Clean Up Act

Aurdel used his ID to open the gate to the mansion, pushing it open before letting it close behind him as he walked into the courtyard. The area was… unusually quiet. Under normal circumstances he would have expected the JSDF to already be surrounding the property, waiting for him to show up so they could gun him down. But they didn’t. Either the government was hesitant to go through with their plans to actually take him down, or the soldiers were. Given the things that he’d said live on air, he wouldn’t be surprised if there were those within their ranks that were hesitant to stand against him. Because, to be perfectly honest, he said what most people were thinking. They were sick of the inefficiencies of the government, they were sick of the practically omnipotent presence of corporations and they were sick of the constant state of fear that they lived in due to the never ending battle of crime fighting between Heroes and Villains.

He walked up to the door, stopping for a moment as he stood outside. He had a pretty good idea of what was about to happen once he opened it, but he didn’t intend on keeping it from happening. And so when he opened the door-

Mirko slapped his helmet, and he limply allowed it to pivot towards the side. “You’re a real piece of work, you know that?”

“Yeah, I know.”

She shook her head with a sigh, “Come on, you look like hammered shit.” After that he stepped into the mansion, Mirko closing the door behind him. “So, what’s the plan now?”

“What do you mean?”

Aurdel walked towards the basement where all his tools were, she followed him. “Obviously the interview didn’t go as you intended, you got interrupted halfway through and then nearly got killed. After that you got chased down by a small army of Heroes and then told them that you were going to overthrow the government.”

“Word really spread that fast, huh?”

“Word tends to spread fast when it’s something as big as that, especially when you have a shoebill knocking on your door to break the news.”

“Hawks…” He shook his head as he sat down on the bench in the middle of the basement, beginning to use Overhaul to pull the plates of melted armor off of his undersuit. He placed them in order on the ground. “What did he have to say?”

“We talked twice. The first time was just after you left to do that interview, he wanted me to convince you to not do it. Told me that if you did it then you would be making a lot of enemies, and that a lot of bad stuff was going to happen.”

He placed his partially destroyed helmet at his feet, retrieving the surviving section of visor and placing it into a tray. Luckily for him he had all the spare components he needed to fix his armor. “I guess as far as that conversation was concerned, he wasn’t exactly wrong. Aside from the fact that all those enemies I’d supposedly make were ones I already had, just not in print at least.”

“I told him that I wouldn’t interfere with something that I had nothing to do with. That if he really was the man he was supposed to be, then would talk with you face to face and convince you that way. Guess that means he didn’t even try.”

“I suppose the current situation would answer whether or not he actually is strong.” Aurdel took off the undersuit, standing it up to see all the holes he needed to patch. He ran a hand over the spots where the titanium had melted into his skin and flesh, before plucking them out. “What about the second time?”

“He came in person after you let him go, looked worse for wear even after you healed his injuries. Told me you nearly killed him.”

“Given the way he seems to be more of a flying rat than a bird, maybe I should have,” he grit his teeth, pulling out another hunk of metal before dropping them all into a large vat. “You know I used to think Hawks could have been someone I could actually rely on, since he and I were somewhat similar. I was kidnapped and turned into a supersoldier, he was taken from his family and groomed to be a top Hero. Unfortunately I seem to have missed the fact that he truly believes he ever had a willing choice in the matter, and because of that he holds a misplaced loyalty for the Hero Public Safety Commission and the government at large.”

“Does that make him the enemy?”

“It makes him my enemy.” He touched the pieces of metal, breaking them down in one large plate that would be much easier to distribute. “It would be one thing if he was ignorant to the problems of the current system, but he knows what’s wrong and actively defends it. That, I can’t forgive.”

“You still haven’t told me what we’re going to do.”

He used the reclaimed pieces of titanium to fix the partially melted plates of armor, and within a matter of moments each section of his armor was back into its correct shape. The only thing that was missing was most of the green paint, but that was something he could apply at a later date. “I’m going to fly into Tokyo with my Pelican and land just outside of the National Diet as it is in session. From there, I’m going to incite a crowd and demand an audience with the government. If accepted then I’ll just walk in and declare my intentions, from there I will dismiss the diet and immediately assume power. If they resist… Then I forcibly enter the Diet with an army of angry civilians at my back and dismiss the members of the government through similar methods.”

“How come you’re saying ‘I’ instead of ‘We’?”

He reassembled the plates of armor onto the undersuit, “Well, if by some miraculous circumstances this fails, then I want you to distance yourself as far away from my actions as possible. Because if they thought you were associated in any way with my coup, they would most likely put you to death.”

“Well that’s a shame, because I don’t intend on sitting this one out.”

He picked up the helmet, retrieving a pre-made set of reinforced and heat-treated glass. Then reshaped it and applied the coating using Overhaul, fitting it into the opening for the visor. “Are you sure about it? If you do, I can’t guarantee that we won’t have half the country possibly at our throats.”

She walked up from behind, putting two arms around him. “Unfortunately for my own safety, I happen to be one of those ride or die girls. So even if you told me not to go, I’d still follow you in.”

“Well that’s-”

Suddenly they heard the noise of footsteps coming running down the basement stairs. Mirko quickly let go, and Aurdel put his full set of armor back on in almost an instant. “Spartan, there’s-” Gentle paused, looking around and seeing the expression on Mirko’s face “Did… Did I come in at a bad time?”

“No, it’s fine,” he cleared his throat, “Is something wrong?”

“Well, a car just pulled up to the front gate. Then someone stepped out, scaled the wall and it looks like they’re holding someone hostage.”

“A hostage?! He quickly rushed out of the basement and through the mansion, eventually making it out onto the courtyard. There he saw someone in a large trench coat holding what looked like a rifle to-

“I heard that you’re starting your own war, Spartan.”

He grit his teeth, “Nagant.”

“Don’t be so hostile, I plan on helping you. I also brought you a gift to smooth over any hard feelings.” She shoved the hostage down to the ground, keeping her rifle armed trained on them as she pulled the bag off of their head.

Then, he understood. “Yoroi Musha…” He muttered, taking a few steps forward.

“I was tapping into emergency response frequencies the other day when I heard this guy pulling favors to get medical support off the books. I got suspicious and investigated, lo and behold I found out that he tried to fight the League of Villains by himself, lost and tried to cover it up. I eventually managed to track him down, and I found him at the airport trying to get on the first plane leaving the country.”

Aurdel crouched down, looking him in the eyes. “Old man…”

Usually stoic in front of the camera, Yoroi Musha’s old face was filled with fear. “It’s not what you think! I was misled when I originally received the call, I only thought there were a few of their members! I didn’t think they would be out in force. I-“

“Silence,” the old man quieted down, “In Ryukyu’s case, I was able to give her leniency because of the many factors that were at play. She was caught off guard, and she partially held back by the incompetence of the other Heroes she was working with. You, on the other hand, knew exactly what you were getting into. You threw my students into danger, failed to accomplish your mission, tried to cover it up and then tried to get away from all of it as quickly as possible. That… I cannot forgive.”

“What are you going to do to me?”

“I’m to parade you in front of the country as an example of what a bad Hero is, then I’m going to let the people decide what to do with you.”

“You won’t be able to prove any of what happened to them… I’m a long-time Hero and they have reason to trust what I say!”

“I agree, and that’s why you’re going to tell them exactly what you did. Otherwise… Well, we’re a long way from the days of Sodium Pentothal.” He motioned towards the mansion, “Take him inside.”

Nagant picked up Yoroi Musha, walking towards the mansion. As she did she ended up walking past Mirko, the two women staring at each other. “You know, I told you not to get hung up about what she did... But I’m not sure that willingly working with her was what I meant.”

“As much as I don’t like what she did to you, she can provide firsthand testimony about the commission’s corrupt activities to the public,”

“So you haven’t completely forgiven her.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Good, I just wanted to make sure that-“ This time a phone rang. “Seriously? What is up with today? Can’t even be uninterrupted.”

He shrugged, pulling the phone out his hardcase and checking the number before answering. “Who is this?”

“You don’t know me, but I’m a member of the Shie Hassaikai. And I know where the League of Villains is hiding.”

The Shie Hassaikai… “Why should I believe you? How can I know this isn’t some prank call?”

“I was the one that tipped of Sir Nighteye’s agency to the distribution of the quirk erasing bullets,” Aurdel froze, “I also was the one that organized the handoff to one of the clans clients, the one that you took the bullets from in alleyway behind a cafe.”

This guy… “Then you saw me when-“

“I don’t care about your face, I only want to get revenge against the new boss for what he did to my family.”

“Then why not tell me where both are now?”

“I need to make sure you can deal with the League first. If you can, then I know you can deal with the Shie Hassaikai.”

“You seem to have a contradictory level of trust in me.”

“Do you want me to tell you where they are or not?”

“I’m listening.”

Dabi paced around the table, staring at the phone. He knew that because of Nomu the attack on Spartan would be linked to the League of Villains, and because of that it meant that efforts to find them and bring them in would increase tenfold. More importantly, he didn’t know whether or not their employers would still want them. If they somehow believed that the attack was truly connected to them, then they might try to put distances between. There was also the chance of the Yakuzas throwing them under the bus, using the chance to get any heat they might still have off of their back.

“What are we going to do?” Toga asked.

“I don’t know.”

“If they find us now,” Spinner said, “They’re going to do more than just put us in prison. They’re probably going to publicly execute us.”

“Let me think.”

“Dabi, can’t you come up with something?” Magne started, “I don’t want-“

“I said let me think god damnit!” He shouted. “Because if you don’t shut up, I’m going to torch you all here and leave by myself!” The others backed off with their pushy attitude as he made his threat, but that didn’t bring him any closer to a solution. He had to think… “The best solution we have right now is to get as far away from here as quickly as possible, away from the city. Once we do we can lay low. Otherwise, we’re going to end up like all of those Nomus on the TV. Slaughtered.”

“But where are we supposed to go? We can’t exactly leave as is.”

“The guys who hired us, they should have a place for us.”

“Them?!” Mustard rebuked, “They’re the guys that hired us, but they haven’t even bothered to call us after we passed on that transmitter! I’m almost positive that from the start, they planned to throw us away once we did their dirty work!”

“If you thought that then why the hell didn’t you say anything?!” Interrupting their conversation, the phone began to ring. “We’ll continue this after I’m done.” He walked back over to the table, picking up the phone. “Finally, why the hell have you people been waiting so long to call?!”

“We were curious to see if, regardless of the situation, you would retain your loyalty and stick around.”

“I wouldn’t call it loyalty, we didn't really have much of a choice. Because exactly where else were we supposed to go?”

“Regardless, after recent events we have come to the conclusion that your continued employment presents a significant risk to our business interests. As such, we undertook a re-evaluation of your employment status under us.”

“And just what the hell is that all supposed to mean?”

“You’re fired.”

“What?!” He shouted into the phone, “After everything that we’ve done, you’re just going to toss us away?! How the hell am I supposed to get my revenge against Endeavor?!”

“The League of Villains was only an asset to us while it could remain semi-underground. But now that you’re being hunted again, and with double the effort, you no longer serve that purpose. As such your employment is terminated effective immediately.” He was at a loss for words, “Don’t worry Dabi. In a way, you’ll still get your revenge.”

The connection severed as the other person hung up, leaving only a dull tone in his ears as he processed the events. The receiver trembled in his hands. “GOD DAMNIT!” He chucked the receiver onto the table, bringing out his fire and incinerating the entire thing out of pure anger. “Fine then! We’re completely on our own now.”

“See!” Mustard said, standing up. “They never had any intentions of keeping us around, not even from the beginning.”

“Shut up! We need to leave, now! Or else-“ He was cut off as the roof and ceiling was suddenly blasted in, dust filling the air and debris raining down on them.

“What’s going on? Who’s attacking us?!”

“Compress got hit! I can’t bring him back, he won’t remember anything!”

“Enough of this crap!” Dabi raised the heat, flooding the space with fire and using the resulting hot wind to blow the dust out.

“He wasn’t lying, the League actually is here.”

“What about the Yakuza.”

“Later, these idiots first.”

“You!” Dabi turned towards the hole up above their heads, “This is all your fault! Do you know how much you’ve screwed everything up for me?! You ruined it all!”

Spartan jumped down from above, landing on the ground floor with one hand resting on the concrete floor. “After everything you’ve done, I don’t think you have the right to complain.”

“Bastard…” Dabi brought up his flames, reading up to complete incinerate this pompous-

“Fortunately for you, and unfortunately for me, there’s still a use for you. And I need you alive.” The concrete beneath their feet shattered, reforming to make cages that nearly completely encapsulated them. “Most of you at least. So you’re going to come with me and cooperate, otherwise I’ll just kill you.”

“As if we’re going to listen to you,” Magne spoke up, “You’re nothing but a tyrant, just like all those other Heroes! You say you’re fighting for freedom and justice, in reality you’re no different from the pieces of-!” There was a loud crunching sound as the cage closed in, completely crushing their chest and killing them instantly. Their head draped down limply.

“Big sis Mag!” Toga shouted, painfully.

“Don’t mistake this for mercy, you’re nothing but tools now. Tools that only serve the purpose of being used.”

Dabi sneered, “And what? Are you going to send us on a bunch of suicide missions to accomplish impossible tasks?”

“No, you’re just going to be another exhibit on what’s wrong with this country. I’m going to show the people what the League of Villains really was, a terror group for the mistreated and disillusioned who were gaslit into thinking that violence was the only answer to their problems.”

He rolled his eyes, “My heart aches for your truly noble cause. Oh, wait, that’s because I’m having a slab of concrete compressed against my chest.” He looked at Spartan, “It’s ironic that you say ‘violence isn’t the answer,’ especially when you rolled in and killed two of our members. I don’t want your pity.”

“I’m not offering you any pity, that’s up to the rest of the country. The best outcome any of you will get is being put in a straight jacket, locked in a padded cell and the key thrown away. Otherwise you may as well be dead, aside from you.” Spartan pointed at Dabi, “I need you in order to pacify Endeavor.”

Hearing that, he quieted down. “How did you figure it out?”

“I’m no hulking brute. When the police and other Heroes had tried to identify you in the past, they tried using fingerprint and visual analysis. But that got them nothing. At first I wasn’t going to try anything until I’d nicked a little bit of skin and blood when I punched you at Tartarus, then I realized I had DNA sequencing and comparison open to me.” Spartan walked over towards him, “I got a better sample after you managed to escape from that fight at the factory, then I just needed to compare it to the rest of the country. Luckily for me nearly every person in the country has their DNA stored on one data server or another. I’ll give you three guesses as to who it led back to.”

The game was out of his hands, he was just another pawn in it now. But that didn’t matter, so long as he could make his shitty old man suffer. “What do you plan to do?”

“Well I can’t kill Endeavor, being the number one Hero he would be made a martyr. Not to mention I don’t exactly want to put Shoto through the death of a father. So, I’m going to target him another way. I’m going to kill his credibility. Once people know what the alternative to my solutions is, they won’t want him for anything without some serious changes.”

“And the bird?”

“Thought that far ahead already? I have a plan for that too.”

Two Steps Back

Aurdel waited until the next day before putting his plan into action, giving Heroes and the people time to decide where they stood on what he was about to do. And once he decided that enough time had passed, he began to make his moves. Aurdel loaded the League of Villains and Yoroi Musha into the back of the Pelican, taking with him Mirko, Lady Nagant, Gentle and La Brava. The last two came with him as a result of matters of circumstance, as due to the commission having forced their rehabilitation upon him they would likely be seen as complicit in his coup taking place. He flew the dropship into Tokyo, first staying at high altitudes before dropping down dramatically and flying above the streets. As he did he could see that tens of thousands of people had taken to the streets, the word of his actions having spread overnight from Heroes to sidekicks to families to friends and then the whole public at large. The government had issued warnings for people inside of the capital region to stay inside their homes, but it was clear that for many of them they were just sick of the way things were. They didn’t want to be told what to do, and because of that they wanted to make sure that they were heard.

Through the glass of the cockpit he could see a number of people cheering as flew over, following him as part of one large crowd as he made his way towards the National Diet. Seeing people riled up like this, it was easy for him to understand why the Insurrectionists back where he was from act the way they did. It was easy to be swept up in the wave of popular support, but he needed to remain logical in his efforts.

Eventually he finally arrived at the National Diet, where he found an even larger crowd than the ones he’d seen on the streets. It looked like there were hundreds of thousands of people here, with the true number being incalculable from his position. Inside of the crowd were people from all walks of life with all kinds of quirks. There was students coming from their schools, families coming from their homes with their children, office workers leaving their jobs, groups of Heroes and officers coming from their constituencies and so much more. Each and every one of them was here to show their support. He also didn’t doubt that there were numerous people here from the Meta Liberation Army, carefully inserted into the crowd so that if violence did break out then they would be able to serve as the vanguard. Hopefully it didn’t come to that.

The crowd parted as Aurdel landed the Pelican in front of the cordon around the National Diet. Loyal Heroes, officers and units from the JSDF were all positioned outside and looked about ready to try and kill him at a moments notice. Among them was the number one and number two Hero, along with the sidekicks that had chosen to stay with them.

“This is your last chance to walk away from all of this,” Hawks said to him, “If you don’t, the only way we’re coming out of this is as enemies.”

“We were always enemies, Hawks. The problem is that we were both just too blind to see it.” Aurdel put his hand to the ground, raising a platform for him to stand on as he turned to the crowd. He turned up the volume on his helmet’s speakers to near maximum levels, also having another set of loudspeakers at the ready. “People of Japan! I come to you today because I feel as though I have been given no other choice. As a Hero I felt that it was my duty to do all that was right and just, in the service of a safer Japan for myself, the students under my tutelage and for all others in this country. But there have been those that stifled that journey towards peace, and in some cases directly caused me problems. And here, I have one of these men to show you! He is the number ten Hero in Japan, Yoroi Musha!” He dragged Yoroi Musha up the platform to show to the crowd, and they began to jeer. “He was told of the threat that the League of Villains posed, and all people across the country understood the true threat that they represented! But this man thought he knew better than everyone else, he thought he knew better than you! So he deliberately attempted to take on the League of Villains! In the process, he recklessly endangered the lives of my students who were supposed to be learning under him! And then, if that was not enough, he tried to cover all of it up and then flee the country! He wanted YOU to deal with the consequences!” He pointed towards the crowd, emphasizing his point. “Do you think that this man is someone who should be defending this country?!”

“NO!” The crowd shouted back.

“Neither do I! And because of that, I chose to do what he could not. I chose to take down the League of Villains, and these are the fruits of my labor!” He dragged the members of the League of Villains onto the platform, they were still encased in their concrete prisons. But there was enough for the crowd to see, enough for them to recognize them. The crowd cheered. “But when I captured them, I found out that they were not only the failures of just some people. There were the failures of the entire body that runs this country and the system that they perpetuate!” He began going down the line, pointing to each member. “Himiko Toga! She was a girl who was ostracized due to her quirk, the very nature of it affecting her mind in ways that people around her refused to help or guide. She followed the path of normality until one day it caused her to snap and kill one of her classmates, something that could have been stopped at the source!” He moved to the next one. “Shuichi Iguchi! He is a heteromorph, a mutant, that was born in the rural parts of this country. There, he faced hatred, discrimination and immense hardship all because of the way he looked, all because of something he had no choice over. His quirk! He turned to Stain’s ideology because it was the only reasonable solution to the world he found himself in, one that did not care for him and only answered to violence.” He moved again. “Jin Bubaigawara! Orphaned at a young age, he was left to fend for himself by the inadequate support system for children that exists in this country! For a time he managed to scrape by, but after being involved in an accident through no fault of his own he was tossed aside by society! For him, criminality was the only way forward to survive!” Again. “Nemurishi Kitayoko! A boy whose family suffered from the contradictory policies of the government, his parents losing their jobs because the government was no longer subsidizing the work that they did! Then, years later, the government began to purchase the same products that his parents would have produced, only this time they were all from foreign powers! He was broken by the simple fact that he knew the people in charge, who he thought were supposed to be taking care of them, never truly cared at all! He turned to the League because it was the only way to get back at the world that left him and his family behind!” That one really managed to get the crowd riled up, just as he thought any mention of foreign meddling would. But he moved onto the last one, the one he thought needed to be seen and heard the most. “But then there's this man, Dabi! For years no one knew his name, only that he was a menace to society. He killed Heroes, other Villains and civilians all the same! But now we know his true name. This vicious Villain that had caused untold chaos for so many years! His name… Is TOYA TODOROKI!” He shouted the name at the top of his lungs, and the crowd erupted in an uproar.

“This is complete libel!” Endeavor began to shout back, “My son Toya was killed in an accident years ago, and the fire that he started was so intense that the only thing left of his body was a piece of his jaw bone! You insult the memory of my son by even insinuating that this… Thing, can even possibly be my son!”

Aurdel heard Dabi laugh and speak beneath the sound of the crowd, “That’s right, a ‘thing.’ Some things never change.”

Aurdel turned back to the crowd, “But I am not a person to make baseless accusations of others! Because of this, I have posted the results of the DNA test for all of the world to see! Even now you can look at your phones and find the results online. Dabi is Toya Todoroki, the son of Endeavor!” He pointed at Endeavor. “This man arranged himself a marriage in order to produce children that had more powerful quirks. This man neglected the children that he found were failures, abusing the ones that he thought had potential to groom them into someone that could succeed him! This man had the very son he trained to one day be a Hero turn into one of the most dangerous Villains this country has ever seen! People of Japan, this is your number one Hero!”

“DOWN WITH ENDEAVOR!” The crowd began to chant, and he could see Endeavor visibly begin to shrink back. The very threads of his life were unraveling in front of his eyes.

“But it is more than just him that is rotten!” He turned back, raising his hand. “The entire system, and the Hero Public Safety Commission, is rotten to the core and completely corrupt! All of you know Lady Nagant, and what it was said she did. But none of you know what truly happened to her!”

He handed Lady Nagant a megaphone, “When I was still a young girl I was given an offer by the Hero Public Safety Commission to become a pro-Hero. I, who was still naive, accepted this offer. And so for years I trained. Not only becoming a perfect Hero, but also a perfect assassin. “ She walked around on the platform, “By day I was a Hero like any other, but by night I was doing their dirty work. I killed people that were threatening the commission's power, I killed corrupt Heroes and Heroes who were getting too popular for the commission to handle and I killed people who tried to get out of the monopoly of violence that the commission held in the country. Even civilians who knew too much about backroom dealing were targets, and eventually my hands were so stained with blood that I couldn’t stand it anymore. When I tried to quit, they threatened me with the same fate that I had bestowed upon all of my targets. So I killed the president of the commission and was thrown in prison, only to be replaced by another killer.”

“And that other person is none other than Hawks!” He took the crowd's attention again, “I wasn’t here for it, but by all accounts when Hawks first appeared as a Hero he came with absolutely no qualifications! No one knew where he was from, where he had received his training and education or even where he had gotten his license to work! All that people knew about him was that he was young, fast and good at his job. Too good at his job, a practical prodigy. Something I was able to see and look into.” He gestured towards Hawks, “HIs true name is Keigo Takami! Son of the serial killer and criminal by the same name. As a child he was taken by the commission and trained just like Nagant was, performing the same tasks behind the scenes as his predecessor. But even worse, he refuses to acknowledge any wrongdoing on his part! Instead he passes the blame off onto his victims, blindly following the orders of the commission and not caring if what he's doing is right or not. Am I wrong?” He turned to Hawks, getting no response from the Hero. But the crowd erupted into loud chanting again, this time directed at Hawks, and that was enough to decide whether or not it would be accepted as true. Aurdel looked back at the crowd, “The system that is in place right now has failed you and your families. Slow reforms were tried in the past to improve it, but all of those have too failed! The only way you will ever see a better country is if the system in its current state is torn down!” The crowd cheered, “I am calling for all members of the government to submit to their constituents, for those that have failed to submit themselves to face consequences for the results of their failures! I am calling for any of those that hold positions in the Hero Public Safety Commission to resign and face punishment for the corrupt actions that they have taken, and for anyone that refuses to comply with these calls to be forced out of their positions of power and face even harsher punishments for their audacity to dismiss the will of the people!” The crowd began to cheer him on, “I call for all Heroes and local officials to show your support for the people that you are meant to protect, I want you to show them that you are working for them and not for the bureaucrats! Show them that you will lay down your lives to protect that of the innocent! Show them that no matter where you are from, no matter what you look like and no matter what power you may have, we are all human no matter what the people in power say or do!”

“That sure is one hell of a lot of rhetoric, my assumption that you’re a populist was right. You should know that most of the time when people spout crap like that, it’s followed by a blood revolution and a dictatorship that kills more than it saves.”

“That’s not a criticism I would level if I were you. After all, you’re supposed to be acting on behalf of the United States government. I wouldn’t say that the history of America supporting ‘democracy’ all around the world is as clean as you think it is.” He looked up towards the woman who’d just arrived, floating in the air above him with her hands on her hips. She was the number one Hero of the United States of America. Stars and Stripes. “What are you here to do, drag me into the Pentagon? Have me answer questions in front of a senate committee? Throw me into a cell in Guantanamo Bay?”

“I’m here to find out your endgame.”

“My endgame?” He turned, looking at the crowd before turning back to her. “I’m listening to the will of people and trying to make Japan a better place. Are you and your political masters so narrow minded that you think someone trying to do good always has some ulterior motive?”

“You can call us skeptical.”

“Then you have fallen victim to the propaganda machine that produced you, controlled by those who are willing to do anything in order to keep their power and continue hoarding more.”

She balled up her right hand into a fist. “If you’re not willing to be honest with me, then there’s only one thing that I can do. And that’s to beat the answers out of you!” Star dove down before punching upwards, throwing Aurdel from the ground and high up into the air. With his thrusterpack destroyed their was very little he could do for aerial maneuverability, meaning that right now he was at Star’s whim and mercy. She kept punching him up and up, traveling nearly three thousand feet up into the sky. “This is only going to be as hard as you want to make it!”

“There’s nothing else for me to say that I haven’t already said, you won’t extract a false confession out of me.”

“Whether that confession is false or not remains to be seen!” He spun around as she went to punch him again, causing her to miss her blow and allowing her to grab her arm. From there he was able to whip around and put a hand on her face, blasting her point with the flashbang quirk he’d taken so long ago now. He didn’t intend on killing her or taking her quirk, no matter how much power that may have given him. The fallout from doing something like that would be far too great. “Damnit!” She covered her eyes and threw him off of her, leaving him to fall back towards the ground.

“The system that your defending is preventing rise of true progress, the people in charge are too obsessed with power. Congress is full of lobbyists and businessmen, and in turn they’re in the pockets of large businesses and corporate entities. The same thing has been replicated everywhere else, but it is by far worst in your country simply due to how long it has had to fester.”

“And your solution is to kill all the sources of your problems and burn the whole structure down? Something like that doesn’t solve problems, it only causes more in the long run. You’ll be tearing down entire nations just because you don’t like the way they operate.” She dove down to strike him again.

“That’s because no one else is willing to think in the long term. How long did it take this world before countries began actively pursuing renewable and sustainable sources of energy? How long did it take them to decide that they needed to undo the damage they’d done to the planet by allowing companies to dump and pollute as they pleased? Times will be tough for some time the way I’m doing things, but it’s better to get the worst out of the way so things can actually change!” He jerked himself to the side as she dove towards him, this time grabbing her leg and catching her mid-flight.”

“And what makes you think that you even have the right to decide what happens with the world?”

“With everything that I’ve seen and all that I know, someone like me is-“ He paused, hearing the sound of something rumbling far off in the distance.

“Someone like you what?!” She shouted, grabbing him and preparing to throw him. “Answer me!”

“Shut up!” He shouted in her face, “Something is coming.” Her face turned go confusion as he listened for what he heard in the distance, and she quieted down. Eventually she listened too.

“I hear that too, what is…?”

Then, he identified the noise. “Cruise missiles!”

“Cruise missiles? But I didn’t call for any fire support.”

“They’re not American you moron, they’re Chinese!”

“But we’re not at war with China!”

“Well it seems like that’s about to change!”

They floated wordlessly for a moment, taking in the situation. “Alright, this interrogation can wait for another day. You’re the military expert, what am I supposed to do?”

“Intercept as many of the missiles as you can. Destroy them, fly them out over the water, do whatever you have to get rid of them. But prioritize the ones with thermobaric warheads, under these conditions they are the ones that will cause the most damage and casualties.”

“What are you going to do?”

“You’re going to drop me so I can get to my aircraft as soon as possible and start shouting down missiles.”

She raised an eyebrow, “Drop you?”

“I’ve survived much worse falls. Now shut up and drop me, unless you want to waste more precious time and lives.”

Midoriya looked out the window idly, a flurry of thoughts racing through his head. Because of the whole situation surrounding Mr. Aurdel the work study program had been cancelled completely, meaning that his class was almost all back at school. On top of that, because the teachers were all ordered to standby in case a fight broke out all of the classes were cancelled for the day. But after hours of waiting, it seemed like nothing was going to happen. “Y’know, I’m kind of worried,” Kaminari said, “I mean, if they arrest Mr. Aurdel what does that mean for us? He is the one that taught us after all, so if he does something insane then it could come back to bite us.”

“I’m too young to go to prison!” Mineta shouted.

“There’s no reason to think that anything he does reflects poorly on ourselves,” Ida interrupted, “Besides, he’s a logical man. I’m sure that if he does something then it’s for a number of completely understandable reasons.”

“I don’t know. As much good as he did, it always seemed like there was something off about him. Like he had a serious chip on his shoulder,” Kirishima added.

“Maybe, but that’s not enough for him to suddenly abandon all his other principles and do something completely uncharacteristic for himself.”

“Maybe he’s-“ Jiro was about to say something, but was cut off as the power for the dorms suddenly went out. In the darkness the sound of sirens could begin to be heard, “Hey, what’s going on?!” Panic began to suddenly take hold as no one was quite sure what was going on. Sirens… He’d heard them before, they’d listened to clips of them before while learning in history class. They were…

“Air raid sirens!” Midoriya suddenly shouted, but no one was able to hear him over the commotion.

Mr. Aizawa burst in through the dorm building entrance, “Drop everything and stick close to each other, we’re evacuating everyone into the shelters beneath the main campus building!” Even Mr. Aizawa, who they knew to keep his cool in nearly every situation, was on edge. Rapidly they all funneled out of the dorm building and ran in the direction of the main campus building, making sure that they stayed together as a class. Outside they could see that a similar scenario was playing out all over the campus, with each and every course and class making a break for the main building. Far off in the distance they could see and hear the sounds of explosions.

“Get down!” Someone shouted, and everyone dropped to the ground. Less than two seconds later a massive explosion went off somewhere on the campus.”

“That hit class 3-Bs dorm building!”

“Was anyone still inside?!” Things were moving and falling apart so quickly, there was no time to process any of it.

“Keep going to the main building!” Midnight and Cementoss ran past them in the direction of the explosion, likely to look for anyone that may have been caught inside of it.

“This is way worse than going to prison!”

“Shut up and keep moving, otherwise you’re going to end up dead!” Bakugo shouted. The sound of sirens began to be drowned out as they entered the building, a cacophony of voices bouncing off the wall and drowning out any other noises.

“Does anyone know what’s going on?”

“Are we being attacked by Villains?”

“Does anyone have their phone? I need to get in contact with my parents!” No one was on the same page, it had all happened so quickly.

“Someone check the news and find out what’s going on!”

“I got it!” Someone raised their phone and connected it to a speaker, raising it to maximum volume so that everyone could hear. Conversations began to go silent as people listened in.

“-missiles falling all over the country. The JSDF and Heroes are working together to try and stop as many of these missiles as possible, but it’s suspected that by the end of the bombardment deaths will stand in the high tens of thousands. This appears to be part of what the Chinese government calls its new ‘peacekeeping’ efforts in the region, as all over East Asia reports of attacks by Chinese troops have begun to come out. Though, there is no confirmation as to how widespread these attacks really are. We-“ The broadcast was temporarily interrupted, as whatever studio was currently broadcasting experienced a massive tremor from a nearby impact. “We are also receiving troubling breaking news from Europe. Reports of…” The newscaster swallowed his fear, working up the courage to say what came next. “…A nuclear detonation in Paris, originating from the Euronext Exchange building… My God…”

Another newscaster took over the broadcast, “We will continue issuing updates as they occur. Right now, public officials are advising that all citizens continue sheltering in place. The best places you can hide in are a garage or a basement. If you do not have either of those, find strong pieces of furniture and create a makeshift barrier to hide behind. Do not leave your homes unless it is absolutely necessary, and make room for anyone that may show up to your doors that may have no other place to go during these events.”

As the main message of the broadcast finished, the room erupted back into noise. Some people were panicking, trying to figure out if their families were safe. Others broke down into tears, overwhelmed by the stress of the situation and finding it the only way to cope with it. Others still remained completely silent, internally fighting over what to feel in this situation. Midoriya fell into that last category, a look of total dismay locked onto his face.

The world was falling apart…