My Hero Academia: Son of Justice

by Jayme F. Midorikawa

The son of the disgraced former greatest Hero of The Soviet Union is extended a chance at a new life by the Symbol of Peace, All Might. After having lived so long resenting Heroes and Villains, and being scared to death of his own Quirk, will he be able to step forward and become the Hero he once dreamed of, and will he be able to find new purpose through friendship, or even love?

141. Otheon Arc Part 6 - World Heroes

Hello again, everyone. I've been working tirelessly to try and get this chapter for the third movie done in a way that reads just as cinematically as watching the movie itself, while also making original battles included be able to do the movie justice. To call that effort truly and utterly exhausting is the mother of all understatements, and I can only hope this chapter meets all your expectations for how long I forced you all to wait for it.

I just hope you all will be kind enough to leave a review, letting me know how you all think I did, or just how you think this story is as a whole in general. To see the last chapter I'd uploaded after months of delays get not even a single review, whilst also trying to cope with my depression at the manga's ever-approaching end, is deeply discouraging to say the least. I need to know if any of you even really care about this story at all anymore, or if I'm just wasting all our time by continuing to work on this. Just some engagement from you, the readers, is all I'm asking for, after how much time I put into this. Is that really too much to ask for?

Well, this isn't the time or place for such ranting, so I just hope you all enjoy this chapter for what I tried so hard to make out of it. Expect the final chapter concluding the third movie, World Heroes' Mission, in the next couple of days.

My Hero Academia is the property of Kouhei Horikoshi and Shonen Jump. I only own my original characters and the original storylines surrounding them.

A/N: [[]] indicates that characters are contextually speaking Russian.

Chapter 142

World Heroes

(Герои Мира)

Humarise Headquarters, Monday, January 19th

'Hurry, hurry, hurry!'

SMAAASH!

"DON'T GET IN MY WAY!"

Izuku's driven cry echoed down the winding passages of the subterranean Humarise headquarters, as he bolted down every winding which way like a glowing green human bullet; the sparks of his Full Cowling empowering his flicking fingers and swinging heels, as he sent one bunch of terrorists after another flying helplessly, no matter how well fortified their defenses. Dozens lay dazed or fully unconscious in his wake as he refused to slow down for a moment. The clock to the final countdown was ticking, and with Nikolay, Bakugo and Shoto all having done what they did to try and buy him all the time they could to stop it, he knew he could afford to do no less. They and untold countless others depended on it.

But by his memory of the layout they had received this morning, he could feel an intense certainty building in his chest, that he was nearing the central hub any moment now, the place where the leader of this cult, Flect Turn, had to undoubtedly be waiting; and most importantly, the central computer that would deactivate all of the Ideo Trigger bombs they had placed across the globe. If he could just get the key in his possession in there in time, then this could all finally be over.

With that thought in mind, as Izuku turned yet another corner, ricocheting off the wall, he was met with a colossal pair of double doors. Just the sight sent the energy of One For All surging through his legs, as he sprang off the floor halfway down the passage, and swung his right leg forward like an axe swing.

SMAAASH!

The wood nearly splintered under the inhuman force of Izuku's kick, as he finally found himself within a vast marble chapel, with a fresco-adorned roof towering high overhead, and walls lined with countless books.

'This is the furthest room back…' Thinking on this, his eyes soon settled upon a small pair of double doors straight across from him at the foot of the raised balcony ahead. '…which means the main computer terminal controlling the Ideo Trigger bombs should be in there!'

With his legs sparking, Izuku took off in a mad dash for the doors, the rushing of air past his ears almost keeping him from hearing what sounded like a hatch opening somewhere up above, before the ring of laser fire suddenly pierced the silence. The instant flare of red out the corner of his eye drove him to urgently kick himself back from where he'd just stepped, just barely missing the blast of concentrated plasma burning a hole in the marble floor.

"Leave this place. One so gravely afflicted as you desecrates sacred ground with your mere presence."

The booming voice of a true orator echoed through the chamber, sending alerted chills up Izuku's spine. As his eyes scanned around, he felt that unmistakable jolt of one being watched. Looking up, he immediately knew why.

Atop the balcony, beneath a large Humarise banner, stood the one thing Izuku had been preparing himself for: a single tall adult man adorned in heavy white robes, with glowing blue skin upon his razor sharp angular and bearded face, with similar reflecting blue lights lining the interior of his massive collar.

It was him, there was no mistaking it: he now stood before the leader of Humarise, himself.

Even from this distance, Izuku could see the ice cold apathy in Flect Turn's pointed eyes, as the cult leader began to descend the stairs with no visible urgency. "This church is dedicated to securing the salvation of humanity.

VRRRRRR!

As Flect Turn continued to descend, the sound of heavy mechanics caught Izuku's ear, as he looked around to find the multiple layers of bookshelves circling the chamber were being shielded by heavy armor plating from below. There couldn't have been a clearer indicator that Flect Turn was prepared to fight.

But that didn't deter Izuku, as he replied steadfast: "What you're telling people to do, what you've already done before, that's not salvation! The Quirk Doomsday Theory is just that; it hasn't been scientifically proven to be real! It's just a conspiracy theory that feeds on people's fear! How can you possibly just accept something so uncertain without even stopping to ask questions; and to do something so devastating to so many innocent people because of it!?"

By now, Flect Turn had reached the bottom of the stairs, his expression unflinching as he continued to approach Izuku, looking upon him like a mere insect. "Humanity has strayed too far from God's intended path. They have been tempted by the corrupting sin, the disease known as Quirks. It has propagated far too much. The last strains of pure humanity are being threatened by this disease. With each generation, they mix, evolve, and grow far too powerful to control, driving humanity ever closer to destruction, and eventual extinction."

To hear the man before him speak with such certainty to try and justify the devastation he had already unleashed upon Berlin, and was now practically no time at all away from repeating upon the rest of the world, filled Izuku with a righteous anger, clenching a defiant fist. "That's not true! Whether someone has a Quirk or is Quirkless doesn't define whether they're diseased or not! We're all still alive! We're all still human!"

But as Izuku's heartfelt defiance echoed around them, Flect Turn still looked utterly unfazed. "Just as I thought, the gravely afflicted are beyond help. I place my trust in my followers to see our great work carried out…but I must be the one to carry the ultimate responsibility in the end."

There couldn't have been any clearer a sign that the time for words was over between them, as Izuku quickly brought his mind back into focus, his Full Cowling erupting all over his body. "I won't let that happen! I won't let you activate those Ideo Trigger bombs! None of us will!"

With that, he took off in a bolt across the chamber, leaping up and over to drive his empowered foot straight into the side of Flect Turn's head; the cult leader curiously not even trying to get out of the way or block the attack.

"ST. LOUIS SMASH!"

SMAAASH!

Izuku could feel his kick fully connect with Flect Turn's head, the impact causing a massive cyclone of pure force to erupt all around them, tearing his opponents' robe to shreds, revealing a dark red bodysuit with the same blue lenses lining it…but then, the most unexpected thing of all happened:

Before Izuku's eyes, he saw a multitude of those same energy sparks connect between his foot and Flect Turn's face, just before that same cyclone that came from his attack, completely reversed course and shrank back into Izuku's foot; almost as though time itself were rewinding, just as his leg then began to twist in reverse, and he felt more than half the muscle fibers of his right leg start snapping, fraying and virtually exploding from inside.

Finally, his whole body was suddenly blasted back with an unprecedented physical power, sending him slamming painfully into the armored wall behind him.

Izuku's leg was in agony as he tried to get back up, his mind reeling from what had just happened. 'I can't believe it…he repelled it? No…that's not it. That blow, that shock and force…it felt exactly the same as a Smash attack! But how?!'

As if he could read the young Hero's mind, Flect Turn answered, just as a multitude of levitating blue lenses suddenly emanated from the air all around him, like magic, while others emanated from behind his back, attached to mechanical limbs coming from under his suit. "You see now, don't you? I was born with this disease, a disease I cannot get rid of which causes me to repel everything that comes my way, regardless of intent. This is my cross to bear as punishment for humanity's corruption, its' sin."

But for all of Flect Turn's theatrical language, Izuku could only make a judgment on what he'd just observed and experienced. 'Of course, those lenses around him are like mirrors. That has to be the sign of his Quirk: one that reflects everything. And what's more: it's a Quirk that's constantly activated.'

But that wouldn't stop him. Instead, as Izuku's body ignited with energy once more, he took off into another mad encircling dash with Full Cowling, aiming his flicked back fingers at Flect Turn, before channeling his Quirk into flicking them forward, firing a trio of Air Force attacks at the man. "If you have a Quirk as well, then why won't you believe in it like everyone else does theirs?!"

But Flect Turn said nothing, instead continuing to stare the boy down, as those three incoming pockets of condensed rushing air vanished against his physical form, and the mirrors surrounding him proceeded to aim at Izuku, firing those same overwhelming blasts right back at him; hammering the Hero back into the wall with enough strength to break through the steel plating.

'He can even…reflect distanced attacks?' Izuku was mentally scrambling for something he could use as he fought through the pain encapsulating his whole body.

"Believe in them?"

The sound of Flect Turn's voice prompted Izuku to finally open his eyes, to see the Villain before him now looking upon his own hands; his emotionless eyes now reflecting a deep intensity the young Hero hadn't expected.

"You little fool. Because of my disease, I was never once held by my own parents. The ones I was brave enough to call my friends, even those I gave my heart to; all of them abandoned me; who reflected everything they tried to give, even their own feelings. My disease sentenced me to a lifetime of loneliness no one could possibly understand. Because of its nature, I couldn't even choose death for myself without it being reflected. A Quirk that cannot be controlled can only ever lead to pain.

"At first, I cursed and hated God for making me this way…but it all eventually became so much clearer, when I began to hear those same sentiments from more and more people, whose bodies and hearts were being crushed by the ever-evolving range and power of Quirks; those I now call my brothers and sisters in faith. There was even a young man with a disease very much like my own, but which he could actually control…only it proved for naught, for he lost his father and home to those gravely afflicted. God willed our paths to come together, so he could give us the final tools we needed to enact His will. He has given us a far greater purpose: to bring humanity's salvation."

No matter how much it seemed like Flect Turn was becoming lost in his recollections, Izuku wasn't willing to take any chances, as he suddenly launched himself from the crater in the walls, dashing for him in a blinding flurry of energy. 'I'll deactivate One For All just before I hit him!'

Just as he thought so, Izuku quickly stopped focusing, withdrawing his Quirk's power at the final moment before he let his momentum drive his fist into Flect Turn's torso, only for that same pitch black vortex to erupt from out the cult leader's back, then just as quickly reverse and retract back into him, only to produce an unexpectedly amplified strike right back through Izuku's arm and into his whole body, sending him flying back with the same strength as if he had still kept his Quirk activated.

Undeterred still, Izuku broke into another amplified sprint. 'I'll make him put all his focus into one single point…'

As soon as he saw Flect Turn's piercing gaze hone in one him when there was less than half the distance left between them, Izuku suddenly kicked himself off the ground to the side, circling around his opponent without breaking his momentum. '…then make a dash for the doors to the terminal!'

Still, Flect Turn's eyes bore into the meddlesome Hero, as a multitude of panels suddenly opened across all the walls and the ceiling of the chapel, as if by mental command. "I will not let you interfere any more in God's plan. I will eradicate the sinful disease of Quirks from this world, and through righteous bloodshed will the pure humans that remain finally see the error of their ways, and step forward to help us bring forth the salvation of humanity!"

And as if to punctuate his final note, all of the small laser turrets within those opened panels opened fire at once, sending a massive criss-crossing haze of lethal red energy flying all across the chapel, forcing Izuku to hurriedly leap and ricochet himself every which way he could with his speed in order to avoid getting hit. Unfortunately, with the rapidity with which the turrets fired, it was as though the lasers were actively chasing after him.

But Flect Turn saw all this and had already planned one step ahead, as through the neural connection the spine-like apparatus along his back connecting his extra mechanical limbs gave him to his church's security system, he was able to make several of the turrets aim in just the right way so that his opposable mirrors could move and reflect the lasers, allowing several of them to punch small burning holes straight through Izuku's arms and legs, sending him sprawling in a spattering of blood to the floor.

Flect Turn could only watch as Izuku could barely even writhe as his blood pooled beneath him. "You poor, misguided thing."

With a gesture of his illuminated arm, suddenly did the entire chapel become lit up with a multitude of holographic screens. As Izuku struggled to lift his head, he was shaken to his core by what he was seeing.

Across all these screens was live footage of every one of the other World Hero Association teams across the globe, all caught in the fiercest battle he could have imagined they would face.

But Flect Turn himself kept his hand raised to the heavens, smiling in satisfaction at the conflict unfolding before them both. "In just five minutes, my brothers and sisters will activate the bombs…and even if your fellow Heroes manage to stop them, I can fulfill our sworn duty in their place from here. One way or another, humanity's salvation will be achieved, through the death of many Heroes, the afflicted, and the corrupted masses. Such a grim toll is what must be paid for the species to regain its footing."

"You're wrong…" Izuku's strained voice called out, prompting the cult leader to turn back, to find the boy already back on his shaking feet; the sight of his friends in their current state's bringing his still-flowing blood to a boil. "I will stop you…just like they'll stop your people."

Like a shot, he took off in another desperate and blinding bolt of energy, but Flect Turn remained unmoved, as the mirrors upon him once again maneuvered at his mental command, and the laser turrets fired in kind. "Then, I shall kill you…just as they will kill all your friends."

And just like before, the lasers ricocheted at the perfect angle, as if predicting where Izuku was going even before he did, as their burning touch seared yet more holes through his sides and limbs, once again bringing him violently rolling to the floor, only to pick himself back up and try once more; his mind now only filled with what he was seeing happen to all his friends, somehow numbing the pain of every hole burned through his flesh.

'Kacchan…Todoroki-kun…'

Across two screens, Izuku could only watch on as Bakugo was in the middle of trying to fight two lightning-fast terrorists with bladed chains running from their bodies, which they proceeded to swiftly and mercilessly slash him from all over with, leaving him still standing, but severely bloodied; while at the same time, Shoto was desperately trying to fight his way out of being held underwater by a writhing gelatinous mass, which only continued to keep ensnaring him with every move he tried to make.

Izuku's driven spirit still twisted in pain at the sight of his two teammates in such peril, and with each time he still tried to run for the doors, and subsequently got shot through with yet more lasers, his eyes and thoughts were filled with the perils of the rest of his friends as he saw the screens covering their fights fly by.

…

'Tokoyami-san…Ojiro-san…Sato-san…'

In New York; Fumikage, Mashirao, Rikido, Nirengeki and Jurota were desperately trying to maneuver a wide and horizontal battlefield in Times Square, as they were being fired upon or Quirk attacked from all sides by Humarise members, with one using an Electric Quirk to brighten all the lights around to keep Dark Shadow small and weak, as well as to cause surges that sent electrical bolts shooting out at his allies; all while Hawks, Shishido and several of the other local Heroes were trying to help in both the fighting and the evacuation of civilians.

Amid the chaos, the American Number One Hero, Star And Stripe, was forced to divert her attention from battling a terrorist with a Projectile Propulsion Quirk, after he'd sent multiple pieces of rubble in her direction like a baseball pitcher but with the kind of speed and force like they'd been fired from a battleship cannon; all of them bypassing her and instead flying straight into a passing airliner high up above, bringing it careening down in twin trails of burning smoke.

…

'Yaoyorozu-san…'

In Singapore, Momo and Setsuna were both using their Quirks to try and fight tooth and nail through the aggressive horde of terrorists safeguarding their bomb at the coast of the city, with their zealous tenacity and Quirks alike proving to make them a steady bulwark, even against the combined might of the two brilliant Hero students and the Pro Heroes, Majestic and Big Red Dot.

…

'Kaminari-san…Sero-san…Mineta-san…

Likewise, in Cairo, the terrorists had turned their bomb's location on Gezira Island into a veritable fortress of manpower; many of them possessing wide-reaching Quirks that tore through the surrounding city, putting many of the fleeing civilians in danger, and thus forcing the Heroes to divide their forces, with Mt. Lady, Denki, Hanta and Minoru having to try and maintain some kind of offensive to no avail, while Salaam and The Lurkers had to split up and save the civilians; both tasks made that much more difficult once one of the terrorists with a Wind Quirk, injected himself with a syringe of Trigger, then proceeded to kick up a current that turned into a cyclonic sandstorm that nearly engulfed the whole city.

…

'Uraraka-san…Asui-san…Aoyama-san…Hagakure-san…'

In Paris; Ochako, Tsuyu, Yuga, Tooru, Nejire and all their Pro Hero mentors' already desperate battle around the Arc De Triomphe had only gotten that much more desperate. Selkie and Sirius had tried to provide additional firepower from aboard the Oki Mariner along the Seine River, with Nejire and Willow Light providing them aerial line-of-sight for their over-arcing weaponry. However, the terrorists had planned their positioning around much of the city masterfully. Before the crew of the Oki Mariner could prove too much trouble for their enemies, it quickly became evident that the water below their ship was suddenly coming to an unnatural boiling heat as a result of one terrorist's enhanced Temperature Quirk. Like that, not only were the crew unable to jump ship as the heat grew to be enough to seriously damage their engine; but now too were many water-faring civilians in serious danger, and unable to be immediately aided.

At the same time, around the Arc De Triomphe itself, a terrorist with a Mineral Quirk had likewise decided to amplify their power, which quickly went to overwhelm many of the Heroes, as the entire circle surrounding the arc was suddenly torn apart from underground by massive spires of crystal quickly overlapping over each other; instantly trapping Yoroi Musha, Frère Intrépide, and the four Class 1-A Heroes within. This left only Nejire and Willow Light to try and keep up the fight from the air, but even they were having no luck, as the terrorists kept them on the evasive with numerous anti-air attacks.

…

'Shoji-san…Jirou-san…Kirishima-san…Kieslowska-san…Tunguska-sensei…'

Back in Japan, neither team was having any better luck. In Tokyo, Mezo had to use his multitudes of tentacles to try and get himself and Kyouka all the way up Tokyo Tower in order to keep the Humarise members distracted if they couldn't try and neutralize them instead, while Present Mic, Gang Orca and Cementoss tried to get underground to where they'd been informed the bomb was hidden; but the terrorists were refusing to give them even an inch, and with a lucky gunshot managing to sever one tentacle Mezo was using to climb further, it had sent him and Kyouka both plummeting, with several more gunshots similarly cutting through whichever extending tentacles he tried to reach out with to try and break their fall.

Similarly, in Fukuoka City; the situation had gone from bad to much, much worse. While the terrorists had indeed dug in to the massive train station to protect their bomb from the Heroes, who had only now finally managed to break through the perimeter, it was quickly made apparent that the means chosen by the terrorists to ensure detonation were far more severe.

After working their way up and clearing the station's controllers' office, not only did they find that all controls for the lines had been destroyed, but a flurry of radio traffic coming in also informed them of handfuls of Humarise members having chosen that time to suddenly reveal themselves and hijack just as many trains, setting them up to all collide into the station, and detonate the bomb through that sheer amount of explosive force to follow.

With Vlad King quickly managing to identify which lines the trains in question were coming from and subsequently instructing one of the station employees who'd been a hostage to contact the local power stations to tell them to cut the power to the rail lines; their vast team quickly found themselves being forced to split up; with Vlad King himself and Tetsutetsu staying in the station to neutralize the rest of the terrorists hunkered down and evacuating the last of the civilians; while Fatgum had to go for one train, and Tunguska and Tamaki went for a second, thus leaving Eijirou and Maja to head for the third.

Of course, the student side of the Polish girl instinctively wanted to point out that without her having a license, she still technically wasn't allowed to do anything other than aid in evacuations, but her pragmatic side helped her to understand that if the teachers were unflinching enough about the rules to enforce that, they wouldn't have included her in this sudden plan at all. If that wasn't a clear sign that they were giving her their official permission, then she wouldn't have known what was. And so, with Eijirou radiating enough drive and confidence for the whole lot of them, Maja found herself more than ready to finally go into action with him.

And through just as many video feeds to capture all four of these simultaneous conflicts, the four groups had all been met with overwhelming adversity. Vlad King tried to pin down or restrain as many of their attackers as he could through his impressive speed and his Blood Quirk, while Tetsutetsu naturally tried to act like the human wrecking ball he was, powering through all the attacks he could in order to hit them twice as hard in return; but the sheer barrage and swiftness the terrorists proved capable of was simply too much for the two Heroes to gain any real foothold.

All the while, as Fatgum had decided to try and bring his incoming train to a stop through simply acting like a barricade to fight against its momentum, he too soon found himself at a severe disadvantage, as the terrorists on board decided to force him on the defensive, thus allowing the train to regain its unstoppable momentum while the BMI Hero was forced onto the roof.

Tunguska and Tamaki were faring no better. With all the civilians held hostage upon their train, the Sun of Justice knew he couldn't simply use his Quirk to cut the wheels away and bring it to a potentially devastating crashing stop. No, he and the third-year student at his side needed to exercise far more precise tactics just to be able to get inside before the terrorists on board could try to stop them. But even after that much had been accomplished, they now had civilians and severely cramped quarters within which to fight to contend with. Tunguska's Solar Blasts and Tamaki's hard-hitting crab claws certainly forced their assailants further and further back both ways down the train, but the Humarise members were adaptable more than anything, as some revealed themselves to possess some considerable Armor Quirks with which to render Tamaki's attacks ineffective, no matter how he altered his body to get around or through them; while others made use of their firepower and hostages to prevent Tunguska from simply overpowering them with his bigger forms of attack, thus forcing him to now be the one on the defensive.

And finally, with neither Maja nor Eijirou's Quirks giving them any real advantage in terms of speed, they had to rely on getting a good enough vantage point a way down their chosen rail line, from which to jump in and crash-land their way into the train, catching several of the terrorists within by surprise, only to quickly get slammed down by Hardened fists and feet, or plastered helplessly to the walls, floor and ceiling with fast-flying deluges of Wax.

But just like their allies, they soon found themselves in a bottleneck, as they were faced with a duo of terrorists, one of whom proved to have a Poison Quirk, as he forcefully breathed out a choking miasma that made it increasingly difficult for Eijirou to breathe. Maja was naturally quick to divert some of the Wax of her Hero costume to seal over her mouth and nose, while channeling more from out her hands in order to build up a quick-drying barricade between them so her partner could try and get his breath back; but the terrorists wouldn't even allow them that, as the second Humarise member revealed his Quirk to essentially be a Blowtorch Quirk, as Maja's Wax wall was swiftly sliced apart and melted by a far-reaching and intense jet-like flame emanating from out both his hands. Miraculously; Eijirou, knowing the serious disadvantage Maja's Quirk had with severe temperatures, put his own vulnerability aside in order to enact his Unbreakable and stand in front of the Polish girl as her shield.

Unfortunately, Maja couldn't be spared a moment to try and think around this, as she soon heard the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps from behind her back; turning around to find a third terrorist about to pounce on her with a multitude of opposable buzz-saws erupting from all over his body, spinning with such intensity that they were able to still carve through the large protective gauntlets of Wax Maja hurriedly formed over her own hands. With Eijirou braving blistering flames on one side, and her last-second attempt at defense about to be cut clean through on the other, the two young Heroes were at a loss as how to break through this one.

…

'Ashido-san…'

In Perth, both fronts of the battle were only growing more intense. Outside the city stadium, Mirko, Stampede Hopper and Mantypus were fighting tooth and nail through the resistance that was Humarise and their recruited Australian Villain, Scarlet Widow. With empty cars being blasted every which way, Heroes and terrorists alike were consistently darting at breakneck speed to try and get a hand up on one another. With the trio's combined overwhelming physical strength, it was easy to use cars, streetlights and even whichever enemies they could get a grip on, to knock any terrorists on their own in the open flat on their asses, out cold. But Scarlet Widow herself was an entirely different story; her impressively flexible spider legs emanating from her back, not only giving her a speed to match that of the Heroes, but also an added physical strength, enough to even catch a couple of incoming cars in mid-air, and send them flying right back at her three targets instead, likewise forcing them to scatter.

One car landing just hard enough to make it explode was enough to knock Mirko just enough off-balance, for another vehicle to come flying in to flatten her beneath before she could deflect it. Fortunately for her, Mantypus was just in the right place to close the distance and smash the incoming projectile to pieces with a resonating smack of his tail, sending the resulting shrapnel flying back at a few more terrorists perched above, distracting them enough for him to send a series of his poisoned barbs their way, puncturing them and sending them into unconsciousness with an airborne flip.

PKOW!

Unfortunately, Mantypus' focus on that threat had inadvertently left him just open enough for one of the last remaining Humarise members in the parking lot to line his sights and send a single gunshot through the Platypus Hero's gut, sending him doubling over and ultimately crashing to the unforgiving concrete below; just before Stampede could proceed to spring in and slam that same terrorist into the side of the stadium with a resonating kick of his feet while perched upon his own tail.

With that, it was down to just him and Mirko against Scarlet Widow; who after having been in a fight this prolonged against just three Heroes, and now facing the two powerhouses with no further backup, gave a deeply frustrated sneer. "I thought this would actually be a lot of fun…but this cotton tailed tart of yours is really putting a damper on things, Stampede! Why don't I level the playing field a smidge, show her, and remind you, what a real woman's power is like?"

Mirko and Stampede Hopper both launched themselves with a deafening crack of the air, ready to drive both their devastating kicks straight into the Villain, the moment they saw her suddenly pull a single syringe out from a pocket in her blood red dress. But this was exactly what she'd expected them to do, as she used her spider legs to dig into the ground to lift her up and back, while using the rest to take the brunt of the blows in her place, before ultimately breaking under the sheer force, but ultimately bringing the two Heroes to a stop.

In that momentary delay, Scarlet Widow followed through on her threat, already having injected the syringe into the side of her neck and pushing the plunger, injecting the Trigger into her veins. The moment she let it fall to the ground, her already sadistic smile only seemed to grow in anticipation…before her red eyes suddenly took on a look of confusion, before then widening in shock and agony, punctuated by a howl of pain she let echo to the stars above.

Before Mirko and Stampede's eyes, they could only watch as the Villain shook and writhed uncontrollably upon the legs protruding from her back, before they suddenly started to grow in thickness, alongside the whole lower half of her body, as bones broke and reformed, muscles distended and remolded themselves into inhuman shape, and her tissue and whole human skeletal structure contorted, bent, twisted, snapped and morphed into that of an actual spider.

As Scarlet Widow's screams became more and more inhumane, a seam split down the center of her lower jaw, before ultimately opening sideways, as two large fangs practically exploded out through her upper teeth, and four small slits tore through her forehead above her brows, opening into four extra dark red eyes.

As she struggled to catch her breath as the pain finally started to subside, neither Mirko nor Stampede bothered to hide the disgust on their faces: where there had once been a monstrously cruel but completely human woman with deathly white skin and matching hair with completely red eyes and opposable spider legs lining her back; now there was this grotesque and huge human-spider hybrid, with a upper body of a human with six eyes and a split mouth with large pincer fangs protruding from her upper jaw, and the lower half of a fully red widow spider, with white hairs lining her arachnid legs, and the whole image complete with a large venom-dripping stinger protruding from her newly formed thorax.

As soon as she opened her eyes, Scarlet Widow was immediately taken aback by the fact she was seeing six identical views of the two Heroes in front of her, before the physical realization of something being completely different about her body finally caught up with her. "What?! What's happened to me?! Why do I feel so different? They never said that shit would hurt this much! What? What's wrong? Why are you both looking at me like that?!"

Of course, she didn't even wait to hear whether Mirko or Stampede even answered, as she hurriedly scurried on her eight new legs to one of the few cars still intact enough for her to try and catch a glimpse of her reflection in the windows…and when she did, Scarlet let out another inhuman scream that disguised whether or not she was expressing rage, terror, despair or all those emotions at once. "OH MY GOD, NO! NOOO! WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BEAUTIFUL BODY?! I'M…I'M A MONSTER!"

As Scarlet Widow continued to wail in hysterics at what had become of her once beautiful body, Stampede dared to try and approach, his tensed muscles showing Mirko he was nowhere near about to let his guard down. "You see it bright and sparkly clear now, do you, Scarlet? You thought Humarise gave you that stuff to try and help you fight us? They don't give a damn about you more than anyone else. All they want to do is kill all the people they can because of a paranoid conspiracy theory…and that includes you. Bet they didn't mention that when they suggested this little shindig, did they?"

By now, Scarlet's howls had descended into devastated tears. Nevertheless, Stampede continued: "I don't know whether this change of yours is permanent now or what, but we can at least still give ya a helping hand, even if you're back behind bars. Just stand down, let us put those blighters in their place, and—"LOOK OUT, DUMBASS!"

Like the crack of a whip, not only had Mirko suddenly sprang herself like a white bolt to knock Stampede aside, but so too had Scarlet Widow suddenly set her monstrous gaze upon the Kangaroo Hero, and had just as quickly thrown her body his way to try and drive her stinger into him, only just barely missing the two Heroes thanks to Mirko's timeliness.

As the two came skidding to a stop and quickly sprang back onto their feet in preparation, they could now only hear the sound of the Villain laughing; not any kind of collected or intentional laugh like a regular Villain. No, what they were hearing echo out of the mutated thing's inhuman vocal chords, was a laugh of pure insanity; impossible to mistake now even upon her horrific new face.

"Help?! HELP?! What can a bunch of goodie-two-shoes do to help a…a thing like me?! How can anyone undo this?! My body's completely ruined, never to go back to normal! I'll never be beautiful ever again! You…you say Humarise wants to kill everyone?! Good! I'd rather die than go on looking like this…but at least I can still take the two of you with me when I go!"

Scarlet Widow came at the two like a red eight-legged freight train, her new form giving her a boost in speed that quickly proved to put her on the same level as Mirko and Stampede, as the two Heroes were quickly put on the evasive and defensive, using their respectively dominating kicks to deflect any attack she threw at them, while also utilizing any chance they had of ricocheting off the side of the stadium and flipping from the tops of street lights and trees, barely managing to avoid either her stabbing or crushing legs, or the high-tensile webbing she proceeded to shoot from out of the palms of her two human arms. If she wasn't trying to ensnare her two enemies, she instead used this to snag any vehicles nearby that she could, in order to try and swing them to smack the two out of the air like flies.

Soon enough, as Scarlet Widow's blind rage only continued to grow; Mirko and Stampede both started to get the same idea, splitting up in order to encircle the Villain and keep her distracted by at least one of them, so she wouldn't know what the other was doing. As such, Mirko took the initiative by launching herself off the side of another tree and meeting the speeding ground in a powerful slide on her hips, kicking one of her devastating legs out in order to either break as many of the spider legs as she could, or at least kick them out in order to knock Scarlet Widow off balance.

When this actually worked, Stampede just as quickly followed up, bouncing off the side of a streetlight, sending himself into a mid-air back-flip, before ultimately driving his feet down into the junction connecting Scarlet's human upper half to her thorax, repeatedly stomping down at the speed of a jackhammer, before finally springing himself off her when she turned her torso around to try and shoot him with her webs.

As that last attack ended up connecting to the side of the stadium, Mirko capitalized on it, throwing a nearby motorcycle atop the web, and jumping off of that, using the web's buoyancy like a trampoline, in order for her and Stampede to meet their feet together in mid-air, before sending a surge of adrenaline through both their legs, in order to successfully kick off of one another with another air-shattering cracking noise, sending the two of them down past the speed of sound, both of them simultaneously rolling in order to drive their respective dominant feet straight into Scarlet Widow's whole beastly mass ("DOUBLER STOMPER: GROUND AND POUND!"), only for the two be met with a high-speed storm of little white hairs flying head-on into them.

Scarlet realized what they were about to do, and quickly proceeded to grind her spider legs together, launching their prickly hairs like darts. However, even with this desperate last attempt, Mirko and Stampede ultimately came hammering her down into the asphalt with explosive force; the gravel caving in beneath the impact, leaving the three of them in a sizable crater.

As the dust settled, Mirko was grunting in pained annoyance as she was trying to pluck out the large, painful irritating hairs from out her skin, with many of them leaving tiny trails of blood running from her wounds. She could hear Stampede letting out some painful groans of his own just out of her line of sight. "Aw, quit moaning about it, you big baby. What kind of Number One Hero cries over a bunch of little pinpricks, huh?"

Expecting the typical Aussie-style snappy comeback, Mirko was instead met with an uncomfortable silence…total silence, in fact, as Stampede was no longer making those grunts of pain.

Looking to where she had heard his voice coming from, all of Mirko's previous fiery bravado went ice cold, as she saw the Kangaroo Hero standing completely still before her, with a large stinger protruding from out his stomach; the oozing, barbed projectile having actually been shot out from Scarlet Widow's thorax.

Stampede himself looked just as shocked as the Rabbit Hero that he had actually let himself get caught so off-guard, slowly lifting his head to meet her gaze, her red eyes contracted to properly convey her speechless horror at what she was seeing. Stampede could only find the strength to lift a hand her way, as though trying to implore for help, as white foam began to slowly pour out from between his lips, his skin already losing its color, before his eyes ultimately rolled to the back of his head, and he collapsed to the ground with an unceremonious thud.

"JACK!" Mirko screamed, just at the same time as Scarlet Widow's body suddenly surged up, rolling itself completely over with its legs so she was standing triumphant once more, capitalizing on Mirko's moment of emotional tunnel vision, by swinging the full weight of her body straight into her through several extended legs, swatting the Rabbit Hero hard enough for her body to leave a deep gouge across the parking lot.

…

Minutes earlier…

Meanwhile, inside the stadium, Mina and Tas-Maniac were neck-and-neck as they raced through the expansive halls, fighting their way through every line of defense the terrorists had set up to try and stop them, thanks primarily to Mina's precise Acid Shots melting away their cover, so that the two Heroes could send them flying without breaking either of their strides.

But by the time they had almost made it the entire way around the circular interior of the stadium, Tas-Maniac called to her: "These wankers were clearly counting on that mob outside keeping us from getting in, but there's bound to be tons more keeping the civilians from escaping. There's no way we get them by surprise anymore. One slip-up, and that bomb goes off, taking everybody with it."

Naturally, Mina had come to the same conclusion, but unlike the Pro Hero at her side, she couldn't hide the growing worry on her face. "Yeah. If only there was a way we could take them all down the fastest we could without getting anyone else caught up in it. My Acid Veil could protect them, but I couldn't make one big enough to cover the inside of this whole place."

As Mina looked this way and that for one of the entranceways to the sports field and the stands themselves, she chanced a glimpse to Tas-Maniac, but was surprised to see she was grinning in sharp-toothed confidence. "Oi, you're talking like I'm some kinda slug, y'know? I can take care of covering the whole area no problem. Take my hand and I'll show ya!"

With no better ideas, Mina did as she was told. Taking account of Tas' shorter stature next to her as they started to turn for one of the field entrances, it suddenly dawned on her. "Hey, I know a way we can both go even faster than that! I'll kickstart a spin for us, and that's when you can really get us moving!"

Hearing the similar confidence growing in Mina's voice, Tas-Maniac grinned in approval, before likewise tightening her grip on the young Hero's hand. At that, as they finally began to descend the ramp to the double doors, Mina began to channel a thick Acid Slide from her boots, sending them both sliding at greater and greater speed. Once they were halfway there, Mina; thinking back to hers and Minoru's shared experience during the Joint Training Exercise at Yuuei, suddenly threw herself and the Pro in her hand into a spin that could've rivaled Tas' natural whirlwind already.

Tas, keeping her feet grounded upon Mina's spreading Acid Slide as they spun, grinned in anticipation as she began to channel her own Quirk, and proceeded to send the both of them spinning at an even greater speed in addition, to the point the spinning lights of the hall around them turned into a continuous series of beams like they were inside of a light-speed spinning top. "Get ready, Pinky-chan! Once we rip through that door, we both let go. I take care of the distraction, and you take care of safeguarding the hostages!"

Mina didn't even have time to answer whether she understood or not, before the two of them, in their colorful human tornado, tore the heavy double doors to shreds; the power of their spin creating a powerful roar of wind all its own, as their speed carried them through the air across the stands and towards the field, catching the civilians and the terrorists alike completely by surprise.

"NOW!"

At Tas-Maniac's command, she and Mina released their grip on one another, allowing the Australian Pro to start throwing her self-spinning speed to even greater, limit-breaking levels, as their relatively small two-person cyclone quickly began to grow in both size and power, already filling nearly half the field, and creating an overwhelming wind tunnel within the roofed-portions of the stadium interior itself.

This insane circular wind current, however, actually allowed Mina to essentially fly alongside it in her own self-sustained corkscrew motion, keeping her airborne and flying fast enough to keep any of the terrorists from getting a bead on her with guns or Quirks alike. On the other hand, it also allowed her to put her own Quirk to the test, as with one hand she was emanating one continuous encircling curtain of an Acid Veil to encompass the whole perimeter of the stands, keeping the terrorists dotting the field from being able to attack the civilians instead, even after the tornado's current plucked them off the ground. At the same time, with her other hand, Mina was utilizing her intensified sense of concentration, by throwing some of the most precise throws of her Acid she had performed yet at the terrorists scattered through the stands just before her Veil could enshroud them, bouncing back and forth between levels of corrosiveness and viscosity in order to both melt their guns, and plaster them against chairs and walls altogether, before they could even manage to aim at her, Tas-Maniac or the hostages around them.

Within seconds, the terrorists in the stands were completely immobilized, while those on the fields that had been picked up by Tas' tornado had long since blacked out from the uncontrollable mid-air freefall they'd been pulled into. With their attacks and all potential flying debris that could have hit the civilians having since been melted by Mina's standing Acid Veil, she and Tas-Maniac both realized they'd just taken care of one of their teams' biggest obstacles. As such, Tas was getting ready to dig her heels in and bring this tornado to a close.

K-KRAK!

The report of a high-powered gunshot barely managed to reach Mina's ears as she had started to descend back to the ground with the wind, but the sound of Tas-Maniac letting out a deeply pained cry definitely did, as the young girl's heart nearly jumped out of her chest in reaction.

She quickly threw herself into a mid-air forward roll, which allowed her to meet the ground just well enough that she didn't end up hurting herself, while the tornado quickly dissipated, revealing Tas-Maniac splayed out in the middle of the crater her Quirk had drilled in, clutching a bullet wound to her stomach; her costume already primarily red with her own blood.

"TAS-SENSEI!" Mina cried out in worry the moment she saw what had happened, but just as she began to run to her side, the faintest glimmer of light up ahead caught her eye, as she looked up to find one man in Humarise colors still standing just before one of the dugouts that the sports teams would normally enter the field from; wielding a smoking rifle in his hands, which he was already aiming at her.

K-KRAK!

With her adrenaline already rushing like it was, Mina hurriedly threw up a last-second Acid Veil in front of herself, catching and dissolving the bullet just in time. The one terrorist still standing, realizing he'd just lost his advantage, quickly made a 180 and ran back down into the dugout. As though she could sense this from where she was lying, Tas-Maniac grunted through her clenching teeth: "Don't just stand there, Pinky-chan, that asshole's gonna be running for the bomb after what we just did. I'm screwed here, but you can still stop him!"

Mina's first instinct was to protest, not wanting to leave her ally here like this, but when she saw the fire burning in the Pro's eyes, any such words quickly died in her throat. "Don't worry about me, girl! I can handle a wound like this easy, but right now you're our best shot to end this thing!"

Returning her serious gaze to the dugout, Mina clenched her hands into ready fists, silently accepting the responsibility that had just been placed on her shoulders, as a thin sheen of Acid began to perspire from her pink skin all over. 'You can do this, Mina; Mirko-sensei and the others are doing their best to give us this chance, just like everyone else is doing their best all over the world for everybody's sake! Now it's time to do your best!'

And like that, Mina took off in another blinding Acid Slide, gliding across the grass and the concrete of the dugout descending below ground with the speed of a hockey puck; refusing to let up on her flow emanating through her boots for a second, sending her sliding all the way across the floor, the walls and the ceiling in a series of twists as she maintained her pursuit.

The sole Humarise member was barely able to escape her line of sight across multiple sharp corners, but the Ridley Hero Pinky was nothing if not doggedly persistent in her pursuit, at one point even managing to land a lucky split-second Acid Shot from between her two pointing fingers, when he at one point pulled his rifle and tried to shoot her once she'd rounded another corner, only for the Acid coating her body to melt the bullet harmlessly. As a result, she'd managed to melt his weapon and force him even further on the run.

And all the while, with each passing second, not knowing what else to expect, Mina continued to build up the amount of Acid all over her body. Soon enough, it was not simply the agile young Hero herself that was bolting after the fleeing terrorist: it was her within the impenetrable protection of her mirroring liquid armor that was her Acidman Special Move.

As the seconds ticked by, Mina quickly realized that where she had originally thought he'd been keeping the bomb under the stadium, it was quickly dawning on her just how wrong their assumption had been, as their cat-and-mouse chase quickly started taking them from the underground levels of the stadium to the ground floor, and soon to the upper levels of the sealed-in VIP boxes that dotted the roof level.

Given the gaseous nature of their Ideo Trigger within those bombs, it only made too much sense to Mina, upon thinking about it, that this spot would allow for the resulting detonation to spread as far as they were aiming, but she couldn't be bothered to dwell on that for a second more, for as she finally reached the top of the stairs that led to the uppermost level of the VIP section, she saw the terrorist already passing through the double doors at the far end of the walkway, hurriedly shutting it in the incoming Hero's face with but a handful of seconds to spare.

With Acidman as her full-body shield, Mina melted the door down in the blink of an eye. Once inside; she saw that same terrorist standing before her with a respirator affixed to his face. He was standing next to a massive cube-shaped object aglow with piercing blue light, while the man himself was holding what was unmistakably a detonator in his hand.

The minute she saw this, Mina's heart rate tripled, as she instinctively raised her hands flat together, ready to melt the whole device right here. "ACID SHO-!"

But the moment she opened her mouth to breathe and give her Special Move cry, Mina's eyes went even wider as she realized there was absolutely no air coming into her lungs, as though she'd tried to breathe while submerged in water, or perhaps even the vacuum of space.

The panic and asphyxiation that immediately followed brought the young pink Hero to her knees; the once-solid form of her Acidman starting to waver and leak from all around her as she struggled to try and get any air into her lungs, to no avail.

Seeing this, the terrorist before her laughed from under his respirator. "Like a fly that wanders unsuspectingly into the waiting spider's web. This is my affliction from sin: the ability to sap away all the oxygen in any room whose walls I touch. You stepped into that void, and you were doomed the moment you came through those doors. Your disease may be Acid, but don't think you can melt through that floor and escape. I'd done the same thing to the room on the other side as a precaution before you interlopers ever got here."

By now, the majority of Acidman had dissipated away, melting a growing and deepening crater in the concrete floor around Mina as she was now flat on her back, her body only possessing now the thinnest sheen of her remaining Acid as she kept squirming and writhing, silently trying to gasp for air. She could feel her throat constricting, her vision going dark as her lungs burned like fire in her chest.

To even try and roll onto her stomach felt like it was sucking every last ounce of strength from her, as Mina struggled the hardest she ever had to stay awake, knowing that if she blacked out now, it would all be over for her, Mirko, their allies, and everyone in this city, if not most of the country…just like it would then be for the rest of the world. She couldn't afford to wonder how anyone else was faring, as she could only feel the crushing weight of all the responsibility she'd been given collapsing upon her.

…

'Kolya…san…'

St. Petersburg, Russia, minutes ago…

SSHIING!

Adrenaline fired through all of Nikolay's veins as he hurriedly flicked his wrists to activate both his Magne-Grips, pulling the large tuning forks at his sides from their sheaths and into his hands, bringing them up just in time to meet both of Marius' combat knives head-on; the Romanian charging at the young Hero with a murderous speed and grace like he hadn't expected.

But his two-sided attack being blocked didn't stop Marius at all, as his arms reeled back and jabbed and slashed like a pair of vicious snakes, forcing Nikolay to focus solely on defending himself instead of trying at all to counter-attack. The ringing sound of steel against steel pounded painfully in Nikolay's ears as his eyes followed every movement of his opponents' weapons, or any other part of his body he was liable to attack with, as Marius made apparent when he suddenly threw his left knee out to drive into the Hero's sternum, forcing Nikolay to briefly spring himself back.

Noticing that Marius' relentless assault was steadily forcing him further and further back to the edge of the roof, Nikolay grit his teeth, feeling the reverberations of all their weapons' collisions coursing their way through his arms…a fact that quickly struck him with a desperate idea. 'Yaoyorozu-san said they were able to hit him with projectile attacks…it just can't come directly from my body to his, it has to come indirectly!'

As soon as that thought occurred to him, Nikolay was nearly blinded by the glint of light reflecting off of one of Marius' blades as it came swinging for his face. In a kneejerk reaction, he was forced to bring the tuning fork in his left hand up to catch it, to which Marius grinned as he flipped his other knife in his free hand in order to drive it into the young Hero's stomach while he was distracted.

Fortunately, Nikolay realized this just as quickly, as he desperately leaned his midsection back, sucking in his gut as much as he could, while at the same time flipping his free tuning fork in his right hand in return, using it to smack the knife upward into the air and out of Marius' grip.

Marius immediately proceeded to throw his left leg high in an attempt to kick him in the side of the head, but Nikolay swiftly ducked his head low, the leg flying overhead causing Marius to subsequently follow through with the rest of his body, the flip ultimately forcing Nikolay to pull the tuning fork in his left hand away, thus leaving Marius open to attack him with the one knife he still had, while the other came clattering loudly to the ground between them.

Marius followed up the re-steadying of his feet by pulling a pistol from the holster at his right hip, already having the hammer pulled the moment Nikolay finally saw it, the barrel lining up on him. With the distance between them, he couldn't simply knock it out of his hand like the knife.

BWOOM!

Just as the finger pulled the trigger, and a handful of rapid-fire shots rang out, Nikolay launched himself straight over Marius' head in a flip, landing right behind him with his heart racing, only for the Romanian to just as swiftly throw his whole body to the right in a spin, his knife driving viciously straight for the Hero's neck, forcing Nikolay to let his knees give so his whole body could drop, just barely managing to keep out of its lethal trajectory.

Marius once more followed through by throwing his whole body into a subsequent spinning kick, but Nikolay's ducking had managed to keep him out of that arc as well. But the Romanian refused to let up, as before he was even finished sticking the landing, he followed up the natural twirling of his body by throwing his left boot out, ready to stomp it straight into the young Hero's face, forcing Nikolay to bring up his tuning forks to catch it in his place. The heavy impact could be felt reverberating strongly through both his arms.

But that momentary pause was exactly what his opponent was counting on, as Marius already had his pistol leveled for Nikolay's face, finger on the trigger, and already visibly about to squeeze.

BWOOM!

With a simultaneous resonating blast and the deafening pop of bullets, Nikolay fired out from his right foot, sending his body into a speedy slide upon one foot and one knee, thanks to the winter frost on the roof giving him an additional lack of traction so he could slide around Marius' body that much faster, while bullets met nothing but concrete.

Nikolay was already back on his feet as Marius quickly spun back around to slam the butt of his pistol into his face, only for his firearm to be smashed out of his hand by a well-aimed jab of the tuning fork in Nikolay's left hand, leaving Marius now with just his combat knife; his burning eyes already glancing to where he'd seen the other one land.

He swiftly followed through with his left hand bringing the knife up in an upward stab, forcing Nikolay to throw his whole upper body back. But Marius was one step ahead, letting go of his hold on the knife halfway up; the momentum letting his weapon fly further up, so his now-free right hand could grab the handle in a backhand grip, while his left hand just as swiftly lashed out and grabbed onto the chest of Nikolay's costume, immobilizing him so the Romanian could now drive the knife straight down into him.

Staring at the steel point about to plunge into him, Nikolay didn't even think, instead dropping the tuning fork in his right hand and bringing it up, letting it stab right through his palm and out the other side, immediately then clutching his hand around Marius' fist the moment the pain had ignited all over his hand, preventing his enemy from being able to pull his weapon free.

Marius barely even had time to don an expression of surprise at the young Hero's boldness, before Nikolay grit his teeth and brought his left hand forward, aiming for Marius' midsection before channeling a Kinetic surge through his arm and—

BWOOM!

Nikolay immediately felt his ribs crack and the wind get knocked out of his lungs, as Marius quickly closed the distance between them, changing the Russian's short-distance attack into a full-on melee attack, thus allowing his own Quirk to go into effect, and switching the force of Nikolay's attack to go into his own torso instead; the sheer physical power sending his body flying across the roof and into the stone border with a painful SLAM!

Between his ribs having taken the equivalent of a full-force football tackle, and one of the two scars on his right hand having been reopened and bleeding freely, Marius was impressed to see Nikolay already scrambling to his feet, fighting through the pain as he never took his eyes off the approaching Romanian, who was currently wiping the Hero's blood off the blade of his knife on his pant leg, before masterfully kicking up his second knife off the ground with the toe of his boot, snatching it out of the air with his free hand, once more fully armed.

[[We both know you're just delaying the inevitable, Hero! You can't stop us! You can't stop me! You can't even lay a finger me!]]

SSHIING!

But with the slightest spin of his wrist, Nikolay watched intently, catching Marius' momentary confused attention, before the sound of scraping steel pierced the air from behind his back, prompting him to jump up, just as one of the larger tuning forks came skidding across the ground of the roof, just barely missing the chance to have tripped him up.

Nikolay expertly snatched the handle in a spin, while Marius, realizing what had just happened, quickly followed up his landing by throwing one of his knives at the boy's midsection. But Nikolay had already prepared himself for this, as he just as quickly threw his other tuning fork in retaliation, swatting the knife out of the air, before just as hurriedly throwing the one he'd just caught with a boosting Kinetic blast from his palm, sending the large weapon straight at Marius' other arm, momentarily knocking him off his feet with the momentum, and into the wall at his back; digging straight into the solid marble, and pinning the Romanian there.

With another flick of his left wrist, Nikolay's first tuning fork came flying back into his grip, while his eyes now set upon the detonator still sitting at the foot of the barrier across from him. As he began to launch himself into a boosted dash for it, Marius was already furiously fighting against his momentary snare.

'He's right, trying to fight him is pointless! I just need to keep that detonator out of his and his teammates' hands, and buy Midoriya-san and the others time! Then I can worry about everything else!'

As this single train of thought ran through his mind, Nikolay didn't even hear the sound of cracking stone upon metal; didn't even see how Marius had already managed to brute force his way back to freedom, until the glint of light off steel shone just out the corner of his eye. On instinct, he swung his tuning fork up, catching the incoming knife just in time to swat it straight back up into the air. But this split-second decision left him wide open, as his Romanian enemy came rushing at him with an animalistic roar of hate; blindly wielding the same tuning fork he had just been pinned with, swinging straight at Nikolay's face.

Not even having enough time to fully prepare after one successful deflection, Nikolay had to hurriedly bring the one tuning fork he still had at an angle to catch Marius' strike; the intense physical impact rippling down his right arm, while the young Hero quickly flicked his free wrist, pulling his stolen tool back into his own palm, while Marius stubbornly refused to let go; leaving the two of them in a violent clinch. Nikolay grit his teeth with frustrated desperation, hardly able to take his eyes off of Marius' murderous gaze in order to see where the detonator was relative to them.

But the singing sound of steel from above caught Marius' ear, as he suddenly let go of the tuning fork and reached his hand right up, while Nikolay tried to prepare to put some distance between them in order to try and hit him with his Quirk from a distance.

WRAM!

The Romanian swiftly drove his left knee into Nikolay's stomach, forcing the air out and sending him hunching over, while Marius himself quickly snatched his knife out of the air, before preparing to drive it into the Russian boy's neck.

BWOOM!

Not even seeing what Marius was about to do, Nikolay instinctively launched himself back with a powerful blast channeling out his feet into the roof below, putting some precious inches between them, but at the same time forcing himself right at the edge of the roof.

BWOOM!

But at the same time, he'd just bought himself a better chance, as the moment he'd gotten free of the killing strike, the Kinetic energy he'd put into the ground immediately came blasting right back up from under Marius' feet, launching the surprised young soldier flipping into the air before slamming roughly back onto the ground, his knife scattering across the roof.

The first thing Nikolay's eyes landed on upon this miraculous save, was the detonator still sitting just within arms' reach at his feet. He wasted no time as he dove from the barrier lining the roof's edge, catching the detonator in his hand mid-roll before getting back on his feet and running.

THWIP!

But before he was even halfway across the roof, Nikolay's arm that had the detonator was suddenly ensnared in a multitude of transparent tentacles, immediately followed by the sound of sizzling, as he saw they were actually starting to burn through the protective material of his sleeve.

[[YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE WITH THAT!]] A furious female voice exclaimed, drawing Nikolay's attention to see one of the other terrorists had finally joined the fight. It was a young adult woman whose extended left arm seemed to transform into what looked like giant jellyfish tentacles. It was a comparison Nikolay quickly found too accurate, as within seconds they had burned their way entirely through his left sleeve, and his whole body was engulfed in a horrific burning pain, like millions of tiny needles were injecting concentrated magma into his veins.

The terrorist wasted no time before she suddenly pulled her arm back, wrangling Nikolay along for the ride, as with her toxic tentacles still gripping him tight, she lassoed the Hero and sent him flying helplessly through the air, before ultimately slamming hard into the side of one of the numerous news vans lining the perimeter of the square.

As Nikolay's ears rang, and his whole body screamed with the pain of the burning venom in his arm, and the intense physical impact he'd just been put through, he could just make out the lingering sounds of screaming from all around. As he opened his eyes and his vision struggled to clear, he could see that, with the Palace Square being as vast as it was, there were still far too many civilians and police officers trying to evacuate upon the realization there was a Quirked battle unfolding amidst them.

While the terrorist who'd flung him here was already descending back down to the street level, Nikolay glanced back to his left hand, only to see now that the detonator was no longer in his hand. Instead, as his already racing heart began to pound with increasing panic alongside his growing agony, he could just make out the sight of it over a dozen feet away.

Nikolay fought to try and keep his vision clear and his walk steady, as he forced himself through the pain to get back on his feet and try to get it before either one of the passing civilians accidentally stepped on it, or one of the terrorists got their hands on it again. All the while, he could only just keep thinking of the odds he was still standing up against.

'Dammit, between the detonator and Marius himself, how am I supposed to win here? With or without his knives, his Quirk is too strong! Any chance I take to try and attack him from a distance, he's so much faster; he'll just close the distance and turn it into a melee attack on my part, then his Quirk will just transpose the impact back to me! If I let my guard down for an instant, I'm as good as dead…and so is everybody in this city!'

With that in mind, Nikolay launched himself into a desperate dive for the detonator; the sight of which prompted his female attacker to send her tentacled arm at him once more.

FWOOSH!

But before she could dig her venomous Quirk into the Hero's body again, Nikolay was suddenly violently snatched out of midair, finding himself tightly grappled by another person wearing the Humarise colors; this time an adult man with large leathery bat-like wings, which were carrying him high and fast through the biting chilly air at an intense speed like Nikolay had long since gotten used to, but not without being the one in control himself.

As he tried to break his captor's flight pattern by firing off quickly growing Kinetic blasts from his hands and feet; the power of which made the pain in his afflicted left arm burn that much worse; the Humarise member gritted his fanged teeth in similar frustration, as he instead began to flap his wings that much harder, changing their trajectory to where they were no longer going straight up, but instead curving around up and over, to where they were now nose-diving to the unforgiving ground of a large garden to the west of the Winter Palace itself.

Upon realizing this, Nikolay's first instinct was to grip onto his attacker with all the strength he could muster through an already swelling left arm, and positioned his feet to where he could start firing out another continuous stream of pure Kinetic energy as the rushing air against his body kept his power stores at their fullest. This caused the two of them to start building into a blindingly fast corkscrew motion as they descended; Nikolay's not having to stop to refill his power allowing for them to reach such a speed and level of pure g-force, that the winged Humarise member couldn't maintain his grip upon the Hero, and instead blacked out.

The moment Nikolay felt his opponent's grip release from him, he did the same; the power and speed that they had built up making it so that when he finally aimed his hands and fired in order to put distance between them.

SLAAM!

While the terrorist plowed straight down into the garden, leaving a large crater with his motionless body within, Nikolay in the meanwhile went smashing straight through the window of one of the rooms to the southeast of the garden, SMAASH!

His momentum and the power behind it sent him plowing through the opposite wall into the next room, and all the way out through the window to that, sending him flying out the other side and back down into the middle of the Palace Square, where his body finally came to a dragging halt.

He could already feel the all-too familiar warm wetness of his blood spreading in several different spots across his body after going through such a violent crash landing, but Nikolay was like a young man possessed, as he forced himself to get back up, just in time to see that, in those few seconds he had been forced out of the square; his Jellyfish-Quirked opponent was just about to reach and grab the detonator, while a family of the few remaining civilians yet to evacuate, were frozen in terror in between, as one of their two children had tripped and fallen in their attempt to escape.

[[GET OUT OF MY WAY!]] The Humarise member bellowed as she turned her other arm into yet more of the vicious tentacles, and sent both arms' worth at the cowering civilians; all of them holding each other close and tight, just as another resonating blast tore through the square, followed by a singular pained yet defiant shout.

As the civilians opened their eyes in confused surprise, they all looked with the same shock as their attacker, as Nikolay, even knowing the detonator was so close within his reach, hadn't even hesitated to launch himself in between the terrorist and the innocents, allowing all those tentacles to stab into his other arm, both his legs and his stomach in their place.

[[…GO!]] Nikolay grunted through his clenching teeth, trying to stay conscious despite the burning poison pumping all throughout into his body, stubbornly digging his feet in so he could maintain his own shield for them as long as could.

Even as he could hear all their panicked footsteps go racing away to the exit of the square behind him, Nikolay refused to buckle, instead trying to focus his desperately racing heartbeat into as much Kinetic force as he could, as he suddenly grabbed two handfuls of the tentacles connecting him to the Humarise member, and sent as powerful and consistent a blast of all that energy from his hands, down those tentacles, and into her body as he could, sending her into uncontrollable tremors the moment his attack finally reached her. This rattling of her senses caused her tentacles to finally retract from out of Nikolay's skin, but he refused to let up, as he maintained his grip, no matter how much it was burning through his hands.

And so, with his enemy in tow, Nikolay proceeded to once more fire off through his feet, letting the continuous energy flow through his body as he flew around the Alexander Column in an increasing speed, encircling it like a cyclone with his enemy helplessly being pulled along, as her tentacles continuously wrapped more and more around the monument, until she herself finally slammed helplessly against the stone, ringing her head even harder.

The moment he heard that impact, Nikolay finally let go, and instead proceeded to grab two handfuls of the small tuning forks from his bandolier, and threw them in rapid and precise succession, pinning them into her tentacles around the column, and thus ensuring she stayed immobilized, if she wasn't fully unconscious already.

It was only then that he finally let all the pain ravaging his body catch up with him, as Nikolay nearly passed out, himself; crashing hard into the cobblestones of the square again, dragging to a stop just mere feet from where he'd last seen the detonator…only for his muddled vision to see it was no longer there…but instead in the hands of the single pair of boots now towering victoriously above him, as Nikolay struggled to look up to see Marius grinning viciously down at him.

[[You Heroes, you really are all the same. Too idealistic, too stupid to keep your focus where it should be. What are a handful of lives next to that of an entire city, or the world? Humanity cannot survive if Quirks remain…and even if that weren't the case, it couldn't survive if people like you are the ones tasked to safeguard it. For all of humanity's sake, you should just lie down, and let God and my father's will be carried out.]]

It was taking every ounce of willpower and strength he had for Nikolay to stay conscious, let alone try to pick himself up off the ground. As he let Marius' mocking words echo in his head, all he could focus on was the detonator in his hand. After what he'd done to take care of the female Humarise member here, he knew his gloves were ruined, and the Magne-Grips with them. He wasn't going to be able to call his tuning forks back anymore.

BWOOOM!

But even now, he knew he didn't have to. Instead, with one hand anchored to the ground, he suddenly fired from out his feet, throwing his whole body in an upward arc and momentary handstand, before that momentum sprung his body up, just short of what would have normally been a kick to Marius' jaw.

The Romanian, in his momentary assuredness, initially took this to be yet another show of Nikolay's Hero's foolishness, and was thus blindsided when Nikolay, as he momentarily hung in the air before him, suddenly aimed his hands and fired from several inches from Marius' body, finally landing the successful blow needed to knock him back several yards across the square, and subsequently lose his grip on the detonator.

This likewise propelled Nikolay backwards into the side of the Alexander Column, the impact knocking a few of the small tuning forks out as they clattered to the cobblestones, with him falling likewise among them.

But the pain shooting up and down his back was the least of his worries. His eyes focused solely on the detonator, as he saw Marius already getting back up and likewise spotting the device.

Neither of them hesitated to sprint for it; Nikolay quickly grabbing all the small tuning forks off the ground he could in that moment, while Marius ignored the multitude of shouts from the police mobilizing at the square entrance, aiming their guns at his back.

PKO-KO-KO-KO-KOWW!

In a rapport of small arms fire, Nikolay's reactions were evenly torn. He knew he couldn't afford to let Marius get his hands on the detonator for another moment, but he also knew he couldn't let Maja's friend still within get gunned down like a rabid animal like this. So, as he sprang forward in one final desperate leap to grab the detonator, so too did he proceed to once more rapidly fire all the small tuning forks in his hand that he could around Marius' incoming form, to deflect as many of the bullets as he possibly could, before then reaching with his left hand for the detonator, and aiming his right hand to fire off a barrage from his Kinetic Gatling to knock aside the rest.

But as he did so, and took that moment to look upon Marius, he felt a stir of cold in his veins, not from the venom, but from the sight of the charging Humarise member wielding a single syringe in his hand, which he had then just finished injecting into the side of his own neck.

"GAAAAAH!"

The next moment, one side of the square was filled with screaming, as the last bullets ultimately found their mark on both of Marius' sides, the back of his left leg in several spots, and his right shoulder blade…yet, not one of them left so much as a scratch on him. Instead, more than half the police lining the area suddenly went down in a multitude of bloody mists exploding from their sides, legs, and right shoulder blade, sending them tumbling in writhing piles to the ground.

It was only through the forethought of extending his left hand that Nikolay ultimately managed to grab the detonator before rolling to a stop once more, but he couldn't even think of that after what he'd just seen happen. Marius likewise came to a stop, and only then stopped to actually take stock of what should have happened to him, but didn't. They both knew his Quirk only worked to deflect the power of melee attacks directly from his opponent to himself, and distanced attacks like gunshots or Nikolay's Quirk should have made it through that no problem…and yet, here he now was, standing perfectly fine after they both knew he should've gone down.

With that realization, Nikolay and Marius both looked to the empty syringe in his hand, and the Romanian looked to the young Hero and smiled before crushing it in his hand. [[Well now…looks like my Quirk had room to improve after all. And I thought before was as good as it could get.]]

Nikolay felt his heart drop at the realization of just what Marius had injected himself with, but that was all the time he could afford, before he found himself once again being rushed by his enemy.

Marius was immediately in Nikolay's face, throwing vicious jabs, elbows, punches, knees and high and low kicks alike, as though the Trigger injection had given him an insane boost of energy on top of fully solidifying his own invincibility. Nikolay himself was barely able to keep up with his evasions, as he could feel his muscles growing weaker as the pain of his venomous wounds continued to only worsen, with every charging and firing of his Quirk to try and put more distance between them only making the pain flare up tenfold.

After the first several moments, Marius suddenly dug his hands into his uniform once again, and this time withdrew a pair of small bladed gauntlets, now adding the flexibility of his close-quarters skills, with the lethality of his since-lost knives, as within just the first few swings, he'd already managed to slice through Nikolay's left bicep and his right leg, just short of his femoral artery.

Despite what he had just seen before, Nikolay's mind was frantic enough to try anything, as after ducking a swiping blow that easily could've slit his throat, he momentarily kicked himself back off the ground, before firing a propelling blast out his tortured feet; the force sending him a good few yards away from Marius, but the impact of his Kinetics into his opponent's knees instead transferring to Nikolay's, as his legs slammed hard into the ground along the way; the friction tearing further bloody wounds along the back of them.

Even as his legs trembled from the pain and continuous loss of blood and spread of venom, Nikolay refused to let himself be beaten down for good, and he refused to release his hold on the detonator. As he watched Marius break into another mad sprint for him, he looked back to see he was once again just up against the gilded Principal Entrance of the palace. With just a vague idea of how the entire historical structure was formatted from the history books, he knew he needed to get out of here and somewhere he could potentially work better with. Of course, what that meant, now that Marius' Quirk was truly impenetrable, even he didn't know.

'As long as I can make sure he never gets his hands on this…'

And so, bringing the detonator up and tucking it into one of the empty loops of his bandolier, Nikolay brought his hands forward and flattened his palms together, spreading the fingers at the tips while aiming them at Marius' incoming form. Seeing this, Marius instinctively laughed, even as he saw the visible vibration surging down Nikolay's now-discolored arms.

[[THUNDEROUS CLAP!]]

BWOOM!

The slicing shockwave came flying out from between Nikolay's fingers at the speed of sound, but Marius didn't even bother trying to jump or duck beneath it, instead meeting it head-on with his midsection; and just as he expected, the moment it made contact, he watched as Nikolay's body was the one sent smashing backward right through the palace gate, blood bursting out the Russian Hero's mouth even from this distance, before his body went ricocheting all the way down the tunnel leading into the central garden courtyard in the heart of the palace, and came to an ultimate stop with a painful slam against the side of the single ancient tree.

Marius' charge slowed to a mockingly casual walk as he watched the bloodied and bruised form of Nikolay stubbornly try to get back on his feet; his bloodshot green eyes staring into the Romanian's, as though he were the one doing the hunting in his place. Such a sight could only make Marius chuckle in amusement.

[[Why do you insist on doing this to yourself, you little fool? For a people that despise you just as much as they do me, as they do all your fellow Heroes and our Quirked countrymen? Do you really think a fancy little speech from a man who, just a year ago, was making the very tools meant to help this country defend itself against people like us, is going to magically undo everything Tunguska and Quirks did? Are you truly that stupid?]]

Nikolay could barely stay on his own two feet as he tried to stand as tall and defiant as he could, even after the build-up of pain and poison finally forced him to hunch over and vomit a copious amount of blood. [[Stupid…hopeful…call it whatever you want. We don't know how things will turn out…but I'm at least willing to try, and see what happens. But before any of that… I'm bringing you back home, Marius.]]

Marius proceeded to scrape the blades lining his gauntlets in preparation. [[Home? What home? There is no home, for either of us! There won't be a home for humanity at all, because it stands on the brink of self-inflicted extinction through the evolution of Quirks, and it took Flect Turn and his wisdom to finally make me see that! My father felt that all we needed to do was free the Motherland from its government's Anti-Quirk tyranny, and soon the whole Slavic world would be liberated for us to return to…but you damn Heroes got in the way of that, and took away the one excuse for a home we had left in the process!]]

With that, Marius finally sprang back into attack, his gauntlets singing through the air while Nikolay desperately tried to bob, duck, weave, swerve and leap out of the range of his attacks, earning a few more bleeding cuts on his legs and arms in the process, while Marius only grew angrier with each passing moment.

[[Now I see that there is no salvation for this country and its people or humanity as a whole, so long as Quirks are allowed to exist en masse and run rampant as they have. Once you and your ilk, and all those that propagate their corruption to the rest of humanity are removed, we can finally wipe the slate clean and start redirecting humanity on the right track! How is it you so-called Heroes don't realize this?!]]

Being pushed further and further back; Nikolay soon felt his back up against the same tree, just as Marius reared his hands back to skewer him to it. As he began to thrust the blades forward, Nikolay could swear time was slowing down; just as likely from adrenaline as from blood loss. Either way, this was possibly his only real chance to follow through on just what he had in mind, as he suddenly sprang himself up with a minor launch out his feet, leaving nothing but wood for Marius' blades to sink into, leaving him momentarily stuck.

And that was exactly what Nikolay knew he needed, as before his feet were even back on the ground, he'd already reached into the pouches lining his belt, and pulled out a spool of his Capture Cord, which he quickly began to throw and wrangle around not only the Romanian's arms, but also through his legs and around his torso, as the Hero swiftly proceeded to propel himself all around Marius, practically tying him to the tree itself, but at the same time while having to fight his slipping grip, as his hands were by now slick with his own blood.

As he did so, despite his opponent's surprised and furious growls of protestation, Nikolay answered: [[Because none of us knows that any of that is the truth. Flect Turn has you all believing something that's no more than a theory, completely and totally unproven. As soon as any definitive proof of it comes, then we'll figure out what to do about it, because that's just what Heroes do, is try to save the people we can. That's what I promised to do for you, too, Marius! This isn't the real you, and Pietro Granin wasn't your father, no matter how much he brainwashed you into thinking it's true! Your real father and mother and all your friends are back home in Gagaringrad, waiting for you and all worried half to death, and I'm going to get you back to them, no matter what!]]

[[If Heroes truly live to save people, then you should have understood just how many people my father was trying to save, the people you really should have given a shit about, not these hateful hordes! A fool like you is too far gone to understand! That is why you all must be cleansed!]] With Marius' raging defiance, he suddenly managed to pry out one of his gauntlets and swiftly angle it so as to cut through the Capture Cord keeping him flush to the tree.

Seeing this, Nikolay was hit with another jolt of panic; his eyes quickly falling to the detonator in his bandolier. From there, he took a quick glance to the sky as his original idea for getting this much further into the palace proper came back to him. 'There's no way I can use my Quirk at its full strength with wounds like this…but even from this distance, I should be able to. It's the only chance I have anymore out here.'

As Marius continued to cut through one line after another towards freedom, Nikolay sucked in a shaky pained breath through his teeth, as he pulled the detonator out, and quickly squatted down in preparation, channeling as much energy as he could into his legs and arms alike, still trying to fight his way through the pain that by now consumed his entire body constantly.

BWOOM!

Just as Marius finally got free, Nikolay finally launched himself high enough to clear the rooftops of the Winter Palace, where he could see the expanse of the Neva River just on the other side. Upon his eyes meeting the silver waters reflecting the overcast sky, he finally reared his arm back and sent all the energy he'd collected into his right hand, firing it off as he extended his arm to its fullest, throwing and propelling the detonator clear across the palace and into the river itself, wherein the tiny device proceeded to sink to the depths, far beyond his and Marius' reach without question.

Down below, Marius had likewise seen what his Heroic opponent had just done, and where there had once been long-festering anger and newfound religious zeal fueling him, now there was only a white-hot savage hatred, having just seen his ability to fulfill the only goal he had left be taken away from him just like that.

And it was with that hatred, Marius saw to it Nikolay didn't even get to meet the ground, as with his Trigger-aided adrenaline burning within, the Romanian suddenly leapt up further than he normally would've been able, before springing himself off the nearest wall of the courtyard, launching himself with gauntlets at the ready to plunge straight into Nikolay's sides as he descended.

However, the sudden movement caught the corner of Nikolay's eye, and as he saw Marius flying straight at him, he knew there was no way he could get out of this now without hurting himself even worse. Alas, it was the only thing he could do.

BWOOM!

Hurriedly throwing his arms up as he turned to face Marius, and firing what energy he could channel on such short notice, Nikolay felt the Kinetic force that should have slammed into the Humarise member's chest, instead plow into his own; this time causing an eruption of deep pain in his chest that he hadn't felt thus far, a sure-fire sign he'd just broken a couple ribs, as his body was sent launching backwards helplessly, once more smashing through one of the many upper story windows into a vast room of ivory and gold, lined with marble sculptures and ancient suits of armor.

Of course, none of that mattered, as Nikolay slammed painfully into the wall opposite the window he had just come crashing through, with Marius already climbing in after him, hot on his heels. As soon as Nikolay had managed to pry himself free from the indentation he's made in the wall, Marius was already closing the distance, gauntlets at the ready. [[Stop wasting both our time with this pointless resistance! You may have taken my means of seeing our great work accomplished by my own hands, but I can at least still take your life for everything you've deprived me of with them instead!]]

BWOOM!

But as he once more lunged to strike the killing blow, Nikolay, out of lack of any better ideas in these circumstances, instead proceeded to launch himself up and back, flipping himself around through his agony to meet the ceiling with his feet, before just as quickly launching himself off of that to meet another wall in the same fashion, and continuing in the same pattern all around the chamber, forcing Marius to come to a halt while trying to follow the Hero's trajectory, and where best to leap in, cut him off, and cut him down.

BWOOM!

Suddenly, from out of nowhere in this one-person flurry of ricocheting movement, Nikolay suddenly managed to bring one hand up to aim, and fired a precise single Kinetic Blast from his index finger, sending that condensed vibration head-on into the gauntlet on Marius' left hand, instantly causing it to shatter, whilst his Quirk caused the actual impact to break several of the bones in Nikolay's left hand.

But even for as nightmarishly painful as that was, the Russian Hero refused to let up, as he was operating on nothing but desperation and adrenaline at this point; quickly following up by propelling himself across the floor in a super-fast slide past Marius' side, just managing to miss being impaled to the floor when the Romanian tried to drive his remaining gauntlet into the floorboards where his opponent had just been, thus giving Nikolay the chance to aim back and fire another precision Kinetic blast from his intact right hand, thus managing to shatter that gauntlet as well, at the expense of several of his right fingers in the process.

Marius looked upon what had just happened, and honed his vision on Nikolay as he'd finally managed to come to a trembling stop. And had the Hero had the mental wherewithal to pick up the smaller details, he would have been crestfallen to see the Romanian grinning sadistically as he came after him. [[Fine. That just means I get to kill you the oldest fashioned way there is!]]

When Nikolay actually proceeded to come at him in kind, even with all the injuries he'd already sustained, even Marius couldn't deny being impressed amid his burning hatred. That still didn't stop him from reaching out and grabbing the wrist of the haymaker Nikolay had blindly started to throw, before then proceeding to rear his head back and bring it down like a hammer to a nail, slamming hard into Nikolay's face with a devastating ringing in his whole head.

BWOOM!

But what Marius hadn't expected was for a burst of Nikolay's Kinetics to suddenly come from his torso the very moment his head-butt had landed; the Hero's desperate attempt to try and use his refraction technique to get some more distance put between them again. Unfortunately, this proved just as ineffective as everything else, as he once more felt that devastating impact drive right into his own torso instead, once more launching him right out of Marius' tight grasp, dislocating the Russian's wrist as he went through the same wall he'd previously crash landed through, and straight through the narrow gallery hall on the other side and through the wall opposite that, wherein he proceeded to plummet a whole floor before skidding to a bloody standstill in the middle of an even grander white and gold-decorated ballroom hall, lined with massive crystal chandeliers swinging and jingling in response to the sudden violent intrusion, and the opposite end of the room behind Nikolay's bloody and motionless form, was a single ancient throne upon a raised dais of red and gold.

But Nikolay couldn't even register just where he was, as he now couldn't find any more strength with which to stand, feeling as though the majority of his bones had been broken as a result of Marius' enhanced Quirk deflecting virtually every move he had to rely on…and all while Marius himself casually strolled in after him through the hole he'd made in his wake. As opposed to the bloody, bruised and broken mess he'd made of Nikolay; the only sign of battle damage Marius had to show was his clothes having been frayed and torn in several different places after taking all the Kinetic blasts they had.

As he made his way down the hall, his eyes shifted from Nikolay's pitiful body to the single throne staring at them both down the way. To this, he chuckled. [[Well, how's this for some kind of poetic? You, the son of the former greatest Hero of the very same government that, centuries ago, dethroned the very monarchy that throne up there was built for, and stands as a relic in memory of, just like this whole palace. The very same government my father once fought so proudly for, before he was thrown aside like trash for his Quirk; just like you and your father. For the inheritor of this sinful and corrupted generation to die in this glorified mausoleum of another, before this whole world can be cleansed for salvation…there's something far more symbolic in there than I can describe, surely.]]

At that, the sound of a practical death rattle emerged from out of Nikolay's throat, prompting Marius to look back in astonishment, as the young Hero was once more trying to lift himself up by his busted up hands, digging his knuckles into the floor in order to try and push himself up. From the grisly wheezing sound, Marius would have assumed he had to have possibly collapsed or punctured one of his lungs.

[[No…body…is…dying here. I…am…taking you…back…]]

As Nikolay tried to force the words of defiance out of his broken-up form, Marius' eyes widened in disbelief. He began circling the young Hero like a shark. [[Are you actually being serious? After all of that, you can't even stand up, let alone fight me. Face it, you've lost here, you goddamned idiot! So tell me why! Why do you insist on bringing me back to a bunch of people who mean nothing to either one of us?! Everything I had to go back to was taken from me because of you Heroes!]]

Nikolay slowly lifted his head, meeting Marius' inquisitive gaze with what the Romanian could only describe as a stubborn fire burning within those pained green irises of his; something that was enough to give him pause, as his circling came to a stop.

[[Because…I made…a promise…to get you home…to the people that…really love you; people that would be…heartbroken if something happened to you…because of you being with Humarise. You still remember them, your real family…your friends, in Gagaringrad…I know you do. Pietro…warped your head, but I know…I know the real you is… still inside, trying to get out! You know you don't really…want any of this! I might not be able to beat you…but you can fight this!]]

With shoulders trembling, and blood slowly pouring down his chin from his mouth and gritting teeth, Nikolay slowly but steadily got back onto his knees, still refusing to break eye contact with Marius as he continued. [[Your friends…Pietro was trying to make all of you into killers. He'd been twisted…into something he wasn't. We did everything we could then to save all of you…and you're the only one left. They all want you back, back to the normal person you were before. It's not too late. Maja Kieslowska, I know you remember her. She's worked so hard since Gagaringrad…to become a Hero too. We all promised her we'd find a way to bring you back home to your family…and I won't stop until I do.]]

But Nikolay's steadfastness was equally matched by the sudden flare of anger in Marius' eyes, as he suddenly threw a right hook, slamming squarely into Nikolay's cheek, sending a spray of blood out his mouth on impact, yet he refused to go down again, until he was met with a follow-up left hook to his face as well, finally planting him flat to the floor again.

[[Don't you dare mention that damned traitor to me! She turned her back on everything my father had prepared us for! She's just as responsible for his death as the rest of you! Just another symptom of this plague! It's a comfort that she'll die at Flect Turn's command just like everyone else!]]

As Marius' voice echoed from one end of the hall to the next, he proceeded to start repeatedly hammering his boot into Nikolay's already damaged ribs, earning another grotesque wheeze and pained cry from out his bloody teeth with each one. Nikolay didn't even know how he hadn't completely lost consciousness by this point. The burning pain of the venom had long since started to turn into a deep-biting cold within the core of his body. But for whatever reason, it was like there was a burning ember of resilience beyond his reach that was refusing to let him close his eyes and slip away.

…

'They're all fighting so desperately…to save everyone…to protect everyone's smiles…'

Humarise Headquarters

After several attempts to try and get back up and throw himself headlong into the effort once again, Izuku now lay a graze and hole-filled bleeding mess upon the floor; his mind filled only with the anguish of seeing the horrible situations his friends had all found themselves in, with him not being able to do anything to fix it. To be able to save them was the one thing he felt in his heart he wanted more than anything, even if deep down he knew that to succeed here would be his single best way of doing so. But Flect Turn's defenses had consistently proven themselves completely unbreakable, as the cult leader continued to tower over him, likewise watching all the different video feeds; an air of true contentment radiating off of him.

"You finally see it now, do you not? We are fulfilling God's will, so He has granted His favor upon us. That is why you and the rest of the Heroes in this world have failed. If you take comfort in nothing else, then go with grace, knowing that with your deaths, you will be securing the survival of humanity, as your duty entails."

The ice cold callousness lining Flect Turn's words filled Izuku with a greater righteous anger, as blood continued to spray with great intensity from all over his body as he ground his knuckles into the floor, pushing himself groggily back up to his feet; staring his enemy in the eyes defiantly. "You…talk a lot of saving people, but all you're really doing is killing them, even the people that look up to you. Do you really care nothing for them, either?"

But for as much fiery vigor as Izuku tried to convey through his words, in his head, he was simply reeling, as his body only continued to put one foot in front of the other out of pure muscle memory, even as his wounds continued to bleed like a sieve. 'Come on…think…how do I beat this guy? He's…deflected everything. There's…gotta be…something.'

Suddenly, one of Izuku's knees gave out from under him, and his body proceeded to collapse to the uncaring floor like a pile of bricks…but as his consciousness faded in and out, he quickly realized that he couldn't feel the floor. In fact, what he could feel, was akin to an arm keeping him hoisted up, one that wasn't his own.

Lifting his head to make sure he wasn't simply hallucinating from the blood loss, Izuku felt his energy start returning, as he saw there was now someone standing beside him, carrying him even, that hadn't been here just moments ago.

"Rody…san?"

Yes, the ponytailed young man had come in from out of nowhere, and had offered his shoulder to help carry the young Hero. Lifting his head in return to look Izuku in the eye, Rody was still smiling, but what Izuku could only barely make out in his hazy vision, was a look of pained resignation in his companion's eyes. "It's going to be all right now, Deku."

While Izuku initially felt that spark of gratitude for Rody's help, of course his words came strictly out of his sense of duty, even if he was bleeding out: "You…shouldn't be here. It's dangerous. Get out…of here."

"I will…just as soon as I give these guys this."

Suddenly, Izuku could feel the sensation of something digging through one of his belt pouches at his back. That recognition filled him with a chilling sense of realization, something he instinctively didn't want to accept, until he finally saw it with his own eyes, as Rody withdrew his hand, with the small blue USB-like device in his fingers: the deactivation key for the Ideo Trigger bombs.

"Rody-san? Don't…don't do this. We can still…the Heroes will definitely still win!" Izuku exhaled with agonized confusion and subsequent driven desperation, as Rody set him down against the wall, unable or unwilling to look him in the eyes as he began to approach Flect Turn. As Izuku watched the young man he'd started to think of as a friend depart, he could feel his heart breaking apart more painfully than any wound could have done. 'Was I…actually wrong about you? Was Kolya-san's…first assumption…really correct?'

Rody, as if he could hear Izuku's tormented thoughts of betrayal, answered with that same pained acceptance: "When these guys found me just after you'd all left, they told me that they would just stop the Otheon explosion if I gave them the key back. How can you possibly hope to stop the bombs in your condition? There's simply no time left, it's game over… and I told you all before: everything I do is for the sake of my little brother and sister…everything. Please, at least try to understand that, if none of your other pals would. Solovei can at least go out knowing he was right from the get-go: I'm a worthless delinquent who knew exactly what choices I was making throughout my life to land myself here. I can't take on or protect everything like you guys do. The world or my family…if I have to choose, then I choose them over the world, no questions asked."

Izuku couldn't possibly stay put, desperately trying to get back on his feet to go after Rody and stop him from making what had to be the biggest mistake he could possibly make. Even as his wounds screamed with horrible pain, he refused to let himself go down.

All the while, Flect Turn simply watched Rody approach, once more forming a faint approving smile upon his glowing blue features. Seeing this, Rody's brow furrowed. "That's how it was for my dad too, wasn't it?"

Closing the distance, Flect Turn felt as though he completely overshadowed the young delinquent approaching him; his voice still resonating with sheer power in this vast chamber: "Yes. Our brother, Marius, may have given us the compound to perfect our Ideo Trigger when he first came to us in his desperation; but your father, Eddie Soul, was the one to perfect our bombs with which to deliver that compound, to help us secure humanity's salvation. He understood our goal, our calling. He was able to see reason through the blinders of emotion."

At this, Rody's expression tightened with emotional strain, though he refused to stop his forward stride. "He didn't see reason; you practically took us, his family, as hostages to get him to do what you wanted."

Flect Turn's expression was like stone. "And because of that, he was able to see reason, and make the correct choice, just as you are making the correct choice now as well, in order to protect the ones you love. I am the same way. You may think me a madman, a murderer or a Villain, but I chose this path because of my love for humanity."

All the while, Izuku was still digging his bloodied fingers into the rubble, pulling himself forward inch by bleeding inch, trying with so much vigor to try and stop this from unfolding. "Rody-san…no…"

Finally, with nothing but an arm's length between himself and Flect Turn, Rody came to a stop; a foreboding silence hanging over the entire cathedral as he refused to lift his gaze to meet the cult leader's downward gaze. "It's time to give it up, Hero. This is what it's like for people to be betrayed. It happens to me, too…all the time. There's no use crying over it."

Any further words simply couldn't come up Izuku's throat, as he reached a trembling hand forward, even though he knew he was too far away to grab Rody and get him out of the way. He could only watch as Flect Turn held out an expectant hand, and Rody began to reach out as well with the key in hand. The fate of the world was now mere seconds away from being set in stone, and as much as Izuku wanted to scream for it all to stop, he simply couldn't find the strength.

But then, his eyes just barely caught the sight of the hood to Rody's shirt shaking from behind his back, just before the tiny pink-feathered head of Pino pulled itself out, looking directly at the young Hero and resolutely shaking her head in denial.

And the sight of this extinguished all flames of betrayal and sorrow in Izuku's heart, as a memory came rushing right back, to the last night he, Rody and Nikolay had spent during their desperate cross-country road trip; that rush for survival and victory that had forged such an indescribably strong bond between them when none had expected it to be so.

"Okay, fine, if you both promise not to laugh, then I'll tell ya."

"Okay! So what is your Quirk, Rody-san?" Izuku and Nikolay both watched with rapt attention as Rody awkwardly scratched at the back of his head, already regretting the fact their last night out on the road had led to something this personal and embarrassing, with Pino's nagging chirping from atop his head not helping his hesitation at all.

Jerking a thumb up, he finally swallowed the lump in his throat and broke the growing tense silence: "My Quirk is…Pino here."

Time seemed to slow to a crawl, as Izuku watched Pino bunch one of her wings into her version of a fist, before then lifting it high up, like a referee about to call for the start of the world's most intense sports match. And with each moment he saw her make this nebulous signal to him, he recalled the rest of that now-truly-fateful conversation.

"You see, no matter how much I lie, Pino is a reflection of my true feelings. She basically makes it impossible for me to ever truly lie. I know, not much of a Quirk, huh?"

"That's not true! To always be able to show your honest feelings is a fantastic Quirk in its own right!" Izuku had immediately disagreed, which visibly had caught the young man by surprise, especially to see that Izuku wasn't the only one with such an idealistic glimmer in his eyes, as it seemed even Nikolay had come to his own conclusion as well. "I agree, it might not be the best thing for a criminal…but for someone like you, someone with a real dream, it's a great thing to have, I think."

No matter how embarrassing it was, to actually have something so personal be accepted and even supported by both his unwitting companions so readily, made it impossible for Rody's face to not start looking exceptionally emotional, no matter how much he went on to try and deny it when the two young Heroes instinctively tried to apologize for potentially upsetting him.

TWEEE!

With a single prolonged and piercing chirp, Pino suddenly threw one wing down in Izuku's direction, as if she were giving him a signal she could only hope he would understand how to act upon. The moment she did so, Rody proceeded to flip the deactivation key between his fingers, before flicking it straight up into the air like a coin.

For the first time, Flect Turn's unshakeable composure cracked, as his eyes reflected utter shock as they followed the tiny object flipping higher and higher up out of his reach.

SMAAASH!

Before one could even blink, Izuku erupted into action, blood still exploding out his wounds as his body ignited with renewed sparking energy of his Full Cowling, right before he proceeded to bolt through the air and drive an explosive stomping kick straight into Flect Turn's face, while Rody had taken that split-second to get out of the way, just for the sheer explosive force of impact to send him flying through the air. "PINO!"

At his command, his tiny feathered companion came soaring through the air, expertly snatching the deactivation key from out the air and quickly flying back to his side; Rody making a desperate dash for the double doors beneath the balcony. "YES! All according to plan!"

From where Izuku was standing, there was no doubt Rody said so just to give off the impression he wasn't making this up as he went along, but at this moment, the young Hero wasn't about to be anything but grateful for it. With his memory of just what exactly Rody had told them of his Quirk, this moment had made everything come together for him to fully take action once more. No matter how impenetrable Flect Turn's Quirk possibly was, he wasn't about to give up now that a chance had been bought for them once more.

WRAAAM!

No sooner had that resolve rooted itself in Izuku's mind, did he get the full force of his attack redirected right back at him, as Flect Turn sent Izuku flying straight through another reinforced steel wall; the impact impossible for Rody to ignore, as he looked back with worry.

But he couldn't afford to stop, as Flect Turn quickly turned his now-enraged gaze onto the traitorous young street urchin running for his inner sanctum of control. "YOU LITTLE FOOL!"

At his word, all of the laser turret doors opened up at once, only this time they were now aiming for Rody; the searing hot bursts of concentrated plasma biting at his heels as he ran as fast as his feet could carry him, fighting his way through the burning sting of smoke in his eyes as explosions filled the chapel all around him, all the way up to the winding stairs; an unintentional detour he'd been forced to make to keep from getting shot.

But he wasn't on his own for long, as Izuku came flying from out the smoke of his own crash landing as well, this time folding his fingers back to fire a multitude of precise Air Force attacks at the lasers themselves, destroying one after another; each one buying Rody more and more of a chance.

Soon, Rody felt a moment's confidence that there were less lasers now for him to try and make a break for the control room doors again, as he leapt over the railing of the stairs—

BZZT!

-only for one lucky laser shot to pierce a hole straight through his chest like paper, knocking all the wind and strength right out of him, to Izuku's mortified horror; watching as his ally came to a skidding bloody sprawled out halt in the middle of the floor; Pino letting out a distressed echoing chirp in response.

"RODY-SAN!"

Like a shot, Izuku was once more flying, fist reared back, ready to damn all the consequences to his own body and lay Flect Turn flat before he could hurt Rody any further. This time, however, the cult leader was past the point of simply standing his ground, as he met Izuku's incoming punch with one of his own; their respective attacks colliding, only for the same vortex that erupted from out Flect Turn's back on impact to once again rewind back and reflect both respective impacts combined into one explosive strike, sending Izuku flying right back.

Only he didn't stay down, as he immediately bounced right back, this time choosing to kick himself up high, flying over Flect Turn's position in order to ricochet off a nearby pillar so he could land at Rody's spot, and hopefully pick him up and get him to safety.

SLAAAM!

But upon seeing this, Flect Turn proved to be just as fast, as he'd managed to likewise take a flying leap outside of Izuku's narrow field of vision, and bring himself down on the young Hero's back with full strength, sending them both smashing through the tiled floors; the Villain effectively pinning Izuku down with the power of his Quirk preventing him from wriggling his way out from underneath. "Such impertinence!"

"DEKU!"

The sound of Rody's impassioned cry snapped Izuku to attention, shocked to find Rody was back on his feet and already halfway through the doorway to the control room. There was no hiding just how badly he was hurt, as his shirt was already almost wholly red with his own blood, and it was a struggle for him to keep breathing steadily, but through the pain on his face, Izuku could see an all-too-familiar fire burning within his eyes, as he held up the deactivation key; likewise catching Flect Turn's attention once more.

"Kick that damn bastard's butt for me! Go and do it, Hero!"

At his heartfelt request, Izuku's pain felt as though it washed away; watching as Rody defiantly turned his back on Flect Turn overpowering him, and instead choosing to run the rest of the way out of sight into the lower depths.

Seeing this, Flect Turn instinctively rose to give chase, but Izuku instantly burst forth from the ground, flying and landing defiantly before his enemy; not even wasting a second before launching himself to try and drive another all-powerful blow. But just like all the other times before, Flect Turn's Quirk showed no sign of weakening, as he reflected all that power right back, sending Izuku flying…only for the Hero to this time dig his boots and knuckles into the ground, refusing to let himself be knocked down again, as he stood tall and ready for everything that could possibly get thrown his way from now on, injuries or no.

"I WON'T LET YOU GET PAST ME!"

Grimacing in growing frustration, Flect Turn suddenly launched himself at Izuku, who was already past the point of doing the same, as the two of them once more drove their fists directly into one another's; their respective converging trails of pure kinetic force eventually causing the surge of energy within Izuku's right arm to swell and fluctuate, before ultimately tearing the gauntlet to shreds, before once more knocking him back. But he still stubbornly dug his feet in, ready to stand as the unbending bulwark that would ensure Rody would make it and save the world, no matter what.

…

Back outside the entrance to the whole underground headquarters, Bakugo had found himself quickly and evenly matched by his two now-enhanced and unceasing opponents; the two snake-like terrorists now able to move about like literal hurricane-level whirlwinds; the bladed chains running from their arms flashing like whips of lightning, biting away at the explosive young Hero no matter how fast he propelled himself, or how sharp the turns he tried to make to give them the runaround so he could hit them in their blindspot where it hurt the most. But with two-on-one, there was no blind spot for him to exploit, and the mastery with which they could maneuver their attacks to make sure he couldn't make a move unscathed, was quickly taking its toll.

'Damn it, I can't react fast enough on my right side!'

By now, he couldn't even see out of his right eye anymore, it having long since been clouded over with the blood running from one of the many lacerations to his head. But he naturally refused to slow himself down or even give any indication to his enemies that he was at a disadvantage. However, with how much blood he'd already lost and was continuing to lose with every biting slice to his back and legs, there was no doubt, even in his own mind, that his body was running off of pure adrenaline at this point. But before he would allow that to run out, he was finally going to bring this battle and his opponents to their well-deserved end.

After having tried to fly his way across the face of the mountain in order to give himself more maneuverability; all the while firing twin gatling gun-style shots of his Explosions in order to try and whittle away their chain blades to no avail, Bakugo ultimately decided to try something simple yet desperate, as he flew and landed upon the rock face, watching and listening as his two animalistic opponents quickly closed in on him from both sides, before ultimately throwing their chains in order to try and skewer him to the wall.

But Bakugo quickly reacted before they could make contact, as he launched himself off the rocks and quickly ricocheted himself through the mish-mash of blades in a multitude of hairpin turns, before the twin terrorists finally landed upon the side of the mountain in his place, just as quickly predicting the most likely directions the Hero was bound to go, and throwing their chains in every one of them, giving him no hope to escape.

Just as they had predicted, their merciless blades not only found their makr by cutting into Bakugo once again, but now they had even hooked into him, they'd managed to get so deep.

But this was just one of the many outcomes Bakugo had likewise prepared for, as the moment that pain registered in his brain, his adrenaline fired right back up that much higher. He proceeded to hook his arms around the chains, and proceeded to ignite a series of propelling Explosions; forcefully flying himself in a downward loop, ultimately pulling his two opponents along for the ride beyond their ability to control or escape. In the end, he redirected himself so that the chains swung their wielders high up and over, before ultimately slamming the two into the side of the mountain like a couple of pesky flies.

Such brutal physical force was enough to finally make the chains snap somewhere along the way, as Bakugo finally landed back on his feet, forcefully flexing his shoulders in order to force the blades out of his back. He couldn't even feel his own blood flowing out, as the realization of his successful ruse emboldened him that much more; aiming his twin Grenade Vambraces at the two momentarily stunned Villains. "Finally, you both SHUT THE HELL UP!"

BKOOM!

His two pieces of equipment proceeded to launch off of his wrists like a pair of rockets, headed straight for his targets. However, by now they had likewise realized what the Hero was trying to do, and instead proceeded to showcase yet another enhancement to their Quirk, as with matching sadistic chuckles, they both proceeded to open their snake-like mouths, from which launched a third and fourth bladed chain, making quick work of slicing the vambraces apart; a multitude of igniting sparks within immediately exploding upon contact with the open air, filling the air before them with a massive fire wall.

But on the other side of that Explosion, Bakugo was already on the move, having never expected such an obvious move to actually win this fight. Instead, they had bought his bait, hook, line and sinker, as he proceeded to ignite the sweat upon his hands in another pair of spiraling explosive columns, before his whole body was consumed in a high-reaching cyclone of fire; the resulting forceful gale of burning hot air managing to propel that previous explosion straight into the faces of the two Villains, once again stunning them from being able to move.

Once they opened their eyes, they saw within the mid-air flames, the murderous intensity in Bakugo's blood-reddened eye, as he spun mercilessly through the air their way as his hands began to spark with growing intensity once again. "THIS TIME, I'M REALLY GONNA DRIVE IT IN!"

As though the Explosive cyclone he was flying in was directly reacting to his words, Bakugo sent another burning vortex tearing through the air, drilling with insane power into the mountainside, further hammering in yet more heat and concussive force into the two; completely immobilizing them long enough for the hotheaded youth to finally launch himself at something far beyond breakneck speed; twin trails of what looked like atomic fire flowing from his hands as the air roared with godlike explosive power.

"HOWITZER…IMPACT!"

The two Villains couldn't even let out a scream of terror at the punishment about to lay them both flat, as Bakugo's Special Move drove his attack straight into them like a sledgehammer to a sewing needle; completely and utterly annihilating the two, as a massive chunk of the entire mountain was burned away and atomized, leaving nothing but a large smoking bowl carved into solid rock, with both their bodies scorched and motionless at last.

As the smoke in the air cleared amid the torrential rain, Bakugo had finally touched back down on the ground, heaving for breath as he just knew in his gut that the natural victor had come out on the other side. As such, with the last bit of strength he had, he raised a victorious, defiant fist to the air, before jerking that one thumb to himself. "You…idiots. Like there was…ever…any…doubt…"

And with that, Bakugo's once-scalding hot adrenaline finally ran out, and he proceeded to collapse to the ground in unconsciousness, knowing he'd gone above and beyond what anyone else could have done to play his part in this desperate last mission.

…

As the unceasing current of the underground river continued to carry them along its course, Shoto was still continuing to try and fight his way out of his entrapment with all his strength. Unfortunately, whether through his Fire or his Ice, the bestial Villain he stood against refused to give him even a second's respite; his Quirk continuing to ensnare the young Hero in his manipulated flow of the water around him.

With each passing second he struggled, Shoto knew he couldn't keep it up, as he was down to his last seconds of air, with his vision already starting to turn dark as his struggling grew weaker.

But as his eyes began to grow heavy, he could just barely make out something in the haze of the rushing water around him, a light. Lifting his head up to the direction he perceived it was coming from, he could just make out what looked like an approaching wall of light in the direction of the river's flow.

For a moment, even he wasn't sure if it was real, or if all those instances people spoke of a light at the end of a long tunnel just before death were actually real after all. But in the next, it all became clear, as a moment's consideration came to him: This deep underwater and underground, even a real light from outside shouldn't have been able to reflect this deep in to catch his eye, at least not if the river simply continued this way even outside the mountain.

No, this could only be possible if the flow of the water made a sudden vertical drop, like a waterfall.

Knowing this was only seconds away filled Shoto with a renewed fighting vigor. This was most likely going to be his last chance of escape, and most importantly, of bringing an end to this fight at last.

Shoto made sure to make his last seconds of air count, as he began to channel his Ice out of his right side for everything it was worth, quickly encasing himself in an underwater iceberg, while the increased weight and the river current ended up forcing him apart from his enemy, just as they finally reached the cave mouth from which the waterfall fell.

The two of them came bursting out of the corner of the waterfall; the howling Villain's arms trapped in a series of ice webs connected to a cylindrical hunk of ice, which just as quickly proceeded to explode in a split-second fireball, as Shoto finally broke free, breathing in deep, but refusing to stop the desperate plan of attack that came rushing to him with this miraculous respite.

The monstrous Villain didn't hesitate either, as with another inhuman scream, it sent a multitude of its tendrils to try and snatch Shoto again; but the Hero was just that much faster, as with a swing of his right arm, he immediately froze all of the suspended ice chunks, flying drops of water, and the entire waterfall itself into one gigantic column of ice, with his target helplessly frozen solid within the resulting conical web as well.

KRSSSH!

But in less than two seconds, the frozen terrorist managed to break its head out of its icy prison through sheer brute force, already sending its hair tendrils at Shoto all over again, while he hurriedly came sliding down one of the ramps his Ice had created, before ultimately launching himself just out of the dome, his left arm igniting at his mental command.

"I won't let you get in Midoriya's way! FLASHFREEZE HEATWAVE!"

Throwing the fireball from his hand into the dome, Shoto proceeded to focus his Ice into compacting all together into one icy bubble with his rapidly expanding fire trapped within alongside his target. In the resulting deafening explosion of intense clashing temperatures, shoto wanted to believe this had been enough.

But before the thought even crossed his mind fully, he was suddenly met with a most unexpected sight, as the colossal fireball before him began to twist and reshape itself into a gigantic flaming imitation of his enemy; the nightmarish vision letting out an echoing mocking laugh, just as it suddenly threw itself in an aggressive lunge, and proceeded to brings its towering jaws down around Shoto, practically swallowing him whole within its inferno of a mouth.

'You can control the flow of flames, too?!' Shoto asked in disbelief, before the all-encompassing burn of the flames around him actually managed to pry out a pained cry from the normally stoic Hero.

Fighting through the pain, he quickly saw the real physical body of his opponent already rapidly approaching him, ready to finish him off once and for all.

But even despite being thrown into the worst possible position, all Shoto could feel was drive, as his heart began to race, as his left eye and arm both suddenly ignited in the most powerful flames he had managed to conjure up yet. 'In that case, here's the strongest move I can do for now!'

With the seconds counting down before final impact, Shoto reeled his left arm back, the once wild and uncontrollable flames suddenly beginning to redirect and concentrate themselves solely from his clenched fist; his swinging arc producing a far-reaching tail of flames like that of a fighter jet's turbine; the son of Endeavor throwing the single most incredible punch of his young life thus far.

"FLASHFIRE FIST: JET KINDLING!"

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

With a resounding impact, Shoto drove his blazing fist with all his built-up power straight into his opponent's midsection, all of that fiery heat channeling straight into his body, to the point his back began to expand like a bubble, before all of that pure heat energy came blazing straight out, looking as though Shoto's new Special Move had burned a hole straight through him.

The sheer sensation of feeling that attack fully connect filled Shoto with an instinctive relief, as he used his last moment's of consciousness after such expenditure of energy, to activate his right side, which produced a massive plume of steam from out his body in order to keep him from overheating himself.

But that did nothing to stop the gigantic explosion of pure fire that erupted from out the point of impact at last, as the fiery visage of the Villain suddenly exploded out from within into a gigantic sphere of flames that sent a scalding shockwave for dozens of meters all around, shattering the entire frozen waterfall in an instant, while the mid-air explosion descended before ultimately dissipating, leaving only Shoto and the Villain plummeting listlessly into the fog-enshrouded riverbank below; neither of them moving in an attempt to fight one another anymore.

As Shoto finally slipped into unconsciousness in freefall, he could only think of just what his three teammates were up against right now, and ultimately think, as though it would somehow reach him: "Midoriya…make sure you…stop it…in time. Don't let…all our battles today…be for nothing…"

…

For the last couple of minutes since he'd run off with the deactivation key to the control room, Rody had been going through all but literal hell. No matter how much he'd tried to put on a stoic face for Izuku's sake to keep fighting, the fact was that his body was in the single worst pain he could have ever imagined. With every agonizing step he forced himself to take down those stairs, with Pino continuously and sadly chirping for him to keep putting one foot in front of the other, it became harder and harder to maintain consciousness, and with every move, he could feel the blood flowing from the laser hole in his chest just become that much more intense and copious.

But no matter how much it hurt, no matter how easy he knew it would be to just let go and collapse to the ground, Rody Soul would be damned if he did that. This plan of his may have been cooked up entirely by himself, but that didn't change the fact that right now, those two young Heroes that had been practically glued to his hip to protect him for the last several days were fighting and risking life and limb for his sake, on top of that of countless others across the globe, and circumstances had placed the ability to make that all mean something into his hands alone.

Just as they were fighting to save the people they cared about and all others, so too was he, as the memories of his siblings and their father come rushing back to him, by the time he had finally reached the bottom of the stairs; beyond which he found himself in a large chamber saturated in electrical purple lights from all around, as every wall was covered in massive computer terminals, with one gigantic circular device mounted upon the wall directly in front of him.

Even Rody didn't know how, but something in his gut told him this was where he needed to get the key in his trembling hands to: the master control to the Ideo Trigger bombs, and the difference between saving the world, and untold hundreds of millions of deaths, and all kinds of other horrific calamities to unfold in the aftermath of.

Such a tremendous weight of responsibility in this moment would have felt crushing on the shoulders of even the strongest of Heroes; but Rody wouldn't let that stop him, as he continued to put one foot in front of the other; the thoughts of his family driving him every inch of the way, even after he ultimately slipped upon his own spilled blood, and went crashing painfully to the floor.

All his senses felt as though they were swimming deep within his head, as he struggled to crawl just a little bit further. The only things he could make out through his fading vision, were his family locket lying just a few inches from him, within which he could see the last family picture they had all taken together before his father had left. Next to that, he could then see the distressing sight of Pino, lying motionless on the floor much like himself. Finally, he could only look up and see the master control on the other side of his outstretched grasping hand, looking so close, and yet so far away.

'Come on…just a…little…more. You've gotta…do this…for them…just like…Dad…like…Deku…and Solovei…like…all…the…Heroes…!'

Finally, with his hand clutching the deactivation key as far as he could reach, Rody Soul ultimately blacked out, the blood loss having finally caught up to him, as his head and hand fell to the floor, and this time, didn't get back up.

At the same time, Pino still didn't give the slightest movement. Instead, her whole physical form began to fade, like a wisp of smoke in the wind.

…

In just the couple of minutes since Rody had made his desperate dash, and Izuku had sworn to stand his ground and protect him; the battle against Flect Turn had been brought to a most painful stalemate. The leader of Humarise was past the point of simply letting the young Hero waste his efforts against his unbeatable Quirk, as he now knew his entire plan was now at risk. As such, he had decided to fully dedicate himself to going on the offensive, hammering devastating punches on Izuku's defending arms with everything his body and Quirk together could muster. It was only through Izuku trying to reinforce himself by equalizing the power being thrown into his arms with his own, that his bones didn't splinter and shatter with each devastating blow.

Despite knowing what would happen again, Izuku continued to try and hammer his own Full Cowling-powered fists into Flect Turn in a one-for-one duel, but no matter how much he tried to enhance his strength with the energy surging from all over his body, it changed nothing. It was as though the mirrors attached to Flect Turn were actually holding onto the reflected power of One For All, as Izuku was continuously getting blasted back with every hit, but he likewise was refusing to stay down, ignoring the pain of an open laceration upon his forehead after one of Flect Turn's enhanced punches had grazed him just now.

After having taken the latest beating, only to immediately launch himself right back at his opponent again, Izuku couldn't help but glimpse up to the holographic screens still hanging in the air, where he could see, with intensifying dread, that the countdown to the bomb's detonation was now just less than a minute away…but just beyond that, he could now see a screen showing what had to be the control room, wherein he felt his heart momentarily freeze with shock, when he saw Rody lying motionless in his own blood; the deactivation key still in hand.

"Rody-san?!"

In an instant, Izuku's instincts swiftly switched from trying to outfight Flect Turn, and instead turned to getting back to Rody in order to try and help. But as soon as he had turned to try and make it through those doors and down those steps, he was instead met with a high-arcing kick straight to his face from Flect Turn, finally sending him skidding flat to the floor once again.

As Izuku tried to make his head stop spinning and his ears stop ringing, Flect Turn instead turned his attention back to the timer, and Rody's bloody body beside it. "For both the father and the son to fail so miserably, to ultimately die in vain. There truly is no saving sinful scum like him."

"That's not true!"

By now, the defiance in Izuku's voice was no longer remotely surprising, as the rubble he had crashed into suddenly exploded in an intense whirlwind. Flect Turn could only feel his annoyance reach a peak, as he saw the hazy image of his young opponent within the swirling dust, with a pair of green blazing lights staring out at him before it ultimately cleared, revealing Izuku still standing tall and proud; his whole body now practically burning with the light of his Quirk running at its greatest strength yet.

"Rody-san, my friend, is NOT SCUM!"

FWOOOSH! SMAAASH!

Flect Turn didn't even blink before Izuku had instantaneously closed the distance and driven the sole of his foot straight into his face; once again causing the black vortex to erupt out his back and immediately rewind back in, sending all that force blasting straight into the young Hero's face all over again. But no matter how powerful the force of it was, Izuku refused to let himself get thrown away again; the raw energy of One For All seemingly driving his body forward in direct opposition, continuously trying to overpower the defenses of Flect Turn's Quirk, so his kick could finally connect.

Seeing the undeniable effort on Izuku's face, the cult leader spoke: "Even after all your efforts, you still don't understand?"

With their eyes burning into one another's, Izuku spat in pure heartfelt denial of his still unfavorable odds: "It's only natural! I believe in Rody-san!"

VRRRRMMTT!

Amid the blinding light of their respective energies grinding fiercely against each other, Izuku could only for a second swear that he saw a momentary flash of red surge across Flect Turn's blue-glowing body. He couldn't rightly guess what it was, but the fact that it was some kind of reaction he hadn't seen from his enemy before, only made his Heroic zeal burn that much more brilliantly.

As such, he proceeded to ricochet himself off of Flect Turn's unflinching body before he could redirect the power of each blow back at him. From there, he went on to repeatedly hammer his overwhelming kicks into his opponent repeatedly; looking to see if that same momentary fluctuation repeated itself, and ensure he wasn't simply seeing things in his blind vigor and desperation.

As Izuku did this, behind his back, he didn't see just what was starting to unfold across the many different holographic screens from around the globe, as if that on its own was somehow reaching out to him, and letting him know just how right his next words truly were:

"I BELIEVE IN HEROES!"

BOOOM!

As if directly defying Izuku's declaration, Flect Turn's Quirk immediately reflected straight back into him, sending him flying at last across the walls above; but his words still rang true in every fiber of his being, as he immediately ricocheted right back across the chamber, practically kicking himself off the air in order to sharply redirect himself, before immediately after propelling himself straight down like an aerial strike, once more driving the heel of his foot straight into Flect Turn's already-lifted deflecting arm.

VRRRRM! VRRRM!

The black vortex this time spread from out the cult leader's feet, but before it could begin to rewind itself once more, Izuku could see that the same red fluctuation had started to flash across Flect Turn's body once again, twice even, then a third time…and that was when he and his enemy both suddenly realized something miraculous:

Under the sheer force of Izuku's attack, Flect Turn's body was inching back in the face of it by just a couple of inches.

Flect Turn's expression reflected none of the surprise he was truly feeling upon realizing this; his unforgiving eyes still burning into Izuku's. 'What is this? This has never happened before. Has his power actually increased?'

BOOOM!

But just like all the other times, the moment the vortex returned, Izuku was once more sent flying, skipping and skidding across the floor, just managing to catch himself, while Flect Turn's eyes had now settled upon his hand, his brow furrowed in truly troubled confusion. "No…that's not the whole of it…"

However, this sudden change in the dynamic of their fight was not simply running through his mind. Izuku was already racing back into the fray; his own mind racing from what he'd just seen. 'The power he reflected back at me wasn't as strong as all the others. Right, I understand it now. There's actually a limit to his Reflecting Quirk…in which case—I'll just have to overcome that limit!'

Within just a few steps of colliding with Flect Turn again, Izuku suddenly launched himself to his left in a lightning fast semi-circle, driving his incoming kick into the man's right side, still being met with that instant resistance as the entire chapel was illuminated with their colliding fields of raw power.

The two conflicting vortexes of super-powered air between them was keeping Izuku's foot from fully connecting, but as One For All was powering his body forward millimeter by millimeter, he could see that the air before his kick was becoming more and more focused at Flect Turn's chest, the intended point of impact.

Then, a breakthrough, as Izuku could see the air created by his kick had become so focused and powerful enough to drive its way through Flect Turn's Quirk's own energy, to be able to tear a hole through the chest of his bodysuit.

BOOOM!

Just like that, Izuku was deflected back once more, but this time, Flect Turn had likewise been knocked scraping on his feet across the floor by over a dozen feet.

There couldn't have been a clearer sign of proof to Izuku's theory, as he came rushing back even more emboldened than before, wasting no chance with diversionary flanking tactics, and instead driving his left fist into Flect Turn head-on, this time the cult leader's Quirk not even keeping him suspended in the air trying to make contact, and instead driving him back instantly. Once again, Flect Turn was sent scraping back another dozen feet; the resulting displacement of raw energy from their last strike reflecting right behind him, as the wall to his back erupted in a fiery explosion.

Lowering the crossed arms he'd kept lifted to defend himself, Flect Turn's eyes had now grown wide with furious confusion, looking to his hands once more. "Don't tell me…I've actually reached the limit of my Quirk?! Is that actually possible?!"

"You gave up."

Izuku's declaration struck like a spike of ice to the heart, as Flect Turn slowly shifted his gaze to the defiant young Hero struggling to stand back up before him; the left gauntlet and sleeve of his costume now similarly destroyed. "If you hadn't given up, if you had just kept trying, you might have been able to get along with people after all."

With every word he spoke to him, Flect Turn's shock quickly started to change within him, his trembling hands slowly but surely starting to form into the tightest of shaking fists. But even if Izuku could see that, it made no difference to him. "But instead, you called it a disease, gave up, and fell into despair…you stopped trying!"

"Shut up…" Flect Turn's words were quiet, under his breath, but they shook his body with the lifetime of pain, despair and anger that burned within his very blood, to listen to this boy speak of something he couldn't possibly have been able to understand.

But Izuku instead set one foot back, getting himself into his fighting pose once more; the sheer power of One For All igniting across his body in a series of glowing red marks from head to toe as he poured his heart out still; the memories of so many of his friends rushing before his eyes: "I've met people who'd lived their whole lives in despair, who had no faith in their Quirks, who had practically given up already, like you. But they all went on to find the strength to get up and try again, to believe in themselves and their Quirks. Even after living in fear or losing so much, they never truly gave up…and that is why Heroes will never truly be beaten by Villains like you. We know what it means to never give up."

"Shut up, shut up…!" By now, Flect Turn's confusion and pain had all given way to a bristling rage; his voice starting to pick up to match Izuku's impassioned and defiant words as he lifted his eyes to stare his young enemy down…but in the process of doing so, he caught the movement on the holographic screens above.

If nothing else, he was ready to see the countdown was about to reach zero, so that he could laugh and rub the Heroes' defeat in Izuku's face, to see that defiant fire of his die out at the sight of all his dead friends and the destruction of Quirks as a whole…but what he saw instead left his furious eyes wide with disbelief.

…

St. Petersburg, three minutes ago…

After a near good minute spent expending a fraction of his fury upon Nikolay's prone and bloodied form with the sole of his boot, Marius was currently catching his breath, the sweat he had worked up biting sharply at his skin with the Russian winter cold permeating the whole hall. Looking down upon the raspy-breathing and bloody bruise-covered Hero at his feet, there was only the tiniest inkling of himself that almost felt sorry for him; though that was just as quickly snuffed out as he began limbering himself up to deliver the finishing blow.

[[Don't blame me for how this ends, Solovei, son of Tunguska. You knew you couldn't lay a finger on me, and yet you chose this fight anyway, so you only have yourself to blame. Even if you stopped me from detonating the bomb myself, you and your Hero friends never stood a chance of stopping Flect Turn himself. So, for whatever it's worth now, take comfort in the fact they'll all be joining you in the hereafter very soon.]]

As Marius began to lift his boot in order to lay the finishing stomp upon Nikolay's head; the young Hero himself could only fight his way through the numbing pain of his whole body enough to string together only the most basic of coherent thoughts, as the faces of Tunguska, Gamayun, Mina, Izuku, Shoto, Eijirou, Ochako, Maja, Kyouka, and every one of his friends from Yuuei, and even those of all the Pro Heroes he'd gotten to meet and learn under, all flashed before his eyes; each one filling him with the deepest-biting sense of remorse.

'I'm so…sorry, everyone…I tried…but I-!'

PNNNNG!

Suddenly, his fading hearing could just pick up what actually sounded like an intercom's feedback echoing from outside the palace, enough so that even Marius froze where he stood, looking back in genuine confusion…until, finally, the towering intercom speakers that had been set up all around the Palace Square, played back the sound of an adult man momentarily clearing his throat, before finally speaking out in a voice that the two could instantly recognize; neither of them knowing that the projection screens that had been set up in front of the palace were likewise finally playing the footage they had been waiting for:

It was footage of a visibly disheveled Konstantin Khodamchuk standing at the podium to the conference hall of the Otheon Capital City Parliamentary Tower.

…

Otheon

With word having reached the Otheon parliament of the crisis that had just unfolded just outside their doors, it had taken a tremendous deal of effort on the part of the poor security officers and the police to keep the delegates and officials from flying into the very same blind panic to evacuate as many of the civilians outside had done. Even after word had finally come in of the success of the Heroes in neutralizing the terrorists responsible and destroying their bomb deep underneath the tower itself, there was still a great wave of frightened unease among them.

It was only the surprise arrival of Konstantin Khodamchuk that managed to finally instill some quiet across the stands, as many of the local officials had long expected the foreign president to tuck tail and run for safety before any of them once he'd caught a whiff of danger.

The man before them, currently making his way to the central podium for all primary speakers, looked considerably different from the sharp-dressed and clean-cut politicians they had just met previously mere days ago. After having pretty much bolstered his two personal security guards and the Parliament security to join him personally in lending aid to the Heroes just minutes ago, Konstantin looked to have visibly broken into a sweat, his once flatly combed graying hair now shaken out of place, and the necktie once firmly tied around his collar, nos visibly loosened, with his suit jacket now partially unbuttoned.

The first description any of the men and women watching his silent approach could think of to describe how he looked was as if he had just walked through a war zone, and as far as he was concerned, they were right on the money. But he wasn't about to dwell on that, as he kept his eyes on the podium that was now just steps away. "Please make sure the microphones are working and the cameras are rolling, and we have an actual feed."

Upon his instructions; his voice sounding undeniably tired; a few of the Otheon security officers hurriedly went to attend to all the equipment set up around the conference hall, while Konstantin finally situated himself behind the podium, looking for the first sign from anyone that everything was at least good to go after all of this.

As the seconds ticked by, he instinctively reached underneath his suit jacket, pulling out a handful of the index cards he had spent weeks practicing this very speech with…before ultimately letting out an exhausted sigh, tossing the little things aside, just in time to see the officers checking the news cameras giving a silent thumb up in confirmation that everything was working as intended. He could even hear one of the police officers that had accompanied him back inside, whisper to security that they had just received word from the Heroes that had gone to check the local TV station and telecommunications offices, ensuring that everything now being filmed here was actually reaching out beyond the country to the rest of the world.

That confirmation instilled Konstantin with an indescribable renewed resolve in the pit of his chest, as he took in a deep and shaken breath, before at last looking directly into the cameras, knowing exactly who he was really speaking to right now:

[[Good afternoon and thank you, ladies and gentlemen of Otheon, for giving me the opportunity to speak here in your country today to all my disparate countrymen scattered out there across the world, listening with open ears and rapt attention right now. My name is Konstantin Alexandrovich Khodamchuk, current serving president of Russia, in the wake of the recent passing of Dmitri Zaitsev. I apologize for my current state, and for the unorthodox nature of what I wish to say, but…things have unfolded today that have forced me to do away with formalities, so that I can speak to everyone with a fully open heart. The fact is that, mere minutes ago, this city was on the brink of suffering a catastrophe of the very same horrific nature as what had recently befallen the city of Berlin, carried out by the terrorist organization and cult you may all have by now learned of, known as Humarise…and the truth is that as we speak, potential disasters like this are in the middle of being fought by Heroes across the world, fighting tooth and nail to save countless lives at the risk of their own, including in my own country, for whom I wanted to speak here to begin with.]]

Even despite the threat in their city having been thwarted, just to hear the Russian president explain this all so bluntly had caused many of the officials before him to start muttering nervously amongst themselves. Never breaking his eyes from the cameras, Konstantin could only imagine the unrest at risk of breaking out back in his home country right now as well upon learning of this.

However, the man held fast to the knowledge he had learned, of Nikolay throwing himself into the fray all on his own up there at this very moment. That had to be a reason enough for him to hope, as he tightened his grip on the podium and continued: [[I can only imagine the fear that must be gripping at the hearts of so many of you right now upon hearing of this, and I can't blame you for that. Anyone who had seen what was left of Berlin in the wake of such a tragedy would be a fool not to be afraid…but that is why I am not asking you all to swallow your fear, but to rather hold on to your hope, because there are Heroes fighting for all of you back home, just like there are Heroes currently fighting everywhere else. And I have learned, from sources I best not share at this moment, but whom I know can be trusted, that the Hero fighting the hardest to save us and our motherland…is the very same one that had saved my life in Japan several months ago: The Frequency Hero known as Solovei, the son of our former Number One Hero, Tunguska…both of whom I know you remember we had driven away from our Motherland in the blinding mist of over a decade of enraged sorrow and fear; the very same kind of fear Humarise seeks to drown us in once more today.]]

…

Cairo

With the immense sandstorm their comrade had created to fill the entire city, not only were the terrorists confident that they would force the Heroes to stretch out their ranks to try and save the civilians and thus buy them all the time they would need to detonate their Ideo Trigger bomb, but the raging wind currents would help to spread the chemical compound to even the furthest reaches of the city, thus executing their objective to its fullest extent. As far as they were concerned, their victory, their great divine work, would be achieved with no further bother.

Hence why it was such a surprise to them when the storm suddenly began to dissipate, and the sandy haze quickly cleared all around them, with not a trace of wind to be felt.

What they hadn't seen in their own confident and literal blindness, was that while his fellow Pro Heroes took to aiding the civilians caught out in the open, Salaam had decided to make use of the cyclonic winds and his own two-dimensional form, riding the vortex in order to essentially slip his way into the eye of the terrorists' little storm without them even realizing it until it was far too late. He ultimately used his virtually weightless flying form to come swooping in and using all of his momentum to slam his deceptively hidden physical strength straight across the back of the head of the terrorist with the Sandstorm Quirk, knocking him flat on the ground and out cold.

Before the rest of the terrorists could react or try to regroup, they quickly found themselves getting laid out by the long-waiting onslaught of the rest of the Heroes they'd been trying to fight off. Using the veil of the sandstorm to likewise keep the terrorists from seeing what they themselves were planning; Ibara Shiozaki had used the opportunity to drive her thorny vine hair through the ground all the way to the river, absorbing the water to not only aid in growing her Quirk, but also to provide an immense rain over the island, once she sent all her Vines erupting from the water, creating an essential dome over it.

The moment her Vines came together, Mt. Lady proceeded to give her interns the biggest boost they could ask for, as she swung and threw Hanta by one of his strands of Tape through one of the gaps of the watery Vine dome, with Denki and Minoru swinging behind him from the strand running from his other arm.

As the trio of Hero students broke through into the dome, a handful of the armed terrorists who saw them coming quickly aimed their guns, only to find themselves swiftly being smacked about into unconsciousness by a angular crimson blur; the Hero Edgeshot having decided to move in to provide his partner's interns some much needed cover.

With Edgeshot watching their backs against the most immediate counter-attacks, Hanta proceeded to use the Tape from his left arm to latch onto the vines overhead to help keep them airborne, while Minoru and Denki worked together, throwing a dual mass of hair balls and remote electricity conductors around the enemies still standing. Both of these things, in combination with the rain falling from the Vine dome, allowed Denki to deliver the finishing blow, as he sent a virtual thunderstorm of his Electricity from out both his hands; the water allowing the currents to spread that much farther and wider than he ever could have hoped originally, with the hairballs keeping the terrorists from being able to run, and the conductors helping to redirect some of the electrical bolts to make sure they got caught in it; ultimately zapping them into unconsciousness like the rest of their comrades, and thus leaving their Ideo Trigger bomb to finally be properly dealt with, if the electricity hadn't caused its systems to short out already.

…

[[I refuse to insult you all by lying to you: we as a people have been put through far too much in so little time. The Siberian Flash, the economic, governmental and infrastructural collapse, the Anti-Quirk government that came soon after that used our despair to convince us to drive our families, friends and neighbors away like animals, even imprisoned and killed them…turning on those we'd once called our Heroes, and those that could have taken up their mantle in order to protect our beloved home. Then came the attack upon Moscow by those we now know as The League of Villains; the nuclear attack that nearly fell upon our heads from Hokkaido, and now this global-level threat. The truth is that we live in far more frightening times than we ever have before…but even then, that is no reason for us to give in to despair.]]

Singapore

Where all manner of the most clever use of their respective Quirks failed to yield any effective results against the sheer numbers and forces of the terrorists; it all had ultimately come down to Momo Creating a pair of reinforced metal tonfas to use as a means of defending herself, while Setsuna had to rely on a combination of her own Quirk swirling around her attackers in order to keep them distracted, while Majestic used his Quirk to either create powerful flashes to blind them, or even strike them with a temporary paralysis. With their combined means of keeping the terrorists busy, this allowed Big Red Dot the chance to take drastic measures: using his own Quirk to project a high-powered jet stream of water from his mouth in order to lift the bomb all the way over the deeper section of the harbor, before ultimately dropping it into the water where none would be able to recover it in time.

It was ultimately a course of action born out of pure desperation, since there was no guarantee if the detonation would have anywhere near the same effect from deep underwater. They would simply have to keep holding out until the confirmed deadline, and just hope that, with the information they'd all received from the Association beforehand, the Heroes going directly after Flect Turn would be able to stop him once and for all in time.

…

[[As a nation and a people, we have stood and fought together in the face of overwhelming odds, of all-but-certain doom in the past, and it was through the fires of those tribulations that we have always come out the other side just that much stronger… but for the first time in our lives, we find ourselves facing a threat that we cannot overcome on our own: ourselves; our resentments, our fears, our anger over the past. To know that, even after everything we'd let ourselves be convinced into doing to our own with Quirks over all these years, there is still even one Hero who chooses to fight to protect us among the countless innocents of this world; and that he is the one Hero who has all the reason in the world to leave us to our fate at that; is nothing short of a true miracle.

[[But even such a miracle as that means nothing if we are unable or unwilling to turn away from the past and fully focus on the future ahead of us by our own will and effort; a future that seems uncertain more than anything else. But there is something that is still tenable for us that can make it so that we can make that uncertain future into one worth fighting for, something I know we can all reach for, something that young Hero and all those like him are fighting and risking it all for at this very moment: hope.]]

New York City

With Star And Stripe having had her hand forced to attend to the incoming freefalling airliner above; it fell to the rest of her fellow Heroes across Times Square to keep up the effort of fighting their assailants from all directions; but not one of them being able to make it to the top of the skyscraper forming the corner of the Y-shaped section of the city, where the bomb was sitting in wait to finally be detonated.

With the properties of her Quirk only being able to enact two commands at once, Star And Stripe knew she had to be very careful with what she was going to do to save all the people on that plane and all the people down below, as she had to reserve one command to help her be able to fly in order to reach it to begin with. Once she would get there, everything would be decided in a matter of seconds.

So, the moment she was within arm's reach of the plane; she placed her hand upon it, fighting through the painfully loud whine of the struggling and burning engine that had been hit by the flying debris seconds ago, to call out from the top of her lungs: "NEW ORDER: WEIGHTLESS!"

Just like that, the crushing weight of the plane was no more, which allowed Star And Stripe to swiftly fly underneath the body, and use her trajectory, momentum and strength to redirect it away from Times Square, leveling it out so that its length was once more parallel to the ground, and on a downward descent towards the Hudson River.

But even if the plane was now no longer in danger of crashing at full force, the landing itself and the risk of the fuel lines igniting and blowing the whole thing up was still an all-too-real threat, and Star And Stripe would have to make her next few actions practically one on top of the other at once.

As she released her supporting hold upon the plane's belly, she quickly flew down to the surface of the river, knowing her next command would take away her ability to fly. Once her fingertips were upon the surface, she called out: "NEW ORDER: GELLING!"

At her command, the water below took on the consistency of thick gelatin, which she confirmed the moment she came landing down upon it, with the plane lightly gliding in upon it just past her; carving through the immobilizing material before quickly being brought to a stop within seconds.

Star And Stripe came running to the plane as fast as she could, and as soon as she was within a stone's throw of it, seeing how the doors along the body were already opening and deploying their evacuation slides, she quickly reached her hands up, feeling the air at her fingertips as she breathed in her deciding command: "NEW ORDER: EXTINGUISH!"

And just like that, for just but a second, the air around the plane reached a sub-zero temperature, enough to quickly extinguish the flames emanating from the damaged engine, effectively removing any threat of an explosion; while the gelatinous makeup of the river helped to support the plane's returned full weight, even despite the plane having already landed confirming it would retain its buoyancy once her next command would return the river to water, rather than allowing it to sink, while the pilots had thankfully had the forethought to turn off the other engine upon landing.

Of course, she couldn't afford to stick around, knowing by the sounds of all the passenger's cries of thanks that they would be all right. And so, with her next command to allow her to fly once more, she took off back to her allies' battlefield while the Hudson had returned to water behind her.

All the while, the fight was only growing more and more desperate for the rest of the Heroes, as with Fumikage unable to utilize Dark Shadow to its strongest under the intensifying lights of the square, it deprived his partners of any real breathing room with which to get their bearings and form a plan; and with the introduction of the same anger-fueled terrorist that had forced Star And Stripe's hand into the fray, it proved an even greater challenge for the physical powerhouses among them, with Rikido, Mashirao, Shishido and Jurota getting swung, smashed and thrown about, while Nirengeki and Hawks were either being kept pinned behind cover, or having their attacks deflected by the terrorists with the high ground and appropriate fire power.

With the constant reminder of the clock ticking ever closer, there was no obvious answer as to what they could possibly do, especially with there still being so many civilians around the whole city that needed to be evacuated if they couldn't stop the bomb from going off. It was only with the easy-to-miss sound of Star And Stripe's returning voice calling out amid the chaos: "NEW ORDER: ZERO GRAVITY", that a chance finally presented itself.

Before anyone could figure out what was going on, all of the cars, people and any other object across Times Square that wasn't bolted down started to levitate higher and higher into the air, while the American Number One Hero remained knelt victoriously in the midst of it all, a triumphant smile on her face.

She wasted no time before she suddenly flew up to where she'd remembered just briefly glimpsing the terrorist responsible for rigging the lights, where he thankfully still was, currently in the middle of clinging onto a nearby pipe to keep from floating up any further. That was just what she needed, as with the speed of a tempest, she came rushing in, driving a determined knee straight into his gut, knocking him out cold, and thus severing his Quirk's connection to the power grid. With that, she knew there was one last command to give before the tables were well and truly turned: "NEW ORDER: BLACKOUT!"

With nary a wave of her hand, all of the electrical lights across all of Times Square and in every direction for several blocks around, instantly went out, shrouding this portion of the city in complete darkness. And with not a moment of time to be wasted, Fumikage recognized what Star And Stripe had done, and acted accordingly.

Before any of the terrorists could get past their momentary confusion and get back on the offensive, they suddenly found themselves being faced with an instantaneously growing and roaring bird-like monstrosity of pure darkness erupting out from Fumikage's back; its illuminated yellow eyes blazing like two suns as it swiped its impossibly elongating and bending clawed arms out at every rooftop attacker he had spotted beforehand, clutching them tight and inescapably in its hands.

At the same time, Rikido and Mashirao, having long since gotten used to Zero Gravity thanks to Ochako and her Quirk; were similarly quick to capitalize on the window Star And Stripe and Fumikage had bought them, as they quickly made use of the gravity-deprived vehicles to use as jumping platforms with which to close the distance to their most heavily secured enemies, before swiftly wrecking them with a two-Hero assault at incredible speed; while elsewhere, Jurota, Nirengeki and Shishido made use of everything suspended in midair as makeshift projectiles with which to hammer down upon the terrorists trying to grab something to keep from floating away, or those trying to make a quick getaway whichever way they could.

And in the middle of all his fellow Heroes thinning out the enemy's ranks, Hawks made a lightning fast beeline for the bomb way up high, coming in and using the red feathers clutched in his hands to slice the massive cube into hundreds of tinier ones in a multitude of lightning-fast slashes. He watched as the once terrifying weapon of mass destruction collapsed into a useless pile of scrap, its canister of Ideo Trigger miraculously still lying intact, while the one remaining terrorist who had set himself up here with the detonator, could only collapse trembling to his knees; his eyes wide with terror and desperate need for mercy behind his gas mask, before swiftly getting smacked unconscious.

…

[[The pursuit and preservation of hope is the one thing that defines us all as human more than anything, for it is only through hope that we will always know we have a future. That hope can come from any number of things, whether it be something as simple as friendship or an act of kindness to a stranger, or something as nebulous as love or a personal ideal to protect, like justice. Wherever it comes from, hope is the one thing we as a people have been without ever since the Siberian Flash, and by now, I feel there isn't a single one of us out there who would deny this after everything that has happened to us since. Our Heroes and those that sought to be like them before were our assurance that peace, justice and hope would always prevail, and in our foolishness, we drove all of that away and left ourselves with nothing. But now, we stand on the precipice of finally rekindling our people's hope for tomorrow, because one Hero decided that we still deserved that chance, but we have to step up and prove to ourselves, one another, and to the Heroes of the world that we are no less willing to fight for our future than they are…and if any of you still doubts that there's any hope for us left, then I ask you to open your eyes and ears and look to our borders. Needing nothing more than even just the hint of a chance to be welcomed back to their Motherland and their Quirkless loved ones; the very same Quirked fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, friends and neighbors we'd turned our backs on have come back to help us all come together to restore what we had so foolishly thrown away.]]

Paris

Just when it seemed that all was lost for the Heroes in the City of Lights, and the terrorists were finally ready to don their gas masks and activate their bomb, they were suddenly stricken blind when the vast mountain range of crystal spikes encircling the Arc De Triomphe lit up with a brilliant blue light from within, illuminating the entire thing through the miraculous science of light refraction.

KRRRRSSHH!

Before anyone could even ask themselves or each other what was happening, the entire crystalline mass exploded into a skyward storm of tiny crystals; the intensity of the light keeping the terrorists from being able to see what exactly was happening…until they suddenly heard the sound of Ochako's voice amid the noise: "FROPPY, INVISIBLE GIRL, TWINKLING, NOW'S OUR CHANCE!"

All at once, Tsuyu wrangled Ochako with her tongue, already gifted by her Zero Gravity to stay airborne, while Nejire saw her fellow interns free and quickly swooped down to scoop up the froggy girl in her arms, firing a multitude of spiraling energy beams from her swirling hair to swat away any incoming projectiles from the terrorists who instinctively tried to fight back. All the while, Ochako reached her hands out, applying her Zero Gravity to as many of the flying crystals as she could, keeping them floating alongside her.

"NAVEL LIGHTSHOW!" "LIGHT REFRACTION: DISCO BALL!"

At the same time, Yuga quickly summoned up the focus and resilience to fire his Navel Laser at the crystals Ochako touched, while Tooru reached out and pulled in as much of the light of his Laser into herself as they could afford to spare, before then using her Quirk to redirect it in all other directions around them, firing it out so it could proceed to refract off the rest of the crystal fragments, creating a mid-air forest of small lasers flying all around, whittling away the terrorist ranks that had previously given them so much trouble in the blink of an eye; all while Yoroi Musha pulled a multitude of collapsible staffs and swords from out his samurai's armor, fighting alongside Frère Intrépide to take out the rooftop terrorists who were still too stunned by the overwhelming laser lights to get their bearings back; the latter musketeer-dressed Number One Hero of France using his metallic cloth cape to deflect all attacks, and a combination of his Quirk-granted enhanced strength, speed and his special-crafted laser rapier to put up the best fight he could; knowing instinctively that the people watching this battle unfold were feeling the utmost faith in him and his fellow Heroes, even at this, their most desperate moment.

Upon reaching the end of the circle of laser-refracting crystals with which to apply her Zero Gravity to, Ochako could finally think to address Nejire: "Nejire-chan, what about Willow Light-sensei and Selkie-sensei?"

To hers and Tsuyu's relief, Nejire didn't look the least bit worried, as she quickly nodded her head in the direction of the Seine River: "These baddies did something to the water to ground their boat, but Sensei's got it all under control!"

Indeed, upon realizing the pickle the Oki Mariner crew had gotten themselves into, Willow Light entrusted her intern to help her fellow at the Arc, while she'd quickly put her Quirk into action, turning herself into the uncatchable shooting star of light that wove through the winding streets of Paris like the wind; expertly catching and knocking out all the terrorists lining the shores she could find in order to buy Selkie, Sirius and their team as much time as they needed.

But in the one instance where she'd been forced to return back to her regular human form in order to look for any further signs of hostiles, Willow Light was quickly blindsided by a lucky sniper rifle shot from across the river, nailing her in her left shoulder.

As soon as she saw the terrorist responsible atop an illuminated five-story building, she was about ready to send several of her light orbs from her fingertips to try and disorient him so she could get behind cover, only for the sound of another distant gun firing to catch her ear. However, as she instinctively ducked down at the sound, she instead heard the voice of the shooter cry out in surprise; looking up in time to see he'd gotten ensnared in what looked like a fishing net connected to a line, just before he was quickly yanked off his feet and towed through the air; the Irish-Japanese Pro Hero following in surprise, only to see something that brought an encouraged smile to her fair freckled face:

It was the sight of the Oki Mariner once more hastily making its way down the river toward her, with Selkie manning the helm while Sirius was behind the harpoon gun on deck, and their muscle-bound crewmen accelerating the ship the old fashioned way, with oars, making the already-fading scalding temperature of the water and their loss of a working engine meaningless. Clearly, the Sea Rescue Hero and his team hadn't earned their renown for nothing.

Upon confirming that Willow Light was okay and the terrorists on the river had been neutralized, and the trapped civilians had been returned safely to shore; Selkie quickly dialed in his intercom to his interns: "Uravity-chan, Froppy-chan, we're on our way back to assist, what's your status?"

"Not good, Sensei, but we're moving in, no matter what!"

Indeed, whilst their classmates and their respective Pro mentors were finally making quick work of the majority of the terrorists now that they'd regained the element of surprise; Ochako, Tsuyu and Nejire were moving in together for the Arc de Triomphe itself, where the terrorists safeguarding the bomb had finally recollected their senses and realized how sharply the odds had turned against them, which had prompted their lieutenant to finally take action, drawing his detonator in preparation to push the button.

Nejire immediately used her momentum to throw Tsuyu and Ochako forward together, before just as swiftly redirecting her hair to fire her energy beams across both their sides, providing covering fire for her juniors while pinning the terrorists down.

Knowing they only had mere seconds left, Tsuyu immediately proceeded to throw Ochako that much further forward with her tongue, just before the lightning-fast orb of light that was Willow Light came zipping right past them both; swiftly ricocheting off the heads of the other terrorists that were providing the lieutenant backup, and knocking them out before they could even figure out who'd just joined into the fight the moment she'd been given word.

With just the lieutenant left to deal with, Ochako was both mentally and physically screaming for herself to cross just that tiny bit of distance between them that much faster, reaching her hands out to either grab the detonator out of his hand, or to throw him off balance with her Quirk. It was the only thing she could think of that could still stop this cataclysm from engulfing the entire city.

BZZZT!

But with her vision so narrowly focused on the man before her, Ochako didn't even notice the incoming blue glow from behind her back, before one of the refracted beams of Yuga's Navel Laser came flying in and impacted directly against her back; the reinforcement of her Hero costume providing the protection to keep her from getting hurt, while also providing the kinetic boost enough to bring her in that much faster.

Without hesitation and with thoughts of all her friends, teachers and her parents flashing through her head all at once, Ochako let out a heartfelt and driven battle cry, as she grappled onto the detonator itself, while planting her other hand upon the lieutenant, taking his gravity while she threw her body into a twist, ultimately pulling him along into an uncontrollable mid-air flipping and spinning, until Tsuyu wrangled him with her tongue; the sudden stop in his momentum jarring his body just enough that he lost his grip on the detonator, while Ochako managed to maintain it.

With the confirmation that he and all his compatriots were either captured or neutralized, Ochako finally brought her fingertips together, restoring gravity to everything, while finally allowing herself to ride out the intense wooziness she'd been desperately trying to keep down.

But despite having his ability to detonate the bomb personally taken away, the Humarise lieutenant cruelly laughed. "Nothing you sinners do here will make a difference. Flect Turn still maintains ultimate control in the case of our failure. The bomb will still go off, and all your kind in this city, and those blinded by your corrupting sin will die! You have stopped nothing and saved no one!"

"I'm not giving up…" Ochako grumbled through her nausea, catching the terrorist and her allies by surprise, as she struggled to stay on her feet before making a dash for the bomb itself, reaching her hands out to it.

'I won't give up, no matter what! Deku-kun, Ryukyu-sensei, Tunguska-sensei, none of them would give up, because that is something Heroes NEVER DO!'

With that declaration echoing deafeningly in her heart, Ochako planted her fingers to the bomb, instantly taking away its gravity, as it began to float further and further up into the air, with the rosy-cheeked young Hero quickly doing the same to herself, before clutching tight onto the bomb and kicking herself up off the ground, springing herself and it further up, before letting go; the added momentum allowing it to ascend just a little faster.

Thankfully, all the other Heroes watching from near and far were able to see what Ochako was trying to do. Even if the terrorist was right, they weren't going to let Humarise have their way in this city if they could help it.

Without hesitation, Tsuyu followed suit, springing herself up high through the air before lassoing her tongue around the bomb, and then throwing her body into a full rotation, reeling it along with before releasing her hold, throwing it even higher and making it float much faster.

From there, Nejire followed suit, sending two continuous energy beams from her hair up after it; the physical force of them propelling it faster and faster and higher and higher into the sky. By now, it was almost as small as a low-flying airplane from where they were all standing.

But that wouldn't be enough to convince them it was safe, as Willow Light once more turned herself into the speedy ball of light, streaking higher and higher like a golden beam before driving her momentum straight into the bomb, once more adding to the speed of its ascension.

Finally, the Oki Mariner Crew likewise saw what their interns and their allies were doing as a last desperate act to save the city, and thus had likewise decided to throw their own hat in; arming their harpoon gun with a special blunt-ended and rocket-propelled projectile which Sirius fired the moment she had the bomb in her sights. From there, they could all only watch as their special harpoon streaked through the sky like a fighter jet, before ultimately letting the thrusters of its rockets die down, so the plain blunt steel-tipped projectile itself could give the bomb just that little extra push and boost.

Finally, the Heroes could all only watch on in breathless and silent anticipation, as the now-minuscule speck that was the Ideo Trigger bomb fully disappear from the view of the naked eye in the depths of the sky. In that moment, Ochako could just feel an inescapable sense of reassurance in her chest, as she finally spoke: "With all that added momentum, and the time we have left, the bomb should exit Earth's atmosphere in time…but I just know he'll be able to stop the rest of them from going off, no matter what."

…

[[To all those of you that have come gathered to our borders today, I cannot begin to properly express my deepest gratitude to you all for taking this chance to hear me out, when I would not have been able to honestly blame you for doing the opposite. Over these last fourteen years, the people you trusted turned on you and treated you like animals; destroyed the peace of your lives in some barbaric retaliation for the destruction we'd convinced ourselves you'd inflicted on ours.

[[We have made far too many terrible mistakes in our resentment and blind emotion to ask you to forgive it all like it didn't happen. We all truly believed it was the only way to secure our futures…and it is for all of that, that I went to all this effort to reach out to you all from truly open and neutral ground, in the hope that doing so would help you all to see how genuine my words to you are right now. The truth of the matter is that we were wrong about you…I was wrong about you. And while I know there are those among our countrymen who don't want us to come back together, whether out of hatred or an inability to fully process the grief of what they've lost over the course of all this time, I still wish to take this opportunity to speak for us as a people, when I say that we are sorry for having let things become like this between us, when we are supposed to be more united than we ever were before. I know that you all have plenty of reasons not to trust me or any of us at our word after all this time. But if any of us on either side of our border is willing to believe in and fight for hope, for our future, the way Solovei and all those courageous Heroes out there are right now, then I can only ask you all to please look inside yourselves and think on it at the very least.]]

Tokyo

Despite having one of his tentacles blown off during his and Kyouka's freefall from the Tokyo Tower, Mezo refused to stop fighting, as he quickly snatched her up with one while quickly growing another several to catch onto the tower. Fortunately for the both of them; Cementoss, Gang Orca and Present Mic had already managed to make quick work of their own side of the conflict, and upon seeing the danger their young charges were in, had quickly moved in to give support.

Gang Orca and Present Mic's Quirks combined managed to very quickly overwhelm the terrorists out in the open, with the Killer Whale Hero's sidekicks quickly stepping in to fully capture them, while Cementoss created a rapidly rising podium of cement beneath Mezo and Kyouka's feet, ascending them back to the top of the tower, wherein Mezo sent two tentacles to punch and grapple the two terrorists guarding their lieutenant, while Kyouka quickly jabbed her Earphone Jacks into the man himself before he could hit the button on his detonator, sending two full pulse blasts right into his ears, fully stunning him and bringing him to the floor in a fit of spasms to the ground so the two students could snatch his detonator safely.

From there, Cementoss quickly rose up to join them, before using his Quirk to produced several more extending columns of cement from their platforms, using them to completely encase the bomb in a thick shell of instantly dried cement. Assuming these bombs were strictly gas-releasing, he was confident this would be enough to prevent a catastrophe, on the smallest chance Flect Turn couldn't be stopped in time.

Fukuoka City

Meanwhile, the multiple simultaneous battlefronts being fought were similarly reaching their end. It had taken a tremendous amount of effort and physical punishment, but with his headstrong can-do attitude, Tetsutetsu had bulldozed his way through the terrorists' offensive lines, waylaying the majority of them with a flurry of Iron fists and kicks, throwing off their organized tactics enough for Vlad King to rush in and take care of the stragglers. Even with his student ultimately collapsing from exhaustion once it was confirmed they'd cleared the train station, and the word had gotten out to the power stations to cut the power to the rail lines coming in; the Class 1-B teacher was at least able to let out a sigh of relief that the bomb had been secured. Now it was just a matter of the trains all being stopped.

On one hand, Fatgum had had been forced to pace and measure out the amounts of which he had to exert his Quirk and sacrifice his accumulated mass, in order to take down the terrorists that had been attacking him from outside the train with their high-speed mid-air formations, and even that still didn't resolve the problem of the terrorists and the hostages on board. It wasn't until he'd finally realized the power had been cut off, due to the train starting to slow down despite the hijackers' attempts to push beyond the maximum speed, that the BMI Hero was finally able to act the way he'd intended.

He couldn't afford to waste a second, as he swung in through the windows at the first bunch of them he'd seen before, driving into them with his gut at the forefront, swallowing and trapping them within the confines of his midsection before they could even so much as cry out in their surprise. With his having taken care of one side of the car they'd all been corralled into; the hostages were all of one mind, as they quickly ducked down flat to the floor, giving Fatgum plenty of room with which to dive through the air at the others; their bullets bouncing or sinking harmlessly into his girth and crossed arms, before he ultimately landed into a practical boulder-like roll, engulfing the rest of them just as quickly and thoroughly in the process.

By then, the terrorists in the cabin of the train had realized what was happening, but even they weren't able to counter-attack quickly enough, before Fatgum was back on his feet, hunching over in preparation as he turned to face them, before finally flexing his gut outwards, firing all the terrorists he'd immobilized from between the folds of his stomach like a human cannon, sending them all crashing brutally into each other, and leaving them in a dazed or unconscious human heap, just as the train's momentum had finally died down and ultimately come to a complete stop.

…

"SUNEATER!"

On the second train, Tunguska and Tamaki had likewise come to a miraculous recovery. Once the older Russian Hero had realized the stalemate they were both in, he'd decided to try something admittedly quite desperate, by unleashing his Flashbang Special Move on his side of the train car, while simultaneously flinging a small concentrated ball of his concentrated Solar power behind his back, aiming it just well enough so that Tamaki could catch sight of the light out the corner of his eye, and turn his head just in time for it to fly into his open mouth.

The insane burning in his mouth only lasted for a second as he forced himself to swallow it, but the surge of wholly new power that rushed through his body more than made up for it. The terrorists that had safeguarded themselves against the sheer melee power of his Quirk quickly found themselves outmatched, as Tamaki suddenly proceeded to unleash a multi-beam array of the same concentrated Solar energy from out his transformed limbs, cutting through their armor and slamming them all about without mercy in the process.

At the same time, while his own side of the battle was still reeling from his Flashbang, and knowing the majority of the hostages were on Tamaki's side of the ever slowing train, Tunguska grabbed the golden disc from behind his head, and proceeded to swing it around himself in a circle, cutting through the accordion material connecting the two cars, thus causing the half of the train behind himself to start falling further and further back, thus separating the hostages from any further danger from the terrorists he still had to deal with. With that, he then proceeded to grab the edge of the roof and flip himself over to be on top, hurriedly running across the length of the car, staying as light on his feet as possible so as not to alert them with any noise cluing them on where he was.

He went on, ducking and jumping over a couple of the signal light frames standing along the tracks before finally reaching the lead car; all the while using his neural connection to have his prosthetic arm dislodge piece by piece so they could stay flying alongside the train on standby, based on where he'd seen the terrorists standing during their standoff. Once he'd finally reached the lead car, he gave a mental command to them all ("SOLNECHNAYA PRIZMA (SOLAR PRISM)!)", thus allowing them to finally level themselves at the windows, and fire their own collected and waiting stores of Solar power in small concentrated beams, slamming into the terrorists hard the entire way into one another, until they were forming one collective line along the length of this half of the train.

Upon hearing their collected cries of shock, Tunguska finally rolled over until he was on the nose of the train looking in through the windshield, aiming his right arm down at the line of stunned terrorists, and firing the concentrated Solar beam out his palm, through the glass and into all of them that he'd really been waiting for; his attack barging into them all en mass like a wrecking ball, sending them all flying out the severed opening of the train he had made, and crashing hard down onto the tracks in a defeated pile of dazed or unconscious criminals.

Once that had been taken care of, Tunguska then proceeded to recall the pieces of his prosthetic arm, all of them flying in and reconnecting with each other upon his arm flawlessly, before he at last went on to jump and meet the ground with his feet, planting his hands to the nose of the train so he could act as a forceful brake; ignoring the violent friction against his boots as he used his raw physical strength to bring the train to its ultimate stop. The man felt overwhelmed with relief when he could hear the collective sound of the passengers inside all letting out their own outcries of relief that they had been rescued.

Before he could even start to call on his earpiece to see how Tamaki was holding up, the third-year Hero himself had decided to call just that much sooner: "Tunguska, the back half of the train has been brought to a stop, and I've got the leftovers you laid out on the tracks all wrapped up with the rest of them. I think we're all on our end."

"Excellent work, Suneater. Now we just have to hope Fatgum-san, Vlad King-san, Real Steel, Red Riot and Candelabra are holding up just as well."

…

"WOSK CIERŃ PUŁAPKA! (WAX THORN TRAP)!"

SHHKSHHKSHHK!

For just the handful of seconds that Maja had tried to use her Wax-reinforced forearms to take the Buzz Saw-Quirked terrorist's attack; the sheer power behind it had carved easily through, sending multiple quickly melting fragments of the stuff flying all over the interior of the train car, even managing to get past Eijirou's defiant standing one-man wall, and the Blowtorch-Quirked terrorist's flame that was still singularly focused on trying to burn through him entirely.

As a result, the moment those biting saw blades finally ate their way through the whole of Maja's Quirk armor and started actually cutting into her forearms themselves, the excruciating pain and sight of her blood starting to fly, made the words and focus come rushing all at once. As a result, all of the spattered Wax upon the floor, walls and ceiling of the train car suddenly exploded out into an all-encompassing forest of piercing thorny spikes and tight locking clamps, piercing many of the terrorists through their hands, feet, sides or shoulders, or completely ensnaring them in the process.

This fortunately included the Buzz Saw user, whose sudden painful injuries were enough to break his focus and bring the saw blades to a stop. Even in the blindness of her painful injuries, Maja knew she couldn't waste the few seconds this reaction had bought her, so she quickly tried to focus her Quirk in order to make the Wax of her costume flow up her arms and reach into the mechanics of the buzz saws, effectively clogging them up to the point that he couldn't reactivate them when he actually tried.

The young Polish Hero didn't hesitate when she realized her desperate plan worked, and instead used the leverage of her grapple and Quirk combined to suddenly throw herself up into a skyward back-flipping kick, driving the full force of her feet into his jaw, knocking him out cold to the floor with several dislodged teeth and a piercing ringing in his ears.

But just because her share of the battle was finished, that didn't mean her partners' was, and after having tried to withstand the flames with his Unbreakable for the last several seconds, there was no telling how much longer Eijirou could maintain it, for either the burning pain or the risk to his heart.

As such, Maja was pushing her mind to its limits of concentration, as she tried to keep the Wax clamps on the terrorists, while at the same time focusing the spikes to melt down until they completely coated the floor of the train car, before then focusing the spikes to form downwards at full force, punching through the floor and the undercarriage of the train to the speeding wheels and rails below.

From there, she proceeded to send all that Wax rushing to the hydraulic mechanics of the wheels and piling onto them as thick and quickly drying as she could get it to. She'd only had a second to wonder if it would actually work, before the air was suddenly pierced by an agonizing metallic screech; the wheels trying to fight against this sudden full-car jamming that suddenly disrupted the momentum of the whole thing.

As a result, this sudden jolt sent the few terrorists still standing before Eijirou flying off their feet straight for him. While Maja had the bright idea of sparing some of her melted Wax to encase around his feet to help keep him steady, Eijirou himself had been too laser-focused on being her shield to even truly notice. All he could see through the painful burns across the whole front of his body overwhelming his mind, was the fact that the Blowtorch had stopped, and his enemies were helplessly coming at him. This was the chance he knew he'd been waiting for.

"RED BULLET BARRAGE!"

With his pain and manly Heroic energy coming together in one resonating battle cry, Eijirou proceeded to finally let his Hardened fists fly, hammering into the incoming terrorists at a speed the likes of which none could expect from him, sending them all flying in a head-spinning daze as quickly as they had come at him.

Just as fast as it had begun, it was over, as Eijirou struggled to catch his breath and finally see that they had taken care of the terrorists themselves. However, his awareness of the still-considerable speed of the train kept him from letting out a sigh of relief, as he urgently turned to address his partner, only to find that Maja was racing for the front of the train, twin trails of blood dripping behind her from the lacerations in her forearms. "Candelabra, what are you doing?!"

"We still need to stop this train, Red Riot!" That was all she could spare the time to say, as she shoulder-charged the door to the driver's cabin, only to find the control consoles had been destroyed. Clearly, the terrorists had planned ahead. And from here, she could already see the approaching train station in the far distance. At this speed, it wouldn't even be two minutes before they'd come crashing in, and potentially setting off the bomb.

Eijirou had no idea what she could possibly have in mind to stop this train, but there was no way he was about to stand back and not do anything. But with every step he forced himself to take, the depth of the heat-inflicted injuries he'd sustained made themselves thoroughly known; even managing to bring him to a knee after four steps, gritting his teeth in an attempt to try and fight through it.

CRASH!

All the while, Maja was desperate enough to form another large reinforced ball of Wax over her left hand in order to swing it through the windshield; every form of physical exertion making the injuries on her arms hurt even worse. But just like Eijirou, she was fighting like hell to get through it and do what she knew needed to be done, as she climbed her way out the windshield, eyeing the multiple metal frames lining the rails.

Maja sucked in a deep breath through her teeth as though to brace herself for the new pain that was to come, as she began to focus on making the Wax of her limbs soften and liquefy just enough to maintain some solidity and flexibility altogether. Once she was sure she had it, she proceeded to get on her back on the nose of the train, and suddenly send her Wax limbs outward and down with as much speed as she could manage without sacrificing its thickness and mass. Her Wax proceeded to latch onto the signal light frames overhead and at the sides in a multitude of binding straps, while the rest from her legs went down to further jam up and solidify against the wheels for the rest of the train. Maja was hoping applying this desperate tactic to the rest of the train like she had to the one in the middle, would be enough to finally bring the train to a complete stop before it was too late.

Even if not for the sake of the bomb up ahead, the worsening pain reaching into her body from her arms and legs where Wax turned into her flesh, as her Wax limbs stretched beyond any distance she'd tried before. After several seconds of trying this, trying to hang on with her arms as best she could without the Wax potentially breaking off, Maja felt as though her arms and legs were going to snap off at the shoulders and hips altogether, as she suddenly hacked up blood from her mouth with an agonized scream of painful tension.

But her grapple point on all those frames was the only thing to keep Maja from getting thrown off, when the train suddenly jerked to a much slower and steadily decreasing speed from sheer physical force, as if something had suddenly forced itself right into the face of the train.

Maja's vision had almost gone completely red and then black as her pain from her desperate move had become too much for her; otherwise she would have seen how Eijirou; after having spent the last several seconds calling out for her to stop when he had seen what torture she was putting herself through; suddenly throw himself out in front of the train right past her, reactivating his Unbreakable in mid-jump, and then digging his feet into the ground while clutching the train face with his arms in a wide-armed embrace, letting all of that momentum drive directly into his body as he tried to make himself into a forceful brake for the whole thing. It did nothing for his burn injuries, but this was at least something he could feel in the pit of his stomach that he could do to help his partner out. They'd both put themselves through utter agony to protect each other, and he wasn't about to let that and her actions here be for nothing.

And luckily for the both of them, it wouldn't be, as their combined efforts had ultimately managed to be enough to bring the train to a complete stop at last, just a few yards from reaching the station itself. It was through no awareness of that fact, but rather through sheer and simple accumulated pain and exhaustion, that Eijirou finally let go of the train and collapsed to the ground, with Maja likewise letting out the deepest sigh of her life; her Wax arms and legs finally melting away from her torso, as she came collapsing unceremoniously on her face right beside him, the two young Heroes desperately catching their breath while letting the knowledge of their joint victory sink in.

"Thanks…for all the helping hands, Candelabra." Eijirou finally thanked Maja between his tired gasps, letting his head fall to the ground at his side so they could look each other in the eye.

Even with all the pain racking her body, Maja was still barely able to manage a smile in return. "Thank you is more like it…you…you're the one who saved us here, Red Riot."

In the last seconds before finally slipping into unconsciousness, Eijirou managed to give Maja a solitary thumb up and a smile. "Hey, a real man admits when he needs help…and you helped in all…the best ways today. You're as manly…as any Hero in my book, Candelabra…and we manly Heroes never give up… just like he wouldn't…right…Bakugo?"

Maja couldn't even find the energy to laugh in amusement that Eijirou had let his mind drift to his hot-headed begrudging best friend in their class before finally blacking out. In her own last moments of consciousness, she could only silently wonder if the rest of their partners had managed just as well or better than them… or how the rest of the global teams were managing, for that matter.

…

[[We stand upon a precipice in every sense of the word. Just as I had felt on the day when I had to take up my role as president of our Motherland; so too today do I feel from the bottom of my heart that we have the opportunity to change our history for the better going forward, if we can learn to finally let the past rest, and turn our eyes to the future, and the inherent hope that rests within it. This is no longer about nationalities or ideologies, Quirks or Quirkless. This is about us finally stepping up and doing our part for the good of humanity as a whole, together, just as we always should have done.

[[It will not be easy, but none of the most worthwhile things in life worth pursuing are. But I have hope enough for us all to accept that challenge; for if one young boy has the strength to pursue and give hope back to us, even after all we had done to him and all those like him, and I cannot do the same…then how could I ever accept the responsibilities of a role like this? I refuse to let the losses and sacrifices of our Heroes and kin be for nothing, even if there are those among our countrymen on either side who will not want to hear these words, or see what we have the human capability to become. I choose hope, not by our hands alone or by the hands of Heroes alone, but by all of our hands, for that is the only way we truly come back.

[[There's only so many ways I can say this before I simply start repeating myself, so I simply want to leave you all with this. I've made my choice today. Hell, I made my choice a long time ago...but I simply ask you all to look deep within yourselves, and at those sitting next to or across from you, whether they be your loved ones or even a total stranger…and ask yourselves: what will you decide here today?]]

Perth

Mirko's body was screaming with pain from the bloody lacerations all over, but the only sensation she was allowing herself to acknowledge was the fiery anger burning in her veins, as she heard Scarlet Widow's cackling voice several yards ahead; the Villain towering over Stampede's motionless body, her human hands already hard at work covering him in webbing while her spider legs rolled him around with it, already halfway done mummifying him.

Seeing Mirko's horrified expression alongside her body's trembling anger, the Villain only kept laughing. "What, you don't like what you're seeing, bitch, is that it? What a waste, to let a guy like this have such hooks in you. I thought he was the pinnacle of men before, too; don't know what the bloody hell I was thinking. Well, if we're all gonna die, I might as well drain him dry while there's still time…and you just volunteered to be my captive audience for it."

She was answered with the equivalent of an explosion, as Mirko launched herself from her impact spot with her feet; a white blur of pure physical force, as the Rabbit Hero let out a furious war cry while launching a balled up right fist straight for Scarlet Widow's face. The Villain masterfully blocked it with her two frontmost legs, but Mirko instead opened her hand, grabbed onto those legs with both, and used that as an anchoring point from which she proceeded to spring herself up off the ground, driving a lightning fast steel-reinforced foot straight across her face with a satisfying crack.

With several of her teeth and one of her large fangs and mandible shattered on impact, Scarlet Widow proceed to pull her legs apart, pulling Mirko's hands along with, thus leaving her open for just long enough for the Villain to stab two more of her spider legs into her sides, easily tearing through Mirko's Hero costume and puncturing her skin, earning another furious yet pained scream as blood began to flow.

But whether she was getting stabbed or not, Mirko refused to back down, as she quickly took advantage of her hanging here, by swinging her body back, before using her strength to flip her body forward in a wheel like a gymnast, this time driving both her feet straight up into Scarlet Widow's chest, easily breaking more than half her ribs and knocking the wind out of her all at once, finally forcing the Villain to let her go.

The pain of her punctured sides was intense, but Mirko's heartfelt anger was even greater, as she brute-forced her way through the pain and continuous blood loss by launching into another superhuman sprint, barely managing to outpace Scarlet Widow's furious stomping spider legs, either chasing after her or trying to cut her off, if not just outright skewer her to the asphalt.

Mirko's reflexes were put to the test, as she hurriedly dug her heels in to keep from getting stomped on by legs in the front, but just as quickly found herself getting pinned in from behind by yet more, with Scarlet Widow about to lunge the rest of herself down on her from above. Gritting her teeth in unspoken distaste, Mirko reeled back, and hurriedly threw her body into a spin intense enough, that her steel-encased footwear started to actually drill down through the asphalt and into the dirt below, allowing the Rabbit Hero to suddenly sink down into a tiny hole, while Scarlet Widow could only look on in frustrated bewilderment, trying to look down into said hole for any sign of her prey…

"SKYBOUND DRILL!"

WRRRAAAM!

Only for Mirko to have ultimately drilled her way more than a dozen feet down below the surface, before turning her trajectory in a vertical u-turn, so she was now drilling her way right back up out of her enemy's line of sight, before ultimately exploding out of the ground right at Scarlet Widow's multiple feet; her legs coming up with no less force or speed, and thereby driving straight into the Villain's thorax with such power as to send her entire arachnid body flying dozens of feet into the air with a scream of pained shock.

But Mirko was practically seeing red, as the moment her feet were back on solid ground and she violently shook the dirt out of her long white hair, she hurriedly squatted, and proceeded to launch herself with her natural superhuman strength, flying straight up after Scarlet Widow with a foot extended to give her a further kicking; connecting with full resonating force.

It wasn't long until Mirko and Scarlet Widow stopped ascending high above the city skyline, and gravity finally took control again, as the two started to freefall back to the ground. But even the inevitable impact didn't stop either of them from continuing the fight, as Scarlet Widow viciously grappled with Mirko, violently clawing away at her with her scurrying legs, while Mirko hammered away at the Villain with pounding fists, driving elbows, shattering kneecaps, lightning-fast stomping feet, and hammering head-butts straight to her face, knocking the Villain silly in equal measure.

SLAAAAAAAAM!

Finally, with a deafening explosive crash landing; Mirko and Scarlet Widow left yet another crater in their impromptu battlefield, with the Villain lying motionless in the rubble with her eight legs fully splayed out helplessly, while Mirko was still standing, her costume in tatters, and her whole body covered in all kinds of deep-reaching lacerations and bite marks that left her bleeding profusely.

After but a few seconds that felt like forever, Mirko turned her gaze from her clearly defeated enemy, to Stampede several yards away, still lying motionless with the stinger sticking out of his gut. Her initial instinct was to return to him and make sure he was still breathing, but she just as quickly noticed something else: there wasn't a sound coming from within the stadium.

Knowing neither Mina nor Tas-Maniac to be the kinds of Heroes with quiet Quirks or quiet means of fighting, this lack of combat noise was quickly filling her with an unusual sense of protectiveness.

But before she could take the first step towards either source of her worries, Mirko grit her teeth as her vision went blurry, and her body began to feel cold from inside. "W-what the…hell? No, I…I couldn't have bled that much already…no way in…"

But looking down to see what was going on, Mirko froze when she saw that, amid all her open cuts, there was a small enough puncture wound just below her right ribs, where her mocha skin was already starting to lose its color. Looking back to Scarlet Widow, she quickly saw that, somewhere amid the fighting, the Villain's enhanced Quirk had allowed her to regrow her stinger, which was now poking back out of her thorax, with a visible amount of blood upon it.

"Well…shit…"

And with that sound rattling past her lips, Mirko's whole body finally buckled, as she collapsed to the ground; her last conscious thoughts being of Mina and Tas-Maniac just a few dozen feet away, trying to find the strength to wish them both the one thing she didn't try to put stock in: good luck.

…

Within seconds, Mina's lack of breathable oxygen was starting to visibly reflect on her. Not only had the majority of her Acidman gone into the crater in the floor she was now lying in, but her whole body had now started to turn a darker shade of her usually pink, almost to a borderline purple shade. With the sclera of her eyes being black, it was impossible for the terrorist lieutenant looming over her to tell if her eyes were going bloodshot, but just the fact her golden irises were constricted so much was as good a sign that she was nearing the end as any.

"It simply proves Flect Turn's sermons to be true: God is on our side, for our cause is truly righteous. Your kind has had countless generations to course correct and save humanity in a means requiring a far lesser toll, but such is the way of sin: it corrupts and blinds you into believing you are doing the right thing. Go with a prayer for forgiveness in your heart, and perhaps He will grant you mercy in the afterlife."

But just before he was about to take his eyes off the young Hero at his feet and finally hit the button on his detonator, an unexpected action on Mina's part caught his eye. With her body still covered in just the thinnest sheen of her Acid still, Mina's body had stopped writhing so violently in its struggle to find air. She was still conscious, as he could tell by her fruitless attempts to breathe still, as her body had only the faintest spasms to prove as such. However, one thing she was doing, was bringing her right fist up to her face; the very act itself looking like a Herculean effort when she couldn't even breathe while doing so. Something so simple almost felt like it was going in slow motion, as the terrorist simply watched perturbed as she suddenly lifted her thumb from her fist, and proceeded to bring it into her gasping mouth.

And like that, the lieutenant's previous air of religious piety gave way to an out-of-nowhere mocking laughter. "Are you serious? You have one chance to actually atone for your own sinful nature, and instead you choose to spend your last moments wallowing and sucking your thumb like a baby crying for its mother? Pathetic."

SPLOOSH!

But in his laughter, he failed to see how Mina's cheeks just barely puffed out, as she had instinctively and forcefully blew out the last remnant of air she'd still had in her lungs to begin with into her thumb, and how doing so had caused that tiniest sheen of Acid upon her body to fluctuate, swell, and ultimately burst, splashing the terrorist in a level of her Acid that equated to that of a chlorine burn; the painful sensation on his skin instantly throwing him off his game as he screamed within his gas mask.

Fortunately, this last ditch act of desperation on Mina's part had just saved her life, as with his focus completely shattered, the control over his Quirk had gone with it, as the pink Hero could finally breathe again, gasping in as much air into her chest as she possibly could; her vision still going blurry and spinning within her head after having gone so long without it. When seeing how effective her trick had been, she couldn't help but grin victoriously to herself as she struggled to get up onto a knee, as she instinctively called out what she'd done just a little too late: "Acidman…Surprise!"

And Mina wasn't done there, as with the last surge of energy she had before that period without oxygen would fully catch up with her, she proceeded to spring herself at the terrorist with her right fist reared back, ready to drive it forward with everything she had; the past week's worth of emotions burning a white hot fire in her blood as she closed the distance, and drove that balled up pink fist of justice straight to the sky, colliding with his jaw and knocking him flipping right off his feet into instant unconsciousness, gas mask be damned.

And with his body collapsing to the floor in a heavy thud, Mina's uplifted fist naturally opened into an accepting palm, as the detonator that had gone flying upon impact, came landing firmly into her grasp. Her mouth that moments ago been desperately gasping for air, turned into a truly exhausted but self-assured and proud smile, before she finally let her knees give out from under her, and she collapsed to the floor, looking over at the bomb before her vision went completely black.

'I'm not giving up, Kolya-kun…and I know you aren't, either. Wherever you are right now…give 'em hell…and let's all go back home…together.'

…

St. Petersburg

For the whole of Konstantin's speech, neither Marius nor Nikolay could deign to move, simply letting the Russian president's heartfelt words ring out from the speakers over the Palace Square, and across the airwaves of Russian from corner to corner. When it was clear that he had spoken the entire of his peace, signified by the audible click of the speakers shutting off; the Romanian was finally able to say something, all starting with the bitterest of laughter.

[[Is that old fool serious? Does he really think that after all this time, after everything he and his people have done to us, and what those with Quirks have done to him, his own, and countless others across the world, does he really believe one fancy speech and some crocodile tears can make everyone forget it all and just go back to coexisting? Does he not realize the destruction to ensue if that happened?]]

But as Marius lambasted Konstantin's plea, he didn't see how Nikolay, despite lying in his own blood on the floor behind his back, had regained a light in his eyes, for it was not only the sound of the man's speech finally being given after all the time he'd worried over it; nor was it even the sight of his father's old ring lying just at the foot of his blurred field of vision, still miraculously attached to the cord around his neck.

No. what Marius was too blinded to realize, but Nikolay was in just the perfect place to know…was that in the wake of Konstantin's words, his ears, his fingers, were able to pick up the faintest of vibrations in the ground. It wasn't the rotation of the earth, the current of the nearby river, nor was it even his own heartbeat or the vibrations made from the footsteps and vehicles all over the rest of the city.

It was the natural collective vibrations born from cheering; starting vastly scattered at first, but slowly yet surely growing into a few select pockets of a few dozen, before ultimately erupting into a virtually city-wide outcry of cheer, of acceptance not just of their president's cry for peace, but also of the losses and emotions of a nation and its people as a whole; and from even the furthest reaches of the old capital city, the surge of kinetic power that rippled through the air and the ground from all around was surely reaching out, and ultimately connecting through even the faintest of echoes, into Nikolay's body.

And that wasn't just in this city. Nikolay couldn't have begun to know it, but in countless other cities, towns and villages across his old Motherland, in scattered cars listening to their radios, and even in households and public buildings in countries lining the border, similar mass reactions and applause were erupting one after another, as Quirked Russian expats were similarly embracing everything they had been forced to look within themselves to find, in order to find the strength with which to finally let the past go, just the same as their Quirkless countrymen were just on the other side.

Even those scattered few who were either too grief-stricken or blinded by years of anger and fear to listen and had subsequently turned off their televisions and radios in denial, could ultimately only stand and watch as their own few loved ones beside them turned them back on just as quickly; a silent outcry for forgiveness and compassion to those same people, showing that they themselves had the strength to finally move on, and simply hope that others could dig deep down to find the same for all their sakes.

This was the story of what was happening in virtually every Russian citizen's heart at this very moment, even if Nikolay was the only one who could just feel it entering into his body through those far-reaching fluctuations of kinetic energy in the slightest amount, and even then, only from the people within this city.

This all was why, when Marius finally stopped laughing in defiance enough to turn back and finish what he had started, he was stricken frozen by what he was seeing: a single young Hero standing on shaking knees in a defiance that couldn't be described with all the words in human language. All the blood, bruises and lacerations adorning his body through his tattered costume did nothing to dim the brilliance in his eyes as they burned through those of his opponent, causing Marius to feel a chill rush across his skin for the first time, regardless of his enhanced Quirk making him virtually untouchable.

[[How? How are you still standing?! I felt your bones break under me, goddammit! That venom alone should have killed you by now! How are you doing this?!]]

In truth, even as he was experiencing it within himself right now, Nikolay struggled to find the words to explain it. Even now, he could still feel the kinetic energy spreading through the air into him, as the people from all around continued to cry out and cheer from the bottoms of their hearts as one wholly united people, and it was almost as if his body was acting as a lightning rod to take it all into himself.

The frequency of vibrations coursing through his body as a result of this felt as though he was harnessing his full power all across himself from top to bottom all at once, with it all just waiting to come out. At the same time, where he had once felt the crippling piercing pain of too many broken bones to count that kept him to the floor, now he felt whole again, as he could feel the endless rippling currents of kinetics that had always flowed through the fibers of his muscles before, actually now spreading and rebounding inward and outwards from the very core of every body part, as though his Quirk being powered continuously by the heartfelt cries of his countrymen, was actually forcefully compressing the broken parts of his bones together like a vice, never loosening that tension in order to keep them together as if they hadn't been broken in the first place.

KSSHT!

And in a silent show of force to answer Marius' furious questions, with the same power that was now holding his broken bones together, Nikolay redirected the energy current still rushing across his muscles into his veins, coursing inwards against the outward current of his own blood from his heart, as if to forcefully pump and filter the venom that had been torturing him so horrendously over their battle thus far, as a sickly colored thick liquid suddenly sprayed out from his multiple open wounds, soon replaced by the healthy red of his own blood.

Marius could only watch; shaking with furious disbelief; as he saw the discoloration of Nikolay's veins across his whole body swiftly disappear. Even despite his blood loss making his already fair skin look even paler where it wasn't red with blood, it did nothing to make the Russian Hero stand any less tall, any less proud, any less strong.

Nikolay's vision was just clear enough to see Marius before him, and as he felt this inexplicable collection of power from countless people continue to rush through and strengthen him, he could finally begin to truly understand. Just one of these faintest distant kinetic echoes from one person in this city would never have been able to do this for him, standing in unity with the call to finally let the wounds of the past well and truly heal; but to be collected into the similar heartfelt proclamations of hundreds of thousands united by a single heroic cause?

Such numbers could save the world, resonating in unison with the courageous heart of even a single Hero.

As such, there was only one answer Nikolay could possibly give Marius after all of this. Lifting a single pointing finger that didn't shake in the slightest, he pointed just beyond the Romanian's shoulder, to the vast wintry cityscape behind him.

[[Them…all of them. That's how.]]

Marius' head snapped back, as he suddenly launched himself into an animalistic rush, ready to end this fight of theirs once and for all, his own veins visibly pulsating with adrenaline across all his muscles. [[IT DOESN'T MATTER! NO MATTER YOUR TRICKS, YOU CAN'T TOUCH ME! YOU'LL DIE BEFORE YOU EVER DO!]]

With his power current keeping his bones together, Nikolay's pain had been reduced to barely a tenth of what it had been. There was no telling what further attacking could do to change that, but he'd come too far to let that stop him now that he was so close. Seeing Marius charge him, he clenched his bloody hands back into fists and got down into a semi-squat, channeling that current down to his legs in preparation for what he could just feel deep down needed to be done to end this.

[[IT DOESN'T MATTER IF I CAN HIT YOU OR NOT, I'M STOPPING THIS AND TAKING YOU BACK HOME! HEROES NEVER GIVE UP! THEY GO…]]

…

As Flect Turn's rage boiled over through the look on his face, seeing the simultaneous images of all his followers across the globe being systematically overcome by the Heroes; all their plans to detonate the bombs themselves having been thwarted; so too could Izuku once more just feel in his heart and soul, just how much all of his friends, all of the Heroes he had so steadfastly expressed his belief in, had overcome their challenges and given their all to keep fighting for the world and all the people in it.

As if his heart was able to reach out with and connect to those of all his friends, the green-haired young Hero's body began to glow more and more brilliantly with the raw power stores of his Quirk, as he prepared for what he could just feel would be the final push. "We Heroes say it to ourselves all the time, from the bottom of our hearts! Go beyond…"

"SHUT UP!" Flect Turn exploded in his greatest expression of rage yet, launching himself just as Izuku and Nikolay's own words unknowingly echoed out in perfect unison from the depths of their mutually burning hearts:

"PLUS ULTRA/PLYUS UL'TRA!"

[ONE OK ROCK x Monster Hunter Now – Make It Out Alive]

WRAAAAM!

Izuku shot like a lightning bolt in kind at Flect Turn, the two of them meeting each other's charge knuckle-to-knuckle as their fists collided; their conflicting powerful air current channeling up their arms and tearing apart the sleeve of Flect Turn's suit before they subsequently ricocheted off each other.

…

Similarly at the same time, Nikolay and Marius met each other with their own right hooks; the Romanian's connecting fully with Nikolay's cheek, while his own planted firmly into Marius' jaw; both impacts channeling straight into the Hero himself, as he was launched up and spinning into the air from the two opposing directions of impact…

…

But Izuku was immediately right back in his face, springing himself up into the air and driving a dropkick into the man's crossed arms and being rebounded off it once again, while still pushing him further back as red continued to flash across his blue body.

…

…only for Nikolay to suddenly lock his legs around Marius' punching him, using it as a point of anchorage as he suddenly lifted his hands and fired two simultaneous Kinetic blasts, allowing his whole body to swing along Marius' extended arm, before grappling his arms around his right leg, and subsequently firing from out his feet; the sudden shift in momentum causing Marius to get thrown off his feet in a skyward roll, before Nikolay just as quickly released both holds, allowing the momentum to send Marius tumbling through the air beyond his own control, smashing through one of the crystal chandeliers before crashing roughly to the ground, just managing to dig his feet and knuckles in to regain his footing; his face the picture of surprise as he felt a trickle of his own blood start running down the middle of his forehead. [[WHAT?!]]

…

But Izuku was relentless, as he immediately after launched into the air to deliver a sparking dropping axe kick down into Flect Turn; the raw strength coursing through his body from the impact causing the floor beneath them to implode into a massive crater before Izuku once again was thrown back, with Flect Turn immediately rushing him like the Hero had just done.

…

Marius' furious shout echoed across the entire hall, as Nikolay continued to stand up against him; the kinetic current absorbing into him allowing him to absorb the impacts to his body from Marius' body and his Quirk alike; equaling both amounts of force in a form of canceling out, thus allowing the Hero to withstand the punishment far better…which he demonstrated as he immediately launched himself at the speed of sound across the hall to meet Marius with a reared back fist of his own, driving it square into his face, only to feel the intended impact ripple across his own instead, but he brute forced his way through that in order to spring up off his feet and drive a blinding fast left knee into his cheek instead, feeling the same blow strike at him instead, as his body was slammed down and slid deep across the floor and into the wall, shattering the window above and both those next to it with the force, only to immediately leap back up again, to Marius' murderous rage. [[WHY WON'T YOU GO DOWN?!]]

…

Izuku met Flect Turn's charge with his own; his force easily overpowering that of the Villain, as they were both sent grinding along the floor before a single kick sprang them through the air before smashing into one of the corner pillars, deep enough for the two of them to remain suspended; the power of Flect Turn's Quirk fighting with everything to keep Izuku's knee from connecting.

As the energy surging all over Izuku brightened and further intensified in an attempt to power up his attack to break through, Flect Turn's mirrors began to glow in kind; the resulting reflected force being enough to drive Izuku away and deeper into the floor, his body carving a deep brutal gouge across upon landing. Before he could prepare to charge right back at him, he found Flect Turn already flying in, bellowing with fury as he drove his fist in an attempt to hammer the young Hero down.

But Izuku was just as quick to counter, once more swinging his own fist so their strikes met fully, producing another vortex of hurricane like air pressure between and around them; the power behind Flect Turn's attack hammering Izuku deeper and deeper with increasing damage. But the boy refused to let his attack be beaten back, as his energy grew to be nearly blinding, as it began to channel from his own body to that of Flect Turn.

"DETROIT…SMASH!"

Despite the Villain's own Quirk trying to absorb and reflect the sheer power Izuku was putting into his fist, he could feel that energy starting to surge through him, increasing at a shocking rate, to the point it was not only starting to make the opposable arms of his spinal apparatus start to give, but it was also causing the whole thing to let off sparks from the strain.

SMAAASH!

Suddenly, the whole thing went on to explode into multiple smoking pieces, as Flect Turn's body was sent flying and smashing into yet another pillar; fragments of his suit flying through the air in his wake.

…

[[THUNDEROUS CLAP!]]

The lightning fast shockwave that shot from between Nikolay's hands carved through the walls of the hall like a knife, shattering all the windows lining the whole room, and even shaking the whole place enough to cause three more of the crystal chandeliers' chains to break and come crashing down to the floor around them. But upon making contact with Marius' incoming body; Nikolay was once again blasted back, slamming through the double doors that led into the hall.

But he refused to let himself be brought down even for a second, as he miraculously managed to stay on his feet and launch himself at his enemy once again; using a minute Kinetic blast from his feet to launch himself in a flip over Marius once he jumped to drive his foot into the Hero.

The moment he was back on the ground behind Marius' back, Nikolay immediately launched himself up and back like a spring, while Marius had instinctively dug his feet in to stop his momentum, and immediately throw a backwards roundhouse kick for his head, only to meet nothing but air.

This time, before he was even on the floor, Nikolay focused another powerful surge of Kinetic through his body down to his feet as he completely one mid-air flip. [[RESONATING WHEEL!]]

BWOOM!

But Marius immediately jumped as Nikolay's feet met the ground, producing a devastating shockwave that was able to knock him off balance; but similarly strike Nikolay back just the same as any other direct attack he'd tried to throw at the Romanian.

As the two struggled back to their feet, Marius looked at the number of bleeding scrapes now adorning his body, while once more taking in the borderline horrific state of Nikolay's body by comparison; the sight of which made his still standing up just seem like a mockery of the classic Hero's image by this point. [[Stop wasting the last seconds you have! Nothing you or anyone can throw at me will work like you want it to. My Quirk sees it all coming and throws it right back, no matter what!]]

BWOOOM!

Nikolay was past the point of wasting time with words, as he instead launched himself at Marius again. The Romanian reared his fist and leg back, ready to lash out with the speed of a cobra once the young Russian was within range.

FWOOSH!

But the moment he knew it would connect, and he threw his whole body into a mid-air spin of both feet and both fists, he met nothing but air, only looking back in time to see Nikolay had instead swerved his way in a spin around Marius, and was instead making a beeline for the same double doors he had smashed through.

'You coward! It's a shame you came to your senses just before the time comes to die.'

BWOOM!

Suddenly, Nikolay sprang up off the ground, flipping to meet the wall with his feet, only to launch himself off the face of that straight for the ceiling, rolling through the air to meet one hand and one foot to that, and then subsequently blasting off of that and for the floor, only to repeat the same pattern that sent him to the opposite wall and so on.

Regardless of the invulnerability of his Quirk, Marius still had his guard up as he tried to keep his eyes on Nikolay while the young Hero continued this human pinball routine, ricocheting this way and that off every possible corner of the hall at ever-increasing speed, to the point he was now nothing less than a bloody blur.

WRRRAM!

But out of nowhere in the incredible ricochet fray, Nikolay suddenly came springing off a window frame behind Marius' back while he was in the middle of turning, subsequently driving a foot with all of that built up momentum and added Kinetic energy buildup inside straight into Marius' upper back; the impact cracking the air like a whip upon contact; immediately after which Nikolay's body snapped through the air with blood spraying out his wounds and mouth as he flipped through the air over Marius' head.

But with a single stabilizing blast from his hands, Nikolay was able to redirect himself to land on his feet scraping across the splintering floor. The power continuously surging through him may have been keeping his broken bones held together, but there was truly no knowing how much of punishment through the Romanian's Quirk his body could withstand before even that wouldn't be enough.

But then, lifting his head to face his enemy head-on once more, Nikolay noticed something: while his impacts from the environment may have been able to draw blood out of him, none of his direct attacks had managed to break through his Quirk. Despite all of this, though, he could see that Marius was visibly winded, by now even starting to break a sweat.

Like that, Nikolay took off again, ignoring how his body screamed with increasing pain as he once more took to ricocheting himself off every wall, roof and floor in the hall he could direct himself toward, just barely missing a flying kick from Marius in an attempt to swat him out of the air. He couldn't even spare the moment just to try and think this slipshod excuse of a strategy through. He was acting solely on his gut, and needed to not pray, but simply try to make it so it could be enough.

Suddenly, just as he ricocheted off the ceiling once more, Marius' grasping hand came lunging from just out of sight, clutching Nikolay tight by his throat. This sudden break in his momentum caused his body to instinctively swing around the Romanian's forearm, to which he instinctively grappled on, as Marius used his weight and gravity to slam Nikolay straight down into the unforgiving ground.

The moment the two of them came crashing down to the floor, the sheer physical impact rippling through Nikolay's body went all the way around to his torso, instead of rebounding across his back to where it had originally come; ultimately collecting into the opposite focused point, where Marius currently was kneeling above.

BWOOM!

The sudden concussive blast that fired from out Nikolay's bloody torso drove straight into Marius' body as a whole; hitting with enough force to actually send him flying straight up and crashing into the ceiling, whilst mercifully forcing him to also release his grip around Nikolay's neck; the Hero hurriedly dashing out of the way before Marius came crashing back down to the floor.

His breathing was pained and ragged as he stubbornly got back to his feet, those last two impacts having managed to knock him hard enough to actually start bleeding from his mouth, to his visible furious confusion. [[I don't know how the hell you're getting through…BUT NO MORE!]]

…

Izuku and Flect Turn both erupted from out their respective craters of impact; two bolts of pure energy colliding furiously at one another through the air across the whole chapel. With disconnected mirrors hovering behind his elbows and knees, Flect Turn was no longer able to keep Izuku's punches and kicks from fully connecting, but he was still managing to absorb the damaging power of their impacts and send them reflecting right back; but similarly was the power driving Izuku's body managing to deflect that power right back, leaving the two of them in a furious mid-air stalemate.

Punches met punches, kicks met kicks, and neither side was backing down and giving the other so much as an inch. There was no telling how long they could maintain a standoff like this, but they both knew the seconds were still counting down, and this fight could not last much longer. It was the reflection upon this fact, that ended up leaving Izuku open just enough for Flect Turn's remaining mirrors to suddenly light up, and send all of that power he'd been absorbing from the Hero's attack straight down into him, finally managing to break through his defenses and send him smashing painfully back to the floor.

As he felt the impact rush through his body; bones fracturing by the second, Izuku felt as though he'd been shot right out of his own body for a moment, only able to watch as he hung suspended in the air listlessly, well and truly vulnerable for the first time.

But as the pain brought his senses back, his fractured train of thought couldn't help but rush back to something familiar, something that could ground him once more and get him back into the moment.

'A Hero can always break out of a tough spot, even when it seems impossible!'

"All…Might?"

The distant yet close sound of his Hero's voice rang loud and clear, the awe-inspiring memory of his unflinching smile flashing before his eyes, before his mind broke into an array of blinding lights of so many different colors; each one igniting a rush of further adrenaline, of unbound energy through every fiber of his being; the former Symbol of Peace's voice resonating within:

'A Hero always has a lot to protect.'

…

BWOOM! WRAAM! BWOOM! KRRRAK!

Nikolay had once more taken to blasting himself off the surface all over the hall, but by now, Marius had gotten wise to this tactic and was thusly springing himself up and after his Heroic opponent; the two of them furiously driving Quirk-accelerated limbs against Quirk-protected limbs at insane frequency; every impact producing a deafening crack of displaced air as the unstoppable force met the immovable object.

As Marius' Quirk was protecting him from every attack Nikolay threw at him, so too was Nikolay's Quirk still allowing him to take the redirected impacts, and send it rebounding back, sometimes into Marius' body, which sent them both flying and crashing away from each other only to come rushing back in all over again, and sometimes out from elsewhere, which resulted in Nikolay's body being propelled to drive straight into Marius, which only served to redirect the force of that impact right back into the Russian Hero, and sending him slamming painfully into the walls, floor and ceiling over and over again.

But for just how much of Nikolay's attempts to fight when Marius got in close were constantly getting displaced back into him, he was still standing, and even if his own impact refractions directed at Marius were still getting him rebounded back, he could at least take some solace in knowing that Marius wasn't coming out of it unscathed either, as the Romanian now stood with a sizable number of bleeding wounds of his own. By now, his disbelief had come and gone, and he was past the point of caring about whatever it was Nikolay was doing to get through the defenses of his Quirk. All he cared about now was finishing the Hero off.

As far as Nikolay was concerned, this fight was just a hair's breadth away from finally being over, as these past few seconds of non-stop fighting and judging Marius' Quirk reactions had all but confirmed just what he was thinking.

Finally, Nikolay once again took off into a Quirk-accelerated low-ground glide, with Marius immediately giving chase, already springing up just as Nikolay did when he launched himself off the wall above the singular throne at the end of the grand hall; by now having likewise gotten wise to Marius' attempt to counter-attack, as he quickly fired a redirecting blast from out his hand, rebounding himself at just enough of an angle to bypass Marius' lunging grab, just to rebound off the incoming window frame and send himself flying to the far opposite wall, only to once again ricochet off that and go racing down across the floor all over again, before then once again redirecting himself just around where Marius had landed.

Marius by now was practically growling like a rabid animal as he followed Nikolay's trajectory, watching the Hero continued to ricochet and practically fly all around him across the entire area of the hall, continuously picking up in further and further speed and power as he continued to follow the same pattern, encircling the Romanian in a counter-clockwise rotation. With the speed Nikolay had finally managed to obtain, it was impossible for Marius to truly be able to keep an eye on him, and his speeding image had started to fully connect with himself; forming the illusion of one continuous ring around where Marius stood. He couldn't even tell truly if Nikolay's running circle was slowly starting to shrink down around him or not. Either way, he nearly howled to the uncaring echoes of the grand hall: [[STOP YOUR DAMN RUNNING AND FIGHT ME, YOU LITTLE SHIT!]]

WRRRAM!

Suddenly, Marius felt an incredible physical force strike at the back of his head; the momentum and power driving it being enough to actually throw him forward and crashing, while Nikolay momentarily hovered right behind where he had once stood, taking the intense force likewise being displaced across the back of his own head, sending him landing violently on his feet as his ears rang.

What Marius couldn't comprehend at that moment, was that by Nikolay having maintained that unbelievable flying run all around him as he tried to follow with his eyes, he had ultimately sent the Romanian's eyes spinning to the point the illusion of a ring had become stationary in his eyes while his brain tried to catch up, thus he had no hope of being able to see just what direction the Hero would come from, thus giving him the perfect opening to strike, and even if Marius' Quirk had still managed to do what it was supposed to, it was still not enough to stop the blow itself from connecting with its user as well.

But Nikolay knew he couldn't afford to stop now, for as Marius was already back on his feet and rushing for him, dizzying vision be damned, so too did Nikolay come racing right back at him, the two opponents driving internally burning but altogether furious fists directly into each others' faces. The impacts fully connected with both, as Nikolay took the original force of Marius' fist and the duplicated force of his own with the steadiest of feet, both simply serving as yet more kinetic energy for him to redistribute across his body like all the rest, while Marius' face similarly rippled from the painful blow, but he likewise refused to give his ground.

Instead, the two proceeded to simply switch fists, as they exchanged one devastating punch to the face for another straight to the ribs, with neither of them willing to let the painful force break them.

And on and on did this standoff of theirs go on like this, with their punches only proceeding to pick up in speed and subsequent power, as with every punch he threw, Nikolay was seeing spontaneous flashes of everyone's face play out before his eyes, as though it were his heart, mind and soul actively reminding him of just who all were still waiting for him if he came out of this alive.

Their fighting began to take on a whole new dynamic, just as Nikolay had silently been preparing himself for. Amid all the relentless physical strikes either fully landing or simply being transferred into himself, his body was once more enacting that refraction ability, letting all of that incoming kinetic power simply enter him through his and Marius' mutual blows, and then redirecting it to simply fire out of him and hammer into Marius' torso; the force still managing to hit him for all it was worth, while the replicated force that likewise hammered into Nikolay simply served as yet more energy for him to maintain the barrage.

'He said his Quirk will always work if he sees the attack coming, whether up close and personal or from a distance. I thought it meant that the only way to break through his Quirk would be to somehow hit him with an attack that was indirect; something he couldn't see coming; but it appears it's not as literal as all that. He's so used to attacks coming from sheer physical and direct action, but his Quirk has the same reaction whether his opponent is intentionally and directly using force against him, or if it's a byproduct that's just instinctively thrown in his direction…but that doesn't mean his Quirk is entirely impenetrable. Like any other shield, it can only take so much punishment before it starts to give. The general mechanic of his Quirk may still work regardless, but it's not able to protect him from the force coming at him anymore. So now, this is just a battle of attrition. It's now just a matter of seeing…WHO BUCKLES FIRST!'

WRRRAM!

In perfect unison did the two of them drive their fists directly into each others' faces, both blows drawing large spurts of blood from out their noses, but Marius refused to relent, as he immediately proceeded to grapple onto Nikolay, who just as quickly proceeded to do the same before launching them both into the air from his feet, the two of them rolling as they ascended in an attempt to get one or the other to smash into the last remaining chandelier in the whole hall.

Unfortunately, that ended up being Nikolay, who upon smashing into the ceiling was almost about to refract that resulting kinetic energy out his front into Marius again, but this time the Romanian wasn't about to wait for that, as he immediately swung his head back and proceeded to repeatedly and viciously hammer his forehead into Nikolay's face, his own becoming red with the Hero's blood after just a handful of strikes, before all of that collected impact energy finally shot back out from Nikolay's torso; sending Marius flying all the way across the hall before ultimately smashing into the steps leading to the throne, leaving himself heaving for breath in a small crater, while Nikolay listlessly fell from the crater in the ceiling and slamming down to the floor.

As Marius slowly struggled back to his feet, he initially thought he had to have gone completely insane when he saw that, even after all of that, Nikolay was likewise back on his feet.

No, it wasn't just that. Not only was the young Russian Hero still somehow finding the strength to stand, but there was an inconceivable blur about him. Marius couldn't tell if his own wounds were starting to effect his vision, or if somehow his enemy's Quirk was having a visible effect on his body, but it looked as though Nikolay's physical form was having difficulty maintaining itself, almost as though he were fluctuating in and out of existence.

Upon rubbing his eyes to try and clear his vision, Marius let out an involuntary gasp as he stumbled back, ironically landing in the throne itself.

All around him, the entire grand hall was having the same faint vibration, blurred fluctuation effect, almost as though he were looking upon the room through the warped reflection of a funhouse mirror.

But Nikolay himself had no energy left to waste on observing just what Marius was seeing, as he could only prepare himself to end this here and now, all while knowing whether he was going to come out of it in the end or not was no longer a guarantee. [[It's over, Marius Lazarescu.]]

The sound of Nikolay's pained but still heartfelt voice caused the last frays of patience or sanity within Marius to snap, as he practically flew after the Hero, nearly foaming at the mouth as he reared his finishing blow through his right fist while screaming: [[JUST SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND DIE!]]

As Nikolay watched his opponent come at him, he felt as though his blood had ignited like a fire, fueling his body that was practically still standing through sheer force of his Quirk's perpetual energy flow; his green eyes flashing like shattering emeralds as the visible vibration frequency of his body and the fluctuation of the whole grand hall around them only continued to intensify, with these visible changes radiating from out his body where he stood: a show of his Quirk's power truly becoming too much for his body alone to contain.

[[Our families, our friends, all their feelings, I won't stop protecting them until I bring you back. Those are just a few of the things we Heroes will always be there to protect!]]

…

With neither of the two young Heroes ever realizing it, it was with perfect unison that their bodies reacted in their respective manners; Nikolay's full-body vibration blur encapsulating the whole hall around him, and Izuku's irises spiking out across his eyes, and his whole body and hair igniting a brilliant radiant white blue with the sheer power of his Quirk finally reaching its 100% stage; just as their penultimate declarations managed to ring out simultaneously:

[["THAT'S WHY WE CAN'T LOSE!"]]

In a blinding flash, the chapel was suddenly engulfed in a brilliant array of color, before a single blue lightning bolt tore through the air; quickly collapsing into a lightning-fast ball of energy, zipping around the entirety of the vast chamber faster than the human eye could perceive; a fact that sent Flect Turn immediately on the defensive as he leapt away from the incoming orb, landing firmly on his feet and keeping his eyes and ears open for the first hint of an attack…

SHHKSHHKSHHKSHHK!

Only for the faintest glimmer of light to cross his field of vision, quickly followed by an instant set of four deep slashes to tear across his chest, the first true physical damage he'd sustained yet, with more and more continuing to slice across him without him even seeing where it was coming from and how, but it was all numbering far too quickly for him to even try and defend against; even his mirrors couldn't pick up the energy in order to try and redirect it, even as the same black vortex quickly erupted from behind him again, only to this time grow so much wider and faster than it ever had before, to the point it engulfed virtually half the chapel.

…

As Marius' blind rage allowed him to only focus on Nikolay as he closed the distance, he was stricken dumbfounded when the Hero before him suddenly managed to vanish into thin air; the imperceptible vibration blur of his body somehow managing to match that of the environment around him, like the strangest form of camouflage. However he'd managed it, Marius wasn't about to let himself be blindsided again, so he quickly dug his feet in to stop himself, furiously looking all around for even the faintest motion blur to clue him in to where Nikolay was or where he was trying to go to try and hit him again.

WRAM! WRAM! WRAMWRAMWRAM!

A suddenly swift and concentrated physical blow struck into Marius' sternum, leaving him heaving for breath while instinctively lunging out with a vicious elbow in retaliation, only for another strike to slam into his right side, then another three strike at both side of his face and his upper back…but this time, he couldn't hear that cracking air sound of his Quirk replicating that force and placing it onto Nikolay. And there was still no sign of the Hero for that matter.

What neither Marius nor Flect Turn realized, was that with both their Quirks' power having been pushed to this utter limit, both Nikolay and Izuku's bodies were moving at a speed beyond human perception.

…

The slashes being instantaneously stricken across Flect Turn's body was the result of Izuku, his eyes glowing pure white, hammering his punches into him at a speed enough to make his fists ignite into flames from the sheer friction of the air; the speed and force of it causing every individual punch to feel as though Flect Turn was being simultaneously hit by a thousand fists every nanosecond.

…

And the concentrated yet mounting strikes that were hammering into Marius' body faster than his Quirk could transpose, was the result of Nikolay's own evasive speed and the vibration frequency visible upon his body both simultaneously speeding up to match the fluctuations warping visible perception of the environment, practically rendering him invisible to the naked eye. All the while, that very speed with which he moved as a result of this, was impossible for Marius to perceive, while also allowing its momentum-born kinetic energy to empower Nikolay's punches to something far beyond what he'd ever tried to achieve before; the speed with which he was continuing to hammer blows into Marius being too much for his Quirk to register, and the force behind them being too much for it to even try and defend against. For all intents and purposes, Nikolay's Quirk had powered up to the point that it all but literally negated Marius' as a result.

As Izuku's punches only continued to rain inescapable and complete devastation into Flect Turn, the energy vortex behind him began to sputter, twitch and distort, almost like a computer glitch behind him, before finally, all of the accumulated power that had been delivered into him as a result reached a well and true breaking point. The fact was that Flect Turn's Quirk simply couldn't hold or withstand anymore.

As a result, the energy anomaly that had served to be Flect Turn's great defense suddenly shattered behind him, to his speechless disbelief; watching as the countless cubes that it had turned into, suddenly began to ignite and fly in a vast circle across the entirety of the chapel, as though they were trying to find a direction in which to reflect all of that energy; but with the inhuman speed with which Izuku was continuing to utterly devastate him with, it simply couldn't do so.

Instead, they only continued to fly faster and faster, eventually transforming from those same illuminated cubes into veritable shooting stars, much like the countless split-second blazing flashes that were the only visible sign of Izuku's punches, flying at skyrocketing speed and intensity, before their comet trails fully connected, and the whole chapel was now encircled by one giant brilliant white-blue glowing loop.

…

With the speed at which Nikolay was propelling himself all around Marius in order to continue delivering this multi-directional barrage of punches, elbows, knees and kicks, it was indeed impossible for Marius to even visibly perceive him; but while his Quirk wasn't registering the strikes fast enough to try and stop them from connecting, it was still managing to register, replicate and transpose enough of them back to Nikolay. In fact, it was to the point that even with his perpetual energy flow that had been helping to keep his body internally stable thus far; the speed and power he was putting into Marius was quickly proving to be too much even for himself, as he felt it hammering right through him, ever single hit causing more and more of his blood to just come exploding out.

But he couldn't allow himself to stop, not now. By moving at such speed in so many directions around this one concentrated spot, it was inadvertently creating a contained wind current behind him that was proving strong enough to actually start lifting both himself and Marius higher and higher into the air while his relentless beatdown continued.

Nikolay could feel it in his gut upon realizing how far up within the grand hall they already were. This was the coup de grace, the one thing he had been building up for, the reason he needed to try and weaken the defense of Marius' Quirk entirely. If this wouldn't be able to put him down for the count, then nothing would.

With one last deep and painful breath into his ravaged lungs, Nikolay suddenly threw himself away from Marius' momentarily immobile airborne and battered body; the two of them momentarily hanging side by side in the middle of the massive hall; all the surface around them reaching a violent distorting fluctuation fever pitch in direct response to all of the kinetic energy Nikolay had been absorbing and releasing all around them in the process of his all-around punching frenzy.

Nikolay could feel what was about to happen once he let this last facet of mental restraint for his Quirk go, having had to keep it from letting go prematurely, and knowing that now was the deciding moment. Sparing one last look to Marius, who somehow was still lucid enough to meet his gaze with an expression of both shellshock and hatred, Nikolay closed his eyes as he let that last mental lock release; the words for this Hail Mary of a move instinctively coming to him…

…

As Flect Turn had instinctively leaped up in an attempt to escape just what invisible force of nature was able to actually lay all of these bleeding scratches upon him and overpower his Quirk like this, his eyes just barely managing to catch the faintest hint of movement within the blinding light of the rings engulfing his chapel.

And that one flicker of movement would be the end of it all, as faster than his eyes or ears could process, another blazing tail like a comet erupted from out of the ring, torn through the air by the brilliant sight of the illuminated Izuku Midoriya, his body simply radiating a veritable color spectrum all about him, as he drove towards his enemy with one final kick extended; the very fabric of reality warping and folding in upon itself from all around him, the power emanating from his body was so overwhelming.

From where Flect Turn was hanging in the air, it was as though he were actually looking upon nearly two dozen simultaneous images of Izuku all flying to converge upon him with all of their devastating kicks combined into one; the sound of the unflinching Hero's Special Move announcement ringing in his very core like the voice of an actual god:

"UNITED STATES OF WORLD SMAAAAAAASH!"

And with but the single slightest touch of his kick connecting with Flect Turn's chest, that glowing ring of pure energy around them suddenly shrank back and exploded from out behind the Villain; now resembling a color spectrum wall for the brilliant light behind Izuku to punch straight through.

Which it ultimately did, as the full power of this indescribable final attack punched its way through Flect Turn entirely, destroying the last vestige of defense his own Quirk had tried to put up in the face of something so overwhelming, so incalculable; driving his body into an explosive crash landing into the wall that instantly triggered a mass cave-in that destroyed the entire chapel all around Izuku before his feet could even touch the ground.

But none of that mattered, as Izuku was blinded by the one thing he knew mattered more than anything else, regardless whether he'd truly defeated Flect Turn at last or not. The very moment he could even sense even a toe was back on the ground, he'd immediately launched himself across the whole of the crumbling chapel, straight through the double doors and down the now-bloody steps Rody had gone down into. There was no telling how many seconds were left on the clock, but all he knew was that this was the very limit of the endgame. In but a matter of moments, the fate of the entire world would be decided.

…

"Serdtsebienye Mira (Heartbeat of the World)!"

BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

While Nikolay's declaration of the move he was about to unleash may not have rang to the heavens like Izuku;s had; it was delivered with no less soulful and heartfelt passion, for he knew it was not him that had been able to make this happen. Just like every step of this fight, it was only through the kinetic power being practically given to him by the cries of peace and forgiveness of his countrymen out there even at this very moment, that he'd been able to retain the power needed, while also freely transferring it into the entirety of the grand hall with every ricochet blast he'd sent himself on, and even through the transference of the impact power he'd received from his and Marius' up-close brawling, which he had been continuously transferring into the ground through his feet.

It was because of all those people coming together as one voice, one heart, that this was possible, and so it had only seemed right to Nikolay that this miracle move be called for what it was: the manifestation of the at last healed and united heartbeat of his countrymen, his family's world.

The process had been torturous, and now it was time to see it all finally come to fruition, as in an instant, the fluctuation distorting the whole of the grand hall exploded out in an imploding all-directional concentrated remote Kinetic onslaught; all of these collected shockwaves closing in directly upon Marius' body in the air, and all driving into him all at once from everywhere, so fast, powerful and overwhelming that even if his Quirk were at its full strength, he wouldn't possible have been able to defend against it, let alone find a way to replicate and transpose it.

It was like a hammer being nailed into the tiniest ball by countless hammers all at once, as all of these colliding physical waves of raw Kinetic power actually managed to keep Marius' bleeding body airborne for several extended seconds more, before they had all ultimately dissipated, allowing him and Nikolay both to finally come crashing down in twin pained and broken heaps of their own blood.

At this point, Nikolay's brain was too fried to even register the unspeakable pain the rest of his body finally let itself be in again; all of the Kinetic currents keeping his bones bonded together having at last dissipated, allowing the broken fragments to part once again, this time with all kinds of new internal damage to pile on top of that.

The only thing Nikolay could think of as he lay there staring at the ceiling of the St. George's Hall, was simply that of his partners all the way back at the Humarise headquarters he had forced himself to leave behind to see this part of their mission through.

'Midoriya-san…Todoroki-san…Bakugo…I…did…my best.'

And with that, he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer; the exhaustion, pain and bodily damage simply too much for him to withstand for a second longer, unable to even think of whether or not they'd been able to overcome Flect Turn and stop the bombs or not. He simply had to just find peace with the fact that he'd given everything he had to fulfill their promise to Maja to try and get Marius back.

[[Dad…Mina…I'm…sorry…]]

…

'It's not too late! It's not too late! IT'S NOT TOO LATE!'

This thought continued to echo louder and louder to the point of being nothing short of deafening in Izuku's head as he ran down those step into the heart of the mountain as fast as he could with what little strength he still had left; the end of his battle with Flect Turn finally forcing him to actually feel just how extensive some of his injuries were. But he simply couldn't stop imagining the countdown in connection with the horrible state he'd last seen Rody in, and that continued to urge him to go faster than he was physically able to manage.

'From what I last saw on the timer, there's not even five seconds left! Come on! COME ON!'

The moment he saw the landing of the stairs, Izuku knew he was at the threshold of the master control to all the bombs. All he had to do was get through those doors, get the deactivation key to the terminal, and it would all finally be over. At his speed, it wouldn't even be three steps to get there.

But no matter how much he tried to tell himself he was sure that's how much time was left, Izuku couldn't get rid of that inkling of doubt. What if, at some point in the chaos of their fight, he'd actually allowed himself to lose track of the time? This was literally an instance where even being one second off would make all the difference it possibly could.

Izuku ignored the agony of his broken bones as he charged his way through the doors leading into the control room, all the while bracing himself to see Rody's bloody body with his own two eyes, and having to swallow the emotions that would come with, even if just for a moment, for the sake of literally everyone.

But despite mentally screaming to himself to not stop the entire way down here, what he saw before him within the glow of all those computer terminals was enough to make him come to a complete halt. At the same moment, back up above within the ruins of the chapel and the collapsed mountain, the beaten form of Flect Turn lay upon his back; his body having actually lost its incandescent blue glow, leaving nothing but an ordinary fair-skinned man to look up at the blinding light of the sun breaking through the previous storm clouds; the swelling of certainty within his chest enough to numb the pain of all his injuries as he muttered to himself: "It's too late…for all of them."

But he had no idea the truth of it all…for within the confines of that control room, Izuku had been brought to a stop, not by the sight of the countdown having reached zero, but by the sight of the deactivation key resting firmly within the slot to the master controls, with the weakly heaving sight of Pino perched upon it; the timer above hanging at the last fraction of a second before detonation would have been triggered.

Despite Rody's debilitating injuries and loss of blood; his Quirk, the manifestation of his soul and heartfelt feelings, had fought against the grasp of death to take the key herself, and insert it in his stead, driven solely by his defiant will to be just like his father, just like all the Heroes above who had risked everything for his sake, so that he could see this one simple action through.

As soon as Pino tiredly turned her head to see Izuku had arrived, she let out the faintest twittering sound she could, before giving the solitary Hero a single, resounding thumb up gesture with her wing, a gesture that Rody himself was mirroring as he lay on his back in his own blood; telling the stricken and speechless Izuku everything he possibly could have needed to know, as he collapsed to his knees in overwhelming relief at the young man's side; grasping his lifted hand in his own in a show of support; both his own arms already practically black with bruising from the insane amount of internal injuries they had suffered in the process of his fight.

"Thank you, Rody-san…thank you! Hang in there, I'll get you to a hospital soon!" Even despite all his broken bones, Izuku naturally prepared to take Rody into his arms upon seeing for himself just how much blood he'd lost.

"Deku…"

Rody's voice spoke out like the whispering rattle of a desert wind against the silence, causing Izuku's attempt to lift him up to come to a stop; the young Hero looking worriedly, only to see his friend looked even more so while trying to remain conscious. "I-I…protected my family…just like my dad, right?"

A faint glint of light caught the corner of Izuku's eye, and when he looked, he immediately recognized Rody's old family locked; the glass that protected the photo of his family only slightly cracked, but otherwise intact. Taking that all in together, Izuku let the worry fade from his face, and instead let his gratitude, appreciation and respect shine through in a deeply heartfelt smile, as he gave Rody a single reassuring nod.

"I…stopped the bomb? I took on everything…like all you Heroes…right?"

Izuku instinctively tightened his compassionate hold on Rody's hand, as though that would be able to communicate his words better than anything. "Yeah…yeah, you did. You're truly amazing, Rody-san."

Even through the numbing pain, just to hear Izuku say those simple words, filled Rody with a swelling of emotion the likes of which he'd given up on ever getting the chance to feel: that of truly earned respect, admiration and pride; not from the Hero currently trying to comfort him, but from himself. After a lifetime spent as nothing more than a common hoodlum with no possible means of bettering his lot in life, here he now was, having accomplished the impossible, and being able to truly look at himself and know that he had done some genuine good for those he loved, and so, so many others.

He couldn't even see Izuku anymore, as his eyes had been practically blinded with the joyful tears running down his face. "I…I'm so cool."

As if to try and mirror Rody's words, Pino herself had likewise found the renewed strength to get on her own two talons and try to puff out her tiny chest in a show of proud strength…but to hear Rody's instinctive response in knowing he had been the one to ultimately and truly save the world, could only illicit nothing more than the single most heartfelt and tearful laugh of overwhelming relief that Izuku had ever given. He couldn't have asked for a better sign that, even despite such grievous wounds, his new friend was truly going to be all right.

And it was that realization that everything would truly be okay in the end, that ultimately drove both boys to laugh from the bottom of their hearts together; pain and exhaustion being less than an afterthought for them as their laughter echoed through the confines of the now-destroyed headquarters of the well and truly defeated Humarise; even reaching to the outside of the mountain, where the team of Endeavor, Clair Voyant and several of her fellow Otheon Pro Heroes had finally arrived to the island, already taking in the scope of the damage the three young Hero interns had ultimately caused in their three desperate battles.

…

At the same time in St. Petersburg; just as Konstantin had promised them it could; his personal presidential jet had helped Endeavor's Flaming Sidekickers to make it from Otheon all the way up north here in what felt like record time; the team of Burnin', Onima and Kido wasting no time to touch down at the city airport, and instead diving from the plane once the pilot had told them they were even remotely close to the Winter Palace.

Of course, even if they hadn't had the information beforehand that Humarise had planted their bomb underneath that location to work off of; they would have naturally been inspired to investigate there first, because the moment they'd seen it from within the plane, they could see a gigantic crowd of people filling the grounds of the massive palace to a far greater extent than any organized public gathering would.

But upon landing on the roof of the nearest building that could give them the best view to take in the scope of the damage and any potential casualties; the trio of Pro Hero sidekicks were met with a most unexpected sight, but in the best possible way:

For what they were watching unfold in the massive square, was a flood of civilians, law enforcement, first responders and military all gathered and working together to transport a multitude of stretchers across to the ambulances waiting outside the square; upon several were visibly beaten and unconscious people with varying Quirk mutations wearing Humarise colors, and at the end of the line, being the battered but unmistakable sight of Nikolay himself.

To see that Endeavor's fourth intern was not only clearly still alive, but had also managed the miraculous and managed to beat this whole squad of terrorists on his own in order to help save this city and all these people left the three Japanese Heroes with their own varying feelings of pride swell in their chest at his obvious growth; Burnin' instinctively fetching her cellphone and speed-dialing Endeavor's number. "I think the boss is going to love hearing this."

Likewise, all across the globe, all the other Hero teams had kept Humarise's countdown in mind every step of the way, and as the minutes had turned into seconds, regardless of their victories over the lieutenants with detonators, it had done nothing to ease their overwhelming fears of if the bombs would ultimately go off, and in those last few moments, for some, it truly felt as if the end had come, and they had actually allowed themselves to brace themselves with fear, only to be met with nothing once they knew they'd reached the zero mark.

The realization of what that meant left them all with resounding songs in their hearts as cities across the globe; from Paris to New York to Singapore to Cairo to Tokyo to Fukuoka to Perth and Otheon and beyond all cheered with gratitude that their entire world had just been saved by what they had naturally assumed was another Hero like them, but was in truth, all because of the simplest of people, with the simplest of Quirks.