Cascading Effects

After coming back from the trip to the moon with Mirko, Aurdel took his time to prepare. It was a somewhat arduous effort, one that spanned the course of roughly an entire day. He’d made sure that he was completely sober, cleaned himself up, thoroughly cleaned his armor, graded all the assignments that his students had sent in and reviewed what exactly he was going to say during the interview. To say that his preparations were thorough would be an understatement of just how seriously he took this event, doing so in a near ritualistic manner. But despite all this, and despite the fact that he’d purposefully taken an entire day before that just to destress, mellow out and get things off his chest things just weren’t going to go his way.

On the next day, the very day of the interview, when he woke up early he found himself with an absolutely ear splitting headache. It was one of the worst headaches he’d ever experienced, the second worst ever, and no matter what he did it would absolutely not go away. The headache made him give slight consideration towards simply postponing the interview, delaying it to another day. But with the current state of things he decided against it. The more time he wasted, then the more likely it would become that things would not go his way. And so with what felt like a crack in his head that would make the liberty bell blush, he went into his interview.

“You don’t know how happy I am at having the exclusive chance to interview and show you off to the world."

“I can make an educated guess.” Chitose Kizuki, also known as ‘Curious’ among the ranks of the Meta Liberation Army, seemed genuinely excited to be here interviewing him. From his own searching into her history she seemed to be one of members of the dying breed of people known as investigative journalists, people who actually doggedly pursued leads in order to gain as much knowledge as they could before publishing it and plastering the truth across the front page of the newspaper. Of course, she, like most journalists, would always manage to twist it in a way that worked towards her own cause. Not entirely thrilled by the situation, or all its conditions, Aurdel found it hard to drum up the same enthusiasm.

“We’ll begin in just a moment, we have around two minutes of ads that need to run before the broadcast can begin.” The two of them sat in chairs on opposite sides of a table, a pair of cameras being set up to track them as they would talk back and forth. He never liked being in the spotlight, and he liked ever being among the people of the ‘press’ even less. But at the very least it would be live, a rare caveat that not many interviewees were treated to. He looked up, the producer held up a hand. Five seconds before they were on air. He readjusted his position. Five, four, three, two, one… The cameras went live. “Good afternoon people of Japan. Here on this show we give you insight into every happening in the country, and relentlessly give you all the details that you deserve. But today… We have something truly special for you.” She certainly was a showwoman, dramatizing the scene. “Many studios and publishers all across Japan, and even the world, have tried to get a hold of this man. They’ve tried to pry any details they can out of him, but to absolutely no success. By all accounts he’s a box wound tightly shut. But that changes today! Because today we got a hold of the one, the only, Spartan!” The camera switched over to him, he nodded in response. “So Spartan, I have to ask. Why’d you choose to do this interview? And why live? After all, everyone knows that hundreds of agencies have tried to contact you in the past and you turned each and every one of them down.”

“The reason I wanted to do this interview was because I knew that, eventually, someone would try to tell my story. And before that happens I want to make sure that the truth about me is told. As for why I chose to do it live? Principle. I don’t want to be led down a certain path of questioning without having the chance to properly respond and retort.”

“Well, with interviews like this there’s only one proper way to do it, and that’s to get straight into the meat of it.” She had a notepad out on the table and a pen in one hand as she spoke, “First, what’s with the helmet? Any time someone sees you, it’s with it on. Even around your closest friends and allies you seem to always keep it on.”

“It’s not like I never take off my helmet, I do. It’s just that most of the time I don’t see taking it off as necessary. My armor is like a second set of skin to me, so taking it off and keeping it off for prolonged periods of time feels unnatural. Besides, I prefer being able to walk around without being harassed.”

“Do you think you’re ever going to let the country see your face?”

“Eventually. But that will only happen when I think that it’s necessary.”

“Then what about any hints to tell us what’s behind the mask? There are a lot of people online trying to guess what you look like under there.”

“The world will just have to wait.”

“A shame. But In that case, let’s discuss something a little more serious. There are a lot of people who criticize the methods that you use when fighting Villains and criminals, quite a few of them actually believe that you act more like a Villain than you do a Hero. What do you have to say to that?”

The question she asked was loaded, but was an important one that he felt needed to be answered. Decisively. “I, like many other people, believe in free speech. But there’s something that I feel many people do not realize, that there is a difference between critiquing someone and criticizing someone. Critique is the basis of every successful system. Critique means that you point out the flaws in whatever idea or product is being presented to you, but at the same time you give ways that that idea or product can be improved. It allows the chance for something greater than the original idea or product to be fostered, and is an overall positive for all involved. Criticism, on the other hand, is only that first step. Under criticism, you only point out what is wrong with an idea or product and refuse to give anything that could help it to improve. But it’s easy to criticize, so that’s what the majority of people who think their opinion of Heroes deserves to be heard do.. And you know what?” He rested a hand on the table, “I’m willing to take critique, I’ll sit down with anyone who’s willing to offer me any genuine ideas to fix what they see as an issue. I’ll enter into rational discussion with anyone who can tell me how to solve the problems of rampant violent crime. But until that happens I’m going to tell those people this. Step up, or shut up.” He made sure that he looked straight on at the camera, his point needed to come across. “Because let me tell you something about these people, all these critics who think they know best for the country. They don’t live in the thick of the city, they don’t live where criminal activity is at its worst. They live in their picket fence housing, their gated communities, their ivory towers. And maybe I’m not the greatest example of a Hero there is, maybe there are times that you can argue that I go too far. But I go out there. I don’t sit behind a screen and complain about things being bad, I try to make them right.” He held up a hand as Kizuki went to ask another question, “And before anyone feels the need to call me a hypocrite: No, I am not like you. I did not have an easy life, and nothing over the past months has made it any easier. I was orphaned twice, kidnapped at six, trained in inhuman conditions, subjected to dangerous experimental surgeries and forced into military service for nearly three decades. Before now I never had the chance to live my own life, I never had the chance to do the right thing. So I’m not going to let a bunch of armchair activists who won’t so much as throw themselves at a soup kitchen tell me what’s right and wrong, and what I can’t do.”

“What about the people that are saying that you’re only out for power and fame?” Curious tapped her notebook with her pen, “There’s a number of people that think that your partnership with Mirko was for publicity reason, that you only chose to work with her because you wanted to skyrocket yourself into the top ten of Heroes and manipulate public perception to gain support from the heteromorph community.” He grit his teeth at the insinuation, his previous discomfort and unhappiness with needing to undertake the interview slowly turning to anger.

“Do you have any names?”

“Huh?”

“Do you have the names of any people specifically throwing these accusations at me?”

“Well, no…”

“That’s a shame, because I would have liked to personally show those people the very conditions that the people I try to help live in.” His hand balled up into a fist, placing it on the desk. “Hetermorphs, or mutants, are not a majority in the country, and as such some people see fit to treat them as less than others. This happens more predominantly in the rural areas of the country, but it’s still present even in the cities. Despite the need to counter, Heroes patrol majority heteromorph neighborhoods less often and overall less effectively. I have the data and statistics to back all this up.”

“This is-”

“Let me finish,” he raised a hand, Curious went quiet. “Some people might try to counter what I say by bringing up the fact that there actually are a number of heteromorphs in relatively influential positions. Some are top Heroes in the country, some hold government positions and others are well off business owners. But is this really enough to dismiss everything that I’ve said? No. The truth is that there’s a number of factors to consider how someone who is a heteromorph might be treated. On one hand you have wealth, with those that have access to better financial standing able to receive fairer treatment. On the other hand you have appearances, something that comes in such a wide variety due to the sheer number of quirks across the country. Generally what most people judge heteromorphs by is how close to ‘human’ they look, but even then that’s not a guarantee with groups like the Creature Rejection Clan.”

“What about you though?”

“I judge people on their merits and character. Nothing more, nothing less. Where I come from, the days of squabbling over miniscule differences are over. No one cares about race, ethnicity, culture, appearance, gender or anything else of that nature. The truth of the matter is that in the end, no matter how we may look, we are all human.”

She tapped her cheek with her pen, “You certainly have some strong beliefs… Aren’t you afraid that someone might target you for holding them or expressing them?”

“‘I would rather die standing than live on my knees.’ Let them come for me, I’ll be ready for them.”

“You certainly have a lot of enthusiasm for what you believe, so let’s keep going.” She flipped to the next page in the notebook, “So before this interview, no one really knew anything about your views on Hero society. However, from what little is known, and because of the actions you usually take while serving as a Hero, many have compared you to the Hero Killer: Stain. Do you think that’s an accurate comparison?”

“No, and if it was then I wouldn’t have put Stain back in prison. In a world like this Heroes aren’t a bad idea, after all it’s the logical conclusion in a society where superhuman powers and abilities have come into fruition. The problem was in its execution, both in Japan and worldwide.”

“And why do you say that?”

“There are two main issues. First, Heroes themselves. I don’t doubt that there are a number of Heroes out there that genuinely believe in doing good, and that they try to do as much good as they can. But as far as I can tell it has become just like any other profession, public or private. It has been hijacked by those that saw the opportunity to make their money in a cushy state supported job, one that will always be in need. Others do it for fame and glory. At best they are being publicly disingenuous, at worst it’s akin to stolen valor.”

“Are there any specific Heroes you like to call out?”

“If I called out any specific Hero, then nothing would change. By giving an issue a singular face and identity, those who wish to sweep the rot under the rug will simply cut their losses with those specific Heroes and say ‘Mission Accomplished.’ The Heroes that do their work for the wrong reasons know who they are, and those who know them privately can also say the same. They can either retire and be publicly made a disgrace, or they can become proper Heroes and earn the honor that they claim to have now.” He had a few names in his mind, he’d withhold them. “The second problem with Hero society is the way that quirks are legislated.”

“Oh?” This piqued her interest, given the ideology of the Meta Liberation Army. “Would you explain that in more depth?”

“There’s an old phrase. ‘God made men, Samuel Colt made them equal.’ Long ago easy to use firearms were considered the great equalizer, but with the emergence of quirks they have lost their place in the world. Where once an armed man could stop an armed man, now Villains who freely use their quirks can overpower that armed man. Only Heroes, the only people who legally are allowed to use their quirks, can effectively respond. And so now the everyday lawgivers and civilians are left to cower in the face of men and women wielding substantial power, something that they too possess but are not allowed to use.”

“Then what exactly are you suggesting?”

“The difference between now and the earlier emergence of quirks is that by now quirks have fully integrated themselves into human existence. By forcing someone to never use their quirk, it is effectively the same as telling someone to live their entire life with one arm tied behind their back. It doesn’t help either that there are those that face even worse effects from not using their quirks, in which case there are no institutions that exist to help those that face such a conundrum. Ultimately, they are forced to become Villain’s just to avoid extreme discomfort and to protect those around them from any side effects. But that’s besides my original point.”

“Which is?”

“That an armed society is a polite society, and a society where all people can use their quirks is an equal one. People should have the right to defend themselves by any means necessary, and the law shouldn’t get in the way of that fact. Nor should people be forced to bend their very genetics and being just because of law, avoiding bringing harm to themselves from themselves.”

“Aren’t you afraid that your ideas may come off as radical?”

“Radical?” His speaking tone had begun to shift as the things he said throughout the interview became more and more inflammatory. By now, one could describe the way he spoke like a man preaching gospel. “Do you know what is radical? Allowing corporate entities to take over in modern society, negatively influencing it by buying into the pockets of news organizations, politicians and the many facets of everyday life. Do you know what’s radical? Allowing politicians to increase the defense budget and pushing for further corporate subsidies, doing so even as the country continues spiraling into debt and some families can’t even afford to not freeze to death during the winter. Do you know what is absolutely and completely radical? Lying through your white pristine teeth to the people, using an elected office for your own personal gain, kowtowing to foreign powers' demands and undermining your own country’s very existence and building a bureaucratic nightmare that is completely uncaring and inhuman to support all of it. That… is radical.” Say things like this, he was stepping on so many toes that it wasn’t even funny anymore. But it had to be said, above all else. “I know what it’s like to lose freedom, and I don’t intend to allow it to happen again. Not to myself and not to anyone else. Here, or abroad.”

Curious, the producer and the crew all looked completely astonished by what he’d said. Even just some of what he said would have had entire shows canceled, and the people associated with their production completely disavowed by anyone with any level of influence. And he’d said all of it, without even an inch of hesitation, “Well,” Curious said, taking a moment to readjust herself as she fixed up her notepad, “You certainly-” Her sentence was cut off as a loud and high pitched sound played, he immediately knew what it was. “Was that your phone?”

Damnit, he was missing almost all of his gear. Aurdel jumped up from the chair, quickly tapping into his tacpad as he pulled up the data on his visor. “One of my students is under attack and needs help, I’ll have to finish the interview later.” With the other hand he pulled out his phone, trying to call Aoyama and figure out the exact details of his situation. But the call didn’t go through. Either he was just getting no reception, or cell towers were down nationwide. “I’ll pay you back for the damages later.”

“What dam-?” Aurdel sprinted away from the table, shoulder checking his way through the nearest studio wall and getting outside. He then activated his thrusterpack. He needed to move, and he had to be fast if he was going to make this time. He wasn’t going to fail his students. Not again.

Perfect Storm

Aurdel pushed his thrusterpack to its limit, leaving a trail of smoke and residual flames in his wake as he rocketed through the air. Doing this was the only way to get there as fast as he could, but it was really stressing out the system. The pressure and temperature were beginning to become too much, and at moments it felt like the fuel lines would rupture and the whole thing would explode. But he needed to move fast. There was no other choice. A trio of news helicopters were trailing him about two minutes back, but there was nothing he could do to keep them away short of turning around and dive bombing them with his fist. Those vultures could watch for all he cared, his students were more important. “Damnit Aoyama, pick up!” He muttered to himself as he flew, still trying to get a response on the phone. But there was still nothing. Had VIllains sabotaged communications across the country? No, otherwise the people at the studio would have noticed. It had to be something else.

He approached a clearing just outside of a forest, the origin point of the transmitter’s call. When he landed he was able to find the transmitter, picking it up off of the ground. He looked around, there was clear evidence that a fight had gone down here. The snow here was almost all melted, burn marks covered the ground and a scorched out car sat in the dirt. On top of all tha, he could see several places where Ashido had likely used her acid. But there was no sign of any of them. “You’re a difficult man to get a hold of, Spartan.” He quickly turned around towards the origin of the voice, drawing his combat knife. There was a radio nearby, wedged into a large set of rocks.

“What the hell did you do with them?!”

“Your students are still alive, they escaped the other days battle… relatively fine. Whether or not you will survive this battle, that answer is much less clear.” Gray pools of mist appeared in the air, surrounding him on all sides. He remembered this quirk… It was one of the first ones he’d encountered while freeing his, now, students from the League of Villain’s hideout. “In order for my master's plans to succeed, you must be wiped off the face of the Earth!” The gray mist began to split up into around a dozen different portals around him, Nomus began to step out. But they didn’t look like the weaker ones. They looked like the one that he’d faced down himself in the city, the stronger one. And there were a whole lot of them. “After losing Hood to you in such an indignant way I realized that the only way to win against you was to stack the deck. As such, I have dramatically increased the number of Nomu I have at my disposal!” Duplicates of each of the stronger Nomu began to appear, forming from what looked like mud. Then, each of them did the same as the other Nomu had, spitting out nine other Nomu each. They looked to be Nomu of somewhat similar caliber, mostly down to their similar appearances. In total that was… “Now, you will die!” Three hundred and thirty Nomu.

After the portals closed the Nomus charged towards him, a thundering sound filling the air as the pounded the dirt. Suffice to say, he was in for a rough time. The gray ones began to close in on first, charging in and trying to pummel him with brute strength. With how many there were all attacking at once it was hard to bob and weave through their attacks, as each time he went around it seemed like there was another fist waiting to try and strike him. Eventually he was forced to move up, jumping on top of one of the lesser Nomu as it went to attack him. He used the flames of his thrusterpack to superheat his combat knife, then he drove the blade through its head like a hot knife through butter. When that one fell to the ground dead he moved to the next one, but was caught off guard because the moment his attack connected the Nomu disappeared into a pile of mud. It was one of the fakes. With how quickly it vanished he barely had enough time to rapidly recover, taking a few hits in the process. It wasn’t enough to damage his armor, but every battering that he took shook him to his score. They were strong, but… He. Would. Not. Die

Midoriya, Bakugo, Todoroki and Endeavor all walked back into the agency building, having completed one of their many patrols of the city streets for the day. Aside from a few petty Villains that had popped up, not much had happened. They had seen some significant improvement with their quirks, though even with the strength they had gained from day to day activities they were still just behind being able to keep up with Endeavor. The number one Hero was simply too fast for them to keep up with. “You three still have a lot of work to do. The way you move is too slow, and your responses are the same. If you’re going to keep up with this agency then you need to be faster.”

“Boss! We’ve been trying to raise you over the horn for the past few minutes!” One of Endeavor's sidekicks, Kido, ran out to meet them.

“What’s going on?”

“It’s better if you just come and see, it’s on the TV upstairs.” The five of them quickly ran over to the elevator, going up to the main floor where the offices for all the sidekicks were. The moment the doors opened they saw that the sidekicks who were still in the office had gathered around the TV. And the sight on it… They couldn’t believe it.

“Is that…” Midoriya started.

“An army of Nomus,” Endeavor finished, “And there’s only one person stuck fighting in the middle of it.” The TV had a live broadcast from a news helicopter, looking down at a sea of Nomus as they went charging around a clearing and forest. In the midst of it you could see what looked like a green speck going back and forth.

“We… We have to go help him!” Midoriya shouted. Even if getting involved with something like this wasn’t smart, they had to do something.

“Kido, how far away is this happening?!”

“More than a few miles out, it’d take you fifteen minutes minimum to get there.”

“Damnit, from the looks of it he might not even last five minutes,” Endeavor muttered, “Get into contact with every agency you can, this threat is something that needs to be faced head on.”

“We can’t. Landlines are down and so is all cell service.”

“I don’t care what you have to do, contact them by any means necessary! This has to be stopped!”

Minutes had gone by, Aurdel was still trying to dodge and weave in between all of the Nomus out for his life. Layers of blood and viscera coated the outside of his armor, bits and pieces being added as he cut down yet another Nomu. But he was fighting a battle of complete attrition. There were eleven of those most powerful Nomu, and those Nomu had deployed nine slightly less powerful Nomu each. Thirty seven of those less powerful ones had fallen to his blade so far, each one being tougher to bring down than the last. For every one that he killed it seemed like he was getting hit by nearly over a dozen blows, with the Nomu slowly going from taking random strikes to specifically targeting parts of his body where it was only the undersuit. Another result of the constant pummeling was that he was unable to let his armors shields regenerate, meaning that his only other way of stifling blows was made completely useless The only way he was going to get through was by- “Y-you must be stopped, I will kill you!” One group of the Nomus shouted, the ones with what looked like armored heads to protect their brains. The fake Nomus around them all suddenly dissolved into mud at the same time, giving anyone looking to shoot him a wide open chance, “You will die, Hero!” The three armored headed Nomu raised their hands simultaneously, with distortions being to form in the air around him and lasers firing out from their eyes. As he dodged the ranged attacks the klaxons in his armor began to go off, with lasers impacting against the plates of his armor and the distortions seeming to actually do damage to his suit. He had to close the gap.

“Your m-movments are the problem.” Two piles of liquid black swam across the ground, closing in on him before springing fully formed into the air. The two vaguely female shaped Nomus then suddenly had parts of their body swell to unnatural size, before exploding outwards in his direction. The tough pieces slammed into his armor, the klaxons still sounding. There was just no way for him to keep up, there were too many of them. His mind was split into too many directions trying to keep track of all his opponents, even his motion tracker found it impossible to follow the movements of so many moving targets.

“...I’ll keep you from moving!” Three octopus-like Nomu attacked from each side, each one attacking him with their tentacles to try and restrain him. He tried to avoid getting caught by them, but it was nearly impossible. Any time he might have gotten away another Nomu batted him back towards the grips of the tentacles. Eventually one managed to grab his left leg, dragging him high into the air before slamming him back into the ground at full force. Rock shattered beneath him, a miniature crater forming. The remaining tentacles then completely swarmed around him, totally enveloping him while still managing to leave spaces for the other Nomus to attack.

“You’ll be crushed!” Three Nomus that looked like elephants attacked next, using massive limbs to pummel him through the others. He could hear and feel his bones literally creak in response to the constant repeated physical trauma, and he was left completely unable to move. Even when he tried to use his thruster pack to break free it was no use, their sheer weight was enough to keep him down and no amount of pain would force them off of him

“You know, I expected more of a fight from you. Perhaps I overestimated what you could really do.” The radio chimed in, still in range and intact. Holes opened up through the tentacles, lasers began to constantly and simultaneously impact against his armor. The outer layers of paint began to burn away, and pieces of plating began to melt.

The klaxons were even louder now, “Stress fractures detected, armor integrity below recommended levels.” The distortions closed back in, concentrating around his exposed sections. The undersuit began to tear, nearly revealing skin and flesh. Bits of boiling titanium slipped in through the cracks, burning bits of skin. “Armor integrity failing.”

“My master truly had great foresight to place someone so close where you would be.” Garaki made another comment over the radio, and Aurdel snapped.

“So I’ve failed again…” Aurdel felt a pain in his chest, and something began to rise inside of him. A laugh. “I failed to kill All For One, I failed to capture the League of Villains, I failed to protect my students… I failed to realize my ideals.” His visor cracked.

“Oh, are you turning this into a confessional?”

“I’m going to make you wish that there’s no life after death.” He throttled up his thrusterpack past its maximum output, disabling every emergency procedure designed to keep it from overheating and warping.

“Temperature critical, discard thrusterpack immediately!”

He felt as the back of his armor warmed up dramatically, the engines going supercritical. Then the thrusterpack exploded. A wave of fire surrounded him and incinerated the tentacles that surrounded him, allowing him to finally break free. His visor further cracked from the force. “If my strength isn’t enough to realize the world that I want, then I’ll just have to take their power. He slammed both his hands to the ground, and the earth beneath his feet vanished. Overhaul. When he took this quirk from Chisaki, he’d only primarily used it as a utility, to make things and to heal injuries. That was his mistake.

“You cannot-!” The three octopus Nomus were skewered, impaled on a hundred different rocky spikes with their brain turned into a fine pink mist.

“I’ll take what you have.” Aurdel launched forward, creating a constantly growing rock face behind him to propel him towards the elephant. He grabbed its head, taking the quirks it had to increase its strength before using Overhaul to obliterate it on a molecular level. He then turned to the armored ones.

“Hero will not-!”

“The way you fight, you’re no good in the middle of a brawl. But your long ranged powers will suit me just fine..” Aurdel propelled himself again, this time simultaneously using the rocks as cover to stop the lasers and spatial distortions. There was no time for it to react. His fist punched through the armor, grabbing its head. Using All For Ond he took its laser firing quirk and spatial distortion quirk. Then, after taking its powers, he crushed its skull with his hands. Waves of the fake mud Nomus suddenly began to spring up again, Garaki wanted to cover his prized pets. “There is no running from this.” A tidal wave of spikes shot out from where he touched the ground, cutting a path through the fake Nomu and impaling the real ones. Then he launched forward, taking their quirks. Durability enhancing quirks, strength enhancing quirks… regeneration quirks. Anything he thought necessary he took, forming an immense stockpile of duplicated quirks. It made him strong enough that he didn’t even need to use Overhaul to kill them. When the fat one tried to attack from behind, a single blow from his fist was enough to turn it into paste. When the one that looked like a woman attacked, he blew it into pieces. And when one with the weird rib cage attacked, it was wiped from existence.

The doctor tried to talk again. ”You cannot hope to kill-“

“-All of them? No, that's exactly what I’m going to do.” Aurdel raised himself from the ground, building a massive pillar beneath as he went. It even went higher than the news choppers following him, the ones that now retreated back when faced with the massive obelisk. Moments later, he sent all that rock crashing down. He watched as gray mist began to form again in the ground as Garaki desperately tried to evacuate his Nomus and save some of his experiments. But there was no running. Each piece hit their marks, killing almost all of the remaining lesser Nomu in the attempted escape. The stronger black Nomu didn’t face any better, being completely wiped out. He watched as all the fake Nomu disappeared again, as whichever ones had been used to make the duplicates were now dead. As he descended back towards the ground he could feel as the earth rumbled nearby, something massive was coming.

“Gigantomachia, kill.” The voice of All For One spoke from the radio, a massive beast coming crashing down onto him with the force of an earthquake.

“Master!” Aurdel was forced into and through the ground, being pushed through several meters deep of dirt and rock. The left half of his visor shattered. This would not stop him.

“Heel!” Aurdel touched the ground, completely obliterating multiple layers to make a massive crater and trip up Gigantomachia.

“I will kill you for my Master!”

“I SAID, HEEL!” He raised his hand towards Gigantomachia as the monster went to attack him one again. His bones compressed under the sheer weight and force, but he got his touch in. The period of contact was brief, meaning that he didn’t completely destroy him with one touch. But he did his damage.

“MASTER!” Gigantomachia screamed out in pain as Aurdel used Overhaul to completely remove its legs, leaving it to fall to the ground. With its impact it kicked up a tidal wave of dirt, dust and flesh.

“YOU GODFORSAKEN ABOMINATION, HEEL!” He looked Gigantomachia in the eyes and saw only one emotion, one emotion that Nomus were supposedly unable to feel. Fear. Then he put his hand to its head.

“Hawks, search the area for any injured! This may have been on the outskirts of the city but this fight was bound to have had some crossfire.”

“Roger,” Hawks peeled off, deploying a barrage of his feathers to quickly search the area.

“Even with all the Nomu that he was fighting, this level of damage is insane…” With communications down they had to go on foot to contact the other agencies. None of them had turned down the other, as they neither wanted to miss the chance to work alongside the number one Hero or to be a part of one of the largest battles with Villains the country had seen. But when they got there, there was no fight to be had.

Miles of forest had been cut down in the battle, treetops scattered to leave the ground looking like a barren wasteland. Craters dotted the ground from the impact of massive boulders that had been thrown from the skies. An earthquake-like force had even been recorded from the battle.

“Where the hell is this army of Villains?” Bakugo muttered as raced forward.

“Maybe they retreated…” Todoroki answered.

“No, I don’t think they did.” Endeavor looked forward.

“What the…” The body of a massive Villain lay in front of them, motionless on the ground. Scattered all around were the skewered and destroyed corpses of Nomus, each and every last one of them was deceased. “Mr. Aurd- Spartan, did all of this?”

His question would be answered, as the massive Villain exploded into a shower of viscera that then coated the ground. Once the red mist had cleared his teacher had stepped out. The green color of his armor was no longer visible, stained by so much blood. “Doctor. I am going to tear your limb from limb, I will pound your flesh and bones into dust until the very atoms of carbon beg for mercy. My hands will relish ending your miserable life, ONCE AND FOR ALL!” He rocketed off, kicking off the ground and flying through the air at breakneck speeds. There wasn’t even a moment for them to get even a word in with him. They could only watch as he left the area for whatever he planned to do next.

They looked over, Endeavor picked up his phone. Were communications finally back online? “Where do you think he’s headed?” Midoriya wondered aloud.

“Whatever it is, it’s going to be even less pretty than what happened here.”

Endeavor put down the phone, an unpleasant look on his face. “There’s been a change of plans.”

“What’s going on?”

“We’ve been ordered to capture Spartan and take him into custody. Failing that, we have been ordered to kill him."