A/N: Happy Thanksgiving to all! It may be a cliché, but allow me to say that I am annually thankful for you guys, the readers, who make all the work that I put into my stories well worth the efforts. Without you guys, there would be no writings of the Guardian Hero.
...I know that could be taken either way for some people (you know who you are), so I'm just gonna let you guys get on with the reading (and hopefully enjoying) of the story!
Strike Back
"Well, who woulda seen this one coming?" Kurai let out a dry chuckle as he looked out the window of the train that he and the others were occupying to see the evening platform of the station where they were set to get off.
The only real issue with this plan was that there was a sizeable crowd of people, both media and regular folks alike who wanted a chance to talk to him about the video that he had released earlier in the day, which had taken the entire internet by storm. It wasn't as bad as he would have expected if he were back in Japan, but he figured that in a smaller country like Klayd, he wouldn't have attracted so much attention. I suppose this is a lesson in never underestimating the masses, he thought as he detected a few camera flashes going off from outside.
His eyes started to glass over again, but before he could completely space out, he shook himself and forced his gaze remain focused while his comrades expressed various degrees of amusement at their apparent predicament.
"We all saw this one coming," Eri grinned at him.
"I just don't get how they zeroed in on me so fast," he muttered as they felt the train come to a stop. "I didn't say where I was broadcasting from."
"You singled out Otheon, and once it was clear that their government was in no position to arrest you, the next logical step would be to look for you in nearby nations," Gran Torino pointed out as they all stood up. "In a backwater country like this one, with no major players in the world of heroics, it wouldn't be hard for people to be on the lookout for someone matching your description." When they had first boarded the train, a number of people had tried to approach him with questions and requests, but a stony silence from the group and net of Blackwhip energy sectioning off their seats from everyone else drove the point home that they did not wish to be disturbed at the moment. When the Fifth's quirk first appeared, everyone tensed up, ready to spring into action the second that it looked like he was about to do anything other than ensure their privacy, but this had proven an unnecessary concern, as their target of concern had remained perfectly docile throughout the ride.
Kurai had lowered the barrier once the train was moving and people stopped trying to approach him, but now he noticed that a number of the passengers were eyeing their group with curiosity once again. Making sure to keep Blackwhip ready for use at a moment's notice, he moved out of his seat and reached for the suitcases that they had stashed in the overhead compartments.
"And here I thought the media monkeys back home were a bunch of bloodhounds," he grumbled as he retrieved his and Mina's luggage.
"Which are they, monkeys or blood hounds?" she asked as she took her suitcase from him.
"Both," he smirked as they moved to depart the coach. "I guess that makes them blood monkeys?"
"Watch it, kid," Gran Torino warned him as they waited for the other passengers to disembark. "Tsukauchi told me you don't have a lot of patience for these guys, but I suggest you use whatever you've got right now. If you want this whole stunt to succeed, you need to keep the ball rolling. That last video is definitely stirring up a hornet's nest, but one little declaration of war isn't gonna sell it to everybody. There are those that are doubting that you're even you. Those cameras out there are your chance to keep the attention of our enemies on you and not let them focus back your friend."
"We're also trying to keep the mystery alive, keep them guessing," Kurai countered. "If I go out there and give those reporters the story they're looking for, my ambiguity becomes a non-factor."
"Kid, have you ever seen a politician being interviewed?" Gran Torino deadpanned as people began to shuffle past them with openly curious gazes.
"A few times, but why does that matter?" Kurai asked as he made a face. "I don't much like them, either."
"Ever notice how they have a tendency to answer a question that has nothing to do with what's being asked?"
"Again, reasons not to like people who sit in front of a camera for a living."
"The point is, they tend to answer the questions that they want people to ask," the old man said as he raised his cane in a threatening manner, which caused Kurai to clam up instantly. "They do that, and people love them for some reason. Don't ask me why it works that way, it just does. All you have to do is go out there and answer the questions that you want them to ask you, and they'll eat it up. Some of the element of surprise is preserved, and you get people continuing to talk about you, strengthening your claim that it really is you who is back and ready to dole out some justice on their shady neighbors."
Mina and Kurai exchanged a look before they shrugged and the boy said, "Worth a shot, I suppose."
"What do you say we give the gossip columns something to talk about?" his fiancée grinned mischievously as she patted her clavicle, where her engagement ring was hanging inside of her shirt from a necklace.
"Let's save that for a last resort," he said with a half-hearted grin as she gave him a pouting face. "Sorry, but I don't want to have to explain that to our teachers on top of the media until after this whole thing is over with, if at all possible."
"Man, what good is having a ring if I can't show it off?" the pink girl complained while Gran Torino rolled his eyes and the other students grinned at their friend.
"Think of it as building suspense," Kurai told her cheerfully, his irritation at having to deal with the paparazzi having apparently been quelled by her new dilemma- though she was swift to notice the returned twitching in his fingers.
The quartet of heroes were the last to get off of the coach that they had occupied, and they immediately found themselves surrounded on all sides by flashing cameras and microphones aimed at Kurai as the reporters all fired a rapid stream of questions at him. The speed at which they spoke, coupled with the fact that they were speaking in his chosen second language, all served to leave him feeling discombobulated and uncertain of how to proceed.
After a couple of seconds of this, he gave vent to a small frown and shouted, "Hey! What's a guy gotta do to get some breathing room?!" He made sure to do so in Japanese, which got a number of the media people to look at him in confusion while halting their advance and stilling their tongues for a moment. The second he was sure that he would be able to speak without having to shout, he switched to English and said, "Not so fun when people are yelling at you in a language you barely understand, is it?" To be fair, he had more than a solid understanding of the English language, but he was hoping to make at least some of them feel awkward about how they had all but ambushed a teenage hero from practically out of nowhere.
This tactic did not work.
"Young man, you claimed to be the hero course student who was confirmed dead in Japan two months ago," said a reporter with sea green hair as she thrust the mic at his face so that it almost collided with his nose, having been a shade faster than the other media workers in the station. "Yet you share almost zero physical characteristics with the Guardian Hero. How can we take your word for it when you claim to be the same person?"
"If you weren't taking my word for it, you wouldn't have all gathered here for the hot scoop," he responded dryly. "Besides, if you've done your homework, you've already run facial recognition on the video that I posted, which would confirm my identity for you. The fact that my hair color has changed isn't enough of a reason for you to doubt my identity- if you really held reservations, you'd have led with 'why aren't you dead'?"
"You also lack the prosthetic that the hero Kai was known for," the reporter shot back. "How do you explain the current state of your right arm, if you are Kai?"
"There are a lot of quirks in this world," Kurai replied, remembering what Gran Torino had told him about being vague in the current situation. "Look, you know I'm Kai, I know I'm Kai, so if your only interest is keeping me here to argue my identity in circles, then I'd just as soon as move on with my day."
"Young man, if you are Kai, then could you shed some light on the circumstances behind your 'death', as it were?" inquired another reporter, this one a man with five eyes and a bald head. "What happened on Nabu Island following your victory against the villain known as Nine?"
"The villains were detained, and my class went home to rest and recover from a situation that we should have never been put into in the first place," Kurai answered evenly.
"What of the rumors concerning a funeral for you at your school that was supposedly interrupted by a villain?" asked the first reporter.
"I wouldn't know," the boy answered with a snarky grin. "Not like I can attend my own funeral, can I?"
"Young man, were you or were you not killed in action on Nabu Island?" asked yet another reporter.
Man, they're really zeroing in on that one, Kurai thought as he prepared his answer. I guess I can't really blame them for being curious, though.
"If your definition of 'killed' is set by someone who's been buried six feet under, then no, I wasn't killed," he replied with a wry expression. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm not exactly here for a-"
"What about the fact that your quirk does not match the description of the Guardian Hero?" the first reporter asked, which got him to stop in place. "You claim to be the same individual who stopped the efforts of Humarise in the attack on your homeland, but the satellite imagery and long-range cameras show nothing in the way of a bright light that Kai was shown to wield."
Before Kurai could make a reply, Mina stepped up to stand between her fiancé and the reporters, which seemed to take a few of them aback. "Hi there," she said with a thin smile. "I'm Mina Ashido, otherwise known as Ashid Queen back home. In addition to being Kurai's classmate at UA High, I've also been his girlfriend since the beginning of the year. You can verify that fact via an interview we had back in November. So let me tell all of you here- however different he looks, in whatever way that he's changed, he's still the same Kai that's saved the lives of the people counting on him so many times. Stop wasting his time with stupid questions, so we can get on and actually do the jobs that we came here to do- namely, stopping the psychopaths that want to kill eighty percent of the world's population."
There was a brief, stunned silence that resulted from her assertion concerning the validity of their prying into Kurai's personal matters. This was followed up by the boy himself gripping her hand as he looked into the most concentrated cluster of cameras and said, "Get some perspective, people. I'm here to do what I've always done: stand my ground and stop the bad guys in their tracks. Instead of second-guessing my identity and intent, just watch what I do in the coming days. That'll be my answer to all of your doubts." Turning his head toward Eri and Gran Torino, he said, "Let's go. We're done here."
At this, the crowd of reporters tried to protest, but the heroes responded by using their quirks- or in Mina's case, jumping into Kurai's arms before he used his- to vault over their heads and make a hasty exit from the transit platform. As soon as they were clear of the crowds, Kurai looked over his shoulder at Gran Torino before he asked, "Was that vague enough?"
"We'll review your performance in detail later," the old man answered as they skidded to a stop at a street corner. "For now, I'm more interested in getting to our hotel and grabbing some grub."
"I made sure that this hotel has a microwave in each room," Eri said as they started walking at a brisk pace, not wanting to give the crowd a chance to catch up to them. "You guys can keep your heads down while I go to the convenience store and grab some food- and I'll make sure to grab your pastries, sir."
"What makes you think you can blend in with a crowd any better than the rest of us?" the old man asked as Kurai pulled up a map of the small city that they were in on his scouter, which would allow him to find the quickest route to their lodging for the night. "Your face is gonna be all over the news with ours'."
"Like this," she replied as they rounded a corner into a back alley. With a brief glow from her horn, her hair reverted to its natural off-white color while the protrusion on her forehead enlarged itself a couple of centimeters. "There. Once I change my clothes, hardly anyone will give me a second look when I go out."
"Uh… maybe you shoulda done that after we got into our rooms?" Mina pointed out. "If someone sees you with us, the news people will be on the lookout for someone matching either of your descriptions."
"Not when I do this," the other girl grinned before her horn glowed again, and she once more had raven locks framing her crimson eyes and horn, which had shrank a little so that it was easier for her to hide. "I can reverse the reversal, remember?"
"That's a handy trick to have," Gran Torino mused, sounding impressed.
"I can even revert myself back to my appearance from when I visited Kai in the hospital," she added, looking rather pleased at the praise she was receiving. "So that's two disguises I've got for situations like this."
"Okay, don't start showboating," the older hero warned her. "I got enough of that from your predecessor."
"Sorry, sir."
"Wait, are you talking about me or All Might?" Kurai asked with a small frown.
"Yes."
The quartet spent the night in a comfortable hotel in the relative center of the town that was about a twenty-minute drive from the border of Otheon. Once they had settled in, Kurai called Todoroki to update him on their plans, which led to him learning that the other trio of heroes would be arriving via train in the late morning.
"We'll have to set up surveillance in order try and intercept Midoriya before he arrives at the checkpoint for getting into Klayd," the heterochromic boy said while Kurai paced in front of his bed. "I'm guessing that Humarise will try to trap him there, probably with the police's help."
"You don't think he'll just try to jump the border somewhere else?" Mina asked, having been able to hear the conversation, due to the scouter being on speaker.
"If he tries to cross into Klayd illegally, Otheon would have grounds to demand that he be extradited back into their custody," her fiancé said with a negative shake of his head. "If we want to avoid having two countries chasing him, we have to get him across the border legally."
"But what's to stop the checkpoint people from denying his request for asylum and just detaining him until the Otheon authorities can take him away?" Eri inquired. "We should be ready for that possibility."
"Already thought of that," Kurai assured her. "Under the Apocalypse Contingency, any person or people that attack a hero associated with the World Hero Alliance, for any reason, forfeit their right to protection from external affairs. If the cops attack him when he tries to cross the border, we have clearance to jump in and deal with them."
"If that's the case, why didn't Endeavor use force to get the police to back off?" Weiss asked from the other end of the line.
"He could have, but it wouldn't have looked very good for the alliance, and he's really there to protect the people if and when Humarise does attack Otheon," the Guardian Hero reminded her. "The citizens at large are his main concern, while ours' is getting to the bottom of why Izuku is being targeted all of a sudden."
"And when we find 'em, we blast 'em all to hell!" Bakugo shouted from the background.
"Wow, I didn't know you cared about Izuku enough to want to go after his enemies," Mina snickered.
"Shut up, Raccoon Eyes, they were my enemies first!"
"Actually, they were my enemies before anyone else in this group," Kurai pointed out with a wry grin. "You know, from when they gassed Kanto and shot at me."
"That's not-! It's not the same!" Bakugo snapped. "If anyone is gonna run Deku down, it's gonna be me!"
"Still my job, since he has my old quirk," Kurai replied, his grin widening. "If anyone's gotta whip him into shape-"
"No!" Bakugo raged. "No, no, no! I had dibs on beating Deku before any of you losers! You and Icy-Hot just jumped on the bandwagon once UA started!"
"Katsuki, no explosions in the hotel!" Weiss shouted, followed by the sounds of a brief argument in the background.
"I think we would all be best served by getting some rest," Todoroki said, sounding exasperated. "Our train should arrive tomorrow at 10:30, barring any delays."
"Given our class' unlucky streak, I'd be willing to bet money on there being a delay due to villainy, or Izuku's shenanigans," Mina piped up.
"…How much money are we talking?" Kurai asked her.
Just before bedtime rolled in for the group, the Guardian Hero asked the girls to meet with him and Gran Torino in their room. Unsure of what he wished to discuss, they were somewhat surprised when they went in to see the young man looking at the entrance with a hard- nearly hostile- look in his eyes. "Time for a difficult discussion," he said without preamble, giving both of the girls a sinking feeling while Gran Torino's grip tightened on his cane. "I don't like the way you've all been looking at me ever since we got to Klayd. It's not helping me to keep my focus, and while I know it's unreasonable of me to ask that you stop worrying so much, I would ask that you not look at me like I'm a nuke about to go off."
"Can you blame us, kid?" Gran Torino replied in a terse voice. "You might be the most powerful hero in the world, and you're a walking ball of PTSD. Whether or not you mean well, the fact that you're at risk for major instabilities is not something that we can afford to take lightly."
"When All Might was just about killed by All For One, and undoubtedly started carrying more stress than he should have been able to handle, did you start treating him the way you're treating me?" Kurai shot back, his words cutting at the older hero like a whip. "He not only escaped death by the skin of his teeth, he forced himself to keep up appearances for the sake of the world- or so he claimed. Personally, I think he was doing it for himself more than anyone else, but that's a discussion for another time. Point is, he went at it alone, allowed no one to help him- something that cannot be said of me in this moment."
"Except that you're asking us to leave you alone," Eri murmured, making sure to keep her voice as non-confrontational as possible.
"Did the words 'leave me alone' come out of my mouth at any point in this discussion?" Kurai replied, his tone decreasing its intensity to match hers'. "I asked you guys to stop looking at me like I'm a liability. I'm not, for two reasons."
"Okay, then let's hear 'em," Mina asserted before anyone could argue that his behavior over the last few days only showed someone who was barely keeping it together.
"First off, even if I've developed a few tics associated with the memories of my fight on Nabu, I haven't lost my head when it comes to the scuffles we've had to deal with since coming here," he said firmly while maintaining eye contact with his significant other. "Second, and perhaps more importantly, I have a pretty thorough contingency for if my mind does check out at any given point in this mess."
"Look, Kai, I'm doing my best to keep an eye out for it-"
"Not you," the white-haired teen said to interrupt Eri with an emphatic shake of his head. Tapping the side of his head, he then added, "The vestiges. More specifically, my vestige."
"Come again?" Mina inquired, feeling just as confused as the others seemed to be.
"Back in Kanto, the Tenth didn't just take control of my body the instant that my quirk stopped being suppressed," he explained wryly. "Miss Rei and I were trying to find someplace to take shelter from the gas, and somebody with a laser-type quirk getting put into overdrive nearly skewered me. Long story short, my memory gets triggered, I pass out and basically take a back seat while my vestige goes on a joyride in my body."
"Whoa, wait," Mina said, her eyes widening with worry. "I thought you said that you and your vestige had worked things out! That he wasn't gonna be taking over your body anymore?"
"I specifically remember saying 'no more hostile takeovers'," Kurai countered patiently. "He and I are not wrestling for control of my body. I'm not sure if he and I can 'tag out' anytime we want, so to speak, but if there's no driver in the front seat while the engine's running, there's another fully licensed operator ready to go."
There was a good five seconds of silence before Eri said, "I lived through the end of the world, and… that was still probably one of the weirdest things I've ever been told in my life."
"Look, my point is that we have a job to do while we're here, and on until the day we decide to retire from the life," Kurai sighed as he leaned back in his chair to reach up and pull his lengthy mop back from his brow. "I'm committed to that, and I need to know that you guys are gonna be equally so. Up against a group like Humarise, you all do not have the time to spare to be constantly watching over your shoulders, waiting to see if the littlest thing is gonna set me off." Turning to look at Gran Torino more directly, he muttered, "You agreed to take me along for this mission, which means that you had to decide whether or not I could handle what's coming our way. Are you going back on your decision or not?" With a slightly mischievous look about him, he added, "We can't be playing 'chicken' when it comes to the life of a hero, now can we? No time to waste on changing our minds every time something comes along to disrupt our way of seeing things, right?"
Gran Torino's brow bent downward behind his mask before he growled, "You think you're pretty funny, don't you?"
"Sir, I'm hilarious," Kurai snickered. Blackwhip shot out of his arms and locked the elderly hero in place before he could make it all the way across the room, the air burst from his boot ruffling his target's hair, but nothing more. With a raised eyebrow, his young charge then said, "I'm still sharp, sir. Combat doesn't frighten me- being forced to sit on the sidelines because no one trusts me to do my job does. So for the last time, are you guys going to trust that I can be the hero I need to be, or are you gonna give me the order to go home?"
As he spoke, he disengaged his quirk and allowed Gran Torino to leap away and land next to where he had dropped his cane, taking care to mind the gazes of Mina and Eri as they looked a silent message between them. Once the elderly hero had collected himself again while grumbling under his breath, Eri spoke up to say, "For what it's worth, the vestiges agree with his and the Tenth's fallback plan. I have confidence in them, so I'll trust that this is the right thing to do."
"If you're still sharp enough to use a mostly-unfamiliar quirk without any hesitation and that level of restraint, I guess I don't have a good reason to bench you," their supervisor grumbled. "Plus if Nana is vouching for you… Well, enough has been said on my part. You made your point, kid."
Last to speak was Mina, which was unusual enough in it of itself, but Kurai made no sound or movement to hasten her reply, her caramel eyes scanning his blackened orbs for… something, he wasn't quite sure what. When nearly thirty seconds had gone by without another word being spoken between the lot of them, Gran Torino gestured for Eri to follow him while saying, "Come on, kid. Best if we give them a minute."
"Fine by me," the girl said as she followed the old man out the door. However, she did add over her shoulder the words, "Let me know if you need me to pick something up from the store while we're out."
"Thank you," Kurai replied with an incline of his head. Once they were gone, he flicked his eyes back to Mina, who still had yet to move from where she had been studying his face with a slightly unnerving intensity. Even so, he refused to break the silence, knowing that she would only tell him what was on her mind in her own time.
It took a little while, but eventually she stirred and said, "The last time you made a promise like this to me, you broke it. I wanna believe you- I really do. It's just really hard to when I keep seeing you dead in my dreams almost every night. Then I wake up and remember that it wasn't just a dream, that all of that actually happened." She gave him a sad look before saying, "I love you, and I really want to believe you again. I'm not even worried that you're gonna set out to go on a suicide run or anything like that, really. I just don't think you actually know your own limits as well as you say you do."
"Maybe I don't," Kurai shrugged, surprising her with his calm acceptance of her assessment. "But that's why I need to know that you guys are acting like heroes ought to while this is all going on. I need to know that you're all looking at the big picture instead of worrying about one corner of it."
"You're a bigger piece of the picture than a corner, sweetie," she giggled, which he was glad to see.
"Even if that is the case, I'm still not the whole picture," he grinned briefly in response. "I'm glad to know that you're looking out for me, truly. But if I become the reason that you weren't able to save somebody, or even ended up getting hurt, yourself? All my power wouldn't mean much, then. What good is it to be that kind of hero when the only thing they do is leave a trail of agony behind them?"
"Kurai, what exactly are you trying to say here?" Mina asked, her brow bending downward a little bit.
"I'm asking you for a lot," he admitted, his smile now gone. "I'm asking you to trust that I've learned from my mistakes, and that I won't subject you to that kind of pain again. I know that what I'm asking for is not easy, but I have to ask it of you, anyway. We both knew that even after I got out of the hospital, I would never be exactly the same as I was before Nabu. I've accepted that- have you?"
Even as he posed the question, Mina's gut sank. In order to try and buy herself some more time, she muttered, "I hate this 'turning-into-adults' thing. It's nowhere near as fun as I thought it was gonna be."
"You're stalling," Kurai pointed out, though he did allow a little grin back onto his face.
"I'm… trying not to fight it," she admitted with a slightly pained expression. "I mean, you look different and all, but in so many ways, you're just the way you've always been, so… Ugh, this is so confusing!" The poor girl grabbed at her hair in frustration, prompting Kurai to stand up and gently grip her arms so that she wouldn't damage her scalp with the force she might have applied otherwise.
"Tell you what," he said softly when she looked up to see him smiling with equal gentleness. "Let's compromise. Next time we go into a fight, pay close attention to me and what I do- how I handle things. Hopefully after that, you'll understand why I'm not worried about risking an identity crisis mid-battle."
At that, Mina's gaze became a mixture of concern and curiosity. "What do you think I'm gonna see?" she inquired of him.
"Hopefully something that'll convince you that my confidence is warranted," he replied with a bigger grin. "Can I ask you to trust me that far?"
"…Alright," she conceded, much to his relief. "But if I see any signs that you're blanking out on me, I'll have Eri bench you. Agreed?"
"As you wish," he said cheerily. "Now, let's get out and start a patrol- we'd better make ourselves familiar with this town's layout, just in case we run into trouble out here."
"And like that, my worries are gone," she grumbled, though it was with a slight grin that she said this. "Your work ethic is still nuts, so I guess there can't be too much wrong with you."
"Seriously?!"
The evening passed without further incident, and in the morning, the heroes quietly slipped out of the hotel and took to the rooftops, Eri surprising them all with how good she was at moving unseen, even in what could technically be considered broad daylight. Her guidance helped even Mina to move through the small city without being detected by the people around and below them.
"In the future, stealth wasn't a luxury, it was a necessity for survival," she explained when they asked how she had gotten so good, especially when her quirks did not lend themselves to unseen movement. "If you were seen during a mission, you were probably dead. Compared to all of that, this is child's play."
"Says the kid," Gran Torino commented as he leaped after the trio onto a slanted rooftop.
"In circumstances like ours', age is just a number," Kurai quipped back. "You can hardly call us children after what we've been through."
Gran Torino had let out a grunt in response, and after that, their talking was reduced to a minimum as they patrolled the city. This was partly to accomplish their due diligence as members of the World Hero Alliance, but for the kids, it was also largely a way to kill time until they received the call from Todoroki that it was time for them to meet up- which came a little sooner than they had expected.
The quartet were keeping an eye on the city plaza, where a farmer's market seemed to be taking place, when Kurai's scouter lit up to alert him to an incoming call. "The wha-? Bakugo?" His confused muttering drew the attention of teammates just in time for him to connect the call and ask, "Bakugo? What happened to Todoroki?"
"What, I'm not good enough to-?! Ah, never mind!" the blond boy shouted on the other end, even as the quartet detected a rumbling sound coming from the mountains across the border. "Deku screwed the pooch! Icy-Hot said it was time for you to get your ass in gear and play backup!"
"Should I even bother asking if you had something to do with the big bang we just heard?" Kurai deadpanned as he saw a small dust cloud rising from the same mountains.
"Get your asses over here!"
Kurai disconnected the call and turned to scoop Mina into his arms while he said, "We're on." In a lowered tone that only she could hear, he added, "Watch me."
The second that she nodded, black and white lightning sparked in the air before Kurai and Eri launched themselves toward the mountain range at high speed, the resulting rush of wind buffeting a shouting Gran Torino as he was unintentionally left far behind the younger heroes.
"You kids are just as bad as All Might!" he yelled after them.
Izuku and his new travelling companion/fellow fugitive, Rody, had just managed to get the border within their sights when they ran into a couple of problems. One, the road into Klayd was blocked by a small army of police officers. Two, once Izuku had managed to come up with a plan to get past them safely, a helicopter carrying a handful of Humarise assassins had shown up to ambush them in the mountains. One of them had a projectile-type quirk that allowed her to fully control and amplify the impact of any missile that she fired from her bow, and was responsible for nearly skewering Izuku during one of their previous encounters before he and Rody had managed to escape. The others, he had never seen before, but he had no doubt that they were just as dangerous.
The archer opened fire on the pair from the helicopter as soon as she had them in her sights, but after having encountered the woman twice now, Deku had countermeasures in mind. "Keep your head down!" he shouted at Rody as he batted the first arrow away before it could strike him.
"Don't gotta tell me!" the other boy yelped as he dove behind a huge boulder that he hoped would shield him from harm, at least for a little while.
Fixing his eyes on the helicopter, Deku allowed his compact gauntlets to enlarge and cover his hands and forearms as he prepared to fight back.
Stretching his right hand out and aiming his fingers at the helicopter, he focused his power and shouted, "Cancer… Flash!" Five lasers shot out of his fingertips and intercepted two of the assassin's arrows while the other three bursts pierced the helicopter's shell, causing the pilot inside to panic momentarily and swerve away from their targets. Despite this, three more assassins were able to jump out close enough to the mountain in order to menace the boys.
One of them was a tall, muscular man, though nowhere near the intimidating mass that was Endeavor. Deku was quick to notice what looked like large ball bearings on his knuckles, and immediately decided that it would be best if he stayed away from those. The other assassins were armed with guns, which lent itself to the thought that they either didn't have quirks, or that they had no practical purpose in a fight, but Deku wasn't about to discount the possibility.
He was outnumbered, and had started the fight by being outmaneuvered, hardly the ideal circumstances for someone on the run from the law. This wouldn't stop Kurai, though, he thought as he leapt into action, scattering laser blasts at one of the gunmen and forcing him to dive for cover, even as his companions advanced on the young hero. Having seen this, Deku swung his leg up and over to crash into the mountainside, breaking apart the stones and putting several hundred pounds of rock between him and the bullets that were about to be unloaded into his body via a landslide.
It worked against the bullets, but then a huge metal ball crashed through the improvised wall and nearly took his head off in the process. Before he could get off another counterattack, Deku found himself under fire from another arrow, the archer on the helicopter having apparently recovered from his earlier retaliation. On top of that, he knew that the other assassin was probably getting ready to take their own shot from behind his back.
His frustration at the situation quickly exploded with his temper as he gave vent to a shout of rage that fueled a high jump, followed by a storm of lasers that slammed into the three assassins on the ground, and lighting the area up with explosions that kicked up a lot of dust. Right after that, he caught the arrow that had been fired at him and threw it back in the direction it had come from, which seemed to startle the archer, because she didn't react in time to change its direction, allowing the arrow to stick in the door of the helicopter right next to her arm.
However, when he realized that she had not even flinched from the proximity of the arrow, he had to assume that her attention was focused elsewhere. A cry of fright that sounded like it was coming from where Rody had hid confirmed it, causing him to turn his head and see his friend about to get hit by another arrow that he had missed.
He was about to call out for the boy when he realized that it was rapidly growing colder, which brought a quick smile to his face. Just before Rody could be shot, ice sprang up and halted the missile in place. "Midoriya!" Freezer Burn shouted as he and Myrtenaster skated onto the scene, with Ground Zero barreling right toward the helicopter. "Are you alright?!"
"Better, now that you're all here!"
"Stupid nerd!" Ground Zero roared as he slammed onto the cockpit window, startling the pilot inside. "How do you expect to be a master of that quirk if you can't even take on a few extras like these?!"
He drew back a hand to slap the glass with an explosion, but was stopped when Myrtenaster shouted, "Katsuki, look out!"
Without a second thought, he launched himself backwards, just in time to avoid a small cluster of bullets. At first Deku thought that one of the assassins had gotten a clear shot, but he quickly realized that the projectiles had come from the wrong direction. Switching his gaze to peer down the mountainside, he saw that the police down by the station had taken up sniping positions and were the ones shooting at them from below.
They were caught in a literal crossfire, and Rody was still in imminent danger.
He gave vent to another shout of frustration before he fired a warning shot in the direction of the police barricade, forcing them to scatter and obscuring their vision with a dust cloud that he hoped would buy them a little time to get their bearings.
"I'll handle the police!" Myrtenaster shouted as she leaped from hex to hex as she made her way down the mountain. "You three take care of these thugs!"
"Thanks!" Deku called after her.
Now that he had someone to cover their backs, he could focus on keeping Rody safe. He quickly found the other boy, still desperately clutching onto the briefcase that had caused all of their problems while Freezer Burn held off the Humarise assassin who could apparently fire cannonballs out of his knuckles. Ground Zero was busy evading gunfire from the other villains while cursing them out, but he didn't seem to need help, nor did Deku think that his assistance would be welcome. Focus on the archer for now, he decided as he landed on the mountainside and saw the woman lining up to take another shot. Not on my watch!
Taking careful aim with his right pointer finger, he waited until the arrow on the woman's bow glowed green, the telltale sign that she had engaged her quirk and was prepared to fire. "May the wrath of the stars pierce you…" he growled as he fired off a condensed energon blast that was no bigger than the ballpoint on a pen. "Sagittarius… FLASH!"
The bolt flew well and true to strike at the bow and snap the top half so that it hung uselessly from the assassin's hand, who then let out a cry of pain as the bow disappeared and she clutched at her arm. Deku's eyes widened as he realized that she hadn't been holding a bow- her hand was the bow, which meant that he had just broken part of her hand.
Before he could fully process what had just happened, the woman's expression changed from pain to one of disgust as she looked down at herself. She seemed to mutter something before she took a couple of steps and walked off the helicopter, sending her plummeting toward the ground far below. The movements were so casual, so unhurried that it wasn't until she was nearly halfway to the ground that Deku realized what he had just seen- and now there was no way for him to reach her in time to keep her from meeting a messy end on the rocks.
Just as he was about to avert his gaze to avoid a horrific sight, there was a rush of wind and lightning that intercepted the woman's fall and swept her up onto a nearby outcropping. Deku blinked in surprise as he realized that it was Chronoa who had a hold on the now-struggling assassin as she surveyed the situation around them.
"Need a hand?" Deku turned at the sound of a familiar voice and was somewhat startled to see Kai standing on absolutely nothing as he looked down at the chaos below them.
"We need to protect Rody and the briefcase that he's carrying," he replied to his friend as he felt relief sweep through him. "Humarise wants it badly enough to kill us out in the open for it."
"Is that the guy with Todoroki?" Kai asked as he took note of the boy hiding behind their other friend.
"Yeah!"
"You watch over him, then," the Guardian Hero said as black lightning started to crawl across his body. "You're more suited for precise long-range attacks than I am right now."
"What are you gonna do?" Deku asked.
"Cut off their escape route," Kai answered him with a grim sort of smile as he eyed the helicopter. "Then I'm gonna let the Otheon government know what I think of dirty cops."
Before Deku could ask what he meant by that, the other boy's right hand was coated in black lightning, followed by him shooting toward the helicopter with the same arm drawn back. As Kai flew toward the middle of the vehicle, he let out a ringing shout in the form of the word, "Chidori!" His fingers sheared through the metal plating, destroying the helicopter in an instant, and ejecting the pilot, who was yelling in terror as electricity and flames licked at his body while he flew through the air.
Fortunately for him, a small blur of white and yellow appeared to catch him up and take him to safety, though his relief was cut short when Gran Torino's boot collided with his head and knocked him unconscious. The old man glared up at Kai, who was nodding at his hand, as if satisfied with the damage that he had managed to wreak with his new powers. "Did'ja have a plan to save this guy?!" his mentor demanded.
"Failing your appearance, I'd have used Blackwhip," he answered over his shoulder. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I think Todoroki could use a hand with his problem. I've got backup to deal with." Then he was gone in another rush of wind.
Deku barely noticed, though. As soon as Kai had mentioned Todoroki, he turned back to see the other hero now being forced to shelter himself and Rody with an ice dome that was straining to hold against a barrage of iron balls coming from the big assassin. They were coming out a lot faster and bigger than before, leading Deku to the conclusion that he must have taken some kind of quirk-enhancing drug. Add that to the gunfire that Ground Zero was having to deal with, and his friends were in for a bad time.
"Get away from my friends!" Deku shouted as he focused on a stream of memories that fueled his stronger emotions- remembering the despair upon realizing that he was powerless to become a hero like All Might, how he had felt when he came to know that even with One For All, he couldn't save his best friend. Never again! he thought as his hair burned yellow and his eyes darkened to a rich violet. This time, I'll master my powers so that I can save everyone, even Kurai!
His power blazed as he streaked through the air like a comet to crash into the large villain. "You're not hurting my friends!" he shouted as he slammed his right fist into the villain's iron-studded knuckles, shattering the metal and following it up with a reverse kick that connected solidly with his enemy's chest, sending him crashing into the mountainside. Not wanting to give his opponent a chance to recover his strength, he ran at the stunned man, summoning more power into his right arm as he shouted, "Taurus…!"
"Wait, I yield!" the big villain shouted as he raised his arms in a futile attempt to protect himself. "I give! I'll tell you whatever you want to know!"
Deku, having been caught off-guard by the words, was only able to just shift his aim so that his punch slammed into the stone face of the mountain next to the man's head, breaking it apart and sending pieces flying in every direction. Not wanting his enemy to think that he had been caught off-guard, he looked the man in the eye and said, "Start talking, or the next one won't miss." Even as the hero forced himself to release his tentative hold on the raging power of the stars that flowed through his veins, he did his best to emulate the threatening tone he had heard Kurai use whenever they had combat practice and he had to play the part of the villain.
Before the man could answer, Deku recoiled in horror as his captive's head was suddenly snapped back, blood and gray matter spraying from a gaping hole that had appeared in his skull. Whirling around, he saw one of the gunmen that Ground Zero had been tangling with had made the shot with some kind of compact rifle "Death before dishonor!" he shouted before he ducked under an explosion that Ground Zero launched at him from above, the blond teenager screaming in rage as he realized that they had just lost a prime source of intelligence due to his mistake.
"Dammit!" he roared. "He was supposed to be outta ammo!"
Thinking quickly, Deku realized that since the fight had begun, he had not seen or heard either of the gunmen reload their weapons. At first he had chalked it up to having to keep track of multiple opponents, but if Bakugo had specifically been keeping count of the number of shots in his head, and something had gone awry, there was another factor at play here.
"I think he has a quirk that lets him reload without changing clips!" he shouted as he left the dead body behind, trying to put the image of the man's brutal death out of his mind as he did.
"Dammit, where'd Saiyaman's team get to?!"
"Worry about them later!" Deku grunted as he charged up another handful of lasers in his palms. "Get in close, I'll cover you!"
"I'm not worried, and don't give me orders!" Ground Zero bellowed as he abruptly changed directions in midair, shooting toward one of the gunmen while Deku filled the space between them with brilliant yellow energy beams. The man, unable to decide on whom he should shoot at first, decided to take the third option.
"For the cause!" he shouted before he yanked on something hidden inside of his clothes. This was followed by an incendiary explosion that completely vaporized him, leaving Ground Zero to once again curse in a helpless rage.
"These bastards really don't wanna talk!" he seethed.
"Then let's not leave it up to them," Freezer Burn muttered as he eyed the remaining gunman. "Eri and Gran Torino took two of them alive, but it would be best if we have as many captives for interrogation purposes as possible."
The last of Humarise's assassins quickly realized the situation that he had found himself in, and knew that there was only one way out for him. "For the-!"
"NOT HAPPENING!" Ground Zero bellowed as he let off a maximum blast that sent him toward the final opponent at the speed of a bullet.
Even as he did that, Deku took another careful aim, remembering some of the lessons that he had taken from Kurai regarding human anatomy. Right before the assassin could trigger whatever bomb he was strapped to, he fired off another Sagittarius Flash, piercing the man's right forearm, and severing the tendons that connected to his fingers, leaving his hand as a useless decoration on the end of his arm. Immediately after that, Ground Zero slammed into his target, resulting in the assassin's head being planted firmly in the dirt, completely unconscious.
"No one else is getting killed by a lame-ass explosion!" the blond hero shouted as he stomped on the man's back, as if to make sure that he was really out. "If anyone's getting killed around here from now on, it's gonna be from my explosions!"
"Uh… someone might wanna tell that to the cops down there," Rody said with a nervous air as he pointed past the ice shield to indicate the checkpoint where the police had set up their barricade- which was currently being assailed by a storm of black lightning.
"Looks like someone pissed off Saiyaman," Ground Zero commented as they watched the chaos unfold. His face split into a feral grin as he added, "Awesome."
A couple of minutes before they had taken notice, things almost seemed like they could have calmed down. After the law enforcement's initial exchange of fire with Deku, Myrtenaster had arrived on the scene and erected an ice barrier just high enough to obscure their line of sight and get their attention.
The lead officer had aimed his weapon at the pale girl and shouted, "Miss, you are interfering with the pursuit of a criminal! If you don't stand down, I will charge with you with aiding and abetting!"
"Correction, officer," she had said from atop the cold barrier, the sight of several firearms being aimed at her apparently doing nothing to intimidate her. "Firstly, you are pursuing a suspect. He hasn't been convicted of any crimes yet, so calling him a criminal is a bit premature. Second, he is an official member of the World Hero Alliance, which means that you are interfering with an international affair, which could have rather far-reaching effects on your country's bureaucracy, when all is said and done. I'm offering you a chance to back down now, before I execute the rights granted to me by the Apocalypse Contingency, and take you all in for questioning with my superiors."
This gave the officer and many of his men pause as they were forced to weigh out their options. Many of them had simply been following orders, but what the foreign girl was saying made sense. None of them could recall this 'Deku' character being convicted of mass murder, just that they had been told that some hero from overseas had up and decided to kill a number of civilians the other day. Those who were members of Humarise knew that Deku was no such criminal, but they also knew that Flect Turn wanted him and his travelling companion dead at all costs- and that failure to get the briefcase he had on him would not be tolerated. At the same time, if they didn't handle this right, they could end up with a whole army of heroes knocking down their doors and demanding answers for why one of their operatives had been killed without due process or sufficient evidence to support their actions. That could ruin their organization's plans before they could even be set in motion.
Just as the lead officer was about to order them to shoot her on the (admittedly flimsy) grounds of her interfering with Otheon's internal business, a handful of grayish-green liquid sludge bursts sheared through the hoods of their cars, leaving the engines as melted scrap within seconds. Many of them recoiled from the resulting hisses and acrid smell that told them it could have been a lot worse for them. A second later, a young voice confirmed it.
"I don't wanna hurt any of you people," Ashid Queen said from where she had leaped up to stand beside a somewhat surprised-looking Myrtenaster. "But if you keep pointing those guns at my friend, I'ma have to give your weapons the same treatment, and I can't promise that I won't get carried away. After all, there's like fifty of you guys, and only two of us- we can't take any chances."
Now the lead officer was frowning- something about this newcomer seemed vaguely familiar, and it was putting him on edge. We can't risk them ruining everything, he thought as he prepared to pull the trigger on his pistol. If it's for the cause, then what do our lives matter, if it means stopping, or even delaying these filthy beasts?!
Whipping his arm up, he fired without warning, several of his compatriots doing the same only a second later. To their dismay, however, none of their bullets reached their intended targets. Ashid Queen had thrown up up a thick wall of acid that melted most of the projectiles before they could even get through, while Myrtenaster conjured a handful of recoil hexes that caught the bullets and set them back at their owners, causing injuries and several weapons to be destroyed.
"Wrong answer!" the pink girl shouted with a scowl. "Trust me, you're gonna wish you had dealt with us and been smart enough to walk away!"
"You haven't stopped us!" the lead officer shouted back, turning to his men as he did so. "Switch to automatic weapons! They won't be able to stop all of those!"
"Wanna bet?" A cold voice called down, leading all of the policemen to look up and see a solitary hero dressed in black and white who was hovering above them with an unsettling gleam in his eyes. Again, something about him looked familiar, but from their current angle, the police couldn't quite tell what they knew him from.
Kai, for his part, looked down upon the supposed keepers of the peace with an unbridled sense of contempt as black lightning began to crawl up and down his body again. "You officers are supposed to give people reassurance, not scare them by making a bad situation worse," he said in an accusing tone as he jabbed a stiff finger at them. "And just what do you think you're doing, aiding an organization that plans to eradicate eighty percent of humanity?! You're helping to murder billions of people who have never done anything to you but exist in the same world that we all have a right to! We're talking over two and half billion kids, for crying out loud! What reason could you possibly have for wanting their blood on your hands?!"
"Because if we don't do it, someday it'll be all of the children in the world!" one of the officers suddenly shouted as he took aim with his rifle, and drawing the young hero's attention to him. "At least this way, humanity will be sure to survive in the long run!"
The lead officer cursed, his subordinate not having realized what he had just done. Before he could warn the other man to get down, a black tendril of energy shot out of Kai's arm and roughly seized up the outspoken policeman while also snapping his rifle into pieces. Now that he had confirmation that there were Humarise members among these officers, he wouldn't hesitate to take them all down- maybe even out. As this happened, it finally dawned on the lead officer why this boy had looked so familiar.
Every one of Humarise's members had been warned about a mysterious new hero who wielded black lightning and had power enough to conjure a tornado in less than a minute.
The sergeant knew that there was only one thing to be done now. "Stand down, or I will have everyone here shoot you!" he shouted, hoping that his voice wasn't shaking while he did. "You can't take on all of us at once! We have the advantage in numbers!"
"No, what you have are bullets, and the hope that when your guns are empty, I'll no longer be standing, because if I am, you all might just be dead before you've reloaded," Kai responded flatly as he shook the man who had shouted with Blackwhip before slamming him on the ground. His casual delivery of the brutal threat caused many of the officers to do a double take, but their leader was committed now.
"Open fire!" he shouted, not having noticed that instead of pressing the advantage while their enemies were distracted, Myrtenaster and Ashid Queen had beat a retreat and were currently getting as far away from the current battle zone as they possibly could.
Bullets immediately filled the air, but they all simply passed through the spot where Kai had been a moment prior, the boy himself having disappeared in a burst of wind and dark lightning. However, it didn't take long for him to reveal himself again as he slammed into the ground between the police barricade and Klayd's border, his presence swelling ominously as the air around him came alive with his bio-electricity.
"This is gonna be filthy rich, coming from me, but I think I hate dirty cops more than any other kind of villain," he growled, filling his opponents with dread as he raised his right arm across his chest. "Sorry in advance for those of you who were just stupid enough to blindly follow orders, but you had this coming."
"Don't let him-!"
"Tyranus SMASH!" Kai flung his arm forward, and a huge blast of dark lightning surged into his enemies and their equipment before the winds scattered them across the empty landscape, annihilating any and all chances of further resistance. The sight filled the boy with both a sense of savage satisfaction and disappointment as he recognized that he had done what the situation had called for, following his declaration of war against Humarise and their allies, even though it meant having to lash out at those who simply didn't know any better.
He quickly pushed that thought aside, though. The officers who weren't a part of Humarise should have known better than to follow an order that was ethically bankrupt, or at least suspect. As he watched the destruction unfold with a grim look on his face, he heard a new voice mutter in the back of his mind, "Not bad, kid." His expression changed into a slight smile when he realized that he had heard the Third speaking.
From their vantage point on one of the Regal Heroine's ice formations, Ashid Queen and Myrtenaster had watched the demolition of the enemy forces with a mixture of awe and apprehension. For the American, her worry stemmed from seeing such power in the hands of someone who was still mentally unstable. Sure, he had pulled through this time, but could they be sure that he wouldn't snap under the pressure of an unexpected trigger for his trauma?
Little could she have known that her peer was worried for precisely the opposite reason. Ashid Queen had started to watch Kai closely the second that she and Myrtenaster were at a minimum safe distance, as per her fiancé's request. What she saw was no sign of indecisiveness on his part, nor the bodily reactions that he had been undergoing whenever his mind flashed back to whatever horror his subconscious had chosen to torture him with at any given moment. His eyes were bright and sharp, his movements were smooth from practice, even under the influence of a new power, and his breath control was perfect. In fact, she might even go so far as to say that in the moment that he had begun to fight, he looked more like himself than she had seen him since his resurrection, with the exception of the night when he had proposed to her.
The fact that he had been so utterly right about him being able to handle combat without any concern frightened her, because now she had to wonder if the boy she had fallen in love with would only ever truly emerge in the heat of battle.
Meanwhile, Deku and the others were looking down from afar, the greenette wearing a small frown as he watched the results of the battle. He wasn't bothered by the destruction that had been caused, nor the injuries that had undoubtedly been inflicted- after all, those officers had been trying to kill him just for doing his job as a hero. They stood against the very peace that they were supposed to be working to preserve, so it was hard for even someone like him to feel sorry for their current state.
No, what was causing him to feel uneasy was the proficiency with which Kai had wielded One For All and the secondary quirks that it granted. He had trained his body for over a year to wield All Might's power, and that had only been the beginning of his struggles. He had spent the better part of the following year trying to get the immense strength under his control, and he had been the one to begin unlocking the other quirks that still lived within the network of accumulated power.
Every single step of that journey had been one tribulation after another, and now Kai had returned with the improved power in hand to wield it with a skill and finesse that even All Might could envy- and he had done it after having the quirk for only a month, and only using it in three battles. He was glad that the quirk had gone to reside in a worthy successor who would use it well, but it would be a lie if he said that the apparent ease with which Kai could already use the strength of generations gone past didn't get under his skin just a little.
Mataras: Here's hoping that's enough action for the adrenaline junkies in our crowd.
Litrosh: Why? Going on another dry spell, are we?
Mataras: Good grief, no. I just know that it's been a minute since we've had some consistent action, so I'm trying to gauge if I'm rationing it out in a generous enough dose without going overboard, like I've done before.
Litrosh: Ah. Well, all we can do to wait and see what the readers think.
Mataras: We're coming up on 100 entries here in a few weeks... That's insane.
Litrosh: Did you know that the story would be so long when you first started working on it?
Mataras: I honestly thought that I'd be a little closer to the endgame by this point, but hey, I'm still enjoying the process more than well enough to go on for some time more.
Litrosh: So... you think we'll hit 200 chapters?
Mataras: Hmm... Doubt it.
Litrosh: Oh?
Mataras: I get the feeling that even if I didn't burn out by that point in time, my readers might, and I definitely don't want that. As of writing this, I honestly reckon that we're looking at something like 150 chapters, give or take... But we'll see. Who knows what will happen between now and then?
Litrosh: Hmm... Question.
Mataras: Yes?
Litrosh: Where's everyone else?
Mataras: Oh, I gave them the day off- Thanksgiving holiday and all that.
Litrosh: But they're not Ameri-
Mataras: You do not have to be American to celebrate being thankful for stuff!
Deadwood: Next time- Inheritors Rising
Mataras: How did you get in here?!
Deadwood: How do you think? I walked in!
Litrosh: Mataras, breathe...
Mataras: Okay.
Deadwood: Wait, that's it? Just like tha-?
Mataras: Total Concentration... Dragon Breathing...
Deadwood: Ah, crap. There it is.
Mataras: Second Form.
Litrosh: I suggest you run. Driftwood is no match for dragon fire.
Deadwood: Hey! Leave my sister out of this!
Mataras: RAGING WINGS!
Deadwood: Why?! I just wanted a chance to Go Beyond!
Litrosh: Plus Ultra won't save you here, pal.
?: Notes
Sagittarius Flash: An ultimate attack optimized entirely for precision as opposed to devastating power, Deku appears to utilize the lessons he once practised for the Delaware Smash (Air Force) maneuver in order to focus energy into a very small laser capable of striking and piercing targets with even greater pinpoint accuracy, even from a great distance. Likely would not be utilized well if the caster were to be under return fire while attempting to use, though this may change with enough time and further practise.
Taurus Flash(?): A seemingly physical maneuver more in line with Deku's old moveset, though seeing as the attack was interrupted before proper execution could be documented, this will warrant further study at a later opportunity. Given data lends to the idea that this may be a replacement for the caster's formerly favored Detroit Smash.
Chidori: A move clearly inspired by the fictional Kakashi Hatake/Sasuke Uchiha, Kai covers a striking appendage with bioelectricty and strikes at a weak point in his target with precision to rend the object in pieces. If used on a live target, the result would more than likely result in a swift death for said target.
Tyranus Smash: A distanced, multi-targeting attack that lays waste to an area with a concentrated air blast and chain lightning generated by the excess energy of One For All. Prior compararitive data suggests that this attack is generated using anywhere between 35-45% of One For All.
Next time on Your Hero Academia: Unleashed...
"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."