Chapter 10: Go Beyond

League of Villains Hideout, Kamino Ward

"-If I hear the words 'Dark Matter' uttered without a hint of irony in this goddamn lab again I swear I'm going to shank someone." Gordon stared at the markerboard intently, scratching idly at his goatee as his pupils darted about the board's contents, trying to put all of it together into something more than a jumble of disconnected and half completed formulae. Theoretical physics was indeed Gordon's passion… along with drugs, drinking and the occasional bit of larceny. But even with his expertise, compared to his work at Black Mesa, which had already been on the cutting edge, this was beginning to feel just a tinge bit daunting to say the least.

"So, uh… Tell me something. If you and I don't exist, like period, in this universe then, um. Why not? I mean, how did it happen? Or how did it not happen? Is it some butterfly effect shit, or what?" Caroline didn't pause from her work, not even like she could, she just made a short motion with the robot arm to indicate she was listening and acknowledge Gordon's question.

"I did research it out of curiosity. Your genealogy was severed and you were never born. Your paternal and maternal lineage actually proceeded according to your 'home universe,' up until one generation prior to your birth… Your parents both have birth and death certificates, but no regards or having married each other, they had different partners, and different children. They either simply never met one another, or maybe their relationship never panned out. There are any number of potential variables, really, and no way to prove any of them." She explained.

"Even if you had been born, you would've likely been unrecognizable to yourself. You must understand that finding a universe with the same version of you living within it is… exceedingly rare. You could compare it to the Fermi Paradox… In the millions of galaxies, billions of stars, and trillions of planets in our galaxy, with so many candidates, It should seem trivial to find a planet like Earth, yet it is not." She continued.

"Certainly you may discover a world abundant in liquid water, an atmosphere with a similar composition to Earth's. But perhaps this world fails to satisfy a different criteria. Multiple moons? A ring system? Perhaps some are tidally locked. Perhaps it was struck by a burst of gamma ray that sterilized it, or it lacks a strong magnetic field. And what of a large gas giant like Jupiter to catch asteroids? So many variables, and if even a single one is out of alignment, it leads to a radically different outcome. With odds such as those, is it impossible to find another world with such characteristics? No. But the odds are absolutely not in your favor at all… Astronomical, beyond astronomical, in fact." She paused for a minute, allowing Gordon to fully process her words, before concluding.

"Those are the conditions that led to the divergence that caused your lack of existence. It might seem distant, but it was in fact remarkably close. Even if your parents had met and reproduced, all it would have taken was for one of the other billions of spermatozoa that were competing with yours to reach your mother's egg first, and a completely different human would've been born in place of you. In my case, Cave Johnson never founded Aperture Fixtures in 1944, because Cave Johnson was killed at age 14 due to a hunting accident with Cave Johnson Sr. in the year 1918. Aperture Fixtures was never founded, thus Aperture Science was never reformed… and thus the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System was never created..."

Having received his answer, Gordon responded, "Alright, yeah, so it was some butterfly effect bullshit, you probably could've just said that."

Caroline made a noise that almost sounded like a scoff, "I hypothesized that a scientist such as yourself would appreciate a thorough answer."

"Yeah, well, that's thorough, and then there's 'dropping an existential crisis on my lap that I didn't ask for.'" Gordon snapped back, quickly becoming more frustrated trying to work out the algorithms laid out in front of him, "Yknow, this would go a lot faster If I had… I dunno, an advanced AI crunching some of these equations…? But apparently that… fucking Virtual Boy you've got on the frog girl's head there is ten-times more important..."

The arm stopped and 'looked' over towards Gordon.

"I have my own work to do, and you are supposed to be the theoretical physicist here. To borrow a sentiment I've heard from many of your species, some of us are required to work real jobs. And my priorities right now lie with keeping the League satisfied, so we can both continue our work."

"Oh yeah, real jobs, thanks, Mom! I mean, it's not like we're in a time crunch here or anything… You're a fucking sapient artificial superintelligence and you can't fucking multitask? Even my shitty fucking laptop back home could run Internet Explorer and Minesweeper at the same time! Maybe the fact that the universe is going to collapse basically any Planck second now means fuck all to you?" Gordon pinched the bridge of his nose before giving a wave towards Tsuyu.

"And what's with the girl? Seriously? Is she like some… General's daughter or something? I don't really get the hostage situation here… Wait, yeah, hostage! Are we stupid or something? We took a student hostage. They're going to smoke this place! It's going to be a little difficult to do any sort of research here when this hole in the wall gets the Branch Davidian treatment!" An annoyed sigh could be heard from Caroline's speakers.

"I am aware of this, All for One was aware of this. Katsuki Bakugou was our original target. But you, alongside the Ethereal Vanguard's presence, completely hindered our capabilities to complete our mission..."

Gordon threw the piece of chalk in his hand down onto the floor in frustration before stubbornly retorting, "Okay, that was not my fault! You people were trying to kill me just like everybody fucking else has been!"

Kamino Ward, Japan

Outside of the League of Villains hideout, an armored vehicle sped down the street, silver in color, bearing the colorful logo and name of 'KAIDA Corporation' across its side plating. The vehicle itself possessed no driver, though it still featured a cabin in the event a human driver was needed for more rugged and uneven terrain that the AI couldn't handle. In the cargo bay sat a squadron of seven machines. Two of which were large, bulky droids painted a dark blue color, a 'helmet' grated onto their heads resembled that of a riot officer's protective shielding. At their sides sat a heavy, armor plated shield with a glass viewing panel.

The 'Riot Guards' as they were called, were armed with UMP-9s. Alongside them were two 'Shotgun Elites' yellow painted droids with a thin frame dedicated mostly towards speed in CQC situations and closing the gap with their Super 90 shotguns. Lastly, the bulk of the raiding party were three basic 'Enforcer' class robots. With far less advanced AI subsets, they took orders from a master computer communicating via satellite, and armed with basic Type 89 rifles, they could be considered something just barely above cannon fodder. When casualties were inevitable, they were there to make sure the more sophisticated units didn't suffer them first.

"With a UA student dead, and the lack of action on both local police or Pro-Heroes, it seems as If we're the only ones willing to respond to this sort of violence in kind. Order 42. Check crossfire, this is still a civilian rich environment. Remember, our credibility is on the line here. Good luck." The voice of KAIDA's CEO rang out from all of the machine's speakers. Not that it really mattered that most of his words were flat out lies, or that they meant essentially nothing to the AI controlling the machines. It was a mere spectacle meant for the public; what they would hear after the raid was over.

Once the APC arrived on the scene, all droids piled out of the back and advanced towards the main entrance, both Riot Guards leading with the Shotgun Elites at their backs. "Alert. Unsafe Environment. Engage Combat Module. Disengage Asimovian Restraints." The master AI's orders were received and all units responded with "Protocol received. Applying maximum lethal force. Purging bandits."

The Riot Guards blew up the doorway with breaching charges and moved forward. Identifying several enemies within the bar, Toga reacted fast, and rushed from the sides to attempt to attack the main Guard. Only for it to slam its riot shield into her like a club, sending her tumbling backwards into a series of overturned chairs. She attempted to stand with her blade at the ready, only for a Shotgun Elite to dash out from behind cover and unload several shotgun shells her way, quickly closing the distance on her. She leapt behind a series of overturned tables and chairs, but she was pinned now for the time being, alongside it providing poor coverage.

Kurogiri, Twice, Magne, Spinner, Dabi and Shigaraki, all still in shock from the initial breach. Moved to engage the raiding party. Though they were all a bit confused as to why the Pro-Heroes weren't attacking.

"See!? I fucking- I told you they were going to smoke this place!" Gordon and Caroline, upon hearing the massive explosion and subsequent gunfire, began to prepare themselves for battle. "Christ, even being back in a lab, I still have so much heat on me, I don't think I'll ever get any serious work done again. I need a new identity. There's gotta be someone with a Quirk that can just give me a full facelift… Oh, but do I really want to give the beard up?"

Caroline, meanwhile, had transferred herself to an improved form of her previous body and was assisting Gordon with donning a sort of hydraulic combat harness that fit over his arms and legs. Having apparently stolen early schematics for its design from an alien combat unit in some other universe, her version had been made sleeker, and bore the 'Lambda' symbol on the chest plating. Which Gordon quickly took notice of and petulantly sneered at Caroline over.

"At this point, I figure it best you just 'own' your new identity rather than fight it." Was her reasoning, despite Gordon's vehement dislike for being referred to by mathematical symbols. "With the Elerium battery, this device should run indefinitely."

Gordon raised an eyebrow, "The fuck is Elerium?"

Caroline shook her head, "We do not have time for me to explain. Briefly, it's an artificial element that is not native to this universe. All you need to know is that it will power this suit for a very long time. I however cannot guarantee your safety with prolonged exposure to Elerium, so If you begin to feel any sort of nausea, or begin to taste blood in your mouth, or experience any hair loss or psionic hallucinations, I would highly recommend doffing the suit… but not in a location where I cannot retrieve it, Elerium doesn't grow on trees. Presumably."

Flexing his arms to test out the hydraulics, Gordon gave off a not so enthused "Yeah, great. Psionic hallucinations, okay. So where's the helmet?" Caroline blinked for a few moments, well, blinked as much as her singular optic would allow.

"There is no helmet." Without another word, Caroline slapped a Type 88 helmet into Gordon's hands.

"Sorry I like not having my brains scattered all over the fucking pavement. Whatever. This should be good enough. But, if we survive this raid, I'm drawing up designs for a helmet and you're making it. And I mean It'll have everything in it, including the fucking kitchen sink too." Upon being handed a basic AK-47 by Caroline, Gordon glanced down with a furled lip.

"You have got to be the most disappointing, advanced AI I've ever seen. You have that fucking Portal Gun and you cant even make like… a laser gun or something. We had that back at Black Mesa. And a Ghostbuster gun too- or what a-? A fucking proton pack!"

Caroline, simply opting to drop out of entertaining Gordon's long winded ranting, made her way over to where Tsuyu was laying and began to key in a series of commands onto a terminal. "All for One is calling for a retreat. I'm going to remain in the lab here to prepare for our escape, and preserve our research from any potential… prying eyes..." Gordon gave a bemused "Mhmm" as he slapped a full magazine into his AK. "So I should be helping you then?"

"Noooo, you are supposed to buy me more time… I find it rather queer that not one Pro-Hero is among these raiders..." Gordon was half listening, half busy fiddling with the sights on his gun. "Who's gay? What?" Having had just about enough of Gordon's micro length attention span, she just waved her hand in the direction of the bar dismissively. "Bullet end shoots at bad guys. Go, get out of here."

Gordon balked, "Okay, fine. Christ. I think I'm starting to miss being alone again."

The fight for the bar had escalated by the time Gordon had arrived. Some blue fires had erupted from Dabi's attacks, and the attackers had spread out all over the room, allowing very little movement that wouldn't be punished by suppressing fire. Gordon ducked behind an overturned table, despite knowing how awful it was for cover. Dabi sat nearby with his left arm gushing blood from a series of bullet wounds. "Wow, you look like shit." Dabi groaned out in pain, before pushing his hands against his arm and cauterizing the bullet wounds, albeit poorly.

Gordon offered a wide eyed impressed smirk, "Oh that is hardcore, dude, like fucking Rambo."

"Toga's on the other end of the bar," Dabi bobbed his head in her direction, "-we can't get to her without those bots shredding us. I'll cover you, but you need to go see if she's okay."

Gordon's eyes couldn't have rolled any harder. "Oh, little miss children of the corn…? I mean, do we know if she's not already dead?" Gordon attempted to glance over the top of the table, only for a round to nearly hit him, causing him to lurch back down with a few coarse swears.

Dabi winked and raised one of his hands, "Wouldn't hurt to check. Now on my mark..."

"Probably would hurt to check..." Gordon grumbled, really hoping he'd talk his way out of this.

But Dabi wasn't putting up with his nonsense, "One."

"It's probably her time anyways, what's the saying? 'Only the insane die young?' Some shit like that. I wouldn't fuck with death's plans anyways." Gordon kept rambling.

At this point, Dabi wasn't listening at all, "Two. Make sure to flank right..."

Gordon turned and looked him dead in the eyes, "But what if she is dead? Then I'll be in danger! Me! It's a 50/50 at best, and honestly, I'm not really fond of leaving things up to a coin flip when it's that sort of magni-"

"Go!" Dabi stood and unleashed a wall of blue flames towards the advancing machines, Gordon, after a moment of hesitation, let out a whine as he leapt out of cover and began sprinting for the other end of the bar where Toga was lying, an Enforcer took notice. "Flanking. Re-Position."

The Enforcer laid down heavy fire, which mostly missed Gordon thanks to his increased speed in his new armor, some pinged off of his limited armor plating. "Aye, Yaye, Yaye! Jesus, that is so much scarier without the suit!" Returning fire, which stumbled one of the Enforcers, Gordon made it to Toga. She was lying on the floor, covering her head and oddly laughing at the gunfire streaking over her head.

"Okay! I got shot at a lot to get over here! So are you good? You're laughing. We're being shot at and you're fucking laughing?! Goddamnit. Well, hide and seek's over, champ. We're regrouping with the others and retreating. It's not what I would do, but, chain of command and all, Once I'm Emperor, It'll all make sense in the end. Well, probably still not to you, but you're not really relevant in the plan!"

During Gordon's usual monologuing, a Shotgun Elite rounded the corner, with Gordon barely being capable of turning around and grabbing onto its shotgun, attempting to wrestle it out of the robot's iron grip.

"Let go! Goddamnit Johnny 5, I said let the fuck go!"

The Shotgun Elite delivered an elbow into Gordon's chest, before swinging the barrel of his shotgun around, level to Gordon's chest and firing a shot that, while being mostly caught by Gordon's armor, still sent him tumbling to the ground from the force of the impact.

Toga lurched forward and sunk her knife into the robot's midsection, right around where his torso and legs met, a burst of hydraulic fluid spilled out onto the floor. Despite now being incapable of turning its torso, the robot still managed to rack another shell and, before Toga knew it, she had been shot directly in the side point blank. Gordon, upon seeing this, felt his fight-or-flight kick in. The Shotgun Elite racked another shell and approached Gordon, albeit crooked, to finish him off too.

"Get up… Get up…!" Gordon hoarsely ordered to himself, rolling to his right and grabbing his rifle. Every movement felt like a herculean effort. Just as the droid was on top of him, Gordon fired off a full magazine, just saturating the Shotgun Elite's metal torso with bullets and riddling the thing with more holes than it could function with. It jittered and seized, hydraulic fluid spilling everywhere, sparks emitting from its now compromised internal structure.

Gordon stumbled to his feet, aimed to the best of his ability and fired one last round into the robot's head, an explosion of metal, glass, silicon and all other kinds of mechanical bits shot backwards. Without a head, the Shotgun Elite clattered to the floor limply. "Good old Kalashnikov, best contribution the Ruskies ever made to the world besides Vodka, still reliable over 250 years later!" Now there was the problem with Toga...

Gordon knelt down and checked Toga's pulse, faint, but still alive. The metal slug had clipped her in the side, tearing a decent chunk of her lower abdomen out.

"Oh wow. You are… I can't even sugarcoat it, you're fucked up. I… I can't fix this… Wow, I can't fix this at all. Jesus Christ...What do I do? What the fuck do I do?" Gordon looked around helplessly. In most movies he'd seen, people would apply pressure to a bullet wound, but in Toga's case, her entire lower side was just… gone. There wasn't really much to apply pressure to. "That guy back at Black Mesa who was giving CPR, I bet he'd know what to do."

Toga gurgled, reaching up at Gordon. If Dabi or any of the others were calling out for more updates, he couldn't have heard it over the gunfire, and he couldn't see what was going on through the smoke filling the bar. Just then, to flush Gordon out of hiding, one of the Enforcers primed a fragmentation grenade and chucked it his way.

It landed on the wooden floor with a loud "Tink!" Gordon's heart stopped. The whole world stopped, everything went silent. He glanced at what was essentially the only cover nearby, just more thin, wooden tables. Then, he looked up at the obvious killzone towards the front of the bar. That was no man's land, and he knew it. He knew that the tables would never provide cover, and if he tried to send the grenade back, he'd get his arm blown off or worse.

Then he looked down, and caught eyes with Toga. He couldn't read the emotion in her eyes, but his gut told him it was fear. He looked away, as he realized the only option he had. "She'd do the same...She'd do the same in my position..." Gordon repeated to himself, over and over again, trying to justify to himself what he had to do. Placing his left foot under Toga's body, he rolled her onto the grenade, before diving for cover, a burst of automatic fire coming less than an inch away from shredding him.

The grenade went off, smoke completely enveloped that side of the bar, but Gordon was alive. He peered out from around the table, most of the gunfire being muffled anyways by the ringing in his ears and the thumping of his racing heart. And… Well, the sight made him sick to his stomach. Alongside some muted feelings of… guilt. That was guilt. It had been a while, but he remembered guilt. He lumbered out of cover, shell-shocked, carefully grabbing the Super 90 off of the floor and continuing on the battle.

His brain was running on autopilot at this point, instincts he'd acquired from his battles, for once his mind was utterly silent. Eventually, Kurogiri had a portal prepared to… well, anywhere but here. And Gordon, alongside the rest of the League, fell back, with Toga's body being recovered during their escape. By whom, Gordon really couldn't remember, it was all a haze at that point.

Old Industrial Park, Outskirts of Musutafu City

Calling it a 'safe house' was certainly a stretch considering just how abandoned the new complex was. Wait… Actually, the new complex looked oddly familiar to Gordon. It turned out, It was the Vanguard outpost he had fought his way through a few weeks ago.

Obviously, Gordon's first concerns were how… conspicuous this hideout was. Of course, those concerns were alleviated upon the discovery of a complex system of tunnels running underneath the complex and the industrial park around it. Labyrinthine in scale and layout, it was the perfect place for any would-be Villain organization to lick their wounds and pick up the pieces to continue their operations. And in Toga's case, "picking up the pieces" was unfortunately meant very literally. Neither Gordon or Caroline were doctors…Medical doctors, anyways, not by any stretch of the word.

But the task fell upon them to not only assist with the wounded League members, but also somehow save Toga's life too. Working in cramped conditions with subpar equipment, the both of them did manage to set up a temporary hospital within the complex, and Caroline was tapping into the network to try and gather as much medical information as she could, as quickly as she could. Both found themselves having to work feverishly on several patients, not to mention a basically dead patient. Which led to a heart to heart with Shigaraki on the fate of Himiko Toga, kept private from the rest of the League. Alongside bits of the story of just HOW she came to be fatally wounded...embellished, to protect Gordon's reputation from the rest of the League. Caroline being the only other member to know.

"She was likely to die anyways. You acted in self preservation. She would have likely done the same in your shoes."

"Yea..." was all Gordon could really muster in that moment...

"So you're saying she isn't dead?" Shigaraki grunted, feeling how uncomfortable his wrappings were on his damaged arm and hand, alongside his face having received some shrapnel damage, leaving it in a far worse state than before.

"Okay, first of all, don't scratch at those or we'll have to replace them and we don't have many to spare. And second, I mean… she's nearly dead, yes. Honestly, I couldn't tell you how she's still alive! Her abdomen was pretty much already torn to shit even before the grenade went off and uh...most of her vital organs are either damaged or gone… My best guess? Her brain is intact, and she's just too fucking stubborn to die… Which I almost kind of respect, honestly, I mean look at all of this." Gordon pointed to a clipboard in his hands, with much of the labels on parts of Toga's body being labeled as 'Fucked' or 'FUBAR' in some instances.

"-Which is why I've decided upon a drastic, yet cost and time effective method, should you wish to keep her a part of the League." Caroline presented a green, silicone chip, with a set of initials labeled 'HT' on its face. "This is a data chip containing Himiko Toga's personality… It's unfortunately not completely up to date. But, If we can secure a new body for her. We could use this chip to restore her from memory and she'll… hopefully be as well as before. Though with her Quirk, I'm unsure, I was unable to run any tests regarding that."

Shigaraki began to scratch his neck idly. "So… What happens to her old body? If you're using a new body and that chip then..."

"Then we'll remove her life support and her old body will die… And the new body, the new Toga, will be convinced that she survived the previous raid in order to suppress any mental strain from being a duplicate..."

To Be Continued.