Mirio opened his eyes, and felt the cold brush of wind brushing against patches of cloth and exposed skin.

It was not comfortable – how could it be?

His body was scarred, battered, bruised, and burned. Luckily, The Hero was used to all the pain that came with his chosen profession.

The pain never decreased, but it became much more tolerable when someone had a reason to keep fighting.

‘An intense battle…’ Lemillion thought, remembering the last time he was this confused and tired – the battle with Overhaul.

Of course, that didn’t end particularly well.

Mirio was falling, that much he could remember – the grip of gravity pulling him down was the greatest hint.

And it helped that he had been falling for about three seconds thus far – that meant he was relatively high up.

As for why, how, or who caused this situation, Mirio’s concussion ensured the memories consisted of bits and fragments that were hard to discern.

A flash here…

A burst of understanding there…

Though nothing was coherent enough to complete the picture…

After falling for a couple more seconds, Mirio finally realized that Johnny was firmly gripped in his embrace. Lemillion’s arms stretched around Johnny’s waist as if a kangaroo mother guarding her child in the pouch.

And Johnny was hot…

Not that type of hot… but hot – hot.

And the burning man was getting hotter by the second…

SIZZLE

SIZZLE

Mirio maneuvered their bodies in the air, forcing the wind to send them into a temporary spiral, just enough to ensure they were facing down instead of up.

It was skydiving 101 – without any string to read the flow of the air, and caught in a bout of intense disorientation, Mirio could only depend on his instinct to situate himself and Johnny.

It was a struggle at first, and then, they turned successfully.

Mirio caught sight of an endless expanse of forest below, but it was only for a split second, and he and Johnny were back spiraling through the air.

Mirio had many talents.

And for all his talents as a hero, flying was not one of Mirio’s gifts.

Lemillion tightened his grip around Johnny and drifted as gravity willed, all the while thinking back to everything leading up to this moment.

The memories trickled in as the concussion disappeared.

-----------------

TEN MINUTES EARLIER

Another abrupt swerve in the van warned everyone that something was deeply wrong.

They had a split-second to react, but this reaction was stalled by the annoyance that Johnny may have been the cause of all the swerving.

The Daredevil was reckless… but not usually this much.

There was only one person who knew differently – Ben knew Johnny’s recklessness firsthand, but he also knew The Daredevil wasn’t this reckless.

Still, Johnny was the person driving.

Noticing the look of fright on Johnny’s face, Mirio confirmed his initial guess – this was not being caused by Johnny. Actually, Lemillion had sensed something amiss since appearing in the new universe.

But he had hardly been conscious for a couple of hours – that was not enough time to locate the problem.

‘An educated guess?’ Lemillion mused.

Allmight always taught that in a high-risk situation, the best someone could do was use the information at hand to guess as best as they possibly could.

Mirio found it absurd at the time, but now, he understood.

And if he had to guess…

‘There is no way we would just be allowed to leave Victor’s Resort after Sue’s supernatural outburst of power…’ The Hero mused.

It wouldn’t take a genius to guess that Sue probably got abilities from the Cosmic Storm in space and if that was the case, who else could obtain these abilities?

Can it be replicated?

What are the military applications?

And by extension, since the Cosmic Storm had long since departed the solar system, the only way to replicate Sue’s unexpected powers was by capturing the woman herself.

It took Mirio this long to notice because he came from a world where the majority of the population was, in loose terms, special.

And even those who were ordinary humans would usually ascend to the heights of famous researchers, mothers, and fathers to children with quirks, gifted engineers, or admirers of heroes.

That was not the case in this world.

Ben’s, Reed’s, Sue’s and Johnny’s abilities would be unprecedented – that was assuming that the others would react to The Cosmic Storm exposure in a way similar to Sue's.

Another swerve of the van, this time more abrupt and sharper, mere inches from sending everyone off the mountain road – of course, this was once again not Johnny’s doing.

“Johnny!” Sue yelled, panic lacing her tone.

The terror on her face was finally mirroring that of Reed's and Ben's; though, Mirio was growing even calmer – panic at this point in time would do nothing, especially since he had checked and the door refused to open.

“I – I… don’t think I am driving…” Johnny stuttered – he had crashed many things before but somehow, the thoughts of not being in control of something about to crash terrified him. “I don’t think I was the one driving this from the beginning.”

Mirio’s eyes turned sharp… he understood in a split second.

The doors wouldn’t open…

The car was seemingly driving itself…

Lemillion moved in a blur, placing both of his hands on the floor of the van, ready to permeate but he was a split second too late.

BEEEEP---BEEEEP---BEEEEP---BEEEEP

BEEEEP---BEEEEP---BEEEEP---BEEEEP

BEEEEP---BEEEEP---BEEEEP---BEEEEP

“The proximity alarms, something is coming directly at us,” Reed yelled, kicking the back of Johnny’s chair. “Quick! Swerve the car to the side!”

“Too late,” Mirio muttered, recognizing a red Ferrari was on a rather deliberate collision course with them.

Through the windshield of the van, Mirio could barely see through the windshield of the Ferrari with his peak human vision – the height difference between a van and a Ferrari made things complicated but Lemillion’s eyes could adjust.

Inside the opposite vehicle, Mirio glimpsed the face of a terrified child… two terrified children… parents… and a driver who seemed excited by the thought of the incoming collision.

Lemillion realized this was about to be no accident, and it was in no way meant to capture Sue – it was a death warrant.

“Everybody, get ready to sink!” Mirio warned, making a split-second decision.

What came next would take a bit more manipulative ability than he had, but it had to be done anyway, and Lemillion was all about pushing his quirk to its limits.

“Wha—” Reed and Sue wanted to question, but as people who had experienced Mirio’s quirk before, Johnny and Ben clenched their but cheeks, and prepared for the fallout.

Ben was swift, pulling Reed into his embrace…

Johnny was just as swift, snatching Sue from her seat, taking his sister into his arms…

He was careful not to upset her too much, less she causes another eruption of strange energy.

BOOOOOOOM

The front of the van buckled as it collided with the red Ferrari for a split second.

It was a moment within a moment, barely enough to be considered a true collision.

Still, the moment of contact managed to tilt both vehicles upwards a bit.

Mirio tensed his muscles at that instant, dragging the van into a state of nothingness alongside his body. Permeation had been activated and everything ceased to exist.

At least, the van ceased to exist.

It was easier this time compared to the falling slab of concrete during the Battle of New York, so Mirio knew he was getting better at mastering the new extensions of his permeation quirk.

The momentum from the initial collision with the Ferrari mostly dispersed with the permeation – it was just enough to not take a major toll on the human body.

But that didn’t mean the collision took no toll at all.

Everything ceased…

But Mirio and the van existed in the world of oblivion.

Ben, Sue, Reed, and Johnny sank through the bottom of the van like it didn’t exist in the Material Universe, and they rolled across the frost-covered road, barely missing the wheels of the slightly diverted Ferrari.

They had missed death by inches; though they could not avoid injury. It was at that moment, several things happened simultaneously.

First, as the van and the Ferrari occupied the same position in space, at the same time, creating the odd picture of a Ferrari-Van overlap, Mirio unpermeated his head for a split second.

It took an impossible permeation technique but he could manage it. A large part of Mirio’s mastery of his quirk included being able to control every part of his body during permeations.

The first thing Lemillion had learned was permeating only the bottom of his feet so, when passing through walls, he could stand on the other side.

Mirio needed to confirm something.

As the van and Ferrari overlapped, Lemillion saw it.

It was only a glimpse, but that was all a hero needed.

The world around Mirio slowed, and his eyes darted back and forth, tracing the two children - one male and one female - two male adults, and one adult female, possibly the mother.

Mirio didn’t know which of the men was the father, but it was more likely not to be the psycho smiling dazzling as one car rammed into the other.

If that was the father, Lemillion saw a further need to save the children anyway.

But could Mirio save them?

The truth remained the same no matter how much Mirio tried to expand his permeation quirk at that moment – he could only permeate one thing with him.

Lemillion realized he could only save one person from the Ferrari, and even then, it would mean he would have to release his hold on the van.

There was no safe choice in this scenario.

Mirio could choose to save one person from the Ferrari but that would mean the Ferrari and Van would occupy the same point in space, leading to a very violent separation.

That was how his quirk worked – a rebound effect whenever two objects overlapped.

He could choose to continue permeating the Van through the Ferrari, but that would leave the children to an earlier death since the Ferrari had already started to spiral.

A spiraling car on a mountain road will never end well.

Finally, Mirio could abruptly switch from permeating the Van to permeating the Ferrari, but that would mean everyone inside the Ferrari would suddenly fall onto the road and would be run over by an out-of-control Van.

Mirio found it hard to decide what was the right thing to do, but it was exactly moments like these UA had trained future heroes to exceed themselves.

‘Just start by saving one person,’ Mirio thought, and immediately urged his body to make the choice without conscious thought.

The world resumed its speed, and everything became a blur.

Mirio removed his hands from the Van and snatched the female child, Ava, from the backseat of the car, and permeated them both.

By this time, the Ferrari had tilted a bit, just about to spiral out of control, and Mirio could judge that Ava’s side was going to be crushed first, so he made saving her life a priority.

Mirio cradled the small Ava in his arms and permeated through the Van and Ferrari, rolling on the frost-covered road due to the sudden shift in momentum.

Almost instantly, due to occupying the same point in space, the Van and Ferrari halted for a split second and then, abruptly separated as if being bounced apart by some strange force.

Alas, not even Mirio could foresee what happened next.

Actually, there was only one person who could guess what was about to happen, but Reed had failed to mention what would happen if the proximity alarms were triggered.

The Van bounced toward the end of the mountain road, and the proximity alarms Victor installed hummed to life, projecting a gravitational field that prevented the Van and Ferrari from falling off the mountain.

The hum of the proximity alarms was meant to keep things from falling off the mountain, but it did much more than that.

Advanced magnetic repulsion technology.

Sue had somehow been enhanced by the Cosmic Storm, so every aspect of her body had undergone some changes, becoming more sensitive.

Subtly energy interactions intonement was key amongst these changes.

The hum of the Proximity Alarms caused a shudder in the atmosphere – a shudder so sharp that even Ben, Reed, Johnny, and Sue could feel it.

And Sue felt it more than anyone.

Mirio felt it as well, but he had better hold on his senses.

Everything was occurring all at once - in the span of two seconds - and what triggered Sue extended that time by a couple of seconds longer.

Sue reacted violently to the proximity alarms - a pulse of energy erupted from her body and saturated everything to the point of altering gravity profoundly… to the point time nearly froze.

Suddenly, everything was moving a thousand times slower.