A/n;
Hey guys, quick life update... I'm still alive and okay, just currently stuck in the hospital. The pain has finally stabilized after a really hectic few days. Right now I was bored sitting on the bed, so I created a chapter to pass time before being reprimanded by my mother :p
My labs and ultrasound came back showing a kidney problem, but the ultrasound couldn't pinpoint the exact issue, so I have to wait a few days to get a CT scan.
I should be back to posting next week, probably around Wednesday or Thursday. Don't worry, I'm not dropping this work and will keep continuing the story as soon as I'm back on my feet.
Thanks for the patience and support, everyone!
-Dr_Chad
--<>--
"Ahhhh!"
A businessman tripped over the curb and dropped his briefcase.
Thousands of pedestrians shoved each other down the crowded Tokyo sidewalks.
They trampled over dropped groceries and abandoned bags.
SCREECH.
CRASH.
A delivery truck slammed right into a concrete light pole.
The driver kicked his door open and sprinted down a narrow alleyway.
Nobody pulled out their phones to record the villains.
They just looked up at the skyscraper and ran for their lives.
"It's them!" a young woman screamed.
She grabbed a stranger's shirt in pure panic.
"The monsters with the exposed brains from Kyushu!"
Several local pro heroes rushed into the stalled intersection.
They held up plastic megaphones with shaking hands.
"Keep moving toward the subway!" a local hero yelled.
Thick sweat dripped down his face.
"Do not look up at the roof!"
The local pros actively communicated over their radios to secure the perimeter.
None of them dared to fly up to the skyscraper.
They knew engaging those creatures meant instant death.
FWOOSH.
A thick pillar of fire dropped from the sky.
Endeavor slammed heavily into the asphalt.
CRACK.
He bent his knees to absorb the impact.
He looked around the street, expecting a complete bloodbath.
'They aren't attacking yet?'Endeavor thought.
He looked up at the towering skyscraper.
The three High-End Nomus just stood there.
The female Nomu scanned the nearby buildings with her bulging eyes.
The fat Nomu crossed its mismatched arms.
The mechanical Nomu stared blankly down at the city.
They were actually talking to each other in distorted, raspy voices.
They completely ignored the massive, screaming crowd below them.
Endeavor felt a brief flash of relief.
He was glad they weren't slaughtering the civilians.
But a deep confusion quickly replaced his relief.
'Hood attacked everything in sight immediately,' Endeavor remembered. 'Why are these three just waiting?'
The eerie discipline unsettled him deeply.
Slap. Slap. Slap.
Footsteps echoed rapidly against the pavement behind him.
Burnin sprinted up to his side, completely out of breath.
Dozens of agency sidekicks stopped right behind her.
"Chief!" Burnin gasped.
She pointed a shaking finger at the skyscraper roof.
"We can't fight three of those things at once... we need top-tier backup right now!"
Endeavor looked at the frozen monsters.
He forced his heavy breathing to slow down.
He remembered the current hero deployment schedule for Tokyo.
Ryukyu was currently airborne patrolling the next block over.
Edgeshot operated in this exact district.
He also knew Hero X was stationed right here in the city.
Immense backup was already close.
Endeavor completely calmed down.
His paralyzing dread faded.
"Burnin, handle the evacuation perimeter," Endeavor ordered.
He ignited the flames on his broad shoulders. Looking at Ryukyu and Edgeshot who were coming over.
"Backup is here."
--<>--
Location: Paranormal Liberation Army Hideout, Mountain Villa
The underground command center was completely quiet.
Re-Destro sat in his high-backed leather chair.
He glared at the giant wall monitor showing the live Tokyo news broadcast.
Spinner gripped the handle of his oversized sword.
"What the hell is the Doctor doing?" Spinner asked loudly.
Nobody in the room answered him right away.
They were all explicitly ordered to lay low for months.
Dr. Garaki needed absolute secrecy while experimenting on Shigaraki.
Dabi lounged casually on a nearby leather sofa.
He rested his heavy boots right on the glass coffee table.
"Looks like the old man got impatient," Dabi chuckled darkly.
He pointed a burned finger at the screen.
"Or maybe he just really wants Endeavor dead right now."
Mr. Compress crossed his arms, tipping his top hat down.
"...It doesn't make any sense to show our hand early," Compress muttered.
Toga leaned over the back of the sofa, pouting.
"They look super scary," Toga whined. "Did he forget about us?"
Re-Destro didn't laugh at the League's jokes.
He leaned to his left.
"Skeptic," Re-Destro whispered harshly.
Skeptic sat hunched over his glowing computer console.
His long hair covered his eyes.
"...Did you know this deployment?" Re-Destro demanded.
CLACK. CLACK. CLACK.
Skeptic typed frantically on his mechanical keyboard.
He ground his teeth together.
"No," Skeptic hissed back. "This is completely off the schedule."
Re-Destro gripped the armrests of his chair tightly.
"Then why did he send his ultimate bio-weapons into a highly public area?" Re-Destro asked.
Skeptic pulled up a secondary satellite feed of the skyscraper roof.
He pointed at the three High-Ends on his monitor.
"I don't know," Skeptic replied.
He zoomed in on the female Nomu's head.
"But look closely... they aren't attacking the city."
Skeptic added.
--<>--
"Hell Spider!" Endeavor roared.
FWOOSH.
He unleashed a dozen concentrated lasers of white fire directly at the roof.
The mechanical Nomu stepped forward instantly.
VZZZT.
It fired a twisting purple laser that intercepted the flames mid-air.
BOOM.
The resulting explosion shattered the nearby office windows.
"Ninpo: Thousand Sheet Pierce!" Edgeshot shouted.
SWISH.
He shot upward through the smoke as a razor-sharp string, aiming for the robot's spinal cord.
The female Nomu casually waved her hand.
A dark spatial portal ripped open right in Edgeshot's path.
He flew straight into the black void.
A second portal opened right above the street, spitting him violently into the asphalt.
CRACK.
The fat Nomu plummeted from the roof like a falling boulder.
Ryukyu transformed fully into her towering dragon form and jumped to intercept.
She opened her massive jaws to bite the creature's descending arm.
The fat Nomu's arm muscles suddenly expanded to double their normal size.
BAM.
The augmented punch completely overpowered her jaws and blasted her scaly body backward across the street.
Endeavor watched Ryukyu skid across the pavement.
'They're perfectly synchronized,' Endeavor realized.
He charged his flames to their absolute limit.
He rushed straight at the mechanical Nomu.
"Vanishing Fist!"
The female Nomu raised her hand to open another portal.
"Ninpo: Piercing Yarn!"
Edgeshot unspooled rapidly from the crater and bound the female Nomu's arm tightly.
Her portal collapsed instantly.
Endeavor slammed his flaming fist directly into the robot's chest.
CRUNCH.
The mechanical head simply spun a full 180 degrees.
It locked its glowing eyes on Endeavor's face.
VZZZT.
It fired a point-blank laser right at his chest.
Ryukyu dove forward and wrapped her massive dragon wings around Endeavor.
She took the full blast of the laser on her back.
"Grrgh!" Ryukyu groaned, smoking from the severe burn damage.
The female Nomu flexed her bound arm.
Snap. Crunch.
She tore her own limb off to escape the razor string and instantly regenerated a brand new arm.
The fat Nomu landed on the street and unleashed a relentless barrage of augmented punches.
Ryukyu and Endeavor were forced to retreat down the block, entirely on the defensive.
Behind a concrete barricade, a live news reporter gripped her microphone.
Thick sweat dripped down her pale face.
"T-The top heroes are getting pushed back!" she stammered into the camera.
She looked at the three bio-engineered monsters tearing up the intersection.
"Endeavor... Ryukyu... Edgeshot... they can't break their teamwork!"
The civilian crowd behind her cried out in pure terror.
The situation looked completely hopeless.
SNAP.
A sharp, distinct sound echoed loudly over the explosions.
The fighting paused for a fraction of a second.
"This sound, another backup.."
The reporter gasped and whipped her head around.
Endeavor and Edgeshot frantically scanned the nearby rooftops.
A wave of nervous hope washed over the panicked crowd.
Everyone knew exactly what that sound meant.
They desperately searched the alleys and buildings for the man in the white suit.
Don. Don. Don.
Rapid sonic pops exploded in the sky.
The reporter looked up and pointed her trembling finger.
"Look!" she yelled. "Up there!"
Mirko sprinted across the empty atmosphere using Geppo and Soru.
SWIISH.
She blurred past the exhausted pro heroes and dropped right above the female Nomu.
"Luna Ring!" Mirko shouted.
BAM.
Her heavy boot slammed directly into the monster's exposed brain.
The creature's neck snapped backward violently.
Crunch. Squelch.
The neck healed itself instantly.
The High-Ends completely ignored Mirko's lethal attack.
The female Nomu raised a deformed finger and pointed toward the east.
SQUECLH. SQUECLH. SQUECLH.
Grotesque, fleshy wings sprouted from the backs of all three monsters.
SWISH. SWISH. SWISH.
They launched into the sky, completely abandoning the top heroes.
"What's going on?" Even Edgeshot and the others were puzzled.
They flew straight toward a nearby corporate building.
Mirko landed on the cracked street, totally baffled.
"Hey!" Mirko yelled. "Get back here!"
Endeavor stood next to her, staring at the retreating monsters in pure shock.
"They're target is X?"
--<>--
Kaito sat on the edge of the metal billboard.
He watched the three winged monsters flying directly at him.
'Are they coming for me?' Kaito wondered.
He genuinely wondered if the Doctor targeted him specifically.
The monsters closed the distance.
"Hero... X..." the fat Nomu gurgled in a raspy voice.
Kaito let out a very tired sigh.
He hated getting interrupted.
Kaito then raised his hand. "Let's make it more entertaining tthia time.."
SNAP.
A heavy, electronic bassline dropped out of thin air.
THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.
🎵 Ain't never seen something quite like it, mm... 🎵
The upbeat lyrics blasted clearly across the entire city block.
🎵 And when we play we don't stop fighting... 🎵
The High-Ends paused mid-air.
Their exposed brains tilted to the side in pure confusion.
Down on the street, the news reporter looked around wildly.
"Where is that music coming from?!" the reporter asked the camera.
Endeavor stared at the sky in total bewilderment.
🎵 Won't see it coming fast like lightning, whoa-mm... 🎵
🎵 We'll save the day, they can't deny it... 🎵
The catchy, energetic beat echoed everywhere.
Kaito casually putting his hands on his pockets, letting the surreal music wash over the confused battlefield.
--<>--
The female Nomu violently shook her exposed brain, breaking out of her music-induced stupor.
SKREII.
She shrieked, pointing a deformed finger directly at the billboard.
Sprouting fleshy wings, all three bio-engineered monsters lunged at the nonchalant hero simultaneously.
Kaito didn't even flinch.
Pulling his right hand free, he simply snapped his fingers.
SNAP.
The spatial dimension folded inward with a sickening crunch.
The massive metal billboard, the three charging monsters, and Kaito completely vanished from the 3D space.
Down on the street, the panicked news reporter gasped, frantically pointing her microphone toward the adjacent corporate skyscraper.
"They're on the glass!" she screamed, her cameraman zooming in wildly. "They turned into graffiti!"
Plastered flat across the sheer glass windows, Kaito and the High-Ends now existed entirely as vibrant, side-scrolling 2D drawings.
🎵 Higher, higher... 🎵
The upbeat bassline synced perfectly with the chaos as the fat Nomu swung a massive, augmented fist at Kaito's flat head.
Leaning backward, Kaito casually let the devastating punch miss his face by a millimeter.
The mechanical Nomu fired a twisting purple laser straight down the two-dimensional glass surface.
Stepping lightly over the lethal beam like a puddle, Kaito looked down at a drawn crack in the window.
He pinched the flat, 2D piece of shattered glass between his fingers and flicked it forward.
FWOOSH.
Shooting across the plane with the velocity of a sniper bullet, the glass shard pierced straight through the robot's shoulder joint.
The mechanical monster jerked backward, firing its lasers aimlessly into the drawn sky.
🎵 We're about to set this game on fire, fire... 🎵
Opening a dark spatial portal right on the glass, the female Nomu lunged outward, bursting out of the 2D plane and back into the 3D world.
She hovered in the real air, shooting a barrage of hardened bone spikes right at the window.
Kaito simply peeled himself off the glass like a sticker.
Popping back into his 3D form seamlessly, he landed gracefully on a nearby streetlamp, letting the bone spikes shatter the empty window behind him.
The fat Nomu tore its way out of the glass next, dropping from the 3D sky to crush the streetlamp.
Kaito snapped his fingers right as the shadow fell over him.
SNAP.
The descending 3D monster instantly flattened, slamming into the asphalt as a highly detailed, 2D chalk drawing smeared across the crosswalk.
🎵 They can't bring us down... 🎵
Watching the bizarre dimensional shifting from the street, Endeavor refused to just stand by.
"We are backing him up!" the Number One Hero roared, propelling himself forward with a burst of flames.
Ryukyu flapped her massive dragon wings, flying right beside him while Edgeshot stretched into a razor string to slide across the pavement.
"Wait, don't touch the drawings!" Mirko yelled from the sidelines.
Ignoring the rabbit hero completely, Endeavor reared his fist back and unleashed a massive fireball at the fat Nomu's flat drawing on the street.
His flaming fist collided directly with the folded space on the asphalt.
SNAP.
Endeavor's entire world vanished, sucking him violently into the 2D plane alongside Ryukyu and Edgeshot.
The three top-tier pros suddenly appeared as flat, ink-drawn characters trapped right on the surface of the road.
Losing all physical depth, Endeavor looked at his flat, cartoonish hands in absolute shock.
"What is this dimension?!" Endeavor yelled, his voice echoing strangely across the pavement.
FLAP. FLAP.
Ryukyu flailed her 2D dragon wings wildly, completely disoriented by the total lack of a Z-axis.
Targeting the confused dragon instantly, the fat Nomu slithered across the 2D crosswalk and lunged forward to shatter her spine with an augmented punch.
🎵 We're that whole new type of hero, hero... 🎵
Standing in the 3D world right above them, Kaito let out a long, highly annoyed sigh.
"You guys are really getting in the way," he complained.
Reaching down toward the asphalt, Kaito grabbed the back of Endeavor's flat collar, Edgeshot left arm and Ryukyu's ink-drawn tail.
He peeled them off the street, yanking them straight up into the air.
POP. POP. POP.
Erupting back into the 3D world, Endeavor, Ryukyu, and Edgeshot tumbled over each other and crashed softly onto a nearby rooftop.
🎵 We gon' win wherever we go, we go... 🎵
Turning his attention back to the fight, Kaito watched the three High-Ends pop back out of the environment, fully entering the 3D space once again.
The female Nomu opened six portals around him simultaneously, while the mechanical robot fired twisting lasers into all of them.
Leaping into the air, the fat Nomu tried to crush Kaito from above.
Moving perfectly to the rhythm of the thumping bassline, the young hero slipped through the deadly crossfire without breaking a single sweat.
🎵 Explosions in the sky... 🎵
He tapped the fat Nomu's descending 3D fist, redirecting its immense kinetic energy straight into the mechanical Nomu.
CRASH.
The two monsters slammed into each other violently, tangling their limbs into a messy knot.
Raising both hands, Kaito snapped his fingers twice.
SNAP. SNAP.
The spatial rules shattered aggressively.
The three 3D monsters instantly lost their volume, turning into flat paper cutouts floating helplessly in the mid-air crossfire.
🎵 Be-be-be-bending space and time... 🎵
Grabbing the edges of the floating paper monsters, Kaito dragged them through the empty air.
He guided them toward a massive, blank concrete wall near the street level.
The 2D Nomus thrashed desperately in his grip, trying to regenerate their wounds or open new portals.
Their bio-engineered Quirks completely failed to function inside Kaito's absolute containment space.
🎵 We're that whole new type of hero, hero... 🎵
Kaito slapped his palm directly against the concrete wall.
SNAP.
The three terrifying monsters stuck firmly to the stone, solidifying into a highly detailed, colorful mural.
They were permanently trapped in the concrete, frozen mid-roar.
The upbeat theme music slowly faded out, leaving the devastated city block completely silent.
Tap. Tap.
Dusting off his crisp white suit jacket, Kaito slipped both hands back into his pockets and started walking toward a nearby vending machine.
Down on the street, the massive crowd stared at the concrete mural in absolute, stunned silence.
"HE BEAT THEM!" the news reporter suddenly screamed into her microphone, tears streaming down her pale face.
She pointed at the mural with a shaking hand, her voice echoing through every television in Tokyo.
"Hero X defeated all three monsters without taking a single hit!"
"He even has his own theme music when fighting!"
The civilian crowd erupted into deafening, hysterical cheers, realizing the impossible fight was over.
Up on the nearby rooftop, Endeavor stood perfectly still.
Staring down at the three High-Ends permanently trapped as harmless graffiti, the Number One Hero gritted his teeth tightly.
He spent months in a hospital just to barely survive a fight with one of those things.
Endeavor finally understood the terrifying gap in their quirks.
"What a terrifying quirk..."
--<>--
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(9 Advanced Chapters)