BEN 10 DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. MY HERO ACADEMIA DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. I FOUND A LISTENING DEVICE IN MY LAB. MY JEALOUS NEIGHBOR IS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT MY SECRETS BEFORE ME! I KNEW IT!
The major players have gathered, and now it's time for the main event.
My Alien Academia
Chapter 57
Climax
Deku groaned as he turned into Swampfire; the injuries he'd taken from Gigantomachia were bad enough that he decided to get out of Ultimate Humungousaur early. The Omnitrix still had about fifteen minutes of charge left, and if he was careful, the fight would be over before he timed out.
"You good, Freshman?" Lemillion asked as he popped out of the ground next to him.
"I've been better," Swampfire admitted, and looked around at the devastation. "What happened?"
"Shigaraki happened." Lemillion pointed up, where Shigaraki stared down at All Might. "He's way more powerful than he used to be, and he's got multiple Quirks. And I don't even know how All Might is here."
That… was a good point. Midoriya had already known that All Might's power was getting weaker, and Lemillion had told him how All Might's time limit was getting shorter ever since he'd passed on One For All. On top of that, All Might looked… different. His muscles no longer had that tiny tremor that you would only notice if you looked hard enough, his hair stood straighter, and his eyes were no longer sunken in. It even occurred to Deku that All Might looked twenty years younger.
Something in the back of his mind was screaming the answer at him, but with everything else going on, Deku just couldn't afford to listen. He could put the pieces together when Shigaraki wasn't about to destroy what was left of an entire city.
"All Might." Shigaraki grinned. "Look at you, all buffed and ready for a one-man raid group. You probably went through something like this when you fought All For One, right? Sorry if I'm rambling, I guess I'm a little excited."
All Might threw back his head and laughed. "Sorry, young Shigaraki, but you have nothing on your old master. He was a monster, and you're just a child throwing a tantrum."
Shigaraki's smile vanished, and then the rest of him followed suit; he reappeared in front of All Might and tried to grab him, but All Might moved even faster to dodge him.
"All Might, don't let him touch you!" Lemillion shouted. "He's got his original Quirk, and Overhaul!"
"Thanks for the tip, Lemillion, but I've got it from here!" All Might flicked a single finger, and the blast of air sent Shigaraki tumbling to the ground. "You all stand back and tend to the injured! I'll have this wrapped up in a minute."
Shigaraki sat up and brushed himself off; the blow that should have broken his ribs barely caused a bruise, and even that vanished in a flash of light.
"Oh, did you also get some kind of regeneration Quirk?" All Might asked.
"A few," Shigaraki admitted. "But those heal over a long time. Huge bursts of healing take up way too much energy. I got this awesome Quirk that can undo everything you hit me with. I think it's called Rewind."
Lemillion tried to grab Swampfire, but only accidentally tore off his arm; before that arm regenerated, Swampfire bathed Shigaraki in fire.
"How do you have Eri's Quirk!?" Swampfire roared.
Shigaraki stepped out of the fire and raised an eyebrow. "Huh? Oh, right, that kid. I got it from one of Chisaki's bullets. It's a nice buff. By the way, your fire isn't even close to Endeavor's."
Swampfire turned into Heatblast; his fire blazed hot enough to melt the dirt under his feet into glass. "How about now!?"
"Stay back, young Midoriya!" All Might held out one hand to stop him. "Shigaraki is my responsibility."
Shigaraki chuckled. "No, please, let him stay. It's because of him and his friends that I got this far, and I really want to thank him."
"So that's how it is," All Might muttered, and then glanced over his shoulder. "Lemillion! This might take longer than I thought, and I can't risk Gigantomachia going on a rampage. Take that monster down!"
Lemillion blinked. "By myself?"
"You're the ninth holder of One For All; your duty is to stand as the pinnacle of Heroes. Go and show the world what you can do!"
Lemillion was uncertain, but he turned and charged after Gigantomachia, who was trying to kill any Heroes that got too close. Heatblast started to go after him, but another pressure-blast bowled him over; he groaned as he got up, and then froze when he realized that All Might had attacked him.
"This ends today," All Might said, his smile gone. "I'm not letting either of All For One's students get away!"
For a moment, even Shigaraki looked completely lost. "Wait, what the hell?"
…
Triumph felt his heart stop when he saw a familiar pink figure tumble off of Gigantomachia's back, chased by a burst of blue fire. He slid forward on his ice, and barely managed to catch his girlfriend in his arms.
"My hero," Alien Queen said tiredly. "You're really good at sweeping me off my feet."
"I'm going to remind you about that later," Triumph told her, and then slid over to a group of Heroes and set her on her feet. "You deserve a break."
What he didn't say was that she really needed it. She was clearly exhausted, and had several injuries, ranging from burns to broken glass in her arm. The burns made Triumph see red; Dabi had made it personal by attacking his girlfriend, and he was going to make the Villain pay.
Alien Queen didn't meet his eyes. "I'm sorry, I tried to stop Dabi, but he kept burning away my acid."
"You kept him from hurting Izuku, and you're alive; that's all that matters." Triumph didn't want to aggravate her injuries by hugging her, so he settled for briefly stroking her cheek. "I'm gonna go help the others."
"Come back in one piece," Alien Queen all but begged, even as a Hero tugged her away from the fighting.
Triumph ran towards Gigantomachia, and his eyes narrowed when he saw another Hero wreathed in blue fire. When he got close enough, he heard Dabi's mad cackling, and his own fire flickered angrily. Dabi tried to burn Spirala, but Triumph blocked it with a massive wall of ice; Spirala flew back, and Dabi turned to face him.
"Hey, Machia, keep the Heroes from interfering with Shigaraki's fight," he said. "I've got some personal business to attend to."
Gigantomachia grunted, and then lowered Dabi to the ground. A rocket, courtesy of Genesis, exploded against the giant's shoulder, and he turned his attention back to the other Heroes, leaving Dabi and Triumph alone.
When he got close enough to see Dabi's face, Triumph felt his heart stop. He knew that face; there was a picture of it in his mother's room that she held every day.
"It's been a while," Dabi taunted. "I kinda wish we'd had a chance to talk when the League took your friend."
"You're dead." Triumph hadn't meant to be so blunt, but those were the only words he could think to say. "You can't be alive."
Dabi grinned. "Oh, you remember your dear eldest brother? That's so sweet, Shoto."
Shoto had never talked to anyone about his oldest brother; no one in the Todoroki family ever brought him up, because it would send them spiraling for days just by mentioning his name. In order to keep up appearances, Endeavor did everything in his power to remove his dead son from every record he could. Despite his father's intentions, Shoto was actually glad for that; it meant that he wouldn't catch his brother's name in the media if some reporter decided to bring him up in an interview. It also meant that his friends wouldn't tiptoe around the issue, because they didn't even know about the lost Todoroki sibling.
"You aren't Toya," Triumph said, his voice faint. "Toya died years ago."
"Aw, is that what Endeavor told you? I mean, he probably thought I was dead—not even he could have survived that explosion, but I did." Dabi slowly walked forward. "Me, the son he raised to become an even greater Hero than him, the son he threw away when I wasn't perfect, became even more powerful than him!"
The insanity was clear in Dabi's eyes, and it was enough to unnerve Triumph, who took a step back. Blue flame crackled over Dabi's arms, burning away his sleeves and charring his skin.
"And to prove it to the old man, I'm gonna kill his perfect son."
…
"What is this guy made of!?" Uravity shouted as she narrowly flew around Gigantomachia's claws. "He just won't stop fighting!"
Genesis didn't bother answering; she just kept creating more harpoons, which Froppy coated in more poison. Neither of them considered holding back; Genesis fired her launcher at the monster's throat and face, and Froppy kept her supplied with the most lethal poisons any frog could produce. Just the harpoons alone would have killed a normal human twenty times over, and the concentrated toxin was enough to wipe out a small town, but Gigantomachia kept going like they were little more than pinpricks.
Uravity wished she could use her Quirk on the monster, but he was as tall as a building, and with several times the mass. If she tried making something that large float, she'd knock herself out from the strain. The best she could do was fly around Gigantomachia like a mosquito, and hope she distracted him too much for him to kill anyone else.
Or, you know, me, she thought, just as an enormous hand filled her vision.
"Look out, kid!"
A small blur tackled her out of the way, and when Uravity's vision returned to normal, she realized it was Gran Torino. The man might have been old and small, but he was so much faster and more maneuverable than she was; his moves made hers look clumsy by comparison.
When this is over, I should ask him for lessons.
"How do we stop him?" Uravity asked as she flew out of the monster's range.
"I'm not sure," Gran Torino admitted. "He was All For One's bodyguard, back in the day, but no one's ever actually fought him. We only know that he's a tough bastard."
"That isn't helpful!"
Gran Torino glanced at something behind her, and grinned. "You want help? Well, here it comes."
Uravity felt a bit of hope return when a golden blur rocketed past, and Lemillion smashed his fist into Gigantomachia's jaw. Shigaraki's champion staggered back, and when he swiped at him, Lemillion used Permeation to easily pass through the attack. With a combination of Blackwhip, Float, and the strength of One For All, he quickly bound Gigantomachia's hands together, and held them that way.
"Hit him with everything you've got!" he shouted.
Earphone Jack shook Gigantomachia to his bones with waves of sound, followed by a bolt of electricity from Chargebolt that hit him directly in the eye. The jolt to his brain made him roar and stagger, and gave Ground Zero the perfect opportunity to land a point-blank explosion to his ankle. Tsukuyomi had Dark Shadow dart underneath Gigantomachia, and the shade provided gave the living Quirk the strength to tip the monster onto his side; once Dark Shadow was out of the way, Twinkling Knight hit Gigantomachia with enough blasts from his navel laser to leave a sizeable scorch, which he considered a suitable trade for the pain it caused his stomach.
It wasn't just students attacking; while something deep in their souls told them fighting Shigaraki was suicide, Gigantomachia was just frightening, and Heroes could handle fear. Pixie-Bob hit him with coils of earth to hold him down, and then a pair of enormous hands to grab him by the throat. Other Heroes focused their attacks on Gigantomachia's face, and he was hit by everything from physical strikes, to energy and elemental attacks.
Heroes whose Quirks weren't suited for direct combat did what they could to help their colleagues; some of them healed, while others provided logistical support. The biggest contribution, however, came from someone who had been a criminal not that long ago.
"Gentle!" La Brava shouted. "I love you!"
Gentle smiled at her as her Quirk empowered him; he had created a series of elasticized air-platforms and had been bouncing between them to build up speed. Without La Brava strengthening him, the G's he was pulling would have knocked him out, but now it felt like nothing could slow him down. After one more bounce, he aimed himself at Gigantomachia's jaw, right where Lemillion had left a sizeable crack in his hide. The shockwave from the impact made even Lemillion stagger, and created a crater almost ten feet deep under Gigantomachia's head. It also broke Gentle's arm in four places, but he considered the pain worth it.
At least, until Gigantomachia's eyes snapped open, and he shook himself free of Pixie-Bob's restraints. With a roar, he backhanded Gentle into the undamaged part of Jaku, clean through several buildings. Without La Brava's Quirk, and if he hadn't desperately set up a few elastic barriers at the last second to cushion the blow, Gentle would have been killed instantly. As it was, he was knocked out, and nearly every bone in his body was broken.
"No!" Lemillion jumped up towards Gigantomachia's chin, but instead of hitting him, he phased up and out the top of his head, and then latched onto his hair with Blackwhip. He reeled himself back to the top of Gigantomachia's head and punched him over and over.
Without realizing it, Lemillion had started tapping into the full power of One For All. His knuckles cracked and shattered, his arms began to bleed, but he refused to stop. His punches were a blur, and Gigantomachia's scalp burst open from the unbelievable amount of punishment.
Gigantomachia roared again, but this time, there was pain, and he desperately tried to shake off his attacker. Lemillion jumped back, but only because he saw one last chance to put the monster down.
Uravity had not been idle during this fight; she had flown over to Virtus and Genesis and presented a wild idea. The fact that Genesis thought it might work, and that Virtus actually wanted to go through with it, showed how desperate the fight was.
Using the last of her lipids, Genesis created a large spike of tungsten the size of her entire leg, with a flat top and some rudimentary straps. Uravity then used her Quirk on both it and Virtus, and flew them high into the air; after Virtus attached the straps to one of his feet, Uravity carefully aimed him at Gigantomachia, and released her Quirk. At first, Virtus simply let gravity do its work, building up speed while he angled this way and that, looking for the best possible spot to land. When he saw it, he dug deep into his Quirk, and unleashed his best move.
"RECIPRO TURBO!"
Uravity had to shield her eyes from the blinding light coming from Virtus' boosters. Had any windows still been intact, they would have shattered from Virtus moving several times the speed of sound. The tungsten spike slammed into Gigantomachia with the force of a ballistic missile; the impact broke Virtus' leg, but even if he wanted to stop from the pain, he couldn't. His move, simply put, expended all the energy his engines could muster into a single, uninterrupted thrust, and wouldn't stop until that energy was depleted.
The hit didn't kill Gigantomachia, or even knock him out; it did, however, slam him into the ground chin-first with enough force to register as a seismic event. The straps around Virtus' feet snapped, and he corkscrewed through the air as he lost control of his thrust; eventually, he crashed, and though his armor saved him from life-threatening injuries, he was still hurt and unconscious.
"Did we get him?" Uravity asked.
"No idea," Gran Torino said as he flew next to her. "Impressive plan, kid, but if he walks that off, we might be out of options."
As if to confirm their worst fears, Gigantomachia staggered to his feet; blood poured down his scalp, and chunks of armored flesh fell to the ground, but he still stood. He roared loud enough to shake the earth, and lumbered towards the Heroes; he took one step, then another… and then his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed.
"Well, I'll be damned." Gran Torino chuckled. "Looks like we just needed to hit him with a something like a damn orbital strike! Great work, kid."
Uravity would have happily accepted the compliment, but she was too busy being worried about everyone down on the ground. Every Hero that wasn't dead was either exhausted, or seriously injured; Genesis had used up so many lipids that she'd passed out, for one, and Froppy was so dehydrated from all the poison she'd secreted that she was being rushed to the rear. Even those who had only overused their Quirks were in no position to help against Shigaraki or Dabi.
Gran Torino could see her worry on her face. "Today was a bad day, girl, but it's always darkest before the dawn. We'll mourn, and then we'll rebuild."
"You really believe that?"
"If I didn't at least try, I'd be spitting on the memory of my friend, Nana."
Uravity blinked. "Do you mean Shimura Nana?"
Gran Torino did a double-take. "How do you know about her?"
"I read about her from a book my friend has." She chuckled. "I think Deku would love to talk to you about her, if you don't mind."
There was a sudden boom, and then Heatblast soared through the air; he crashed into the ground, and staggered to his feet. Uravity and Gran Torino turned in the direction he'd come from; they saw All Might with his fist extended, and Shigaraki looking both confused and amused.
"What is that idiot doing!?" Gran Torino shouted, and rocketed towards them. "Stay here, girl, you're not ready for this fight!"
As much as Uravity wanted to argue, the last time she'd tried fighting someone out of her league, she had lost her arm. All she could do was help everyone else, and hope that her boyfriend didn't get himself killed.
…
"You're gonna have to explain that one, All Might," Shigaraki said. "How do you think Midoriya works for All For One?"
"I'd like to hear the answer for that, too," Heatblast groaned as he got to his feet.
All Might put his fists on his hips. "You can't expect me to believe that someone with as many Quirks as you isn't connected to All For One. Tennyson-san was an interesting cover story, but there were too many holes, and All For One threw the fight against us; he should have fought much harder."
Shigaraki just gave him a disbelieving look. "Okay, you look younger, but you somehow have dementia, because that is the stupidest thing I've heard in a while."
"There's no point in keeping up this charade, Shigaraki Tomura." All Might glared up at him. "Or should I call you Shimura Tenko?"
Shigaraki blinked. "Huh? Oh, you know about that. I don't go by that name anymore, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't use it."
"It's who you really are," All Might argued. "Your grandmother was Shimura Nana, my mentor. She was killed by All For One a long time ago, but not before she passed on her dream of a society free of evil."
"You say that like I care." Shigaraki dropped to the ground and drove his fist into All Might's stomach; it drove him back a step, but there was none of the power there should have been. "Dammit, Eraser, that's starting to get annoying!"
Eraserhead never took his eyes off of Shigaraki. "Deku, get out of here! I'm not dealing with All Might's crap today, and I'm not going to let Shigaraki kill you!"
Despite how he felt about Midoriya, All Might wasn't about to let an opportunity slip by, and grabbed Shigaraki by the arm; the barest twitch of his muscles crushed the younger man's bones in an instant. However, Shigaraki grabbed All Might and heaved him over his shoulder with his good arm, and hurled him into Heatblast; All Might let out a grunt, the only sign of pain from the burns that immediately charred his flesh.
Shigaraki grabbed a chunk of stone and hurled it at Eraserhead with the speed of an artillery shell. Proving that his reflexes were at peak human capability, he managed to avoid a lethal strike, but the rock still hit him in the shoulder, shattering bone and sending him sprawling to the ground. He groaned and tried to rise, but with his gaze on Shigaraki broken for a moment, that was all that was needed for Shigaraki to close the distance and grab him by the face.
Eraserhead clawed futilely at the hand holding him. "Deku… run!"
"Aizawa!" All Might tried to get to his colleague, but a column of stone rose up in front of him; the stone then transmuted into steel, and spikes shot out like bullets.
All Might deflected the projectiles with rapid-fire gusts of air from his fists; he felt a wave of heat, and ducked back to allow Heatblast to melt the rest before they got close.
"Save him!" Heatblast begged. "I'll make you a path!"
All Might hesitated; with his speed, it would have been easy to reach Shigaraki and free Eraserhead, especially with Heatblast melting a hole through whatever Shigaraki threw at him. He knew that, in his heart, but the whispers of a restored One For All still told him that this was too close to his true enemy to be coincidence.
That hesitation proved fatal.
With a single twitch, Shigaraki crushed Eraserhead's skull in a shower of blood. His lifeless body fell to the ground, and Shigaraki chuckled as he shook blood and gore from his hand.
"So that's what it's like to be overleveled," he mused.
"NO!"
Shigaraki raised a hand and created a tungsten shield to block the intense fire from Heatblast, only to get punched in the chest by All Might. He tumbled back, but recovered easily, and blocked All Might's next flurry of blows.
"You seem slow, All Might," Shigaraki said casually, as if he was discussing the weather. "You look like you got all your power back, so why are you so weak? Or am I just that much stronger now?"
All Might's smile was gone, replaced by a mask of pure rage. He might not have gotten along with Aizawa all the time, but the man certainly didn't deserve to be murdered for it. He hated himself for not acting sooner to save him; instead, all he could do was bring his killer to justice.
If only Midoriya hadn't thrown his lot in his All For One, I wouldn't have been distracted! I could have saved him!
There was a flash of green light, and then a wave of deafening noise as Echo Echo unleashed his sonic scream. Both All Might and Shigaraki took a step back from the sound, but the former had to lean away from a sudden lunge from the latter. They engaged in a blindingly fast exchange of blows, yet were able to perfectly dodge each attack; Echo Echo had been annoying, but he wasn't strong enough to truly hurt them.
Ignoring Deku turned out to be a mistake.
…
"Come on, come on!" Jen urged. "We need to go, what the heck is taking you so long?"
"I'm trying!" Ken protested. "Something is strengthening the barriers between universes. It's like trying to cut through eight layers of cardboard with scissors!"
"What is going on with today?" Julie asked, exasperated.
"Nothing good, I'll tell you that," Ben said, arms crossed and foot tapping. "If Azmuth is right, and he usually is, then we are in a world of trouble."
Jen bit her lip. "I'm worried Izuku already is in a world of trouble."
…
Midoriya didn't consider himself a hateful person; anger wasn't usually his first reaction to anything. Yet in the last few months, he'd encountered three people he truly wanted to kill.
The first was Chisaki, for what he did to Eri.
The second was Vilgax, whose slaughter of his entire universe had barely been reversed.
And now, there was Shigaraki, who had murdered his teacher right in front of him.
His rage blinded him to his own safety as he turned into Ultimate Echo Echo; he was much taller than in his original form, with blue metallic skin, longer limbs, and blue discs all over his body.
Deku knew that going Ultimate again was a bad idea; the Omnitrix could, in theory, allow him to go Ultimate twice, but only at full charge. He wasn't sure what would happen with less than fifteen minutes of power remaining. He also knew, at that moment, that he didn't give a damn.
"You are going to pay for that!" he roared, and aimed his hands at Shigaraki; spears of solid sound lanced out, first impaling Shigaraki through the shoulders, and then exploding outwards, nearly severing his arms from his body.
Shigaraki fell to one knee, but not out of pain or exhaustion; instead, he let his hand brush the ground, and a massive fist of stone erupted up, punching Ultimate Echo Echo into the air. By the time he hit the ground, Shigaraki had used Overhaul to heal himself, and then backhanded All Might with enough force to send him flying hundreds of feet away.
"I think I'm done with this," Shigaraki said, and floated up into the air. "This was fun, Midoriya, but you just don't have what it takes to beat me." He raised one hand, and created an earpiece. "Kurogiri, Machia and Dabi need extraction. I'll be along shortly."
Ultimate Echo Echo got to his feet. "You aren't going anywhere!"
Shigaraki raised one hand to his face, and frowned when cracks began forming in his skin, like broken pottery. For a moment, Deku was reminded of Gwen when she was turning into an Anodite, but instead of glowing energy seeping from the cracks, it was blood. Shigaraki narrowed his eyes, and the injury slowly reversed, but as soon as he stopped concentrating, the cracks reappeared.
"Well, that's… annoying," he muttered, and then looked down at the Heroes. "Looks like I'll be cutting this short until I fix this debuff. See you later."
"I just said that you're not going anywhere!" Ultimate Echo Echo flew up so that he was level with him.
Shigaraki sighed. "I mean, I guess I could play for a little longer, Midoriya, but won't All Might think it's some convoluted scheme?"
"I don't care what he thinks." Ultimate Echo Echo's hands vibrated with building energy. "Just so long as I take you down."
"Ooh, scary," Shigaraki mocked. "I'll show you that you're not the strongest anymore."
Ultimate Echo Echo blasted Shigaraki with sound that would have shattered steel. It drove him back a short distance, with blood running from his ears. The injuries healed in moments, but then the cracks appeared around his ears, just like the ones on his arm.
"You're falling apart, Shigaraki," Ultimate Echo Echo realized. "You can't handle that kind of power, and it's killing you."
"Because you stupid Heroes stopped me before I was finished," Shigaraki accused. "It doesn't matter, though; I can finish the process on my own, even if it takes a while."
"Only if you get away." Ultimate Echo Echo pulled one of the discs off his body and hurled it at Shigaraki; it hovered just outside his reach, and replicated, until there were enough to completely encircle Shigaraki. "This is for Aizawa-sensei!"
Each disc emitted waves of sound, and each was amplified by the others; even people who weren't the target of the attack and were hundreds of feet away had to cover their ears from the sound. Shigaraki, on the other hand, was the main focus; his flesh burst, his bones shattered, and for a moment, he looked like he was about to be crushed into paste.
"No… nooo!" Gritting shattered teeth, Shigaraki slowly put his body back together; more cracks appeared, making him look like a broken statue that had been glued together.
Ultimate Echo Echo's discs merged together and returned to his body; he held up one hand, already humming with power. "Stand down. Final warning."
Shigaraki glared at him, even as his eyes leaked blood. "You think I'd just give up, right when I'm about to get everything I've always wanted?"
"It might save your life," Ultimate Echo Echo said, then shrugged. "Not that I really care if you keep breathing."
"Funny, I was about to say the same thing about you."
"Those aren't the words of a Hero, young Midoriya!" All Might admonished as he got back in the fight.
As much as All Might considered Midoriya an enemy, he figured that Shigaraki was closer to defeat, and wasn't above capitalizing on that. He rocketed into the air, appearing behind Shigaraki in a flash.
"TEXAS SMASH!"
Ultimate Echo Echo leaned out of the way as Shigaraki was pushed by the power of a hurricane, focused in a single punch. He managed to stop before he crashed into the ground, then turned and aimed one hand at the two Heroes.
"Die."
Crackling black tendrils lunged out from the air right in front of his hand. Ultimate Echo Echo let gravity take hold to avoid the attack, and All Might dodged with a quick application of air pressure. The attack hit the ruined building behind them, and immediately exploded with the force of an artillery strike; Shigaraki's hand also detonated in a miniature version of the explosion, but he quickly restored it with Overhaul.
"What the hell was that?" he muttered; he didn't know what Quirk that was, so he used Comprehension on himself. "Antimatter? Where the hell did Garaki find that Quirk?"
"Shigaraki!" Ultimate Echo Echo floated in front of him, both hands pointed at his face; Shigaraki noticed that he was trembling, and the dial on his chest was rapidly blinking red. "You… you won't…"
Shigaraki grinned. "Looks like we're both near our limit, huh? Too bad, I've still got a little left in the tank, but you look like you're about to die. In fact, let me help with that."
"No one else is dying, Shigaraki," All Might said, fists on his hips. "I won't allow it."
"The days when you can stop me are long past, All Might." Shigaraki knelt and placed one hand on the ground, and aimed the other at Deku. "Nobody can stop me."
Ultimate Echo Echo fired two sonic blasts, just as Shigaraki simultaneously unleashed Decay on the ground, and a gust of wind with the other that made All Might's moves look like a light breeze. Ultimate Echo Echo put everything he had into his own attack, just to keep himself from being blown away; All Might hadn't been directly behind him, and the wind knocked him over a hundred miles back, through some buildings, deflecting off a mountain, and into the ocean. Ultimate Echo Echo hadn't been touching the ground, and wasn't affected by Shigaraki's decay, but there were still hundreds of civilians, first responders and Heroes close enough to be instantly killed by the wide-ranged attack.
A moment later, Shigaraki was spent, and he collapsed; just before he hit the ground, one of Kurogiri's portals swallowed him up, and he was gone.
There was a flash of red light, and a human Deku staggered forward. "No… come back… you can't…"
The last thing he saw before he passed out was the gathering clouds, and the first of the rain began to fall.
…
Dabi chuckled. "Well, looks like the show's over, Shoto. I wonder how many people Shigaraki killed? Probably more than me, so I'll have to step up my game."
Triumph clutched his right arm with his left; it was horribly burned, and he could barely feel it. "You're a monster, Toya; you're everything Endeavor could have turned me into, and I'm going to stop you!"
"You can try, baby brother, but round one clearly went to me." Dabi glanced over his shoulder to see Gigantomachia slip into a massive portal. "Oh, and that's my cue to leave. Make sure the old man survives, okay? I'd hate for Shigaraki to steal my kill."
"Toya, wait!" Triumph shot a column of fire at Dabi, but his brother just countered it with an even stronger inferno; when the flames died down, Dabi was gone.
Triumph sank to his knees; between his injuries, exhaustion, and emotional turmoil, he was beyond spent.
"Toya's alive," he muttered. Did Endeavor know that his son was really alive? Had he known that Toya was a Villain this whole time? Did he even care?
He didn't think about it, but Triumph was going to do one thing Dabi wanted—he wouldn't let Endeavor die, if only so that he could get some answers.
That was the last thing he thought before his injuries caught up to him, and he passed out.
…
"You look terrible," Slice commented.
Dabi shrugged, not even glancing at his charred arms. "Hey, you saw me before Shigaraki fixed me up; you know I've looked worse. How'd things go with you guys?"
"The mission was successful," Nine said. "The Commission was destroyed, and their information now belongs to us."
"Not a bad day," Dabi said with a grin.
"Are you insane!?" Skeptic glared at him. "Our entire army was captured! All those soldiers, generations of preparation, all ruined in a single day!"
"It was a necessary sacrifice," Nine said. "The battle weakened the Heroes considerably, and with the HPSC erased, our enemies won't have the logistics or authority to effectively counter our next move."
"And what move is that?" Re-Destro asked; he was more composed than Skeptic, but his expression was still murderous. "If you haven't noticed, our resources are fairly limited. We no longer have Bubaigawara to replenish our numbers."
Dabi blinked. "Wait, Twice got caught?"
"He's dead," Toga snarled; she had been sitting in the corner since the team had returned from their raid on the HPSC.
"Okay, so we took a bad loss." Dabi looked around. "They got the Doctor, didn't they?"
Chimera sighed. "They did, and since we don't know where they took him, we can't rescue him. We're now officially out of Nomu, too."
"And both Shigaraki and Gigantomachia are currently catatonic," Nine said. "However, we still have an opportunity to inflict one more blow before we go into hiding again. This one will be able to cover our tracks, and increase our numbers."
Compress inclined his head in Nine's direction. "Even with the Commission gone, it would only make sense that the best targets would be heavily defended."
"Not if the entire country was thrown into chaos by our distraction." Nine held up Skeptic's laptop. "And as it so happens, I know exactly which of the Commission's dirty secrets we can use."
"It would have to be one hell of a secret to distract the entire country right now," Slice pointed out.
In response, Nine opened the file he'd been reading and showed it to the others. More than one of them had to read it multiple times before they truly grasped the magnitude of what they'd discovered.
"Holy shit," Chimera said, once he'd remembered how to breathe. "Yeah, that'll do the job."
Nine shoved the laptop back into Skeptic's hands. "Upload that to everyone you can—not just Japan, but the entire world. That should cause more than enough chaos for what I have planned."
"And what, exactly, does that plan entail?" Re-Destro asked.
Nine still wore his mask, but those who had known him long enough could tell that he was smiling.
"We're going to pay a visit to Tartarus."
…
Sir Nighteye held up a hand to shield his eyes from the wind that whipped around him. Gale Force did his best, but even his insane control couldn't completely stop his wind from washing over the Heroes he carried.
Even with the wind making his eyes sting, he couldn't miss the horrific devastation. Most of Jaku City had been completely destroyed, with only a few damaged buildings on the outskirts still standing. Nighteye felt sick when he considered the potential tens of thousands of lives lost.
"Get us down there," he ordered, raising his voice to be heard over the wind. "We need to find other Heroes and see where we can be most effective."
Next to him in the enormous sphere of wind, Cellophane nodded. "Y-yeah, but can anyone be okay down there?"
"Remain calm," Nighteye told him. "Panicking will not do anyone any good, and neither will giving up hope. We must hold onto the possibility that our friends and colleagues have survived, or even emerged victorious."
Cellophane nodded again, much steadier this time. "Okay. I can do that."
"Hey!" They turned to see Gale Force pointing down. "I think I see Deku! I mean, I saw a flash of red light, could that be him?"
Nighteye frowned. "Deku's transformations are always with a green light."
Cellophane felt a chill go down his spine. "Not if his watch ran out of power. He told me a red light meant he could be in real trouble!"
"Get us to that light," Nighteye said immediately. "If that is Deku, he may require medical assistance."
As they got closer to the ground, Nighteye's stomach turned; bodies were everywhere, most of them in pools of blood. Some were still alive, but many of them had lost far too much blood to survive—others were simply in too many pieces.
Once they were on the ground, groups of Nighteye's taskforce broke off to assist the wounded, while Nighteye himself led Cellophane and Midnight on a search for Deku. When they found him, they saw that he wasn't alone.
Nighteye wasn't sure who he was more surprised to see—the Tennyson family, along with three teenagers he didn't recognize, or All Might, somehow in the prime of his life, if somewhat injured. He was also worried, since the Tennysons and company looked ready to throw down with All Might; even worse, the man he used to work for looked just as eager for that fight.
"What did we miss?" Cellophane asked faintly.
"If you even think of putting Izuku in prison, I will personally throw you into the sun!" Supergirl snarled, eyes blazing red.
Nighteye blinked. "I believe we missed a lot."
The battle is over, but man, do we have a lot to deal with in the aftermath. Normally, this would be the part where I answer a few questions you might have, but I plan to do all of that in the following chapter. Sorry if this one was a bit short, but it was pretty much all action, and it was hard to write much more than this, since I'm worried about major events going on in the world right now that affect members of my family.
Seriously, can the world chill the hell out for a while, please? It's hard to write fictional drama when there's too much real-world drama.
As always, please consider buying my book, Alpha Sanction, by Josh Gottlieb. You can find it on my website (link in my profile), or on Amazon, in both eBook and physical format. If you enjoy large-scale science fiction battles and mystery, I think you'll enjoy my original work. I'm really close to the sequel, so this is a good time to pick up the first in the trilogy!
If you want to support me in other ways, and help me not work 6 days a week like I am now, then P-atreon is the place to go (link in my profile). Patrons of higher tiers get chapters early, and even a free PDF of my book. Seriously, the other reason why I took so long to write this chapter was because I only get one day a week to write now.
Speaking of patrons, I'd like to thank the following:
Serious Muffins: Nimrod009, Aaron Meek, Matthias Matanovic, Red Bard, Lokthar, Hakuryuken, Anders Lyngbye, Kristen Tyler, Patryk kawalec
Incredible Muffins: RaptorusMaximus, Crazyman844, CherryGoesBoom, michaelb958
Ultra Muffins: RangersRoll
Next Chapter: The smoke clears, secrets are revealed, and Midoriya has more than one decision to make.
Plus Muffin!