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CHAPTER START---
Five days after Tech effectively took over the world, things have begun to settle.
Humans have done what they do best, adapt, survive, and move on.
The destruction of London 2 days ago still haunts billions of people, but since then no other examples have been made, and in fact, things have gone exactly as Horizon expected.
As the person with the most information and mobility, he withheld what he deemed necessary to get everyone into position.
Like pieces on a chessboard, and with the sacrifice of 20 million people, he's placed Tech into a position where they have all the options, all the power, but cannot act because they desire everything, all at once.
As Horizon said, Tech wants the world under his thumb, but doesn't want the world to change.
He wants a perfectly preserved world that obeys him, but is not willing to burn it all down and rule the ashes for as long as it would take to rebuild.He is, fundamentally, human, and that, is his weakness.
The weakness that Horizon has planned around and exploited to get them into a position to checkmate him.
At the cost of earning the ire of many, and surely countlessly more when, or if the full details of their plans ever get revealed.
Horizon capitalized on his ability to perform cold logic, set his human emotions aside, close his heart to others, and make the most effective choice possible.
But beneath all that, no matter how people think of him, and how hard he tries to show that Horizon is a coldly logical being who only cares about efficiency and can solve any problem with enough time.
While even his DNA is evolved and unique, in some regards, he is still human.
After five days of no sleep, only working and moving, collecting information, and planning around Tech, Law Matani lies in his bed and stares into the absolute darkness of his room.
"Today is the day," Law mutters as his eyes glow bright blue, his Room already active and sensing people doing final preparations within this secret base.
Closing his eyes he can even feel some people praying, which almost makes him smile.
"If people aren't working, and are praying, then we've really done everything we can," Law says as he warps his phone into his hand.
With a few taps, he makes a call, and despite the time difference it instantly connects.
All thanks to Nezu's closed network and the few phones he shared around.
"Hi, is everything ok?" Ryuko asks before he can say anything.
"Yeah, I'm just, thinking," Law says as he leaves the phone floating in front of him and closes his eyes.
"Oh," he can hear the uncertainty in her voice. "Bad thoughts, or, hopeful thoughts?"
"Are you still up in the mountains with your team?"
"Yeah, you told me to stay here so, I haven't left. I saw the broadcasts he did, about London," Ryuko says. "People are a lot more scared, they still believe in you to protect us but, they're moving either toward Tokyo, toward Horizon Tower, or away from the cities."
"Yeah, I figure as much," Law says. "Musutafu is also swarmed right now, UA is doing its best but, too many people…"
"It's a lot of pressure huh, how are you holding up?"
"I'm Horizon, I'll be fine," Law says. "But I've never had to make decisions this big before."
"How big?"
"Either soon you hear that we won, or you'll hear nukes drop across the world," Law says, then takes a moment to imagine it. "Yeah, and either way, a big part of it will be because of me."
"Oh, so Horizon has a heart, that's new," she says jokingly, and she chuckles.
"I think I'm buying into Nezu's propaganda a bit too much," Law admits. "I enjoyed the perks of being a Pro Hero, but, against Immolation, my body just moved when I sensed people were in danger."
"So you didn't intentionally put yourself in danger?" Ryuko asks, with concern in her voice. "That's bad, what if—"
"I know. It's like All Might and…Deku, always say," Law groans. "Seeing people in danger makes your body move on its own, so annoying."
"And heroic, but, that scares me," Ryuko says. "I want you here, not a heroic memory."
"Yeah, I know, it scares me too. But I guess if you play a part long enough, it becomes part of you."
"I see…should I be worried about you, more than I always worry atleast?" Ryuko asks. "You'll be coming back home, right?"
"Yeah, I'm not the type to sacrifice myself, you don't have to worry about that, I'll live," Law says. "But I can't speak for…everything else."
The silence hangs in the air for a minute before Ryuko speaks.
"So?" she asks, slightly annoyed.
"Huh?"
"So what?" she asks, even more annoyed. "If you're alive, and I'm alive, that will always be enough. Who cares about everything else? When I'm with you, it's like we're the only people in the world, so nothing would be any different."
Law smiles, "How did you ever last as a Pro Hero, if you were always such a selfish woman?"
"You'd be amazed what a person can do to please their family and friends."
"Yeah, I probably would be, since I've never really done that," Law says. "Even my parents didn't want me to become what I am now…maybe I should have just walked away."
"Then the world would really have no chance, unless you think the Pro Heroes of the world can handle this disaster without you."
Law chuckles, "Now you're being silly, they care too much, they'd be lost trying to save everyone and making no progress, without me. London would be here, but, then we'd have to live under Tech forever."
Ryuko laughs, and then the line falls silent for a moment.
"I should probably get to work, wish me luck."
"You're Horizon, winning is what you do, you don't need any luck," Ryuko says.
"You fell for my propaganda too? I thought you were better than that."
"Nah, if anything I know the truth about what you are, and that's why I'm still here."
"Yeah, I'm catnip, and you're, a Wild Wild Pussycat."
Ryuko groans at the terrible joke, and he can imagine her rolling her eyes at him.
"Horizon, you know, I don't think I've ever said it, but—"
"Save it for when you see me again," Law says. "Now I've got to get out of bed, when this is over, you'll know how it went."
"Right, of course, I'll be waiting," she says. "Good luck."
"Don't need it, remember? Because I'm Horizon," he says before ending the call.
---Minutes Later…
Horizon is standing around a large table with an atlas projected on the surface of it.
Also around the table are Star and Stripe, Principal Nezu, David Shield, President Skyline, and a few military advisors.
Spread out across the map are zones of red, green, and yellow, along with purple locations marked with numbers based on transmission speeds.
"This is a lot of ground to cover," President Skyline says.
"Which is why I've spent the last few days narrowing it down," Horizon says as he points to the purple markers. "Those are the data nexus points around the world, basically where all the internet is connected the best, ranked by upload speed."
Nezu speaks up, "I managed to map this data transmission speed during the last few calls, Tech is bouncing his data through the entire network all at once, but he has to be using one of these as the main source."
"But we already checked those," Star' says. "They were unbothered."
"And we can't support a fight in most of those places," One of the generals says. "We can give you close air support around our borders but, the farther out you go the weaker our power projection is, we can't do jackshit with limited communications."
"Which is why I've been thinking about our attack strategy so much," Horizon says as he points at the green zones, most of which were over the oceans. "This is where we'd be hardest to detect, all the stealth tech in the world can only do so much when the enemy is looking through every military satellite in the world."
"Every data nexus is in the red zones," President Skyline says.
"And he's increased his surveillance on them, so they are a weak point that he's aware of," Horizon says. "The yellow is just the in-between, but those might as well be red with how much we're risking on this plan."
"If we delay a few more days I can quietly move people into position to a few of these places," one of the generals says. "But, the ones in Russia and China will be…difficult. And those are likely essential to this entire network."
"If we believe that he's connected conventionally," Horizon says.
"What are you getting at?" Nezu asks.
"Well, Tech was able to do all of this, and is a Technopath, with things that make him infinitely more dangerous," Horizon says. "Between all the technology he stole, and the power generator he got, he doesn't need any known infrastructure."
"So he's off the grid?" Star' asks. "That makes him even harder to find."
"Impossible to find," Horizon says. "Unless you remember, that he's just a human."
With that he places his hands on the table and does a few quick motions, removing everything and leaving only the basic atlas, then pulling up a grid along with regional borders.
"This, is how we find him," Horizon says. "He thinks himself a god, or more accurately, he thinks himself what humans believe a god to be. He wants the world in his hand but doesn't want to crush it to make it his, he's held apart from everyone, so…here."
Horizon focuses on a piece of the ocean just south of Hawaii, then adds the data grid to the map, showing that it's one of the thousands of spots where all the data streams are close but never touch.
"But there isn't any strategic value there," Star' says.
"It would be better to spread our forces like a net to find him," Preside Skyline says.
"I spent four days thinking about this, and I'm sure this is the place," Horizon says. "The first two days the connection was more solid the closer we got to California, from New York, and Nezu detected it stronger in Tokyo than Seoul. Now that it's more stable it's evenly spread across the world, but, that lapse he made when estimating how difficult connecting everything would be, that was enough."
"Ok," President Skyline crosses his arms and sighs. "So you want us to bet everything on your hunch that he'll be here, and if we're wrong and he detects us then bombs start dropping…instead of just waiting maybe a week and getting more intel from all the other possible points."
"We don't have a week," Horizon says. "Tech is growing impatient, realizing that managing the world is more than any one person can handle. His nature is to micro-manage everything but that can't be done on this scale. I say we've got two days until he goes cold and starts molding the world with more aggressive means."
"This is still a big gamble," President Skyline says. "We don't even know what we'll find there, and we can't send anyone, because if you're right he'll know we're onto him."
"And as soon as we launch the attack we've got less than," Horizon gestures to Nezu.
"Three hours, at best," Nezu says.
"Right, three hours of Tech being blocked from the nukes to take him down," Horizon says.
"This is insane," President Skyline says. "Do you atleast have an idea of what we'll find there?"
"A giant robot," Horizon says.
And everyone looks at him as if he's crazy.
"No, I'm serious," Horizon says. "He hit the most advanced robots and drone labs short of UA, has an effectively infinite energy source, and is a technopath, there will be an army of drones, and maybe a big one."
"UA has them, so I can't imagine he wouldn't," Nezu says. "Once you and Star and Stripe can keep me safe to use the device, it shouldn't matter."
"Yeah, so let's make the final preparations," Horizon says. "We've got a world to save…"
END CHAPTER---