Mina stared at the column of freaking tanks rolling up to fight the mantises.
I get those things are strong but isn't this a bit…overkill?
The tanks evidently didn't think so, as they opened fire at the giant mantises, their shots echoing like thunder. One of the mantises screeched and began backing away from the barrage while the other began marching toward the tanks, powering through the shots.
The tanks started backing away, but maintained their barrage.
Alright, enough watching, you have a job to do. Mina left the tanks to their fight and slid off with Jiro, circling around the battle. As she did she found herself in the middle of a convoy of military vehicles, jeeps, Humvees, and even some guys with bazookas on motorcycles. Just who were these guys?
Mina got ahead of the jeeps and came to a stop in the middle of a neighborhood. Further down, Mina could see several of the larva prowling around. She set Jiro down and stood guard in case any attacked.
"Jiro!"
"On it!" Jiro stabbed the ground with her earphone jacks. "Sonar pulse!" Several particles of dirt vibrated as Jiro sent out her sonic pulse. "The fighting's making this harder. Come on…" Jiro closed her eyes. They shot back open. "Two in that house! One over there, and three in separate houses near the back!" Jiro said pointing.
"Got it!"
Behind them, several of the military vehicles came to a stop, the soldiers getting out. They seemed to be carrying a mix of flame throwers and rocket launchers, because of course they were. The larva noticed them, and began crawling toward them.
Mina and Jiro got ready to fight.
"Hey! What are you doing over here? Get out of the way!" One of the soldiers said as they ran toward them.
"Yeah, didn't you hear? We're handling this fight!".
"We're here to evacuate civilians, you idiot!" Jiro snapped. "There are still some trapped in the houses around here!"
A man wearing sunglasses walked toward them, a cigarette in his mouth. "In that case, we can provide you an escort," he said with a sloppy grin. "We'll handle the monsters, and you can deal with the humans. Don't get in our way, and we'll have no problems."
"Sounds fine," said Jiro, though she still looked irritated.
Meanwhile everal of the soldiers were giving Mina and Jiro dirty looks, like they were an unwelcome nuisance. Mina was starting to not like these guys.
One of the larvae charged. The one with the sunglasses lifted his rocket launcher and fired it, blasting the larva to pieces.
"Alright, Takei and Oshi with these two," he pointed at Mina and Jiro. "The rest of you fan out and clear the next three blocks. Ozakis."
Two men straightened, one with spiky black hair, the other curled ginger hair. In contrast to everyone else's military uniforms, these two wore black biker suits with gray pieces of armor attached, making them almost look like Pro Heroes. They each wore a backpack and held their rocket launcher over their shoulders like they were plastic toys.
"You two are on point," said sunglasses man. "Clear as many of them as you can. Once the dinner bell is rung, pull back and lead them here."
The ginger one bared his teeth. "Then we get out Ol' Painless?
Sunglasses man grinned. "Exactly Kazama. Now go give em' Hell."
"Yes sir, Colonel Gondo!"
The two sprinted off with a speed that was impossible without quirks. One of them jumped twenty feet onto a rooftop, confirming that assumption.
Sunglasses man turned to the soldiers remaining. "Anyone got any questions?" Nobody answered. "Then move out!"
"Yes sir!"
Mina and Jiro hurried toward the nearest house Jiro had pointed to. Around them, the soldiers were either blowing the larva to pieces with rocket launchers or roasting them with flamethrowers.
As Mina and Jiro reached the front lawn, one of the mantis larva crawled out from the side of the house and hurried toward them. Mina got ready to spray it with her acid, but was violently yanked back. A soldier who's quirk made him resemble an ant (six limbs and all) fired a flame thrower, roasting the larva.
Another soldier fired his flamethrower, but instead of fire, a spray of foam that looked like that of a fire extinguisher came out. The flames faded letting Mina saw the coat of frost covering the larva and the ground around it. A freezing weapon.
The larva's movements became sluggish from the cold, letting a third soldier blasted it with a shotgun. The monster shattered like a glass statue.
Mina ran to the house and kicked open the door, hurrying inside.
"Second floor!" said Jiro.
"Got it!"
She ran up the stairs, grabbed an old man who'd barricaded himself in his room, and carried him out. She left him where the soldiers had parked their vehicles, figuring he'd be well guarded there. Mina met back up with Jiro and ran to the next house. Mina kicked open the door and went inside.
She'd just entered the living room when a larva charged out of a hallway. Mina fired a spray of acid at it, causing it to squeal in pain. Before it could run, a soldier hit it with the freezing weapon, while two others blasted it with shotguns.
Once it was dead one of the ones with shotguns said in an annoyed tone, "Appreciate the sentiment, but we don't need help."
Mina rolled her eyes and went down the hallway Jiro pointed. She helped the woman out the door to the temporary evac point.
While heading back toward Jiro, she glanced at the fight with the bigger mantises (What had they called them? Kama-something?). A new type of tank was fighting them. Unlike the normal tanks from before, this one had twin turrets that shot blue laser beams, because that was a thing apparently.
Further up the road the two guys who'd run ahead were running from roof to roof, firing rockets while jumping between houses.
Mina decided she needed to just stop asking…
Kazama blasted another Kamacuras as he ran across the roof. He jumped to the next one and took off his backpack to reload. Downside of the launchers was that they only carried two shots at one time. Luckily he and Shinichi had spares.
Once he'd finished loading, Kazama surveyed the street, using his enhanced vision and hearing to seek out his prey.
Two on the street. One in a house. Three in various yards. Kazama turned to Shinichi, who was standing on a house across the street. They shared a nod, then leapt onto the street and charged at their targets, taking aim.
Kazama fired his first rocket, blasting one of the ones on the street. The other tried let out an angry screech before Shinichi killed it too. Kazama cycled the chamber, priming his second rocket.
One of the ones in the yards had noticed them, and screeched. Kazama jumped and flipped over it, blasting just as he passed directly above the cretin. Kazama grinned as the Kamacuras blew apart, then took off his backpack to reload.
He heard crashing right next to him and saw another breaking out of the house and lunging at him. Kazama swung his launcher like a baseball bat, slamming it into and over a car parked in the driveway. It tried to recover, so Kazama kicked the car into the little wretch, knocking it back over.
Kazama planted his boot on the little wretch and fired six pistol rounds to the head.
With that finished, Kazama reloaded his rocket launcher.
Like the police, most in the AMF weren't allowed to use their Quirks. However, that changed if one underwent training to receive authorization. Kazama and his brother were two that had done just that.
One of the many perks of their mix of Quirk and skill was that they could act as a squad in of themselves, able to carry launchers and spare ammo with ease. This, combined with their demonstrated effectiveness in combat, led commanders like Gondo to allow them to go ahead and thin the ranks before the rest of the soldiers caught up and finished off the stragglers.
The work was dangerous, but Kazama relished it.
By the time Gondo's men arrived, Kazama and Shinichi had already cleared most of the bugs on this street. Shortly after Gondo's men came the two Heroes.
Kazama din't hate Heroes like some of the others did, but he did think they were more often than not nuisances who rarely contributed anything of worth against kaiju. Add their tendency to be more sentimental than Shinichi, and he had plenty of reason to prefer they not be here. Still, as long as they stayed out of his way, they could do whatever they wanted as far as he cared.
Shinichi leapt into the second story window of the house that the pink Hero had been just about to enter, carried a teenage boy out, and handing him to her. Speaking of which…
Kazama went inside on the off chance that Shinichi had grabbed the civvie because he'd seen a Kamacuras inside. He found none.
Sure, because twenty seconds would have been so long for the civvy and Heroes to wait.
He caught up with Shinichi a few houses down, where he was surveying the rest of the neighborhood. From their vantage point, they could see the Kamacuras starting to converge on their block. "No targets inside the home," said Kazama.
"Let me guess, you're about to call me a sentimental idiot?" said Shinichi.
"One of these days that heart of yours is going to get you in trouble," said Kazama. "And when that happens I might not be able to -WHOA!" The roof gave way, sending Kazama falling into a dusty attic.
Kazama got to his feet and shook the dust off. Shinichi jumped through the hole and landed in front of him, raising an eyebrow. "You were saying?"
"Shut up."
They heard a scratching noise beneath them. They dropped out of the attic into a hallway listened. Definitely a Kamacuras. Both readied their launchers.
"Race for the kill?" said Shinichi.
"Loser buys drinks," said Kazama, his fingers twitching with anticipation.
They opened the door and came face to face with a Kamacuras larva. It was too close to safely blast, but Shinichi used his launcher to smack it through a wall. The larva landed on the lawn outside. Shinichi then blew it to smithereens. "When we get back to town, I'll find a bar."
"Shut up."
Kazama and Shinichi went outside and fired their last rockets into the oncoming horde.
By that point, over a dozen had converged on the neighborhood, having been drawn by the noise. They were all charging from one direction, with no cover and no civvies to get in the way.
Perfect.
Kazama turned to Gondo. "Get me Ol' Painless!"
Gondo grinned. "You heard him boys. Ol' Painless."
One of the other perks of him and his brother special status? Custom weapons.
The men got out a box and opened it, revealing the beautiful minigun within. Kazama picked it up, took aim. "I hate bugs."
He opened fire.
A torrent of bullets ripped the oncoming Kamacuras larva to shreds. Kazama roared as he continued firing, bullet casings falling at his feet like rain.
After several seconds, Kazama ceased fire. Larva splattered the streets, several cars had been partly shredded, even some trees had been cut in half by Kazama's firing. Kazama grinned at the carnage he'd made while Shinichi rolled his eyes.
After that, there were only a few left and they died rather easily. The maser team had chased one of the bigger two away and killed the other. The battle over here was over. Kazama wondered how the battle with the other four was going.
"Fire maser!" Izuku blasted a Kamacuras in the chest.
The Kamacuras screeched in pain as the twin maser beams bored into it. It tried to hit them with its claw, but Zeni pulled them down a side street in the nick of time. Izuku locked back onto his target, which now had two large grooves in its chest.
Despite the danger, despite the wild pounding of his heart, Izuku's mind felt completely at ease, a familiar serenity washing over it, broken only by quick moments of exhilaration. It was how he often felt in battle.
He and Sakaki's team had been engaged for less than five minutes. So far, one Kamacuras was dead, another crippled, and the other two wounded.
Yashiro joined Izuku to fire on the Kamacuras and hopefully finish it off. The Kamacuras lifted its claw to try and block the blasts, but Izuku aimed at the joint.
His maser cut through the joint connecting the Kamacuras' claw to its arm, severing it. The claw fell to the ground, smashing several cars in the process. Izuku's lip curled upwards. Now they would-
"One's charged! Need reinforcements!" said Akiba.
Izuku swiveled his turret to see Akiba's tank frantically dodging a Kamacuras' claw.
"Zeni!"
"On it!"
The tank turned and began making its way toward Akiba, who's tank was doing its best to avoid being skewered.
While Izuku's tank charged forward, Izuku fired on the head and neck areas, distracting the kaiju and giving Akiba the chance to escape. It swung its scythe at Izuku, but Zeni pulled them out of the way just in time, giving Izuku the chance Izuku rake its side.
"Why does this always happen to us…?" said Zeni as he steered them back toward Yashiro.
Yashiro fired at left flank while one of Sakaki's tanks hit its right. Izuku and Zeni joined Yashiro in attacking its flank.
The Kamacuras wailed in pain. It turned toward Izuku and Yashiro and tried to open its wings, but Izuku had already guessed what it was doing. His maser burned clean through the wings, rendering them useless even as the Kamacuras helplessly fluttered them.
Meanwhile, Akiba had gotten far enough away and opened fire.
The Kamacuras wailed in pain. It continued to thrash until their eight beams bored clean through its body. The Kamacuras fell to the ground, dead.
Izuku felt a twinge of satisfaction. Another one dow-Izuku was thrown sideways in his chair.
"What the-?!" said Zeni.
Izuku swiveled his turret to see what hit them. It wasn't a Kamacuras or they'd be dead. But what was it? He couldn't see-
Wait.
Several of the smashed cars and pieces of asphalt now littered the street that hadn't been there before. As Izuku pondered that, he saw something out of the corner of his eye
Swiveling his turret, Izuku saw an entire house was falling toward them. "Hard right! Hard right!"
Zeni gunned the engine and bolted. Izuku gripped his straps while the tanks shook like it was an earthquake as the house smashed into the ground behind them.
Yashiro's tank received a glancing blow, sending it spinning into a nearby yard. Izuku activated his coms. "Yashiro! Are you alright?"
"Yeah, we're both fine."
Good, they were alive. Now where did that come from?!
Izuku scanned the direction the house had fallen from and saw a Kamacuras that had had two legs shot off earlier (courtesy of Captain Sakaki himself) using its claws to kick up debris, including dirt, cars, and yes, houses.
Izuku aimed at the eyes and fired, several other tanks joining in. Izuku destroyed one eye. But before he could destroy the other, he saw something.
The Kamacuras who's claw shot he'd shot off was about to charge him.
"Charge nine o'clock!"
"Roger!" Zeni said.
One of the dangers with Kamacuras, aside from numbers, was their ability to fly. In ground combat, they could use this ability for a short range charge, letting them close the gap between maser tanks and destroy. Fortunately, what this charge had in speed it lacked in maneuverability.
Their tank banked back and to the left at full speed, moments before a now airborne Kamacuras smashed into the houses behind where they'd had been. Before Izuku could lock on, it jabbed its remaining claw at them.
"Shit!" said Zeni as he barely pulled them to the left fo the claw.
The Kamacuras crawled at Izuku's tank, trying to stab them again and again. Zeni avoided claw strike after claw strike while Izuku fired into its chest. He'd have aimed for the head, but the Kamacuras was moving too much to give him a clean shot.
A series of infantry rockets hit the Kamacuras' flank, but it refused to be distracted. A claw strike nearly impaled them. Izuku tried to raise his aim toward the throat, but it was too hard to hit. Another strike nearly knocked them on their side.
Izuku mind raced, trying to come up with a plan, when the familiar roar of Haruo Sakaki erupted over the coms.
Sakaki's tank charged from behind the Kamacuras' back, twin turrets blazing. The Kamacuras turned and swung at the new attacker, but Sakaki avoided it.
This allowed Izuku tank get the distance he needed. His heart roaring, Izuku aimed at the head. I'm done with you.
The Kamacuras screeched in pain as the two attacked on either side. It tried to move away, but it was too little too late. Sakaki's shot emerged from its chest, while Izuku's emerged from the back of its head. The Kamacuras fell to the ground and moved no more.
The others had already finished the crippled one off, leaving only one survivor. Realizing its odds, the last Kamacuras opened its wings and took off, quickly accelerating toward the mountain.
I don't think so.
Izuku and Sakaki fired at the wings. Neither missed.
The Kamacuras plummeted to the ground, landing in the trees beyond the town. It quickly got up and continued running away.
"After it!" said Sakaki.
"Sir!" said Izuku. "It's out of optimal range and already close to the mountain. We won't be able to catch it before it gets into rough terrain, and it's too dangerous to fight there without proper scouting!"
"Fine," Sakaki said. "We'll let it go for now. Return to the beaches. Our work here is done."
Izuku sighed with relief, before breaking into a small fit of laughter. He held out his fist to Zeni. "Another win?"
Zeni chuckled, "You are crazy…" he said bumping it.
Izuku sunk into his chair, feeling worn but satisfied. Several kaiju dead, no masers destroyed, another win for the AMF.
Whoa, this one was hard if only due to its sheer length! Then again, that's what happens when writing battles!
I wanted to both let the AMF battle monsters and give a sense to how they operate while also showing their conflict with the Heroes. Hope I did that well.
Thanks for reading! Reviews bring me joy!
