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CHAPTER START---
"Keep up!" Deku screams after throwing Muscular into the sky for Dynamight. "Ignore the Villains that will gather at our back! Destroying Shigaraki is the main goal. Getting out is a bonus!"
He glances back to see Mirko struggling to keep up with his casual pace while carrying Eraser Head and Tsukuyomi.
Turn back toward the hospital fortress, he focuses on the army of Villains and Nomu ahead of him.
'The only real issue should be the High-End Nomu with Super Regeneration. Having Eraser Head makes those easier, but Mirko should be able to handle those with his help. I should crush everything else!'
He charges forward and wildly punches the air, sending pressure waves that blast away Villains and Nomu with ease, while more charge him.
Closer to the hospital, he sees a group of Villains on the roof launch streams of fire, wind, electricity, and energy beams directly at them.Deku frowns and slams his feet into the ground, cracking the street, shaking the city blocks around them, and digging himself ankle deep into the earth.
As the attacks close in, he spreads his arms wide before clapping his hands together, releasing a blast wave that tears up the earth in front of him.
It sends the streams of fire back at the hospital, while the massive landslide blasts toward the hospital and blocks the other projectiles.
He doesn't bother looking back, hearing Mirko's metal-tipped boots landing behind him, and launches forward once more.
Seconds later he's inside the hospital, having broken down the heavily reinforced entrance with ease.
He finds himself staring down an army of Nomu and Villains. Ahead of him, blocking the entrance, surrounding him on all sides, and on the balconies above, aiming down at him.
Having memorized the layout of this building, and more importantly, the route they'd be taking, Deku knows exactly what kind of attacks the structure can handle.
"Smash!" he screams as the Nomu lunge toward him and the Villains fire their Quirks.
He launches an uppercut that blasts off the roof like an air cannon. The backdraft rips most of the Nomu and Villains out of the building, launching them hundreds of feet into the sky.
Of the few enemies remaining, he sees a High-End Nomu reminiscent of an elephant, and a man with what appears to be diamond skin.
The man rushes forward after the air stream ends, closing the distance on Deku with arms outstretched to grapple him.
Deku matches his form, but is much faster, grabbing the man's arm and throwing him over his shoulder toward the destroyed entrance.
The man exits the hospital like a bullet, smashing through the structure above the entrance and soaring accross the city.
'Diamond Skin, I don't have time to deal with that kind of Quirk,' Deku thinks before turning to the High-End Nomu.
He sees its trunk grow and extend, its feet sink into the concrete floor, as whatever it did increased its weight.
"Go!" Eraser Head says from behind Deku, and he doesn't bother looking back before using his immensely superior speed to rush past the Nomu, not even touching it.
Deku dashes down the hallway, Eraser Head uses his Quirk on the High-End Nomu, disabling its regeneration for Tsukuyomi to kill it, forming Dark Shadow and tearing it in two as Mirko carries them past it.
When they enter the hallway, the building, and the entire City rumbles due to Dynamight's attack.
But even then, Tsukuyomi simply has Dark Shadow protect them from any falling rubble, now stronger in the darkness of the hallways as they descend to the underground labs.
'The Warlord Muscular has been defeated. Dynamight needs any assistance we can spare in the crater to the north-east near the hospital,' Mandalay announces to everyone.
Deku smiles while descending another flight of stairs, having expected no less from his friend.
As he enters another massive underground Nomu gestation facility, filled with massive gestation tubes of half-grown Nomu, he moves his head to the side, barely avoiding a laser beam to the face.
He sees a Nomu with one large glowing eye across the room as it charges another shot at him.
'I know that Quirk,' he thinks, recognizing that familiar pattern on the pupil.
Before it can fire, he stomps the ground, shattering it and sending fragments into the air, hundreds of fragments.
He then waves his hand, using a blast of wind to launch hundreds of pebbles at the Nomu.
Its Quirk fires, one small laser at each projectile, hundreds in an instant.
A Quirk that can split the beam to attack anything the user deems as a target at the moment of firing, but the downsides are severe, namely the toll it takes on the user's mental capacity.
All the projectiles are melted in the air, but when the Nomu scans for its target, Deku isn't there. Instead, in the instant before it fired, he used his speed to circle the room along the far wall and close in on the Nomu, tearing its head off in one smooth motion before proceeding deeper into the lab.
'Endeavor and Shoto have engaged Dabi to the south-west. Those without heat resistance, please maintain a cautious distance,' Mandalay announces.
"I hope they'll be alright," Deku mutters while shoulder-checking a massive vault door into the final floors of the facility.
The vault door goes flying across the room, only the be melted by arcing plasma fired at him.
Deku sees the purple plasma arc coming at him, and, thanks to the vault door, has enough time to dodge it.
He sees a horde of Nomu with two High-End Nomu at the back. Every Nomu in this room has a top-tier Quirk, each capable of claiming the life of a Top 10 Pro Hero.
However, their opponent was no mere Top 10 Pro Hero, but the most powerful Pro Hero in the world.
Glancing around, Deku sees the floor is made of massive interlocking metal plates. More Nomu gestation tubes fill the room, this time with more mature specimens, and the regular Nomu are already charging him.
He narrows his gaze at them, crouching and tearing one of the metal sheets from the ground, then hurls it like a knife horizontally at the horde.
A dozen Nomu are cut in half before he rushes forward and smashes through most of the others, quickly reaching the two High-End Nomu. Moving obscenely fast, so much so that the plasma arcing Nomu can't properly lock onto him.
He uses this opening to appear behind that Nomu and launch a direct contact kick at the side of its head, but the other High-End Nomu raises a dull purplish energy barrier to block his attack.
The barrier absorbs his attack and becomes stronger, allowing him to push against it and leap onto the ceiling, looking down at the Nomu for a moment.
'Plasma and a reactive impact shield. They really don't want anyone getting past this. But every Quirk has a weakness, and these are no exception…'
Deku pushes off the ceiling toward the shield Nomu, rearing his right arm back to strike.
The plasma Nomu isn't fast enough to lock on, the weakness of its Quirk, thus it hides behind the shield with its ally.
However, Deku smiles at this. Launching his hand forward with an open palm, striking the shield directly.
The energy shield trembles, ripples flowing through it to strengthen it many times over, but in the same instant, the floor beneath the Nomu cracks, signaling to Deku that his theory was correct.
In the blink of an eye, he kicks the air multiple times without breaking contact with the shield, instantly crushing both Nomu into the metal-plated floor, burying them in the concrete beneath it.
He looks up to see the other Nomu charging him and disappears from his position, landing a dozen hits before they can respond, killing most of them in an instant while the two High-End Nomu regenerate and pull themselves out of the floor.
He looks back to see the rubble burying them slowly moving, but rushes past them into the final chamber, hearing over the radio that his allies are only a few rooms behind.
'Dabi has been defeated,' Mandalay announces as Deku smashes into the final room.
He sees Shigaraki floating in a large gestation tube in the middle of the room, filled with the same eerie purple solution as the various Nomu.
He takes a second to studying the room.
'Shigaraki floating in the middle. A body glove…and a mask like All For One. Does he need it to breathe? Those tubes coming out of him keep him sustained? I have to kill him now.'
Deku's gaze shifts throughout the room, quickly settling on Dr. Ujiko, who is working on a machine at the far side of the room.
'That's the signal machine,' Deku realizes as he rushes across the room.
As Deku is moving toward him, Dr. Ujiko smiles, connecting the final wires.
"You're too lat—" Deku tackles him away from the control panel, into the wall, breaking many of his bones against it. "Ahhhh!!!"
As the doctor screams, Deku looks back at Shigaraki and the machine, but nothing happens.
Dr. Ujiko looks at the scene in confusion, trying and failing to understand why Shigaraki isn't waking up and killing these Pro Heroes.
After all, he fixed the programming by bypassing the code and directly triggering the machine. But even now, it's not working.
His faces turns red with frustration, realizing something must have gone wrong, so he decides to give a verbal command.
"Wak—" before he can finish the word, Deku reaches back, without looking, and squeezes his jaw, completely breaking it and shattering the teeth in his mouth.
He then knocks the man out by flicking his forehead, allowing him to slump to the floor.
The room is eerily silent for a few more seconds, until the sound of sparks and a machine breaking reaches him, and looking over his shoulder toward the source, Deku smiles.
"Heya, underclassman!" Lemillion emerges from one of the machines that was now smoking, allowing Deku to relax. "I broke all the machines we needed to, so the emergency fail-safes they had prepared won't work. We can pull Shigaraki out without anything weird happening now."
"Looks like our plan worked. That's a pleasant change," Deku says while dragging Dr. Ujiko behind him, all the way over to Shigaraki.
Lemillion falls into step beside him as they approach the suspended Villain.
Stopping in front of the main control panel, they see a heartbeat monitor, registering a corpse inside the container.
"So he really is dead," Lemillion says, looking disgusted. "What kind of body modification is worth literally dying for?"
"The kind we don't want to see in action firsthand," Deku says as he begins the draining sequence.
The purple liquid begins draining from the tank, into tubes leading into nearby storage tanks, allowing the glass and equipment to remain unharmed.
"We need to get him out of here," Lemillion says. "Can it work against him?"
"No. His Quirk Factor isn't active right now, so the Quirk Deleter Round won't work. Our best bet is to get him to a secure place and keep him buried until Japan is under our control. Interfecring with his body could cause him to somehow wake up. The less we interfere with it, the better."
Lemillion nods as the last of the liquid is drained and the tubes disconnect, leaving Shigaraki with gaping, bloody holes at his sides.
Lemillion and Deku then share an apprehensive look before Deku flicks a finger at the tank, using air pressure to shatter the glass.
They both leap back in a fighting stance, but as the broken glass falls, the corpse doesn't move.
"Is it confirmed?" They both get startled as Eraser Head, Mirko, and Tsukuyomi enter the room after dealing with all the Nomu outside.
"Not yet," Deku says while cautiously approaching the corpse. Then, carefully, he checks for a pulse.
He feels the body, skin like titanium, moving the limbs feels like bending bridge cables, and ice cold to the touch.
Even the blood was barely moving, so cold it was almost frozen.
Deku takes him out of the machine and rests him on the ground, ripping off the mask to reveal Shigaraki with white hair, his eyes open and lifeless for them to see.
Eraser Head immediately activates his Quirk, but it doesn't connect as no Quirk Factor is active for it to stop, as well as there not being a mind for it to affect.
"Mandalay, we've secured Shigaraki," he says, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief. "Is it safe to transport him out of here?"
'No,' she says to their team. 'There are way too many Nomu and Villains remaining. The last thing we want is for this to become a war over who has his body. Especially with all the electric Quirks out here, one stray bolt and his heart could maybe get a jump start.'
'How bad is it out there?' Mirko asks.
'The Villains called in reinforcements from nearby cities. We're about to be overwhelmed if we don't figure something out.'
Eraser Head nods to Mirko. "We'll stick to the plan. Deku, Lemillion, and Tsukuyomi will remain here. Mirko will bring Ujiko to extraction after dropping me off with Dynamight. We'll deal with the Villains outside."
'Copy. I'll make the announcement.'
"Remember to collapse the tunnels behind you," Lemillion says. "We'll still be able to get out, but we don't want any Nomu coming in here."
"I got it," Mirko gives him a toothy smile while hoisting Dr. Ujiko onto one shoulder and grabbing Eraser Head under her other arm.
After they leave, Deku, Lemillion, and Tsukuyomi take Shigaraki's corpse and move it to a dry and safe location, far from any machines or potential hazards.
Lemillion stands nearby, glaring down at the corpse, while Tsukuyomi leans against the wall and Deku anxiously paces back and forth.
"Worrying won't help anyone," Tokoyami says. "Mirko is probably close to the evac site by now. Once she hands over Ujiko, Uraraka will take him away from here. They'll both be away from danger."
"I know, but…I don't know. I thought it'd be fun having a Pro Hero girlfriend, and it was. But now I just—" Deku cuts himself off. "Ugh, fighting Villains is less complicated than dealing with girls!"
Both Lemillion and Tsukuyomi give sympathetic nods.
'Infiltration team,' Mandalay's voice reaches them. 'Ujiko is leaving the city with Uravity's team. Eraser Head is already making a massive difference on the battlefield. Be ready to escort the body out of there within the minute.'
Deku breaths a sigh of relief at that, finally able to relax for the precious few seconds before hell was unleashed once more.
Until this point, the entire operation could only be considered an absolute success. Every team, every objective, every possibility they could have predicted and prepared for was handled.
The Pro Heroes had won, an overwhelming victory against immense odds.
There were absolutely no faults in their plans, or errors in their execution. And with the information they had, even if Horizon's intellect were added to their strategic meetings, absolutely nothing would have changed.
However, they are only human.
And the wrench in their plans was, by definition, beyond human comprehension.
A force of will, a force of nature that warps reality itself to the wishes of the user. So overwhelming that it could be felt from beyond the hospital, beyond Jaku City, beyond the mountain range behind the city.
Projected as a burst of electromagnetic signals that only the machine Lemillion destroyed could create, atleast, by human understanding.
But the transcendent beings of this world are far beyond that.
"Ah!" Tsukuyomi pulls out his communicator in the same instant as Deku, both looking at the sparking, malfunctioning devices. "What was that?"
"Radio Wave?" Deku mutters, looking down at it, but is pulled out of his musing as Lemillion's voice reaches them.
However, for the first time since they've met, Lemillion's voice, was drenched in fear.
"Mandalay," he mutters, communicator sparking in his ear, but he was too scared to move, eyes glued onto Tomura Shigaraki, who was now sitting upright, looking directly at him. "Shigaraki is awake…"
END CHAPTER---