Quietly, Snake sat in the conference room, watching Nezu talk on the phone. The rodent was thoroughly annoyed throughout the conversation. Eventually, the call hung up, leaving Nezu somewhat shocked. The shock disappeared quickly though, as the rodent turned to face him.
"No?" Snake inquired a lit cigar in his hand.
"No," Nezu replied, a cigarette in his paw. Snake grumbled in response, though he should have expected this. Nezu called Musutafu's police chief, asking permission to let the MSF into the city. He knew it wasn't likely to work, but had some hope desperation would force the chief's hand. With it not being the case, Snake looked away from the rodent and instead at those assembled in the conference room.
Sitting around the room, were Eraserhead, Midnight, Vlad King, Snipe, Miller, the MSF's top officers at UA, and, to Snake's surprise, the number two hero Endeavor. He didn't entirely trust the hero, but some soldiers had apparently vouched for him. Nezu recommended that he be present, as most of UA's staff was busy elsewhere. With a sigh, Snake could see everyone in the room looked unhappy.
"So… we're just sitting here then," Vlad King commented, earning a nod from Nezu.
"That damn fool. There won't be a city left once this is over" Endeavor muttered, the hero rubbing his eyes tiredly, while Miller looked at him confused.
"Thought you would agree with him," Miller inquired, Endeavor quickly scoffing in response.
"I'm no idiot mercenary. As it stands the heroes on campus are outnumbered and outgunned. Going out there without your support would be a suicide mission," Endeavor replied, the teachers nodding with him. It hadn't taken long for any of them to realize the truth. None of them particularly liked it, but what else were they supposed to do?
"Think he'll come to his senses?" Snipe asked, everyone, looking at him quietly.
"Hope he will," Midnight replies.
"And if he doesn't?" Aizawa asked, shifting slightly in his seat, trying to position his arms to a more comfortable position.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Snake told him, drawing all eyes back to him, "For right now, we'll just need to plan. Kaz?"
The commander nodded quickly, before placing his Idroid on the conference room table. Moving it around slightly, Miller turned the device on and displayed a small map of Musutafu. The map itself displayed the ongoing battle with enemy territory being covered in a dark red light. Inside the territory though were splotches of blue, representing small holdouts the Ninth Circle hadn't crushed yet.
The only prominent areas Snake could see were the Musutafu Police Headquarters and the Musutafu Pediatric Hospital. Everything else was just small hero agencies or apartments friendly forces had barricaded themselves into.
"Right. So, with satellite imaging, we've managed to map out the battle lines. As it stands a third of Musutafu is in enemy hands," Miller stated, everyone leaning in to look at the map, "Assuming our intel's up to date, then the enemy has howitzers placed, here, here…"
Miller slowly listed off locations, pointing at spots all over the map. Some howitzers were in the street, surrounded by armed guards and deep behind enemy lines. Others, however, had been hidden inside large buildings, most likely being heavily guarded. Once all the howitzers were listed Miller moved on to the next set of targets. Rocket artillery, missile launchers, AA systems, mortars, and machine gun nests.
"Hmm… the artillery may be our biggest priority. Knock them out and heroes on the ground can move in more easily," Endeavor noted, with Aizawa nodding nearby.
"Agreed," Aizawa commented, believing it the logical move, "However, it'll take some time to get to them on foot."
"Could airstrike them," Miller suggested, while Snake took a puff of his cigar.
"Enemy's got a lot of MANPADS with them though, could be risky," Snake countered.
"Well, we've got F-35s arriving from overseas. Should mitigate that issue. If not them then the…" Miller said before slowly trailing off in thought. He debated telling the heroes present, but… they're gonna see them eventually, he reasoned.
"The B2s and B21s should help too," Miller finished, earning a surprised look from Endeavor and Snipe.
"B2… as in the bomber?" Snipe asked surprised, with Miller nodding in response.
"The very same," Miller told him, before carefully crossing his arms. Everyone took in that information slowly before Endeavor grumbled to himself.
"...Questions for later," Endeavor decided, returning his focus to the map. Looking it over again, Midnight soon pointed at some of the howitzers.
"What about the civilians?" Midnight asked, "I'm not a military genius, but the villains could have ammunition stored up in some of these locations."
It didn't take long for Snake to realize what she meant. One wrong move and a block could be up in cinders.
"Then we'll capture those on foot. Send in Special Forces behind enemy lines to eliminate them and get out," Snake replied, earning another surprised look from Endeavor and Snipe. This time Midnight joined them, to their surprise.
"Special…" Midnight started to say, before quickly stopping herself, "...I'll just add that to our list of questions."
With that they slowly continued to form a plan, discussing the basics of their hopeful assault. Yet throughout it all, Snake couldn't help but grumble. Thousands of the Ninth Circle still littered the city. And of the troops he had on hand, six hundred and twenty were dead. Another thousand were wounded, dwindling what forces they had dramatically. They had eight thousand originally, two thousand from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Force, and six thousand from the 5th Armored.
Now, they were down to six thousand, three hundred and eighty. Hundreds of combat troops, and support staff were dead or crippled. Reinforcements were being called in, yet Snake wasn't sure it'd be enough. They were marking targets all over the map, but they couldn't figure out how many enemies there were. The bastards kept hiding away everywhere, making it impossible for the Intel Team to count them all.
So no matter what, Snake knew they were going to have to call in thousands of more men. Another two divisions at the least, which he didn't like. The warlords had been on the back foot for a while, but it was always a risk that they would try something. And with everything going on here, Snake was worried about what the warlords would do, now that the MSF's attention was being pulled elsewhere.
As Uraraka and her class stood around All Might, everyone seemed happier. Everything sure felt happier to Uraraka, for now at least. With all the chaos and death that occurred yesterday, it was good to have some small victory, knowing that All Might was alive. The hero himself just laughed as the class crowded around him, saying they "didn't have to worry about this old man". Everyone had a million questions, though no one stepped forward to ask them. Of course, All Might didn't mind, instead bringing their thoughts to the forefront.
"It's good to see all of you alive," All Might told them smiling, "I… can tell you all have a lot of questions."
The class quietly nodded, except for Akatani. It confused Uraraka, but Akatani didn't look surprised at All Might's condition. Looking back on it, he didn't look shocked when everyone else saw All Might's true form for the first time. Had he known about this? It seemed to be the logical answer in Uraraka's mind before the word murderer flashed through her mind. She quickly shook that thought away, not wanting to dwell on it. Instead, she focused on All Might, the hero waiting for someone to speak.
"What happened to you?" Asui bluntly asked, voicing everyone's main concern.
"That is a long story. One I'd rather not get into. But, the… simple explanation, is that a few years ago I got into a fight with a villain," All Might hesitantly answered, the hero thinking over the words carefully. His hands tapped the side of his bed before All Might clicked his tongue. Slowly the hero lifted his shirt slightly, and Uraraka's eyes widened. She and several other classmates gagged, others just turning away.
"I won, but… well, I believe my appearance speaks for itself," All Might told them, dropping his shirt back down. It didn't fully matter though, All Might's injury had burned itself into Uraraka's memory. To think someone had managed to hurt the strongest hero in the world. It terrified Uraraka, and her thoughts again tried to plague her mind. Murderer, killer, fraud, weak, useless-
"What… what happened to the villain?" Jiro asked warily, her tone quiet. Though her ears were healed, she was still getting used to hearing normally again.
"Him? Well, he's dead," All Might replied, giving everyone a sigh of relief. Uraraka could have sworn she heard the uncertainty in All Might's tone. Of course, with All Might's calm demeanor, that thought was shot down.
"I… killed him in the fight," All Might added hesitantly, earning a look of shock from the class. Uraraka especially looked at him surprised, her mind now quiet for once. He… but… She couldn't believe the words.
"You… you killed him?" Uraraka questioned, earning a worried look from Akatani. All Might nodded in response, noticing Akatani's concern out of the corner of his eye. He said nothing, but All Might looked between the two curiously. Young Iida did say something about Uraraka, at least, from what small bit of info All Might managed to hear.
"I did," All Might confirmed, Uraraka continuing to look at him in shock.
"But… I… I thought heroes don't kill?" Uraraka asked confused, with All Might shifting in his bed.
"We're not supposed to, but that doesn't me we don't," All Might told her, "It's become a rarity nowadays, before… this happened. And truth be told, this villain was the only one I've ever had to kill."
That… was somewhat comforting to hear, but not by much. A supposed rarity, and yet she'd fallen victim to it. How had she not heard of this though? Growing up it had always been the same, heroes don't kill. Yet now here was the symbol of peace, telling her they have. Of course, as if he sensed her thoughts All Might answered her question.
"It's an aspect of hero work the media doesn't like to focus on. Because sometimes heroes have been forced to kill. It could be the villain was too dangerous to apprehend, or that situation-wise, there was no time for non-lethal options," All Might continued, "Again, heroes are expected not to kill, but sometimes that isn't possible."
Murderer, the voice in Uraraka's head called her, as she tried to ignore it.
"As if anything he's saying is true," A memory of Fudaki mocked, "It's like I've been telling you, you're useless. Unfit to be a hero, and you've done nothing but prove my point, murderer."
"All you and your quirk is good for is floating things. Because of that weakness, you've been forced to kill. We're you stronger, it wouldn't have happened. But instead, you're weak-" Fudaki continued to taunt, only making Uraraka angry as she managed to shove him to the back of her mind. Regaining focus on everything around her, she found the topic had changed. All Might now was figuring out how the class was doing.
He went through all of them one by one, just asking if they were ok. It was nice, their teacher just checking up on them. A bit funny though, they all rushed over worried about him. Slowly though everything died down a bit, as some of the class began filtering out of the infirmary. Uraraka didn't move yet though, because now, All Might had turned to face her.
"So… how are you handling everything?" All Might asked, Uraraka subconsciously bringing up a fake smile, while memory Fudaki tried to force his way forward.
"It… it's a lot, but I'm fine," Uraraka replied, not wanting to burden All Might. However, she realized she could have chosen better words. Almost all of her classmates had said they were fine, and almost all of them were not. All Might sighed in response, having dealt with this answer a dozen times before.
"You're not a murderer you know," he told her, causing Uraraka to go wide-eyed. She quietly looked at All Might for a minute. It was… oddly comforting as All Might gave her his usually friendly smile.
"Y-you know?" Uraraka asked somewhat worried.
"I do. Ran into Young Akatani and Young Iida before I got here, and Iida mentioned something about you muttering murderer. Pieced the rest together when I told you I killed a villain," All Might replied, before coughing into his arm for a second.
"I don't know everything that happened, but I know Akatani killed someone to protect you. Would I be right in assuming that something similar happened to you?" All Might inquired, with Uraraka slowly shaking her head yes. The scene flashed through her mind, as the rubble she threw crushed the villain. The blood seeping onto the ground, the loud crunch as the man's bones broke.
Uraraka couldn't help but breathe faster, trying to ignore the sight. Her breathing slowed back down though as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She never noticed it, but All Might had managed to hobble out of bed.
"Young Uraraka, everything I told you and your classmates, about taking a life, I wasn't lying," All Might told her, "Sometimes it becomes necessary, like with yesterday. You did, what you had to so that you and your friends could survive."
"I… I still killed someone," Uraraka protested feeling a few tears in her eyes.
"And by doing so, you saved a life. We try to beat villains non-lethally, but at the end of the day what is the better outcome? Young Akatani dead, or the villain?" All Might replied, with Uraraka thinking over the question. Akatani, or the villain. It was a no-brainer in her mind. Akatani was her friend, someone who went above and beyond to help her. She never wanted the villain dead, but… if it meant saving Akatani.
There was no joy in taking a life, and Uraraka wanted to avoid ever killing again. But… it was as All Might said, sometimes it was necessary. Quietly Uraraka thanked All Might, before stepping out of the infirmary. Her thoughts still taunted her, but they were quieter now. She wasn't a murderer, Uraraka told herself. It was still hard to accept the more Uraraka told herself. She needed something to do, something to keep her distracted.
Then she began to remember something, she was standing in UA. A school that spent as much on its teaching facilities, as the MSF did on its guns. She hadn't done any training yet, and likely wouldn't for a while with how busy the teachers were. It was decided in Uraraka's mind, the teen now walking off to find Akatani. She was going to be a hero, and she wasn't about to fall behind.
"Come on, everybody move!" Fatgum shouted, lifting bits of rubble from a destroyed apartment. This was both to create some kind of cover for the nearby police officers and to allow the civilians trapped under it to run. They did so quickly, while bullets flew around them. Across the street dozens of villains fired at them, all hiding away in a different apartment. The police fired back, managing to kill some of the villains, but they were just too badly outnumbered.
Once the last of the civilians had gotten free, Fatgum moved forward, running past bits of rubble. Reaching the open street he slammed into the apartment complex's main door and was greeted by a dozen villains hiding inside. One of them had an RPG and fired it at Fatgum. Though, when the grenade blew up, Fatgum appeared fine. The shrapnel tore up parts of his costume, but none had harmed him.
Shielding his eyes from the gunfire Fatgum ran up to the villains inside. The villains tried to whittle down his fat stores but didn't have the firepower needed to succeed. There Fatgum punched the closest villain, knocking the man out in one punch. He did the same to the next villain, before grabbing him and throwing his body at another villain. By now the villains had given up shooting him, and now just threw whatever explosive they had on hand.
Dozens of grenades were thrown at Fatgum, the hero again shielding his eyes. Each grenade detonated quickly, clouding the area in smoke and shrapnel. But again, Fatgum wasn't harmed. Forcing his way forward, Fatgum continued to beat any villain that got in his way. All he could wonder was why there were so many of them. They'd been at this for hours now, and yet the villains seemed endless.
After what felt like an eternity, Fatgum had cleared out the apartment building. Quickly he ran back downstairs, to regroup with the police outside. Reaching them, Fatgum could tell things were bad. Dozens of officers were dead, and at least twenty civilians stood behind them cowering. If that wasn't bad enough, four minor heroes were also dead. It made Fatgum angrier the longer he looked.
"Everybody ok?" Fatgum asked, earning the eye of a few officers.
"Wouldn't say ok, but we'll live," one replied tiredly, rubbing his arm carefully.
"Who's still with us?" Fatgum inquired, looking around the area.
"Uh… Officer Akao, Officer Banno, Officer Furuta, Officer Haruki, and me," the same officer answered, pointing at each cop still standing.
"Not a lot of us left," Banno muttered quietly, his voice shaking as he spoke, "We're… we're not gonna make it out of this."
"Don't say that. Everyone here is getting out of here," Fatgum told him confidently, though even he was finding it difficult to believe, "Any backup heading our way?"
"Last I checked, a couple of squads were coming to regroup with us. But they haven't reported yet," the first officer replied, before grabbing his radio. Not wanting to disturb him, Fatgum stepped away for a moment to check up on the civilians. They were all terrified, looking around the area and waiting for the villains to attack again. Almost all of them had been trapped under bombed-out buildings and were all caked with bits of dust and rubble. Fatgum couldn't believe any of this was even happening.
"Hey everybody! Everything's gonna be ok. Have the officers checked up on everybody?" Fatgum asked quietly, drawing the civilians' attention to him. Each one looked at him, and the general mood seemed to improve instantly. They all nodded in response, most not wanting to say anything.
"Good-" Fatgum was about to say before the officer loudly cut him off.
"Say again!?" the officer demanded into his radio, as Fatgum looked back at him worried.
"Villains are overwhelming our flanks. All units are to fall back to defensive lines," he overheard from the radio, causing Fatgum to go wide-eyed. Again… they were falling back, again.
"Fall back! We've just started making gains!" the officer protested, with Fatgum in agreement.
"The villains are threatening to encircle everyone with you. Again, all units are to fall back to defensive lines," the man on the radio replied tiredly, already having to explain this to a dozen other people. With that, the radio went quiet, and Fatgum quickly got angry. All these dead cops, all these dead heroes, and they again made no progress in the city.
Grizzly, despised this. Resting under a small tree, he looked out at Musutafu, hearing the sounds of gunfire. He'd gotten used to the sounds of war years ago, yet this time felt haunting to him.
"Can't believe this bullshit," Grizzly muttered, turning to face his nearby squad mates, "A war's raging out there and we can't do a damn thing."
"I hear you. The whole thing reminds me of Onishita too much," Eagle replied, the man polishing his Desert Eagle carefully. Ape shook his head next to Eagle, a frown present on his face.
"Nah, Onishita was tamer compared to this. This… I don't know what to compare this to," Ape commented tiredly, "Heard the enemy outside was parading around corpses yesterday."
"They are," Marston confirmed over the Idroid, "One of them was a teen. Son of some bigshot hero apparently."
"Sick fucks," Grizzly spat out angrily. He could see the smoke rising from here, he could hear the gunfire. And yet he couldn't do a damn thing about it. Instead, he and the rest of his squad were forced to sit back and watch. A part of him was beginning to agree with Gecko, about staying in Africa, though for different reasons. At least in Africa, he didn't have to sit by and watch as people were shot in the streets.
But here, he could do nothing but listen. Slowly he began to hear footsteps walking toward him. Shifting slightly to find the source, Grizzly found Yaoyorozu approaching them. Next to the girl were Ashido and Hagakure. All of them seemed nervous, each girl looking up at the sky worriedly, as if expecting artillery to start raining down on them again.
"Sup," he calmly greeted, the rest of his squadmates now noticing the girls. Each provided some small wave, which the girls returned.
"I… hope we're not intruding," Yaoyorozu said politely, with Ape waving her off.
"Nah, we're all just relaxing right now," the Lieutenant replied, earning another grumble from Grizzly.
"For some fucking reason," the soldier muttered, earning a look of confusion from Yaoyorozu.
"How have you girls been?" Eagle inquired, before noticing the nervousness Yaoyorozu had.
"Well…" Yaoyorozu hesitantly began, thinking over the words, before flinching at the sound of gunfire.
"Alive," she eventually decided to say, which Grizzly ruled as a fair answer. Couldn't exactly say she was fine, not after yesterday.
"How uh… how about you guys?" Yaoyorozu asked as Grizzly started to scratch his face.
"Us? Eh, been better," Grizzly replied, though he quickly began to regret his casual tone. The moment he stopped talking Yaoyorozu looked at all of them shocked, and confused.
"Been… better," Yaoyorozu restated, "How… how are you so calm about this?"
"I mean, we're uh… we're kinda used to this," Eagle replied earning another shocked look from Yaoyorozu, the girl not bothering to translate for her friends.
"Used to this!? The world's biggest villain attack happened yesterday, how… how are you used to this!?" Yaoyorozu asked shocked, "So… so many people died, I almost died, we almost died!"
She seemed almost desperate in her words, the teen again flinching at the gunfire going off in the city.
"Well… for us that's just… Tuesday," Grizzly hesitantly replied, with Eagle nodding beside him slowly.
"This is pretty much Venezuela, except with fewer trees and more concrete," Eagle told her, only for Ape to snap his fingers.
"Also more suicidal charges," Ape added.
"That too," Eagle continued. The words lingered with Yaoyorozu for a minute, the teen thinking it over. Behind her Ashido and Hagakure looked at her friend warily, questioning her on what was being said. Gecko seeing this, decided to translate, leaving the other girls to look at the soldiers shocked.
"V-Venezuela… this… this was what it was like in Venezuela," Yaoyorozu muttered, the revelation hitting her like a truck.
"Somewhat. The whole death and destruction was never on this grand scale, but it was close to it in some cases," Grizzly told her, seeing what was happening. Her class had gotten a taste of war. The horror, desperation, and bloodshed behind it. And Yaoyorozu didn't know what to think of it. She never expected to experience anything like this. None of them had. It brought Grizzly back to his first day in the MSF.
The body of that burnt child still seared into his mind. He shook the thought away, before looking at the girls again. Clicking his tongue he looked back at his squadmates, each one looking at each other for a moment.
"Ah, enough of this doom and gloom crap," Grizzly commented, "You got any cards with you?"
"W-what?" Yaoyorozu asked surprised, blinking a few times in shock.
"Playing cards?" Grizzly clarified, with Yaoyorozu looking at him confused.
"…I guess. Why?" Yaoyorozu asked, slowly pulling out a deck of cards from her arm. She passed the deck to Grizzly who opened the box and dumped out the cards.
"Well it's pretty obvious to us, you three are traumatized. And unfortunately, none of us are therapists," Grizzly explained, now shuffling the cards in his hands, "However, if there's one thing we know, nothing helps the pain, like a game."
Yaoyorozu didn't seem to believe him, the girl again flinching at far-off gunfire. Yeah, a game was definitely needed right now. Just something to keep the mind at ease, until they could see a professional.
"Ok… what are we playing?" Yaoyorozu inquired curiously, the girl slowly sitting down.
"Your choice," Grizzly replied with a shrug.
"How about Texas Hold Em," Marston piped up, the AI deciding to make his presence known. The AI's Idroid currently sat on the grass, next to Ape. In seconds the AI's avatar appeared on the device, sitting down with his hat off.
"...Why not," Yaoyorozu replied, Ashido and Hagakure sitting beside her.
"Great, mind if I deal?" Marston asked, causing everyone to pause. Eagle looked down at the AI with his brow raised.
"With what hands?" the staff sergeant asked, before hearing a new set of footsteps walk up behind him. Turning around, Grizzly spotted a humanoid robot standing behind Eagle. Grizzly just stared at the robot for a second, before the machine waved at him.
"The fuck is R up to these days," Eagle muttered rhetorically, while Ape looked ready to pull out his hair.
"Did you steal this thing? Please tell me you didn't," Ape asked, with the AI's avatar, and the robot shaking his head no.
"Of course not, command wanted these things to get some testing. Thought I'd test this one's hands, see if everything works right," Marston replied, his hands doing quotations when he said "test".
"...If I get a court-martial, you're taking the fall," Ape decided, rubbing his eyes tiredly.
"Works for me," Marston said with a cheeky grin on his face, "Oh wait before I forget."
The second he said the words, the robot's arms reached behind itself, and grabbed a cowboy hat. Quickly the machine then placed it on its odd-looking head. Grizzly stared at it for a second, before chuckling.
"Why is everything cowboy-related with you?" Grizzly asked while passing the robot the cards. Quickly Marston began passing the cards around, as Grizzly looked back at the girls. Both Hagakure and Ashido looked around nervously, but they both quickly warmed up to the idea.
"[A… game couldn't hurt]" Ashido stated, a small smile forming as she grabbed her cards.
"[Yeah… think the rest of the class would want to join?]" Hagakure asked, with Yaoyorozu thinking it over.
"[Can't see why not]" Yaoyorozu replied, before pulling out her phone. At the same time, Ashido started to laugh, the pink teen having her face in her cards.
"[You're fortune is mine Yaomomo!]" Ashido proclaimed, completely unintentionally.
"[Oh, a good hand?]" Yaoyorozu inquired, with Ashido realizing she'd been speaking.
"[N-nope! Heh, just uh, read my cards wrong…]" Ashido replied, with Gecko laughing nearby. Slowly Grizzly grabbed his cards and looked down at his hand. Might as well listen to his own advice.
Ryukyu was tired but pushed herself forward. In her dragon form, she flew up to the first helicopter she could find, before tearing up its tail rotor with her claws. Seconds later the hero cringed in pain, as anti-air guns below her started firing at her. Each one, while not penetrating her thick scales, felt like someone continually punching her in the gut. Her weaker wings though, weren't so lucky, as autocannon rounds ripped through the lighter flesh.
It caused Ryukyu to cry out in pain before the hero dive-bombed toward the ground. This was the sixth time today. Every time she tried to fly up in her dragon form, the villain's anti-air would light up the sky. Missiles would slam into her continually, and while never killing her, had enough force to knock her around. Either that or tear up her wings. And she just got them healed too. The ground coming in close Ryukyu braced herself, as she tried to slow her descent with her hole-ridden wings.
Managing to reach a survivable speed, Ryukyu landed on the ground hard. Her large dragon form skidded forward a bit, before ultimately stopping. It had been a fool's belief to try flying again, but what else was she supposed to do? The heroes on the ground needed air support. They needed aerial surveillance. They needed the villain's helicopters out of the sky. Her staying grounded, just wasn't possible.
Standing up, Ryukyu shook herself off a bit, before slowly shifting to her human form. Everything hurt like hell, but that didn't matter when she heard footsteps coming down a nearby street.
"The nonbeliever's this way! Everyone after her!" one of the villains shouted, causing Ryukyu to groan annoyed. She turned around ready to change back to her dragon form. Seconds later she found the villains charging around the corner, almost forty in total. Some were large mutants wielding larger caliber autocannons, others were riding on pickup trucks with weapon mounts. It mattered little to Ryukyu as she glared down at them.
If any of the villains were afraid, they didn't show it.
"Fire at will!" one of the villains loudly ordered, before every villain started shooting. Quickly Ryukyu began swatting away what villains stood before her, knocking all off their feet instantly. A few trucks drove up behind her trying to flank, though they were dealt with instantly, as Ryukyu's tail crushed them with a few swings.
It was like something out of a monster movie. The villains shot everything they had at the dragon hero, only for none of it to hurt her. Soon Ryukyu noticed something though, as a few new vehicles began driving by them. Both were large shipping trucks and while one stopped to drop off reinforcements, the other didn't. It confused Ryukyu at first before she remembered the reports she'd been given. Her eyes widened in shock as they followed the truck.
They… they were transporting kids. They had to be! The report said they were smuggling them out of the city! That truck… Ryukyu couldn't risk it. Furiously charging forward, she smashed through the villains standing in front of her. After a few seconds, she started to flap her wings, managing to lift herself off the ground somewhat. Good, Ryukyu thought, taking off into the sky again.
Below she could hear the villains cry out in anger as she ran, with some realizing her true goal. They all cried out ordering others to stop her, yet none could reach her. Catching up to the truck, Ryukyu grabbed onto the trailer. Slowly she landed on the ground behind it, digging into the road to slow the vehicle down. Her claws dug into the trailer, opening up gaps for her to hear inside.
Sure enough, she could hear kids screaming and crying, begging for help. Finally, she forced the truck to a stop. Before the driver could get out of the truck, Ryukyu rushed over and caved the cab in. It trapped the villain inside and provided Ryukyu enough time to breathe. Going back to the truck's trailer though, she tore the rear door open, earning more shocked cries from inside.
Cautiously Ryukyu looked into the truck, noticing a few kids shrink back in fear. A few others though looked at her, and their eyes lit up in recognition.
"It's ok, everything's going to be fine," Ryukyu told them while looking around the area. No villains had arrived yet, but she knew they would be coming soon. Looking back into the trailer, she could count around forty kids huddled inside the trailer. All were no older than nine. One of them even held a blood-stained infant, most likely a sibling. It broke her heart seeing it. There was no time to dwell on this fact though, as Ryukyu stepped away from the trailer.
"All of you follow me, we're getting out of here," she ordered, watching as the first kid hopped out of the trailer. One by one the others followed, before Ryukyu changed into her human form. Quietly she led the kids down an alleyway while grabbing her phone. Switching over to the Hero Network.
"This is Ryukyu. Found another truck smuggling kids out. I've got forty of them with me, need backup," she stated to her phone, waiting for the reply. Of course, her eyes widened as someone answered.
"Negative Ryukyu. All units are to fall back to defensive lines," someone on the other end replied, leaving Ryukyu dumbstruck.
"W-what? I've got forty kids with me out here, I need backup now," Ryukyu protested, before ducking back as an enemy truck drove by.
"Everyone is already in retreat. There is no one we can send you," they replied, leaving Ryukyu quiet. She turned back to face the children behind her and mentally swore. Another day, another failed assault, and they again had gotten nowhere. Looking around, Ryukyu began searching for a place to hide out, before leading the kids to an abandoned hotel.
Ocelot looked at the map in his tent tiredly and knew things were bad. They were on day two now, of this "battle", and things were already grim. He'd set up a small FOB in a park neighboring Musutafu with his Ocelots. However, Ocelot was wishing for a more concrete structure as an explosion went off nearby.
"How many heroes this time?" Madam President asked tiredly over the phone. Another assault had been launched to try and take the city, roughly a few hours ago. Thousands of people had been assembled, with a decent chunk of the top ten leading the charge. Many had thought this would finally be the breakthrough needed as units began reporting land gains. But then the enemy began overwhelming their flanks.
All the best heroes had been leading the charge, leaving the more poorly trained heroes to guard the flanks. Needless to say, the assault had to be called off, before the country's best heroes were encircled.
"Over three hundred dead, five hundred wounded," Ocelot replied, before carefully rubbing his eyes, "Cops aren't fairing much better. At least a thousand dead or wounded."
With a thousand dead or wounded cops, Ocelot considered it a nightmare situation. Because this was just day two. On day one when they didn't have everything organized and a solid frontline, the number was three times that. The entire Shizuoka prefecture only had six thousand officers, and two-thirds of them were now dead, or in the hospital.
"Damn it!" Madam President yelled, just as something shattered in the background of the call. As much as Ocelot despised Madam President, he was unfortunately in agreement with her. This wasn't even counting hero casualties, and likely never would. Not because of something covering the information up, but because Ocelot just didn't know. Every assault he was given a new report, with wildly different numbers.
One agency said three hundred dead heroes, another said fifty. Some were underscoring casualties because they didn't want to look bad. On the flipside, others were overscoring casualties, to bring more resources and support to them, rather than somewhere else. It was all a massive headache for Ocelot as he tried to keep everything organized.
"How long until Musutafu is taken?" Madam Presiden asked annoyed, already knowing she wasn't going to like the answer.
"With current estimates? Never," Ocelot replied, as he again looked over the map in front of him.
"Never?" Madam President inquired angrily.
"Ma'am, we've got no long-range support, we've got no air support, we've barely got control of the seas and the villains don't even have a navy," Ocelot explained, "They out-gun us, outrange us, outfly us, and are dug into guerilla's wet dream."
This wasn't even all of it. They had more vehicles than the heroes did, they had more time to plan, and they didn't have to worry about the public hounding them into suicide charges. No flying hero could go into the sky, without the enemy shooting them down with a MANPAD, a SAM, or just an autocannon. The Japanese coast guard, and whatever naval heroes remained, couldn't blockade the sea effectively as the enemy kept launching anti-ship missiles.
Some were shot down by the Coast Guard, but they were few and far between. And for the ground forces? Every time they began to make their way into the city, the enemy would shell them with everything. MLRS systems, howitzers, and mortars outranged anything the heroes had. That alone killed ninety percent of heroes, more than every other weapon. At this point, Ocelot was half expecting the enemy to pull chemical weapons out of nowhere. It was by some miracle that it wasn't the case.
"You've got to be kidding me," Madam President muttered to herself before the woman began pouring some kind of drink.
"I'm sorry to say ma'am, but unless they run out of ammo in the next hour, then we're gonna be here for a long while," Ocelot told her, causing Madam President to grumble.
"The Minister of Defence is already under flak Ocelot. If this goes on any longer you can be damn sure we'll be joining her," Madam President told him, "I don't care what it takes, that city must be put under our control."
With that, she hung up, leaving Ocelot in a momentary silence.
"Well, can't say that went well," a voice piped up behind him, and Ocelot mentally swore.
"Hawks," Ocelot muttered, trying to hide his annoyance, "Thought you were at the front."
Behind him the hero shrugged, walking up next to him with his usual grin.
"A little birdie told me you were in the neighborhood, so I just had to come by and visit," Hawks replied, juggling a feather between his fingers.
"Of course you did," Ocelot grumbled, as he continued to look over the map. Quietly he begged for Hawks to get bored and just leave. Of course, Hawks didn't and instead began looking over the map as well.
"So, how are we doing?" Hawks asked, with Ocelot chuckling dryly.
"Poorly," Ocelot replied.
"I know that. I mean how poorly," Hawks explained, with Ocelot sighing for a minute.
"Well, unless the villains run out of ammo in five minutes, then we'll be stuck here for weeks," Ocelot told him, causing Hawks to grumble. Both men looked over the map quietly, before Hawks looked up at him.
"Could always call up Nezu," Hawks commented, causing Ocelot to look at Hawks suspiciously.
"What? You and he were all buddy-buddy. Don't believe for a second you stopped contacting him," Hawks explained, which Ocelot didn't deny.
"Not sure that'll do much, him and his staff won't be enough to turn the tide," Ocelot told him, with Hawks shrugging.
"Get the mercs involved then," Hawks told him, earning another suspicious glance from Ocelot, "Desperate times call for desperate measures."
Ocelot pretended to think it over quietly. Bringing in the MSF was already his primary plan, he wasn't about to let Hawks know that though. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it, as Ocelot didn't have the authority to bring the MSF in. And if he did, well he'd be throwing away all the good rep he'd acquired in the HPSC. Still, Ocelot sighed for a moment before rubbing his eyes.
"I'll see what I can do," Ocelot told him tiredly.