone had landed a very precise strike straight into his lower back, with enough force to actually make his eyes go wide and a brief spray of blood escape his mouth.

With Danila and Tuule now being the only remaining threats in this current fight, the rest of the Heroes present hurriedly reconvened to Nikolay and De-Condenser's position; Tenya and his team already flying their way in pursuit, just as Kyouka went with the first instinctive reaction she could think of to try and help, grabbing another of the bullet-shaped gadgets from Blast Beat's belt around her waist, twisting it and tossing it high up into the air.

BOOM!

At the same moment Tuule had similarly turned herself and Danila around upon another rooftop landing to try and take their pursuer's out head-on, they were both met with a blinding flash of light that forced them to bring their arms over their eyes, while still having the wherewithal to dive to their side so the three persistent Heroes wouldn't come plowing right into them.

After a few lingering seconds, the light finally seemed to die down. Whether the Heroes had used some kind of flash bang that had burned into their eyes, or something as long-lasting as a flare didn't make a difference. The moment they both knew the light was dimming, Tuule and Danila hurriedly got their bearings back and were preparing themselves for an all-out assault on their position; the Estonian girl even drawing the knife sheathed behind her back in preparation for it.

Instead, what they were met with was the sight of all the Heroes huddled together in the middle of the square, all their eyes focused on their two opponents' current position, and all visibly looking at the ready to unleash their Quirks en masse their way.

But while such a sight would have stricken a normal person with either hope or abject terror; this sight only made Tuule smile confidently to herself. [[These damn idiots really think they can hit us with a move that obvious?]]

Before Danila could even answer, his comrade was already grabbing onto the collar of his shirt and blinking, warping herself straight across the battlefield to now find them both hanging in mid-air for a second, right behind all the Heroes' backs, his limbs and her knife all at the ready as she turned her body around so she could warp them both right into the middle of their whole huddle and cut up the whole lot of them.

With her heart racing with excitement and a single blink of her eyes, Tuule sent herself and Danila flying for the Heroes' backs beyond the speed of light—

BAAAM!

With a resounding echo of Tuule's speed ramming at full force against a heavily reinforced object, her whole spry athletic body slammed and ricocheted right off the air around the Heroes, almost as though there were some kind of invisible dome shielding them all. She and Danila's bodies went flopping listlessly as he came crashing to the ground just a meter from where the Heroes still stood, and she rebound off it and came crashing and rolling across the square before ultimately slamming into the nearest pile of rubble. Her icy blue eyes had already long since rolled into the back of her head as she lay motionless, having already knocked herself completely out cold, to Danila's shock once his head had stopped ringing; and to the Heroes' all-around relief.

What neither Danila nor Tuule had realized, was that long before the Heroes had even come to Gagaringrad this day, they had already been concocting all kinds of potential strategies for the most specific of their opponents, depending how their mission would unfold. A prime example had been Momo's realization, after listening to Leonid's story of how he'd escaped the Estonian girl after fleeing the hospital, that Tuule's Quirk had actually been an insanely powerful form of super speed that simply resembled warping, and thus she was just as susceptible to getting tripped up or outright stopped by an immovable object being in her way as anyone else.

As such, the moment it was clear they only had her and Danila left to deal with, Momo had taken it upon herself to create a dome-shaped two-way mirror to lay over herself and her allies, with the transparent side facing outward so the two soldiers wouldn't realize what they were about to run into; and with De-Condenser applying a portion of his remaining stores of power into that dome, it was able to withstand the sheer force with which Tuule threw herself and Danila right into it.

However, when they finally lifted the dome up from around them, they were met not only with the sight of Danila still being conscious, having been banking on the force of the crash being enough to neutralize both of them, but the Ukrainian's wherewithal was still running at an all-time high, as he didn't even waste a moment to process what the Heroes had tricked them with, before he was already throwing himself into a frenzied spin, producing a multitude of Air Blades at damn near point-blank range.

It was only through the intervention of Tetsutetsu and De-Condenser acting as the shields to take on these devastating hits, that the whole group wasn't cut to ribbons right then and there. The moment they'd stepped in, Nikolay and Kyouka threw two consecutive massive shockwaves into the ground with their Quirks just before their protective allies' feet, forcing Danila several meters back from their position. However, even all of their timely acting in tandem with each other wasn't enough to keep even the end of one of Danila's Air Blades from getting Monoma across the edge of his left leg.

THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!

Once more, another accursed whistling mortar strike from the hospital reached the Heroes' ears. Immediately, Tenya grabbed Momo and Pony, being the ones nearest him at that moment, and Nikolay hurriedly did the same for Kyouka and Tetsutetsu for the same reason, and the entire gathering scattered to all distant corners of the square, just before the glowing explosive rounds came hammering down into the center of the square, leaving several smoking craters in its place, with the Heroes now all visibly battered, bruised and covered in the dust from the explosions themselves; all their ears ringing.

Once Tenya had confirmed that everyone was still alright enough to move and most importantly fight from all across the square, his eyes were focused once more on the hospital, and with no hesitation, the engines on his legs roared to deafening life before he took off into a blinding Recipro Burst, all the while thinking regretfully to himself: 'Forgive me, everyone, but with that Tuule girl no longer a factor, I need to remove that Grenade Launcher Quirk-user next, otherwise the lot of us are in constant danger no matter where we are out here!'

RATATATATATAT!

Out of nowhere, another sustained burst of automatic gunfire pierced through the already chaotic air, just before a straight line of bullets drew a pock-marked dividing border between the rest of the crater-strewn square and the church. Naturally, once the remaining Heroes had all instinctively dove for the nearest form of cover they could, their ears drew their eyes to the church itself, the source of the gunfire, and what they saw made all their stomachs twist, thinking back on Leonid's story from before.

Perched securely in the bell tower of the church, with a scoped AK-47 in hand, was Father Sergei Cherenkov; one eye closed as he refused to lower his aim from any of the young intruders to the town. With a multitude of crashing glass sounds soon following, their attention dropped down to the actual windows lining the side of the church facing where Danila now stood, where the priest's son, Andrei and his three musical travelling companions, were all now situated loyally side by side, each with guns of their own cocked and at the ready to put down the first of the Heroes they could get their sights lined up with.

However, even for as devastating a turn as this sight was for them, there was something else currently unfolding through the stinging haze of all the smoke from the fires and craters, just behind the church: the same fawn-headed schoolteacher and orphanage-head that Mina and Nikolay had seen only once before mere days ago, armed with a heavy-duty-looking shotgun in her hands, as she was hurriedly sprinting across the road towards the orphanage itself, loyally followed by a swift procession of the very same children to boot; all of them moving with the same kind of aggressive purpose and child soldier-like body language, and all visibly carrying side-arms for themselves.

In that heartbeat of a moment, the sight of not only the kindly priest and his son, but also the very same wayward children Mina had been unable to stop thinking of after trying to befriend before; had ignited a fire in herself, Nikolay and all their friends like none of them had ever felt before; every sense of duty within them all-but screaming for them to save all of them above anything else.

Nikolay, despite knowing his speed would have been a great boon for such a task, also knew that his Quirk gave him a natural advantage in deflecting and protecting others from attacks. Granted, he hadn't tested such tactics against someone whose Quirk directly worked through the air and not through physically manipulative means, but at this moment, he was just about ready to try anything if it would help his friends save any one of them.

However, Danila was just as ready to get the fight back up and running as his targets were, as he once more began throwing his body around while sprinting as fast as he could, forcing the Heroes to all continuously scatter, while Monoma (copying Tetsutetsu's Quirk) Tetsutetsu himself and Nikolay were all rushing to deflect, block his attacks, and ultimately fight him as best they could; all while trying to avoid Sergei's potshots.

With their having taken such initiative, it ultimately came down to Mina sliding faster than she ever had before for the orphanage with De-Condenser and Pony racing right beside her to save the teacher and the children; the Pro Hero grabbing the nearest sturdy-looking piece of debris he could find, in order to absorb its density into himself so he could serve as the bulkhead; all the while still trying to fight against the increasing pain working its way up his left arm from his already discolored left hand.

At the same time, Kyouka had finally made a mad dash for the side of the church, with Momo staying right on her tail, having managed to create a riot shield big enough to cover them both until they could reach the nearest sizeable bit of cover. Their timing couldn't have been more perfect, as the four boys on the ground floor of the church had proven to have some especially powerful weapons on hand, as just before they dove behind a pile of concrete rubble, several rounds had finally managed to punch right through Momo's shield just as she'd finally let it go.

While Nikolay's mentor and the majority of their female friends had gone rushing to try and pacify these two newly revealed elements to the fight, Danila's improved strength, speed and versatility to his Quirk was keeping Nikolay and Tetsutetsu especially on their toes. Being the utter bulldozer of Class B as he always was, Tetsutetsu was persistent in keeping himself in front of his two partners, but even with the advent of Mei Hatsume's Iron-Infusing bands on his arms, it was starting to feel more and more like Danila was whittling away at his protection faster than he could replenish the iron supply in his body.

When the Ukrainian had managed to slam an Air Spear jab into Tetsutetsu's leg, knocking him off balance at last, Nikolay was likewise in the process of launching himself in an arc, about to swing his newest pair of larger tuning forks straight onto his opponent. Of course, his original plan had relied on Tetsutetsu being able to stay on his feet, and the fact he'd been knocked down just a moment too early had ended up leaving Nikolay fully exposed for Danila to start rearing his head back in preparation to throw another Air Spear straight through the boy's gut.

At the moment Danila finally threw himself forward with a vicious launching head-butt, High Noon had swiftly come rushing in and leaping across the air from behind Nikolay's back, her shadow grabbing the young Russian by his own, and practically swinging him back the way she had come in order to get him out of the way; but the motion of her body unfortunately leaving her just exposed enough for Danila's latest attack to gouge deep into her side; a pained cry echoing out as her expected graceful landing instead amounted to an especially painful crash.

FWOOSH!

Danila's ears suddenly picked up the unmistakable sound of one of his Air Spears erupting through the air again, only this time he knew for a fact it wasn't from anything he'd done, and thus his animalistic instincts of self-preservation immediately kicked in, in the form of a momentary swing of his right arm, creating an Air Blade that literally collided with the attack headed his way, creating a shockwave that rippled through the air before the Ukrainian with exceptional force.

Once his initial shock had worn off, Danila looked back, and felt a momentary chill of anticipation go up and down his spine when he saw Monoma standing defiantly before him on his own, even though his legs were visibly shaking. What piqued Danila's intrigue the most, however, wasn't the abject determination in the blonde Hero's face, but rather the undeniably familiar sight of what looked like microscopic ridges lining Monoma's now-exposed arms; the very same kind that lined his own as well as now the rest of his body, and allowed for him to use his Quirk in the first place.

[[I was hoping Tetsutetsu-san would be able to wear you out before having to do this…but if my facing you in a Quirk duel to help the others will help Class B to outshine its sworn enemies in the eyes of everyone…then have at you, Villain!]]

---

Still keeping themselves hidden underneath the protective pile of rubble, while the four boys and the priest in the tower above were collectively keeping them suppressed with their rhythmic gunfire, Kyouka and Momo's hearts were pounding furiously; the ponytailed girl trying to fully take in their current surroundings' condition, in the hopes it would be able to give her an idea that could get them closer without immediately being forced back behind cover, if not worse.

That was when she suddenly felt the grip of Kyouka's gloved hand upon her arm; her onyx eyes reflecting pure focus and will that left Momo temporarily shocked. [[Don't worry, Yaomomo, I've got an idea! You see the loudspeakers mounted along the church?]]

Momo, of course, wasn't about to risk the worst by poking her head out in the open. Fortunately for them both, however, she had indeed caught a glimpse of the small black funnels lining the rim of the church roof, and even the corners of the roof of the bell tower, in place of there actually being a real bell inside. [[I did. Why?]]

Knowing they couldn't waste a moment trying to elaborate the details with words, Kyouka hurriedly pulled out the same Quirk-affected patches from the pocket of her jacket, as well as the shoulder-strapped collapsible guitar that Blast Beat had given her a mere hour ago; the fire in her eyes never dimming as she explained: [[The power supply for those loudspeakers must be located somewhere on the outside of that church like most other fuse boxes anywhere else. If I can get to it, I can plug my earphone jacks into it and the guitar, put a pacifying patch on the guitar, and possibly send a whole wave across the town that could sap away the fighting spirit of every single other enemy we could have here. I hopefully might be able to put a stop to this whole fight in the blink of an eye!]]

Such a notion had Momo's heart catching in her throat just as well as it was for Kyouka; it was their single best shot at saving everyone in this town without further risking their safety. Of course, the constant peppering of bullets against their cover from the church forced both girls to come back to harsh reality as the Class 1-A vice president hurriedly reminded her friend: [[First we need to do something to keep them all from interfering with you.]]

With a single agreeing nod, Kyouka sucked in a deep breath. She and Momo both knew that once they started moving, there was no room for doubling back, and even less for hesitation and failure. This was do-or-die. And so, with a collective pulse rushing down from her earlobes, Kyouka brought her earphone jacks together: [[EARPHONE JACK STRIKE!]]

Thanks to the ear protection she and all her allies had, the piercing ring that sounded out passed them all by harmlessly, while Danila and those in the church all reflexively retracted, trying to fight their way through the ringing in their heads. Of course, this didn't stop Danila from continuing to fight, but there was a brief silence from the church instead of the continuous gunfire, and that was all Kyouka and Momo needed.

Having made the impulsive yet now-ingenious decision to hang onto the grappling gun she had created back during the Asahikawa City fight yesterday, Momo hurriedly rushed to an opposite corner of the church from where hers and Kyouka's hiding spot had been, and used it to bring herself up to the roof, before she just as quickly sprinted to the base of the bell tower, keeping her back flush to the side of it so Father Sergei wouldn't be able to see and zero in on her. She hadn't seen a sign of him on her way over, so she could only assume the best, that he was still huddled over to shake away the ringing in his ears.

It didn't sit well with her to have to resort to a tactic like this, considering she was still going up against a kindly old man from the sounds of it, but this was ultimately for the good of everyone in this town. And so, with focus, Momo hurriedly created a cloth rag and a small bottle of chloroform from out her stomach, hurriedly dousing the rag in it before proceeding to climb her way up the bell tower; the structure thankfully not being too much taller.

All the way up, she never saw a sign of the priest aiming down her way, even though by now the gunfire had commenced once more, to which she could only assume he was firing at hers and Kyouka's old hiding spot again, and hopefully not firing at her partners fighting against Danila still.

Once she finally reached the ledge, Momo only dared to even partially poke her head out to her eye level, holding in the sigh of partial relief in her throat when she saw Father Sergei had his back to her. Her heart pounding relentlessly, she knew she needed to make this quick; and so springing her body back in preparation, she hurriedly vaulted herself over the ledge and into the bell tower, immediately throwing her right arm clutching the soaked rag around the old priest's shoulders just as soon as he'd started to turn her way. Almost as soon as Momo had the rag pressed to his face, his instinctive struggling came to a stop, and she found herself having to keep his already unconscious body upright so as to keep him from hurting himself from the hard fall to the floor.

[[I'm sorry, sir,]] Momo immediately apologized as soon as she was confident he would be safe up here for now before they would be able to start removing all the unconscious townspeople from the scene, before then vaulting herself back over and down to the roof, and from there rappelling herself back down to the ground level just beside the church's main entrance.

She could only continue to hope that Kyouka was still simply working her way around the church to the junction box so she could put her plan into action. Until she could finally confirm for herself, Momo knew she needed to focus on keeping her friend covered, and so after creating two steel poles from out her shoulders and slipping them through the door handles as a barricade, she just as quickly proceeded to create two more of her own sleeping gas bombs from out her palms, and hurriedly throw them through the very first opening she could spot in one of the windows that wasn't currently being manned by one of the boys with guns.

---

The moment her distraction method had proven itself effective and Momo had rushed to try and remove the priest from the bell tower, so too had Kyouka gone sprinting for the farthest opposite corner of the church, practically speed-crawling underneath the four windows from which they had been just shot at, before nearly throwing herself right around the corner to the back. She was keeping her eyes peeled for the very first sign of the junction box she was really looking for, but until then was keeping her earphone jacks plugged into the backs of her gloves for a split-second defensive action, just in case anyone managed to get the drop on her while she was trying to put her real plan into motion. The fact she was no longer hearing that specific gunfire rapport from the bell tower simply had to mean that Momo was already performing her part of the plan well.

FWOOOOOOOOOOH! KRRRRSSSHH!

With the sudden deafening shattering of multiple panes of glass and what sounded like a highly concentrated and powerful gale force wind, Kyouka was stopped in her tracks, just as Momo was on the other side of the church, as the windows she had just thrown her sleeping gas bombs had been blown out, with all of the pale yellow gas itself as well. What neither of the girls had counted on, was that Father Sergei Cherenkov's son, Andrei, had a High-Powered Breath Quirk, which he'd quickly used to blow away all the sleeping gas the moment he'd spotted them coming in through the windows behind his comrades' backs.

[[They're trying to knock us all out! They must've blocked the front doors for that purpose to boot! C'mon, out the back, guys!]]

The instant Momo could make out that warning from inside the church, she felt her blood go cold, and her body go on desperate autopilot, as she began sprinting for the opposite corner, hoping repeatedly she would be able to get to Kyouka in time, assuming she'd managed to make her way there already.

At the very same moment, as Kyouka was still desperately trying to find some sign of a junction box, she was suddenly met by the sound of the single door hidden just behind a small tool shed to her left, being all but kicked right off its hinges, and just as quickly found herself about to be rushed by the same four teenage boys with guns.

[[HEARTBEAT DISTORTION!]] With that instinctive panicked cry, Kyouka practically threw herself backwards to the ground and slammed her palms to the ground, resulting in a massive shockwave that thankfully managed to throw all four boys flying backwards to the ground with numerous cries of surprise.

Capitalizing on that moment, she hurriedly pulled her jacks from out her gloves and sent them flying straight into the closest ears of Andrei and his blue-haired comrade, sending a precise pulse down to them that left them both only momentarily convulsing before going completely slack, unconscious.

However, the other two with red and white hair respectively, were much more quick to react, as they were already lining the sights of their guns on Kyouka while she was still in the middle of pulling her jacks back from their out cold comrades; her eyes visibly widening with horrified realization of just how exposed she now was. At the same moment, she could just barely manage to hear the sound of another pair of rushing footsteps coming from around the corner of the church to the two boys' backs.

BOOM!

With another pulse racing down from her ears, Kyouka fired off the very same moment her jacks shot straight into her shoes, allowing her to launch herself up and over just at the same moment the two boys had opened fire on her position. She could've sworn she just barely felt the rippling of the air from a bullet just grazing past her left leg, but she wasn't about to start dwelling on that in the heat of the moment, as she hurriedly flew right over their heads to their backs, forcing them both to hurriedly scramble to face her again as she landed…

…just at the right moment to find themselves now being faced by Momo, who having heard the door being busted open, Kyouka's reaction, and the gunfire, had taken that single second to create two small tasers, and just as quickly pulled the trigger on both, nailing the last two young men square in their chests, sending them both convulsing and ultimately going unconscious just as quickly as Andrei and the other had.

At last, their last current threat was taken out of the fight, freed from Pietro's control, and Kyouka finally had the breathing room to put her plan into action…at least, she could only continue to hope, while Momo (after confirming the purple-haired girl was unharmed) was now taking that chance to hurry back up to the roof to bring the unconscious Father Sergei back to the security of ground level with the rest of them.

---

One minute earlier…

Trying to help Monoma in his Air Blade/Spear duel against Danila was proving challenging enough, thanks to the young Ukrainian's honed reflexes in combination with the mastery of his Quirk. Even with Nikolay and Tetsutetsu's attempts to assist (especially since High Noon was currently indisposed with her injury), it was amounting to little more than a stalemate.

However, once a handful of more townspeople began to emerge onto the scene, the Heroes were finding themselves progressively getting pushed back out into the middle of the square. Even on the scattered chances Yui had to throw quickly enlarging projectiles Danila's way, his new backup were able to blast them away before they could even get close to him.

Nikolay's attempt to try and wrangle their opponent with his large tuning forks once more tied together had proven fruitless, Tetsutetsu was once again having to act as a Iron-skinned human shield for his partners to keep from getting shot, and Monoma knew by now that not only was the time limit for his Copy of Danila's Quirk close to running out, but his Copy of Gazsi's Rewind and Tetsutetsu's Iron Quirks had already run out by now as well. It was only through his continuing to match his speed and aggression that he was even still standing, having sustained a number of considerable lacerations on his arms, legs and right shoulder by now. In the back of his mind, he was just counting down the seconds before his Copy would finally run out, maintaining that cocky smirk to hide his worry all the while.

KKKKRRRRKKK! WOOOOSH!

Just as Danila threw a spinning high kick, sending two high-speed Air Blades right for Monoma's neck, a suddenly wall of jutting rock, and a flurry of ice, cut right down the line between the two, saving the blonde and visibly surprised young Hero's life. He wasn't even able to let out an instinctive sigh of relief at this realization, until he and his partners all looked and saw the long-awaited familiar sight of the returning Knightfall and Whiteout; both looking visibly battered themselves, but no less ready to carry on with their duty.

[[Are you all okay? Where's Emily-chan, Creatie-chan and Earphone Jack-chan?]] Whiteout asked worriedly once she saw the state of the interns, instinctively gasping when she saw High Noon's particular injuries.

[[Sorry it took us so long, kids! We got sidelined trying to pacify the townspeople on the north side of town. But don't worry, we've managed to get them all sequestered to a safe place as we planned. Now let's wrap things up here, and…wait, where's Ingenium-kun?]]

Both Pro Heroes' questions, unfortunately, weren't able to be answered before not only did Danila come propelled upward by his downward-aimed Air Spears over the top of their defensive wall with a furious battle cry, but so too did the dreaded THOOMTHOOMTHOOM from the hospital sound again, once again forcing them to hurriedly create more protective shields overhead.

However, this time either their aim, or that of Ljubomir himself from so far away, had proven to be off, as the projectiles rained down just short of where the stone and ice shields had now been mounted, resulting in multitudes of burning high-speed debris scattering across horizontally, much of it smashing against Knightfall's armor, but a few sizeable pieces managing to nail Whiteout and sending her to the ground right beside High Noon. All the while, Nikolay and Tetsutetsu tried to deflect as much of it themselves as they could, and Yui hurriedly grew another nearby rock to serve as a shield for herself and Monoma.

Danila, all the while, went on unperturbed by his Serbian comrade's ill-aimed aerial attack, as he took advantage of Knightfall's separated focus from himself, and the visible crack in the side of his rock armor, to drive a well-aimed Air Spear-producing kick straight into it, staggering the Asteroid Hero just enough to where he could finally land between the Pros and the interns, panting with exhaustion and anticipation altogether, as he looked upon the wide-spread empty battlefield around them.

With the exception of the church and the school/orphanage, this whole part of Gagaringrad had been effectively reduced to dust, and with the Heroes all in such visibly roughed up conditions, the Ukrainian boy couldn't help but let his built up aggression out in the form of a manic laugh.

[[How long are you idiots really going to try keeping this up? You're ultimately just wasting your time, don't you see? If you came here to stop the Commander, then this is just buying him the time to put our campaign into action! You can't possibly win against us, not in the shape you're all in! Your tools and Quirks are at their limits, you don't even have any real means of getting close enough to fight me worth a damn! You're all done!]]

However, the sight of the dirt itself from all around the battlefield beginning to swirl around, despite there being no natural wind, caught Danila's attention and brought his laughter to a stop. All at once did memory kick in, of hearing his comrades Jozef and Gazsi describing a Hero intern able to telekinetically move objects; a girl with short grey hair and one visible eye, from the way they'd described her.

All at once realizing there was nobody here among them who fit that description, Danila's defensive reflexes kicked right back in, keeping his eyes open for the first sign of attack, while the Hero interns themselves were slowly starting to brace themselves for whatever Reiko had in store, wherever she was currently hiding to keep herself out of the heart of all the fighting.

[[You really think dirt is gonna do anything to me, huh?! This place is nothing but dust, you've got nothing; nothing I won't see coming from a mile away at least! You try anything clever and your friends and teachers are all dead, you hear me?!]]

As if in response to his jeers, the swirling dirt in the suddenly began to pick up in both speed and force, to the point it was no longer a blowing of wind, but a miniature vortex, and the more he kept waiting for an attack to be made, the more Danila began to realize the vortex itself was closing in around him.

[[That's where you're wrong, asshole! True, Class B may not have some of the brightest bulbs in the box…but Yanagi-san ain't like the rest of us!]] Tetsutetsu taunted through the all-around pain of his injuries despite his Iron skin, although Danila's mind was too frantic with growing caution to even pay attention.

By the time the vortex had surpassed all the onlooking interns, and was now centered around Danila, to the point where he was forced to shut his eyes for protection, Yui suddenly brought her fingertips together and—

WHAAM!

In the blink of an eye, where there had once been what looked like a vortex of dust, there was now a sudden mass of rubble in its place, with Danila completely shut tight right in the dead center of it; the sight of which spurred Monoma to triumphantly follow up from where Tetsutetsu's commentary had left off: [[And neither is Kodai-san for that matter! They understand how Class B excels as Heroes above all others: we slip in when nobody's looking, and seize the win!]]

Indeed, throughout the majority of the fighting throughout the square, Yui and Reiko had been keeping themselves to the sidelines, busily working to shrink down as much of the debris around as possible, and once it had become apparent that Danila was proving the most dangerous of their remaining foes, the two girls had taken it upon themselves to catch him in their ultimate trap.

FWOOOSH!

The moment the debris had all closed in on Danila, sealing in every part of him but his head, Whiteout seized that chance, fighting through the pain of her own injuries, to send a single-handed flurry his way, immediately encasing the debris pile around his body in a mound of ice, once more leaving only his head untouched.

However, after everything he had seen the young Ukrainian was now capable of doing over the course of their fight, Nikolay wasn't about to start taking any chances, and thus took that chance himself to leap up and over, planting the palm of his right hand to Danila's forehead, and deliver a single precise kinetic shot directly into it; rattling his skull so much that he was out like a light within seconds.

At long, long last, after sustaining so many lacerations and blunt force injuries from him and so many others, this most persistent of their fights today thus far had finally come to an end, and all the Heroes present could breathe a sigh of immense relief, while Knightfall hurriedly raised another rock wall around the rest of the square, in order to keep any more of the townspeople left around from getting the drop on them while they tried to recollect themselves.

Of course, this peace didn't last long, as once Momo and Kyouka had seen their friends all standing victorious, and thus announced the latter's intention to send a pacifying wave through the town from the church loudspeakers; the sight of one of Whiteout's interns had Knightfall's alertness spike right back up. [[Have any of you seen where Ingenium-kun went? He can't possibly have just left you all here to fend for yourselves!]]

[[Not a chance in hell, Sensei! He went running for the hospital to take care of that bastard that's been lobbing bombs at us this whole time in order to give the rest of us a chance!]] Tetsutetsu immediately clarified, his own fighting spirit right back to full strength, numbing himself to his injuries when he saw the same determination now reflect in the Asteroid Hero's eyes.

[[Then we need to be there to assist him, Real Steel-kun. He'll need strength and speed together against someone with a Quirk that powerful.]] As he declared this to his student, he similarly motioned to Yui when seeing she was approaching to join in as well. [[I'm sorry, Rule-chan, but the others are going to need your help here in getting the rest of the townspeople evacuated sufficiently once they've all been pacified and freed from Pietro's hold. Timing is going to be everything here, but I know you'll get it done in a manner only befitting a Pro Hero.]]

Even if the always-silent black-haired girl gave no verbal response, the single accepting nod, and look of deeply grateful emotion in her eyes, made it clear that Knightfall's words meant a great deal, especially when her mentor placed the greatly shrunken car he'd been given into her own hand, essentially placing his trust in her.

With the walls he'd created to seal off the square preventing them from simply running after Tenya, it fell to Whiteout, by now having been able to ice over what open wounds she had, to conjure up a powerful arcing icy wind from beneath Knightfall and Tetsutetsu's feet, before finally making it burst forth with enough power to send them both flying in the direction of the hospital, not a single panicked shout to be heard from either of them.

However, with backup having now been sent to Tenya's position, and with Kyouka taking care of hooking up to the electrical system for the church, something else suddenly dawned on Nikolay and High noon: [[Wait, why haven't Mina, De-Condenser-Sensei and Tsunotori-san not returned yet?]]

Considering they had been headed for the school/orphanage to try and pacify the kids and their teacher, and hadn't returned, could not have possibly bode well for them, and that thought had the rest of the available Heroes who weren't in especially bad shape like High Noon and Reiko, already all-but flying across the square to the building in hopes of providing some much-needed backup; Nikolay continuously hoping they were okay.

---

Up on the roof of the hospital, it hadn't been long since Pietro had returnedfrom his clandestine meeting with Alyosha and the recently returned yet unconscious Romanian, Marius, to observe the rest of the battle. In that short time, to his own disbelief and those of Ljubomir, Volga and Konstantin, they had just bore witness to the intruding Heroes slowly but surely working their way through his stationed forces throughout the whole of Gagaringrad, and having just now managed to take out Gazsi, Tuule and Danila among them.

With these losses, on top of the realization that the speedster among the Heroes from before was once again gunning for their base, with two more visibly jumping his way to undoubtedly give their support; Pietro could feel the veins under his scarred skin beginning to pulsate with growing intensity, his teeth threatening to break as he ground them together in a struggle to articulate his rage.

[[What insanity is this?! How are these bunch of inexperienced brats managing to hold out for this long?! Why the hell is that damn boy actually fighting against us?! He's fighting for a land that would gladly shoot him in the head as soon as look at him! Where is the sense in that?!]]

These latter thoughts were indeed running through Konstantin Khodamchuk's head just as much as Pietro's, but surprisingly not with nearly the same kind of disgust and anger, but rather just plain bewilderment; having been trying to make sense of such selflessness since the fighting had even started.

SKREE!

The screeching of the rusted metal to the roof access door didn't even interest Pietro enough to look back, already having a good enough idea who else it could have possibly been at a time like this: [[Is Comrade Blowback conscious again yet, Alyosha Stepanovich?]]

Indeed, standing trembling behind the commander's back, Alyosha Mikhalkov anxiously cleared his throat. [[Unfortunately, no. I have no doubt your little experiment with your Quirk on him is taking a greater physical toll on him, so I wouldn't be surprised if it'll still be a number of hours before he's up and about again.]]

Neither Ljubomir nor Volga dared to ask questions as to just what experiment their resident scientists and doctor could have possibly been referring to; both still entirely focused on the battle in Gagaringrad. At the same time, Pietro could only manage to turn up one corner of his mouth in a self-confident smirk. [[Well, be that as it may, I've complete faith in your theory, Comrade. I'm sure my experiment will be a success when he's good and ready.]]

However, while Pietro sounded so sure of himself, it did little to ease Alyosha's visible nerves. [[Forgive me, Comrade, but I can't help but worry all the same. Comrades Spitfire and Doorkeeper still haven't returned from their mission yet. It couldn't possibly have been so difficult that they would get themselves held up; especially after getting Comrade Blowback home went so smoothly.]]

Alyosha could see the way Pietro's body was subtly beginning to tremble with his own frustration at their two soldier's tardiness, now of all times. [[They've both received proper training and field experience by now. They won't fail, especially if the authorities are busy watching comrade Ocean Master's wall out there. They should be back in due time. Until then, take Comrade Valera, and notify the rest of the soldiers to likewise start filing onto the submarine and the gunboat. It's time we finally start preparing to disembark.]]

Alyosha gave another loyal salute before hurriedly descending back down into the bowels of the old hospital, with Pietro soon following suit, but not before Ljubomir suddenly spoke up: [[forgive my forwardness, Commander, but I really feel I should stay by your side if those three Heroes are on their way here.]]

However, a single authoritative hand held to the Serbian's face stopped him in his tracks, as Pietro stood tall and controlling before him. [[No. You're our last major line of defense for our headquarters, Comrade Grenadier. I want you to stay here, keep an eye on our bound guest, and keep those Heroes busy, no matter what. If you kill them, then come down to join us.]]

Much like Alyosha, Ljubomir gave a resolute salute to his commander's orders, before hurriedly returning to his position at the roof's edge, and was already beginning to dislodge his hands from his wrists and aim another mortar assault.

Turning his attention to the attentive Volga beside him, Pietro continued: [[Comrade Ocean Master, you're with me on the sub. We won't be submerging just yet once we leave. I want you to keep an eye on things in Gagaringrad. If it's not looking promising…I trust you'll know what to do to ensure we continue uninterrupted.]]

[[Yes, my friend. It'll be done.]] Volga answered with no hesitation, bringing a mental smile to Pietro's mind, before he decided to end things on this roof the most satisfying way he could think of in this stressful moment, approaching the still-silent Konstantin in his wheelchair.

[[I'm afraid this is where we must part ways, my old comrade, but do know that I dearly enjoyed catching up with you after all this time. You'll get to enjoy the grand finale to this little Hero-on-Hero show…then you'll finally get to see the culmination of all your years of dedicated service, the only way it could poetically end, to be sure. Goodbye.]]

As stalwart and stoic as he'd ever been, Konstantin refused to give his tormentor the satisfaction of seeing the uncertainty in his eyes. He didn't even let a trace of it show on his face, no matter how prevalent it was in his mind. Of course, Pietro never could have expected less of his old associate, as he gave a wistful sigh and finally took his leave alongside Volga; leaving Konstantin to sit and stew with his taunting last words; further watching the battle unfold before him, and actually thinking to himself: 'Don't let these monsters stop you. You…you…y-you Heroes are the last hope the Motherland has right now!'

And there it is, everyone, the beginning to the Hokkaido Arc's climax, and I hope it's been leaving you excited for the next installment, because I'm not slowing down with the rest of this story arc if I can help it, as long as it thematically works and makes sense in context to everything else. If you liked what you read here today, please show your support by leaving a review of the chapter. I work really hard every day to put these chapters together, and it would be really nice to know what my readers think of what I give them.

Anyway, I hope you all have a good rest of your week, and I'll see you all again with the next chapter on 06/04!