"Secure secondary perimeter! Targets are on the move!"

Gunfire erupted as the ESD were setting up another checkpoint deeper against perhaps the largest incursion of cataclysmically dangerous cult members now tearing apart a shopping district hosting a grand opening of a new and improved version that revitalized a classic business with the same shops able to prosper and adapt to the new generation eager to give their childhood stores a new sense of purpose.

"Mommy!"

A little boy tripped over himself while being led by his mother away from the danger. He scraped his knees, but was too scared to notice as screams of panic drowned out his cries. Looming over him was a manacled looking beast of a man with bulging red skin stretched taut with muscles too large to be seen as human.

It winded up both fists into the air to render the boy into a red stain onto the concrete floor.

Twelve Minutes Ago

"Yeah, I know… Mhm… Yeah."

A comfortable silence remained as Bakugou remained on the phone for several moments with his wife during their lunch breaks. A woman as patient yet strong as someone who still maintained her job as a teacher still captivated the man who the world saw as one of the most feared heroes to date. Not so much out of his actions or mistakes, but out of his fiery temper that fended off more than the occasional reporter who tried to catch Katsuki in a compromising situation. None of them ever managed to get such a legendary scoop after he managed to catch them trespassing or stalking him and turning them over to the proper authorities. Only a handful of them claimed to have been assaulted over his story of self defense.

Needless to say, he has never been called to court as of yet. Years of being a hero sought after by the public had the man guarantee that every angle of his home for a kilometer radius was completely covered by one of the world's most trustworthy security agencies. Bakugou's quote for their services was surprisingly low, though he and Fubuki accepted the discount and haven't looked back since.

Hearing the chaotic background let Bakugou know he needed to hang up. Screaming and explosions in the instance caused his instincts to kick in to leap into action.

"Gotta go, babe. Somethings happening."

With that, he hung up on his wife. On the other side of the line, Fubuki sat at the staff lunchroom table with a look of concern that her fellow employees noticed out of the corner of their eyes.

One asked her if she was alright. She gave them a satisfactory answer that put them at ease. On the inside, however, Fubuki prayed that her husband would be returned to her unharmed.

Present Time

"AP Shot!"

A single powerful projectile tore through the head of the being about to crush an innocent boy to death. The child flinched after the shot collided and left the body of this creature to fall over to its right in a heaping corpse. No hesitation when it came to the lives of the innocent now guided Bakugou's actions after his last failure.

"You alright, kid?"

Coming to the boy's aid, the child began to tear up before sobbing as Power Igniter gently lifted the boy up into his arms. He spotted a panicking woman screaming for her lost child after she and her son got separated in the stampede. They were reunited in a fit of tears out of relief from being reunited thanks to Bakugou's quick thinking and decisive actions.

"Thank you for saving my son!"

As much as he wanted to feel great about this achievement, something struck a chord with him seeing the boys happily reunited with his family. If only he…

"Get out of here, it's too dangerous…"

The mother quickly heeded his advice and left in a hurry. Returning his attention back to the center of the chaos, a small park was littered with bloodied corpses of innocent civilians who didn't make it far enough away from the dozen or so raging monsters seeking to cause the maximum amount of damage. For a moment, his mind relapsed to a long suppressed memory of the day he saw as the day he lost someone important to him.

That day when the man he once trusted as his own father figure took away his real father.

Screams of people trying to get away from danger. Children who suffered by the hands of cruel people out to accomplish their selfish goals of personal gain. Something began to crack at the shell that he built to contain all of that pain he suffered so long ago.

One of the muscle bound freaks spotted Bakugou after all the civilians ran past him. This animal driven by a singular command saw its opportunity to keep destroying and killing the hero standing still. It leapt into the air and brought both fists up to crush Bakugou into the concrete like it did with a father trying to run away with his little daughter in his arms.

"HV Wave Shot."

In the calmest voice possible, Katsuki raised his hand into a finger gun to fire from the barrel built into his armored glove directly into the chest of the one trying to kill him. What was a chest reinforced with muscles stronger than steel cables was a hole that caused all the meat and bones to blast clean out the back where the spine used to be. The shockwave shook the ground with the amount of power that erupted at that singular focused point. Everybody who was coming to the encounter felt a shockwave stop them in their tracks with the buildings around the area now being contained by the ESD had their windows shattered.

Bakugou didn't care about the danger that blast proved to be to his own wellbeing. Firing one of his most lethal attacks with only a clearance of four meters between him and the explosion burst the soft blood vessels in his nostrils along with some in his eyes. Tinges of red began to stain the whites of his eyeballs with his face twisting into the nastiest snarl he ever summoned out of pure unadulterated rage. Blood stained his nose as well as his ears as the damage actually was more significant than he made it seem. He just used the excruciating pain to fuel his already unhinged wrath over these mindless killers.

"I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU FUCKERS!"

Anger that caused even those under the complete influence of Gaul's quirk to pause and assess this dangerous individual kept burning brighter from the pure hatred he felt in that instance. Two more of the gigantic hulking beasts were shot at and had their right arm and hand blasted off in quick succession respectively.

All Bakugou could see was red.

His unearthed trauma and sorrow filled him with too much unbridled raw emotion. He just wanted to kill these murderous shitfucks.

Meanwhile, a tall man dressed in plain clothing with a wild hair of black hair watched the hero with intrigue while his three closest subordinates stood on standby. Sitting on an air conditioning unit, he had the best seat in the house watching the city become subservient to fear with each successful attack. The ignorant masses couldn't ignore the glory of his lord with such effective demonstrations of his power tearing at the perceived safety of the city.

Not even the ESD could prevent all the deaths the Church of Gaul wrought upon the ignorant masses.

Watching his god's followers falling to this one hero, he was intrigued to see such incredible strength drive this man into such a frenzy. He was curious as to what this one man's history was to produce such rage.

Tanking another chest punch, Bakugou became too numb to the pain to stop his rampage. Another midair blast to stop his backwards trajectory sent him flying back into the fray. His internal injuries were causing him to gush blood from his mouth, nose, and ears. Both eyes were becoming more and more stained in red with his increased stress pumping his blood throughout his body faster with each passing second. None of the agony begging for him to slow down registered to the adrenaline fueled juggernaut too focused on tearing apart these killers who took the lives of families and children who asked for none of this needless violence.

The lives he once again failed to save.

Landing into a crouching position after burning the skin off of the face of one muscular berserker, Bakugou scanned around to see he was surrounded in a half circle. These murderers didn't need to completely encompass him since he still counted about eleven still alive after the four he already killed.

Out of nowhere, an involuntary dizzy spell hit him. Pain didn't even register for him as he suddenly went limp and began to tumble over onto his side limply. His body just said enough as he had taken too much punishment and was about to shut down from internal bleeding alone. The loss of said body fluid made him almost anemic at the same time.

In Bakugou's mind, he hated how careless he got. He broke his promise to his friend to stay alive for the one he loved so dearly. Now Fuyumi was going to be widowed because of him. She would cry every night and it was his fault.

"Crystal Cathedral!"

Walls of clear ice erupted from the earth as a massive heat wave sent the group of muscular beasts into a blind fury from the feeling of burning wind blowing into their eyes and lungs. Then three of them were suddenly tackled all at once in a stack that collided with a nearby building. More suppressing fire landed on the other mutated humans while more support came to Bakugou's aid.

"Hey! Wake up! Don't fall asleep!"

A normally calm and collected voice annoyed him into opening his heavy eyelids. Katsuki could barely make out the image of his current brother-in-law, the famous hero known as Todoroki Shoto. It felt rare to see the man who was completely the opposite of himself look so distressed over his sister's husband.

Shoto barely made it when he spotted Bakugou fall over all on his own. Inspecting the actual damage left him shocked as to how Katsuki managed to still move after sustaining so much damage. The smaller damage to the delicate blood vessels in his body combined with the massive trauma suffered by the multiple killing blows from the enemy left Bakugou in need of immediate emergency care.

"Perimeter, This is Shoto! I have a critical condition combatant at my location! I need an extract now!"

"Copy, sending Pelican to your location. ETA one minute eighteen seconds."

He needed to stabilize his brother. Todoroki retrieved an emergency injector to help Bakugou stop the incessant bleeding. First thing he administered helped to slow down the heart enough to keep the losses to a minimum. Years of training gave Shoto the field experience to know certain conditions and what to do in the case of their diagnosis.

Listening to their chest revealed he was having irregular breathing. He next pulled out a handheld device the size of a can and opened the front of Bakugou's costume. The sheer amount of bruising on the man's chest twisted Shoto's stomach at the very sight of all the discoloration. Next he placed the device and pressed the touch screen for the medical equipment to calibrate to Bakugou's anatomy as well as condition. Several seconds passed before glowing blue tendrils began to grow out of the device when it opened up to allow the growing web to reach all critical spots on the body.

What was preventing Katsuki from breathing were the multiple broken ribs that pierced his lungs and were now suffocating him as his chest now couldn't expand enough to let his lungs fill with fresh air. The device targeted the breaks and burrowed into the skin with anesthesia mixed into the blue substance to prevent further stress upon the patient. After resetting the breaks and relieving the chest of foreign bodies, an air pump engaged and opened up a single tube through one of the webs penetrating the chest cavity. Todoroki felt himself breathe a sigh of relief when he saw the reading on the screen telling him that Bakugou would be stable enough for transfer.

Now he had to protect his brother-in-law for the time being.

Just then, a slam on one of the walls Todoroki made to shelter him and Katsuki shook violently. Turning towards the source of the impact caught Shoto off guard as he saw something rather disturbing.

Two of those raging monsters were starting to punch at the ice barrier he created. It was made of his specially made tempered ice and wasn't going to break as easily as his normal ice. What he saw through the crystal clear barrier were two mindless animals beating against the protective walls with their fists completely mangled from the full impact of their swings. Two bloodied splotches where their fists kept striking continued to grow in size as they ignored their broken fists to try and get in.

Reading the reports on these things completely failed in illustrating how demented these cult members were in this state of enhanced human strength. All they cared about was killing and making sure to exact complete chaos on the public. Even more shocking was when the ice actually began to crack under their relentless strikes.

Creating another barrier between him and Bakugou, Shoto needed to ensure his family's safety no matter what. He timed his next attack and instantly melted his ice wall with intense heat to severely weaken the wall. The overexertion of strength caused both devolved humans to stumble inwards after shattering the previously dense surface.

Shoto was already between the two beasts when he raised his left arm to retaliate.

"Weaver's web."

With a clawed swipe, the thin yet supercritical heat of the jets produced from the tips of each digit cleaved through the eyes and upper appendages deeply enough to render them temporarily stunned. Things didn't stop there when Shoto noticed the two mutated freaks launched a counter attack with the jagged bones sticking out of the stumps where their hands used to be until they mashed them into meat paste. Two pillars struck these monsters and sent them flying away from the fortress of frozen water, keeping Katsuki Bakugou safe from harm.

Momo couldn't believe what she was seeing. There were these barbaric rampaging animals shaped like overly roided bodybuilders taking all sorts of punishment while delivering back the damage tenfold without flinching.

She had armed about three automated turrets that fired full auto ammunition meant for rifles trained on multiple threats. These bullets either bounced off or just barely broke the skin of the violent mindless criminals serving a dangerous mastermind.

Meanwhile, Kirishima and several other heroes on duty were doing what they could to neutralize the three monsters the hardening quirk user caught off guard and charged into a solid concrete wall. There wasn't any room to make mistakes as Kirishima flew across the street after one of the former human beings grabbed him by the neck and chucked him with all their might away from them. He needed a second to regain his bearings after being thrown like a ragdoll so suddenly. Emerging from the rubble, he saw other heroes start to unload projectiles after projectiles at the three separated killers. Pillars of concrete dust and dirt flew up into the sky with the sheer volume of different attacks pelting these beasts who were targeted by the mob of good doers trying to stop the damages from claiming more lives.

A sentiment that would end with many of their lives being paid as the cost to fulfill the exchange.

Despite the multitude of different lasers and bullets raining down on the rampaging threats, two of the brawny titans leapt out of the chaos and directly targeted the densest parts of the crowd. Their skin was peeling with numerous wounds causing blood to pour freely all over their injured bodies. Unfortunately, all the injuries were surface level and hadn't actually penetrated the dense layers of muscle protecting all the important parts inside of these mutated individuals' torsos.

"Get back! Get ba-"

Yelling for the others to get away, a hero was the center of the blow that sent a significant shockwave when those fists slammed against the concrete. Their body was accordioned in an instant and became another destroyed corpse unable to be given a proper funeral. The other shockwave from the other barbaric attacker enhanced the first impact and created a contained yet impactful earthquake that caused several heroes to lose their footing and fall over onto the ground.

Many of these heroes were still young adults just barely getting their ears wet with the world of hero work. Facing off against these unfeeling killing machines was already putting many of them on edge after realizing how relentless these enhanced humans were in combat. Some were even contemplating making a run for it as these things didn't look the least bit phased after all the punishment they took.

One young hero who possessed a quirk to launch focused lasers from his forehead panicked as the bleeding hulk turned their crazed eyes upon him. His legs gave away as he then fell back on his ass.

Every moment of his short life flashed before his eyes as the crazed monster lunged at him with its jaw open and aimed at him. Death was guaranteed for a soul looking into the gaping maw about to devour him like a steak in a starving lion's meal tray. Instead of agony or the cold embrace of death, the greenhorned hero realized he hadn't shed this mortal coil just yet.

Opening his eyes took a moment as he clenched them tighter than he ever did in his entire life. Getting them open, he saw what had stopped the set of enormous teeth from clamping down on his head.

Kirishima, after activating his enhanced hardening, intercepted the attack and allowed him to bury his clawed fingertips into the muscle fibers of the jaw clamping down on his left shoulder. He managed to dive in and save the young man's life in the nick of time.

"Go! RUN!"

They stumbled before running off to safety. Him and several others overwhelmed by the danger of the situation escaped with their lives while those still able to keep their nerves intact remained focused on the current battle. More importantly, the hero now keeping one of three threats occupied remained stalwart as he buried his feet into the lining of some steel reinforcements sticking out of the damaged sidewalk. Pulling against Kirishima's death grip proved to be far more difficult as he had them trapped dead to rights.

"Looks like you're stuck with me, eh? Hope I taste like shit!"

On the other side, the heroes pelting the manic danger were already feeling the fatigue of launching everything they had in this initial burst of damage. A significant factor that the other team of heroes possessed was a hero able to endure all sorts of punishment to distract this inhuman source of destruction.

Lunging at the densest part of the crowd didn't let the opposition ignore the danger they posed in that moment. In fact, another heroine had arrived on the scene when the second threat began to reach for a stunned hero unable to even stand.

"Frog kick!"

Tsuyu slammed both of her heels into the skull of the mutant, unable to even think for themselves after their horrific transformation.

Her strength propelled the head she had made full contact with in her attack go limp after she shattered the vertebrae keeping the neck intact. kicking off of the head she rendered into a grotesque kendama ball, the frog-themed heroine did a backflip to join her fellow heroes at a safe enough distance.

She was more than certain she paralyzed the overgrown mountain of dense muscle with her ambush. Imagine her surprise when instead of falling over to the ground in a limp pile, the mutant managed to stop its fall with a stomp of its right leg. nobody could believe what they were seeing.

The head bounced around on the muscles still keeping the head upright as the bones in the neck were no longer supporting the skull. Adding to the sheer horror of the situation was the crazed glare from the veiny face this thing twisted into an expression of pure aggression. Some heroes were absolutely petrified from the distinct crunching noise that could be heard as it took one step after another in its clearly critically injured state. Reading about these things and actually experiencing their pure disregard of any sort of pain or injury were experiences completely disconnected from each other by lightyears.

All that was left was the third threat.

Emerging from the cloud of dust, this berserking hulk scanned the area for a potential target to eliminate with all its might. Seeing the stragglers in front of it, the thing reached out and grabbed a loose concrete boulder and wound up its arm to throw it with all of the strength it could muster.

Unfortunately for two young heroes, the chunk of broken building material decapitated one young man with a water themed quirk which allowed him to manipulate several gallons of water he carried around with him at all times. The second victim was a woman with long red hair capable of producing an additional several meters worth of hair that she used to fight by controlling it freely like a preventive appendage. Her left arm was caught and came clean off with the impact.

Things were starting to look grim for the heroes. These were living weapons that held no idea of self preservation and were primed to unleash hell upon those who opposed them and their cause. Facing an opponent that had nothing to fear left the new generation of heroes a bit underprepared for such a massive threat such as this.

Clutching her bloodied stump did little to staunch the bleeding that kept draining her of all her blood. Every frame of her life sped through her adrenaline soaked brain as she cast her gaze up at the tightly wrapped fist descending upon her pale face. Every cell of her weakened body expected the cold embrace of the void while the thing taking its sweet time to kill the heroine failed to make contact with its mark.

In fact, the thing seemed to come to a complete halt right in front of her gaze.

"Out of all days to launch a terrorist attack in my neighborhood, you chose today…"

A very frustrated man carrying a linen shopping bag full of produce hanging off of one arm with his hand in his leather bomber jacket suddenly appeared next to several terrified heroes too rattled to continue the good fight. What escaped everybody too disoriented by the sheer chaos of the scenario didn't evade the perception of the few who could pick up on the piercing sensation of danger pressing down on everybody who never faced anything so dangerous.

Even without being their enemy, those who were trying to stop this terrorist attack felt a noticeable chill up their spine. Some were even feeling a sense of deja vu when they had no idea what was happening. This was ignored as things were still too chaotic for the fighting to stop.

Turning her gaze back upwards, what she immediately noticed about the attack that was meant to flatten her into a fist shaped lump of meat and bones stopped halfway through the swing. Her tunnel vision started to fade away and gave her some time to fully absorb what just happened.

"Well then…"

Each step he took illustrated how heavy he seemed to be. A pair of leather work boots cloped against the cracked cement until it seemed that the source of the voice sounded close enough to her right that she could swear someone was there. The shock and blood loss had made her extremely catatonic and was losing consciousness with all her arteries pumping cupfulls of the vibrant red fluid. She couldn't even feel her veins being plugged up by the same thing that saved her life just now. In fact, what had come to block all of the major bleeding were these bloodstained spines that nobody could discern at first glance.

The one now getting the girl into a tourniquet and some minor dressing for medics to attend to her at a safer location. He shucked off his dark brown leather aviator jacket and reached for an inner pocket to retrieve a handheld case. He used his folded up jacket to gently guide the poor woman back onto the ground. Once there, he began his quick medical procedure. He got some blood on his brown jeans and silver jewelry, the priority still was getting the bleeding to stop.

While this was happening, The one still clenching its fists while remaining immobile couldn't understand what was going on. It felt like less of a wall or floor that stopped its attack and more akin to being caught by a net of sorts. Not enough impact was made for there to be a loud audible slam to be recognized. Another thing that was incredibly confusing was how he had trouble moving. Despite being able to ignore pain completely, the multitude of pricks and stabbings all over its body was not a normal sensation whenever they swung and struck something.

All over its body were these red wounds that spat out red endlessly. Hundreds of red lines drew down the length of its overheated flesh.

Keeping this thing restrained through brute force would have been a waste of effort for Keigo. He could immediately recognize the amount of power inside of those twisted muscular weapons wielded so recklessly by the Church of Gaul. He could also see that besides growing several tons of muscle, bones, and organs, everything that these things were still were distinctly human. It took some studying from the research notes and reports he pinched with the help of his classified informants, but Keigo had a tool in his back pocket to subdue the beast.

Dozens of his smaller feathers punctured the body of this creature and buried themselves deep enough to strike nerve clusters to disrupt basic motor function. Some revaluation was needed as everything got shoved around to make room for the sudden body mass increase, though it seemed him using extra feathers just in case paid off well enough. It was indeed finding itself to lift its arms. Even its legs couldn't budge from the half squat it did to perform its overhand swing.

No amount of growling or screaming could muster any strength since any signal to control motor functions had been severed temporarily. It was trapped inside of its own body.

Keigo worked fast to first stop the bleeding. A combination of using appropriately sized feathers to plug up the major arteries in combination with a tourniquet in his med kit prevented further bleeding. Next he sedated the heroine and picked her up in order to carry her to safety. He wasn't worried about allergic reactions as this sedative copied the same reaction that the human body would have against basic table salt. An advancement of medical science that exceeded all expectations of what should have been possible.

Her vitals were stabilizing with the numbing agent relieving the rest of the body from excess stress. Keigo just needed to make sure this young woman would be able to escape this ordeal With her life.

The other feathers he sent darting around the entire area cordoned off by the ESD gave the retired hero a fully comprehensive mental map of the area and those who were still moving about in his field of detection. Being able to pinpoint all the remaining survivors being taken to safety by the officers gave the former hero an accurate enough mental timer as to when the rest of the ESD would storm the main area of conflict.

The last of the civilians were about to be cleared out from a safe enough distance. Now he was the last of the able bodied combatants able enough to suppress the current threat.

Something he didn't consider all that challenging.

Meanwhile, just out of his periphery, others were perched on a rooftop with an interested look in their expression.

One was the leader of this group of deranged killers. They saw the young man and knew he was someone worth acknowledging. The other set of eyes were analyzing the situation and were simply reassessing their moment to strike. Knowing Keigo and his competency in combat, they knew that it was very unlikely that they needed to step in to protect him.

It was much more likely that they would need to stop him from killing unecessarily.