Last Second
Mustard grit her teeth hard, her grip tightening around the phone she had in her hands.
It was almost time for their operation to begin.
The previous week, she'd managed to learn from her husband that Spartan was having the injured members of the task force moved to the Imperial residence. That way, he could heal them instantly and have them go straight back to looking for her. At the time she thought it wasn't that big of a deal, and instead was something that would only feed into her plans. After all, if those members were alive it would give them plenty of more time for them to butt heads with Spartan and bring down morale. However, it had caused her an unintentional major snag.
Part of the helmet had survived.
It was something that she hadn't learned until two days ago on a whim, when she'd decided to find the medical report on those who were injured. Katsuki Bakugo. The blonde piece of garbage had taken a chunk of shrapnel to the eye, one that had nearly killed him. And somehow, that piece of shrapnel had been a chunk of metal from the helmet.
Mustard didn't know how it survived. Perhaps she had miscalculated the strength of the explosives, or she had simply run into plain old dumb luck. Whatever the case, it was bad for her.
By using Overhaul to heal them, Spartan would be able to extract the shrapnel from Katsuki's head and have it analyzed. And the moment they had it analyzed they'd realize that it was a chunk from the helmet. Then, after having the metal dated, they'd realize that the helmet they'd seen destroyed was a fake.
After that, she could only guess what might happen. If the dumb luck were to keep up then her, or someone else's, fingerprints might still be on that fragment, even though she'd personally had it wiped down. Alternatively, Spartan would have the task force start scouring the country looking for whoever she'd commissioned to make the helmet. And if either was the case, then they would be able to find a direct link back to her and the jig would be up.
She couldn't afford to have it all end here, not like this.
Mustard put the phone away and relaxed her face, knocking on the door in front of her. "Come in!"
She opened the door, "Good morning, Dr. Mineta."
"Good morning Mrs. Midoriya, good morning Sekihito." She closed the door behind her, "Have you eaten your breakfast?"
"Of course, it was delicious." Inko Midoriya had a wide smile on her face, one that didn't know anything. "Has my husband called yet? He said that he was going to call me as soon as he landed at the airport in America, but it's been a while."
"I'm afraid not, Mrs. Midoriya. But we'll let you know when he does." Inko had actually woken up the previous day, at around half past six in the afternoon. When she had she'd almost immediately begun rambling to hospital staff that she was waiting on a call from her husband, a man who'd been dead for almost two decades now.
There was a part of her that did feel a little pity for her, losing a loved one was something she knew too. But that pity was squashed almost entirely by the opportunities it'd present. That's why she hadn't yet contacted Izuku Midoriya.
"Ah, Dr. Mineta." She turned her head towards the nurse, "A message came onto your tablet for you, just like you told me to look out for."
The man held out the tablet for her, "Thank you, Sekihito. I know that I can always count on you." As she walked over and took the tablet, she made sure to brush her free hand along the inside of his leg.
He blushed, "O-Of course, doctor."
The male nurse was a man by the name of Kesaren Sekihito, a rather poor excuse for a human being who lacked any real backbone and had a paper thin level of confidence in himself. Ever since she'd first encountered him while working at this hospital she could tell that he had a massive crush on her, the kind that she had no intention of actually repaying. But that didn't mean she couldn't use him. As such, she'd made sure to fuel his desires with small gestures. The kind that didn't mean anything, but would be enough to wrap him around her finger.
"In that case, I'll have to step out to make a call before we proceed with the bloodwork. Could you please have everything prepared for when I return?"
"O-Of course!" Tablet in hand, she stepped back out of the room and began walking to one of the closets.
She had organized a response in order to deal with the threat. A few dozen of her members had all gathered along the route that the ambulances were going to take, with strict orders when to attack and what they were supposed to do. In addition she had requested some help from a few benefactors, allowing her to get more than enough weapons to handle the attack. They'd also managed to send her some agent from overseas, though they still had yet to arrive. It didn't matter. Whatever she had now would have to be enough. After all, she had someone else on her side.
Mustard walked into the closet and opened the message on the tablet. The convoy was on the move. She pulled out her phone and hit the speed dial.
It rang for a few seconds.
"Izuku Midoriya speaking."
"Mr. Midoriya, I've got good news for you."
Izuku shifted awkwardly in his seat. On either side of him there was a Hero Support Corps officer, their heads pressed against his shoulders. Given the fact that these armored cars they were using were purpose built for the Hero Support Corps, and designed with the average body build of one of their members in mind, it wasn't hard to see why it was such a tight fit. Still, he supposed right now being a little uncomfortable was the least of his concerns
Izuku looked down and let out a sigh.
One of the officers looked towards him, "Something wrong?"
He shook his head, "No, I'm alright. Just have a lot of thoughts."
"About?"
"About? Well… Everything, I guess." He gave a small shrug, making sure to not accidentally elbow anyone. "Even after so long, I don't understand how there were people willing to destroy the world just to see things happen the way they want. All For One wanted absolute power for himself, that Chinese Colonel wanted his country to enslave the rest of the world and Humarise wanted to kill almost eighty percent of all people on the planet. And even now, there's still people who are willing to destroy the country just because of what they want."
The officer rustled in his seat, putting one leg on top of the officer. "I think the answer is simple. The truth is that there are just some people who are born evil."
"What kind of stupid reasoning is that?" Another one of the officers said, "Who exactly do you think was 'born evil'?"
"Well for one, those original League of Villains guys."
"Seriously?" A third officer scoffed, "Don't you remember that speech that Spartan gave back then? All of those guys who were part of the League of Villains had justifiable grievances."
"Understandable grievances, not justifiable ones," the first officer countered, "Even if they had reasons to become the way they were, it doesn't give them the right to act the way they did."
"Then where exactly is the line between understanding and justifying?" The second crossed his arms, "Personally, I don't support the actions of the League of Villains. But if you're going to call wanting to take down the system that oppressed them down evil, then you could say the same thing about Spartan."
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?!"
"I mean, just think about it. He saw the way the system was, and he decided for himself that he couldn't support it. So instead, he chose to fight the government and literally overthrew the country."
"Yeah, but that's different."
"Different how?"
"Intentions," he pointed with his finger, "Spartan wasn't doing things just because he hated the system and wanted to bring it down, he did them because he wanted to change things for the better. Meanwhile, all those League of Villains guys wanted to do was bring down the systems and that's it."
"Fine then, how do they get those intentions?"
"Simple, they were born with them." The two others let out exasperated sighs.
"You think they're just born with them? That's it? Nothing else could affect them?"
"Why? You think it's something else?"
"Hell yes I do. All those guys were raised in awful environments, real shit places to spend your developing years. Of course they'll end up acting like menaces."
The first officer scoffed, "So you think that Spartan was raised in a perfect home?"
"Maybe not perfect, but still better."
"Bah, whatever," he waved him off," "Hey, Hero."
"Huh?" Izuku went stiff, not expecting to suddenly be brought into the conversation.
"You fought the League of Villains and knew Spartan, right?"
"Well, yes…"
"Then what's your take on it?"
Izuku scratched his chin. The question was something that he had put quite a bit of thought into, but he had never come up with a real answer.
Certainly from what he knew about the members of the Leagues of Villains, it was easy to say that the environment someone found themselves in had a great effect on them. He himself sometimes wondered how he might have turned out had he not had his mother to support him. With his idolization of All Might he could have very well turned out someone like Stain, as a person with a vendetta against the world. Alternatively he could have ended up like Gentle once was, a person denied his dreams who turned to other methods to try and fulfill them. Or, something that he thought was most likely, he might have actually thrown himself off a building, like Katsuki had once suggested so long ago.
On the other hand, he had heard a lot about Mr. Aurdel's past over the years. To say that he had a difficult life would be underselling it, as he had essentially lost everything that he'd ever known several times over. But despite all of the suffering, or maybe perhaps in spite of it, he still managed to emerge out the other end as a good person. One that deeply cared for others, and sought to do good. However one could criticize the lengths that he went to.
In all his life, Izuku had never tried to kill anyone. The only man he had ever killed was Colonel Shun, but that was a life he had taken unintentionally and while facing desperate circumstances. He considered it an unfortunate consequence of his actions, even if Colonel Shun had been a violently hateful man. Mr. Aurdel, on the other hand, did not share the same hesitations when it came to taking. Certainly Izuku knew that he didn't want to take lives, and that whenever possible he would avoid taking them. However if Mr. Aurdel saw it as necessary to complete the task in front of him, to achieve what he thought was a better world, then he knew that he wouldn't hesitate.
All in all, in either case it was impossible to say that one was purely evil and that the other was purely good. It was also impossible, due to a variety of reasons, to determine whether or not a person had turned out the way they did solely because of their environment or because of some predetermined set of standards they had.
"I can't really give you an answer, because it's not really a simple question that has an easy answer. There are a lot of things that determine what kind of person someone is. Some are in our control and some are out of our control. Personally, beyond that, I think that we should all just treat each other with respect and care so we all turn out to be the best people that we can be." The officers let out a groan, "H-Huh?"
"That's such a copout answer," one of them said.
"Yeah," another spoke, echoing the sentiment, "Saying something like that is just a bunch of fencesitting."
"What do you mean?"
"You can't passively fight evil. I mean, All For One didn't defeat himself. Right?" The other officers in the car nodded and murmured in agreement.
"Well, yes. But…"
"I think the truth is that you have to go out of your way to stop evil, and to keep it from taking root. The best way to start doing that is by figuring out where it comes from. That way-"
"Then what?" Izuku interrupted, "If it was decided that some people are born evil, and that there was some reliable way to determine that early on, what would you have people do? Would you have them killing 'evil babies'? Or if it was just environment that determined whether people were evil or not, would you force a way of living on everyone to make sure that no one ever becomes evil?"
"I think that we should be ready to do whatever it takes to make sure that evil is never able to win, no matter what it takes." There was another wave of murmurs of approval from the others in the car, a fact that slightly mortified Izuku. All the other officers there were about the same age as Izuku, if not younger. So to hear them effectively say that they had given up hope in favor of security… He wasn't sure what to think.
"Well, I-" Izuku was cut off, his phone having begun to ring. Opening one of the cases on his uniform, he pulled out his phone."Izuku Midoriya speaking."
"Mr. Midoriya, I've got good news for you." Hearing those words, he almost immediately perked up.
"Is my mom finally awake?!"
"She is," Itseina said, "I'd like you to come to the hospital as soon as possible to see her. Though? I should inform you know that-"
"Rockets!" Before she could finish her sentence their phone was interrupted by the sound of the driver shouting over the internal intercom. Then, the entire armored car rocked hard. The cellphone was thrown out of his hands and clattered onto the steel floor, the officers inside being thrown against the seatbelts they wore.
They were under attack.
We've Got Hostiles
Izuku scrambled for his seatbelt, using One For All to rip it straight off of him. Then, he stood up. "Everyone! Out of the car!" By then everyone else had already begun to do the same. He brought up One For All's percentage, "Smash!" Then, he blasted straight out of the back of the armored car. The officers started sprinting their way out after him.
"Hit the dirt!" The one officer in the lead shouted. Izuku was thrown to the ground as another barrage of rockets hit the street, bits of shrapnel tearing into the back of his costume. Turning his head he could see that the front of the armored car had completely erupted into flames. Then, looking around the road, he could see that four more of them were in the same condition.
He turned his head, tracing the trails of smoke from the rockets. "Nejire!"
"I've got it!" Nejire charged forward through the air, her hands raised. "Fifty percent charge, go!" She opened fire with her quirk, spirals of energy pushing through the air and striking the floor of the building where the rockets had come from. Chunks of concrete and rebar fell from the sky and she tore through the building, her targets coming crashing down with them.
"More rockets, opposite side!"
"What?!" Izuku turned his head, cursing himself for having let himself be so easily distracted. He stood up. Then, he saw flashes of fire appear in the windows. Izuku raised his hands and triggered his gauntlets, "Smash!" Ten concussive blasts of air left his gauntlets and found the rockets, prematurely detonating them. A shower of shrapnel rained down on the road from above.
Nejire turned and flew back over, "Izuku, go round up those other guys!" She raised her hands, ready to fire her quirk again. Then she went limp.
"Nejire!" He could see a spatter of blood glisten in the air as she dropped towards the ground, completely limp. All the while, even though she seemed to be completely out of control, her quirk fired and kept firing. The spiraling blasts raked their way across the side of the building before making their way to the bottom, catching one of the cars and a number of officers in the crossfire.
The sound of metal began to ping off the road. At the same time, Izuku could hear glass shattering and liquid spilling. "We've got snipers on the far end of the road!" With the rest of the officers he ducked behind one of the armored cars. He could feel the heat of the car's cab burning nearby.
"Who the hell are these guys?!" One of the officers shouted, he was a younger man.
"I don't know, but they're too well equipped to be petty criminals. They're probably with the new League." He poked his head out, looking at Nejire. Even after about a minute she was still lying in the same exact position she'd fallen in, her quirk still flying. What could have…?
"Sir, you've got something in your shoulder."
"I do?" He turned his and reached for his shoulder, plucking an object out. "A syringe…?" It was still full of liquid, likely having been stopped by the thick material he used for his uniform. That must have been what had hit Nejire. Izuku stuffed it into one of the cases he had with him. "Alright, we need to get those ambulances out of here. How many of them can move?"
"Two, the lead and rear ambulance got hit. But we're not going to get them out on this road. They hit the road the same time they hit the cars, so there's craters across the whole damn thing."
"How far?"
"For at least twenty feet, on the opposing lane too." Izuku took a moment to absorb the information. Then, he nodded.
"Okay." He tapped the comm piece on his right ear, "Ochako, are you alright?"
"I'm holed up in one of the armored cars. Few small burns, but I'm good." He could hear her wince slightly over the comm.
Izuku poked his head out again, shots continued to come down from the far side of the road. "Okay, listen carefully. We need to get these ambulances out of here no matter what. The road ahead is destroyed from those rockets they destroyed earlier. You're going to need to run out of cover and use your quirk to float the ambulances over those hotels, then make sure that they get to Mr. Aurdel."
"I can do that, but… What about you guys? Things are already bad over here, but if we go-"
"We can manage. Besides, I don't think they're attacking us for the sake of it. More likely than not they're targeting the ambulances."
"Right, just give me the signal when you're ready." He tapped off the comms.
"Really? 'We'll manage?'" One of the officers commented, dryly.
"We don't have any other choice." Izuku got into position, taking a deep breath towards the back of the armored car. Then, he leaped straight into the air.
Using his gauntlets he fired off another ten concussive blasts in the direction of the sniper fire coming from the other end of the road. More than a few bullets and syringes were struck out of the air, a few others continued to whiz by.
"Open fire!" The officers pulled out from behind the armored cars and opened fire on the buildings at the far end of the road. Even from this distance he could see dozens of rounds slam against it, each one kicking up a small puff of concrete dust as they found their mark.
"Ochako!"
"I'm on it!" Izuku took a quick glance as she charged out of cover too, sprinting her way towards the ambulances. Then, shadows fell upon the road.
"What the-!?" Gliders had, out of nowhere, had begun to descend from the sky. Each glider had at least two armed men on them, and there were at least over a dozen of them. Izuku grit his teeth, he has been trying to avoid collateral damage. "Smash!" He raised his arm and swung it hard, firing off a Detroit Smash that blasted its way down the road. Half of the gliders were knocked straight out of the air and sent careening towards the ground, the other half shakily making their way down. "Ochako, go!" He raised both hands and fired another ten concussive blasts, a few missing while the rest hit their targets.
Ochako sprinted out of cover, ducking and weaving as she went. Soon enough all four ambulances were within the range of her quirk and began to lift into the air. Using the grapple tools she had on her arms she temporarily tied the vehicles together. She climbed onto one of the ambulances
Izuku turned towards them and lowered his percentage. Then, he fired off another Detroit Smash. This time it was just enough to propel the three ambulances forwards, sending them flying over the holes in the road. The moment they'd completely made their way over two of the ambulances dropped to the ground, the other two still floating and attached to the others.
Izuku turned his attention back towards their attackers.
The officers were busy engaging the armed men that had descended on gliders, as well as the snipers who continued to take potshots at them from the buildings at the end of the road. A new threat, however…
"It looks like Spartan's little death squad isn't all that it's cracked up to be." A large man stood over Nejire. He looked to be almost ten feet tall, possessing a rather stocky build that, at least from what he could see, didn't seem to be the result of any quirk. His outfit consisted of a pair of large combat style boots, a dark black full bodysuit with chest rigging, a red shawl, a white mask and a pair of large, steel gauntlets.
"Surrender, or-"
"Or what? You'll beat the crap out of me, arrest me and have me executed?" The man scoffed, "Well, I've got a different idea!" Just as Izuku unleashed Blackwhip to try and restrain the man, he grabbed Nejire and used the rigging to strap her to his chest.
Then, he grabbed her arms. "I'm telling you to stop!" Izuku jumped to the side, avoiding the blasts that were still coming from her hands. The spirals of energy raked their way across the road.
"Why the hell is she still using her quirk?!" Denki shouted, having made his way over to assist Izuku. He was barely able to avoid the blasts.
"Just a little something we hit her with. The kind of stuff that paralyzes everything in your body except for your quirk!" The Villain swung her around, one of the armored cars went flying as it was struck by her quirk. "Now, stand still for me and die!"
So Nejire got hit by a syringe too? If that was the case, Izuku was lucky he'd worn extra padding. Otherwise, he might have annihilated the entire city block.
He used Blackwhip again. With it on one hand he pulled Denki out of the line of fire, dragging him into the air. With the other hand he tried to restrain both the Villain and Nejire, however the distance was too great. Any time one of the tendrils got close this Villain would just swing Nejire around and use her quirk to blast Blackwhip apart. That only left him with using base One For All, however… "Denki, I'll have to count on you for this. If I try to use One For All on him then he'll just use Nejire as a shield."
"'Might' is a strong word considering what he's already doing. Besides, what does it matter if Mr. Aurdel is just going to heal all of us after this?"
"Don't say stuff like that!" Izuku dropped Denki into a more advantageous position, "Get ready, I'll set you up!"
"Don't act so tough!" The Villain pointed Nejire's arms upward, aiming above Izuku's head. Before he knew it he could hear the crumbling of a building behind him.
Not good, but he could make this work.
Izuku propelled backward, using Blackwhip to grab much of the collapsing side of the building. All of it was reinforced concrete, the kind that was filled with sheets of steel mesh. On top of that, Izuku could see that a lot of it was filled with wires. Then, once he had his target lined up, he launched it all at the Villain. "Go!"
raised his He raised Nejire. "Child's play!" Blasts ripped apart the rubble, separating the concrete from the mesh and scattering the latter all over the battlefield. Primarily, around the Villain. "Now, I've just got to-"
Izuku grabbed a chunk of one of the destroyed armored cars, then lobbed it towards the Villain. "Now!"
"Right!" Denki fired off a trio of pointers from the launcher on top of his arm. All three were spaced out just far enough for the pointer to get the distance he needed, but still close enough to make sure that any electricity fired at them would go from one to the other.
"What the-?!" The section of steel clattered at the Villains feet, the first pointer was in range.
"Electro Array!" Electricity arced from Denki's hands towards the pointers. Then, from the pointers to the hunk of the steel on the ground. And lastly, they went from the hunk of steel to all the steel mesh scattered around the Villain.
"GAAAAH!" The Villain let out a scream as he was swarmed by electricity, violently thrashing about where he stood. The attack was sustained for a total of two seconds before the pointers had flown all the way over. "A little shock like that… It's not enough to stop someone like me!"
"Yeah, but it's enough for me."
"Huh?" Unbeknownst to the Villain, Nejire had stopped firing her quirk. The shock of electricity had been enough to, at least temporarily, reset her body.
She whipped her right arm out, cracking it against the Villain's mask. Then she used her other to free herself and turned around, raising her hands. Her face was rather pale. "Hundred percent charge!" Nejire blasted the Villain at point blank, sending him flying away from the shoulder where he'd been standing and into the middle of the road. She collapsed from exhaustion
"This is it!" Denki stuck the Villain with a pair of pointers, then let loose with his electricity. Izuku wrapped Blackwhip around the Villain. "Stunlock!" With no way to escape he would take a sustained ten seconds of electricity. Izuku then wheeled the man into the air, waiting for him to reach the apex of his swing before slamming him back towards the ground at full force.
A small cloud of dust kicked up in his wake. However once it had cleared, Izuku could tell the man wasn't getting up. Good, that was one down. "Let's go help the others."
"Right!"
Ochako clung tight to the side of one of the ambulances, her head constantly on a swivel. Keeping the convoy moving towards the imperial residence after they'd already been ambushed was a risky move. It was very well possible once they'd broken out of the ambush, there wouldn't be anything left up ahead to oppose them. On the other hand, it was entirely well possible that those who'd planned the ambush had additional plans for if they'd managed to fight their way out. That's why she had to watch ahead and make sure they would run into anything else.
Of course, there was more than just that to watch out for.
She tapped her earpiece, "Sharp turn ahead, slow the ambulances."
"But we've got to make it to the imperial residence as soon as possible!"
"If we hit that too turn fast the other two ambulances are going to oversteer and slam into one of the buildings."
"Roger." Slowly, the ambulances came to a halt. Then she heard the sound of boots racing on concrete.
"A second ambush!" As soon as they hit the turn half a dozen figures jumped off the top of the nearby buildings, each one looking to kill them.
They wanted to kill her.
"One little lady shouldn't-"
"DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME!" Ochako fired off the additional grapples and grabbed two of the figures, dragging them into her range. Then, she swung them straight into the side of a passing building just as they accelerated.
"Damnit, you'll pay for that!" Ochako climbed on top of the armored ambulance as the remaining four Villains landed. The first was a woman with a mantis-like body, armed with razor sharp claws. The second was a man with absurdly large arms, using them to stand on the ambulance rather than his legs. The third was a man who had a strangely shaped right arm, formed almost like a cannon. The fourth one she couldn't identify, other than that they had a very thin, almost skeleton-esque, appearance.
"I've got things to protect, and I won't let a bunch of Villains take them from me!" The four Villains then attacked. The third attacked first, firing off a bunch of point blank shots that she managed to avoid. Then the second charged in, pounding against the top of the ambulance with his large arms. Ochako fired off one of her grapples and wrapped it around one of his arms, intending to trip him up and throw him off the ambulance, however the mantis woman cut straight through the table.
She grit her teeth, ducking as the second man came straight in and cleanly missed her. Ochako then shot up and dealt an uppercut to the bottom of his chin, quickly following up with a hard strike to the liver and then a kick to the groin.
As he fell back the mantis and the skeleton quickly took his place. The mantis swung her limbs in knife-like motions, barely scraping the surface of Ochako's uniform and letting out a sharp swish every time they went past. The skeleton meanwhile had their fingers turn into whip-like strands and lasted them against her, striking her side and leaving behind a stinging sensation. Ochako used her quirk, aiming to float them into the air, but they stayed stuck to the top of the ambulance.
"Your tricks won't work on us," the mantis woman hissed. She lunged at Ochako again, this time her hands aimed at her throat. All they managed to catch was a piece of hair.
Her brow furrowed. That would be as close as they'd get.
Ochako purposefully mistepped, putting her directly into the line of fire of the third villain. Then as soon as he'd lined up his shot and begun firing, she launched a wire and grabbed the skeleton Villain. Her body shield absorbed three shots before her man had stopped firing, but by then the Villain had already gone limp. "Damnit!" She tossed the skeleton Villain off the side of the ambulance as they slowed down and hit another corner, sending them flying straight into a light pole.
"Incompetent idiot." This time the mantis woman and the second Villain acted simultaneously. As the former went in to strike, the latter went-
"No!" The mantis woman sliced the cable holding one of the ambulances. Ochako dove over to the side to grab it, just barely making it before it slammed into a nearby building. The second man charged towards her at the same moment and slammed his fists against the side of the ambulance, causing Ochako to roll off the top and onto the hood.
"Which one's in here?" The third Villain asked.
"Doesn't matter, they all have to die."
He lowered his arm to fire straight into the top of the ambulance, "Roger."
Ochako acted fast, using one of her few remaining wires to hook the ambulance she was on to the one in the lead. Then… "Not so fast!"
"What the-!?" All three Villains lost their balance as the ambulance they were standing on began to float up. Then, Ochako fired her last grapple. The cable whipped around and snared the second and third Villain, and as she yanked them down the rear wheels of the ambulance above their heads came crashing down on top of them.
"Now!" As soon as she gave the order the driver, still in the floating ambulance, stepped on the gas. The two Villains had their uniforms and most of the skin of their backs flayed off. Ochako then released the wire, sending them flying off the back of the ambulance.
The ambulance above them then floated back up, revealing that the mantis woman had managed to stay on. "All the years I spent won't go to waste!" Ochako clambered back up top as Villain let out a cry and charged her, but she had nothing to worry about now.
She dropped to her knees and swept out the two front legs of the mantis woman. Then, as she began to fall, Ochako dove forward and grabbed her hind legs. In one swift motion she swung the Villain over her head like a baseball bat, cracking them against the rear edge of the ambulance at full force and shattering the bones in her back. Then, Ochako threw her off.
She let out a sigh of relief, "That should be it…"
"Lieutenant!" One of the drivers suddenly shouted.
Ochako turned her head towards the front, finding- "A helicopter?!"
Just like she'd exclaimed, a helicopter had parked itself at the edge of the road. One of its side doors flung open and three men wheeled out, all of them carrying rocket launchers.
Ochako raced forward, trying to get to the front of the convoy. Was there anything she could actually do? She had used up all of her wires. And even if she did try to divert the rockets using her quirk, there's no guarantee that it would actually work. Damnit, she had to-
An explosion rang out. The helicopter erupted into a ball of flames.
She turned her head up, finding that the back doors on one of the ambulances had been flung open. On the front of the same ambulance she could see Katsuki with his hand raised, shrapnel still lodged in his skull. He stared straight at the burning wreckage of the helicopter.
