14/01/2025

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The Emperor's Dragon
Chapter 89 - Dragon and Feathers

Whisper readily admitted she wasn't a big name villain. She had always been a support villain, and even then some of her previous crews had resented her presence. They thought her quirk was weak. They thought she was weak.

They would never believe she was standing on Tartarus Island, not even if she'd been caught. They would never have gone to Tartarus, not even if they were caught. None of them were that big as villains.

But here she was. It was kind of surreal.

It felt slightly different from the forest earlier, but that was just the difference between a forest and a built up area… Except the area was quickly being demolished. The Nomu were hunting down anyone who was outside with ruthless efficiency. It was keeping the staff of Tartarus contained, leaving them to move around freely but…

White there were a lot of Nomu, as soon as they were diverted to something else the staff would be free to pursue them. The huge man, Gigantomachia could only do so much in a reasonable time. They had to do something but Whisper had no idea what. She had no idea what she could do either.

Just as she was thinking that, there was a roar from the sky. She'd heard that noise before. She looked up and felt her eyes widen.

Swooping down upon the island was Dragon. Izuku wasn't just flying in, he was in his full Dragon form, and was coming in with teeth and claws extended. He was magnificent.

He was fucking terrifying.

She didn't see where he landed, but she didn't need to. She felt it! And then she heard it.

Whisper had never heard anything quite like it before. It was a rumble and … She knew what Izuk… Dragon was doing. He was pulling down the buildings. The staff in those buildings, if they were sensible, would have already retreated into the shelters. They'd be safe there.

Those that weren't going to retreat… The guards who were firing at Dragon… well the Nomu were dealing with them. And that's what she was meant to be doing. Except… She couldn't do it herself. She'd have to order some Nomu to do it.

"Nomu," Whisper said and suppressed a shiver as several of them turned to look at her with dull eyes.

They were… kind of creepy. But Izuku had assured them all they were loyal and they would not hurt them. And even in the chaos that was now engulfing the island of Tartarus, Whisper could tell that the Nomu had not hurt any of them. Instead they were obeying.

"Make sure the guard's ar-"

A chunk of concrete fell from the sky. It almost grazed her nose.

Whisper stared. Steel reinforcing bars poked out from it and as she watched, a small piece of gravel broke loose and dropped to the ground. Whisper took a shuddering breath, and then another. She actually shivered.

That was… too close.

"No~mu," Whisper ordered. "Protect me," she managed to get the words out.

If Dragon was throwing concrete around then, she'd need that protection. A couple of the Nomu crowded close to her. They towered over her and… Izuku trusted them. He trusted them to keep themselves safe and…

There was another roar. Whisper looked up, and watched, transfixed as Dragon slammed into another building. His scales glittered and his claws left long scars in the concrete that formed the building, before it crumbled.

One of the Nomu grabbed her as another piece of concrete dropped to where she had been standing and before she could do anything, Dragon swung his tail around, slamming it into the building. Whisper shook her head. "Take me over there!" she ordered, pointing to where she meant.

Gigantomachia was also on the island, and the large man was leading Nomu towards the Prison section of Tartarus. Staying behind him would probably be safer than… well, standing anywhere near a building Dragon was intent on destroying. The Nomu began moving, carrying her to the spot she'd ordered them to. "And take out those guards," she added, pointing towards a group that were aiming at Dragon.

Dragon trusted them to keep themselves safe.

He trusted them to keep him safe.

It was odd. She was in more danger here than she'd ever been in but… for some reason Whisper felt safer than she'd ever felt before. None of her previous crews would think she was capable of keeping herself safe. They all thought they had to do it. And Izuku… didn't even think about it. He just knew she would. He knew they all would.

Whisper wasn't a big name villain but Dragon was, and she was going to be the best gods damned support villain there ever was.

And her previous crews… well, they could just choke on that.

-ted-

Hawks was aware that at least some of his sidekicks would be surprised to see him in his current state. Chest heaving, clothes covered in small nicks, some of which were sluggishly bleeding, and with his feather swords looking more saw tooth than katana was not a state he was familiar with. The last time he'd felt like this was…

One of the training sessions Mentor had put him through when he was fourteen and cocky. And… that particular event gave him an idea for an attack. Most villains were so overwhelmed by his speed and were down before they knew he was there. This one… It just took all the punishment he'd dished out and was still ready for more.

Keigo had discovered that the Nomu couldn't actually fly. It hovered but it was smart about how it used that ability. A couple of times when Keigo had been swooping, it had simply dropped so that he missed completely or dropped just enough that it had a better stance for attacking him. And while he looked like he'd gone through a bout with a fully powered All Might, the Nomu looked as if nothing had happened. Its black skin was smooth and unblemished and showed no evidence of his swords.

Yet he had cut the Nomu. Many times. Every cut simply healed in moments. His didn't. The Nomu appeared to prefer fists but had knives on the ends of its fingers and it knew how to use both knives and fists with equal facility.

And it was becoming more difficult to hit the Nomu. Keigo was fast. He knew he was but the Nomu was just as fast. It leered at him, the expression a challenge and Hawks adjusted his grip on his swords. It was time to take a risk.

If his observation was correct, and he was certain it was, then killing this Nomu should be relatively easy. He just had to strike at its brain and … One of Endeavor's sidekicks had killed a Nomu like that and she'd only used one arrow. He had multiple feathers and all he had to do was distract it a little.

He focused on his wings, pulling out the smaller feathers near his body. Deliberately, Hawks let the Nomu see them and almost playfully, Hawks let them dance in the air. He directed the feathers through a figure of eight, all in a line before they broke the dance and flew towards the Nomu. It was not distracted and raised its clawed hands to strike them from the air but that was not what Keigo intended. When they were just out of range he changed their trajectory sending the feathers spinning around the Nomu. It snarled and stretched, slashing at them but Hawks kept them away. He transferred his second feather sword to one hand as he used his fingers to control the dancing knife feathers. He made them orbit the Nomu in a sphere and then he had several break rank and flash past the Nomu, cutting him.

As expected the Nomu healed but it didn't like the little cuts his feathers were inflicting but while Keigo was fast, his feathers were faster and they kept returning to the sphere which was just out of reach. His fourteen year old self had wanted to call this attack the Dance of One Thousand Knives. Not because there were a thousand knives but because it sounded cool. Mentor had made it very clear that naming attacks was for the masses. It was something heroes did to make themselves more marketable and to make the dangerous manoeuvres they pulled off against villains seem less dangerous to the public. It was not something he needed to be concerned with.

At fourteen, he'd known the Commission was training him to be a hero but that was the day he'd really worked out how he was going to be different. And he'd decided that if he couldn't name his attacks, then he'd just have to be so quick that the attack would be over before he said the names. Mentor had actually approved of that stance. And there weren't many villains who he'd had to use something like this on.

Hawks brought his fingers in to form a fist, which was the signal for the feathers to all turn and slam into the Nomu. He tried to make some attack the head while others went for the body and there was solid thunks as the feather's impacted but Keigo could already see the Nomu had kept its head protected. Even so, with the feather blades impaling it, that should impede its movement. He swooped, taking the second blade back into his hand and slashed at the Nomu.

It ignored the feather blades impaling it and dropped. As it dropped, Hawks was shocked when the Nomu reached up to grab at his blade. He thought it would cut through its fingers but it didn't and his slash came to a stop when the Nomu caught the blade.

They hovered for a moment, and the Nomu made a slash with its free hand. Hawks grimaced as the slash went through his boot and hit his ankle but he managed to fly up before the Nomu could get a grip on him. If it did… that would be bad. He had to leave one of his swords but that didn't matter. The feathers had already lost their edge. With the break from his attack, the Nomu plucked out the blades it could reach.

The Nomu looked up and grinned at him. It seemed happy. He was trying to kill it, and it seemed happy. Villains made no sense.

But… if it was going to ignore the blades in it because of the perceived threat of his attack then that gave him an idea. The Nomu was open when it blocked his blade…

It would be another risk but… The longer the fight went on, the more disadvantage he was at. The Nomu did not appear to be growing tired, and even if it was, with the healing quirk it had, it could keep going. And in as much as villains made no sense, Keigo could tell that whatever villain had made these things… they knew what were doing. These Nomu were not weak and…

Fuck. Getting rid of them was going to… Even if they took out the Nomu's master today, and Hawks didn't believe their Master was the fire villain, but one of those at Tartarus… probably the guy All Might had arrested, but even if they took out the Nomu's master today, just getting rid of the Nomu by themselves was going to cost lives.

Heroes weren't going to be getting a break any time soon.

No matter how fast he was. And with this Nomu speed didn't appear to be the solution but… speed and more knives would do it. The plan forming in his mind would limit his ability to fly but none of the other Nomu appeared to have that skill… so it was a calculated risk. He ruffled his wings, loosening all the feathers, except for enough to keep him aloft. Carefully Hawks kept them in place so it appeared as if his wings were just spread widely.

Surprise was the best weapon here. Reaching out. He grabbed a mid-sized feather and pulled it loose, as if he was wielding a dagger. With his weapon firmly in hand, he muttered the words, "Plume Typhoon," as he sent every loosened feather towards the Nomu.

The glowing eyes widened slightly and the Nomu dropped, attempting to dodge, but Keigo had anticipated that. His feather's simply tracked downwards. He followed the feathers. The Nomu managed to knock the first few down but there were too many and they stabbed into it.

Keigo followed, wrapping his legs around the Nomu's neck and stabbing at its head. He'd like to say it was a graceful move but it was a speedy move. And for the limited movement the Nomu had, it was remarkably agile.

He screamed as it bit him, thankfully missing the Takami family jewels but it was a close thing. Still, the moment of stillness was enough for Hawks to drive his feather dagger into the Nomu's brain. It stiffened and for a moment, Hawks thought it wasn't going to be enough. He wrenched the dagger to the side, increasing the damage and hissed when the Nomu's claws raked his thighs but then it shuddered, and the hands dropped down and the Nomu became a weight upon him.

The extra weight was a surprise and it was only because the Nomu was festooned with his feathers that Hawks didn't fall from the sky. The landing was hard and once on the ground he could extricated his leg from the Nomu's mouth.

That was going to need disinfecting. A lot of disinfecting.

But… the Nomu was dead and he had won. Hawks took a deep breath and assessed his wounds. He had some feathers left so he wasn't helpless but… his ankle ached from where the Nomu has caught him earlier and there was blood dripping down his leg from the bite, and combined the ankle and bite would hamper his manoeuvrability and speed.

The thigh wound needed bandaging right now. Blood was flowing from the wound and his leg throbbed but from the colour of the blood the Nomu hadn't nicked his artery. That was good. Hawks reached into his pocket. The Commission insisted he carry a number of small medical items, and one of them was a bandage. It was awkward but he managed to wrap it around his leg. The blood stained the bandage but it was slowing the flow.

Then there was… No!

He was the Number Two Hero. The other cuts from the Nomu's claws were nothing.

Hawks looked around for the Nomu's boss. Or at least the guy in charge of them today. He quickly spotted him. The black haired villain was stalking towards Endeavor with one other Nomu trailing him.

Even if Hawks had a feather he could throw, the Nomu would block.. And the guy's quirk was fire… his feathers didn't do good with fire. Best to just cut off one of the escape routes.

This really was Endeavor's gig.

-ted-

When the explosions had sounded, Shouko Uhin, like most others who worked at Tartarus, had no idea what was going on. A moment later, he understood. It was an attack. And then his mind had kind of blanked for a little. An attack was… he wanted to think that it was absurd but given it was happening, that very thought was absurd. They, the guards, had trained for this though. An attack on Tartarus was a foreseeable risk, even if no one thought it possible. Wait. Everyone thought it was possible. No one believed a successful attack was possible. There were enough villains out there, with followers, who could attack, and so they trained for this.

Shouko had managed to fall back to the gate and whatever relief he felt at seeing it intact was lost in the realisation that the attackers had come by air. Or whatever those swirling black things were.

Orokan had charged through one of them when there was a break in the attacking creatures.

His body had been thrown back a few moments later.

Shouko was thankful Charuri had covered it up. Orokan hadn't been gone long. Thirty seconds at the most but the amount of damage… Nothing lived through that.

From the looks of things, nothing was going to live through the attack. Before their comms had gone on the fritz, Shouko had heard that the creatures were called Nomu. They were the things that the guy who had fought All Might used as shock troops… It suggested an easy solution to the attack. Just execute that guy. He was incarcerated on the Fifth Level so it wasn't like he hadn't done things that warranted a death penalty.

And then Shouko remembered that Ryunosuke, the Warden, had been off sick for the last few days. Given he was at the hospital on the mainland, he was really sick. Which meant authority for execution had gone to Eren… and Eren was stuck, presumably in the Control Room… and with the comms being defective, there was no guarantee any order would reach the Fifth level, even if… Eren would have given it. He might have waited a few moments longer than Ryunosuke, but he'd have issued the execution order.

All of that was incidental. On the surface, they were fighting for their lives. Every time someone used one of the heavy weapons they were swarmed by the creatures, the Nomu. And the Nomu didn't care about each other. Shouko had seen numerous instances where one had shoved another into the path of fire, though… there did seem to be a hierarchy. The colourful ones seemed weaker than the others. The black ones…

He shuddered. He'd seen one of the black ones just shrug off a grenade. More than that. It had shrugged it off and then taken out the guard who had fired it. Shouko didn't know who it was… He was going to be attending enough funerals after today.

He'd retreated back to the gate. A lot of the guards had. It was secure. At least for the moment. The guard house at the gate was built to withstand an assault from the bridge. The bridge was down but… The building was still sound.

Gyges and Briareos were still alive and still fighting. That was good enough for most of the guards. And… they had some heavier weaponry but… Even though there were bodies of the things strewn before the building, evidence that the heavy weapons did work, when you applied enough. Except… They were running out of munitions.

And when they did… He didn't want to think about it.

When they ran out, they still had knives… and sticks, and quirks and their hands… They were Tartarus guards…

Shouko was not… If Tartarus went down, it would be because they'd all gone down with it.

-ted-

Whisper has figured out the best use for the Nomu :D And while she might like to gloat to some of her form crew, they definitely aren't in Tartarus.

Hawks is good at what he does and while he comes across as cocky I think he has a decent understanding of his own limitations and the poor Tartarus guard... yeah, he's going down, they are all going down. But the question is - was Ryunosuke poisoned or just unfortunately sick?

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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