Izuku and the rest of the raid team reached the entrance to the fourth floor without any issue. Below, six auras were still present, but he couldn't tell how far away they were. Notably, two of the auras spoke of violent intent and confidence that surged suddenly.
Just before they descended, everyone's earpieces squawked with barely intelligible words from the police up top that were forming a perimeter. The words came in garbled due to being three levels underground, reinforced concrete blocking out all but the most stubborn of signals.
"Raid team… new orders… Villains… everywhere… Trigger… have to pull back… leaving one car… good luck…"
"Focus on the mission, this changes nothing for us," Ryukyu hissed, clearly agitated.
They descended quickly to the fourth floor and Izuku immediately noticed that something was wrong. The six presences below were now four.
Hidden in the darkness of the construction ahead, one of the missing auras swelled with a sick combination of malice and excitement.
"Watch out!" Izuku warned, making everyone halt.
The moment his words left his mouth, a red inhaler flew out from the dark and landed at his feet with a clatter as someone in the dark took in a huge breath. Golden energy was sucked from the raid team, trailing off into the dark.
The entire SAT team, along with Tsukauchi and Sansa, collapsed to their knees, unable to move, let alone stand while Nejire-chan and Ryukyu only wobbled. Izuku didn't feel any different, but that's not what he was focused on, he was searching for the still missing aura.
Glaring upward, he found it.
"Mimic" He growled.
"I'll crush you all!" Said the ceiling.
The reinforced concrete ceiling reached down to crush the entire raid team at once. Black Cowl at 50%, Izuku reached up and caught the descending ceiling. He noticed that the walls and floor weren't moving, Mimic was being forced to use all his strength in the attempt to overpower him. His arms and legs began to shake with effort as he tried to slow the ceiling's descent. The downed members of the raid team began to drag themselves away.
An impossibly deep and booming voice called out from the shadows.
"I FEEL FULL OF ENERGY!"
Rikiya exploded out from a vacant store, debris flying everywhere as the giant of a man charged through the construction, headless of the destruction.
"Rikiya!" Ryukyu roared in challenge, her voice coming out deeper and more monstrous.
Ryukyu lunged forward to meet the titan, transforming into her draconic form in a flash. The two collided in a bone-jarring crash that seemed to rattle the entire level. Her tail whipped behind her just short of the raid team as the two giants wrestled for dominance in the enclosed space, bits of the concrete ceiling and walls coming away as they did so.
Nejire-chan looked back at Izuku.
"Go!" He ordered and she did.
Nejire-chan corkscrewed through the air, dodging Ryukyu's swinging tail with familiar ease. Once she had a clear shot, she unleashed a blast of periwinkle energy, hitting the hulking Rikiya and making him stagger. The moment Rikiya staggered, he also groaned in pain as Ryukyu's snapping teeth found purchase in the meat of his shoulder. With Rikiya off-balance and reeling in pain, Ryukyu bulldozed forward, pushing Rikiya further back. With relative safety between the two fights, the downed members of the raid team scrambled on hands and knees.
The last of the raid team cleared the area of the descending ceiling just as Izuku's legs began to buckle, the veins in his neck bulging as he strained.
"Singularity!" Tsukauchi called out.
"THIS IS FOR THE BOSS!" Mimic crowed, sensing his imminent victory.
Izuku let out a breath and straightened to his full height, his limbs ceasing their shaking.
Now that the team was clear, he was done pretending.
"And this-"
He cocked back a fist as he held the ceiling back with one arm effortlessly. He glared up through the conspicuous hole at Mimic, his heat signature giving him away.
"-is for Eri!"
He punched, a boom shaking the entire structure as his fist met the ceiling. Reinforced concrete exploded upward, rebar bending away as easily as tall grass in the wind. Amidst the shower of rubble, Mimic ragdolled through the air unharmed due to having been merged with the concrete. Out in the open now, Mimic was vulnerable. Izuku flew up through the debris in a flash of green energy and delivered a backhand so fast that only All Might would have been able to see the blow coming. Mimic's teeth became shrapnel, exploding out the other side of his mouth in a macabre firework display of crimson and ivory. He let Mimic fall through the newly made hole to land with a thud and a snap.
Descending, Izuku met the shocked stares of the raid team as they attempted to get to their feet.
"You could have broken his neck," Tsukauchi chastised, more in shock than anything.
Izuku landed and looked upon Mimic's unconscious form and torn face, his leg beneath him at an unnatural angle. He wished he could, but try as he might, he could not find an ounce of regret or sympathy. One thing did bother him though. How did Mimic know about his involvement in taking down Overhaul?
"I had to be sure the first hit took him down."
Izuku began getting the team back on their feet with the aid of Cell Activation counteracting Rikiya's stamina drain.
"We need to help Ryukyu," Kamiko said as Izuku helped him up.
Rykuyu roared somewhere in the dark, a resounding crash following soon after. Reading her aura, Izuku shook his head at Kamiko.
"She just won."
Kamiko only nodded, switching gears. He pointed to his team and then Mimic.
"Neru and two others stay on this floor! Secure Mimic and Rikiya while the rest of us press forward!"
"I'm on it!" Neru said, pressing a hand to Mimic, their fingers becoming thick ropes that wrapped themselves around the Villain several times, effectively mummifying the man. When they pulled their hand away, their fingers became flesh again, but the ropes remained on Mimic.
Two more SAT members volunteered, assisting the first.
Following the trail of destruction, Izuku and the raid team met back up with Ryukyu and Nejire-chan. Rikiya's unconscious body was nearby, his head halfway through a load-bearing pillar.
Ryukyu and Nejire-chan both looked exhausted, their hands on their knees as they sought a second wind. With a quick application of Cell Activation, they straightened, their stamina Rikya had stolen restored.
Quickly, they moved on, eager to reach the bottom and put an end to this. They approached the final unpowered escalator and discovered that the final level was largely exposed. A cavernous circular room was visible from the top of the escalator, the fourth floor ringing the entire food court. As empty as it was, it almost appeared as a gladiatorial pit of old. Nearly empty, that is. In the gloom below, four figures waited.
Izuku recognized two immediately, but the other two escaped him, their features too difficult to make out in the low light and too vague in infrared. One of the two he couldn't make out was short with rounded features, the other tall and thin with bat-like wings.
Chronostasis stood behind a folding chair, a revolver pressed against a woman's red temple.
Akane whimpered through her gag at the sight of them, her nose broken and bloody, her eye swollen shut.
A black duffle bag lay discarded at her feet. The very same duffle Rikiya had been carrying out of the van, the very same duffle he had thought he saw squirm.
The sight of Akane, here, in the condition she was in, told Izuku one thing. The info she'd given Ryukyu had been spoon-fed to her to set up this trap.
"Bastards!" Ryukyu snarled.
The sound of safeties clicking off echoed through the still air as the SAT members leveled their submachine guns.
"Drop your weapons and come down, nice and slow!" Chronostasis ordered, pressing his pistol painfully into Akane's temple, eliciting a whimper. "And if you even think about using a Quirk I'll give the whore a new hole to sell!"
Left with little option, the raid team descended the escalator with arms raised, their weapons abandoned. As they descended, they held out hope that the three SAT members they left behind would intervene at a key moment and prove to be the deciding factor.
As they stepped foot on the fifth floor and approached as commanded, they got a better look at the other two.
The tall thin one with bat wings came into clear view, its skin was a pale ash color, a gas mask obscuring most of its face, with lifeless eyes staring over the edge of the mask. The most damning detail of all, however, was the exposed brain.
Memories of the "Nomu" creature from the USJ flashed through Izuku's mind. The pain of his body breaking, only being held together by Black Cowl. The fear of knowing that once he fell, the Nomu would rip his entire class apart in mere seconds. He just barely managed to tamp down on OFA and keep it from activating on reflex.
He forced himself to look away from the Nomu and at the last figure and….he couldn't believe his eyes.
"Dr. Tsubasa?" He asked, dumbstruck. The old man looked as though he hadn't aged a day.
The mustached old man spread his arms and smiled warmly, the very picture of a grandfatherly figure. Even his emotions spoke of genuine happiness.
"Midoriya, my boy!" Dr. Tsubasa greeted, the familiar greeting sending shivers up Izuku's spine. "Look at you, you've grown so big! It's no wonder I didn't recognize you on the television!"
"You know him, Singularity?" Ryukyu asked with due confusion.
Dr. Tsubasa turned his spectacled eyes on Ryukyu and gestured with his hand. "I knew him when he was yay high," He said warmly, the genuineness of his words and emotions making Izuku feel sick.
Dr. Tsubasa looked up at the Nomu monster at his side.
"Come now, aren't you going to say hello to your old friend?" He asked.
The thing eyed Izuku, cocking its head to the side as its wings flapped once.
Those wings…Izuku recognized them…
No…it couldn't be…
Words from long ago came to mind.
"This 'doctor' Tsubasa, alongside his grandson, seems to have vanished some five years ago."
D̸͉̋͋e̵̹̼͋̔̀.̷̪͊̎̈́.̴̗̖͂̃ḵ̴͖̐u̵̞̒?̸͕̖̭̉̄
The Nomu-no, Tsubasa spoke in a halting fashion that grated on the psyche.
Izuku took an involuntary step back, his hand coming up to cover his mouth in horror. Izuku's stomach twisted in revulsion as Tsubasa looked at him with lifeless eyes, his aura speaking of recognition, of pain, of a tortured soul begging for mercy, begging for death.
"What did you do to him? He was your grandson…" Izuku asked, horrified. At the question, he could sense the rest of the raid team tense in realization.
"Grandson? Haven't you realized?" Dr. Tsubasa asked with a disappointed shake of his head. "He was merely a part of my cover. I adopted him from one of my orphanages and told him to refer to me as 'Grandpa'. But what a good boy! Didn't he turn out splendid!?" He gushed affectionately, gesturing to his 'grandson' in genuine pride.
Ryukyu took a step forward, hands raised non-threateningly. "What is it you want in exchange for Akane's safety?" She asked curtly, cutting into the conversation.
"His head!" Chronostasis shouted, yanking Akane by the hair.
Dr. Tsubasa looked over at Chronostasis and his hostage in confusion as if he'd forgotten they were even there.
"Oh, right. The Yakuza remnants," He said, waving a hand dismissively. "They proved useful in distributing Trigger, the sales singlehandedly funding my Nomu project since Naruhata. For their final paycheck, they only wanted one thing," He said, smiling warmly at Izuku. "A shot at the one responsible for taking down their 'Boss'. You being here is all I wanted." He produced a red inhaler from a pocket in his lab coat and held it up, inspecting it. "You know, it wasn't easy making Trigger into something effective. In the end, I had to sacrifice duration for power. Honestly my boy," He said, shaking his head in disappointment. "You didn't leave me much to work with."
Suddenly, The team's radios squawked in their ears, and Izuku was forced to ignore the dawning horror churning within him.
"Mul…Contacts!" The lone squad car providing a perimeter up top reported.
A moment later, an explosion shook dust from the ceiling and the radio belched static.
Madness began to creep into the edges of Dr. Tsubasa's warm smile.
Kamiko keyed his mic. "Prepare for incoming! Weapons free! Weapons free!"
Chronostasis stabbed one of his clock needles into Akane's shoulder, eliciting a muffled scream from the woman as she recoiled from the pain in slow motion. "Who are you talking to!? Doctor, what's happening!? This isn't what we agreed!"
A staccato of automatic gunfire echoed from the floor above. A second later, the backs of the three SAT members pressed into the guard rail, muzzle flashes silhouetting their forms.
An explosion rocked the subterranean structure.
"Man down!" Someone shouted above.
"No effect! I repeat, no effect on target!" Neru could be heard shouting.
Then, a jet black-skinned figure in a trenchcoat wrapped Neru up in a hug and smiled over the SAT member's shoulder, directly at Izuku. The smile was wide, too wide, but the most unsettling thing by far was that the smile was the only feature on the figure's face.
It reminded Izuku of reports of Villains seen during the Naruhata incident. Their lack of features had earned them the title 'Anonymous'.
Both Neru and the smiling figure vanished in an explosion, only to be replaced by more smiling figures.
"Neru!" Kamiko lamented.
Dr. Tsubasa chuckled, a horrifying combination of warmth and madness. A swirling purple vortex opened beneath him and began to swallow him as his chuckle grew more unhinged, devolving into something no sane mind would be capable of reproducing by the time the portal had fully eaten him.
Then, Chronostasis finally made a mistake. He pulled the gun away from Akane's temple and aimed it at Izuku, sensing the situation was spiraling out of his control and seeking his revenge in a last-ditch effort.
It was all the opportunity Izuku needed. He flew forward in a blur, Black Cowl snapping into place a mere moment before Chronostasis fired. A bullet slammed into Izuku's chest, to no effect. He barely even felt it, Danger Sense hadn't even triggered. The one round was all that Chronostasis was able to get off before Izuku closed the distance and slapped the gun away, shattering the bones in the hand that had held it. He gripped Chronostasis by the throat and lifted him off his feet with one arm. Chronostasis punched Izuku's face with his good hand, kicked at his chest, and tried to stab him with his Quirked hair. At 50% Black Cowl, the attacks were as effective as a child trying to split a boulder with only their bare hands.
More explosions shook the mall, but Izuku's focus was squarely on the child-torturing, woman-beating monster in front of him.
"Where did he go!?"
"I-I don't know!"
Izuku grabbed a Quirked hair that was still trying in vain to stab him.
"Wrong answer."
With a quick jerk, he ripped the clock needle-like hair from Chronostasis's scalp, making the man screech in pain as blood dribbled down his forehead.
"Please stop!" Chronostasis begged.
He was…begging? He was BEGGING? Red filled Izuku's vision as Incandescent wrath burned away his reason and frayed at his control.
Izuku's grip tightened dangerously on The Monster's throat as he ripped out the remaining Quirked hair. His free hand joined the other in wrapping around The Monster's neck. Using Empathy, he slammed terror and despair into The Monster's brain like an ice-pick lobotomy.
"PLEASE STOP!? HOW MANY TIMES DID ERI BEG FOR YOU TO STOP BEFORE SHE GAVE UP AND SUFFERED IN SILENCE!?"
When The Monster only whimpered, Izuku shook him by the neck and squeezed harder. The Monster's face was turning a deep shade of purple as his eyes rolled back into his head, his arms falling limply to his sides.
"HOW FUCKING MANY!?"
"STOP, IZUKU! He's out!" Nejire shouted, suddenly there with a hand on his chin, turning his wrathful gaze away from The Monster and to her periwinkle eyes filled to the brim with worry for him.
He dropped Chronostasis to the floor, his anger beginning to fade as the reality of the situation around him became clear.
Explosions rocked the entire subterranean structure one after another, causing chunks of the ceiling above to crash down.
"They're trying to bury us!" Ryukyu yelled in her draconic form, wings splayed wide to shield the raid team from falling debris.
Izuku scooped up Akane and tried to ignore her fear of him and the way she flinched away. Using Cell Activation to heal Akane's wounds, the rest of his anger funneled into the Quirk, empowering the healing. In moments, Akane's wounds were healed.
As Izuku trotted over to the center of the room, he noticed Tsubasa was still off to the side, not having moved from his place. With lifeless eyes, the Nomu watched Izuku, uncaring as debris fell all around. The Doctor had left him behind.
More explosions shook the earth and the building began to fully collapse in on itself.
At the center of the room, Nejire aimed up and through the gap between Ryukyu's wings, periwinkle energy coalescing in the palms of her hands.
"Nejire Flood!"
Spiraling energy raced up and blasted falling steel and concrete up and away.
Blackwhip shot out and wrapped around Chronostasis's still form and reeled him into the center just before he could be crushed. As indifferent as Izuku was to the man dying, Chronostasis still owed him answers about Dr. Tsubasa.
Izuku watched as a minivan-sized chunk of concrete fell straight for the Nomu. Tsubasa's lifeless eyes were still transfixed on Izuku as he was crushed beneath the debris. In that last moment, Izuku could have sworn relief had filled those hollow eyes.
"Rest," Izuku whispered to himself.
More and more debris rained down with every passing second. As chunks of concrete and steel made it past Nejire's Quirk and crashed into Ryukyu's wings, it was becoming clear that Nejire couldn't keep the team from being buried. Not alone. As Nejire's stamina began to flag, he pressed a hand to her back and flooded her with energy from Cell Activation. This also had the added side effect of calming him of his excess emotions and added fuel to the Quirk. He was certain that he could survive this, but the rest of the team? He could probably get Nejire and Ryukyu safely out, but he doubted he would be able to save anyone else. There was one chance that they all got out of this in one piece. It was a gamble, but what choice did he have?
He pressed a palm to Ryukyu's massive draconic shoulder.
"Please work!" He begged any god that might be listening.
He activated Evolution.
Beneath his palm, Ryukyu's dull white scales began to shine, becoming opalescent. The effect rippled outward from the point of contact, opalescent scales racing across her body and up her long neck. As the opal scales covered her face, great draconic horns sprouted from her head. Her scales seemed to pulse as electricity began crackling between her horns, her eyes glowing golden. The scent of ozone filled the air as her tremendous maw opened, electricity crackling over her razor-sharp teeth. She aimed her open maw to the sky and with a roar that drowned out the collapsing building, she breathed lightning.
Falling pieces of the building exploded into particles and slag as Ryukyu's lightning breath raced for the surface. With the combination of Nejire's spiraling energy and Ryukyu's lightning, they were able to blast the falling debris up and away from the team. What didn't blast out and onto the surface fell harmlessly off to the side of the raid team. Rubble built up all around them as the entirety of the underground mall was demolished.
When it was over, when the night sky was visible, and when there was no more falling debris, Ryukyu and Nejire collapsed, the former reverting to her human form.
The rubble that was all around them in a circle began to shift and threaten to collapse toward them. Acting quickly, Izuku wrapped everyone with Blackwhip and flew upwards just before they could be crushed.
Landing on the street above, Izuku saw the police cruiser that had stayed behind, or what was left of it. The burning wreck lit the dark street, a charred body in its driver seat.
Izuku walked closer to the wreck and collapsed to his knees as he finally allowed his dawning horror to consume him.
This was all his fault.
Nejire's arms wrapped around him from behind.
It was a comfort he didn't deserve.
"There's still a chance we can save the hostage. We have Chronostasis, he might know-"
"There is no hostage," Izuku interrupted in a near whisper.
Just saying it aloud made his guts twist with guilt.
"How could you possibly know that?" Ryukyu asked, moving to stand at his side. Her golden eyes were transfixed on the burning squad car, the new opalescent scales on her cheekbones, forearms, and lower legs shimmering in the firelight.
"Because…"
He ran his hands through his hair as tears created tracks through the soot and blood on his face. He could barely choke out his next words because it would make it real.
"I'm the source of Trigger."
How did he not see it sooner? Trigger had such a similar effect as Evolution, even if it was temporary. All those tests Dr. Tsubasa had subjected him to as a child were a cover to get samples of Izuku's DNA. That meant that misdiagnosing him as Quirkless had served a purpose as well. When disappeared, it had been the very same day as All Might's fight with All or One. The two were connected, they had to be. There was only one reason Izuku could come up with for misdiagnosing him, it was the only thing that made sense. The Doctor had labeled him as Quirkless so that All for One could steal his Quirk and no one would be the wiser. Then, his mother had stormed out of the doctor's visit early…
Nejire gasped, her arms squeezing tighter around his shoulders.
"This isn't your fault. We'll get through this together," She promised.
Ryukyu ran a finger over her opalescent scales.
"So the part of your Quirk that allows you to evolve Quirks is the origin…that doesn't really change anything unless you had a direct hand in developing Trigger and selling it."
"I would never!" Izuku immediately responded before realizing what else she'd just said. "Wait, you knew I could evolve Quirks?"
"You evolved my wife's Quirk, did you honestly think she'd keep that from me?" Ryukyu asked.
Kamiko approached them, his expression grave. With three of his team dead, the man seemed to have locked his emotions away for the time being.
"I just got into contact with headquarters, they're redeploying my team as soon as possible. It's chaos out there, almost every ward of Tokyo is experiencing abnormally high Villain activity. What's worse, the Villains are using Trigger in each instance."
Izuku latched onto a keyword and got to his feet.
"Almost every ward. What wards aren't experiencing abnormally high villain activity?" He asked.
All business, Kamiko frowned in thought.
"All but Hosu…they've been pulling Heroes away from the hunt for Stain since this all started…" He said, trailing off at what that might imply.
Izuku ripped his phone out, cursing at the lack of service. With everything happening, the cell network must have been overloaded. Checking his smartwatch, he checked the location of everyone wearing one. Eri and Yuki were still at UA. Rumi was at a hospital, which was alarming, but it was in the area she'd told him she'd be patrolling. Himiko and Mei…they're signals were simply gone…and they had been assigned to Hosu.
Looked up with fear in his eyes. "Has there been any contact with Hosu?" His voice sounded hollow even to his ears.
Ryukyu fiddled with her earpiece. "Endeavor? Come in….nothing but static," She said after a moment.
With the Hero communications network being separate from the cell network, it wasn't affected by the outage.
Izuku lifted off the ground, Black Cowl crackling with energy.
"I'm going."
Ryukyu transformed into an opalescent dragon and Nejire floated off the ground with spiraling periwinkle energy.
"Go, we're right behind you," Ryukyu ordered.
With a sonic boom that rattled windows, Izuku flew off toward Hosu.
He could only hope he wasn't too late.