18/01/2025

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The Emperor's Dragon
Chapter 90 - Heat Before Fire

Eren rubbed his temples.

This had been a bad day.

He glanced at the clock. It was still morning. He didn't care. It was about midnight in Reykjavik, so it was the end of the day.

It had been a bad day. A spectacularly bad day. A phenomenally bad day.

It was a day that was going to go down in the annals of Tartarus history. In world history.

And his name, Eren Kuchisu would be forever known as the man who had let Tartarus fall. It was a dubious honour he could do without. He couldn't even put it on Ryunosuke since the man had been sick for the last week. He was due back in another day or so but for now, Eren was having to do both jobs.

And losing Tartarus was an honour he couldn't see how to avoid.

The attack had come without warning. Their opening salvo had been so strategically placed that they had destroyed all but one of the gun emplacements on their defensive turrets. That still left the guards up there, with their guns but the higher calibre weapons had been destroyed. Then they blew up the power cables and… He wasn't sure if they had destroyed the generators or just the lines to them. Either way, the main backup generators hadn't kicked in.

That left the buildings with their batteries and their own smaller generators, but those had to be activated manually.

What was bothering him wasn't that the emplacements and the lines had been destroyed. Eren wasn't a fool. It was relatively easy to get explosives or have a quirk that could do it. What was bothering him was the fact that they knew where those placements were. That was not meant to be possible.

And with the way the attackers were rampaging wasn't random. They had knowledge. The way they were attacking screamed to him that they knew too much. They were covering it with a lot of wanton destruction, but their strikes were not accidental. Even with the numbers of attackers they shouldn't be taking out so many important places randomly. They knew what they were doing.

That worried him. It worried him more than the fact that the attackers appeared to have changed their plan. For all he knew that seeming change in plan was actually their plan.

He had watched the feed they had from the outside when the attack began. The Tartarus Managers were given briefings about multiple villains, not just those who resided in the prison. The latest briefing had been about their newest resident, the so-called super-villain All For One, but it had included a section on his known associates, including his son.

Nothing had said anything about a massive green dragon!

The huge creature had descended upon the island and begun destroying buildings. It worked in conjunction with the huge man and both of them just shrugged off gunfire from the guards. Eren knew that other guards had quirks which could probably deal with them but… The hordes of creatures - he believed they were called Nomu - were keeping the guards at bay. If that's all they were doing, they'd be in a good position, no matter what happened but Eren… He didn't want to look at the board that showed the status of guards. Tartarus Island was more than just the prison, but it was all guarded and he had control over them all… And could see the status of them all.

There was a distressing number of status indicators showing negative.

Then the Dragon disappeared. He had no idea where it went but realised that it had to be a transformation quirk. And… the most likely person it belonged to was All For One's son. Eren couldn't be sure of that but… It seemed like the most logical explanation and right at the moment, it actually didn't matter. What mattered was he had to come up with some way of stopping them.

Except, communication wasn't responding. Eren had moved over to the station and could see that Senku was doing everything right… the signal just wasn't going anywhere. The equipment was working, and the signal was going out but… No one was responding.

"Try Research and Development," Eren ordered.

Senku gave him a look. They'd both seen the building destroyed by the dragon, before their visual feeds had cut off.

"The bunker," he specified, referring to the shelter in the building. All of the shelters could communicate, and he didn't think the lines had been cut to them.

The Communications Officer nodded and tapped a few commands into the station.

Eren didn't need Senku's shake of head to know that communication had failed. That could mean several things. There was a possibility that no one was in the shelter. That was highly unlikely. There were those who would have evacuated there at the first sign of the attack. Given the way the attackers knew about Tartarus, there was a chance that the lines had been cut but- The sensors would pick that up, and the sensors were saying everything was connected. No one was answering.

"I can't raise anyone, Sir," Senku told him.

"Try externally."

"No, Sir. I've already tried," the Comm Officer said. "I can't get anyone."

Eren felt his teeth clench. It was a tic Fulaka did on occasion. "Keep trying," he instructed.

He looked back at the security board and felt his eyes widen. The board was a digital representation of Tartarus. For the most part it was used during drills to isolate where issues were. In this situation it was showing that the surface of the island was… well there were incidents everywhere but thankfully the indicators for the shelters were all green. But there was another problem…

The prison situation lights were one.

"What the hell?" Eren gasped, staring at the lights. The attackers hadn't yet broken into the prison. They shouldn't be there… They weren't there, he realised. It was the prisoners. "What is going on?"

Even with the power failing, the prisoners were meant to be secure. That section of Tartarus had independent power, exactly for this situation. Not that it had ever been envisaged that someone would be able to assault Tartarus… Well, correction. No one had envisaged that a force could successfully assault Tartarus. Nothing less than a small army… which is what was attacking. But even then, the prisoners would be secure.

"When communications failed, we lost contact with the prison levels," Senku reported.

"And?" Eren growled, though he already knew the answer.

And somehow the prisoners knew something was going on, and while they were meant to be contained, they were doing something. The prison was in lockdown, which meant he couldn't send anyone down and he couldn't expect anyone to make it from the prison level.

So, he had no idea what was going on and could only assume the worst. The prisoners were free… or at least some of them were. He glanced to the guard status board and gagged… The status signals were down.

The guards were dead. The prisoners weren't the type to … take prisoners. They were not here because they were sane or safe or… Any word that meant the guards would survive.

Eren swallowed hard. With comms out, he was stuck here, because even if he went out what could he do? All they could hope was to warn the world.

This was a bad day. A spectacularly bad day. A phenomenally bad day… and…

He had the feeling it was only going to get worse.

-ted-

Most people could see that his scars were burns but what most people didn't think about was what had caused those burns. As he grappled with Edge Shot, Dabi deliberately raised his temperature. He might have inherited his mother's resistance to cold, but he had been conditioned to heat. When he got back from this, maybe he would accept Dragon's offer of more quirks.

That was a thought for later.

The effects of raising his temperature were obvious when Edge Shot released him and whizzed off somewhere. He didn't care where, so long as he wasn't in the way.

Dabi growled as he got up and brushed himself off. Now where was his old man? He looked around the square and spotted him. The only problem was the old man was finishing off another Nomu.

Fuck! He had to be getting short on them. Yakuni had been proud of his creations, but he had also warned that they were the first he'd ever made. And he'd said that the Doctor… Had been less than helpful. Even so they were tough and strong and had multiple quirks so that was something.

And he wasn't a good for nothing. Dabi whistled, calling the Nomu back to him.

As they moved, he looked around the square.

Fuck. Things were not good.

Rappa was down and… Dabi thought that was Hawks standing over him. The hero had almost no wings left so at least the battle hadn't been easy. Edge Shot was blocking one of the exits to the square and Wash was doing something to douse one of the Nomu in soapy water which Endeavor then flamed… Ah, they'd worked out that fireproof was not steam proof. That wouldn't work on him.

And they were distracted. As Rikiya, Toya, and Yu came to him Dabi realised what had gone wrong. All the Nomu were specialised to Endeavor. That made them relatively weak against other heroes. It wasn't like they were completely useless. The bodies of Endeavor's sidekicks gave evidence of that but if the Nomu had a greater variety of quirks then… it was a…

He couldn't say it was a rookie mistake because rookies didn't get this far. It was a mistake born of impatience. He'd been so focused on getting Endeavor that he hadn't considered alternatives and other possibilities. He'd been so close to the end that he… He'd focused on that when he should have focused on the path. Just like Izuku had with Tartarus. Dragon had let him work out the distraction when he volunteered and… It was too late to lament now.

For a moment Dabi was tempted to just give up.

Not really give up but he could allow himself to be captured here. He was pretty sure that Dragon would get him out, especially if he was in a good mood. Then he could try again… No, it wouldn't be try then, if he got captured now then he'd definitely kill Endeavor the next time but-

Endeavor knew who he was, and the man wouldn't remain silent and… With Tartarus destroyed there was a chance he'd just be executed without seeing his dream. There was no way he was going to allow that.

No… He had three Nomu and himself.

Endeavor had a depleted Hawks, Edge Shot, Wash, Shouto and his sidekicks. It wasn't quite even on numbers but… He was prepared to go further than they were. He'd win.

One way or another. And Endeavor had to be careful with his fire or he'd hurt his allies. Dabi didn't have to be. He smirked. He should have done this first. Dabi lifted one hand, and flexed his fingers into claws, igniting the tip of each one, before flicked his hand around aiming towards the heroes. Streams of flame burst forth, heading towards each of the threats.

Shouto reacted by putting out a wall of ice, but it wasn't enough. Dabi wanted them down and his fire was hotter. The ice didn't have much chance to steam before it cracked but his targets were, for the most part, professional heroes, so they managed to dodge. Still, they recognised the change in feeling. Dabi didn't release his flames, just because they'd dodged. He sliced through the building, watching as debris fell and chased Endeavor with the fire.

He could see from here that the Number One Hero's teeth were clenched, and Dabi could tell that Endeavor wanted to say something. But he probably didn't want the other heroes to hear the sordid tale of his family. Dabi released his fire, forming a fist and sent several flaming punches at the Heroes but not at Endeavor.

The man took the opening and Dabi grinned as the old man accelerated to attack. Endeavor relied on his fire to increase his speed… He could do that as well and he burned hotter. "Keep them busy," Dabi commanded the Nomu before he dashed to meet Endeavor.

He didn't intend to slug it out with his old man, but a physical battle had always been a possibility.

"Touya," Enji said softly, once they were close enough to speak without the others hearing.

There was an odd note in his old man's tone. Dabi felt sick as he realised Enji, of all people, was trying to project empathy and compassion in his tone. The man only knew those words as concepts for the weak. As the very things that defined those weaker than him!

"Surprised to see me, old man?" Dabi challenged.

He saw Endeavor swallow and his jaw worked as the Number One Hero tried to think of a response.

"Oh, come on! You can say it," Dabi mocked. "'You're meant to be dead,'" he parroted, affecting a deeper tone that mimicked Enji's voice. "It's not that hard."

"Touya," Endeavor repeated.

Dabi growled. "That hasn't been my name for years! Not since your goal became reality!" he retorted.

The day Shouto's quirk had come in was the day Touya Todoroki had died. It had taken a few years for his body to catch up but that was the day.

"You couldn't look past the quirk. You couldn't see other possibilities because all you wanted was that quirk!" Dabi hissed.

He could see Enji was trying to think of a counter, was trying to come up with a way of saying it wasn't true… and failing. Once Shouto's quirk had come in, as the perfect manifestation of fire and ice, he'd been thrown out. Discarded. Not needed.

And that had hurt.

More than the training, the burns, the lack of friends. It had hurt.

To be dismissed… as if he was nothing! All because of that quirk.

Dabi launched a flaming fist at Enji and felt a burst of satisfaction when it hit.

Endeavor staggered back while Dabi held position, trembling at the force of his anger. He should have had Dragon give him Shouto's quirk and then given his to Shouto. That would have been justice.

Though Enji wouldn't have seen it or acknowledged it. Not without an explanation.

"I…" Enji said falteringly. "I…"

Dabi waited for the complete sentence.

"What have you done, Touya?"

The question wasn't what he expected. Dabi raised one eyebrow, tilting his head to convey his question.

"You wanted to be a hero," Endeavor explained. "You wanted to save people," the new Number One Hero continued. "What have you done?"

For a moment, Dabi didn't believe his ears! What had he done? Was the old man really asking that? What had Endeavor done was the real question and the Number One Hero couldn't even acknowledge that.

Dabi screamed, releasing a Jet Burn at Endeavor. Frankly, if the fire vapourised him then that was all for the better!

"What have I done?" Dabi raged, noting that Enji had avoided the worst of his quirk attack. That hardly mattered. Rage just fuelled his fires, and he was already burning.

"Everything I've done, I did for you!" He screamed. "I wanted to be a hero to please you! I trained to please you! I burned to please you! But it was never enough. I was never enough!" Dabi spat.

He was aware that on one level he sounded like a petulant child. He could have just enrolled in UA or somewhere else and become a hero to spite his father. But even if he had, Dabi knew, he'd always be tarred with the brush. He'd still just be Endeavor's son, even when the bastard had nothing to do with his achievements. Even when those achievements were obtained to spite Endeavor.

Lucas had made that clear. Lucas had made a lot of things clear, and Dabi was almost sorry he'd killed him. Lucas had become a liability, one that Dabi hadn't realised he'd created until it was too late to go back. At least he'd made it quick. It had been a bit of a shame since Lucas had helped him through the early days of villainy, but Lucas had his own motives, and he would have… Dabi wasn't entirely sure but it would have been something he didn't like. Probably attempted to ransom him back to Endeavor or blackmail the old man… but in that crude, low level way Lucas did. He was good in that he taught Dabi the basics, but Dabi had outgrown him.

For a moment, Endeavor looked stricken and then his expression firmed. "You are not my son," he said simply.

Dabi felt his eyes widen, and then he felt his fire surge before he laughed. It was not that simple. The Police had his prints. They knew he was involved with Dragon. And today, while they'd only take his body, the identification would be conclusive.

Plus, there were a number of little surprises he had prepared for Endeavor. Skeptic owed him that broadcast and it had been a pain in the ass getting the dirt on the man to ensure he would broadcast. And while the old man wouldn't be alive to see that, it would destroy any hope the HPSC had of making Endeavor a martyr.

Dabi allowed his flames to cover him, and he reached inside to begin unlocking his core. His fire burned the hottest there and he had discovered, no thanks to Enji, that he had been able to lock excess heat there. The plan had been to learn how to release it slowly, but he'd never been able to do that. Every time he tried, he'd released the lot and been left burnt and shivering. So now he had years worth of fire stored there and today, he'd release it, in a move that not even Enji would be able to withstand.

He could see that the new Number One hero suspected something. The waves of heat coming off him made that clear but there was nothing he could do about it.

"I am your son, Enji Todoroki. Your first-born son, Touya Todoroki, and it's time to burn!"

-ted-

Eren has realised whatever else is happening today, his career has tanked :D And Dabi is getting ready to be as serious as he can get. Hellfire ain't got nothing on Blueflame!

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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