Starting the Slow Burn

“-It appears that the source of all the commotion the other day came from a mansion on the outskirts of the city, where a Villain group known as the ‘Creature Rejection Clan’ was holed up. Older viewers will remember that this group of Villains has existed since the very first appearance of quirks across the world. Originally they protested those they considered ‘mutants,’ those who gained any form of bodily change as a result of their quirks. However they quickly turned to violence from their original peaceful means, and were quickly and rightfully labeled as Villains. But as of yesterday, their legacy now appears to just be a memory of the past. The leader of the group and a number of its members were taken into police custody by the armored Hero Spartan. Without so much as a warning or a public announcement, he stormed the mansion and took them all down before turning them over to the authorities. He even saved a female captive that the group had taken prisoner and planned to use in one of their ritual sacrifices, releasing her to the police before allowing her to return back to her family. But that’s not all. The group was also planning an attack on the esteemed UA High School as it prepares for its annual school festival, most likely targeting the institution for their students and staff that possess a wide range of quirks. Many across the country, especially those who would have been considered undesirables by the CRC, have come out with public support for Spartan and his actions, thanking him for his constant actions to ensure that Japan would remain safe for all people regardless of their quirks. We were unable to reach Spartan for comment. Regardless, I’m sure that I speak on the behalf of many when I thank this Hero for his great work. In other Heroes news, Endeavor makes his reemergence back onto the Hero scene following his recovery. An attempted takeover of a cargo ship was halted when the fiery Hero assisted the coast guard against ten trigger using Villains, taking them all down by himself. When the flames were first visible from the shore a crowd had formed to watch the fight, cheering on Endeavor as he beat and arrested all of the Villains involved. With the ferociousness of his efforts it seems that Endeavor is trying to make up for lost time, leading to debate between supporters and detractors about whether or not he will be able to officially grasp the number one Hero spot that he values so much.”

It switched to the next newscaster. “In international news tensions seemed to have cooled slightly within the Korean Peninsula following an agreement mediated by US diplomats, though the agreement faces serious protests by the People’s Republic of China. Chinese officials claim that America is simply trying to extend its ‘imperialistic reach’ further into Asia. In the United States, presidential challenger Alexander Kovic campaigns across the East Coast and the Midwest, polling extremely high against current President Jonathan Bridlewood. This comes from Kovic's willingness to declassify any files regarding alien life and activity, a move that the Bridlewood administration has been extremely hesitant to do. However it seems that an intense political radicalization is taking place between supporters of the two candidates, with the threat of further violence looming over the horizon. Whether or not such a significant event could come to pass is still-“ Aurdel switched off the TV. Given that he was in Japan he tried not to focus too much on foreign politics, but he knew that if something happened in America it was bound to have repercussions around the world.

There was a knock at his door, he looked over. It was rather early in the morning… After putting back on his helmet he walked over and cracked the door open, looking through. “Ashido, you’re up early. Is something wrong?”

“Nah, I just wanted to come over and thank you,” she said, rubbing the back of her head. “When I left for UA my parents were always worried about groups like the Creature Rejection Clan, especially after we were attacked by Villains. So thanks, you gave my family some peace of mind knowing that I would be safe.”

“Oh. Well, I’m glad to know you feel that way. I don’t think that I would be doing my job as a teacher or a Hero very well if people weren’t feeling.” He noticed her moving her head around, “But, I’m guessing there’s something else. You and the rest of the class are still curious to know what the inside of my room looks like.”

“I was being serious about me and my family, but yes.” He sighed, this was what happened when tried to act mysterious. People only became more interested and tried to find out more about you.

“Fine, I’ll let you guys see inside of my room. I don’t know what you all find so interesting about it, but I better not find anything missing.” Once he fully opened the door the rest of the class essentially swarmed in, beginning to look around

“Isn’t it really cold in here?” Asui said, shivering a little as she looked around.

“I insulated the room to keep it cool, the way it is now is the best possible conditions to work in.”

“Sure, but isn’t it a pain to sleep in?” Kaminari asked, “I can’t sleep unless it’s warm and I have a heavy blanket.”

“My suit is climate controlled, I can make it as warm or cold as I want.”

“You sleep in your suit?! Don’t you ever take it off?”

“I take it off when I have to maintain it. With all the systems built into it you can practically live out of it for months. Waste can be disposed of via a detachable unit inside of the suit, liquids and soaps can be deployed underneath the undersuit to keep me clean and if I need to eat then I can simply take off my helmet.”

“When exactly do you eat? We’ve never seen you in the cafeteria.”

“I eat in my room,” he folded his arms, “Like I said before, I’m purposefully trying to keep my face hidden. At least for now”

“Aw come on, that’s no fun!” Ashido said.

Kirishima looked at the furniture, “Why’s everything so bulky?”

“Everything in this room is reinforced. Your average chair isn’t very capable of supporting a man in a suit of armor that weighs a quarter ton, especially when that man himself weighs a little over three hundred pounds.”

“Three hundred pounds?! How?!”

“I’m an over seven foot supersoldier made of pure muscle with a cybernetic right leg, I’m not exactly your average joe.”

“You have a cybernetic left leg?” Midoriya said, shocked. “But your right leg doesn’t act any different from your left, even when we were fighting you and you were out of your armor.”

“Prosthetics in the future are advanced, especially those designed for military use. Mine is especially specialized since it was designed for active field duty. If it was even a few milliseconds out of sync with the rest of my body, or if it malfunctioned while I was in the middle of a fight, then I would be a dead man.”

“Amazing…” They continued searching around, as if they were looking for something interesting.

“What’s in there?” Uraraka asked, pointing to a door in the room.

“A storage room, it’s where I keep most of my gear and anything else important. And before you ask Mineta, no. I do not keep pornagraphic material in there, nor do I even read or view such material.”

“That’s exactly what someone who does keep porn there would say…” Mineta said with a grumble.

“Ultimately, I don’t find anything about my room interesting. It’s just a place that I work and live out of.”

“Are you kidding?” Sero said, “Your room looks like it was ripped straight out of a spaceship in a sci-fi movie.”

“That may be what it looks like to you, but to me the aesthetic is just a reminder of the cold and cruel reality where I come from. Everything that I faced was real, and the Covenant were a threat that killed many people that I knew and held dear. They’re not some faceless foe from a movie or book.

“Ah… I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, but I just wanted to make sure that it’s something you keep in mind” Aurdel watched as they looked around in amazement at something that he found completely normal. He supposed that part of the amazement was just from the simple fact that they were all young, and that something as simple as this could come off as interesting. “Anyways you all should be getting ready, classes are going to start soon.”

Aurdel was in the middle of teaching his class when he was called out. “I can cover for you,” Aizawa had said, popping his head through the door. “But this is important.” After that he went straight to All Might’s office, finding the man somewhat in a state of distress behind closed doors.

“All Might, you wanted to see me?”

“Yes, Spartan. Please sit…” All Might gestured towards a couch, though he politely refused as to not destroy it. “I apologize for having to call upon you suddenly, but there is something that I need your help with.”

“That’s what I figured. What do you need help with?”

“Back when I was still a youthful Hero doing my early work in the United States, there was a man by the name of David Shield that I had as a partner. He had a similar role to that of Nighteye, acting as the brains behind my brawn. But he was also a brilliant support engineer and often made devices or equipment for me to take into battle,” All Might sighed, “But he also knew about my injuries, and developed a device in order to try and get around the limitations of my body. A quirk amplification device. Some time ago Villains attacked the floating island that he lived on and did research in an attempt to steal the device, though they failed.”

“Then I’m going to assume that they’ve tried again, but succeeded this time around.”

“That’s what I’ve been led to believe so far,” he folded his hands, “Early this morning I received a message from his daughter Melissa that some force had attacked the island and cut off communications, and that several devices and blueprints were stolen along with her father. She went to the all involved relevant authorities, but so far none of them have been able to locate him or any of the equipment in question.”

“It should be simple for the authorities to figure out what happened in this day and age, don’t they have recordings and evidence of them having gone through?”

“That’s what I thought too, but the Villains that attacked were incredibly careful this time. They destroyed all the cameras and security recordings that the island had. It’s entirely possible that a bystander may have been able to record them with a mobile phone, but so far the only cases of people trying to record it with a device resulted in it being destroyed and the individual executed on the spot along with almost every witness.”

“And the island security?”

“The security is mostly made up of robots, but they were remotely hacked and disabled to keep them from being used. The human security was almost all swatted aside without issue by the Villains.”

“I’ll assume you have your guesses as to who these people might be.”

“I do, though they’re somewhat illogical. The man who attacked the island the first time was a Villain by the name of Wolfram, he nearly succeeded. However he didn’t go there completely on his own, as he did receive orders and help from All For One.”

“Both are in prison, so it shouldn’t be possible for either of them to communicate with those outside its walls due to the sheer amount of security inside and outside of the prison.”

“There are many things we don’t know All For One to be capable of, you yourself said as much when you took back the quirks he’d stolen from the other Heroes during the hideout raid. I would not put it past him to have a quirk that we cannot detect that is capable of communicating over long distances.”

“Then what do you want me to do?”

“From what I can tell there is very little that can be done, but what I do want you to do is to search for any possible clues as to who his captors were or where he was taken. Police reports of hideouts with engineering projects going on, Villains with extreme strength using mechanical devices. Anything of that sort could bring us that much closer to finding where they took Dave.”

“I can do that, but it’ll take a lot of time to scan through police reports and chatter all over the country. Even longer since I’ll have to also look at reports from other countries. And if it only just recently happened then it means there won’t be much talk about it, so I can’t guarantee you that I’ll find anything soon”

“So long as you look, that will be enough to take some worry off of my mind. I myself will be questioning Wolfram and All For One to see what they know.”

“I don’t think you’ll get much out of them aside from some antagonizing.” Aurdel stood up straight, “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you,” All Might gave a pained smile, and Aurdel left.

He mulled over the contents of the conversation as he walked to his room, going there to use his computer and start looking into things since his curiosity was piqued. A quirk amplification tool? That didn’t make sense to him. How could a mechanical tool amplify quirks? From what he knew about quirks they were essentially a separate set of genetic material from the rest of the body, meaning that almost akin to how different vaccines had to be made for different diseases and that there could not be one catch-all system for it. Unless… there was more to it. His mind was brought back to that voice he’d heard, the one that had mentioned something called a Geas to him. Could quirks be something related? It seemed like a possibility, given the whole supernatural circumstances of everything. Hell, even personalities could be imprinted through quirks onto another person. He shook his head, forget it. Right now it wasn’t important to figure out how the device worked, what was important was the fact that it did work and was somewhere out in the world. There were already drugs that could drastically enhance quirks, allowing their users to become extreme power houses that were difficult to deal with. But if it were combined with a mechanical device that could be used without any negative side effects? The possibilities were endlessly chaotic and devastating.

He could already imagine it. Combine trigger with that device and someone with a quirk that allows them to grow in size? They could dwarf towns or cities with their own bodies, crushing them in an instant without any chance of self defense or even evacuation. If it were combined with a quirk like Bakugo’s? Well, then It may as well be producing thermonuclear weapons with the yields that it would be approaching. Something like this needed to be dealt with by any means necessary. Once at his computer he hooked it up to his armor, beginning to search through police reports, the files of the Hero commission and even the resources of the World Hero Association since the island was considered a stateless territory. Because of how recent it was and the seeming attempt at keeping the incident under wraps. First, I-Island itself. The island was mobile and capable of directing itself to any destination in the pacific, not relying on currents or the weather to change its direction. Due to its stateless nature it made the location the perfect place for scientists and engineers to live, free to work without the limitations of national borders or national legislation. And initially, one might think that this near technocracy and separation from national issues would allow it to be completely secure. But when it came to seriously dangerous threats, the complete opposite was true. Being on the move allowed them to be potentially targeted by Villains from any nation across the globe, they would just have to simply drift close by and they could be boarded. And because it was technically not a part of any nation, no forces can be deployed to repel them. Additionally, due to the specialization of most of its residents into one field or another it meant they were ill equipped to defend themselves. And if those VIllains that attacked the island managed to get away, there was very little that could be done to track them down or put them on trial.

He also looked into All Might’s friend in question, David Shield. In reference to the previous incident in question where Wolfram attempted to take the quirk amplification device, it was noted that David Shield had originally planned a fake Villain attack in order to get the device and its designs off the islands. However he hadn’t known that the students of Class 1-A who were on the island at the time would actually intervene to stop the threat, or that what he thought was faux-Villains would turn out to be real Villains. In the aftermath of the attack David was cleared of the charges held against him, though the island’s council put under a sort of parole and had the quirk amplification device taken from him. The device and its blueprints were hidden at another location on the island, one that someone looking to find them wouldn’t know where they were. But as it turned out, their plan didn’t work. The Villains that attacked came in with military grade helicopters, attacking the airport while several civilian aircraft were parked and making it impossible for anyone on the island to leave. At the same time they jammed communications across the island and destroyed its transmission towers. Once the airport was secured they apparently acquired several heavily armed armored vehicles from inside one of the storage areas, none of which were able to be recovered by the authorities.

With the armored vehicles they used the roads and split their force into two. One of the groups went directly for where the location of the device and its blueprints were stored, the other going towards the two hundred story tall tower in the middle of the island to capture David Shield. Both groups used the weapons on their vehicles to attack the civilians, killing those that had been too curious and wanted to see what was going on or had been simply in the way of the convoy. The islands security robots were initially deployed around the location that held the quirk amplification device and its blueprints, but after being led out of the area they were all destroyed by the hostile force using their vehicles. The few human security forces that were inside of the facility guarding it were also gunned down, leaving essentially no witnesses to the scene. But given that he already knew the device and its blueprints were stolen, the evidence of the destruction left in their wake was more than enough to tell the story. The group that was sent to capture David Shield, meanwhile, had slightly more of a tough time.

Across the island was a unified security system, meaning that once one location was locked down so would every other. That meant each floor of the two hundred story tower was locked down as tight as a federal bank vault. And initially, because David was around the top floor at the time, he was able to stay out of their reach. According to those that were present and had survived it had taken the Villains over three hours to get through the forty floors, taking a great deal of effort to cut through the doors and secure each floor. But it had eventually set in for them that systematically going through each floor to try and find David would take far too much time and effort. So instead, they changed their tactics. They threatened everyone in the tower and said that if David Shield was not turned over to them, then they would detonate a large quantity of explosives in the tower to collapse it and kill everyone inside. After they made this point abundantly clear, David Shield surrendered himself into their custody. However they did not keep their word, and after he was secured in the armored convoy the tower ended up being destroyed anyways. Ultimately they returned to the airport and left the island, taking all of their equipment with them as they did..

Like he’d surmised the situation internationally was under wraps, as no one wanted to send another panic across the world about what was likely the most deadly and horrific terror attack to occur in recent history. He figured that information would eventually by any means necessary, but until then they were trying to squash all mention of it or any reports from going public. Aurdel delved further into the files. The men who attacked were all dressed completely in black tactical gear, with masks covering their face and no visible markings to identify their affiliation. Hearing this and everything else that he’d read before, it began seeming more and more likely that this wasn’t an attack by Villains. More likely, it was an attack by a national black ops unit or a PMC. But with no concrete evidence of who they were, there were no suspects that he could point his finger. He’d just have to-

His train of thought was interrupted as a frantic report started came through. He listened in via his suits comms. “-Copy Unit 73, what is your status? Over.”

“This is Unit 73, the downtown area is currently under siege! Multiple officers are down and our SWAT teams are being overwhelmed, they’re even wiping the floor with some of the Heroes! We need backup!”

“We read you, but there are no available additional units at this time. An urgent call has already been put out on the HN, you’ll have to hold on until further assistance becomes available and arrives.”

“By the time anyone else gets here we’re going to be- Oh… Oh shit!” The officer shouted over the radio before being cut off by what sounded like cars colliding and a building collapsing. The line went dead.

“Unit 73, are you still there? Unit 73, respond!” There was no response. Aurdel couldn’t ignore this, innocent people were dying.

He quickly grabbed his gear and tapped into the comm channel, broadcasting a short message. “This is pro-Hero Spartan. Hold on, I’m on my way.” He then ran out of his dorm, sprinting in the direction of the fight.

Hood

The fight taking place downtown was quite some distance away from the school, meaning that he needed to move quickly. With a running start he used his thrusterpack, using the momentum to leap over the wall surrounding the school and the forest outside of it. The path he cut out wasn’t a simple one. Instead, he chose the shortest possible one to get there as quickly as he could. He tucked and rolled as he landed back down on the ground some distance away from where he’d initially started. He then took a brief moment to take a deep breath, before launching forward in a sprint as fast as he could move. At first he stayed running alongside the moves, but as it became necessary he moved through alleyways and shortened the number of blocks that he had to cross. But even that was not enough. He leapt up from the ground and grabbed onto the side of a nearby building. Once up top he began racing across the rooftops, sprinting at breakneck speeds that destroyed some of the tiles he ran across. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw that people noticed him from down below, staring up in amazement as he raced towards the scene. Even a news helicopter that was on its way to the scene seemed to appear out of nowhere and begin tracking him. Great, just what he needed. News coverage or not he was still going to do his job. Upon reaching the edge of the building he noticed that there was a massive gap between it and the next one, but It didn’t dissuade him. With a running jump he and his thruster pack leapt from the building and over the streets below him, rolling onto the next building before breaking back into a sprint

Six minutes passed by and in that time he managed to reach the location of the fight. Once he was there he took a moment to stand at the edge of the rooftop, observing the situation. It was one of the Nomu, though its appearance was different. Unlike the ones with exposed heads and bird looking faces, this one looked to be completely covered and even had its face shrouded in a hood. Also unlike the others, this one was apparently much stronger. The gray ones were weak enough that the police or other Heroes could have dispatched them, but this one was wiping the floor with both groups. The news chopper hovered above him annoyingly, as if it expected him to say something. So rather than feed into their need for clips he took a few steps back, allowing himself to get a running start before jumping off of the edge of the building. In the air he grabbed onto one of the skiffs on the edge of the helicopter, using it to flip himself around and gain speed before plummeting feet first into the Nomu. It tried to react to its move but he was too fast, slamming his armored boots into its head and sending it flying backwards through a concrete barricade. Aurdel landed on his feet and prepared to fight, the Nomu then stood back up and looked at him. “You. Are you strong?” It questioned him in an odd voice.

This one could talk? Fine, he’d give him his answer. Aurdel charged straight for the creature as it stood there, it attacked in response. Several of its arms stretched out like elastic bands and wildly swung across the area. They went through cars, light posts and the sides of buildings, anything that was in its way. As they came back around Aurdel bobbed and weaved through them, the arms whipping back to try to attack him. He grabbed one of the nearby destroyed light poles and raised, jumping before bringing back down against the Nomu to crush it. It let out a loud roar as it was struck, the creature suddenly bulking up in response. With the jets on its back it blasted forward and slammed straight into him, Aurdel having braced his arms for the impact. He felt the ground crumble under his feet as he was pushed back, closing in on a building. He then brought up his right leg, throwing his knee into the Nomu’s face. Doing so staggered it slightly and gave him his opening, Aurdel pushed forward. He dealt a vicious punch to its gut, punching straight through the skin and flesh and leaving a visible hole where his fist had been. With blow after blow he left more and more holes in the Nomu, but it did no lasting damage as anything he did was immediately regenerated back. The creature bulked up again, headbutting Aurdel before slamming its many fists into him.

Aurdel was thrown back from the sheer power and lost his footing, but managed to regain control in the air and land once more ready to fight. The creature wouldn’t let him attack first though and instead went for him again, throwing punch after punch in his direction. Aurdel managed to sidestep the blows, with them landing on the road and sidewalk instead of against his armor. Chunks of asphalt, concrete and limestone flew through the air before being chucked back down by the Nomu as projectiles. Aurdel caught a number of them as they came his way, throwing them back towards the creature but missing his throws as it began to stretch in order to avoid the attack. Then it flung itself at him again, this time using its arms to pull itself forward in tandem with its jets. He took the blows head on, its speed seeming to increase as the fight went on and becoming less and less dodgeable. All he needed to do was outhink it. Aurdel moved around erratically, throwing attacks when necessary to keep the Nomu’s attention on him and not anyone else in the area. Then when it thought it was in a position to grapple Aurdel, he shot up into the air using his thruster pack. Its arms flew past and caught a semi-truck instead of him. The truck was pulled towards the Nomu at immense speeds, it having also started to fly towards it using its jets. Aurdel then came back down from the air, kicking through the cab of the truck and striking the Nomu with all his might. Upon meeting a sharp metal surface the Nomu was cleaved in two.

But Aurdel knew that wouldn’t be it. In the mere second or two that it took him to run over and attempt to finish the Nomu off, it had practically finished completely regenerating. And with visible anger it leapt at him and attacked. This time the speed and strength was almost too much for him, with it grabbing hold of his armor before dragging him face first through the side of a building. His helmet repeatedly struck concrete and metal, but with the creature's strength he was forced through it all. It then brought him back to the place they’d been fighting and slammed him onto the ground, pounding him through the road repeatedly before striking over and over again. His armor began to stress and warning klaxons went off in his helmet, he was really taking a beating. The Nomu then dragged him up one last time, throwing him up into the air before slamming him back down into the ground with a strength that shook him to the core. He stopped moving, needing to catch his breath and wanting to make it look like it’d killed him. A dust cloud rose from all the debris, and the Nomu stopped. “Shame, is there anyone stronger?” Thinking it was done fighting him, it turned its back away from him. But he wasn’t done.

He stood up and took a deep breath, punching through the truck's fuel tank and dumping gallons of gasoline onto the road and his armor. Then he picked up a pair of long metal chains that had come off of the truck, whipping them against the ground and using his thrusterpack to ignite the fuel and create a sea of flames. Adrenaline pumped through his body as he charged forward, whipping the fire covered chains at the Nomu. With them he was able to dice up the innumerable elastic arms that it sent his way, cutting them off at the source as he closed then to deal a blow to its chest. With a hole burnt through it the Nomu roared, violently thrashing around as he began using the chains as a garotte. With the chains he thrashed the Nomu, cutting parts of its body into a number of pieces before bisecting it across the torso. Less than a second later a number of gray Nomu were suddenly launched from its body, spreading out and beginning their attack on him. With one more whip of his chain he forced the main Nomu back into a temporary retreat, allowing him to focus on the other Nomus that it had just released. As his shield began recharging he changed the cycling frequency, effectively sabotaging it so it would pour electricity. Electricity began arcing off of his armor and through the chains that he held onto.

One gray Nomu charged him, Aurdel brought down the chain and sliced through its head. With all of the electricity coursing through the chain it effectively fried the Nomu’s brain, keeping it from regenerating and leaving with one less Nomu to fight. Another charged towards him and he did the same, using the chain to first separate its head from its body before destroying the brain. Two more charged at him from either direction, Aurdel jumping up and wrapping the chains around their necks. He then swung the two creatures around the air, using them like a flail to keep the other Nomus back. But eventually their necks broke and their heads severed, fried by the charge passing through the chains. He released their heads as another charged towards him as he came down, it not realizing the position he was in. The moment he got in close he closed his leg around its neck and twisted its head off of its body before crushing it between its fists. He then jumped up and brought down his right leg again, cleaving through the rest of its body from top to bottom. With that all four of the remaining Nomus charged towards him in one last attack, throwing all of their weight behind it in an attempt to kill him and get away.

Aurdel magnetically locked the chains to his armor, then began to spin in place using his thruster. The still arcing metal chains whipped around over and over, flaying the Nomus like a weed whacker and leaving a blood mess of gore splattered across the streets and debris. Only the original Nomu was left alive now, as it was the only one that had the regeneration strong enough to keep up. Aurdel charged it forward as it used what was left of its arms and jets to try to shoot up into the sky, using his thruster pack to follow it upwards and the chains to drive it further into the air. The sustained flight went for so long that the thrusterpack shut itself off to avoid overheating and damaging itself. He then unlocked the chains and threw them around the Nomu, tightening his grip and closing it around the creature as they plummeted back towards the Earth. With one tight yank before they hit the ground he sliced the Nomu from every possible angle, splitting it into nearly a hundred pieces. Once they hit the ground a dust cloud rose up, but once it had settled the Nomu was dead and its destroyed now exposed head.

He looked around. Well, that was that. He just had to clean up then he could go back to the school.