A Battlefield For Everyone

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of Hailstorm! We've finally made it, the Final War Arc begins this chapter and you know it's gonna get heated! And speaking of making it, if any of you've got the time, feel free to swing by my Pat reon and see about becoming a patron for news, scene samples and other little tidbits. Now, I think that's all the announcements and with no guest review questions this week, let the battle begin!

A Few Nights Ago: U.A. Heights Alliance

"The fact of the matter is despite searching high and low, the chances of the pros finding All For One is very slim," All Might explained, "but we can tie that into Eraser's plan. If we continue to appear as if we're searching desperately for him, All For One should become overconfident."

"If we assume Ragdoll's quirk, 'Search', is still capable of being used it's pretty much a guarantee," Slade pointed out, "he knows us all pretty much by our quirks at this point."

"And we're proceeding under that assumption," Detective Tsucauchi continued while holding up some notes, "if All For One is acutely aware of our movements then we'll show him that our efforts since Midoriya's return have resulted in nothing but frustration and exhaustion. If we can get him to believe we're making one bad move after another, he'll think everything's going according to plan. From there we'll employ Aizawa's plan of using the informant, Aoyama, to lure All For One to a place of our choosing."

"Then that means Aoyama is," Midoriya asked excitedly. All Might confirmed his safety and innocence with a nod, getting a collective sigh and cheer from most of the rest of the class.

"I'm so glad!" Hagakure hugged Uraraka and Tsuyu in her happiness while Clay had an arm around Mina and Jirou who were both crying in relief.

"What about what Aoyama's father said," Momo asked, concern lacing her voice, "All For One told them he'd know if they were lying. Do we have a plan for that?"

"We do," All Might nodded, "based on what we were told, All For One contacts them through voice calls with no contact information. Our theory is since he likely has many 'friends' that he speaks with he doesn't bother to scrutinize them all and likely relies on a quirk to tell if they're lying based on their voices. If that's the case, so long as there's no lie in the audio, he'll show up without fear. That's why we're enlisting the help of someone you're all familiar with, come in!"

He signaled to someone outside the door. When it opened, everyone was greeted by the sight of none other than Hitoshi Shinso! This time he was decked out in a black armored outfit with fish net on his upper arms and around his legs. He also had a long white scarf around his neck, greatly emphasizing the look of a modern-day ninja.

"Shinso! Your costume looks so cool! How ya been?" These and various other reactions came from Class 1A as the Support Course Student entered.

"I was really surprised when I heard Aizawa's plan involved you," Tsuyu put a finger to her chin, "when we worked together during Joint Training you said you couldn't make people talk with your quirk or do something that requires them to think."

"I honestly thought I'd be transferring to the Hero Course in April," Shinso gave a shy smile while rubbing the back of his neck, "since I knew I'd be competing against all of you, I kept training to improve my quirk."

"Then that means," the frog girl almost couldn't believe it.

"Yeah, I can make people talk now," Shinso grabbed onto his scarf front, a new habit he'd formed recently, "if I make Aoyama's parents and him talk then none of their feelings should get in the way."

"That's amazing!" Several members of the class cheered, drowning out any further explanation from the mind controller.

"Shinso was able to improve his quirk thanks to training under Aizawa," Principal Nedzu suddenly popped up on Tsukauchi's shoulder, "since it's an emergency it's been approved by acting chairwoman, Mera, for him to help us despite having no provisional license."

"But that still leaves the next step," Tokoyami pointed out, "luring out the villains is only the first part, what will we do to capture them all? Furthermore, if we're operating under the assumption that 'Search' is still in play, won't a large number of us being in one place tip them off?"

"We've already thought of that," All Might held his finger up, "we plan to bring everyone in from far away at the same time. In order to do that, we need help from another individual."

"I don't recall us having anyone with a Warp Quirk unless you…oh, that's going to be fun," the Cloud Wielder sighed.

"What is it?" Mina and some of the others glanced at him.

"I can't control large enough clouds at the distances we're going to need," Clay explained, "so we're going to use Kurogiri's warp quirk, or rather someone's going to copy it."

"Oh great," Slade rubbed his head, "Monoma getting to be an MVP. You know he's never gonna let us hear the end of it."

Present Day: Abandoned Parking Garage

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Monoma laughed triumphantly while using his copy of Kurogiri's Warp Quirk to bring all the heroes in from their stations miles away, "this side character is pulling the strings now and becoming a star!" 'At least someone here's having fun,' Clay broke apart his cloud and spread it out in the air while producing more from his body to join them. As they'd anticipated, All For One had brought a small army of villains with him and they looked just as eager for a fight.

"Alright everyone, this is it," All Might's voice sounded over their earpieces, "we're ending this here and it's started with this first step!" The two sides finished emerging from their respective portals and began to rush towards one another while Clay floated higher into the air. 'There you are,' he readied his quirk once he spotted Shigaraki. As expected, the soon-to-be vessel was reaching towards the ground.

"No you don't!" Clay sent a disc-shaped cloud into the fray, and it stopped just beneath the Decay Quirk user's hand, preventing contact with the ground by clamping down on it. "We've seen enough of that trick to last a lifetime." The man didn't respond to the comment, instead staring at his hand, almost as if he was confused.

"Dabi," he spoke simply as if dealing with a minor inconvenience.

"Don't tell me what to do, leader!" Dabi, now dressed in a white version of his outfit, rocketed forward, propelled by his blue flames with a manic expression on his face, "but I'm glad I'm getting to see you here, Dad! Let's start with a funeral for your friends!" He swung his arm forward, unleashing a wall of flames towards a large number of the gathered heroes. But it didn't get far as an equally large wall of ice sprang up to meet it.

The collision of the two opposing elements was so intense that not only did they cancel each other out, but the resulting blast of shattered ice slowed the advance of the two factions. "I won't let you, idiot brother," Todoroki declared while emerging alongside his friends. This only made Dabi cheer even louder at the situation.

"Is this your strategy," All For One wondered aloud, "gathering in droves and having a free-for-all in the middle of the city?"

"Nah, we thought we'd do it the Greek way," Slade smirked as metallic plates suddenly erupted from the ground. They closed around the surprised villains, resembling castle towers of various sizes once they sealed. "The name of this plan, after all, is Operation Troy!" Just like the makeshift fortress, Power Loader, Ectoplasm, Cementoss and the Support Course had designed and installed an entire metallic section beneath the ground of the abandoned lot, hiding the cages which had just been remotely triggered by All Might and the others back at the command center.

"An inspired trick but ultimately futile," the Lead Villain remarked, "You can't possibly expect such hastily built prisons to hold us for more than a few seconds?" He got an answer to his question as small twin rockets flipped out and activated, sending the cells sliding backwards.

"A few seconds is all we need!" Clay declared while sending his split-up clouds against the cages, pushing them back even faster.

"I'm pulling the strings!" Monoma happily cheered while opening a large portal behind each one of the moving constructs.

"Now, push them through!" The Rabbit Hero, Mirko, ordered while charging in herself. The majority of the heroes and U.A. students rushed forward then, assaulting the containers with their quirks and forcing them back as fast as they possibly could. As expected, some of the cages were already being broken through by the villains, but they were quickly knocked back in by the quirks of the heroes. So far, all was going according to plan, except for one thing.

As Clay approached the portal he was supposed to go through, he noticed something was off. Midoriya had suddenly been yanked back by something. 'What in the world,' the Cloud Wielder turned around, his eyes widening beneath his mask. Somehow another, much smaller black portal had appeared and a cord leading out of it was wrapped around Izuku's arm, quickly pulling him towards it. "Shit," he sent another small cloud out in the shape of a hand towards his friend, but it missed the green-haired boy's foot by barely an inch as he was sucked into the portal, "Midoriya!"

There was no time to go after him, the portal held open by Monoma was already closing. 'Be safe,' was his last thought before being engulfed by the blackness of the warp gate.

Jaku Hospital Ruins: Outside Gigantomachia's Prison

Phase two of the plan was now set into motion. The majority of the villains had been split up and sent to specially chosen battlefields across Japan. All For One was sent to the Gunga Mountain Villa ruins, Dabi was sent to Kamino Ward, Toga was sent to Okuto Island, while the remaining villains were either sent to Takoba Stadium or remained at the site of Operation Troy. As for the other two members of the League, Spinner was leading an army of heteromorphs towards the hospital where Kurogiri was being held, while the one sent by All For One to release Gigantomachia was.

"What's going on Chimera?!" A villain yelled as several of them were knocked away by the combined attacks of U.A. students like Mina Ashido and the Poltergeist girl, Reiko Yanagi. Naturally they were being aided by other heroes with the leader of the group being Mt. Lady. "This was supposed to be a complete ambush!"

"It was," the cannibal mused while moving his head out of the way of a projectile, "but it appears we've been played. I thought it was a little weird how far apart the heroes were today. Guess they only wanted us to think they were making a mistake out of frustration and desperation." A flying hero came at him but was stopped as Chimera produced a crocodile-like head on a tendril and chomped on his upper body, causing blood to rain down on him and the villain next to him, a man wearing a skull gas mask with a large air hose coming out of it, "but that's why he sent me, after all."

The villain tossed the remains of the hero away and rushed forward, producing claws on his hands and sharpened tendrils to knock aside a few more opponents before a shape came flying towards him. He held up both hands in time to block the attack, but the weight was incredible, sending him flying back. Chimera had to backflip to avoid falling and land on his feet. "So, they got you guarding this place too, perfect."

"We didn't know you'd be sent for sure," Slade held up his fists as Mina and Amajiki joined him on either side, "but we figured sending some people who'd be hard to digest would be a good idea."

"I think you'll be surprised what I can stomach," Chimera gave a toothy smile while crouching down like a predatory big cat. And like said cat, he pounced towards his potential prey as the two sides clashed in front of Gigantomachia's prison.

In The Sky

Clay had been beyond impressed when he first saw it take flight. The entire section of U.A. containing the school building had been turned into an actual floating fortress with numerous towers around the perimeter projecting a yellow, electromagnetic barrier. Multiple platforms held up by high tensile fibers had also been set up for the more agile members of their team to use as springboards. Said team consisted of Best Jeanist, Mirko, Edgeshot, Bakugou, Nejire, Clay, and was also supposed to include Deku.

But as they emerged from the warp gates, there was already bad news to relay. "Denim guy!" Bakugou yelled towards the Jean Hero who was already standing on a metallic platform, "They got us, Deku's not with us!"

"What, what happened?" Jeanist asked, naturally concerned about this turn of events.

"Someone else used the Warp quirk to pull him to a different location," Clay elaborated, "no idea where."

"We need to tell the others then," Nejire spoke up, naturally concerned about the situation. Not just because a fellow U.A. student was in danger, but also because they had an entire plan of attack which assumed Midoriya was present. That didn't seem to concern one hero, however.

"Whatever, let's just do this," Mirko brought her fist to her other hand. Her left arm and right foot had been replaced with large robotic prosthetics as the Rabbit Hero had been a part of the raid team hitting the hospital in Jaku where Shigaraki's body was being altered. It clearly hadn't deterred her fighting spirit, however, given the smile on her face. "Whether that boy's here or not, the battle against the greatest villain in recorded history has already begun!"

And it was thankfully only against Shigaraki. The now white-haired man was dropped out of the last remaining warp gate, dressed in only a red cape and bluish black pants. Naturally he seemed confused about what was going on, but it didn't last long. As expected, the moment he landed on the green grass he put his hand on the ground.

Decay activated and quickly began to spread out from his hand. But as the area started to disintegrate, a couple sections of the ground suddenly shot upwards, revealing themselves to be a series of metallic plates all stacked on top of each other. It caught the villain off-guard as he was flung into the air. "Surprise asshole!" Clay moved in and took the first shot at the lead villain, sending him flying into the electromagnetic barrier with a well-placed Vortex Spear.

"Did you really think we wouldn't come up with a countermeasure against that," he asked. The Cloud Wielder didn't expect an answer considering the villain was grunting in pain due to being electrocuted by the barrier. Shigaraki managed to break himself away but was stopped by multiple cables being controlled by Best Jeanist.

"You're fraying apart," the Fiber Hero remarked while yanking him down into the ground and pulling him across it, digging a trench in the process. "As long as you're moving with your brain and muscles, a powerful electric current will cause your body to stiffen up. Even with your considerable strength, it'll work for at least a second!"

"You sound so confident," Shigaraki disintegrated the cables around his body and stood up, "but this is a floating mass in the sky with limited area. Even if you slow my Decay, how long until you lose all of your ground, and your precious stage disappears?!" The villain leapt and dodged around both Jeanist and Clay's attacks, even disintegrating some of the cables that managed to grab a hold of him.

"Clearly you haven't been listening," Clay gestured towards one of the holes Tomura had made. His eyes widened when he realized that new metal plates were popping up to replace the ones he'd destroyed. "I said we came up with a countermeasure, not a half measure."

"I'll make it clear since your brains probably short-circuited," Best Jeanist continued, "this place, what we've dubbed as The Coffin In The Sky, was created to defeat you." And it wasn't a simple operation. The Cloud Wielder risked a glance back towards a separate, smaller building which was connected to U.A. by a series of massive flexible tubes. Within that building as well as beneath the ground was practically the entire Support Course, including Power Loader and Mei Hatsume, along with a couple members of Class 1A.

Kaminari was in the smaller building working with every electricity producing student they had to provide power for the countless systems being utilized, including the barrier. Meanwhile, Momo was underneath providing all the raw material she could muster with her quirk to be used for the replacement plates being sent up to patch the damages. Clay had found it a bit ironic because it felt like he'd somehow wound up guarding Slade's girlfriend while his friend was fighting alongside his potential girlfriend. Of course, he had to make it through this before he confronted that particular problem.

"And just to add insult to injury," the Fiber Hero mocked, "a mere sixteen-year-old girl came up with the idea to make this stage fly. In fact, numerous high schoolers have helped make it possible to construct this in such a short time frame to oppose you!" Jeanist and Clay resumed their attacks, "and it's not because they or we want fame or glory, but to protect the future. We are the ones who will stop your destruction here!"

It was at this point that Bakugou jumped in and attempted to use an explosion against Shigaraki, but he redirected it with a Deflection Quirk. Nejire, demonstrating further mastery of her own quirk, was able to wrap the explosion in her own spiraling energy and send it back to the villain who again directed it away from himself and into one of the nearby pillars. Thankfully, it survived with little to no damage due to being made out of very strong material. Mirko moved in next, leaping off of the platforms and cables that connected them to reach her target before hitting the villain in the face with a powerful uppercut kick.

"I think you've shown off enough of your toys," Shigaraki righted himself in midfall while holding his hand out, "let's see how you handle a shockwave." But as he went to fire off the quirk, nothing happened. "What, how did-GUH?!" He was knocked out of the air by a large, electrified Morningstar and landed on a nearby platform.

"It's the same shitty game we played at Jaku, remember," Bakugou taunted from one of the other platforms. Tomura realized what he meant instantly and looked over towards the other building. There, on the roof were three individuals: Manual, Aizawa, and Monoma. Due to his right eye getting injured during the battle at Jaku, Eraserhead's quirk was no longer as effective. But thanks to Monoma's copy ability they were able to make full use of it once again, and they'd gotten into position just in time.

As long as the laughing blond was touching Aizawa, he would be able to use the copied quirk long after his usual five-minute limit. And just like at Jaku, Manual was using his quirk to keep Monoma's eyes from drying out and prevent him from blinking. So long as they kept their gaze on the villain, his arsenal of quirks would be rendered unusable. It would've even mitigated the danger of Midoriya losing One For All to Shigaraki, but since he wasn't here they'd need to adjust their strategy a bit.

A task which shouldn't be too difficult now that they were only dealing with Tomura's almost All Might levels of strength and speed. It certainly wasn't deterring Mirko as she unleashed another series of punches and kicks, forcing Shigaraki to jump off the platform and dodge another kick while in midair. But then, something strange happened. As the villain turned in midair, his left arm suddenly grew.

"What in the world," Mirko actually looked worried for once, "what is that-?" The mass suddenly exploded in rapid growth from his arm, heading straight for the rabbit hero. Just as she was about to be hit, a cloud pushed her out of the way before readjusting for her to stand on.

"Good work Cirrus," Best Jeanist complimented as they regrouped near another platform.

"Dynamight, Cirrus," the rabbit woman called from atop Clay's cloud, "what can you tell us about that?"

"Not a damn thing," Bakugou responded, his voice between anger and worry, "he didn't do that at Jaku."

"It's not a quirk, I can tell you that," Clay remembered something important as Shigaraki stood on the mass of what he now saw where countless, connected hands. "Erasure targets and suppresses someone's quirk factor, what allows them to activate their abilities. It doesn't cause genetic alteration, that's why heteromorphs don't suddenly turn human when he uses it. The only explanation I can think of is his body is growing and changing without a quirk factor."

"That is correct, Clay Cero," Shigaraki spoke calmly, a stark contrast to what happened next as multitudes of hands grew out of his arm, separating into a few massive tendrils. Everyone was forced to jump or fly out of the way as the masses reached into the air, some of which impacted against and tore into the main U.A. building. "What you're witnessing right now is growth, like my hair or nails. My body has acquired a new form in order to adapt to the numerous quirks it now contains. It is where superhuman society is headed, the quirk singularity proposed by Garaki. But those of you who tried to bury it and turned your backs on the expected future, can't understand!"

"Wanna bet," Clay touched his earpiece, "Power Loader, it's time. Open tanks One through Five."

"I thought the plan was two at a time," the Support Course Instructor questioned, "things must be getting out of hand up there."

"More like there are way too many hands," the Cloud Wielder couldn't help but quip while maneuvering around said appendages, "so we're gonna kick things up sooner than planned. Can you do that?"

"Yeah, opening tanks One through Five now," Power Loader confirmed. While this was happening, Mirko tried attacking again but her prosthetic arm got crushed by another mass of tendrils, knocking her away.

"Spare," the rabbit hero called as she slid backwards. A square section of the ground rose up, looking like a weapons rack as Mirko attached a new arm and flipped over it almost all in the same motion.

"Dynamighty," she called while landing next to Bakugou, "this team was formed to fight, so pull yourself together!"

"It's Great Explosion Murder King Dynamight!" He barked back, still shaking off nearly getting crushed by a multitude of hands, "and you should stop charging into things!"

"Huh, you're a cocky brat to be talking to me that way," Mirko for some reason smiled predatorily at this.

"What, you want to fight bunny girl," the explosion boy's own smile matched hers as he refused to back down. Unfortunately, this meant they weren't paying attention as one of the smaller tendrils of hands started falling towards them. That is until a very large Vortex Spear slammed into it and sent it crashing a short distance away. Naturally, the two fighters looked up with a 'Huh' expression on their faces.

"Would you two please flirt later," the voice came from a mass of clouds which seemed to have formed from out of nowhere as a figure floated out of it, "We've got a battle to win here."

Moves and countermoves have been employed, along with whatever BS Shigaraki is churning out. But at last the battle is underway and it's only going to get more intense as things move along. So in the meantime feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters! Also, check out my Pat reon for news and other tidbits about my writings! Last thing, stop in next time as Clay unveils his own preparation for fighting against the lead villain, along with a new title! 'Til then.