This chapter was meant to come out yesterday as planned, however my ENTIRE area was hit with a black-out from Tuesday evening to just a little over an hour ago. We went over 36 hours without power because of 'a fault in the line'. It was madening for so many reasons, and when we went to see them yesterday when power hadn't been restorned after 12 hours, you can tell they couldn't give less of a shit as one of the reps looks like she didn't even want to be there.

Because of that, the next chapter of this isn't done, like I only got one 5th complete and because I have to chapters to work on for tomorrow, I have to make the choice not to finish it else I won't have time for More then You Think and Golden Ending. Believe me, I didn't want to make that call, if I could give myself an extra 18 hours to complete that, I would but I'm not a time master.

I'm a little behind schedule, but that isn't something I can't work with. This chapter was just straight gas for most of it as I haven't done it yet, but done a chapter where the entire Thunder is in play to display just how powerful they are as we gotta remember that the League, as it was, posed a legitimate threat to the MLA as Re-Destro bought thousands to that fight and the League held their own. The Thunder is much stronger for them, like a pound for pound; even with Twice unchained, it would be a close fight, and that's mainly cause Twice could just make more of them. Take him, and for the sake of the argument, Midoriya is off the board, and the Thunder still clears

Chapter 54: Fire in the Mine

(Previously)

The doors to the building opened, and three guards emerged, caught off guard by the severity of the storm, which, unknown to them, only covered the immediate area of the facility. "What the heck? The weather didn't say this would happen?"

"Is this why they haven't responded?" another asked, as they had to yell just to hear one another and could hardly see a few meters in front of them.

"Just find them!" the third yelled, as this was strange, and he had a half-mind to report it. Weather aside, their communications had been weather-proofed for such conditions. Even if there were issues, for 11 people to go silent was an anomaly.

With how dark it was, when something lit up, they all noticed and looked up just in time to see a massive green fireball barrelling toward them.

The ground trembled with the force of a speeding bus smashing into the brick wall as the searing hot emerald fireball came crashing into it. Mercifully, none of them 3 had been in the blast's epicenter, but that didn't save them from the effects as the shockwave it released sent them sprawling with pained, surprised cries. The heat from the attack alone transformed the snowy landscape as the delicate snowflakes were instantly vaporized, same as the snowfall, creating a towering column of steam and smoke that was quickly swallowed up by the raging artificial micro blizzard.

As for the man, while they escaped being seriously burned, the heat and blast's explosive force had done its job, leaving them dazed and injured. Their leader, an older man, could feel his age in his bones, which protested any movement as he lay in the 4-inch-deep snow, his ears ringing as he felt the edges of his beard smoking, possibly some embers from the flames.

Rolling over, he let the snow handle the fire issue and slowly worked to get his hands below him and onto his hands and knees. His hearing returned as he reached for his radio to alert the base of the attack.

Or at least, he was… until he heard something over the howling winds biting into his exposed face. It sounded like….chimes? Yes, he recognized that sound. He had heard something similar to those jingles when he went to the temple or when he visited his parents and sat close to where the wind chime was.

The base didn't have much, and when he spotted a figure slowly walking towards them, he knew it wasn't normal and quickly pulled out his radio, only for a rock, more a pebble than anything else, to come shooting through the dense snow and mist, shattering his radio and painfully hitting his palm, the surprise more than the pain causing him to let out a curse as he held his now bruised hand. Looking at the other two, one suffered a similar fate, only it was a larger stone that broke two fingers while the third.

He barely saw movement. One moment, the next, a hulking mass of what looked to be a beast of folklore stood behind his subordinate, claws pulled back and ready to strike.

"Loo-!" The claws came down with a boom! His man was unconscious before he even knew that hit him as he was driven face-first into the ground; at least the 3rd wished he was just unconscious.

All the while, he kept hearing that chime, those soft, melodic yet eerie and terrifying chimes…wait, he knew of a villain that had such, but that shouldn't be possible; how would he even know about this place!?

But as his vision grew accustomed, or perhaps the winds died down, he could make out the large, imposing body of the Thunder's largest member, that wolf's grin making him feel like the lamb that had strayed from the herd. The jingles continued as the figure continued their slow approach, allowing him to make out more of them, from their large purple and green haori that fluttered in what seemed to be a perpetual updraft, their thick white and purple obi sash to the purple snake wreath atop their head, and lastly, the giant snake wrapped around their shoulders.

There could be no mistake, this…this was him; this was Pyre.

Stopping not even three paces from the downed guard, he felt like he was facing a volcano, indifferent to the people and lives it could ruin at any moment. Yet this one smiled at him, with eyes so bright, a smile so pure that it just didn't make sense. That lack of logic, that lack of reason, spoke to a primal fear in him that told him to flee.

Pyre smiled, his eyes glowing in the intense cold as he used his quirk to warm himself and his scale-covered friend. "Hello, would you tell us what we might expect to find? We wouldn't want to break everything searching."

"S-searching? For what?" The man asked, only to shut up thanks to the snake lunging for his fast, almost too fast for him to react. He swatted at it, but Koharu dodged it, pulling back but remaining within range if he tried something.

"Koharu, be nice." Pyre hardly seemed bothered that his pet could have attacked him, treating it like people with small, yappy dogs acted when the dog snapped at guests. "Sorry about her. She can be a little impatient, but she is right. That's not information you need to know, is it?"

This time, he couldn't dodge the lunge, but it didn't come from Koharu, but Pyre, whose smile remained cheerful and bright even as his hand clamped onto his shoulder like a vice, those nails of his digging deep into his coat and nearly reaching the skin.

"So please answer the question, or this could get...messy." Pyre threatened him, the man thinking of all the reports and images he had seen of those unlucky enough to cross paths with this pyromaniac.

But he was hand-picked to protect this place for a reason, and he would carry out his duty even if it killed him. So he gathered his bravery, shoved his fear into a deep, dark place in his gut, and prepared for the end.

"Never." He replied, meeting Pyre's gaze, the young villain blinking as if surprised that he wasn't getting his way. Pyre leaned closer, studying him, all while his hand remained clamped on his shoulder, and his snake kept an eye on him so he couldn't reach for his knife or gun without it being spotted.

"Suit yourself." Pyre released his grip on him, only to snap his palm into the man's face, slapping him so hard that he went into the snow hard, coughing as he spat out a couple bloody teeth, his neck feeling like his head could have gone flying with that. "Mummy, could you throw them with the others."

Out from the blizzard, white bandages shot out, wrapping around the three men, including their mouths, before they were dragged off like the victims of some unseen horrific monster. But they had little to worry about, Mummy was just throwing them into one of the garages, one with a heater so they wouldn't freeze to death. Besides that, that guy was tough, as most people would have been knocked out by a blow like that.

"I must admit, after such a performance, I thought he would croak over." Slice approached, the woman holding her coat close as dammit, did Nine know how to whip up a mean blizzard.

Pyre frowned at the comment. "I'm not trying to kill people, I just wanted to set the mood. I have to admit, I get why so many big names do it; it's fun."

"Pyre." Nine spoke up, appearing in the wind like a snow spirit, though with how quiet he could be, none of them reacted.

"Got it!" Pyre blasted a stream of flames over him, engulfing the man who, when he emerged from it, took a deep breath, as the pain from his quirk was now but a memory, his body not so much reset as it was healed back to 100%

"Much better. So, we've ensured that they don't know it's us, but they must realize this is an attack of some kind." Nine commented, as Chimera might have made sure those 3 didn't rat them out, but that wasn't some magic bullet. They still had to get inside, and they didn't know what they would be expected, nor could they waste time as an underground facility was bound to have secondary exits they didn't know about, which they could use if they were left to stew for too long.

Slice did the path in her head, as if reinforcements were forced to drive, then they'd have plenty of time as they'd need to navigate around the water, but only an idiot would use the roads; they'd probably grab whatever boat or chopper they could instead. "The client was pretty sure that there weren't any pros we should worry about in the area, and it'll take time for some to get here from Hakodate, an hour at absolute best."

"But since there shouldn't be any real strong heroes this far north, their best bet would be people coming in from northern Honshu," Pyre added, as this far north was pretty peaceful, at least compared to the rest of Japan, and with things heating up with their attacks, the League and now All Might's retirement, most of the more competent pros would be focused where crime typically happened.

"If this base is as secretive as the client thought it was," Chimera snickered, as this place was sure as heck not as secret as the commission thought. "Then they wouldn't just send it for anyone; it'll be specific people, so we got time."

"Let's not waste it. We have a similar job: grab the kid and get out. We can wreck the place as much as we like, but this is robbery, not a search and destroy." Mummy pointed out, returning from where he had stashed the rest of the guards.

"Well, we're not going to care for damage. Let's give those waiting a proper hello, " Chimera said, gesturing towards the main building those last three came out of.

"What do you have in mind?" Pyre asked.

The facility had gone into high alert 80m below the snow and earth. They had both lost contact with their surface security, but now the team was sent to search for them. Such couldn't just be natural, as the second would have reported on any adverse weather, so it could only mean one thing: An attack.

To avoid disturbing their wards, they didn't blare an alarm- not yet anyway- but instead called out guards who would otherwise be on break to take up arms. At the same time, those closest to the instructors informed them of the situation and told them to be alert.

At the central entrance, guards had scrambled; along with them were units comparable in design and shape to U.A.'s 1 and 2 pointers, but unlike the models used by the hero school, these weren't made to be easily tricked or damaged, their frames built from stronger stuff, with more redundant systems as failures and live weapons. The base also activated its security protocols as ahead of the assembled mass of 20 guards and 10 robots, 2 ceiling turrets, equipped with specially designed quirk drying capture form round, popped out and aimed down range towards the elevator bay.

With no idea who, what, or how many were coming, the atmosphere was tense as fingers remained close to the trigger fingers. Whatever waited for them would need to use the elevator to get down, and as it only had a door on one side, it would mean they'd have free reign to fire on them once they were spotted.

They heard the thud up the shaft as it echoed down to them. Followed by another and a bite of metal bending, electrical motors designed to overpower even those with strength quirks whined and moaned as whatever was up there slowly but inevitably forced the doors open to the elevator. One guard gulped as he knew that whatever beast now had to be boarding the elevator. Only, they didn't hear the soft, well-oiled grinding of gears and hum of motors as the elevator was commanded to descend.

What they heard was a high-pitched, metallic wail as, in an instant, the elevator, once a reliable passageway, became a death trap as the intruders didn't ride down it but cut its cables, sending the massive, 6-ton steel container plummeting like an iron hammer, its descent accompanied by the scream of metal grinding on metal as the guard rails meant to keep it in check, built with teeth that would latch onto it failed, unknown to them, Nine was using his quirk to push the elevator, so that those teeth, designed to slow it down in this every event, just couldn't keep up.

When it finally came down, it was with an earth-shaking roar as the steel slammed into the hardened concrete, buckling it as the steel shell of the elevator car cracked and carved in someplace. The impact kicked up dust and smoke as some of the guards with sensitive hearing gritted their teeth and toughed it out, keeping their weapons aimed forward.

In their hearts, they felt horror forming as they looked at the wreckage of the elevator that had been the primary means of getting in…and out. The secondary entrances were a way in, and none were as large as they had been effectively bottlenecked in by whatever awaited them. Waited because surely nothing could come now, right? It was an 80m drop from the entrance down here. So, they just had to call it in and wait for orders…right?

In the lull, only their breaths could be heard as their commander reached for his radio as the guys they reported to had to see that over the cameras, but it was best to get in contact and request orders.

A howl pierced through the silence, a cry of excitement for battle, for blood, as Chimera came crashing down into the wrecked elevator, punching its steel roof and bending it on impact. When he looked up, there was a challenge in his eyes.

"Well? I'm waiting."

They fired on him right as Pyre and Koharu came down, both already transformed. While the latter remained on the defensive, forming a fiery wall from her body to protect Chimera, Pyre roared as he charged the security.

"Serpent's Fireball!" He blasted out a massive fireball, which, in such a confined space, was impossible to dodge as it crashed through their center ranks before exploding, engulfing all of them. As many let out screams as they were burned, their robotic assistants faring no better as the hear warped their metal, fried electrics, or just blew off pieces of them.

Even before the smoke cleared from the strike, Pyre was sure that none would be getting up anytime soon as the security were laid out, burned, injured, and, in many cases, already knocked out. Turning to Koharu, she unraveled as the alarms finally started blaring, putting the entire facility on high alert. If that camera watching them was any indication, they were about to have some company.

Pyre turned to the camera, looking at it to whoever was watching them, before he sent a tiny fireball at it, destroying it.

"This is code red, I repeat, this is a code red!"

"All security is to make their way to section B, and section C is to go into lockdown. All non-essential personnel with a clearance level of Beta and below are hereby barred from it. If you're caught outside the blast doors, they will not open for you."

"All wards are to make their way to section F with their instructors."

Alarms blared as the facility commander ignored the automated commands coming in over the speakers and focused on what he could do to salvage this terrible situation. "What's the situation?" he asked one of the people supervising the security room, from which they kept tabs on everything happening.

"They're tearing through us. Section A is lost, and they're battling their way through B. We're slowing them down, but we can't say for how long." He was told, which only made him frown. Those same guards weren't the run-of-the-mill mall cops. They were well trained and brought here because they had powerful wards under their care, for so many to just fall as fast as they were. What monsters the Thunder were.

"And the commission, sir?" He was asked, to which his frown only deepened.

"I've already sent out an emergency signal, but they haven't responded." He would have expected one in just 30 seconds, an automated one informing him that the message had been received, but he got no such.

"Do you think that they're jamming us?" His subordinate asked as the base around them shook, probably another aftershock from one of Nine's attacks. He might have been weather-related, but that didn't mean he needed to be outside to use it. Throw in powerhouses like Pyre and Chimera, and you will have a natural disaster trio.

"I don't know, and it's not important right now. Assume that reinforcements won't get here in time. What are our options?" He wouldn't gain anything from asking such a question. It wasn't like they could check, and regular cell signal didn't get this far underground, an intentional design feature.

"Not much. We've deployed most of our security forces to engage them, " his subordinate replied, also frowning as he did the math in his head on how much they had in reserves. It'll take time to get more towards them, and it'll leave the instructors understaffed."

"Desperate times…" The commander sighed, as they would never win with such numbers. Even if they had triple that, they would be lucky if they held out long enough for help to come, if it was coming at all. "What about an evacuation?" They had to cut their losses, as their priority was their wards, these future agents of good. They couldn't be allowed to be slain or fall to evil now.

"It'll take time; most of the wards here haven't gone through the protocols to know what to do." His subordinate reminded him that this was just the first stage of training sight and that they had already shipped out a group of more capable wards not even 1 month ago.

"The Best we can do then is get word to the instructors. We'll split into 3 groups and make an escape. Have the security buy us as much time as they can!" he ordered.

"Understood!"

Alarms continued shrieking through the concrete and steel corridors, their false wooden veneers and pretty pictures having been destroyed, and what little hadn't been touched would soon join the rest as the Thunder continued their march of destruction. Mummy's wraps writhing like serpents around him as they surged forth, restraining anything that got in his way, and either throwing into others or smacking them into walls, he turned many into his puppets, which he used to continue the assault, and as shields against the attacks of the rest.

Another turret shot out from a concealed paneling along the ceiling. It fired on him, but Mummy twitched a couple fingers, commanding two of the robotic puppets he gained to act as shields. At the same time, a third was rammed into it, destroying both as he discarded the broken took to search for another. Guards with close-range quirks and combat training kept their distance from him and relied on the rest for all the good that did.

Close behind, Slice danced around the corridors, her agility and speed making it difficult for any of them to aim for her, never mind fire. Those shots that could hit her were casually blocked by her smooth, bright red hair cascade, forming a defensive curtain and shields to protect her while other strands group up into larger ones, becoming blades and mallets.

With precise control born from training and experience, she extended outwards, weaving through the foam projectiles and cleaving through the thick armor of the turrets and robots. Her mallets sent the people flying, forming bruises and cracking bones.

She also didn't restrict herself to just this. With a laugh, she would fire off darts and needles of her hair, most strong enough to pepper anything in their way, man or machine, and leave many screaming in pain as they fell.

As more weapons and security fell, the remaining units struggled to see or hear what was happening as dust, debris, and, most importantly, smoke filled the space, leaving many coughing as they weren't equipped with gas masks and only a few had quirks which limited the effects of it. Intruder alarms mixed with alarms for evacuation and smoke detection alerts added the pandemonium as some dived behind a corner, a couple robots being too slow as the massive blast of green flames engulfed them, shattering their armor and cooking their internal components as they exploded.

In another corner, a group of security officers fired blindly into the smoke, only for a massive fiery snake to lunge out, his jaws wide opened as it nearly swallowed a woman whole, the other 4 looking in terror as their fellow guard's legs wiggled about.

The woman screamed as she faced the bone and inferno that was Koharu's mouth she clamped her jaws tighter, not enough to bite the poor woman in half, but enough that she felt bones crack and break before she spat her out into a discarded desk, shattering the cheap wood.

A larger woman, one of the staff members with a strength quirk and the build to match saw this. Still, she couldn't turn away from her battle with Pyre, the boy having shifted into that damned hell form which made her grateful her suit and gloves were highly fire resistant, else she would have burned herself just grappling him. She managed to get him into a joint lock and hauled him into the line of sight of one of the sentry guns.

She probably thought it would capture him, but even as he pelted with them and the foam started rapidly spreading across his body, he only took a breath and turned up the heat. The form held back the heat, but only for a moment before the only side of him not encased, his back-exploded.

The woman restrained screamed as she took a point-blank blast to the chest, turning into a smoking human projectile as she crashed into the wall, coming to a slump as Pyre shattered the foam and, for extra measure, picked up a chair and threw it at the turret, knocking the weapon off aim before he rushed it and pulled it out of the placement and throwing it at another sentry that had been harassing Chimera.

Speaking of the heteromorph, he was in the thick of it as he batted anything that he could get close to, though it was less a fight and more a humiliation as most hardly could take just a single one of his blows, robots shattering, people crumbling to their knees, arms bent, knee-caps busted or just throwing up after gut checks. He was a human battering ram as he let out a bark of laughter, his size being little to slow him down as while he wasn't as agile as Slice, he was fast.

At one point, he landed in the middle of several guards, who turned their weapons on him. Still, he swept the feet out from under 2, grabbed a third to beat the fourth and fifth with, and finally bent the barrel as one would bend a paper clip of the last. Such ease, such strength left them floundering, though it didn't save them as he handled all of them, dropping the bloody and bruised human stick he had been using and turning towards a couple robots that were now the enemy front line that had been their front line falling apart around them.

Rounding out the ground and at the center of the chaos was Nine. His movements were fluid and precise, not a single attack getting close to him as with little more than a glance and a flick of his fingers, gusts of wind sent anything and anyone flying. Other times, he sent falls of intense winds towards their enemies, even creating min tornados close to turrets which, designed for indoor use, couldn't hope to withstand such force, especially when debris, whether that be wrecks or people, were sucked up and smacked into them.

"Fall back, fall back!" Someone cried out.

"Dammit, just how strong how they?!" Another demanded as this was insane, how was it that not a single one had been defeated yet? Hell, how were they breathing through all that smoke?

Such questions would remain unanswered as the blast doors to their house started closing without warning, seeing that it broke through the security's discipline. While powerful, their wards had never done something like this, and certainly not in such coordination.

"Hey, wait up!" They turned and ran, leaving just the few remaining turrets and token robots to hold the line. While some managed to slide through, others were lucky that the door sealed them out.

"What a shame, you were just too slow." Nine taunted, his eyes flashing red again as he sent two gusts of wind toward those survivors, sending them all over the place, injured and out of the way. Their way clear, Nine approached the door, though it was more a deployable wall than a door as he felt over its smooth surface, the metal being as tough as he would expect.

"Chimera?" He stood aside, allowing his bulky teammate to try his hand. Chimera cracked his beck before he pulled a fist back and punched the wall. The steel crumbled and cratered under the force, shaking the space, but it didn't break through.

Chimera was a little impressed, and that leaked into his response as he retracted his first: "Not bad. It'll take me a minute to get through something this tough, maybe me."

"Then let's weaken it, I'll need fire, a lot of it." Nine asked, to which Pyre and Koharu were happy to give.

"As you wish!" Both, along with Chimera, fired out a blast of flames toward the steel, which didn't immediately break either, though it showed signs of melting. Nine, taking control of the wind once more, fed those flames but also kept them concentrated onto a specific spot, creating a small tornado so that the flames would have a sweeping effect as they heated the metal and swept it aside.

Watching as more of the door started to heat up and change color, Slice whistled, impressed. "You've gotten better at controlling it."

"Practice makes perfect. And I focus the flames into a single area," Nine started, keeping his focus as he increased the speed and intensity of the tornado before he managed to melt his way near all the way through, leaving the entire thing compromised.

"Try now." Nine breathed out, the ache setting in from having to use his quirk this much, but he ignored it. Chimera didn't question it or hesitate as he charged the wall and punched it, this time smashing straight through the warped, hot-to-the-touch metal.

"Crap, already?" On the other hand, some security guards had taken their wounded out to get treated before they abandoned the facility. Still, they hadn't accounted for how dogged their attackers would be.

"That was 2m of solid steel!" Little more was said as Chimera dealt with the worst of them, Mummy cleaning up the stranglers as the rest made their way through. But that gave them another challenge. Instead of more grunts and attempts to slow them down, they saw three paths: one leading left, the other right, and one right down the middle.

"Three paths…plans didn't say where we need to look." Nine stated, as this would be…annoying. They figured that the target could be moved to another secure location, one that would be on high alert, but for a secret installation he was sure didn't legally exist, it sure did get money thrown at it, and some of them seemed to have gone into the interior spaces designed to slow down any intruders.

"Split up?" Midoriya suggested. It might leave them open, but he figured they could handle whatever else this place had.

"Agreed. Midoriya, you're with me. Mummy's with Chimera. Slice, you take Koharu as support." Nine directed them. With the group agreeing as Midoriya handed off Koharu to Slice, the woman accepted the large serpent with little issue.

"See you when we see you," Mummy called out as he and Chimera descended the left passage.

"Try not to have too much fun; we have a job to do!" Slice joked as she dashed down the right.

"I never forget that!" Pyre called out to both of them, shaking his head. Really, him forgetting the point of a mission? It was impossible, and it wasn't something he would start today, seeing how they were rescuing someone.

"The others have left down the paths they picked, leaving us with just the one." Nine looked at his remaining teammate, who, without needing to be told, bathed Nine in fire to heal him up.

"Straight ahead it is."

The next chapter will be out April 23rd

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