Chapter 63: 2 Attacks, of Monsters and Fire

Stain and Dabi, working together now, begin their assault on Oruto Purutonia. Dabi framed it as a means for Stain to kill more heroes, but what is thier true goals? And how would Shoto fit into all this?

“Text” – Normal speech

‘Text’ – Thought

“Text” – Quirk Spirit speaking in the human world

“Text” - Attack

“Text” – Radio/Communication lines

“Text” – None Japanese speech

(text) – Subtext/meaning behind a spoken word

Line Break

Oruto Purutonia, despite the history of the city it was part of, was typically a peaceful place. It was one of the more popular tourist spots, hosting local markets, a temple relocated from its old location to the hilltop, and several hot springs, spas, and casinos. It was a war built on leisure, and with pros conducting regular patrols, with the support of the locals, crime was low. So much so that some big city pros often would spend their last years there, just to slow down and enjoy the district's finer pleasures at discounts.

Because of that, as Frostbyte and Shoto raced towards the sight of the first explosions and panic, they were slowed by panicking locals, unused to any large villain incidents or attacks. Law enforcement, those out in the streets at least, seemed only slightly more prepared.

The last straw was when Frostbyte saw a few local pros, some she knew and worked with, struggling and arguing with one another over who would do what. What were they, a bunch of children?

With a glance and a clenched fist, she manipulated the snow into forming hardened barriers, separating the people, and moved to float atop them. Many saw her already before she spoke, as clear and loud as a blizzard storm.

"Citizens, please don't panic! We're already moving to handle the situation. For your safety, we ask you to work with us to evacuate everyone!" She quickly moved on to focus on her fellow heroes and the present police, pointing them out as she rattled off orders. "You, take a team of police and check the buildings. You handle the rear lines. And you, get in contact with the police department and other pros. We'll need backup!"

“Y-yes, mam!” The three groups she had pointed out moved, their training finally piercing through the panic as they moved to help get the people out of there. When another explosion occurred, along with what looked like a spike of ice in the direction of their destination, she turned to the last group of heroes, made up of four others.

"You three, with me, we're going to handle this mess and make sure whoever decided to cause a mess in our time realizes we can be more than laid-back vacation folk.” She ordered as she moved down to street level and enlarged her snow carpet, all four having the sense to see it as a silent order to jump on.

As they raced towards the danger, the up till now silent Shoto spoke up.

"They don't seem all that impressive," Shoto commented, provoking some criticism from the other pros who called him out for it.

Shame that his mentor agreed with him, still disappointed that she had found them doing, which was nothing in a time where a second could be the difference between life and death. "Unless they want to lose their hero licenses, they'll shape up quickly. I won't stand by while we get our Musutafu.”

1 of them would have muttered about how unfair the statement was, but she silenced with a look, not a glare, but a look, as they all knew her temper was worse when she wasn't visibly angry. Instead, they all nodded and promised not to disappoint her, leading the woman to focus on the road, or more accurately, the sky as they flew several meters above the ground to give the people below space to flee.

As they approached the spot, the sounds of fighting and action increased in volume and repetition, and it was clear it couldn't be a single attacker but an entire gang. Why one would just show up in their town and cause such a mess, they couldn't say. Even Todoroki and Frostbyte, who knew more, couldn't pinpoint an issue.

It was only when they arrived that they ran into an issue that the ice-based heroine hadn't considered.

“What the heck?”

“It’s attacking!”

“What? I can’t see anything!”

“It’s villains, run! Run for your lives!”

The fact that she and Shoto were the only ones who could actually see the threat, unlike in some other cases, when the quirk cased itself in its element, this time around, they had all chosen to remain invisible, or maybe they couldn't form a physical form.

Either way, it led to a once-pristine and wonderful park becoming a warzone where several beasts could rampage, some flying about, and no one could see them.

They only saw the effects of them such as bolts of lighting tearing through the air and crashing into the ground and trees or in same cases, balls of electricity forming before zipping about the place, tagging any and everything in its way; people being knocked out by invisible forces, some not getting back up; gusts of wind so strong it knocked others onto their backs and slowed them down as they raced to escape; sprouts of ice seemingly forming from nothing and blasts of water uprooting trees.

“Is there a villain with a ranged weather quirk?” One of the pros with them asked, as they couldn’t make sense of the situation..

The other gulped, his legs shaking. "They'll have to be insanely strong to pull this off."

“You four, on crowd control, get the people out of here. We’ll handle the villains.” Frostbyte ordered, as she couldn't rely on them for anything, not even when it could risk their lives.

“Why take the kid?” Again, she turned and looked at them, and that was enough for them to stop asking foolish questions. “Got it, on the move!”

“Shoto,” she glanced at her apprentice as they left, one whom she would have sent back to U.A. Still, now, she needed the expertise to handle things until someone more qualified could arrive. “What’s the play?”

Todoroki glanced at the situation, taking in the sights of what he counted to be seven quirk beasts, some large, others small. But what united them seemed to be their rampage through the park, though he didn't know why. "We can't harm them; we don't have the right powers for that, but we can slow them down, keep them away from the people until help arrives."

"Let's hope it gets here soon," Frostbyte responded as she jumped into the fray. Shoto was not far behind as she willed some snow into a barrier, which one of the quirks slammed into and through, though having lost most of its speed.

That spirit was a white, rodent-like type that best resembled a flying squirrel. Its ears, positioned at the end of its head, were round in shape and black and yellow in color. As it got up from its unexpected impact, she could make out the yellow and white sections inside, along with its black eyes, tiny nose, and yellow marks on both cheeks. She also spotted its yellow winglike membrane connected to its three-fingered arms.

“Heroes…” The quirk slurred, before it seemed to regain clarity and bark out in a shrill, rodent-like voice. “Heroes!” The rodent quirk's body was encased in lightning once more, turning into a self-propelled lightning sphere as it attacked Frostbyte.

“Kill, kill them all!” Meanwhile, Todoroki was handling another of the beasts, one that used water as its primary means of attack, with high-pressure jets launched from the 2 cannons coming out of its shell. Todoroki froze the first wave, but then the second came in, and he realized it had been heated to boiling, which meant it took slightly longer to fully freeze. With the volume being sent his way, this forced him to dodge.

He kept his gaze on his foe, taking in its large form. Like most quirks he had seen, it didn’t look like the person it had been in life, or maybe this was it; who was he to say? All he knew was he was up against a giant bipedal turtle, its body blue and mainly hidden by its brown shell, which he assumed was as durable as it looked.

His focus was on the 2 water cannons which resided at the top of its shell, over its shoulders.

“They aren’t real heroes; they couldn’t save me or my family!” came a third voice, as a large, dinosaur-looking quirk screamed as it dived on its, its narrow dark green eyes filled with nothing but malice as its large wings pushed it towards Shoto. He glanced towards it and was already moving to send ice after it, but it was struck from the side by a snow hammerhead, the surprised quirk squawking as it was sent into the nearby ice statue of a dolphin.

Frostbyte, the source of the attack, turned her attention to the quirks she had stuck with and listed the ones she had seen thus far.

“We have a long-ranged water type, a fast one with flight and electricity, and lastly, several ice types of short to medium range." She called out, as she was handling four while Shoto had to deal with the other three, and neither liked their odds.

"Do you recognize these powers? They seem like they're from the area." Todoroki asked, to which she shook her head.

“No, but with what the info you gave me claimed, they could be from before my time as a hero, but why attack now?” She asked, forming a whip from the snow and striking at one of the quirks, but it didn’t slow it down nearly as much as the restless spirit roared and charged anyway.

"We'll have to leave that to the experts," Shoto called out as he tried to freeze the giant turtle solid. Still, it grunted and shattered its icy restraints with little effort, a slight which Shoto was sure he would get payback for.

Line Break

As the 2 fought against the threat, and the other pros worked to try and clear the park of civilians, high above them, on the roof of a nearby hotel, 2 figures watched the action. “I’m seeing bodies, Dabi.”

Stain reminded Dabi, the hero killer, dressed in clothing that was more suited for the cold, but fit his style. His hand, for example, palmed his blade as he waited for whatever excuse his soon-to-be-dead partner had.

Dabi just watched the action with a pair of binoculars. The woman had not changed a thing about her attire, and yet, despite it being cold enough to snow, she didn't so much as flinch.

She certainly didn’t care about the real threat to her current body. "Oh, relax, they're not dead. One of those guys I recruited just put them to sleep." She found that ability particularly interesting and had some further plans for it, but she now focused on Todoroki. How he moved, fought, mastered his ice, and yet, not so much as a spark of flames…

Well, she didn’t know how to feel about that, but hey, she wasn’t a bitch that was picky, just a bitch. “Seems like it’s not all that effective on the heroes, but I guess most can’t sleep cold.” She noted that the bug-like quirk, which had knocked out so many, had tried to do the same to Frostbyte and failed when she kicked it into a tree.

"It's not as much as I would have thought," Stain commented, as the plan would have seen more pros appear before they made their move.

"Of course not, Stain. Those heroes need to get the so-called innocents out of the way; it's why I left them a chance to do it." Dabi waved it off. “When that’s said and done, they’ll come running back in.”

“And how do you know those monsters of yours wouldn’t be taken down before then?” Stain asked, though he wondered why he could see them and so many of the fakes below couldn't. Dabi had done…something with him, but even with a blade to her neck, hadn't said what.

"As if the pros have anything which can knock them down for long, they're gonna struggle, Stain.” She laughed at the suggestion as even little prodigy Shoto struggled against them, only keeping them from advancing.

It seemed neither he nor Frostbyte realized those quirks had no reason or orders to leave this park; it would ruin their plans. "So let's make this as loud and flashy as possible. You can sit back and watch till your time shows up, then you can go nuts."

Line Break

Inko was in the process of packing up to return home. Work at U.A. was bad enough, but she had decided to get some things done in her real office. But her plans for a shower and some relaxing Spanish dramas died as her assistant came bursting out. "Ma'am!"

“What is it, Fujiwara?” Inko, knowing her young assistant wouldn’t be here without reason, asked.

"There's another attack, two of them," Fujiwara reported, which caused Inko to drop her bag and quickly power on her work computer again. She would have seen such an alert, but darn it, she had turned the thing off 10 minutes ago.

“What? Where?” Inko asked as the computer turned back on. Fujiwara handed her a tablet with the report, including live feeds of both cities being broadcast via social media.

“We have reports of those Nomu things rampaging through Hosu and some other reports of unseen villains up in Morioka," Fujiwara relayed as Inko looked through them both. Her brow creased as sweat started to form.

‘2 Attacks happening at the same time? And in populated cities like this, it’s unprecedented; quirks don't move like this, they don't want attention, so why?' She asked, as all she knew, all she had learned, it didn’t fit…

‘Unless…’ No, it couldn't be him; he would never let quirks like this roam free, even under his control. But if it was a 3rd party, she had theorized…no, theories later, provable attack now. “What do we know about the Nomu side of things?”

“We’re still listening to police reports and what the Iida brothers have seen, but we count 4. The number could rise.” Fujiwara replied, to which Inko fell silent. She had seen where students had gone, and if she wasn't forgetting, Iida, one of Izuku's friends, was supposed to be in Hosu with his brother. The second location up north was Todoroki.

"Ma'am?" Fujiwara asked after a minute of silence, leading to Inko speaking up.

"Let the heroes handle it. The USJ was a fluke that could repeat if we get involved. Keep our people in the area on standby." Inko looked upset about the decision, but they just didn't have the resources to split them on 2 massive attacks so far apart.

The best she could hope for was that these Nomu didn't mutate like the USJ one and that the pros on the scene could handle it. No, they had a good chance of it. Izuku mentioned that pros had been flooding in to hunt for Stain, so there would be more of them to fight. The incident up north would not enjoy such a thing, and unlike with the Nomu, this was more their area of expertise.

“And for Morioka?” Fujiwara

“Who's close to that area?" Inko asked as she handed the tablet back. Her computer was up and running, ready for her to log in and start checking through files and data.

For her part, Fujiwara quickly accessed their agent logs, eliminating anyone who was inactive and not in the area before she landed on one profile. “Fuwa, she’s handling her internship in Ōsaki.”

Inko nodded. That was good; she could trust Fuwa’s skills on this. "Contact her, inform her of the situation, and get a chopper. We should have one in the area, right?" She asked, as they had such things mainly for far-off deployments. When Fujiwara said, "Then get the pilot on the line and ready to get Fuwa to Morioka as fast as he can. I don't care if he needs to break the speed limit."

Fujiwara wasn't sure if helicopters had speed limits, but if they did, it was probably best they broke them now. They'll need to get to the location as fast as possible before more lives are put in danger.

Line Break

Down south in Kyushu, EV and Tsukuyomi followed Hawks as he conducted an evening patrol. They had the option to remain at the agency and rest after a day of training, but they had decided against it. They could get more practical training done and increase their skills at night, particularly for Tsukuyomi, who could practice keeping Dark Shadow under control with the safety net of Hawks and EV there. They could also help Hawks protect and save more people.

All in all, it wasn't a hard choice for them to make. The real issue had been chasing Hawks down, as he had a head start and, when he had spotted them, as they expected, hadn't slowed down in the least.

They had just stopped a hostage situation at a local nightclub. They flew through town looking for more wrongdoing when EV's phone vibrated. He could have ignored it, as odds are, their friends thought they would be resting by now, but he also knew it could be important.

When he checked the message, he realized it was much more important than he had hoped.

“Is there something wrong, EV?” Tsukuyomi, supported by a much larger Dark Shadow, asked as the EV came to a stop atop a building. Well, EV came to a stop; Tsukuyomi merely hovered.

"Two incidents have been reported,"  EV replied, his face twisted when he saw their locations. Iida was close to one. Was he safe?

“Is it…?” Tsukuyomi asked, leading to a question they both knew.

"It doesn't say, but we can't go anywhere. It'll take too long to get there even if the train ran without incident and sped through stations," EV stated, though part of him raged against such an answer and demanded he somehow gain super speed and a possible flight and get there yesterday.

“Afraid so, and my wings might cut the time down by a pretty big chunk,” Hawks landed next to them, having circled back to speak with them. "It'll probably be best to focus on our own turf. 2 attacks don’t seem normal, who’s to say a 3rd doesn’t happen here.” It wasn’t the most heroic argument Izuku had heard, but Hawks was not the type to conform to what anyone thought was heroic.

For all his blasé and laid-back attitude, he was still one of the most cunning, pragmatic, and observant pros out there. He knew how to keep an objective view on things, and that alone angered a part of the two boys, yet they couldn't argue with him any more than they claimed they should still try and race over, even if only to Hosu.

"It feels wrong to say such a thing." Tsukuyomi sighed, as he couldn't ignore the fact that if they left, their city would be open to an attack.

"I don't think it'll ever stop feeling like that. We're heroes. We're supposed to rush in and save people, but…" Midoriya started but paused, as the words seemed to refuse to leave his lips, leaving Hawks to handle it.

"Sometimes, even we must face our own mortality and lack of invincibility. It's not glamorous, but we do what we can with what we have. We can pull some pretty impressive hat tricks, but that's it." Hawks stated, only to pause when one of the sidekicks came on over the radio.

“Boss, something popped up on the new sensor; it's picking up a reading around 6 blocks to the east of your position.” Hawks was already in the air before the message was finished.

“On it,” He confirmed before he glanced at his 2 interns, both ready to get back into the swing of things. "Well, let's hope it's not too big, yeah?"

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My weekend was nothing but frustration. Power cut Friday afternoon, like around 1PM and it was gone till Saturday night around 9PM. Again, some dumb-ass private contractor hit the underground line. And to make my weekend just be extra shitty, it then cut again for almost 2 hours last night, which threw off my dinner plans as I couldn't finish making it till late. Now, I have to handle some other tasks and get some studying done, which has left me just exhausted. So, to get this done and out earlier so I could sleep early, the chapter came out shorter.