Entropy

by Imperium42

Midoriya Izuku didn't change overnight. The process was slow and gradual, the end result of a life filled with rejections and roadblocks- but everyone has a breaking point. Destruction brings renewal, and with the death of his old dream, Izuku has found a new one- one he intends to share. All orderly systems descend into chaos. No one is immune to entropy, heroes least of all.

11. The Dogs of War

Chapter 11: The Dogs of War

Osaka, Syndicate Penthouse

Two Minutes before the Start of the Livestream

---

"Before anything else, the students' safety is our top priority- and I mean anything. If you have a choice between saving one of them and stopping one of the villains from escaping, always prioritize the rescue. Our first goal upon entry should be to prevent this from turning into a hostage situation, but if it does, follow my lead, and comply with their demands if I do- it's better to have to withdraw than to get the hostages killed. Don't get trigger-happy, no matter what you do- if bullets start flying, this'll turn into a bloodbath, and our chances of a safe recovery drop to almost zero. And remember, we're dealing with Toga Himiko here; I know it goes against your instincts, but be sure to verify the students' identities before letting your guard down or freeing them their restraints. Remember the personal questions we rehearsed for both of them- asking for names of pets or relatives outside the immediate family is your best bet. Everyone got all that?"

Once Mandalay had telepathically communicated his whispered instructions to Death Arms and the squad of armored police waiting in the elevator, and the Punching Hero shot him a thumbs-up to confirm that they'd been received, Edgeshot motioned silently and continued toward the ominous black wooden door waiting for them in the middle of the hallway, using his quirk to flatten himself against the wall so that he made practically no sound. Soft morning sunlight filtered in through wide windows on either end of the corridor, but recon by the other team had confirmed that all the ones in the penthouse were shuttered. When Kamihara came to a stop just a few feet from the entrance, Mandalay moved up behind him, keeping her footsteps as silent as possible; one-by-one, Death Arms and the six officers followed their lead, taking up strategic positions around the doorway to cover it from all possible angles.

Narrowing the search down from the city of Osaka to this specific apartment building had been a monumental task, to say the least. The group of villains they were dealing with, a peculiar blend of former League members and several yet-unidentified newcomers, had been taking great pains to conceal their movements since they first came onto the professionals' radar around two years ago, and they'd proved almost impossible to track for multiple other heroes. Edgeshot had been on their trail for around six months now, and he'd closely monitored their conflict with Shigaraki Tomura's loyalists whenever and wherever they left any visible signs of their handiwork. He'd nearly caught up with them in Kobe, then again in a Nabu Ward warehouse several weeks ago- Shigaraki's body had still been warm when Shinya arrived on the scene. After that, their trail had disappeared again for a while, until they slipped up three times within a few days, once here in Osaka, once at their now-infamous encounter with Ryukyu and Gang Orca's teams in Yokohama, and once at the shipyards in Niigata.

Using witness reports from the participants of all three battles and a few intercepted fragments of phone calls and texts, he'd been able to put together workable sketches of several of the group's unknown members: Hairo, medium-length gelled black hair and green eyes with notable bags, an unknown quirk. Saiki, short, straight brown hair and brown eyes, an elegant style of dress, a metamorphosis-type quirk. Yumeko, blue hair kept in a ponytail, purple eyes, proficient with a rifle and support items, possibly either a stealth-type or accuracy-enhancing quirk. Cross-referencing sightings of people matching those profiles on top of the existing ones for the group's ex-League members, Kamihara been able to piece together a rough picture of their recent movement that roughly centered on Osaka. After a week of nonstop coordination with local heroes and civilians to monitor for unusual activity and narrow down the search area, he had finally located what he believed their headquarters on the top floor of a luxury apartment complex. The owner of the building insisted that the penthouse's occupants were pleasant, quiet tenants when he was questioned, but upon further investigation of their accounts, Edgeshot had discovered that despite what the owner believed, not a single yen had been paid toward rent or utilities in their eighteen months of residence there. When the tenant names and social security numbers in the system came back as falsified, he finally had all the evidence that he needed, and the government granted him the authority to assemble the rescue team that was currently ready and waiting to strike. In planning the operation, Kamihara had based many of the details and tactics off the raid on the League of Villains hideout two years ago.

"Alright," he whispered to Mandalay, who once again communicated everything via her quirk to the others. "On my mark. Three, two, one, mark." He nodded to the police officer on the other side of the door, who reached out his hand and knocked.

"Hello, Osaka City Maintenance! We're here to fix your pipes!"

Once two seconds of silence had followed, Shinya pressed a single button on his phone to give the all-clear to the team on the roof, and the sound of breaking glass filled the air as Tiger and the other police squad rappelled in through the windows. Moments later, Edgeshot flattened himself again and slid through the gap between the door and the wall, though doing so was more difficult than he'd expected; this entryway was better-sealed than most. The room he found himself in was dimly lit and seemingly vacant, little more than a lobby, with a short hallway leading down to the main living area and other rooms; Tiger's shouted commands were audible on the other side of the penthouse, but it didn't seem that they'd encountered anyone yet either. After a quick glance around to confirm that no one was in the immediate vicinity, he turn back to open the door for the others, and his eyes widened slightly as he suddenly understood why he'd had to exert himself to get past it. Before him was one of the most thoroughly secured entryways he'd ever seen, with multiple analog and electronic locks and several layers of metal reinforcement. This thing belongs in a bank vault, not a penthouse.

"Force entry!" He called, hoping that they could actually hear them on the other side. Thankfully, Kamihara's doubts were assuaged when one of Death Arms' fists sent the door flying off its hinges and careening down the hall in one swift blow, and the Tokyo-based hero charged through with Mandalay and the police at his heels. After checking his corners, Edgeshot slowly and cautiously made his way down the corridor, gesturing for the policemen to check and clear the other side rooms they passed along the way. They found no sign of the villains anywhere, though, and when Shinya's group reached Tiger and his squad in the main foyer, it appeared that they'd met similar results so far.

"No luck on your end either?" Chatora asked, his mouth drawn in a frown as he helped his officers check the couches, fireplace, and TV stand.

"None yet," Kamihara replied, glancing around at the walls and ceiling, searching for any clue that the occupants had left behind. The lights were off, and nearly everything but the furniture had been stripped bare, by the looks of it. "Mandalay, are you picking up anyone at all here?"

"Not a single soul aside from our team," Sosaki called disappointedly from the other side of the room, her eyes closed and one paw-gloved hand on her temple. By applying Telepath to broadcast brief, frequent messages with no specific recipients in mind, she could generally detect how many people were inside her quirk's radius, as well as their rough locations. "If they were here, I'd have picked them up by now."

"What about those two lead-lined rooms the satellites picked up?" Shinya offered. "If they're holed up inside there, there could be interference with your quirk."

"I already checked both myself," said Tiger, his wiry arms folded. "Seems like they were cells after all, but there was nothing left, even the bedding and books were gone."

"Damn it." Edgeshot shook his head in frustration. "The heat scans picked up at least a dozen people here just twelve hours ago. How did they know we were coming? We took every precaution…"

Stay calm, Shinya, he reminded himself, closing his eyes and clearing his head of distractions. Don't let this case get under your skin. They can't be far- we have them on the run now.

"Alright, listen up, everyone. I'll use my quirk to perform a full search of every last inch of this place before we move on, behind the walls and above the ceiling and wherever else they might have something hidden, a valuables stash or a black box if we're lucky. I also saw some security monitors and hardware in a station down the hall- they probably wiped the hard drives, but we can have the techs poke around and see if they can piece anything together. For now, keep looking, and report back to me if you find anything out of the ordinary, no matter how small. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir!" The room responded in unison, before they set off to carry out his commands in short order. Tiger took his men to search the villains' living quarters, while Death Arms, Mandalay, and three of his six officers followed Edgeshot into the kitchen.

"You just can't catch a break with these guys, huh?" Shino asked as they began to methodically pick apart the room, a sympathetic smile on her face.

"Yeah, for real." Death Arms echoed. "I can't believe you've been on them for six months and still haven't even seen one of them in person. I dunno if I could stand that, I think I'd go crazy from anticipation."

"Patience is often the most difficult aspect of the art of heroism," Kamihara quipped, perusing the cabinets for anything that could possibly be of use to the investigation. "It took me many years of careful practice and meditation to be able to…"

He trailed off as he neared the pantry, and a faint beeping sound became audible, muffled behind the wood. An ordinary person would likely have missed it completely, but Shinya's senses were sharper than most.

But the explosive scans came up negative, he thought to himself as he opened the door and came face-to-face with a massive bomb, its timer ticking away the seconds until detonation. Taped on top of it was a short handwritten note, smudged with patches of grease all around the messy penmanship of a simple message: 'Bye-bye, Edgeshot!'

:06

True to his creed, Shinya didn't panic; rather the opposite, judging that taking vital time to inform the others would only slow him down and damage the entire team's chances of survival, he calmly folded himself down into a paper-thin scarlet ribbon and dove straight between two metal panels to find the detonator and sever its connection. Playing around with the insides of a bomb is no different than doing the same with the insides of a human- mess with the right parts in the right way, and everything shuts down. If this one was like most of the improvised explosives that he'd dealt with over the course of his long career, defusing it would be a breeze.

:05

As it happened, Kamihara discovered almost instantly that this bomb was not, in fact, like most of the ones he'd dealt with. Every inch of the internal circuitry and wiring had been welded by the hands of a master electrical engineer, with none of the usual gaping flaws or weaknesses of the typical jury-rigged work of an amateur villain. To make matters worse, the explosive core was connected to a sophisticated, automatic version of a dead man's trigger, so that no matter which wire he attempted to cut or which component he attempted to separate, any disruption of the power supply would instantly cause a detonation. Think, think, he cried internally, rooting around the wires for any defect that the craftsman had overlooked. There has to be some way!

:04

After a rapid inspection of every last cranny and corner of the device proved futile, Edgeshot burst back out of the bomb and unfolded into his normal form, this time checking the exterior. Could Death Arms pick it up and throw it out the window? He wondered, glancing back at the Punching Hero, who was still obliviously checking drawers at the other end of the room; thanks to the way the kitchen was set up, none of the others could see inside the pantry from their positions. Shinya was about to call out to him when he noticed that the bomb's wiring extended into the floor and walls as well- there was no way to remove it without triggering it.

:03

Conceding that stopping the detonation in this timeframe was impossible, Kamihara turned around and swiftly assessed the situation, his eyes flitting back and forth. There were a hundred different ways that he could escape these circumstances: fold into a twisting ribbon again and skate down the side of the building at a speed of twenty meters per second, or a paper airplane to let the swift winds carry him away, or a needle the width of a hairpin to shoot down through the floor until he was all the way back in the lobby. But what about the others? He could shout, yes, warn them, but with three seconds left, what would that accomplish besides confusion and panic? There was no way that any of them could make it out in time, and even if he drew himself out to paper thinness and wrapped his own body around the bomb in self-sacrifice, it wouldn't absorb enough of the blast to save them, judging by the sheer quantity of explosives he'd seen inside. Am I really that useless of a hero, of a leader? There are fifteen other people in this apartment with me, they placed their trust in me, and I'm about to get them all killed because of my carelessness. Edgeshot felt like screaming, crying, raging at the world, but he wouldn't allow himself those luxuries.

:02

If I can just save one person, he told himself, his calm gaze growing frantic now, his heart pounding in his chest, one single person, that would be enough. That's what a hero does. But who? Death Arms was too heavy for him to carry, the police officers too far away to reach. Shinya's eyes quickly settled on Mandalay, the closest to him, and with no time to waste he launched himself toward her. Thankfully several of Tiger's men had entered through the floor-to-ceiling kitchen windows, and the cords they used to rappel down were still twisting aimlessly in the wind, just outside the shattered glass.

:01

"What are you-" she started to ask, but then the breath was knocked out of her chest as Kamihara wrapped his arms around her waist and leapt through one of the jagged openings, out into the empty morning air. With one arm supporting Sosaki, he only had a single chance to grab the cord; thankfully, his fingers found purchase, and their momentum swung them out and away from the windows.

:00

Edgeshot felt the shockwave of the blast before he heard the sound, a deafening roar that seemed to split open the sky. Bright orange light filled the corners of his vision before he reminded himself to close his eyes and hold Shino's face tight against his chest so that neither of them would be blinded by light or shrapnel. Then the heat hit him all at once, and he gasped in pain at half his hero costume was incinerated in an instant, and a lashing tongue of fire covered his back in agonizing burns. Adjusting midair, he tried to position himself to take the brunt of the blow, but Mandalay's leg and side were scorched as well, and she cried out in confusion and pain as several sections of her bright orange Pussy-Cat costume were reduced to cinders. The force of the explosion propelled them out even further in their arc, and despite the ringing in his ears, he seized the first opportunity to assess her condition, ignoring his own for now.

"Mandalay, can you hear me? Are you alright?!"

She didn't respond except for an anguished grunt, but he was forced to accept that for the time being, and twisted his head to look back at the apartment. As he feared the entire top floor was a hollowed-out shell; what remained of the interior was filled with raging flames. I have to let go, Shinya knew, or we'll be sent right into that inferno on the backswing. Drawing in a deep breath, Edgeshot released his grip on the cord and tightened his hold on Mandalay as they began plummet downward; thankfully, they were high enough off the ground that he still had time to strategize.

"Alright," he called over the sound of the air screaming past them, "I have a plan, but you need to listen carefully, we'll only have one shot. I'm going to get onto your back and fold myself out into a sort of improvised hang glider for you, but you'll need to hold on tight and do exactly as I instruct you. Have you ever been hang gliding before, Mandalay?"

No response, aside from another grunt- Kamihara's brows furrowed in concern, and he tore his gaze away from the approaching ground to look back at her.

"Sosaki? Can you…"

Then he noticed the long shards of glass embedded in Shino's neck and side, and the stream of warm crimson blood dripping from her collar onto his chest, and the piece of iron rebar protruding from his stomach.

"Oh."

As the full pain of his injuries suddenly broke like a wave, Shinya's vision suddenly began to fade in and out, and a ragged cough filled his mask with blood. He tried desperately to fold himself, to save Sosaki at any cost to his own body, but he could no longer summon the strength, and the last thing Edgeshot saw before he slipped out of consciousness was Mandalay's wide, frightened brown eyes.

---

"Okay, before we go in, I'll ask again. For the last fucking time, does everyone understand what the hell they're doing? Because if I catch any one of you stepping a single toe out of your assigned roles- and this goes for my boys and our new partners both- I will execute you on the spot, no questions asked. Got it?"

His arms crossed impatiently, Chisaki Kai looked out over the members of his strike team, currently spread out across the main armory of one of his remaining bunkers, daring them to reply. He'd been able to assemble a rather formidable force, thanks to Midoriya's help, as much as tolerating the little creep grated on his nerves. His own men were mostly at the back of the room: Kurono Hari was cleaning his pistol, while Setsuno Toya polished his katana and Rappa Kendo strapped on his massive metal knuckles. To think they're all that's left of my lieutenants, Overhaul mused, frowning beneath his plague mask. Aside from Nemoto Shin, who was with Strike Team Visigoth in Shikoku, the rest of his underbosses and Eight Expendables had all been captured, either in Nighteye's raid on his Trigger production facility two years ago, the same day he lost Eri, or in the twin battles in Yokohama and Niigata last weekend. I'll take them back. All of them, and the girl- once this is done, no one will be able to stop me.

Ten of his best foot soldiers, all holding assault rifles or light machine guns equipped with high-capacity drum magazines, evened out the Precepts' contribution to the elite force; for today's mission, all their plague masks, including Kai's own, had been equipped with gas filters to protect them from Mustard's quirk. The school-aged boy in question had already donned his own mask, and was carefully loading his black steel Python revolver alongside the other two transfers from the Syndicate. As Chisaki predicted, Dabi was the first to raise his hand in reply, his turquoise eyes gleaming with amusement.

"So how about half a toe? Like, what if I see some guy over in your section whose face I just really can't stand, and I need to burn it off real quick so it doesn't keep bugging me?"

Dark Shadow issued a rasping cackle from its beaked mouth at that, and Overhaul's golden eyes narrowed in frustration.

"What's so funny?"

"Everything about today is funny," the sentient quirk retorted, its harsh, growling voice booming through the metal-walled chamber. "You're funny because you think you're scarier than Master Shinso, your little gang is funny because you're all dressed to look like a bunch of birds when I'm the only real one here, and Dabi's funny because his dumb little joke reminded me of the time last week when I tore a some guy's face off and then threw him out the window of a skyscraper. Now that was hilarious!" The shadow laughed again to emphasize his point, and Kai raised one eyebrow.

"You think this is all some kind of joke? We're going up against the Tokyo fucking PD, not the two-bit wannabes you guys love to beat on so much. They're gonna put up a fight."

"Exactly!" Dark Shadow crowed gleefully. "That's why I'm so excited, it's about to be a real bloodbath! I wanna try some new techniques, there are some pretty brutal finishers I've been working on. I'll tell you what, Master Overhaul. I don't usually listen to anyone aside from Master Shinso, but if you kill enough cops today, maybe I'll consider starting to listen to you."

"Ah, but that means I'll have to start listening to him too," Dabi protested, looking up from where he was setting up the video camera La Brava had given him.

"I apologize on both of their behalves," Mustard spoke up, though his tone was hardly sympathetic.

This is who Midoriya sends me? This is the best the Syndicate has to offer? Overhaul clenched one fist, breathed deeply, and resisted the urge to pull a glove off and reduce the both of them to puddles of blood and gore with two swipes of his hand. They're too valuable to kill. You and they both know that.

Even aside from the backtalk, Dark Shadow already unnerved Chisaki enough by virtue of its existence; the concept of a quirk gaining self-awareness and proceeding to enslave and puppet its owner's body for years on end didn't do much to remedy his distaste for quirks in general, no matter how powerful and useful his own was.

"If you're done making asses of yourselves," he started, nodding to the clone of Kurogiri, who'd arrived several minutes ago, "we should be about ready. How much longer, Kurono?"

"The video's already over," Chronostasis replied, glancing at the wall-mounted monitor livestreaming the performance from Shikoku on his end of the room. "He's just waiting for Hawks to respond now. Shouldn't be long."

"Speak of the devil," Kai muttered as his phone began to buzz- it was the text from Shinso that he'd been waiting for, one simple word: 'Begin.'

"Alright!" Overhaul cried, cracking his knuckles, "We officially have a go, let's do this!"

All previous distractions forgotten, everyone in the room stood and readied themselves in an instant. Magazines slid into their weapons with a resonating click, safeties were released, and the red recording light on Dabi's camera flicked on as he aimed it at himself.

"Hey there, internet. Hope you guys are feeling excited after that, because man, do we have a show for you now. I'd personally say it's a lot more fun than the last one, there's a lot less talking."

On the monitor, the image of the countdown for Hawks was replaced by Dabi's scarred and stitched face- everyone who had been watching the video from the temple before was now seeing him.

"Because you see," Dabi continued, putting all the charisma of a used car salesman into his role, "Gentle isn't the only other big name the Syndicate's teaming up with. You guys probably recognize this ugly mug from the wanted posters. You wanna say hi, Overhaul?"

He flipped the camera around so it was facing Chisaki, who simply shook his head in disgust as he led the strike team through the waiting portal Kurogiri had prepared for them. A flash of purple light, and the entire group of seventeen was standing across the street from the headquarters of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Originally, Kai reflected, the plan hadn't been nearly so daring and grandiose. When he first started strategizing with Midoriya, they'd decided that his team would take out Nighteye's agency, nothing more. But as the operation grew in size and scope over the next week, they'd both agreed to set their sights on larger prey, to deal with the root cause of the Yakuza's woes instead of a mere symptom: the oldest and most persistent bane of all villains in Japan. Thanks to La Brava's Shieldbreaker virus, over two dozen false reports of various crimes had been called in all over the city in the past few minutes, drawing as many officers away from the scene of the attack as possible.

"I want you all to watch closely," Overhaul declared, turning to face the camera, "what happens to those who would stand in the way of the Eight Precepts and the Syndicate, who try to uphold the old way of doing things."

He nodded to Mustard, whose mask's red eyes seemed to glow with pleasure as he holstered his revolver and took aim with a grenade launcher, each of the shells filled with concentrated doses of his gas. Bystanders on the street around them had barely even started to take note of the strangely dressed group, and only a handful were beginning to regard them with suspicion when Mustard fired all six grenades in rapid succession, landing each one of them through a different window of the police HQ. Shouts of shock and dismay filled the morning air over the sound of shattering glass, and the civilians up and down the block quickly scattered. Tries screeched as cars turned away from them, and Overhaul chuckled through his mask as one fleeing vehicle was T-boned by a semi-truck at the nearest intersection. Once tendrils of thick lavender gas began to drift through the broken windows, and the two other Syndicate members had donned gas masks of their own, Chisaki raised one hand and gave the signal to advance.

With Dabi filming, he led Kurono and his ten Yakuza across the street and up to the glass doors of the entrance. Just inside, over a dozen police officers and employees were visible, many of them clearly confused by the noise and commotion. Most of them were relatively unfazed, though, due to the fact that the building's alarm system hadn't sounded gone off- Shieldbreaker had disabled it, of course. Several of them noticed the approaching criminals, but none of them made it outside in time before all eleven Precepts raised their guns at once, opened fire, and slowly emptied their magazines on the station's occupants. The roar of the machine guns was deafening, their barrage merciless. Concrete, wood, metal, flesh and bone; nothing in the room was spared the fate of being torn to shreds under a hail of 7.62 millimeter fury. The floor of the lobby was soon covered in pooling blood and shards of glass, and as the Yakuza continued their advance through the pitiful remnants of the doors, each one left a smoldering golden trail of spent shells behind them. Overhaul, for his part, pulled off his right glove, reached down, and laid his bare hand flat on the street; four spikes of black asphalt shot out of the ground and crashed through the walls, skewering or maiming the scant few officers who had managed to take cover from the storm of bullets, as well as several arriving from down the adjacent hallways to reinforce their comrades.

Then, on a dime, the firing stopped all at once, and Rappa, Dark Shadow, Dabi, and Setsuno rushed in to finish off the stragglers. With elegant, precise strokes of his katana, Toya decapitated or gutted anyone who still looked to be alive on the left side of the lobby, while Rappa bashed in the heads of those still stirring on the right. Dark Shadow took up the middle and slashed two policemen cowering behind the sturdy receptionist's desk in half with its claws, while Dabi laughed wildly and filmed it all, shooting blasts of blue fire down the hallways to immolate anyone who'd fled the initial attack. A pleasant ding suddenly announced the arrival of three armed officers in one of the elevators; the moment the doors opened, Setsuno stole their weapons, then used the pistol that had landed in his hand to join Kurono and one of the henchmen in gunning them all down.

"There's our ride!" Dabi cried excitedly, hopping inside and holding his arm out to stop the doors and let several of the Yakuza on behind him. "As you can see, ladies and gentlemen, the security at this establishment is sorely lacking. Pretty pathetic, if you ask me. Whatever happened to Tokyo's finest?"

Back outside the lobby doors, Mustard was already building up a swirling torrent of gas large enough to surround the entire building in a toxic whirlwind. Judging from the sirens, several squad cars had already pulled up, but their vision was obscured by the cloud, while Mustard's sense of direction within the bounds of his quirk was beyond perfect. Chuckling quietly to himself, he raised his revolver and fired four shots in two different directions; the screams of pain that followed indicated that his aim was true. Dark Shadow took up position beside him- now that the sunlight was obscured, its size had grown threefold, and he towered all the way up to the second floor, letting out a roar that shook the rafters. As if to demonstrate its anger, the towering shadow reached out into the murky depths of the gas typhoon and delivered a brutal swipe in the direction of one of dimly flashing sirens. The distant explosion that followed as the car slammed into a nearby building more than convinced Chisaki that the two would make do just fine; together, they served as the rearguard, preventing any heroes or police from entering the building while the rest of the team cleared it out floor-by-floor.

As Overhaul stepped onto the elevator alongside Chronostasis and the doors slowly drew shut across the pool of blood dripping down into the shaft, the tightly packed metal box reverberated with the clinks and clicks of a dozen weapons reloading, and Dabi's voice bounced gratingly off the walls as he continued his commentary.

"It's a bit of a tight squeeze, but that's okay, 'cause we're all friends in here. Ain't that right, Overhaul?" The flame wielder reached out an arm to wrap it around Chisaki's shoulder, but one glance of pure malice from Kai managed to dissuade him. If the Syndicate's more unruly members had learned to respect single boundary about working with the Eight Precepts, it was this: Never touch the capo. It seems you can teach even a rabid dog some tricks, Chisaki reflected, grinning beneath his mask. When they arrived at the first floor with another ding and Kurono led the group forward and out of the elevator, the situation played out largely as Overhaul had expected. Although a thin veil of gas covered most of the room they stepped into, and a majority of the policemen and employees present were slumped unconscious on the floor as a result, some officers had found gas masks in time, and at least ten of them had formed a rough semicircle with their guns trained on the elevator entrance- too many for Setsuno to use his quirk on at once.

"Freeze!" The lead one bellowed, his pistol shaking in his grip. "You're surrounded! Drop your weapons and get on your knees, all of you, or we will open fire!"

Happily playing the role of the vanquished villain, Chisaki held up his hands innocently and stepped in front of Kuruno.

"Forgive us, officer, we know we've done a very bad thing. We're sick people, and we want to get better. But I don't think I heard you the first time- what did you want us to do again?"

"Drop your weapons and get on your-"

Overhaul made a swift backward movement with his hand, and the entire strike team dropped to the floor in an instant as Chronostasis' clock hand strands of hair tore through his white hood and swung around the room in a wide, precise arc, nicking each one of the officers in rapid succession. One or two men at the far end managed to fire a few shots in the brief moment before the minute hand reached them, but from his prone position, Kai slammed down his palm and turned a section of the floor into a makeshift shield of wood and carpet and linoleum in time to catch the bullets. It was all over in the span of a second; all ten officers were frozen in place with no hope of escape, and not a single member of the team was even injured.

"Look what we have here!" Dabi crowed, skipping up to the paralyzed policemen and waving the camera in their faces. "I knew Tokyo cops were slow on the draw, but this is just sad. How do you fine ladies and gents think we should deal with these slackers? I wish we had a feature where you could all vote on this. What do you say, Overhaul? Should I roast the lot of them?"

"Deal with them however the hell you want," Chisaki growled, stalking forward and reducing the top half of the closest one to a puddle of blood with a single swipe of his open hand. "Just make it quick, we have a timetable to keep."

Most of the remaining policemen were swiftly gunned down by Kurono and the henchmen or cut to pieces by Setsuno after that, and Rappa and Dabi fell in line behind Kai as he made his way toward the rows of desks and computers that occupied most of the space in the office-like floor plan they'd researched so thoroughly.

"You know what to do."

Without a moment's hesitation, the two quickly set to work at destroying every piece of technology in sight, with Rappa punching and smashing indiscriminately and Dabi cackling as a wave of his fire set two dozen monitors melting and sparking. Aside from the symbolic message that raiding the headquarters would provide, this was the operation's real goal: destroying the police's resources and infrastructure for tracking criminals. Ordinary desktop computers were just the first step, of course- to make any real impact, they would have to hit the servers on the third floor, annihilate the physical backups, and manually insert a second virus coded by La Brava into the mainframe to erase the secondary digital backups. Dubbed Cloudpiercer, it was stored on a small thumb drive in Chisaki's pocket, which he periodically checked to make sure it hadn't by chance been clipped by any stray bullets or shrapnel. They had two more floors to clear, and according to Seraph and Pandora's estimates, only around ten more minutes to do so before the hero and police reinforcements would grow too numerous to hold out against.

"Double time it, assholes!" Kai shouted as the armed henchmen began to turn their rifles and machine guns on the remaining computers. The sound of approaching boots from another wave of officers grew louder and louder the closer Overhaul came to the entrance to the building's main stairwell, but when he leaned down, reached a hand through the door, and rearranged the entire chamber into a maze of jagged concrete spikes, the sound was rapidly replaced by screams of pain and a steady drip of blood. No one'll be sneaking up on us from there anytime soon, he mused contently. On the other side of the floor, Dabi followed his lead by submerging the second stairwell in a blue inferno so intense that the steps literally began to melt, along with anyone unlucky enough to be inside it at the moment. Now the elevators are the only way up and down, and thanks to Shieldbreaker, they can't turn them off.

Once all resistance had been cleared and all the electronics had been dealt with, the strike team rendezvoused back at the elevators, both of which La Brava was remotely keeping at their floor. The only drawback is that they know exactly where and when we're coming. To counter that disadvantage, they had agreed to send one elevator up first as a decoy, empty except for one Precepts soldier who would draw the enemy's fire. More than eager to demonstrate their loyalty to the Yakuza, nearly every one of the ten henchmen on the team had attempted to volunteer for the role, and Chisaki was forced to choose by lot in the end. The unlucky (or perhaps very lucky, in his opinion) sacrifice stepped enthusiastically into their already blood and bullet-ridden coffin, and Overhaul gave them one final nod of acknowledgement before the rest of the team shuffled through the other set of doors.

"I hope you guys are enjoying yourselves so far," Dabi was saying, "because god knows this is the most I've fun in a while. Well, on second thought, I did fight a dragon last week, so maybe it's a tie, actually. Tell you what, I'll get back to you after we're done here."

He was interrupted by a burst of gunfire above them which signaled that the decoy had done his part, and just moments later their own doors opened onto a waiting squad of officers, their smoking barrels still trained on the wrong elevator. Kurono, Dabi, and the henchmen wasted no time tearing the group to pieces with a barrage of fire and bullets; many of the policemen were entrenched behind desks and overturned tables, but their cover was quickly chewed to pieces by a combination of blue-hot flames and military-grade rounds. Soon, enough of the enemy had been taken down or forced to retreat that Overhaul could finally charge out into the fray with Rappa and Setsuno. Aiding them was the fact that the gas was growing thicker by the minute as Mustard continued to produce it, obscuring their foes' vision more and more with each passing second. Once he was in cover, Chisaki reached into his coat and donned a pair of heat vision goggles that Mei had provided, then motioned for Dabi and Setsuno to do the same; Rappa, Kurono, and the others with full-face plague masks already had them built-in.

The chaotic battle was now overlaid with shades of red and blue to denote areas of warmth and cold, and after a glance above the desk he was crouched behind, it was child's play for Overhaul to sneak up behind the nearest duo of officers, his footsteps concealed by the crack of gunfire, and obliterate the men with two taps of his finger. A few rows over, Rappa had already bum-rushed and beaten to death at least three disoriented foes, and Toya was having a field day darting around the maze of desks with his quirk and his katana. As he searched for his next victim, Chisaki suddenly let out a cry of surprise as a bullet took him in the thigh, and he stumbled down to his knees, desperately lunging for safety behind what looked to be a breakroom table as a hail of bullets rained down on where he'd just been standing. A brief, panicked peek out from cover confirmed that a new group of enemies had appeared, having apparently rappelled in from a higher floor now that the stairs and elevators were gone. Dressed from head to toe in riot gear, the squad had heat goggles of their own below their black metal helmets; their rifles' red laser sights cut menacingly through the fog of gas as they slowly advanced on his position.

"Kurono!" He called, but Chronostasis was on the other end of the floor, too far away to hear him, as was Dabi. Rappa was closer, but even with all his brute strength, he'd be a poor match for their firepower.

Catching sight of his capo's predicament, Setsuno drew his katana out of a policeman's side and rushed forward, his free hand outstretched to steal the newcomers' weapons, but for once he was a beat too slow- a rifle round slammed into Toya's stomach before he could activate his quirk, and he tumbled to the ground a few feet away from Overhaul's cover. Kai barely managed to pull him behind the table in time before they finished him, but the officers' bullets quickly began to tear apart the metal and plastic bit by bit. This won't last long, Overhaul knew, gritting his teeth, but he couldn't make very effective spikes out of this style of carpeted flooring, and even if he tried, the floor was thin enough that he wouldn't have enough material to work with regardless. To buy them both precious time, he slapped the ground and sprang up a bump large enough to tip over a nearby vending machine. One arm wrapped around Setsuno's shoulders to support the wounded Expendable, Chisaki scooted carefully behind the new source of shelter and helped his lieutenant do the same, wincing as bullets continued to whizz overhead.

"Boss," Toya muttered, his blond locks slick with sweat, "how's it look?"

"Pretty shit right now," Kai replied, one hand on the open wound, "but give it a few seconds." Now that he had time to concentrate, using his quirk to repair the injury was a simple matter- thankfully, the bullet had pierced through, or things would be considerable more difficult. There was a brief delay while he probed the extent of the damage, then the hole simply closed itself at his touch, as the blood flowed back into the Expendable's veins and his stomach sewed its walls together again internally.

"Y'know, I gotta say, boss, it still kinda spooks me when you do that." Setsuno's voice was already healthier, the color slowly returning to his face.

"Yeah, me too."

In the meantime, several of the armed Yakuza had been trying to advance toward Overhaul and extricate their leader from the assault, but the riot police were proving more than a match for them so far- two Precepts had already fallen, and Chisaki was forced to call the rest off for now.

"Hold your positions and dig in, wait for Dabi and Chronostasis! Someone go get them, dammit!"

Think, damn you, think! Kai cursed himself, shaking his head. We're going to fall behind schedule at this rate! But every way he looked at it, they were utterly pinned down until backup arrived; the barrage of fire was too intense for Setsuno to risk leaning out of cover for even a moment, and the enemy was drawing nearer with every second. Come on, come on, use your quirk! Be creative! What if you- Midway through his thought, his eyes drifted down to his belt, and the solution suddenly became clear. Not wasting another moment in contemplation, he reached down, pulled a small metal disc out of one of his equipment pouches, clicked a button in the center, and tossed it over his shoulder toward the enemy.

After a few seconds, a guttural, screeching roar echoed through the building, and a set of shadowy purple-black talons the size of longswords crashed through the nearest window and quite literally tore the squad of elites into pieces with one brutal swipe, destroying a sizable chunk of the exterior wall and dozens of desks and computers in the process. Dark Shadow's beaked head drifted into view in the resulting opening, and one of its glowing eyes, now bright red, focused in on Overhaul. After a moment's hesitation, Chisaki gave the beast a nod of thanks for responding to Longshot's target indicator, and seemingly satisfied, the sentient quirk turned back to its main quarry, who were arriving in increasing numbers if the sounds of battle below them were any indication.

"Mustard, report." Kai called into his earpiece radio, peering out over the crumbling edge. The orange glow of a wall of crackling flames was visible along the street they'd entered from, along with the brief, bright flashes of quirks and bullets being fired off from the adjacent corners. "What's your status?"

"We're holding up well enough," the younger villain replied, though his breathing was noticeably heavy. "The police aren't too much of a problem, but someone's agency must be distributing gas masks to the local heroes, I didn't expect so many to show up equipped to handle my quirk so soon. We- hold on a second." There was a brief pause, and several barks of Mustard's heavy-caliber revolver were audible in the distance, along with a scream of pain. "We must've killed half a dozen by now, and they keep coming. I'm worried a heavy hitter is going to show up soon, so you guys better hurry your asses up, with all due respect."

"You know the drill if things get too dicey, Kurogiri and his clone are both on standby if you need an emergency extraction. Don't sacrifice yourself needlessly, and the same goes for Dark Shadow, you hear me?"

"Copy. Good luck up there."

"You too, kid." Chisaki murmured begrudgingly before he hung up.

"Alright, listen up!" Overhaul turned back to face the strike team, the rest of whom had reached his position by now; the floor appeared to be clear of enemies after Dark Shadow's timely intervention. Once they had all given him their attention, he gestured to the seven remaining Precept gunmen. "Two of you, go reinforce the rearguard in the lobby. Everyone else, on me. Only one more floor to go, then we hit the data backups and wipe the record of every criminal in this city- clean slates for all of us. Are you with me?!"

"To the death!" Kurono cried, a short but effective reply that was quickly picked up by the rest of the group, except of course for Dabi, who made do with a delayed 'Hell yeah!'

"Damn right! Now all of you, fall in behind me- let's do this."

---

"Any sign of activity out there yet?" Shinso's voice came through loud and clear in Hatsume's earpiece, and she shifted her stance on the leafy ground of the hilltop, focusing her quirk-enhanced vision and peering out over the horizon.

From this position, she had a panoramic view of the entire landscape, with the temple squarely at the center vision, and the hills leading toward Matsuya, the nearest city, to the right of it- both Hawks and any other interference from heroes and the police would likely come from that direction. Up to five kilometers out, she still saw nothing but trees and rocks in every direction, along with a few animals and the occasional disappointed pilgrim in sandals and a Buddhist robe turning back when they saw Yaoyorozu's signs.

"Ooh!"

"What is it?! Is he here?!"

"Nah, but there's a really pretty deer out on one of the hills about four kilos away."

Hitoshi sighed heavily over the radio, and Mei grinned in response. She could see the tall sika buck like she was standing next to it, count the notches on its antlers and the white spots on its side. Flesh-and-blood animals had always been more strange and mysterious to her than the dozens of steel-and-circuitry babies that she surrounded herself with. More than once over the past two years, she'd tried to get along with her boyfriend's cats, but they always seemed to shy away from Hatsume no matter how much Shinso tried to encourage them to take a liking to her; the behavior of machines with clear-cut programming was much easier to predict. All the same, though, the deer maintained an odd sort of beauty as it drank calmly from a small stream. Struck by a design idea for a new baby as she watched it, Longshot reached back to grab the notebook she kept in one of her pockets, but then the deer pricked its head up and bolted, and she paused halfway through the motion. In the treeline above the deer, a flock of birds had just taken flight.

"Hey, 'Toshi, hold up a second."

"I swear, Mei, if it's another animal…"

"No, no, I promise, babe. I think there might be something out there."

Inching forward through the dewy morning grass, Hatsume carefully adjusted the light-refracting optic camouflage blanket draped over her back- Baby #1079- and strained her vision to its limits, searching the distant shadows for any sign of movement. As it turned out, she didn't have to try too hard; a few seconds later, a group of military policemen dressed in ghillie suits and bearing silenced sniper rifles crept out from the underbrush and into view, led by the pro hero Gunhead. Geez, sure took them long enough. She glanced again at the timer displaying Hawks' countdown on her eyepiece's HUD; there were only six minutes left, but she'd expected more than just one rescue team to try and sneak into their perimeter by now. After all, when she ran the simulations using the data currently available to the police, it usually only took Hatsume between five to ten minutes to determine the hostages' exact location based on clues in the video. Well, maybe I was just overestimating them. Wouldn't be the first time.

"Alright, the first guests are here. We've got a covert ops team led by Gunhead about 4.2 kilos to the northeast of the temple. They must have airdropped in outside my quirk's visual range, they're on foot."

"Interesting." Synapse chuckled, and she could practically see his smirk through the radio. "I trust you can deal with them?"

"Can I?" Longshot let an excited grin spread slowly across her face. "It would be my absolute pleasure."

"By all means, go ahead. But remember what we discussed- make it quick and make it clean. Don't leave any survivors to call for backup or transmit your position to their allies."

"I wouldn't dream of it, darling. I'll call you back when it's done- well, you'll probably see the fireworks."

While Hatsume had drafted, scrapped, and manufactured hundreds upon hundreds of support item designs in the past two years ranging from brainwave-dampening headgear to practically unbreakable suits of mechanized armor, the true passion she'd discovered away from the rules and regulations of Power Loader's workshop was making weapons, and sniper rifles above all else. The model currently cradled in her arms was practically brand new, designed specifically for this operation just a week ago: the L-7 Javelin. At first glance it more resembled an artillery piece than an infantry weapon- as long as she was tall when they were laid beside each other, it needed a sturdy bipod to be fired without breaking the user's arms, and its barrel was filled with electromagnetic coils that turned the firing chamber into a miniaturized railgun capable of launching projectiles at a speed of 2.4 kilometers per second. The custom-forged rounds it used were the size of anti-aircraft flak shells, and came in a wide variety, including armor-piercing, flechette, and incendiary. For this specific target, she drew an eight-centimeter explosive cluster round out of the black leather bandolier fastened about her chest and slid it carefully into the three-bullet magazine, followed by two flechettes.

"Alright, now stand still for just a second, pretty please."

Staring down the barrel at her quarry, Longshot set aside her eyepiece- the Javelin's rounds traveled so quickly that wind speed and bullet drop were irrelevant- and watched the squad slowly and cautiously cross the shallow stream the deer had been drinking from. When they were back on solid ground, Gunhead paused for a moment to peer through a pair of binoculars at the temple, and she had her opening.

"Bye-bye!"

Once she pulled the trigger, Mei honestly wasn't sure which she heard first- the thundering sonic boom that the shell generated or the resonating explosion that echoed through the valley when the cluster munitions annihilated an area of five square meters in the blink of an eye. Of the rescue team's five members, the four military snipers died immediately in the blast, as far as she could tell when the smoke cleared. Only the Battle Hero seemed to be alive, draped across a rock a dozen yards away, blood dripping from beneath his mask, his twitching legs covered in coal-black burns. Slowly and painstakingly, he eased himself to the ground and began to drag himself toward the safety of a nearby stand of trees. For a brief moment, Hatsume almost pitied the hero, and she found herself rooting for him to make it to the underbrush as she ejected the round's spent casing and readied the rifle to fire again. Come on, buddy, you can do it. You're almost there!

But when Gunhead was only a few feet away from a stand of bushes that would have obscured him from her view, he reached up to his head with one shaking hand to activate his earpiece, and Mei clucked her tongue disapprovingly.

"Bad hero! We can't have you doing that."

And so, without hesitation, Longshot centered the barrel on his back and fired again. The flechette round kicked up a fountain of dirt and blood and gore several meters high on impact, and after the debris had settled, the pro hero's corpse sported a four-inch hole in the middle of his torso.

"Not bad for your first time," she said with a wide smile, patting the weapon's still-warm barrel affectionately. "Alright, 'Toshi, they're dealt with."

"I saw from here, it was quite a show. You'd best change to Position 2, though, in case whoever they were reporting to saw it too."

"Copy that." Hatsume clicked a button on the location tracker clasped to her belt, and a pulsing warp gate opened beneath her almost instantaneously, dropping her on a roughly identical hillside two kilometers to the other side of the temple. In the pre-mission strategy sessions, she'd coordinated with Kurogiri to choose three separate sniping vantage points that allowed her to cover the operation's central hub from all sides, and he was prepared to teleport her and her gear between them at a moment's notice whenever she gave the signal. They'd discussed cloning her with Twice so they could have all angles watched simultaneously, but ultimately La Brava and Kurogiri took priority for Jin's two duplicates.

"Ah, there it is, their chopper! It was too far away from the other vantage point."

"Good, you know what to do."

"Boy, do I!"

From this view, the stealth helicopter that the team had taken in was visible at the far edge of her quirk's range, relatively well concealed in a small clearing near a bend further downstream. Several other military and police personnel were visible near and inside it, many of them chattering frantically on their radios, presumably trying to contact Gunhead and his squad.

"I think I'll need one of you to crack this nut," she murmured bemusedly, pulling out the magazine and loading an armor-piercing round into the chamber. Lining up her iron sights squarely on the engine block, she waited patiently as the team lead determined his men's fate and ordered everyone back inside, presumably to withdraw until further reinforcements could be called in.

The rotors started spinning a moment later, and she followed the chopper with her barrel as it lifted off the ground. Not a moment after it crested the forest's canopy, Mei drew in her breath and took the shot. Come on, baby, don't let your momma down now.

As usual, her child didn't disappoint: After a thundering sonic boom that seemed to her to be even louder than the first two, a burst of flame and shrapnel announced the complete destruction of the helicopter's engine, punctuated by the gaping hole just under the rotor. Within seconds the blades had sputtered to a near halt, and the chopper left a trail of fire and smoke in its wake as it spiraled down to the earth before crashing into a nearby outcropping of rocks with a satisfying explosion. After checking the wreckage to ensure that there were no survivors, Longshot was about to report her success to Synapse when a beeping alert on her eyepiece announced that one of the perimeter sensors had been tripped, and she hurriedly turned her gaze in the indicated direction. At first Hatsume couldn't make out anything but trees and sky, but then she saw it: a bright red streak, dreadfully distinct against the green and brown of the mountains. Hawks. A closer look, and she was certain- his crimson wings were unmistakable.

"Oh shit, he's here!"

"Already?! There are still almost four minutes left!"

"Better forget about that countdown, 'Toshi, because he's gonna be there in about five seconds whether you're ready or not."

"Oh trust me, I'm ready."

---

Everything that Yaoyorozu, Shinso and the others had prepared was neatly in in place and ready for the Winged Hero's arrival, but Momo still couldn't shake the gnawing anxiety from the back of her mind as she gazed up at the horizon, standing directly in front of their two unconscious hostages- after the initial video was finished, they'd been sedated as a precaution. The others were concealed in various spots around the building, courtyard, and adjacent cherry grove- Pandora was the only one out in the open, a bored expression on her face as she glanced back to Uravity and Coldflame to check on their restraints for the hundredth time. It didn't exactly ease her mind either that Kurogiri and his clone were both unavailable for the moment as they monitored the other two strike teams for their emergency extractions; it took enough of his concentration already just to focus on Longshot enough to remotely warp her between her three set vantage points, nevermind the rapid adjustments that an active battle would require. Their group had the most personnel, so they'd been entrusted with the unenviable task of taking their target down the old-fashioned way.

"Get ready!" Synapse hissed into the strike team radio channel; he was hidden behind a corner of the temple just a few meters away, so she could practically hear his voice unaided. Yaoyorozu nodded almost imperceptibly, her countenance unchanged. Time to do or die. It all comes down to this.

Momo heard Hawks before he saw him, the shrill whistle of wind against his wings. A flash of crimson later, what seemed seconds ago to be little more than a distant smudge against the sky had landed in front of her with a ground-shaking thud, and she was forced to create a pair of safety goggles over her eyes as a flurry of dust kicked up by the new arrival whipped past her. When the cloud settled, she was left standing face to face with the country's number one hero; his chest was heaving from exertion, and his brow and bangs were slick with sweat, but Hawks clutched one of his swordlike flight feathers defiantly in his hand as he spoke to her, his expression cold and unforgiving.

"Where… hah… where is he?"

"You mean Seraph?" She allowed herself a hint of a smirk. "Oh, he's long gone." When Hawks couldn't hide the reaction of shock and anger on his face, she let out a chuckle. "Midoriya never promised that he was going to stay in the same place. He only told you where he was at the start of the countdown- he didn't say anything about where he'd be at the end."

"So I went and beat my personal best for nothing, huh? Figures. At least weren't lying about the kids, I see." He gestured with one wing to the hostages, and she nodded silently.

"Of course- we wouldn't dare. Speaking of timing, you seem to be here a bit on the early side- much earlier than even we could have hoped. If you wouldn't mind me asking, what's your secret?"

This time it was Hawks' turn to laugh, though the sound was harsher on his lips than usual.

"Please. You think the top speed they have on file more me is anything close to accurate? Like I'd ever let them put my real record down."

"You raise an interesting point; I don't doubt that many of the hero statistics available to the public record are deliberately altered to prevent villains from gaining sensitive intel. I'll have to keep that in mind going forward."

"Okay, yeah, enough small talk." He raised his arms to stretch, and suddenly two of his feathers were hovering inches from her throat- there was something peculiar about them, a strange gleam to their texture, but Pandora didn't have the luxury of examining them too closely before she had to lift her gaze back to Hawks.

"Aggressive negotiation tactics, I see. Bold, when you're dealing with someone who could kill your precious hostages at any moment." She pulled a small remote control out of one of the pouches on her belt and held it up for him to see, her thumb to the button. "I press this, and both of their jugulars are going to be injected with… what was the number again? Ah yes- 1000 times the lethal dose of the most potent neurotoxin I could create without accidentally killing myself."

"Blah blah blah, I'm a scary villain, I'm going to cruelly murder the hostages if you anger me!" He chuckled again, a bit more genuinely this time, and began to glance around the courtyard. "So are you gonna signal your lackeys to attack me yet, or do I need to go find them myself?"

"Now what reason would I have to ask them to do something as dangerous as that?"

His head still twisted around to inspect the cherry trees, Hawks came within half a heartbeat of responding before he caught himself, and Momo's face contorted in frustration when he turned back toward her with a wide grin on his face and a middle finger raised up on both hands. Even though it was her voice, she wasn't the one who had just spoken.

Good try, Shinso. Looks like we'll have to resort to Plan B. It's too bad we need him alive, or Hatsume could blow his head off any second now.

Yaoyorozu tapped a button on her belt with her free hand, and without a moment's delay, Mr. Compress swung open the temple doors and snapped his fingers. A series of marbles carefully concealed throughout the complex burst apart as his quirk selectively released the hidden villains, and all at once the forces of the Syndicate launched their attack.

The next two seconds passed by in a blur of frenzied activity, and looking back on the fight, Momo had to think very carefully to piece together what exactly happened in what order. Gentle leapt down from the temple's third-story balcony with the aid of his quirk, where La Brava had been perched with her camera filming the entire time. Twice and Chaudron rushed in from the tree grove, the former brandishing his measuring tape and the latter a dagger and silver-embossed pistol; Neito had copied Jin's quirk, so there were already two of him. Nemoto Shin trained his own gun on the number hero from as he leaned around the temple's other corner, while Spinner sprung out from behind a small shrine on the opposite end of the courtyard with his massive bundle of blades in hand- the closest to Hawks, he led the charge, yelling out a ragged battle cry.

"EAT SHIT, FALSE HERO!"

At the center of it all, Hawks sighed in disappointment, cracked his neck, and curled his wings around himself before beating them quickly back outward again.

"Iron Wings."

Compress was the first to take a hit, as far as Pandora could tell, when a two-foot scarlet feather drove straight through his stomach like a spike and threw him to the ground like a ragdoll, sending blood spurting from beneath his mask as a shocked gasp escaped his lips. At the same time, the massive flight feather Hawks had been holding shot out of his hands, sliced straight through Spinner's colossal blade, and landed a long, gaping cut across Iguchi's chest, while a second one broke apart the leading strand of Twice's razor-sharp measuring tape like it was tissue paper; Bubaigawara barely leapt out of the way in time before his arm was slashed off too, and scrambled behind a tree for cover. A barrage of smaller feathers targeted the others simultaneously, whistling through the air like a storm of daggers. Thinking quickly, Yaoyorozu produced a tungsten shield in time to catch the ones targeting her; Monoma ducked behind his clone just in time to let the duplicate's body become a pincusion instead of his own, and when Gentle rebounded the projectiles back to the ground with a circle of elastic air, the stone cracked and split where they impacted. Shinso tried to duck behind the corner of the temple, but one crimson missile plunged straight through the aging wood and delivered a brutal gash to his forehead, sending the team's leader stumbling unconscious to the floor.

What kind of technique is this?! Seizing the chance as soon as he looked away from her, Pandora knelt down behind her shield and began to create a tranquilizer gun from her arm. His feathers shouldn't be anywhere near this strong!

"Synapse, Compress, and Spinner are down!" Momo shouted into her radio. "I'm in command now! Regroup, Lunging Spear Formation B, open fire!"

A fraction of a second later, Nemoto and the two Monomas each loosed a stream of bullets at the hero, but Hawks simply held up one wing in either direction and smiled as they bounced off harmlessly, like they were hitting solid metal. Aiming for his head and neck, Yaoyorozu leaned out from her cover and fired two sedative darts the moment her creation was ready, but the hero's reflexes were too fast; he deflected them effortlessly with one of the feathers that had been at her throat earlier. Not one to give up easily, she'd already created and fired a capture net launcher by the time the dart's fragments had fallen to the ground, and cried aloud in triumph when the carbon-reinforced cords wrapped around Hawks' body and began to deliver an electrical shock through his skin, forcing him to his knees.

"Charge him, now!"

While Gentle and Twice eagerly followed her command, Nemoto dashed out to secure the hostages, and Chaudron seized the opportunity to try and make a break for Pandora's position amid the chaos. Pushing herself back to a feet and breaking into a run, she met him halfway, and the two exchanged a swift high five for Copy to take effect.

"Triple quirk combo!" He cried gleefully, creating a chain of clones until there were five of him standing around her, each one imbued with Momo's quirk as well. "Pandora Forgeries!"

While they each rolled their sleeves up and ripped their jackets open to produce a variety of weapons, shields, and capture items from their skin, Danjuro and Jin were barely holding their own against Hawks, who'd already sliced through the net with his feathers, an act that should've been impossible. It was all Twice could do to dodge the hero's feathers and try to slice at his weak points when at the seldom points when there were openings in his guard. Gentle, on the other hand, was holding his own fairly well with Elasticity, rebounding each attack back at Hawks, but even Tobita was slowly losing stamina if the sweat dripping down his brow and his disheveled bangs were any indication.

"I studied every technique he has, watched every damn fight!" She glanced over to the original Monoma with a mix of exasperation and fury on her face. "I've never seen anything like this!"

"How troublesome," Neito replied with a grimace. "He's proving to be much more problematic than even I had expected."

"Thanks for the compliment!" Hawks called, smiling as he launched himself up into the air to evade attacks from Twice and the charging Chaudron duplicates. "It's always good to know that I keep you assholes on your toes."

Two of Monoma's clones had produced net guns of the same kind that had briefly restrained him before, and one other had a tranquilizer pistol, so the Winged Hero was forced to fly a wide arc around the temple to evade their barrage. What little energy he had left had been depleted even further, so he wasn't quite as swift as before, but he more than compensated for the lack of speed with the hail of steel-like feathers he rained down on his opponents on his return pass. More prepared for the attack the second time, the Syndicate blocked or dodged most of them, but dealing with the projectiles still tied them down long enough for Hawks to drop down low and charge straight through their ranks in the blink of an eye with one of his largest feathers in hand, to devastating effect.

"Flight Sword Rush!"

When he skidded to stop in a cloud of dust amid the cherry blossoms, three of Monoma's clones were grey goop, Gentle and Nemoto were both on the ground with slashes on their waste and side, and Twice had fallen to his knees, blood dripping down his face, half of his mask torn apart.

"F-fuck, guys, I-I'm gonna split! I can't hold it in!"

"You all handle Hawks!" One of the remaining Monoma duplicates cried, "I'll use Create to put his mask back together!"

"I'll cover you!" Tobita shouted, his teeth grit against his wound as he pushed himself back to his feet and took off running in Jin's direction, his torn cape billowing behind him. "Gently Shield!" Sliding to the ground like a baseball pitcher, Danjuro barely elasticized a circle of air in time to block the two from another bombardment of feathers.

"Be careful, please!" La Brava squealed from above, and Momo shook her head in frustration. I'd almost forgotten we're livestreaming this. Not quite the easy victory we were hoping to show the world, but it'll do, as long as we still win.

Chaudron, in the meantime, was keeping Hawks occupied near the cliffside with a fresh batch of clones- each time one fell, another sprung up in its place, and though their stream of ranged and melee attacks were mostly blocked or parried, they were wearing the number one hero down nonetheless.

"What I think happened here," he was saying as he flexed his wings to break apart another net, then flapped them once to dodge backward through a row of trees, "is that you fuckers forgot about one of my sidekicks. The name Makabe Shikkui ring any bells for you? Diamondhead, the Hardening Hero, out of Ketsubutsu? Face looks kinda like a weird blue turtle. Nice kid." Kicking a storm of cherry blossoms up into to the clones' faces with another flap, he used the momentary distraction to grab hold of one of his mid-length feathers and draw it like a dagger across one's throat, then kicked another straight off the cliff before resuming his defensive stance. "He's back at my agency right now, but these past few weeks, we've been working on a new technique, using his quirk on my wings."

"That's impossible!" One Monoma retorted bitterly. "His quirk doesn't work on living things!" Taking no precautions about a potential copy of Shinso's quirk, Hawks broke through the duplicate's guard and cut him in two before he continued.

"That's what we thought too, until he had an idea, and we tested it out. You see, feathers are all dead tissue, just like hair, so turns out he can put these babies way past the top end of the Mohs scale after all." Another leaping dodge and he was back in his original position, bobbing out of the way of a blast from a sonic cannon one Chaudron had produced. "Of course, there's a downside. The reason it took me so much longer than usual to get here is that I weigh almost 50% more than I normally do!"

He's just mocking us now, Momo thought furiously to herself, though she was taking careful mental notes on everything he said at the same time. If they can just keep Hawks in one spot for a little longer… Darting forward to the cover of one of the tree trunks, she created one of Hatsume's favorite babies from her stomach, a gas canister launcher loaded with aerosolized chloroform rounds. Just one whiff of this, and he'll be down for as long as we need him to be. So what if I knock out a few clones in the process?

Dropping down to one knee, she took careful aim at the melee occurring a few yards away, but even as he ducked and weaved between the attacks of half a dozen Chaudrons, Hawks still managed to catch sight of her somehow amid the fray, and beat his wings in a vaulting leap that propelled him all the way back into the courtyard, just as she pulled the trigger and sent nearly all of the duplicates sprawling to the ground with a burst of white gas. He swung his right boot downward in a brutal kick in the same motion, knocking the original Neito to the ground unconscious, and loosed two feathers that snapped the hostages' chains with a resounding clang.

"Do you assholes think I climbed up to number one with nothing looks and charisma?!" Hawks yelled back at them, the anger rising in his voice with every word. "I had to fight every day for six years to get here, so if I need to wipe the floor with you punks to prove that I earned my place, I can keep this up all day!"

Nemoto was still down, as were Compress, Shinso, and Spinner- there was no one left in the immediate vicinity to stop him besides a single Monoma clone who was cut down into sludge before he had time to react.

"Now if you don't mind, I'll be taking these two back!"

"No you don't!" Gentle cried, springing off of a patch of elasticized ground towards the hero.

Plunging toward the two imprisoned interns without so much as a glance back, Hawks waved his hand and sent another massive feather toward Danjuro, but when Tobita rebounded the missile this time, the trajectory lined up just right; it streaked straight back towards its distracted owner and cut a gaping wound in his thigh before burying itself in the ground.

Letting out a small grunt of shock, Hawks fell to his knees before he could reach Uraraka and Todoroki to try and wake them, and only barely turned around in time to defend himself, limping noticeably as he clashed with the Gentle Criminal once again. His mask newly repaired, Twice rejoined the melee as well with his remaining tape dispenser once he was back on his feet, lashing out at the Winged Hero's defenses while Tobita used Elasticity to provide cover for them both in the intervals between Jin's attacks.

Spear and shield, Pandora realized, watching the two proudly as she created a rag soaked in smelling salts to wake the real Chaudron and help him back to his feet. I guess they did learn something from that tactics session with Overhaul after all.

"The clones aren't any use against his fighting style," Monoma muttered weakly; a steady stream of blood was dripping down his scalp, and Yaoyorozu had to wrap an arm around his back while he draped one over her shoulder to help him walk. "He's too fast, so they've just been getting in the way. I need to get Compress' quirk if we're going to beat him, he was going to be the most important part of all of this. I'm an utter fool for not copying it beforehand."

"That's a good plan," Momo replied, but they both knew it was easier said than done- Atsuhiro's weakly twitching body was by the doors of the temple, on the opposite side of the hectic two-on-one duel currently unfolding. He's too weak to reach Sako on his own like this, and even if he did get the quirk… She shook her head and pressed forward undaunted, tightening her grip around his side. "I'll get you to him, Neito."

But before they could reach the group, Hawks sent Bubaigawara sprawling with a sweeping kick to the ankles, and slammed his flight feather sword down into Danjuro's elastic barrier with all his strength, trying to cut through the circle of air and into its wielder- Tobita's eyes widened in shock when the attack didn't immediately bounce back, and began to furiously circle his hands to reinforce the shield with additional layers while Twice recovered behind him and Hawks continued to press down viciously with his blade. Several muffled shots rang out as Neito and Momo fired a pistol and a semi-automatic tranquilizer rifle at the hero, but with his back turned to them, Hawks' wings were for all intents and purposes completely impenetrable, a shifting maze of diamond-hard feathers that covered his every possible weakness; the bullets and darts ricocheted off uselessly in a shower of sparks. Then, a familiar female voice cut through the chaos, and Momo's heart seized in her chest.

"W-Where am I? Hawks, is that you?! Please, help me, I can't get these restraints off!"

No, that's impossible. Uraraka couldn't be awake yet, and she's gagged!

"Just hold on, Uravity, everything's gonna be okay! I'll be there as soon as I-" Hawks froze midsentence, and Pandora's eyes widened as Synapse stepped shakily around the corner of the temple. Blood was still dripping from the corner of his brow, but his grin was visible even beneath his voice disguiser.

"Got you, you son of a bitch."

But as Hawks' muscles relaxed under the influence of Hitoshi's quirk, his grip on his flight feather slackened, and not half a second later the sword bounced backward off of Gentle's barriers and slammed right into his face. The Winged Hero stumbled backward in a daze, blood spilling from a deep gash down his forehead and one cheek, but his mind was free again, just moments after it had been chained. Twice, Pandora, and Gentle all tried to lash out and down him before he could regain his bearings, but he took off too quickly for their attacks, flying a high loop around the temple grounds as he recovered his senses and surveilled the battlefield.

"No!" Shinso bellowed. "God dammit, Gentle, I had him!"

"Forgive me, please! I cannot undo my quirk of my own volition, I had no intent of-" Hitoshi landed a hard slap across Danjuro's face before he could finish his sentence, and above them La Brava let out a shriek of anger.

"How dare you touch my Gentle like that?! You're lucky I've got the camera on Hawks and my mic on mute, you asshole!"

"No, Aiba, please, it's alright." Tobita held up a hand to calm her and lifted his eyes back up to the sky to look for their target. "He's right- that was my fault. I should've acted quicker, and formed a cushion to keep the feather from hitting his face. But we can't change what happened- let's focus on the mission, shall we?"

"Agreed," Momo replied, as Synapse led the remaining villains into a rough circle around the hostages.

Nemoto and Monoma were both barely conscious, all of the clones were gone, and it wouldn't be long before Spinner and Compress needed emergency medical evacuations from Kurogiri to prevent their wounds from becoming life threatening. Synapse seemed to have fully recovered, but now that he'd used up two chances with the voice disguiser, it would be almost impossible to get Hawks to fall for it again, and three seconds' worth of eye contact against a man so swift was out of the question. Realistically speaking, she, Twice, and Gentle were the only ones still in the fight; Neito had copied Compress' quirk at the first opportunity as they planned, but he was so unsteady on his feet that it would be unlikely that he could use it effectively.

"Longshot, what's your status?" Shinso held a hand to his earpiece. "Can you provide suppressing fire, force him to land again?" Jin was keeping an eye on the Winged Hero, but for now, he seemed to be simply circling far above them- whether it was to recover his stamina, formulate a new attack strategy, or both, Momo didn't know.

"God, it's good to hear your voice again, I was so worried! I wish I could, babe, but I'm kinda busy over here myself, if you guys haven't noticed!"

Yaoyorozu created a pair of binoculars and gazed through them to the far end of the valley- they'd all been so focused on Hawks that they hadn't been paying attention to the steady stream of sonic booms produced by Mei's rifle as she fended off a steady stream of police choppers and airborne local heroes; it seemed that since the time limit expired, the government had fully committed to its attempts to intervene, but if the trail of flaming helicopter wrecks that littered the course of the stream was any result, they hadn't met with much success so far. As she watched, the Buster Hero Air Jet and a government chopper both opened fire on one of her hilltops, reducing it to a flaming heap of smoke and ash with their cannons and missiles, but then another boom sounded in the distance, and before Air Jet could dodge, a cluster round fired from Position 3 engulfed both him and the helicopter in a web of bright orange explosions.

"Huh." Synapse chuckled softly. "She always loved that guy as a kid. I think I had one of his action figures."

"Well, he's ashes and dust now," Neito managed, spitting out a gob of blood. He had to lean against the wall of the temple for support, and his breathing was still ragged and heavy. We're going to have to check him for a concussion and internal bleeding after this, Momo knew. Shaking her head, she was about to put the binoculars away when Gentle extended one finger to the distant horizon, squinting to make something out.

"Pandora, what the devil is that?"

When she lifted up the binoculars again, she couldn't see what he was talking about at first, but then Tobita guided her hands a bit to the right, and a peculiar vortex of air came into view, rapidly growing in size is it drew nearer. With a flip of her index finger she increased the zoom by two, and her mouth set in a hard line as the smudge in the middle came into focus, two instantly recognizable figures.

"Longshot, at your eleven! It's Gale Force and Cellophane, bring them down!" The Shiketsu third-year's scowl was visible even from this distance as his cape whipped and twisted behind him; he had Sero wrapped in his burly arms like a parcel.

"Roger that, I see them! They're moving fast, but I think I can make the shot!"

Another sonic boom rang out, and Yaoyorozu's jaw slackened in shock as the whirlwind Inasa was using to fly bent the trajectory of the projectile downward in the instant before it hit them, sending it streaking past them and down into the trees. That round was traveling at over two kilometers per second! How strong could his wind be?!

"What the fuck?!" Hatsume cried, echoing her sentiments perfectly. There was no time for her to fire a second shot; Yoarashi was already on top of them, and Hawks broke his circle to fall perfectly in formation with his interns.

"Defensive Formation Delta, we have incoming!" Pandora shouted, her mind racing- there were only moments left before they arrived. I guess it's time to try that technique after all.

As the remaining fighters took position and the their three opponents shook the earth with their landings, Yaoyorozu dropped the gun she was holding and stretched out her arms, smiling as every bare patch of skin on her body started to glow with Creation's light. On her stomach, thighs, and arms, silver-and-grey tungsten-carbide armor to complete the half-set she was already wearing, lightweight, durable, and ornately designed. On her back, a sleek, maneuverable jetpack, complemented by additional thrusters on her calves. On her wrists, rotating metal gauntlets that sported a variety of weapons ranging from neurotoxin dart launchers to flame throwers to cryo grenades. In her right hand, an elegant, curved sword, the cutting edge of its blade coated in a chemical concoction she'd designed that caused instant paralysis on contact with the bloodstream. In her left a black metal shield emblazoned with a stylized silver 'P' and bossed with a large electrical diode that delivered a 5,000 volt shock to anyone unlucky enough to make contact with it while it was activated. And on her face, a silver-and-black checkered harlequin mask, fitted internally with all the target trackers, vital scanners, and heat sensors she could ask for, its mouth half-frowning and half-smiling. There was a crest of raven feathers on top, but that touch was just for show.

"Chaos Regalia."

"Am I supposed to be scared of that?" Hawks called with a smirk, as his interns sized up the remaining villains. "You assholes couldn't beat me with your whole team, now you expect to take us four-on-three? Best go ahead and surrender before your buddies bleed out. Am I right, guys?"

"There's no shame in quitting while you're behind, Momo," said Hanta. His expression was indecipherable through his mask, but she could hear the pain in his voice. "Just give it up and come home."

"And miss the fight of my lifetime? I don't think so." She twirled her sword in her hand, and took one step forward. "But as thrilling is this is, I have to say, I didn't think we'd get the chance to take on all three of you. I'm impressed that you managed to make it all the way from Hiroshima just a few minutes behind your master."

"Are you kidding me?" Inasa let out a booming laugh, and the air around him began to stir and twist. "We could've gotten here at practically the same time as him if we hadn't decided to hang back until he signaled us. After all, Hawks hired us because we're the only ones fast enough to keep up with him!"

"Is that so?" Hitoshi cracked his knuckles and stepped up to Momo's side. "In that case, I can't wait for round two. Let's wrap this up this nice and quick, gentlemen."

---

"What's the progress downtown so far?"

"Not good. Slugger and a few other local pros are confirmed dead, along with at least thirty police, but that's expected to rise significantly. Plenty more missing in action, both heroes and cops. They're running out of gas masks to give the teams on site, and by all reports it seems Tokoyami's quirk is on a complete rampage."

"That poor boy… I don't even want to think about what he and Yaoyorozu could have endured. Is it possible that Shinso is influencing their actions?"

"I suppose we can't discount that."

"And the rescue team in Osaka?"

"All KIA, aside from Edgeshot and Mandalay, who are still missing. Their reports before the explosion indicate that the penthouse was entirely abandoned."

"Of course it was. Can… can we turn this trash off? Please?"

The longer Toshinori Yagi watched the live feed of Dabi and the other villains slaughtering policemen, the more he felt like he was going to vomit out of what was left of his respiratory system, along with his meager breakfast.

"No, we can't," Aizawa replied quietly, turning up the TV's volume, his eyes never leaving the screen. "I'm sorry, Yagi, but this is all vital information. We can't afford to be in the dark about what's going on down there, and as far as we can tell, this is the only signal that's getting out of the building."

"…Of course." All Might murmured after a moment, his heart sinking in his chest as he looked down to his phone. He'd tried to call Tsukauchi and Gran Torino a dozen times each, but every attempt had gone straight to voicemail.

"So let me go shut it down myself." Kendo pleaded from the back of the room, where she'd been watching with her arms crossed. "I can't sit here any longer, I've seen enough!"

"For the last time, it's a warzone down there. There's an active government counteroffensive happening right now, Kendo!"Aizawa closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose with one hand. "As much as I want to let you go, you are a student and I am a teacher, and this school has a responsibility to keep you safe whenever that's possible, provisional license or not!"

"A counteroffensive that's getting cut to pieces! I'm a student, sure, but I'm a hero first, Aizawa, so I don't care if you have to expel me, I'm going. The fight in Shikoku is too far away for me to intervene, but this? I could be there in five minutes, maybe fewer if I push myself. This is something that's within my reach, Eraser! You can't ask me to ignore that!"

Eraserhead and All Might's phones suddenly buzzed at the same time, and Shota glanced down at the notification with one eyebrow raised before exchanging a brief nod with his fellow teacher.

"You're in luck, Battle Fist. Nezu is about to dismiss all students and teachers early, so as of two minutes from now, you'll no longer be bound by U.A. regulations. Miruko sent out a post on the Hero Network that she's already putting a team together now at Lemillion's office, I'll call now and ask if we can join them."

"We?" Ituska asked, as Aizawa hit the dial button and opened the office door.

"You kidding?" Stepping out into the hall, he barely glanced back at her. "I'm going with you, obviously. I'm probably gonna pull Mic, Snipe, and Ectoplasm in on this too. Be ready to leave in ninety seconds, we'll be waiting in the lobby."

"No time to go get the costume then in that case," she muttered, shaking her head before looking to All Might. As soon as they were alone, she pulled him into a deep hug, and a new set of tears threatened to spill from Toshinori's eyes.

"Young Kendo, please. I'm sorry that you have to wait to save Monoma until another day, but, Naomasa, and Sorahiko…"

"I'll find both of them, I swear." She ruffled his hair and gave him a weak smile. "I doubt they'll even need saving. The old man'll probably just yell at me for taking so long to get there. I'm sure he's gonna beat the absolute crap out of Overhaul, if he hasn't already." She glanced again to the TV, but there was still no sign of either Tsukauchi or Gran Torino; both of them had been at police HQ when it was attacked, working on locating the same Eight Precepts members who were currently besieging the building.

"I… I hope you're right." He tried to return her smile, but mostly failed.

A soft knock came on the door, and All Might called for whoever it was to come in. From the look of it, Kendo was about to protest to Aizawa that it hadn't been ninety seconds yet, but both of their eyes widened in surprise when Nighteye stepped through.

"Sir, what are you doing here?" Itsuka asked. "Shouldn't you be down at Mirio's agency? Eraser and I are about to head down there now."

"I was," he replied, pushing back his glasses, "until I realized something rather disturbing connecting today's events, something that demanded immediate action. All Might, if I could speak to you in confidence?"

"Certainly. Just… give me a moment with Kendo before she goes."

"Of course." Nighteye stepped out into the hall to allow the two some privacy, and Yagi turned back to his successor.

"Please, be careful out there, young Kendo. I… I know I haven't always been the best teacher, and somehow you've still managed to learn from me in spite of that. You've strong, maybe even stronger than I was at this point in my training but…" He sighed deeply and shook his head. "But something feels different about today. I always worry when you're out on missions, but right now… this group, the Syndicate… there's something about them that makes me even more anxious than usual." As always, he fumbled through explaining his feelings, but the look in her eyes told him she understood.

"I feel the same way. Maybe it's because of who I'll be fighting, that it's friends and former classmates instead of just faceless, irredeemable thugs. But please, don't worry, okay? I know what I'm up against, I promise I'll be careful. I'll avenge everyone the Syndicate and the Precepts have killed today, and I'll make you proud, sensei."

They hugged again, tighter this time, and when they broke apart, he was crying again despite his best efforts. For a moment, he saw an old memory in her expression, somehow soft and kind yet fierce and unyielding all at once.

"You know, you really do remind me of my master sometimes."

"You and the old man both, huh?" She chuckled and punched him lightly on the shoulder, then swore when she glanced down at her watch. "Shit, Aizawa's gonna kill me, I'm already late! See you soon, All Might!" Itsuka darted out the door and was about to bolt down the hall, but paused to give Nighteye a brief hug too before he could protest.

"Just watch me, Sir, I'm gonna have Chisaki in cuffs before you know it! You better not be too late getting back downtown, or I'll make sure Usagiyama kicks your ass!" Then she was gone in a burst of speed, and Toshinori was left watching his old sidekick with a bemused expression as Nighteye shook his head disapprovingly.

"That was highly unprofessional- I thought I taught her better. Miruko's been influencing her far too much lately."

"Don't be too hard on her, old friend. She's still young and rebellious. As long as she fights hard and stays composed in front of the cameras, I don't see the harm in it."

"You're quite a biased source of opinion, though," Sir countered with a hint of a grin.

"You may have me there. Now, what did you want to speak about?"

Nighteye clasped his hands behind his back and began to walk down the hall, beckoning for All Might to follow. The early dismissal bell had just rung, and all around them students were pouring out of their classrooms, looks of worry, shock, and dismay on their faces. These poor children… Yagi tried to greet the ones looking his way with with an encouraging smile, but even that had no effect.. The fallout from today is going to be a nightmare. I might need to visit the hero course students' families again to discuss the situation. Not to mention Midoriya's mother… He forced the thought out of his mind for now and fell in step beside Sir, leaning in to hear his voice over the clamor.

"I believe it's safe to say that the police department's security system was breached in advance of this morning's attack, and by an expert, no less- it had one of the best firewalls in the country. We don't know how long they've had that access, or how they attained it; this could be a mole or a sophisticated remote hack, it's anyone's guess. The point is, if they could breach Tokyo PD's server, almost nowhere is safe. Do you understand what I'm saying? Agencies, schools, government ministries- nothing is guaranteed as secure anymore."

"You think U.A. has been breached as well?" All Might's eyes widened. Present Mic and many others had believed for years that they could have a traitor in their midst, but a hack was equally frightening, if not moreso.

"I'm almost certain- all the evidence is on here." He pulled a thumb drive out of his jacket before pocketing it again. "Chances are, they're watching us this very moment. Follow me, there's a blindspot in the security cameras on the roof- we need to get away from any prying eyes."

Nighteye stepped through a door leading to one of the stairwells and started upward, the opposite direction of all the students, and Toshinori squeezed in past the crowds behind him.

"All Might!" a voice cried as they continued upward- it was Kirishima, flanked by Bakugo and Ashido. "What's gonna happen?! What should we do?!"

"We're going to beat them, that's what's going to happen." Yagi responded, halting his upward climb for a moment to lay a hand on Eijiro's shoulder. "All of you, make sure your families know you're safe, then contact the heroes supervising your internships and ask if they need any assistance. Don't endanger yourselves needlessly, but try to help any way you can!"

"Of course! Thank you so much, sensei!"

"I'm really glad you're here," Mina managed, smiling through her tears. "I'll call Mount Lady as soon as I'm downstairs!"

"I'm gonna destroy every last one of those fuckers whether Jeanist says I can or not!" Katsuki cried.

"Make sure you do, Ground Zero." All Might responded with a grin, patting the hot-tempered third-year's back encouragingly before continuing after Nighteye.

After fighting through a few more flights' worth of crowds, they finally emerged out onto U.A.'s roof, and All Might sighed with relief when the morning sun washed over his face.

"Well that was certainly an ordeal. I know things seem dire, but I hope they're not too rattled by today- I think I'll ask Nezu to let me give a speech when all the dust has settled and the Syndicate are safely locked in Tartartus."

"Yes, I'm sure that would help their recovery a good deal." Nighteye said calmly, gazing out over the edge at the sea of students leaving through the main gate.

"So what was this evidence you wanted to- oh, one moment, excuse me." A soft buzz announced that he'd received another text, and he glanced down to check the message- it was from Kendo, and the first three words were visible in the preview:

KI: IT'S NOT NIGHTEYE.

"Huh?" He murmured aloud. Then his eyes widened in realization, and he lifted his gaze back up to look at the man he'd been following, but suddenly there was no one there.

Toshinori didn't see the knife until it was too late.