“…And now, the news. The armed conflict between the United States and Iran in the Middle East continues to flare up. As of last night around half of Iraq is under the control of the Iranian army, with a general retreat being issued by local US forces in order to allow a stable frontline to be created. At the same time, the US government undergoing the rapid preparation hundreds of thousands of men for redeployment to the Middle East in what is expected to be largest active force deployment since the war on terror over half a century ago. US military officials were asked when troops could be expected to land on Iranian soil, but declined to give any comment. In response to the possibility of the war turning against them, the Iranian government just approved a measure to create a paramilitary resistance group known as the ‘People’s Liberation and Resistance.’ Or, PLR for short. Many nations have criticized this move due to Iran being the clear aggressor in this war, but whether or not this paramilitary group will see any action at or all even obey the will of the Iranian government remains to be seen. We attempted to reach our Middle Easterrn correspondents in Tehran regarding the event, but all official channels of communication in and out of the country have since been shut down. We’ll try to bring you an update on this news tomorrow."
"In other news, we have an update to the case regarding the stolen cargo ship from the country of Otheon. For those who have forgotten, a cargo ship was initially stolen over a week ago from a port in the country of Otheon. The experienced hijackers stripped out almost all of the equipment that allowed the ship to be found by traditional means, meaning that for a time the ship was almost completely untraceable. Viewers will also remember the explosion at an illegal trigger factory in Kaflin, something that was originally ruled as an accident by police. However official reports now state that the factory was purposefully destroyed and that the majority of chemicals that were stolen from the factory before the explosion are chemicals used in the refining of trigger, and that the fire was used as a cover for the material to be moved away and delay discovery by authorities. However… This leads us to some more tragic news.” The newscaster swallowed, then recollected themself as they prepared to read out what they had to say. “Earlier today the cargo ship was found and intercepted in a joint effort by two agencies, that of Sea Rescue Hero: Selkie with the Oki Mariner and Dragon Hero: Ryukyu. While the details are still relatively fuzzy regarding what happened, it has been revealed that during a fight with the crew of the cargo ship a new gaseous variant of trigger was released. This resulted in the hospitalization of a number of Heroes and sidekicks, including two young Heroes in training from UA high school. Even worse, deaths were encountered when a seaplane carrying the new variant of trigger crashed on a nearby resort island and further released it. The true numbers of deaths from exposure is still unknown, as due to the gas having not yet subsided coast guard units have been unable to perform any rescue operations. Members of the Shie Hassaikai are believed to be involved, however the situation is still developing.”
Disaster
“The sun is beginning to set, those smugglers are likely to set out any moment now. The sooner we get out, the sooner we’ll be able to find these guys.”
“I agree. Nejire and I will search in the sky. Selkie, I’m leaving Uravity and Froppy in your care.”
“Everyone, to your positions!”
“Aye aye sir!” Uraraka and Tsu walked over the dock and onto the deck of the Oki Mariner with the rest of the crew.
“You know, I’ve never actually been on a boat like this,” Uraraka said, a little worried.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure you of all people can deal with seasickness. Ribbit.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“Moor is secure, we’re ready to set sail Captain.”
“All right. Slow ahead, Oki Mariner sailing out!”
“Aye aye!” With that the ship sprung to live, sliding out from where it was moored in port and further out onto the water
“Wow…” She looked out the window and watched as the ship cut across the waves, it was an experience she’d really never seen before.
“Activate radars. We might not be able to find them this way, but there’s no harm in leaving it on. If there’s even the slightest chance that it might work then that’s reason enough!” Several screens on the bridge lit up, pulsing lights and waves streaming across. A few minutes passed and soon enough they were out into open water, away from the island base. “Sirius, keep an ear out for my Morse code and take command while I’m out on the water.”
“Aye sir.”
“Froppy, come with me.”
“What are you two going to do?” Uraraka asked.
“We’re going to search from every direction, that means from under the waves too. My echolocation should be able to find them out. Failing that, the ship isn’t invisible from below. We’ll be able to see them without them seeing us.”
“Ribbit!” Tsu followed Selkie out on the deck. Then, after grabbing onto his back, the two dove into the water. After that there was a long period of silence. Aside from looking out onto the water with her binoculars, there wasn’t much for Uraraka to do.
“Points one through five clear, no sign of smuggler ship. Moving to search positions ten through six.” The way they were searching for the ship was methodical, with each of the teams taking five rows of five points each.
“Is it possible that they may be waiting until even later?” Uraraka asked, looking away from a pair of binoculars for a moment, “I feel like complete darkness would make it much easier for them to slip through.”
“A ship arriving at port so late would be much more conspicuous than a ship arriving near sundown, they’d have Heroes called on them as soon as they landed.”
“I guess that makes sense.”
Sirius paused, stopping to listen. “Captain has sent out an all clear for each of his points so far, no sign of the smugglers.”
“I’m sure we’ll find them. We have to.”
Around fifteen more minutes passed, the sun creeping further down from the sky and towards the horizon. “Points ten through six clear, still no sign of the smugglers. Moving to points eleven through fifteen. Ryukyu, have you had any luck?”
“No. We just finished searching points forty one through forty five, no sign of the smugglers.”
“Copy, keep searching. We can’t let them get through.” Sirius moved her hand away from the radio, a worried look in her face. They would find these guys, right? “Is there anything on the scope?”
“Negative ma’am, the scope is clear,” one of the crew answered.
Fifteen more minutes passed, the sun was much further down now. In about an hour the sun will have completely set, making it impossible for them to find the smugglers. “Points eleven through fifteen are clear, moving to-“ Sirius suddenly cut herself off mid-sentence, listening intensely. “Belay that, the captain has found them! Ryukyu, move to point fifty seven. That’s where the smugglers' ship is!”
“Copy!”
“Turn to starboard and put engines to full ahead, we need to close the distance as quickly as possible and cut off any angle of escape!”
“Aye aye!” Uraraka was jolted as the ship suddenly turned and went to full power, grabbing the nearby railing to keep herself from falling down before the force eventually smoothed out. With the increased power and a direction to look, they could move and spot much quicker than before.
Within a matter of minutes they’d managed to catch up. “The smugglers have deployed their smokescreen,” Ryukyu said over the radio, “Be careful on your approach, you don’t want to collide with the ship.”
“Ryukyu, can you swoop in and blow away the smoke with your wings?”
“I’m working on it, but the smokescreen is incredibly dense. I have to focus on their predicted path otherwise I’m just going to be uncovering where it isn’t.”
“Copy.” She turned to the crew, “Ready the harpoon, we’ll stick the ship and keep it from moving.”
“Aye aye!”
Eventually they came close to the smoke, “Pitch down ten degrees, azimuth three hundred twenty degrees. Fire!”
“Firing-!“
Ryukyu suddenly shouted over the comm channel, “Sirius, turn the boat to port!”
“Full astern, turn to-!”
“It’s too late!” One of the crew members shouted, “Brace for impact!” The entire ship shook as something slammed into the bridge at high speed, shattering the glass viewports and letting in the smell of the salt water.
“No way…”
“It’s the-!”
“Yakuza!” Uraraka blurted out, finishing the sentence.
“Funny seeing you ladies here again, maybe it’s fate!” The man shouted, slamming his metal gauntlets into the structure of the bridge. It was Katsukame, the large Yakuza who’d been the first one to encounter the Heroes at the Hassaikai raid. But how could he be here?!
“Nejire Wave!” Nejire blasted the man off the side of the boat and onto the water. “We’ll deal with the big guy, go stop the smugglers before they can get away!”
Uraraka quickly ran out onto the deck, using her quirk to float herself over and throw her onto the deck of the other ship. “Tsu, are you alright?!”
“I’m fine!” She quickly answered, “But Selkie is down, he was drained and pummeled before he could even react.”
“We need to secure the ship. You go for the bridge, I’ll go for the cargo!”
“Got it!” The two of them then quickly split up, heading to the respective parts of the ship.
“You, stop!”
“Damn it, I didn’t want to kill any kids!” A man in a red shirt pulled out a knife, “You don’t know how much I need this job, so I’m not going to let you screw this up!”
The man charged at her, thrusting the knife forward to attack. She knew just what to do. When his arm came forward she used her own to redirect the attack, forcing it down and away from herself. Then she used her leg, performing a sweeping kick to knock the man off of his feet and fall onto the ground. Once on the ground she was able to pull the knife out from his hands, tossing it off the boat and restraining the smuggler. “Uraraka!” Tsu suddenly ran out of the bridge and shouted, pointing towards something behind her.
She looked up. “They had a plane with them too?!” She’d been too busy disarming the man to notice that the tarp covering what they thought was the cargo behind the ship was removed. But it hadn’t been cargo, it was an entire seaplane! “We can’t let them get away!” She quickly went to her radio as the engines spun to life and it slowly began to drift away, “Sirius, can you hit that plane with the harpoon?”
“I can’t, the harpoon would tear straight through the fuselage and we’d have an ecological disaster out on the water.”
“Then we have no choice. Tsu, grab on!”
“Ribbit!” Uraraka used her quirk to float both of them into, then aimed using her arm. It was do or die!
“We will stop them!” She fired off the grapple launcher built into the arm of her costume, the end flying forwards as the plane began to lift off. And just when it looked like it would be out of range… “Got it!” The slack on the cable tightened as the end wrapped around the plane’s tail, the mechanisms of the grapple beginning to rapidly pull them in. The plane went into a near vertical climb as they approached, trying to gain as much altitude as possible. “Tsu, you’ll have to swing us in.”
“You got it! Ribbit!” The timing on this needed to be perfect, otherwise they’d completely miss the entrance to the plane. The moment they passed the plane’s tail Uraraka disconnected the grapple, momentarily leaving them in free fall and slowing down. Then Tsu shot out her tongue, wrapping onto a handle on the inside of the plane and pulling the two of them in. As they entered it took a moment for them to actually steady themselves on the moving craft once it finally leveled out.
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“Seems like we have unwanted visitors.” Another familiar voice, this time it was Nemoto. “Daitaian, you know what the boss asked for.”
“I know.” The second man in the cockpit was another Yakzua for sure, but it was no one they’d encountered before. Rather than the more showy outfits the others used, this one seemed to focus much more on practically. With a full black bodysuit and a gas mask stylized to look like a beak, it gave off an ominous feeling. “You kids shouldn’t have gotten involved.”
“As Heroes it’s our duty to stop any Villain that gets in our way, no matter who they are or what the consequences are.”
“And that’s why Villains had a higher survival rate than Heroes.” The man pulled out a metal staff, then charged down the cramped hallway of the plane. Tsu shot out her tongue and Uraraka shot out her grapple, both of them were trying to restrain the man before he got close. But neither attempt worked. He was able to avoid Tsu’s tongue, and simply swatted aside Uraraka’s grapple. Within moments he’d managed to close the distance and looked poised to attack, so Uraraka struck first. She tried to hit him in the face with her elbow, but almost in a flash he brought up the staff and used it to bounce back the attack. Then in quick succession, he used the bottom of the staff to strike her in the knee and push her off balance before driving his own knee into her and pushing her back towards the rear. “Leave now and no one will judge you”
“A Hero never gives up!” Tsu jumped from where she was and bounced off the wall of the plane, they could really only attack one at a time with how limited the space was. Using her momentum she attacked twice, first slamming into the staff with her feet before rebounding to strike again and force the man back.
She went in again, trying to press her advantage. “A shame, you both have your whole lives ahead of you.” At the last second the man completely changed his stance, instead wielding the staff like a lance as a blade popped out of the top.
“Tsu!” It’d all been too fast to react to. The man thrust the staff forward and stabbed Tsu in the stomach, pushing her back and throwing her against the rear end of the plane. Uraraka acted quickly as the man went to attack again, pulling a nearby crate off of its shelf and using it to defend against the weapon. The blade cut straight through the wooden box, becoming stuck as it punctured something on the inside. Bits of yellow gas began to spill out. She then used the box as leverage, twisting it to snap the blade off the pole while also pushing back to get some more distance. At the same time she also fired off her grapple again, this time using it like a whip to strike him from behind. He recoiled as the end of the grapple hit him across the back, causing his grip on the staff to loosen for just a moment and giving her the chance to force it out of his hands. From there she was able to give him a stiff headbutt, staggering him back and having him stumble back a few feet. But the whole plane suddenly began to shake, she had her opportunity.
“Damn, the engines are stalling. We got one of the faulty ones,” Nemoto commented out loud as the fight continued.
“Running interference was the primary, getting this shipment out was optional,” the other man responded to Nemoto. Uraraka tried to attack again, preparing to kick the man in the chest, but this time found herself on the receiving end of an elbow to the face that pushed her back. But for some reason she wasn’t able to recover from the blow, even though she’d suffered much worse injuries during her training. Her head had begun to spin and it felt like her entire body was on fire. Was it the gas? The man pushed her over onto the floor, and she fell next to Tsu. Try as she might to get up she just wasn’t able to.
“I’m bailing now. Do what you want with the girls, they were never supposed to be here in the first place.” Nemoto walked away from the controls and towards the back of the plane, grabbing a parachute from the wall. As he walked by Uraraka tried to grab him, but she felt too weak. He jumped out of the plane. The other Yakuza man stood there for a moment, just staring at them. It was impossible to tell what was going through his head with that mask on.
Then out of nowhere he picked up a pair of life preservers, sliding one each around Uraraka and Tsu and tying a line between the two, before dragging them over to the door. For a moment it looked like he was trying to come up with something to say to them, some parting words. But after a few seconds he gave up. Wordlessly he tossed them out of the plane, and Uraraka blacked out before they even hit the water.
Aftermath
Even though he told them to call if they needed help... “Doctor, are they going to be alright?” Aurdel could hear the conversation through the glass. The room was meant to be soundproof so that the doctors with the patients wouldn’t be subjected to the louder noises of the hospital, but with how well his helmet could pick up on sound the conversation only came out a little muffled.
“Right now we’re doing all that we can to help your daughters.” Uraraka and Asui’s family stood outside the room, peering through the glass to see their conditions. It… was a unique set of circumstances. The gas that they had been exposed to, in accordance with the ship they were hunting, was trigger. That much was true. What had taken some digging, however, was the fact that this was a strain or variant of trigger that had never been encountered before. That fact made treating exposure to it all the more difficult. Both of the girls had to be intubated due to severe swelling nearly completely blocking their airways, and at the same time they had to be constantly infused with a saline solution due to the ongoing dialysis trying to pump out most of the absorbed gas from their blood. He looked down at the monitor, their vitals were looking relatively okay. The whole setup that he was using to monitor them was effectively jury-rigged, using his suit’s medical suite rather than the hospital’s proprietary software due to the fact that he was much more acquainted with the former and didn’t have the time or patience to learn the latter. He took a deep labored and stressed breath, these two would live. Aurdel stepped out of the room, needing to face the parents.
“Uraraka and Asui are in stable condition, they’ll make it.”
“Is that all you have to say about this? That they’ll make it?” Uraraka’s father was the one that spoke, “Is that all you have to say to us about this?” He was angry with him, and frankly he had every right to be. “Our daughter, the one that you teach, was nearly killed and all you can say is that she’ll make it?!”
“You can be as angry with me as much as you want, believe me when I say that I’m angry too, but right now you have to understand that I’m doing everything that I can to make sure they survive.”
“Why can’t you just fix them? Like what you did with all those other people that were stuck in hospitals for years?”
“To put it simply, the situation is more complicated than you know. The gas that Uraraka and Asui were exposed to is a form of trigger, a drug commonly used by criminals and Villains to amplify the power of their quirks to a ridiculous level. Normally flushing it out of the body is an easy task, but this variant is doing much more than normal trigger and it makes it that much more difficult.” He began his explanation, “From what I’ve managed to gather about this variant, rather than amplifying the effect of the host quirk, it is acting to inherently change it. In essence you could say that it is causing the quirk to evolve, causing a permanent change to its use and output.”
“But what does that have to do with what you can do? Can’t you stop it?”
“If I wanted to, yes. I could stop the process right now and instantly flush all of the toxins out of their body. The reason I’m not going to do that is because of the fact changes are being made to their body on a genetic level. If I try to stop it right now, the best case scenario places them at a high risk of getting cancer, autoimmune disease and other life threatening issues later in life. Worst case scenario, they end up with permanent genetic damage and disabilities that are impossible for me to fix. The only ‘safe’ option currently at my disposal is to let the toxins be pumped out of their systems, then allow their bodies to naturally adapt and recover.”
“How long will that take?”
“The dialysis should only take a few more hours before being completed. As for the latter, I don’t know. It all depends on how quickly their bodies can deal with the change. I have never seen anything like this before so I’m not confident in my ability to predict what will happen. The least uncertain time frame I can give you is a week, but in reality it could become more or less.”
Uraraka’s mother was the one that spoke now, “Will the Villains behind this be found?”
“The search is currently ongoing as we speak. For a few of the people involved we have a general idea, but until those two girls wake up we won’t know who was on the plane. They’re the only ones that can identify who attacked them.”
“After they’re discharged, will they be allowed to return to UA?” Asui’s mother was the one to raise the question.
The question itself was one of legitimate concern behind it, and at first he was left unable to respond and give them an answer. If things turned out badly and either girl had some horrible negative side effect from the gas, then it was very unlikely that they would be allowed to continue attending classes. However, over something like this he didn’t want to be a full cynic. Not over his students. Right now all signs pointed to Uraraka and Asui making a full recovery, and he wanted to reinforce that hope for their parents. “They came to UA because they wanted to be Heroes, and we’re not going to crush that dream. So long as they want to continue attending UA they will be allowed to do so.” The door to the room suddenly opened, and a woman stumbled in with a limp. An eye twitched behind his helmet, and he could physically feel his blood pressure start to rise. “I’m afraid you all need to leave for a moment, I need to discuss something with Ryukyu. Alone.” His tone was stern, they could tell that what was going to happen wasn’t pretty. They quickly funneled out of the room, the door closing behind them.
Ryukyu walked forward, she had an uncertain look on her face. “Spartan, I wanted to apologize to you for-“
He wheeled back his right arm, then slapped her across the face. Ryukyu fell to the floor. There was a very visible red impact print on her cheek, and he’d likely fractured her cheekbone. “I don’t need your apology, Ryukyu. Because an apology won’t even begin to make right what happened today.”
“But I just-“ He raised his hand again, Ryukyu quickly quieted down.
“As a Hero with a large public presence, you have three main responsibilities. You need to set an example for other Heroes, you need to educate the next generation of Heroes and you need to protect the people around you. Today was a failure of all three.”
“No one could have anticipated that the Shie Hassaikai would be involved, or that what they were transporting was so dangerous.”
“I wonder if that’s really true,” he turned around, facing away from her. “But I’ll accept your apology, even if it means very little to me. You’re lucky that you’re one of the few reliable Heroes that aren’t corrupt, one of the few that have shown that they’re actual to their work. Because if you were corrupt, regardless of the fact that you’re in the top ten of Heroes across the country, I would have put you in the ground. ”
She looked up in horror, “Are you saying that you would have…?”
“I really hope that you don’t make any mistakes like this again. Otherwise, you’re going to learn first hand that I don’t make idle threats.”
----------------------------------------
“Nighteye.”
“Spartan.”
“Good news?”
Nighteye sighed over the phone, “It depends on what you call good news. I’ve been in constant contact with Fatgum the moment this came to my attention, and he’s been doing as much legwork as he can to look into it.”
“But he hasn’t found anything?”
“Nothing. No dealers, no manufacturers, no users. The closest link we could find was in the base chemicals used to make the substance, as there are a number of components that are used in hospitals and clinics in order to encourage quirk development among late bloomers.”
“Nothing to kick doors in over,” Aurdel shook his head, “Alright, so then none of it is being produced or sold in house. That means it’s being imported solely from overseas. Have you been able to tag any overseas cartels or producers?”
“We don’t have guaranteed connections to any people or groups, but we’ve significantly narrowed down the list.” He cleared his throat, “Firstly, it’s origin. Most of the chemicals came from the cargo ship’s country of origin, Otheon. We know that because the containers containing the initial product were inside the ship’s hull and not properly sealed, allowing residue to seep out and coat the inside of the cargo hold. The final stage refinement into this variant took place in Kaflin, though how long the process took, how much was made or even the tools used to make it is still unknown.”
“And the groups that are associated?”
“Linked directly to the chemicals? A pharmaceutical company and a number of pediatric care facilities across Otheon. If any of them are shells then they’re well hidden, because as of right now the company and practices all look completely legit with decades of history to back them up.”
“Then what about indirect links?”
“I’m getting there. The most likely suspect is an ‘activist group’ known as Humarise. Publicly they parade themselves around as a group of rights activists for the quirkless, though even with branches around the world most people know that they’re extremists waiting to turn to terrorism and mass murder at the drop of a hat. And for the past few years they’ve been implicated in a number of kidnappings, but the courts were never able to pull together enough evidence to charge any members with anything.”
“And the people they kidnapped?”
“The kind that you would need to develop a trigger variant. Chemists, geneticists, biologists, biomechanical engineers. None were ever found by police, and if all the suspected cases are true then they would have had access to a wealth of knowledge capable of creating what we found.”
“Then there’s the gas itself.”
“Yes… Right now, all evidence supports the idea that the only people who are affected by the gas are those with a genetic predisposition towards having a quirk. Those without one are completely immune to its effects, something that would fit perfectly with Humarise’s MO.” He paused, “I’m just going to say this now while I have the chance. Don’t go after them. If you go overseas and try to bring them down, you won’t have the authority or support to take them.”
“I’m not going to.”
“Good, because the case has already been passed on to Interpol and the World Heroes Association. Right now there’s nothing-“
He stopped Nighteye, “But you’re dead wrong if you think what you described is why I’m not going after them and flaying each and every single one of their members alive. Right now there are too many fires to put out. And now that I know that I can’t count on other Heroes to protect my own students- ”
“Ryukyu and Selkie did her best to-“
“Where did their best get them?!” He suddenly lost his temper, “Selkie may have been caught off guard, but that isn’t any excuse for what happened. Because he wasn’t up to give commands Sirius had to take command of the ship, meaning that no one was able to stop her from going onto the island with some of the crew. Now, there aren’t even any bodies that can be returned to their families! Ryukyu meanwhile was supposed to be watching my students, now they’re sitting in the hospital with their-!”
“You’re judging them unfairly and you know it! No one could have known the full circumstances of what was going to happen!” Nighteye shouted back at him, and the two went silent. They calmed down. “I understand that they’re your students and you feel a personal responsibility towards keeping them safe, but the way you’re acting is almost the same as how All Might used to.”
“How?”
“To him being a Hero was always a personal cross to burden, one for him alone. He personally believed that it was his duty to protect everyone, that he needed to shoulder every single task and take upon himself any consequences that happened as a result. It was a suicidal charge. That’s how he ended up so injured when he first fought against All For One. He believed that no matter his injuries, no matter whether or not he had the chance to retreat and fight him another day, All For One needed to be stopped then and there. That it could not be a battle fought in the future. So he did battle, even as his midsection was torn open with blood and entrails pouring out. The world doesn’t need anymore dying Heroes,” Nighteye sounded weary recounting all this. “Has Mirko tried to call you?”
“She has, but I haven’t picked up yet.”
“Then talk to her, talk to someone. Anyone. Take a day off, find something to do, open up. Right now you’re treating every day that you’re alive like a battle that needs to be won, and if things don’t go your way they eat you alive on the inside. But the simple fact is that if you keep going on like this, then you’re going to end up in the same situation as All Might. If not that, then you’re going to end up dead. And in either situation you’ll end up with more regrets than you care to bear.” Nighteye let out a sigh, “There are some people that want you to live, so take it as a suggestion.” Then, he hung up.
Aurdel put down the phone and sat in silence, contemplating what to do.