Chapter 82: Threats – Domestic and Foreign

What was meant to be a series of tests have found a complication, one which might undermine not just villains, but society as a whole. Now the Thunder needs seek out help to locate and handle things before it's too late.

“Chimera, I assume things went smoothly?” Nine asked, as he, along with Slice, was watching one group handling their first heist via some cameras, while Mummy was watching the news, which was still discussing how Endeavour and Hawks had battled against an incredibly powerful Nomu that afternoon, one which the two barely managed to kill.

Quite the busy day for news, but with Hawks, Endeavour, and Mirko in Kyushu, it meant they didn't need to worry about at least 3 of the top getting in their way.

Chimera grunted. “Chumps barely put up a fight. Even with their fancy guns.”

“Have you needed to be healed?” Nine asked, as Chimera might have a thick hide, but that didn’t mean he was bulletproof, and if their info was good, these CRC punks weren’t just moving pistols

“Not even, though the kid did find something," Chimera responded, though Nine picked up a shift in his tone, one which carried worry but also fear.

Nine could count the number of times Chimera got scared. Even when up against the odds, he was one of the most level and controlled people Nine had ever met. He would fight All Might, knowing he would lose, and wouldn't flinch if he had to.

So what in the hell could make someone like that scared? “More than the massive weapons shipment?” He half expected to be told they found explosives and anti-tank weapons.

“I wish it were just weapons,” Chimera muttered, before there was a shift as he handed the line to Pyre.

“Nine, while Chimera handled the grunts outside, I got in and went through their wares and found something that…it’s bad, it’s really bad.” Now Nine was incredibly worried. Pyre was a regenerator. What was it that they uncovered that was so powerful?

“Pyre, use your words, what is it?” Nine asked, Slice and Mummy glancing at him as Nine wordlessly waved for them to continue their duties.

“Trigger.” Nine took a breath, his own experiences with Trigger flaring, but he clamped on it and thought about it.

“Okay, I understand, looks like our intelligence didn’t include them being d-!”

Pyre, in a rare move, interrupted him to correct the record. “Not that kind, this isn't meant for you to boast your quirk, it's…it's meant to kill.”

Nine's eyes hardened as that message ran through his mind at sonic speeds, each theory worse than the last based on what he knew about Trigger. “Explain. Now.”

Line break

Sledgehammer Industries' test site's alarms were, if nothing else, loud and ear-thumping, as they shrieked through the air like the cries of a dying animal. Red emergency lights flashed across the walls and floors of the structures, illuminating the scene. In contrast, search lights tracked the intruders' movements.

Kalee led the charge; she didn't have some fancy quirk-she was just another heteromorph with additional appendages. In her case, those were 2 arms. Arms that years of training and dedication had turned into fine tools as she gripped 2 swords, having sheathed the other 2. One would assume she would always try to use 4, overwhelm her opponents, but she had learned early on that having double the arms means she could swing and stab with double the force.

Her prosthetics only made that all the more dangerous as they could move in ways normal legs couldn’t, stretching out to grab onto the faces and arms of others and using just one leg as balance, she would swing those unfortunate enough to be grabbed into each other, or pull off handstands and through or back flips, send them flying.

“Intruder, intruder, halt! You are in a restricted zone. Intruder-!” The robot trying to box her in was silenced as she swung her blade so fast it didn’t even notice, nor could it understand why it shut down when its body was bisected down the middle, its two halves falling to either side.

They hadn't even hit the ground before another tried to apprehend her, swinging their baton. She swung her off hands towards him, hissing his flesh and reducing his baton to little more than a handle, her heel disconnected and spinning allowed her to generate additional rotational force as she kicked the poor guard into another, tripping them both. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted some guards who had drawn their guns.

"They're getting serious." She mused as she performed a perfect split to evade their gunfire.

"You think?" Dusty swung her club, smacking the air out of the guard's lungs before a blow to their head knocked them out. "They're fighting like their lives depend on it." She finished as she let loose another blast of dust from her body, adding to the confusion as it became harder for anyone to see anything as Dusty lunged, rolled, and dashed around the place.

"Intruder sighted, authorisation to lose lethal force…approved." A robot announced as its mini-guns started to spin before, like the screams of hellbats, it fired on the two, joined by others trying to track them through the dust cloud.

“Yes,” Kalee spoke, before she shot out of the crowd, blades held at the ready on one side. The security robots tried to aim for her, but the second delay between their command to fire, and the needed spin warm of their guns allowed her to close the distance.

"They are getting serious, else they would have started with the guns from the start." She finished as she unleashed 2 slashes. The first severed the barrels from the hand of one robot, while another lost its entire arm from the elbow down. Landing behind them, she spun around and, with just a single blade, cleaved through them, leaping back into the smoke as they exploded, adding greater confusion as the piles of burning robots and unconscious security confused the infrared vision of the machines.

“Good point, good point. Would have thought they’ll send the small fry to the boss.” Dusty hissed as he just barely evaded getting shot.

“They are.” Kalee handled another 3 robots, each losing its head as she clamped her foot on someone's head. As she landed from her jump, she drove the woman into the ground headfirst, an instant knockout.

"How would you know that?" Dusty asked as one of the guards rushed her, spotting her through the smoke and dust. As they reached her, a blast of dust out of her caught them in their faces. As they stumbled back, blinded and coughing, she swept their feet from under them, got atop them, and with a smile which in most contexts would be seen as lewd, she punched them, breaking their noses and sending them to dreamland.

"These models are similar to the ones U.A. uses. I would say they're more competent variants of their 1 pointers.” Kalee explained as she reversed her blades and brought them down on a man's shoulder. It's blunt being what struck them, so no cut, but she did break their collar bone with the strike, the man crying out in pain as he fell to his side, only to get kicked to the side.

As she handled them, she spotted new spots through the confusion and dust. These robots looked more spider-like, or to be more accurate, scorpion-like, as they boasted dual tails. Both tails locked onto her and started charging before they fired a green blast at her. It wasn’t as fast as bullets, and without thinking, she swung her blade, striking the blast and sending it off course as it hit a building.

"And those are based on their 2 pointers," She raised her blade, a tick of anger in her heart as she saw how her incredibly prized blade was covered in a glowing green plasma from that shot. “Though I didn’t know they could do that.” Her frown only grew all the more prominent as she glared the bot down, gripped her 2 blades and rushed them to unleash hell, deflecting shots as she approached.

“How would you know any of that? You a hero student or something?” Dusty asked as a bulky woman tried to get a bead on her, her pistol shaking in her hands as she watched as their entire unit and robotic back-up were being torn apart. Shit, this wasn’t meant to be real, wasn’t all the attention on Kyushu with that Nomu fight? Why attack here?

She wouldn't get a response, as a glowing green sword would appear, almost out of nowhere, as Kalee snuck up on her, her other blade, equally green from the glowing plasma coating it, held high. The woman screamed, believing she was about to be cut down, but only her pistol was hit. At the same time, some plasma did land on her skin and clothes, burning her, but a strike to the head from Kalee's other hilt knocked her out.

Kalee paused as the fighting around them had slowed, most of the defenders having been laid low, leaving her and Dusty standing amongst the robot parts and bodies. Dusty clearly saw where the other woman was when she stood with 2 glowing swords.

"Once, took the exam and passed it, though…commitments prevented me from attending," Kalee admitted, flicking her blades to the sides to rid them of the plasma and having to suppress a growl when she saw the damage to the steel, she’ll need to see a blacksmith about this, but for now, she could rely on her other two blades as she sheathed the damaged ones.

“Oh shit, learn something new every day, but that just makes me all the more confident that we’ll get this done. We’ve already made it this far.” Dusty whistled as she pointed towards the large building, its door sealed shut, but the guard station was empty-most likely, they ran to try and handle them and failed.

"Don't get cocky. In cramped corridors, we won't have nearly as much freedom." Kalee replied as she pointed to a window, only on the 3rd floor, but she could easily scale the wall to it, even with Dusty on her back.

Line Break

“What is this about?” Never let it be said Shigaraki was polite.

“Hello to you as well, Shigaraki.” Nine’s voice came through his phone, though it annoyed him that the rival villain had his number for his burner.

“I hope you aren’t looking for work.” Shigaraki glances around at the old warehouse where he and the League were staying. It is one of many they've bounced around in since Kamino. Money wasn't as big an issue; the master had left him access to a few accounts, but it wasn't like they had once been.

“We have much bigger things to worry about, but first, how was Kyushu?” Shigaraki frowned, but didn’t immediately respond to the slight taunt.

“Wasn’t there, but it looked like fun. Wouldn’t have minded killing the new number one.” Shigaraki replied, having kept up to date on things with Dabi. She didn't trust Hawks, and neither did he, but it was a great chance to test out the new High Ends; it just sucked that he lost such a powerful summon.

“Well, someone’s planning on doing that, along with a lot of other people.” Again, Shigaraki didn't immediately respond, nor did he feel joy at the fact that Endeavour could end up dead. No, he had learned from Overhaul and what his master had taught him.

Nine wouldn’t be calling unless this was a big negative for everyone.

“What are you talking about?” He got to the point.

“We recently hit a CRC site, and they had an airborne Trigger. From what we know, it's meant to be released into cities.” Oh great, another reminder of that bastard Overhaul, but this couldn't be like his side business, as he dealt with the regular stuff, which was injected. Easier to carry, easier to use.

Airborne just sounded like a waste.

“So people would get random boasts, so what?” Shigaraki questioned, the worst side effect was the black tongue shit could become permanent if you used the stuff enough, not much of an issue.

“It's a far stronger strand, Shigaraki. At least 6 times stronger, but it has other stuff in it which we'll need a chem lab for. The point being, if you were exposed to it, it could kill you from supercharging your quirk far beyond your body's limits. You're already a dry-skinned man; you might just turn into a mummy and die.”

Shigaraki had to remember not to clench his hand around his phone, else it would turn to dust, but that didn't mean he was happy with the comment. Bakugo was annoying enough about that, and so was Dabi. “Not. Funny.”

Nine didn’t seem to care about that and just continued. “Neither is this. Listen, we’re busy and not many, just keep an eye out for stuff like this. Any CRC sites you find, make sure to look for evidence before you torch it.”

Shigaraki glanced to where the rest were. Spinner was polishing his giant-ass blade, its Pyre mark always making his friend smile. Compress was reading an old book. Toga was seemingly napping, while Twice was trying his hand at Shigaraki's handheld, though keeping quiet enough to not startle the sleeping Toga and risk getting stabbed.

Knowing Nine hadn't hung up in the moment of silence, he asked something. "You think this is legit? The CRC are bitches compared to their heyday." He didn't know much about them; most didn't these days, but he had a feeling Spinner would.

“Which makes them great idiots to use.” Well, he could agree to that point; they discussed it further for a bit before ending the call, as Shigaraki pocketed it and approached the others.

“Boss man, who was that? I don’t wanna know!” Twice asked.

"Probably wasn't someone he liked if he's making that face, but the convo sounded serious," Toga spoke up, having either woken up or having never been asleep. He couldn't tell when she was too good an actor.

“Compress, where’s Dabi right now?” Shigaraki turned his attention to the eldest member of the League.

“Probably still in Kyushu, why?” Compress replied before asking a question of his own.

"See if she can't get into contact with Hawks again; we have another use for the little red bird." Shigaraki didn’t say more, though he had something of a plan forming. If this was a threat from the outside, he was betting that the pros wouldn’t mind helping them…well, that was if they even figured it out.

Line Break

We’re here, the last chapter for this story, at least for the year. Gotta say, it was a god year, got a lot done, spent time with friends and family, not much to complain about, well outside the news but hey, I read and write because want to AVOID thinking of the fire, and I assume you all too, which kinda makes me sad that I’m going on break, but I can’t just keep this up all year around, I need time off.

Still, this chapter did come out a little short, for no other reason than the fact that I just didn't have much to work with. My notes ran dry a couple of chapters back, and I just couldn't come up with anything interesting for this one. I kept writing and deleting because it didn't feel right, which isn't good, as I wanted a good send-off chapter for the year, but… yeah. But with my break coming up, I'll have plenty of time to figure out how things will go from here, outside the core A to B stuff.