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Crowds of people were gathered at the piers that lined the easternmost section of the country in anticipation of the hero arriving in just less than an hour or so. A foreign hero from America that commanded a large amount of respect from all around the globe. Many saw her arrival into Japan as a necessary act of salvation from one of the greatest heroes in history.

Fans from Japan were waving American flags while cheering for the hero arriving into their country. A couple were happily rejoicing the arrival of this hero when they distastefully bumped into what looked to be a vagrant dressed in an all black ensemble with a hood covering their face. The numerous beer bottles around him left the two young adults slightly disgusted that someone who was obviously a stupid drunk would sleep where they stood for the arrival of a great hero.

"Yo! Can't you go somewhere else? Stars and Stripes is about to arrive here. You're bringing down the whole mood, you bum."

The middle finger the boyfriend got told the couple enough about this individual. Not wanting to incite something beyond their means, the couple left the vagrant to stumble to their feet with the expectation that they would relocate themself elsewhere.

What they didn't expect from this supposedly homeless individual was for them to kneel down to the shoulder bag set leaning up against the railing they slept against that provided protection from people falling into the ocean. From out of the bag, a mask that sent a cold shock down this couple's spine fastened itself to the face of this supposed vagrant's face before he equipped the bag and turned his now disguised face towards the naive couple.

"I'm gonna do a lot more than just bring down the mood, you ignorant twats."

This scathing insult was all the couple heard before a blast of air pushed them and a few more people over onto their asses. Both individuals knew the look from all the news and information they follow online.

Bloodsoaked had been the one they told to fuck off. Now, it seemed, he was about to take on the greatest hero in America as she was about to arrive in the country he commanded from its underworld. Whatever happened today would determine a great deal of the world's coming events.

Several Kilometer from Japan's Airspace

"We're about twenty minutes until arrival, Stars and Stripes."

Approaching Japan's airspace was the American hero known as Stars and Stripes. Her indomitable spirit has made her only second to the once undefeated All Might. Though she has yet to leave a legacy as permanent as his, her feats of heroism were nothing but short of being a hair from his feats of bravery.

She and her squad of pilots were all flying in formation as they were entering Japanese airspace. Their help had been a self appointed mission out of Stars and Stripes' desire to stop the greatest form of villainy known to mankind to date. Everybody under her command loyally followed the hero out of true dedication earned by the heroine rather than some sort of artificial self appointed sense of importance. These pilots were her way of being the greatest hero of all time.

"What the fuck?! Mayday! I've been compromised! I repeat, I've be-"

Heavy static took over the comms as Stars and Stripes tried to call out to the pilot who screamed into the channel, asking for help.

"Bravo two? Bravo two? Respond!"

Nothing.

"Damnit Miguel, say something!"

"Is that what his name was?"

An unnaturally deep voice took over the radio frequency with their words. These soldiers were forced to endure the words spoken to them by the sick fuck who killed their arms.

"Oh well. If it makes you feel better, he didn't feel anything."

These pilots were all scanning their surroundings when a familiar plane suddenly erupted from the clouds in front of the squadron of fighters. As if the devil himself created the most sadistic form of torture for these brave men and women; the fabled killer himself had the aircraft that once belonged to one of her comrades under his control. He was perched upon the bloodied ship that her friend had been in command of.

"I wonder if it will better serve me or him."

Appearing out of the clouds in front of the squadron of fighters under her command was the desecrated ship of one of her former squad members. It now seemed to be under the command of the legendary killer himself, Bloodsoaked.

US Airforce Command

"How the hell did he comindeer one of our most advanced jets?!"

"We're trying to get it back, sir!"

The entire command center was in a desperate scramble to understand why one of their own aircrafts now fell under the command of this serial murderer. To add insult to injury; the rightful owner's blood painted the aircraft as the one who killed him now had complete control of the aircraft.

Outside of Japanese Airspace

"Stars, that's Bloodsoaked! All units; swap to shock shield and disengage autopilot!"

The rest of the pilots obeyed Bravo Leader as Stars and Stripes stared down the legend himself. His reputation truly preceded his sadistic nature with him commanding control of her now dead comrade. The commanding military officer asked the hero what their plan of attack was going to be; to which she responded with what he wanted to hear.

"Isn't it obvious? We'll smash this son of a bitch!"

All those under her command instinctively flew into battle formation in preparation to the battle ahead of them. The monster who killed her friend flew towards the other fighters as expected. She summoned the ability that made her truly something the American government coveted as an invaluable asset. An ability named appropriately as New Order.

"Air. As of right now, air doesn't exist one hundred meters in front of me."

Stars and Stripes possessed a quirk that was unlike any other quirk preceding hers. Nothing could rival the potential this one quirk had.

New Order allowed the user to create new laws of physics that must be obeyed by the one who establishes these parameters of reality. Although impressive in its capabilities, its limitations were equally troublesome for the hero in control of said quirk.

Whatever new rules she sets for the thing she touches must first meet two hard criteria. First off, she needs to be in physical contact with the object to manipulate it. Secondly, she needs to know the name of whatever she touches. These rules were hardlocked and couldn't be bypassed by any means. Being unable to identify what she had touched or whoever she touched would render her abilities almost ineffective. On top of that, there were a great deal of gray area rules that made her powers efficiency slide on a scale rather than having absolute control.

The more specific she is in naming the object, the greater the effect she has in commanding its physical state. This primarily applied to humans she fights and manages to touch. Things like a villains title over their actual legal name were generally effective enough in most situations she found herself in. Knowing their real names before the fight would render the entire encounter to her just making physical contact with her opponent.

Not knowing who Bloodsoaked really was made everyone apprehensive to rush ahead of themselves in this fight.

"We can't let that monster use Sanchez's ship like his own personal shuttle. Fire lasers!"

All targeting systems were locked into the heat signature that was their dead comrade's precious aircraft. They wouldn't let this murderer use this ship to start knocking off more of their squad, so everyone took aim at both the ship and Bloodsoaked with their weapons. Since Miguel was a catholic, the pilots all offered their prayers that Miguel would find himself at peace with the destruction of his precious baby girl. Their prayers were just as worthless as the air used to speak the words.

Reaching into the backpack's side pocket, Bloodsoaked retrieved three canisters that were thrown up as both he and the ship fell straight down due to the lack of air for the thrusters to push up against. Bursting from these grenades was a mess of heated flares that spread out to confuse the targeting systems for all the planes. None of the pilots could even swap to manual targeting quickly enough before both the aircraft and its current passenger disappeared into a mess of burning chemical fumes. Other modes of detection were being scrambled by the heat and smoke spewing out from the burning heat sources.

Next best thing to do was to aim underneath the obstruction. The aircraft was still losing altitude, so they knew that the one riding it would also show their ugly mug to them as well. This idea would have proved effective; had the one they all were out to eliminate remained passive enough to let these American soldiers enact their plan.

From out of the cloud came a deafening gunshot, followed by one of the other pilots suddenly starting to plummet to the ocean below. Stars and Stripes recognized the pilot as Gregory Bulford, another soldier whom she served as a squad for longer than she cared to remember.

"Greg?! Greg!"

"Remind me again…"

From out the bottom of the obstructive burning cloud flew the ship that Bloodsoaked still possessed command of. On the aircraft itself, Bloodsoaked had assembled the pieces of a bolt action rifle from his pack before he fell far enough for the other pilots to lay down heavy fire upon him.

He somehow took aim and shot one of the other fighters through the cockpit and killed them with a bullet straight through the heart. The mocking sound of him loading a new round into the chamber of his deadly looking tool could be felt by everyone around him.

"Who were you going to smash again?"

Bloodsoaked fell out of the designated zone the hero set as the space without air to breathe or fly upon. Now he was armed and reclaimed control of the aircraft he killed one of her squad mates for. Just seeing him stand on Sanchez's fighter filled Stars and Stripes with a very personal and deep hatred for the serial murderer, who was now actively mocking her words from earlier. She was now thoroughly fucked off.

"Squad members Delta, Sigma, Orion! Fire upon my coordinates, now!"

She leapt off of the squad leader's fighter to propel herself forwards ahead of the aircraft she had been stood upon. A coordinated blast of lasers were all aimed at Stars and Stripes as she flew through the sky.

"Lasers! I can freely control these lasers!"

Years of practiced control of her abilities allowed the woman to even command something as intangible as lasers by touch alone. What gave her this unique ability was the fact that she could manipulate up to a maximum of two objects with her quirk. By claiming herself durable enough to tank these lasers, she's able to touch the projectiles and manipulate them freely with her still available quirk. It certainly helped that her costume had been designed by the US government to endure this sort of firepower as well.

Redirecting the power of the lasers towards Bloodsoaked took a lot of effort on her part to do. Maintaining her own protective measure while aiming her attack took no shortage of all her experiences to pull off.

Throwing a stream of lasers three times more powerful than a single beam filled the female hero with no shortage of grim joy as she watched her attack make a direct trajectory towards the villain. Something faster than the fighter Bloodsoaked commandeered would more than certainly cause the killer to fall to his death in the ocean. Even if he were to survive the fall, there were a bunch of pissed off American fighter pilots all too eager to shoot him as he fell to his demise.

With a fiery explosion, their comrade's fighter was finally put to rest. If anything, Miguel would finally be able to rest in peace knowing his valuable love would no longer be abused by this inhumane fuck.

One major problem when they blew up their dead squad member's reared its ugly head when the other pilots along with Stars and Stripes felt too much time go on before they could reconfirm their target's location. Bloodsoaked had vanished in the carnage of the explosion meant for him to fall out of the sky from.

Nobody had him on scanners or visuals. He just suddenly disappeared.

"Command, we have lost sight of the target, please advise."

Bravo leader called up the Airforce Command Center to see if any other means of detection could pick up on Bloodsoaked's location. Sadly for them, trying to track down a target the size of a human from orbit left too much room for error to confirm his exact location.

"What the fuck- holy shit, he's on me! I repeat, the target is-"

What the rest of the poor man's squad were spared from was the sight of his head exploding from the butt of the rifle stock that shattered through the cockpit's glass cover. Stood on the pilot's jet had been none other than Bloodsoaked himself. Wasting no time in taking command of this dead pilot's aircraft, Bloodsoaked activated the ejector seat to dispose of the body after he ripped the rest of the broken glass off the fighter. He took command of this jet by using the dongle with a gel-like plug to then isolate the motherboard and place it right upon the cpu. Only seconds passed before the vibration of his mobile device confirmed the link to the aircraft through the sensors built into his gasmask.

Just like before, another dead American pilot's fighter jet was under his command.

These soldiers were starting to see why Bloodsoaked was so formidable. Years of being in war and combat made these veterans of conflict sensitive to the finer nuances of the battlefield.

What made Bloodsoaked what he was wasn't anything like his acts of brutality or his seemingly invincible physical presence.

He was resilient.

All he had in this fight was himself, a firearm, and a few incendiaries; against a squadron of professional fighter pilots and America's number one hero. This should have been a one sided fight for the Yankees to take home.

Yet three of their own were now dead with another of their own jets being stolen for Bloodsoaked's own nefarious reasons.

Now it was Bloodsoaked's turn to go onto the offensive.

The jet he had splattered the original owner's blood all over fired up its engines and flew right out the gate at breakneck speeds. Everyone could tell that the aircraft would have suffered immensely from such abusive torque right out the gate. Nothing was off the table for this twisted monster as he now even abused what these pilots held near and dear to their hearts.

His speed pushed the engines into the red zone as he surfed the mach four speeds of his ride into a loop and circled back towards the other fighter jets. His intentions were made clear as the incoming aerial vehicle went straight for the pilot who had Stars and stripes riding his jet.

The incoming aircraft had been moving at speeds that outmatched any maneuver the pilot acting as the hero's transportation could take to evade the impending impact. Sharing one last stare with one another was all Stars and Stripes could do for her comrade in arms before jumping off the jet to directly confront the individual who also leapt off his own aircraft.

Coming in at speeds that should tear a normal human into pieces, this insane behemoth on the battlefield flew at significantly lower speeds versus when he was atop the fighter jet after disengaging with his stolen ride. He watched as the impact that claimed the life of another American pilot rendered the two jets into molten slag. Bloodsoaked had just a millisecond before he felt something violently collide with him midair and pin him to another passing fighter jet that swooped in to aid the hero in her battle.

"YOU FUCKING MONSTER! YOU KILLED MY FRIENDS! MY FAMILY!"

She couldn't contain her grief anymore. People she fought alongside for years were now dead because of this one individual. Her next command would be the one to make this murderous fiend suffer for everything he has done.

"Bloodsoaked. If Bloodsoaked touches a weapon, his organs will all fail at once."

If the individual wasn't going to die, he would be overcome with an insurmountable amount of pain from the effects of her quirk. Maybe she could claim something like the liver or his heart if all else fails.

"... Interesting."

Keeping Bloodsoaked pinned to her comrade's ship, the tone of his voice was more akin to that of someone more curious rather than the fear she expected from this murderer.

"I wonder how long that will keep me down for…"

His words flew right over her head with how psychopathic they sounded over the potential death he was about to experience. Stars and Stripes was stunned by his ludicrous words, long enough that Bloodsoaked managed to sneak out an incendiary explosive from his pack to detonate and send the aircraft the hero and him were riding upon into the ocean in a complete tailspin freefall.

The pilot was forced to eject from his cockpit as Bloodsoaked kicked the hero off of him with both legs. Stars and Stripes went flying high enough into the air that another jet passing by managed to pick her up as she reached the peak of her involuntary flight.

Getting her bearings took no time for an experienced combatant like Stars and Stripes. She peered over to the other downed aircraft with Bloodsoaked on top of it. The ship didn't even hit the water before it started to correct itself and fly back up to where the other fighter jets were maintaining altitude. From the flaming wreckage, she could see the figure of Bloodsoaked still riding upon the barely functional jet back into the battlefield.

Despite him still holding onto his sniper rifle, Bloodsoaked still remained standing upon his new aerial vessel. Seconds passed and it became clear that Stars and Stripes failed to have any sort of effect on the murderous criminal. All she could do was grit her teeth as there only seemed to be only one other option to take out this living embodiment of pure insanity.

"Stars! We can't keep pressing like this. What's your call?"

"... Contact Acpar. I'm calling it in."

Turning to the Bravo Leader with a kiss to blow to him, the most she could ask of her boys was for them to give her a platform she can truly exercise her full power for the world at stake. Her beauty was something few people could admire, much less fall for. Though he didn't feel that strongly for this young woman, she certainly commanded his respect to the fullest. He only had one thing to say to the fearless hero ready to take on this world threat that refused to die for the greater good.

"Yes, ma'am."

As the squad leader went to contact the commander in charge of their company, Stars and Stripes faced the serial murderer now commanding the empty fighter that had it's pilot falling down to the ocean with a parachute to guarantee their safety. What rose from the chaos of the encounter that the heroine and Bloodsoaked just broke away from looked like an image from renaissance literature depicting hell as a tangible image.

Hovering in front of the surviving squadron pilots was a hellish version of one of their own jets engulfed in flames with a murderous criminal perched where there should be a pilot. His figure had the sinister underglow of the flames from his incendiary explosive still burning on the melting outer plating of the aircraft itself. A vessel ridden straight out of hell itself now flew in the mortal realm, with a demon intent on wreaking its evil upon the world upon their burning chariot.

Stars and Stripes wasted no time in commanding the air itself to become a version of herself to one thousand times the scale. Invisible to the naked eye, a physical representation of Stars and Stripes moved in tangent with the original. Her initial strike had a special name to it that reflected the nature of America's number one hero in its title alone.

Fist Bump to the Earth.

Despite not seeing the attack incoming, the unnatural air pressures and subtle light distortions clued in the legendary killer to the attack intended for him. He didn't even need to coordinate his actions with the original's when the heroine used this goliath version of herself to strike at the criminal in her sights. Her wind up into the punch gave the invisible copy of herself the same momentum she produced by over exaggerating her actions.

None of this mattered to Bloodsoaked.

"A fist bump? It would be rude if I were to not return the greeting…"

He too winded up his fist in anticipation of the strike meant for him.

"Leaving you hanging doesn't seem right."

Colliding with the air version of Stars and Stripes' fist was Bloodsoaked's punch. Although she wasn't able to feel the exact feedback from her created imitation, the lack of resistance in her hand clued in the woman enough to realize what had just happened in that collision of power between herself and Bloodsoaked.

Bloodsoaked had somehow overpowered her air avatar with his own power and even blew off the hand that was used to strike the killer. Recoiling from the lost encounter was the stumbling air version of Stars and Stripes.

"You're a tough nut to crack!"

Being repelled like this didn't dissuade the heroine from continuing the good fight. Even the men fighting alongside her kept their focus up to assist the heroine in whatever capacity available.

"Bro's, gimme a taste of those lasers!"

Firing their lasers up into the air allowed the air version of Stars and Stripes to grasp at the lasers all collecting at one point in front of it. A command was issued to control these lasers to her will.

"The lasers all combine into one!"

A move known only as Keraunos, in reflection to Zeus's lightning being thrown from Olympus itself. Stars and Stripes put all she could in incinerating Bloodsoaked into this man-made beam of hellfire that could melt all that dared cross its path. Plunging the spear of lasers into Bloodsoaked, even the ship vaporized under the unspeakable amounts of energy being unloaded into its pilot. Barely a dot could be seen where the killer was being consumed by the monolith sized beam of powerful lasers.

Keeping her attack focused on Bloodsoaked was rapidly draining her stamina like a siphon on full blast. Using her giant avatar made of the air to hold the lasers in place utilized all her commands while taking up a great deal of effort to maintain the shape of her assault.

"Stars."

"Commander?! Did you receive my hail?!"

Inside his office, Commander Acpar watched the hero he had watched over for many years now fight for her life against the greatest threat humanity has seen since All for One. It made him both proud and sad to see the once high spirited little girl now bloom into a hero worthy of her place at the top of the world. He only hoped that the hero would remain flying, rather than plummet from that place upon the peak that would make the fall all the more painful if she were to lose.

"Despite your overly eager decision to go off to Japan to combat this threat, I still can't be more proud of you. You're risking a lot more than just your hero license here, Cattie. It wouldn't be right for me to simply let you take on this battle by yourself. For one time, I'll pay you this one favor…"

His tolerance for Cathleen Bates' constant rule breaking and selfless actions gave the heroine a lot of leeway with her brash actions. Many counts of disobedience that should have had her in front of a court judge were dismissed as her going above and beyond the call of duty.

But now her actions have put America center stage of the world. Her fight with this monster would determine whether or not hope could triumph over evil this great. This one last favor from the alien looking military commander would be the greatest form of help he could provide Stars and Stripes.

"They're on their way as we speak. Codename: Tiamat. Experimental intercontinental missiles that should erase that son of a bitch off the face of the earth. Give him hell, Stars."

Screaming across the ocean were almost a dozen missiles with yields powerful enough to wipe out a large town in each individual projectile. The squad leader alerted the hero to the incoming missiles that were just a few moments away from visual contact. She would need to expertly time this next attack if she wanted to keep Bloodsoaked where she had him pinned with her attack.

Tasking the other remaining pilots to fire upon the villain when she let go of the concentrated beam, Stars and Stripes counted down from three as the regenerated hand of her air figure reached out to the side to catch the Missiles about to pass her by.

"Three… Two… ONE!"

Right when she let the beam in the air avatar's hand dissipate, the rest of her squadron all unleashed hell upon Bloodsoaked. All their hits were right on the money while they bought Stars and Stripes enough time to utilize the destructive power of the missiles sent to her from the American Government. If the lasers couldn't kill this man, then the next attack certainly would.

Leaping up from the plane as the squadron leader flew close enough for the heroine to touch one of the missiles gave Stars and Stripes the conditions necessary to use these weapons of unprecedented power.

"Tiamat will loop back around!"

Guiding the missiles with the air figure under her command made it much easier to control the trajectory of their flight path. All she had to do now was hit the motherfucker who killed her squad members with the explosives that would atomize him in an instant. Swinging the missiles directly into the barely visible target caused a shockwave powerful enough to be seen from the mainland of Japan's shores.

"New Model Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Punch!"

Endeavor had been flying near the ocean over a bridge that was meant for ground vehicles that were traveling to nearby islands off the main coast. His eyes widened at the sight of a giant blast blowing a massive hole in the sky from the ocean's surface. Nobody could see what had caused the explosion due to the fact it happened over the horizon. Not even a pair of binoculars could give anybody a look at the ensuing fight happening just out of eyeshot.

Stars and Stripes had been sent flying off the jet she was stood upon with the amount of force the air produced from the blast. Her eyes were still clear and focused on the spot she had impacted to kill Bloodsoaked, once and for all. Even the oceans were blown back far enough to reveal the crater punched into the seabed.

What she saw in the center of the crater sent a chill down her spine.

Not only was Bloodsoaked still physically intact, he was also standing up perfectly straight while fiddling with his gun. It broke off into pieces before being returned to his shoulder backpack. To everyone's sheer disbelief, the legendary killer was now putting away his weapon after being hit with what should have been a death blow.

The water was beginning to rush back into the center of the crater. Returning his weapon into its pack left Bloodsoaked's hands free to move around more freely. Something he required for what was about to happen next.

Looking back up at the hero from where he stood, Cathleen felt something she hadn't felt for the entire duration of this fight. It finally started to take root for the first time as the realization that this one person may not even be human to begin with. Fear slowly sank in as the ocean swallowed up Bloodsoaked and crushed him underneath the weight of thousands of tons of water. Watching him be consumed by the depths didn't stop the fear from growing within her chest. She could still feel his eyes piercing through her with hostile intent.

Up till now, this whole 'battle' was nothing more than Bloodsoaked waiting for his turn to make his move. This realization put a great deal of doubt in everyone's mind; enough so that they were now considering a plan of retreat.

A plan that had no time to even be discussed with the other pilots or Stars and Stripes.

Bursting brom the water in a geyser of water was Bloodsoaked. He flew right up in front of Cathleen's face and startled the woman with his sudden appearance. She leapt backwards into the air to avoid the killer as he stood upon the fighter jet she had been riding just now. Yelling to the hero through the comms was the squadron commander himself.

He told Stars and Stripes to crush Bloodsoaked within the hands of her giant air figure to try to kill the criminal. His logic was that perhaps the contained explosion of his ship would perhaps be enough to do some damage against Bloodsoaked.

Cathleen had lost enough friends for one lifetime. She didn't want to needlessly add to that count when she saw this monster survive much worse without a care in the world.

The jet Bloodsoaked used as a springboard absorbed all the force from his jump to close the distance between himself and the hero herself. Whereas she used her quirk to gain momentum, the masked man after her had no such consideration for the aircraft as he destroyed over forty percent of the internal hardware inside of the fighter jet. Without any other options, the squad leader was forced to abandon his aircraft. He hit the ejector seat lever and flew out of the cockpit towards relative safety.

Back with the heroine, Stars and Stripes now was once again face to face with the criminal she repeatedly failed to subdue. From the start of this fight against the world's deadliest murderer, the hero now felt fear consume her at the presence this one man had over all her powers.

"I, Cathleen Bates, will-"

"That's a neat little trick of yours…"

Cutting off the heroine was the criminal who easily weathered all of her attempts to eliminate him.

"Why don't I show you one of mine?"

Both his arms went out to the side with his hands open. Unable to even react, Cathleen watched helplessly as Bloodsoaked made his first actual move during this entire exchange.

"Sixth Seraph: Revoke."

Clapping his hands together created an audible sound that people all around the world were all startled to hear. Nobody understood what the sound meant nor did they linger on the distraction any further than they needed to. Only wildlife reacted strongly enough to start running and fly for their lives at the sudden scare they felt from that one sound.

Stars and Stripes couldn't detect what it was this one person did just now, but the sound of their hands clapping did knock enough sense back into the heroine to get her back into the fight. Letting Bloodsoaked go without a fight would go against everything she stood for as a hero. For the values that she knew made All Might the juggernaut of justice he was known for. Her eyes focused back in and stared down the masked killer as they both flew through the air. The next command would be her first step in conquering this obstacle. In the end, she knew that the side of right would always win.

"I, Cathleen Bates, can fly through the air freely!"

Falling down to the turbulent ocean waters below, the hero realized that she was still in a complete freefall with no signs of slowing down.

"I, Cathleen Bates, can fly through the air!"

Nothing.

Finally realizing the sickening truth; Stars and Stripes felt none of the usual reactions within her body that came with the activation of New Order. She was completely vulnerable to the man who seemingly took away her quirk with just a clap of his hands. The front of her costume bunched up in Bloodsoaked's fist as he winded up the other arm to launch the first of what would be a flurry of blows that would end the fight for good.

Unable to help their comrade were the pilots still able to circle the skies as they watched Stars and Stripes get absolutely brutalized by the uncountable amounts of blows striking her over and over again without mercy.

Falling to the ocean in a complete freefall were Stars and Stripes along with Bloodsoaked. Keeping the female hero close enough to deliver his blows, the murderous serial killer unrelentingly beat the American hero as they both fell to the water's surface. Cathleen had none of the speed or strength left in her body to adequately defend herself at this point. Only her quirk could have provided any sort of defense against Bloodsoaked, and he took that away from her. A merciless beating left the heroine a completely broken mess, which Bloodsoaked then sent into the waters below with one last wind up of his arm to send the hero into the waters below. He too plunged into the crashing waves shortly after.

Still circling above the restless waters were the squadron fighters still able to fly. None of their sensors could detect the exact location of the hero who they all served with in the crashing waves of the ocean that still had yet to calm after the attack combo that Cathleen used against her opponent.

Erupting in a calmer part of the waters was none other than Bloodsoaked himself. One of the ships he shot down earlier still remained buoyant enough for him to pull himself out of the sea. Dragging an unconscious Stars and Stripes onto the floating wreckage, this murderous criminal left the foreign hero on her back as she slowly started to come to. Every cell in her body felt like it had its own set of broken bones and bruising from the absolute abuse she endured from Bloodsoaked.

She turned to the criminal who stood looking to the mainlands with her body screaming to her to just hold still. Turning her neck to the left took the rest of her stamina to do. Watching Bloodsoaked just stand there with his back turned to the woman made the feeling of defeat sting so much worse as her enemy actually took enough pity on her to save her life.

Four of her comrades were dead because of this monster. He just stood in front of his beaten opponent like she had never been a threat to him in the first place.

"... Do you honestly think your world is the only one that matters?"

His modulated voice reached the ears of the injured heroine well enough. Cathleen was forced to listen to her opponent as he started to speak to the beaten hero.

"Have you ever been so hungry that you eat things that make you sick? All to make sure you can still live to see the next day?"

Despite his position as being nothing more than an infamous murderer, his words comehow still managed to reach Cathleen in her vulnerable state.

"Do you know what it's like to kill your parents; just so that you can live and escape their attempts to murder you?"

These twisted things she heard Bloodsoaked spout to her filled Stars and Stripes with dread. She knew this man was getting to a point that escaped her normal understanding of the world as a whole. Turning to face his defeated opponent, the masked murderer bore his malicious gaze into Stars and Stripes as he shared his unrelenting anguish with her.

"You know nothing of the world I fight to control. You come into my domain, thinking you're the solution when in reality you are the exact reason so many suffer…"

Her soul felt itself start to tear at the accusations this entity of cruelty spewed directly towards Cathleen. More of her understanding of the world slipped away with the knowledge gained by the words she absorbed from Bloodsoaked.

"There is an order to things. Like the society that exists with its laws and regulations; even the realm that houses the most repulsive of beings needs its laws obeyed. I will not have a belligerent neanderthal like you create more discord just because you see yourself as the good guy."

These words spoken to the hero didn't feel like the dribble she received from villains of the past. Bloodsoaked had a true bite to his truth that painted him as someone who was both tired and knowledgeable of his position as a villain. There was no pride in the way he spoke about what he did. It all felt like he was maintaining something he was clearly overqualified to even bother with.

His boots clanked against the floating wreckage that Stars and Stripes laid upon. Nothing could be done to prevent Bloodsoaked from escaping the grasp of justice once more. Turning his head slightly over to his right, he spoke to Cathleen before leaving the heroine alone to her lament.

"Are you willing to be hated for the good of others? To be the thing that those you seek to protect see as nothing more than the object of their spite? To be alone as you continue to fight in order to protect those who hate you?"

She wanted to say yes. Being a protector came with its challenges that would often test her limits in all sorts of ways. The challenge would always push the hero to become better than she was before.

Then a thought strayed into her head.

Stars and Stripes saw the faces of her dead comrades all accusing her of their deaths. Further yet, the image of her current living squad members walking away from her with the blame of the deaths of their friends weighed upon her shoulders shook Cathleen from her once confident position in life. Doubt infected her mind with the mental image of the world condemning Stars and Stripes as nothing but a failure.

"... That's what I thought."

Diving into the ocean was the masked killer who defeated the once great hero Stars and Stripes. Japanese ESD assisted in retrieving the hero and nursing her back to health, though one thing never recovered from within Cathleen. Something that truly challenged her more than anything else she faced in her entire life.

Doubt and fear finally conquered her. Whether or not she was to remain defeated remained solely up to her.