19/11/2024

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The Emperor's Dragon
Dragon 70 - Realisation

With the heroes arrested Garaki, Izuku had accelerated the timeline a little. The original plan called for them to interrogate the Electoral Commissioner one night, and then Tartarus' Manager on another night. But they still had time tonight and while it would have been far kinder on the therapist Ryouhou, Izuku reminded himself that the man was being paid. He would have to deal with it.

They emerged from Kurogiri's warp gate into an alleyway as a group. Izuku saw Ryouhou shiver but decided it was best to ignore it. Instead he checked the time. It was about 10pm. Not too late.

"Is Fulaka in position?" Izuku asked.

"Fulaka?" Ryouhou murmured but Izuku could tell he knew what it meant. They were going to talk to someone else tonight.

Kurogiri didn't answer immediately and Izuku knew better than to prompt him. The warp gate was checking. "Not yet," the misty man replied delicately.

"We'll wait," Izuku announced.

"We are waiting?" Ryouhou demanded.

"Unless you want to see her while she's on the loo, we can wait," Izuku told him.

Ryouhou seemed to think about what working people would be doing at this hour and then blushed.

All of the people they were talking to were going to be defensive, but there was no need to add acute embarrassment to their predicament. It was likely to be harder to erase as well, though Izuku wasn't sure if that really had an impact and saw no reason to test it.

Ryouhou looked like he might say something more but fell silent as they waited and after about ten minutes, Kurogiri silently expanded into a disk again. Izuku stepped through, trusting that Twice would ensure the therapist and Unten followed after he took control of Fulaka.

He was thankful he had the copy of Hitoshi's quirk. Even just using it on Senkyou had made things easier but using it reminded him of his friend's promise and Izuku knew that he had to make time to see them soon. And he had to give Ochaco back Zero Gravity! The heroes had probably expected him to do that on her last night in hospital but that was a stupid time…

Any time the heroes could anticipate was stupid. So he was still waiting. It would probably have to be done at a random time and was not his thought for now.

"Hi Fulaka," Izuku said as he emerged into her bedroom. Tartarus' Manager, or at least the person Whisper thought was Tartarus' Manager looked up, shocked. She had been looking down towards the book in her lap. Her husband was in bed beside her, but he was already asleep.

"Wh-"

Izuku took control before she could say anything more and held one finger to his lips to indicate the need for quiet as Ryouhou, Unten and Twice emerged from Kurogiri's disk behind him. The warper reformed after they moved out of the way.

"We just have some questions for you," Izuku told Fulaka, already knowing that she wasn't going to be reassured, but he tried.

Unten stepped forward then. They really needed to have Fulaka tell them the truth and they didn't want to linger. "Are you Tartarus' Director?" the formerly quirkless man asked.

She looked startled but then his quirk kicked in. "I am."

Izuku blew out a small sigh of relief. He didn't doubt Whisper, but she had just picked Fulaka as her best guess. It appeared her instincts were right. That's why the first question was to confirm Fulaka's position. He looked back at Tartarus' Director, this time paying attention to her husband. The man appeared asleep, but they couldn't afford to be fooled here. There was a small bottle of pills on the bedside table, next to a half full glass of water. Izuku didn't have Mei's quirk, Zoom, but he did have reasonable eyesight, and he could see that they were sleeping pills.

That was fortuitous. It was unlikely the man would wake, not while under their influence. If he did, then Ryouhou would have more work to do but it may not be necessary this time.

Unten quickly knew to move on to the more dangerous questions. "Who knows the most about Tartarus' defences?" he asked.

Even though Izuku had control of Fulaka, and Unten's quirk forced her to answer truthfully, he could feel her fighting against it. She didn't want to say but she also knew that she had to say something.

"Eren," Fulaka told them.

It was an answer but it didn't tell them anything. To look up where the Tartarus guards lived from the electoral roll, they'd need their full names.

"Eren who?" Unten prompted without being told.

Fulaka bared her teeth but couldn't break the compulsion. "Eren Kuchisu," she said.

Twice pulled a small notepad from somewhere and wrote the name down.

If they had time, Izuku wanted to talk to more than one of the Tartarus contacts. While this Eren might know the most about Tartarus' defences, the guards knew their shift. And one of them may be able to tell him where his father was in Tartarus.

"What are the Departments in Tartarus?" Unten asked.

There were a lot of rumours out there about Tartarus and they were going to use this opportunity to weed fact from fiction. It was a slightly safer question because it didn't seem like it was dangerous. Who cared what Departments were in Tartarus?

He did.

Fulaka sighed. "There are five departments in Tartarus. Incarceration. Security. Maintenance. Research and Development. Administration."

"They are all on the island?"

"Administration isn't," she replied easily.

"Who are the section heads?"

Izuku was pleased with the questions and the way Unten was asking them.

Fulaka rattled off a list of names and it was only after Twice had written them down that Izuku realised that they would have to speak to more than just the Security director. The head of Maintenance may be able to tell them how to get into the prison without needing to go for a frontal assault.

Izuku thought they'd have to do that but there was some appeal to being more discreet. The security people would probably put the kibosh on the discreet route but… There was no point in thinking about it until he had more information.

"What's the basic security for Tartarus?"

Fulaka frowned at the question. Izuku knew what the problem was before Unten figured it out. "Be more specific," Izuku advised.

"What's the basic security in one of the cells?" Unten amended his question.

Izuku was really interested in this answer and this was information that was not public. The only way to get it was going to be to ask someone from Tartarus.

"Each prisoner is biometrically monitored to ensure they cannot use their quirk. If they attempt it, that will trigger the machine guns." Fulaka said. "Prisoners are kept restrained at all times and are fed via peg, with waste being collected from colostomy insertions."

Izuku felt sick. He swallowed hard and formed a fist, driving his nails into his hands… Discreet… No… discreet was off the table. He was levelling the place.

He gritted his teeth and continued to listen as Fulaka outlined the conditions of the prisoners. It just reinforced his desire to destroy Tartarus. When she was finished, Izuku turned to Unten. "Ask about the outer defences," he instructed. They couldn't rescue his father unless they could go through the outer defences and they would definitely need more details from Eren Kuchisu.

"What are the outer defences of Tartarus?" Unten asked.

While she was under control of two quirks, you could tell that Fulaka was not impressed with the question. "The usual for a prison," she said. "Armored walls, check points, with only one entrance and exit." Fulaka gave the summary. "Each turret has grenade launching capability, and the bridge can be destroyed remotely."

Izuku nodded at that. Tartarus was not a regular prison but he hadn't heard anything he couldn't counter. Some of the long range Nomu could probably take out the turrets and… The main problem would be if the bridge was destroyed. He could fly over and some of the Nomu could as well but probably not enough. Kurogiri could only transport so many and Kurogiri would be a target… He'd have to think on this.

"The entire island is armored to prevent drilling from underwater," Fulaka told them.

That was annoying but made sense. "There are sensors that detect any disturbance," she added before falling silent.

"I think we will need the specifics from Eren," Izuku said. It was good to learn about the general defences but they would have to learn more. What was the firing rate of the grenades? Was there a dead man switch on the cells? How many cell levels were there? What was the layout? Those were all things he needed to know. He'd raze Tartarus back into the sea but…

There was so much to think about quickly.

Unten nodded. "Does anyone have any other questions?"

Before they'd started tonight, Izuku had gone over a set of basic questions with the formerly quirkless man, and there really hadn't been many questions. Both Fulaka and Senkyou were people who knew the bigger picture, not the gritty details and while Izuku needed to know both, he had to start large and work his way down and hope he had enough time to gain the necessary granularity on the detail. The Nomu would help and would react to a lack of detail but he'd prefer to have some idea before he went in. He could task Nomu's with specific jobs then and focus on getting his father.

He also had to consider the other prisoners. Izuku wasn't interested in them. Not really. Maybe there were some who would be loyal to either himself or his father, but he couldn't be sure. Kurogiri had said he wished to speak about them before the actual assault and Izuku was interested in hearing what he had to say. Maybe Gigantomachia would have some ideas as well.

That was for later. "I think we can ask the others more detailed questions," Izuku decided when no one gave Unten an answer. "Thank you for your assistance, Fulaka. Please close your eyes," he told the woman, gesturing to Ryouhou. It was his job now to make sure she forgot.

As the therapist worked, Kurogiri opened into a warp gate and Twice and Unten went through. Izuku remained to ensure Fulaka was still under control. The therapist worked quickly, and it was the same process as last time. Before long, they were done and Izuku let Ryouhou pass through Kurogiri before he quickly followed.

It had been a good night's work.

-ted-

When Izuku emerged back into the alleyway where Kurogiri had picked him up, he simply nodded at the warpgate, and waited. Kurogiri knew what that meant. Ryouhou would be taken to his home immediately and Izuku would find his own way back to the bar with Unten. There was no need to involve the therapist any further tonight and he would find payment waiting for him. If things continued to go smoothly, then there was a chance…

Izuku quickly quashed the thought. If he thought too much ahead, he'd get cocky, or impatient. This was something that had to be done methodically. Attacking Tartarus was not something he could do on a whim. But if things went well, then his father wouldn't be in Tartarus for much longer.

He allowed himself that much of a future thought.

Unten and Twice looked at him. They already knew where they were. "Great work," Izuku congratulated them. He'd say the same thing to Ryouhou but the man probably didn't want to hear it. Twice cocked his head slightly and Unten watched as Kurogiri disappeared.

"Kurogiri will take Ryouhou home," Izuku explained, which seemed to answer Unten's question but didn't satisfy Twice. They began walking back down the alleyway. This way anyone reviewing the footage would have seen them go into it, and then seen them come out of it. The watcher would no doubt be curious as to what had happened, but the sequence of events was logical.

"Why did-" Twice didn't finish the question.

"You can ask," Izuku reassured him. He wanted his people to feel they could ask him questions, especially when they asked them at the right time. In the middle of combat, they'd definitely have to wait for answers but now was okay.

The villain thought for a moment before he nodded. "Whisper has been great at finding names but why didn't you ask Giran to find the people we need to talk to?"

It was a good question and in many ways, it would have been easier for Giran to find the people they needed. "There's a couple of reasons," Izuku replied as they moved towards the car.

"While this will take longer, it gives us the opportunity to work together, and we are going to need that for our ultimate goal," Izuku said, not willing to say what that was on the street. They got to the car and Unten opened the door. Izuku got in and slid over so that Twice could accompany him. The other man got in and Unten closed the door before moving around to the driver's seat.

"Doing it this way, also gives us a larger information base and that can only be good," Izuku explained further. "The current action isn't our only one. It isn't going to be the last," Izuku said. "So, we are going to need to build on our skills until-" He shrugged.

Twice nodded, understanding the implications. "Whisper knows more than she says."

Izuku smiled. "I think she does," he agreed. "And I would like her to become more confident with what she knows," he added. It was odd. He never thought that he'd be mentoring and nurturing people when he became a villain. That was more something he expected he'd have to do in business, but he supposed, being an effective villain was very like running a business.

Well, it was if he wanted to be successful.

"I'm thinking of the future," Izuku told Twice.

"Whisper will be your information broker?" he asked.

Izuku nodded. "Hopefully," he confirmed.

"I think she'd be happy with that," Jin said.

"I hope so," Izuku murmured. "This will take us slightly longer, but I think it will be worth it in the end." He just hoped they would finish before the Heroes learned anything from Garaki but he had to trust Kurogiri on that. The misty man had said that he had to trust the Doctor but… Izuku would feel far more confident if nothing had happened.

Yet… He had to trust his people. If he didn't, then there was no point in having them and he couldn't do everything himself. It was just… Kurogiri was confident the Doctor would be released but that the heroes would use all 23 days of holding time they had available. And thus far, it didn't appear as if the Doctor had told them anything, or that the investigators had found anything at the hospital.

They'd found the warehouse, but it wasn't like they left directions to the other warehouses there.

Twice nodded his acceptance of the explanation and they remained silent while Unten drove. This late at night, the streets were quiet and Izuku thought of the future until they got to the bar.

There was a long path ahead of him.

-ted-

"You're back!" Himiko cheered when they entered the bar. Kurogiri was already there and the bar was empty except for the League.

"We're back," Izuku agreed, giving them a smile. "It went well," he told everyone before fixing Whisper with a look. "Your instincts are great!" he complimented her.

She blushed and threw her long braid over one shoulder.

"So, you got the electoral roll?" Dabi asked.

"Every last bit of it," Izuku confirmed. "And we spoke to Tartarus' Director," he added, reaching into his pocket to pull out the copy of the Electoral Roll. Izuku walked over to Whisper and offered her the drive.

She looked at it with wide eyes, as if she couldn't believe he was offering it to her. "I need you to find Eren Kuchisu, who will live somewhere near Tartarus," he instructed.

"But…" Whisper objected.

Handing over the copy of the Electoral Roll was placing his trust in her. "Please find Eren Kuchisu," Izuku said, as he put the drive in her hand.

Whisper gulped and then nodded and accepted the drive.

"So tomorrow Eren?" Dabi asked.

"Yes," Izuku nodded. "And maybe some of the guards," he added. "I don't want to give the heroes time to-" he didn't finish. He didn't want to give the heroes time to figure anything out. When they went for Tartarus, he wanted it to be a surprise. He wanted it to be-

Izuku bit his lip.

Dabi grinned at him. "Just worked out you need a distraction?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

Izuku huffed. "Yeah," he sighed. "And there is a Nomu with Endeavor's name on it," he added. "But let's think about this and discuss it when I'm not about to fall on my nose."

Dabi snorted but nodded. Izuku gave him a smile and realised his statement wasn't just to gain a bit of time to think, he really was tired.

They hadn't done much tonight but… It had been stressful and…

He needed sleep.

Then. Yeah, then tomorrow, they could continue.

-ted-

The plan is coming together. Izuku will level Tartarus back into the ocean after what he's found out now... but honestly how do you keep super powered people contained? Just don't let anyone with a humanitarian streak near the place, obviously!

Discord is on this code: TcBnRN7aDn FFN will remove links but you should be able to figure that out. There's a heap of other authors there, so come along and chat to us all! Not just about MHA.

-ted-

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