A/N: Let's get the action going, shall we?
Hope you guys enjoy the new artwork, which as always, can be found on my Instagram account: the_red_swordsman
Phase 6: Chapter 7
Inheritors Rising
"Is this accurate?"
Two Humarise members dressed in the garb of the organization's leadership exchanged a pensive look before the one on Flect Turn's left deigned to answer, "Yes, sir. The deserters' numbers continue to grow by the hour, including some who… know of the locations of the bombs." When there was a stony silence from their leader, he swallowed past the dry lump in his throat before continuing on to say, "We dispatched the Silencers as quickly as we could, but…"
"There are simply too many surrendering to the heroes for us to be able to keep up with all of them," said the woman on Flect's right. "We have ordered the faithful capable to focus on eliminating those with the greater knowledge of the plan, but even so- there are simply too many to silence before the heroes start interfering prematurely."
Flect Turn said nothing in response for several moments, choosing instead to summon several holographic images, each one featuring a different moment from over the past year, but all centering around one key figure. Said person was responsible for all of his careful scheming and painstaking groundwork coming apart at the seams, and unless something was done about him, the leader of Humarise knew that the boy could become a catalyst for the failure of the world's baptism.
After studying a clip of Kai receiving his first-place medal at the abominable UA Sport's Festival, the blue man finally stirred and looked at his two operatives, causing them to stand fully at attention. "How many of the faithful are left in Musutafu, Japan?" he inquired, his expression giving no hint of what he could possibly be feeling at that moment.
"Last count put us at 400-odd acolytes and apostles in that area," the man answered immediately. "Even with the raid that we expected from the team led by Endeavor, most of the faithful were able to escape into hiding. They await your orders at this very moment."
Flect nodded once before saying, "Order the escorts for the bombs to move as previously instructed. I want everyone else to assemble at UA High before the weapons are primed."
"Sir?" the woman asked, the both of them looking confused as he rose from his desk, a small scowl finally forming on his face.
"That facility has been a festering cesspool for the diseased for far too long," he muttered. "They have an unfortunate tendency to protect their own even beyond the walls of the establishment, and even now, believe themselves beyond their opposition's ability to harm their dependents. If this Kai believes that he is capable of threatening humanity's salvation without a just retribution, he is sorely mistaken." There was the briefest pause before the azure-skinned man added, "Tell the faithful to assemble at the school and wipe out everyone in it."
"Sir?"
"With their heroes out looking for our weapons, the school will be minimally guarded," Flect explained in a patient tone. "While I believe our plans for that country can still succeed, we must ensure that a message is still sent to the diseased, in the event of a failure. Now… for humanity's salvation."
"For humanity's salvation."
"So, who wants to take a crack at it?" Mina commented with a grimace as the group stared down at their captives, each of them with sullen expressions on their gagged faces. The heroes had beat a hasty retreat back to Klayd following their encounter with the police and assassins in Otheon, and while they were on their way, the archer had tried to commit suicide again by biting off her own tongue. This had been undone by Eri's power, but following the attempt, they made sure to keep the three prisoners tightly bound and gagged so that they could hardly move, nor could they use their mouths.
Now they were in an empty hangar at a small airport that Kurai had managed to find with his scouter, faced with the dilemma of how to get information out of their captives regarding Humarise and their plans, which they all knew was going to be anything but easy. After all, one of the operatives had killed their own teammate before he could betray them, and two of the three had tried to kill themselves in order to keep anything that they knew about their cause a secret. None of them were going to talk easily, but the heroes had a job to do, albeit a very unpleasant one.
Gran Torino and Rody were busy talking to the local authorities, and they weren't sure how long that was going to take, nor did they have any time to waste. All they knew was that Humarise was gearing up for their big attack, but not when it was supposed to happen, nor what kind of defenses they could expect when they made their way to the hidden base in Otheon.
Seeing the distaste on Mina's face, Kurai put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Leave them to Todoroki and me. You guys shouldn't have to watch this." This seemed to draw the attention of the captives, but none of them made a sound in protest.
"Nah, let me at 'em," Bakugo said with a dark smile as his hands sparked ominously. "I'll get 'em to talk in ten minutes."
"We're trying to get their silence broken, not their skulls," Kurai deadpanned. Before the other boy could tell him off, he did say, "At the same time, there is a practical application of your quirk that could work for this, so you're welcome to stick around."
To the other students, Kurai's volunteering made sense. Out of any of them, he would best know how to conduct one of the unfortunate sides of heroism that was rarely ever made public, having been raised by a police officer and experiencing firsthand just how much pain the human mind can withstand before it starts to crack. That didn't make it any less unsettling for them to contemplate the fact that he had offered to torture three people without so much as batting an eye.
The pit in Mina's stomach that had been forming ever since watching him battle the Humarise-influenced police officers at the border suddenly dropped even further, making her feel queasy enough that Ochaco could have sympathized. She knew that what he was saying made a logical sense, but she worried for what this act could do to his recently-restructured mind.
Before she or any of the others could say anything, Eri gestured for them to follow her while saying, "Let's leave them to it. We'll only get in the way." Her prodding confused some of them, but Izuku and Mina remembered that even if she still retained most of her kindness and sweet-natured personality, the girl had been brought up in a harsh world. She was no stranger to this sort of thing, herself, though it was clear that she would not have the constitution to stomach doing it herself.
As she led the others away, Kurai said over his shoulder, "Keep your phone on you. Depending on how this goes, we may need a do-over at some point."
Eri shuddered as she remembered all the times that Chisaki had gone too far with his experiments and been forced to do a similar 'reset' so that he did not lose the source of his ambitions. Even so, she nodded and replied, "I understand."
"Try to find out what's in that briefcase that they want so much," Todoroki added as most of the others started to leave.
"Will do," Mina nodded as she put an arm around Eri. "You two, uh… be careful, okay?" Her eyes tried to search Kurai's, but he refused to spare any of them a glance. Whether or not this was because he didn't want to give her a chance to pull him away from what he deemed to be necessary, or because he couldn't afford to give himself an 'out', she resolved to find out later.
"We will," Todoroki promised them, while Kurai merely nodded in silence, his eyes never leaving the three prisoners.
As the girls departed, Izuku remained in place, a small frown on his face as he regarded his best friend carefully. Seeing this out of the corner of her eye, Eri said, "Deku, we should go. He'll get them to talk, trust me."
"While that raises its own set of concerns for me, what makes you so sure that he can?" the former wielder of One For All asked.
"Let's just say that Akarui is more than a little creative when it comes to this stuff, and not all of it comes from his intellect," she answered with another shudder. "If he's anything like his brother in that regard, this won't take long."
Izuku looked back over at his friend, whose expression remained unchanged and unwavering. Hesitating one last time, he started to leave while saying over his shoulder, "Don't forget what your power is meant to be used for."
The group wound up waiting in the lobby where charters could be hired since there weren't any customers at present. They could see Gran Torino talking to a couple of detectives outside the window, but since he seemed to be calm, they assumed that things were proceeding as smoothly as they could expect for the time being.
Once they had all sat down, Mina noticed that Rody seemed to be looking between her and Eri without trying to look conspicuous. The pink bird with the bandana that seemed to be attached to him was also looking at them with curiosity, though it was much less subtle about it. After a few moments of this, the pink girl stirred and said, "Y'know, if you keep staring like that, Kurai might have something to say about it."
At that, Rody gave her a sly smile and replied, "So, you're Ashido. Deku talks about you and your friend Emiri a lot."
"He does?" Eri asked, her own curiosity awoken while Izuku fidgeted in place next to Rody while he examined the briefcase that they had brought with them. "What'd you tell him about us, Deku?"
"Only how impressive he finds each of you, and that Hikari guy," the roughly-dressed youth chuckled. "I kinda thought that he was blowin' smoke for most of our trip, but then I saw your friend in action, and I realized that he'd been toning it down. Hikari's impressive as hell, and you two girls are pretty good, yourselves."
"While everything you just said is true, Emiri is the one to keep an eye on," Mina grinned easily in response. "She's even more powerful than Kurai." Her outward demeanor was a mask, of course. Her stomach was twisting itself in knots as she tried not to wonder about what her Kurai was doing to the prisoners right then- nor did she really want to consider the fact that he had more than likely capable of such a thing before he even got started at UA. She kept telling herself that it was necessary, but it was still an unbelievably jarring thing to know the boy who had given her peace on many tortured nights and even more reasons to smile during the day was the one who was now leading an interrogation that looked to become very messy.
So to distract herself from all of that, she put on the same smile that she gave to everyone when she met them for the first time. It was a smile that had made many people feel happy without really knowing why, and the boundless energy that accompanied it served to help those same people perk up even at the end of a truly rotten day. In the past, that smile had been genuine, but now she felt that she might understand why All Might always smiled as he did throughout the years.
"Wha-?" Now Rody looked surprised, and the bird on his head let out a small squawk of alarm. "Seriously? But he took out a helicopter with one move!"
"That was barely a super move for someone like him," Izuku told his friend. "Did you see the news about Humarise's attack on Japan a few days ago?"
"Eh, I don't have a lotta time for TV," Rody shrugged. "I think I heard something about it from the grapevine, though. What's that got to do with Hikari?"
"He's the one who stopped the attack from spreading any further than it did," Mina said as she pulled out her phone and selected a pre-saved video. "Check it."
She watched with a smug expression as the boy and his bird watched the video of Kai saving Kanto, their eyes growing wider by the second until she became concerned that they might pop out of his head. "He can seriously do all of that on his own?!" the boy finally sputtered as he looked up and over at Eri. "And you're stronger than him?!"
At least his surprised reaction was enough to draw a somewhat more genuine smile out of the pink girl as she watched him try to suppress his expression of disbelief. It didn't help to settle her stomach, but she'd take some relief over nothing at all.
"Yes, but I have trouble controlling my power to that degree," Eri now admitted. "He's had a knack for combat as long as we've known him, while I'm having to learn it step by step. He's been kind enough to give me some pointers ever since we started school together." While that wasn't technically true, given that it was the vestiges who had tutored her, Kurai's ghost was among that number, so it wasn't a total lie.
"Wait, so you two aren't related?" Rody asked, which prompted looks of confusion from the girls and Izuku. "Seriously?"
"What made you think that?" Mina asked him with a raised eyebrow. "They don't look anything alike."
"No, but I've seen all kinds of siblings that look as different as me and Ice Queen over here, and they're fully related," Rody replied as he handed the phone back.
"Ice Quee-?! Midoriya, why did you tell him about that?!" Weiss demanded, causing Izuku to hold up his hands in a defensive posture.
"I swear, I never told him about that, honest!" he protested.
"Wait, is that some kinda running gag for you guys?" Rody inquired as he looked around to see Eri and Mina giggling to themselves, in spite of everything going on.
"Do I really come across that way to everyone?" Weiss demanded, looking mortified.
"No?" Izuku answered, not sounding convincing in the slightest.
"Seriously though," Rody said as he turned back to Eri. "Hikari isn't your half-brother or something? I thought you had a yin-yang thing goin' on with your powers. You know, his hair is white, but he's got black lightning, your hair is black, and the lightning is white. Your powers are super similar, right?"
"Uh…" Eri and Mina looked at each other before the time traveler shrugged and said, "I mean, I kind of look up to him like an older brother, but no, we're not related. I guess I can see how you would think that, though."
"Aw, does that mean I get to be your big sis?" Mina grinned as she seized the other girl up in a hug. "I don't have to be the youngest child anymore!" Secretly, she did this because- being the affectionate person that she was- the pink girl had a tendency to latch onto other people whenever she was feeling stressed. Eri had come to learn this, and having a pretty good idea of what was troubling her friend, did not fight the death-like grip.
"What's she talking about?" Rody asked Izuku, even as Eri did her best to breathe properly without dislodging Mina.
"That's… kind of an inside joke," the other boy answered distractedly, deciding that it would be easier if he avoided trying to explain the full nature of Kurai and Mina's relationship. Before Rody could press on the matter, Izuku's finger caught on one of the studs lining the metal case, and something inside of it clicked. Following that, a small panel slid back and ejected some kind of handheld ornament into his lap. Eyes widening, he held up the piece and said, "Guys, look at this."
"Is that what all the fuss was about?" Weiss mused as she eyed the item in his hand critically. "I was expecting something… more."
"Any idea what this thing is?" Mina asked as she too looked closely at the odd-looking object.
"No," Izuku muttered as he gripped at one of the edges, where he noticed a few loose pieces on either side. "I've never seen anything like it before."
"It's a puzzle," Rody said, a strange look on his face as he held out his hand. "There's usually something small hidden on the inside- a photo, for example. I haven't seen one of these in a really long time, but… Here, lemme take a crack at it."
Knowing that the other boy had a better chance at opening the piece than any of the others, Izuku handed the puzzle over and watched him go to work. With practiced fingers, Rody undid the clasps on the side and rearranged them so that they relocked and intertwined into a new pattern until the last piece fit into place, and the main section popped open. Inside was what looked like a storage chip and some kind of data drive, the likes of which none of them had ever seen, so Rody handed it over to Izuku, that same look of tension on his face.
"This is more along the lines of the objectives that I would expect from a high-speed chase," Weiss commented as Izuku examined the drive.
"People have died for whatever is on this thing," Eri said grimly. "My bet is that it has something on here that Humarise really doesn't want getting out."
"Only one way to find out," Mina said as she grabbed the data chip and strode over to an idle computer. "Come on."
She sat down and powered on the device before she plugged the drive into the appropriate slot, her friends each watching over her shoulders eagerly. It turned out to contain thousands of files, some of which were videos, some were documents, and others that the computer did not have the capacity to understand, much less execute. "This is… gonna take a while," Mina said at length.
"We don't have the time to look through all of these files," Izuku added as he scratched the back of his head.
"Here, let me," Eri said as she moved toward the chair, which Mina quickly abdicated. Once she had settled in, the dark-haired girl began scanning the files rapidly, her eyes flicking from one to another without a word until she moved the mouse to select the very last one. "Whenever Akarui was pressed for time on enemy intel, he always prioritized getting his hands on the most recent data entries," she explained. "Hopefully this gives us some insight as to what all the fuss was about."
The file turned out to be a video recorded by a scientist named Allan Kay, whom Weiss recognized as a man that had been involved in a Humarise attack right before everything went wrong in Otheon. In it, the man explained that he and many other workers of science had been taken by Humarise against their will and made to work on what they called 'Ideotrigger Bombs', weapons powerful enough to release Trigger gas across entire nations when they were activated. If they refused to cooperate, either they or their families were hunted down and brutally killed, so naturally, most of them had fallen in line.
However, Allan and another researcher, Eddie Soul, had decided not to go down quietly. Together, they had plotted against Humarise and laid the groundworks for an action that could save the world from their captors' ambitions. The data drive that they currently held could be plugged into Humarise's mother computer, which would essentially serve as the launch terminal for the bombs located across the world, and when it was, it would release a virus that would disable every command's execution in the database. Allan had been the one to create the program that would stop Humarise, but it had been Eddie who was responsible for hiding the device and arranging a way for the two of them to escape and get the drive to the heroes.
Unfortunately, their plans were discovered, and Eddie had been killed for his actions, leaving Allan to escape on his own while being hunted by Humarise's assassins. Weiss guessed that he had recorded the video shortly before he had been attacked on the highway in Otheon and lost possession of the briefcase. Apparently his case had been nearly identical to one that Rody had been transporting at the time, and they had been unintentionally swapped when Izuku had chased him through the scene of the car crash.
Mina noticed that when Rody heard Eddie's name mentioned, he turned away with a look of something like shell shock on his face. Pair that with the fact that their last names were identical, and it wasn't hard for her to make a familial connection. "You okay?" she asked as he stepped away from the computer.
"Huh? Oh, yeah," he said with an easy grin and a thumbs-up. "I just hadn't heard that name in a while." It was interesting to Mina that the bird that seemed to be his constant companion was nowhere to be seen at the moment.
"How do you know the guy?" she inquired curiously.
"He is- well, was- my dad," Rody shrugged. "He just up and vanished on me and my siblings one day, no explanation other than he had just decided to join Humarise. I always assumed that he'd cracked from the pressure of being a single dad, but I guess there was a pretty good reason for him running out on us." Throughout his delivery of this revelation, his bearing stayed relaxed and unhurried, as if he were discussing nothing more important than the recent local soccer match.
It was nearly identical to the look that she was wearing, herself.
Mina gazed at him with pity before she said, "I'm sorry to hear about your dad, Soul. We'll make sure that he didn't die in vain, at least." Maybe Kurai can talk to him about this when we have the time.
"Meh," Rody shrugged, still seemingly nonchalant. "He's already been dead to me for years, so I'm not gonna get all bent outta shape about it again. I appreciate the sentiment, though." Mina could have sworn that she was hearing some kind of muffled crying coming from nearby, but she ignored it in favor of giving Rody a sad smile and a nod.
"All the same, let us know if you need anything, okay?" she told him.
"I'll keep that in mind," the boy grinned easily before he pointed past her to the computer. "I think your friends have found something."
"This confirms what you've been saying," Izuku said as he put a hand on Eri's shoulder in an approving manner. "They do have a hidden base in Otheon, and it looks like Flect Turn will be there with his best operatives."
"Along with an army of cannon fodder goons," said a familiar voice that got the other heroes and Rody to look over and see the other boys approaching, Bakugo wearing a confident grin while his companions looked even grimmer than before. "Those guys cracked so fast, it wasn't even fun."
"You need help," Mina deadpanned as Kurai moved to stand closer to her. "What'd you guys find out?"
"Our little stunt worked," her boyfriend replied with a grim sort of smile. "Humarise devotees have been deserting in the thousands across the globe. Mostly it's the lower-ranked members, and it's hardly a majority, but it's slowed down their plans significantly." His eyes nearly glassed over, but they quickly retained their sharpness when one of the others began to talk again.
"They've been delayed in getting the bombs they plan to use to their optimal positions, but it's doubtful that they'll wait much longer to launch their attack," Todoroki added. "We thought that would mean that if the bombs were to go off now, there would be many more survivors than their cult would have hoped for."
"Would be?" Eri repeated with a thoughtful frown.
"Their plans are still well enough on their way to being catastrophic," Kurai scowled. "The bombs that they've got set up around the world right now are meant to draw out all the heroes, so that we can all be annihilated in one fell swoop. Now that we're all strung out across the globe, they plan on giving the heroes a general location for each bomb under the guise of a challenge that will supposedly give us a chance to stop them, but it's pretty much an invitation to peace talks in a mine field that's been marked by barbed wire. Once the world's first line of defense is gone, they'll be able to get rid of everyone with quirks more systematically."
"That's awful!" Weiss gaped.
"It's ingenious," Eri muttered at almost the exact same time. When the others looked at her incredulously, she shrugged and said, "What? Just because they're the bad guys, it doesn't make them stupid. Luring all of us out into a trap that we are morally obligated to charge into is something that not just anyone could pull off."
"Well, that's fantastic," Mina deadpanned. "Did those guys tell us anything that'll help us, or are we just royally screwed?"
Here, Todoroki answered, "They told us that their main base is where Flect Turn is currently hiding, and he's guarded by an army of over two thousand loyalists that would never turn on him. Most of them are quirkless but armed to the teeth, and there are a few elite members who have powers that we'll probably have to be careful of."
"Heh," Bakugo snorted. "We thrashed Nine and his goons- these guys'll be nothing compared to that." At the mention of the villain's name, Mina's gaze went back to Kurai, whom she was surprised to see was wearing an expression of grim calm- a genuine one, at that. Knowing him as she did, she had learned to tell whenever he was masking his true feelings and intentions, and he was giving none of those signs, now.
"Given the organization's weapon of choice, my bet is that these guys are more than likely going to be jumped up on quirk enhancers," the white-haired boy pointed out. "Trust me, fighting someone with a weak quirk is hard enough when they get their hands on the stuff, and I doubt that these guys will be run-of-the-mill henchmen."
"Don't tell me you're getting scared, Saiyaman," Bakugo sneered.
"In your dreams, Blasty McSplode," the other boy shot back.
"Do we have something that will help us to stop them from launching the attack?" Todoroki asked in an attempt to steer the conversation back in a more productive direction.
"This data drive can terminate their plan completely if we can plug it into the mother computer at their hidden base," Eri summarized. "We'll have to force our way into their HQ."
"Great," Kurai grinned slightly. "Let's call the alliance and have them mobilize some heavy hitters so we can storm the base and get this whole thing over with."
"I'm on it," Weiss said as she reached for her phone.
"So, without giving me the more graphic details, how'd you get those guys to talk so fast?" Mina asked her boyfriend with a slight frown. She had noticed a distinct lack of blood on him and the others, which had piqued a sense of morbid curiosity. That, and she wanted to see if the ordeal had undone any of the progress he'd managed to make in the last month.
Of course, this was the moment that the doors to the lobby swung open and Gran Torino entered, looking even more stressed than the teenagers had seen him earlier. "It's begun," he said shortly. "I just heard from All Might- Humarise has launched their worldwide attack on us. We have less than two hours to save the world."
Akarui nearly missed it.
It was no small wonder that he would be blocking out any extra stimuli that existed outside of his work on formulating a counteragent for Trigger, but the fact that it took him nearly half a minute to recognize the red flashing coming from his fifth monitor for what it was would be a source of endless frustration for some time to come.
"The wha…?" he mumbled as he rubbed at his reddened, raw eyes that had not closed for a proper rest in nearly two days. It was a struggle just to keep them open at this point, but once he realized what he was seeing, Akarui found that keeping his eyes wide open was no longer an issue. "Aw, frack me," he muttered before punching in a command to his tertiary computer.
It was a few moments before he heard the principal's voice coming from the speakers to say, "You saw it?"
"Glad to know the expanded detection system is operating as intended," the boy answered, his voice somewhat hoarse as he did. When was the last time I took a water break? he wondered idly as he noticed a full thermos half-loaded with ice cubes sitting in front of his secondary terminal. "I'm picking up on at least twenty vans headed our way, and I doubt it that's the last of 'em." His worn eyes were now scanning through the video feeds coming in from the cameras and drones that he had set up to cover the perimeter of the school grounds, as well as the public roads leading to them.
"Each one could potentially carry eight passengers, unless they brought weapons," Nezu replied, even as an alarm began to echo across the campus, alerting its occupants to a potential threat heading their way. "Given that most of their members are quirkless, I find it more likely that each vehicle will be carrying four or five people apiece."
"I just hope the ones with quirks aren't carrying Trigger," Akarui muttered as he glanced at his unfinished formula proposals. "I'm nowhere near a solid counteragent yet. That said, I'm not above using these guys as live test subjects."
"Hikari, that is not an appropriate joke to make."
"Who said I was joking?" Akarui snorted. "These people are trying to kill us all just for being born a certain way- do they really not expect us to take it personally?"
"You will refrain from human experimentation while in my employ, Hikari," Nezu informed the boy in a tone that brooked no further arguments. "I expect you to engage the established defenses as needed, and nothing more than that. The heroes who have remained on campus for such an eventuality as this will handle those who manage to evade your traps and countermeasures. Is that understood?"
"…Yes, sir," Akarui grumbled. Grabbing the water bottle, he uncorked it and then proceeded to empty half of it onto his face, the cold shock proving effective at stimulating his adrenal glands for the moment. "Okay!" he gasped as he wiped at his eyes, shivering at the touch of the ice cubes on his lap, but making no effort to remove them. The more uncomfortable he was, he knew, the easier it would be to remain awake and at least somewhat alert.
"Let's get this party started, shall we?"
"This is Kai's fault!" growled a representative from Ukraine. "If he had not provoked them, we would have had more time to find their bombs!"
"They would have had more time to put those abhorrent devices in the optimal positions for world-wide devastation!" Goodwitch snapped in reply. "Thanks to him, we've had defectors from Humarise telling us where to find more than a dozen of the weapons across the globe so we can neutralize them. You might also thank him for scaring enough of those fools into abandoning their posts so that they failed to see their missions through!"
"The bombs are still out there- and more importantly- have been armed!" a German representative shot back. "We are still facing the probability of nearly every hero out there being obliterated!"
"Everyone, remain calm!" All Might called out as he strode into the room amid the cacophony of shouting voices. "Raised tempers and panic do nothing for us in this situation!"
"What would you have us do?!" demanded the Frenchman. "You asked us to trust in your student, and look where it has gotten us!"
"I would have faith in him, still," All Might replied with a hard look in his eyes. "I've just received word from him and some of the other heroes in the area that they've pinpointed Humarise's main HQ, and furthermore, they have acquired a kill switch to disable the bombs worldwide."
That got everyone to shut up nicely, leaving him free to speak without shouting again. "Humarise sent assassins and police officers who were in league with them after Young Midoriya because he managed to get his hands on a device that can be used to prevent the Ideotrigger Bombs if he can make it to their main holdout," he explained. "That's why they were so desperate to apprehend him. Young Hikari knew that his friend would never stoop to the level that Otheon accused him of, so he did what he needed to do in order to buy him time. Even as we speak, they and a handful of other heroes are on their way to assault the Humarise base and put a stop to this catastrophe."
"If we know the location, let's send reinforcements!" declared the man from Britain, to which All Might surprisingly shook his head in the negative.
"They'll never make it in time," he said grimly. "Endeavor's agency is relatively close to the base, but he's busy with the evacuation efforts and trying to find the bomb located in the capital. His other interns are with the boys, but he can't afford to divide his numbers any further."
"So you're saying that there's nothing we can do?" asked a representative from Uganda.
"We do our jobs and continue to help our agents in the field coordinate and find the bombs so that they can at least move them away from the more populated areas, in the case of the worst scenario," Goodwitch asserted. "We can hope that the heroes All Might has trained can live up to his legacy."
"That's it?" deadpanned the representative from Germany. "That's all you can offer us?"
"It's better than sitting here and wringing our hands while we try to cast blame," she said waspishly. "The world is danger, people. How is it going to look when we have children out there willing to fight our fight, and we're just sitting on our hands because we were too busy acting like cowards instead of heroes? Let's do our damn jobs!"
Not for the first time in his life, All Might reflected that Ozpin had trusted a very intimidating woman to act as his representative with good reason.
"This is really bad!" Cellophane grunted as he struggled not to get swept away from his teammates while the city around them continued to erupt into a panic. "How're we supposed to find the bomb in all this?!"
"We start by keeping our heads, ourselves," Edgeshot answered as he took to a nearby rooftop, dragging Chargebolt along with him as he did. Gambol Shroud and Cellophane each used their quirks to follow, but they hardly had a moment to catch their breath. Their mentor turned toward them and said, "Mount Lady and Kamui Woods will handle our team's evacuation efforts. We need to find the bomb and get it out of Cairo, if at all possible."
"I'll send out my Shadow Clones in different directions to see if I can't save us some time," Gambol Shroud muttered as her body shimmered before seven replicas appeared around her. Her limit at the start of her time at UA had been four, but thanks to all the intensive training, the quantity had nearly doubled in addition to far greater durability- it was nearly as difficult to destroy one of her clones as it was Twice's.
As the clones swiftly took off across the rooftops, Cellophane readied his tape while saying, "I'll keep an eye out for any shady-looking people around buildings that look like they could house a big bomb."
"Keep in mind that they may have put it in a vehicle," Edgeshot reminded them before the Taping Hero took off. Turning to Chargebolt, he then said, "Stay here and keep our communications consistent. I'm counting on you to be the mediator in case our direct lines with one another are interrupted." Thanks to his quirk, the blond boy could boost his com gear's signal to ensure stable connections, even amidst interference, unlike when they had been ambushed at the USJ.
"You can count on me, sir," he nodded as he gave the man a thumbs-up. Truthfully, he had been about to wonder what good his quirk could do in a situation like this, so to have the answer handed to him was actually a big weight off his chest. Though I do need to start being more proactive when it comes to thinking things in advance, he admitted to himself as he watched the number four hero take off in the opposite direction that the real Gambol Shroud had chosen.
Eraserhead and Vlad King were already at the wall where the one of the clusters of Humarise members seemed to be gathering outside the barrier when they heard the approach of something like a dozen sets of footsteps. The two men turned around and were not entirely surprised to see a handful of each of their students, as well as the Americans, including Taiyang and Crow.
"We're here to help," the blond man informed the others. Jerking his thumb over his shoulder to indicate the main building, he added, "Nezu gave our kids the go-ahead since you guys are gonna need all the help you can get."
"Vlad?" Eraserhead prompted his friend, who was quick to nod his broad chin.
"They're good," he answered, bringing smiles to the faces of the young foreigners. "Might even be better than your exchanges, Eraser."
"We'll see about that," the black-garbed man replied as he pulled on his goggles, though he seemed to still be looking over one student in particular. To Taiyang, he added, "Nezu cleared that one, too?"
"All hands on deck," Crow shrugged as he unlimbered what looked like a massive broadsword from the small of his back. "And let's face it, he's got a right to defend the place where he lives as much as the next guy."
"I want to help," said Neito Monoma as he looked into the shaded eyes of Eraserhead without blinking. "I know I lost my provisional license, but that doesn't make UA or the hero course any less my home. I can help defend them, and so I must."
"It's fine with me, Eraser," Vlad King informed the other man while his other students- Mines, Spiral, Rocket, and Rule gathered around him. None of them were looking at Monoma, but they didn't seem especially against his being there, either. Tapping an earpiece on the left side of his head, the Class B instructor then added, "They're just about in range of the defenses. Snipe, Midnight, and Power Loader are in position at the other gates with the second and third-years. If we're gonna catch them by surprise, we'd better do it now."
Eraserhead nodded before turning to his own students- Can't Stop Twinkling, Invisible Girl, and Anima- and saying, "You three stick close to me. I don't need any more problem children, understand?"
"Yes sir!" they answered in unison.
The gate in front of them swung open, allowing them to see a small fleet of vans headed up the road toward them just in time to see sonic concussions ripple the air between them and slamming the lead cars backwards so that they crashed into their followers. "Let's go!" Eraserhead ordered, the pros having already sprung into action.
In the United States, Hawks and Tsukuyomi were soaring high above the panicking city of Washington DC, keen eyes on the lookout for anything that looked out of place. The number two hero of Japan seemed to be listening to something on his radio, because he suddenly turned to his protégé with a hand on his ear as he said, "Just got a call from All Might. The Humarise members in this area spilled the beans, said the bomb is underneath one of those big strip malls. Seems like it was unloaded into the cargo area of a Target, and I've got the coordinates."
"I hope our comrades in the other countries are also in the good graces of Lady Luck," the Jet-Black Hero muttered as they changed their course abruptly.
"Okay, we've got a ride," Rody said as he jogged into the hangar where a small Cessna plane and the heroes were currently waiting. "Hop in, and I'll get us airborne." He had been the one to suggest that they requisition a plane from the airport and use it to get to Humarise's HQ in time to stop their plans. Even with such a transport and optimal flying weather, they would arrive with only something like thirty minutes to make it to the mother computer after landing, which lay deep inside of a mountain bunker behind a small army of cultists ready to die in order to stop them.
"You've flown before?" Gran Torino asked him dubiously.
"No, but I've studied how it works quite a bit," the boy answered with a shrug. "And unless any of you guys know how to fly like a pro, I'm our best shot for getting to Humarise before they set off those bombs and kill us all."
"I took some lessons," Weiss announced, surprising her friends. "I'm not confident in my ability to fly on my own, but between the two of us, we should be able to get the job done."
"Then get going," Gran Torino said as he gave Izuku a shove toward the plane.
Something about the phrase he had used caught Kurai's attention, leading him to turn toward the older man while the others filed past and ask, "Why does it sound like you're not coming with us?"
"Because I'm not," he answered bluntly. Before his charge could ask him why that was, he held up a hand and said, "Don't argue with me, boy. The world doesn't have the time for us to debate, so I'll just say this: someone's gotta stay here to help the citizens evacuate into the countryside so they're away from the concentrated part of any explosion in a rural area. If we all go, we'll have failed in our duty to Klayd. There's also the fact that I'm no spring chicken. I got myself involved in that fight between All Might and All For One, and I nearly got killed doing it. With you, Eri, Midoriya, and all of your friends along for the ride, I won't have a place in this battle."
Kurai regarded him with a raised eyebrow before he asked, "You sure you trust us kids not to screw this up? I know Mina still isn't sure about me being in the right headspace for this."
"You're not kids anymore," Gran Torino snorted. "And it's not the first time I've had to watch the fate of the world be in the hands of a reckless hero. I've decided to trust that you can do your job. Do us- and her- a favor, and be the champion of the people you said you would be."
"Sir, yes sir," Kurai replied with a slight grin. "We'll see you when this is all over."
"Pastries are on me if you win," the old man replied with a similar smile. "Do me a favor and make Nana proud."
Gotta find it, gotta find it! Uravity thought as she searched the rushing scenery of Paris below her from the clutches of Ryukyu's talons. The Dragoon Heroine's agency was putting in their every effort to find the Ideotrigger Bomb that was remaining hidden among the panicking masses, all in the hopes that if she could get her hands on it, she might be able to float it high enough to where the gas would not reach the citizens down below.
Nearly fifty minutes had already passed since Humarise's announcement, and while she knew it would be like finding a needle in a haystack- if it were even possible to find it in such a vast city with their given time frame- Uravity felt as though it were already taking too long to find the weapon. But there's no room to give up! she told herself fiercely as she refocused her gaze on the streets passing beneath her dangling feet, her eyes briefly drawn to the rapidly-moving crimson streak that told her Crescent Rose was on the move. Kurai and Deku have never given up, and I'm not about to let them down by giving it anything less than my all!
In spite of the horrible circumstances facing them, a small part of her couldn't help but be amused by it all. The first time Deku and I got to team up, we were looking for a bomb in class, she remembered. Even if we're a world apart, I know we can still accomplish our mission, together!
Unfortunately for the heroes headed for Humarise's hidden base, the flying weather was less than optimal as they drew closer to their destination. A sudden rainstorm had rolled in, turning their already-bumpy ride into something resembling a loosely-fastened rollercoaster, and slowing their progress enough to make them all sweat.
"Gonna be cutting it close!" Mina shouted to be heard above the propeller and howling storm. Their goal had finally come within sight, but as far as she could tell, there wasn't a landing zone. I hope Schnee and Rody know what they're doing, she thought as her stomach continued to clench into a painful knot.
"How long do we have?!" Eri asked in a similar fashion.
"Less than thirty minutes!" Rody shouted over his shoulder. "And I've got more bad news!"
"What, we're out of gas?!" Kurai replied. When the boy said nothing and Weiss simply looked back at him with a bland expression, he let out a groan and said, "Because of course we're outta gas."
"We need to get Rody out of here after we make our landing," Todoroki said as they felt the plane begin to descend.
"Don't worry about me!" the boy told them with a shake of his head. "Just get yourselves landed safely, and I'll make sure to keep my head down once this thing finishes wrecking!"
"Not a chance!" Eri said as Bakugo moved to open the door. To Kurai, she added, "I'll get him down on the ground and then join you!"
"You sure?!" he shouted as their explosive teammate heaved, and the cabin was depressurized, allowing the stormy air to swirl about the inside of the plane and make the flight even more unstable than before.
"Just worry about getting Ashid Queen down safely!" she replied with a slightly cheeky smile that reminded Kurai of Akarui. "We'll be fine!"
"They're about to open fire on us!" Weiss announced loudly as she and Rody vacated their spots in the cockpit. "We need to go!"
"Then let's go, dammit!" Bakugo shouted before he grabbed her wrist and yanked her out of the plane with him, her shout of protest quickly lost to the wind in the process.
"Is that guy insane?!" Rody gaped.
"You have no idea!" Mina shouted over the wind and engine, even as Eri grabbed him up bridal style and then leaped out into the open air, much like Bakugo had a moment ago.
"See you on the ground," Todoroki said before he followed their lead.
Before Izuku could go, Kurai stopped him and asked, "Do you have the awakening collar?!"
His friend nodded and pulled at his mask so that he could see the tech sitting snuggly around his neck. "I haven't turned it on, though!" he said, even as the plane began to descend in a more steep fashion.
"Change that on the way down!" Kurai told him. "Against two thousand guys and however many other people are hiding in the mountain, we're gonna need all the power we can get, and we can't risk you suffering an episode in the middle of this!"
"You really think this is the time?!" Izuku asked, hesitating even as they began to veer into a full-on crash course toward the ground.
"The world's at stake, man!" Mina shouted as she leaped into Kurai's arms, unprompted. "What better time could there be to take advantage of this?! Besides, this guy knows Energon better than anyone! If he says it's time, then I'd trust him on it!" Looking at her fiancé, she then added, "Now let's get off this thing before we end up as splat marks on the ground!"
"Right, sorry!" he apologized.
Shooting his friend one last look, Kurai added, "I trusted you with my power, Deku! Show me what you can do with it when you use it to the fullest!" Then he was gone, having used One For All to leap not only out, but away from the plane at high speed.
"Why the hell are these guys attacking UA?!" Spiral grunted, having just torn through a van that Axios had sent flying with a swipe of her shield. At a passing glance, he never would have expected the beautiful redhead to be so strong, but after seeing her in action against the Humarise members trying to turn them into Swiss cheese, he couldn't help but take a moment to think, She might be as strong as that Midoriya guy!
"Isn't it obvious?!" Monoma grunted as he ducked behind one of the vehicles that had been tossed on its side, narrowly avoiding a whizzing storm of bullets as he did. Eyeing the vehicle with a somewhat nasty grin on his face, he turned to look over at Mines, who immediately caught his eye and nodded, already having understood what the other boy was thinking.
As their rotund classmate called for covering fire, Tempest and Valkyrie moved in perfect unison, with the stealthy young man seeming to appear out of nowhere to unload his twin SMG's, forcing their enemies to duck behind whatever cover they could find in the trashed street. Valkyrie followed this up with a maniacal cackle that preceded and accompanied a barrage of grenades launched from her own weapon, forcing the Humarise devotees to abandon the idea of even trying to return fire for the moment.
Meanwhile, Mines had just finished a brief fist bump with Monoma, who drew back his fist while facing the car in front of them. "What's obvious?" he asked the other boy, even as he moved to mirror his classmate's actions.
"Hmm?" Monoma mused right before he punched the underside of the car as hard as he could without seriously injuring himself. "Ah, why Humarise is attacking us? Hikari pissed them off."
Instantly, Mines found that his fist was capable of hitting the car a lot harder than Monoma had. He flushed deep red with anger and embarrassment at how the blond boy could still be acting this way, and was about to let him have every single foul word he could scrap up when Monoma added- seemingly unaware of the tongue-lashing he was about to receive; "Not that I can blame him. Class 1-A may be a bunch of glory hogs, but I certainly can't see Midoriya suddenly turning around and killing civilians just for the fun of it. Assuming that the Alliance's intelligence about Humarise infiltrating the Otheon government is true, then it's only natural that he'd want to pick a fight with the people framing his comrade."
Mines was so surprised at this statement that it wasn't until someone from Humarise started shooting at their hiding space that he remembered that they had a plan to enact. "I'm ready," he muttered, trying to shake off the stupor that was trying to settle in on him.
"On your mark," Monoma replied, looking down at the screen on Mines' gauntlet that told him where their opponents were, since they couldn't poke their heads around to get a good look without being shot in the process.
"Wait!" another voice shouted, just before Huntsman slid into their hiding spot, ducking behind his shield, which surprisingly did not even have a scratch on it, despite taking multiple shots throughout the fight. "Lemme help you guys!" Before either of them could protest, the American had set aside his sword and placed a hand on each of their shoulders, a white glow emanating from him as he did. "Okay," he said through a wobbly grin. "This oughta teach 'em not to mess with this school."
"What do you mean, 'this school'?" Monoma snorted over his shoulder. "You're a part of Class 1-B, Arc. I expect my classmates to act like they're proud to be a part of our student body, even if they are here on exchange. Now…"
Looking over at Mines, who had been holding up a hand in a halting motion, but now dropped it, the pair let loose the ringing shout, "Compounded Impact!"
The van behind which they had been hiding rocketed away from them, slamming into a cluster of villains and their chosen shelter. Before it could be robbed of its spectacular momentum, Mines also then triggered his quirk, sending the wreckage flying even faster down the street until it crashed into a new trio of cars on approach to the school, culminating in a brief series of fireballs that erupted into the air, and causing all of the students in the vicinity to cringe at the noise and its implications.
Of course, there was no time to really consider such things, as a group that had managed to slip past Eraserhead's team were now coming in to flank them. One seemed to have some kind of electricity quirk, and Phantom Thief quickly found himself planning a way to get his hands on it.
That is, until Magnhild rushed forward, her grenade launcher morphing into a giant battle hammer while she called out, "Mine, mine, mine!" What followed that declaration saw to it that nobody in Class 1-B would ever deny Nora Valkyrie that which she wanted.
As they fell through the wind and rain, Kurai looked Mina in the eyes and said, "This is where you have to decide, love. Can you trust me to be the Guardian Hero again?"
As the wind lashed at their bodies and the ground rushed up to meet them, Mina took only a half-second to realize that she already had her answer. They were plummeting out of a doomed plane, headed straight for a fight where all of them could end up in body bags, and yet she felt no dread being in his arms. She knew that Kurai would do everything in his power to protect not only her, but the entire world that was counting on them, and he wasn't about to let his previous failings get in the way of that. She saw not the hollowed out boy that had first emerged from her beloved's coffin, nor the youth who shook at the terrifying memory of his own demise.
She saw Kai, ready to do his duty, but for her withheld word. Seeing him truly returned in that moment, there was only one thing that she could say.
"Let's kick some villain ass, sweetie."
"Heh," he grinned, his onyx eyes bright. "Music to my ears."
Izuku had watched for a second to make sure that he was clear before taking a deep breath and reaching beneath his mask to push the little power button that Akarui had told him to use when the moment came. Time to go beyond, again, he thought as he willed his power to fill his body, feeling a new tingling sensation run down his spine and up into his head. It wasn't an unpleasant sensation, merely a new one- and a feeling that he knew he would only ever experience once.
As his hair burned yellow and his eyes darkened to amethyst, he added to himself, I won't just master this power that you gave me, Kurai. I'll take it to heights that even you couldn't have imagined! I'll still be the number one hero, one day! I'll be Plus Ultra!
With that last thought, he rocketed out of the plane, just above the tree line before the vehicle crashed and burned, carving a deep gash in the forest that led up to the mountain base. He didn't bother trying to slow down as he slammed into the ground at the base of the mountain, leaving a crater at the point of impact that was quickly joined by a slab of ice and scorch marks from black and white thunderbolts, as well as nitro-blasts that heralded the arrival of the young heroes who were set to save the world.
There waited Freezer Burn, master of his own fate and the abilities bestowed upon him by the scars of his childhood.
There was Ground Zero, ambitious wrath embodied.
There, lit by the glow of her hexes, awaiting the signal to begin the fight of their lives, was Myrtenaster.
There, prepared to face death, was Ashid Queen, with nothing on earth that could have taken her from her beloved's side in that moment.
There emerged Deku, inheritor to the will and power of his closest friend, who had believed in him and his dream, even unto death.
There amid the rain and rolling thunder was Chronoa, inheritor of the last hope from the heroes of her future.
There stood Kai, the one on whom death could not retain its hold, and inheritor of the burdens and strength from all those who had gone before him.
There, at the base of the mountain, with an army standing between them and their goal, did seven heroes rise to end the mad ambitions of humanity's enemy.
Kai: Back to good ol' cliffhangers, are we?
Mataras: Yeah, it's felt like a while since I've done a good and proper one- what better time to utilize it than on the Eve of the 100th entry for this story?
Deku: Wow... 100? You've never reached this far with a story before, have you?
Mataras: Not even close.
Akarui: We doing anything special to celebrate?
Mataras: Of course. We'll be hosting a special podcast with some of our more regular reviewers, where we'll be handing out some very special prizes, as well as discuss some of what's to come for the year of 2024.
Kai: I'm kind of surprised that you're not holding out for a special podcast release on New Year's Eve, when it'll be the actual chapter 100.
Akarui: Yeah, you're the one always maintaining that the first 'chapter' on this site is just a prologue and doesn't really count as a full chapter.
Mataras: Trust me, I know what I'm doing for the timing on this one. Besides, we've got something special cooking for New Year's, so don't worry about it.
Akarui: I'm worried.
Kai: Same.
Deku: Ditto.
Mataras: Wha-?! Deku?!
Deku: I said what I said.
Mataras: Well, so much for me. You know you're screwed when even Deku doesn't trust what you're planning.
Akarui: Buddy, that ship sailed a while ago. Unrelated, but how'd Kurai and friends get the Humarise guys to talk that quickly?
Mataras: Like you don't already know.
Akarui: Obviously, but I thought I'd ask on behalf of the readers, since you pretty much skimmed over it.
Mataras: Go watch the podcast if you want the answer to that.
Kai: Wow. Clickbaiting, much?
Mataras: I said what I said.
Deku: Next time- Three Musketeers
Shigaraki: All For One!
Kai: And One for All-! Wait-
Akarui: WHO LET THIS GUY IN?!
Next time on Your Hero Academia...
"Did they get through?" Freezer Burn asked as Ashid Queen slid to be back-to-back with him.
"Affirmative," Myrtenaster answered as Ground Zero shot toward the largest of the three villains that had been deposited on the ground between them. "We just have to keep these pests from giving their leader any further backup."
"Pests, huh?" sneered one of the smaller villains as he and another like him got to their feet. "Is the kettle calling the pot black?" He was small in stature, with blue hair, serpent-like yellow eyes, and what looked like a pair of fangs peeking out just underneath his upper lip.
"You better watch your mouth before I decide to kill you instead of big ugly!" Ground Zero shouted as he slammed into the pale behemoth of a villain with a vicious explosion. "DIE!"
"He's gonna be one of the loud ones, isn't he?" asked the third villain, whom the heroes now realized was an exact copy of the second young man in every way. "Excellent- I was worried we'd have to deal with one of the strong, silent types like half-and-half over there." His and his twin's arms quickly transformed into a pair of sharp, extendable blades that looked hard enough to cut through just about anything. If the sinister grins the two were wearing were any indication, it seemed that they intended to do just that.
Freezer Burn elected to ignore them as he noticed a new group of gunmen coming toward their group, his eyes narrowing as he did. "We've still got the regular acolytes to deal with," he announced. "Who's taking on who?"
"Bakugo's already got the big guy, so I'll handle Thing One and Thing Two," Mina asserted as acid coated her arms while she sized up their smaller opponents. From the smell and the way that it was eating at the ground it touched when it fell from her hands, it was clear that she wasn't about to hold back.
"Ha!" Ground Zero smirked as he glanced sidelong at the pink girl. "Don't think that taking on two of these losers makes you any better than me!"
"I've got something to handle the acolytes coming from the south, so we'll leave the rest to you, Todoroki," Myrtenaster added as she whirled her rapier, conjuring a half-dozen hexes of varying colors around Ground Zero's gauntlets, whose opponent was now snarling unintelligibly.
"Got it," he nodded as he reaffixed his eyes on the north, where he could now see many gunmen taking aim at him and his friends. "Good luck, everyone."