How did things turn out like this?
Melissa pressed her back against the street as a band of patrol bots moved through the streets with a mechanical precision, the red lights illuminating everything as they scanned their surroundings. The bracelet she had managed to build in a hurry glowed blue for a moment, blocking their scanners. Even so, she had to be careful, the ocular feed could still catch her if she got too brazen.
She needed to be careful.
At least until she managed to get a call through.
Clutching her laptop close in her hands, she sprinted across the street the moment she was convinced that the coast was clear.
She glanced up towards the ever-present walls that had served as her horizon for most of her life. The sparks of construction as the drones began to build powerful weapons illuminated the fading daylight.
Melissa came to the base of the central tower, the tallest building in all of I-Island that served in part as their communications base. It was where all signals into or out of I-Island passed through. If there was any spot, any spot in this entire city that could still reach out, it was here. She kept her back to the wall as she tried to find that hidden access panel she remembered seeing some tech access at one point.
It was barely an indent in the wall, a thin seam that separated her from hope. There was no leverage, and she didn't have the proper I.D. to access it.
"Guess it's the old fashion way." Melissa muttered, setting her computer down and taking out a laser that one of her friends had been developing. She double checked, and started the slow process of cutting the panel open, hoping she wasn't damaging the innards with each small short cut.
The panel fell off in chunks, and then she saw what she had been looking for.
Access point. Without a single movement wasted she connected her computer to it, and started typing as fast as she could, her speed causing more errors than it was worth as she attempted to hack a security system that was already compromised. There were holes, large holes.
Then she was connected.
Message sent.
Hope.
"It's done then?"
Melissa gasped, grabbing her laptop and pressing herself against the wall of the tower as she glared at him.
That man that had caused all of this. The man that had taken the place of Sam and had tricked her father into building something just for him.
"Oh don't be like that," The man placed a hand in his pocket, and extended the other out to her. "You're far too valuable for me to harm, Melissa. Besides, I'm hardly mad at you." He gave an unnerving smile. "I just want to know, did you call All Might?"
"I did." She spoke with courage that surprised even herself. "And he's going to stop you."
The man laughed. "Oh, I certainly hope he does. Now come with me dear Melissa, once this is all over I'll even let you have any quirk you want for playing your part so well."
"I don't need a quirk."
The man frowned. Her cheek stung and she was sent to the ground, her computer breaking on impact. "Oh dear me, sorry, I just remember so many infuriating heroes telling me that right before I killed them. You must be careful around me Melissa, I am a very very bad man after all."
He grabbed her with a gloved hand and picked her up. She had seen what had happened to some of those with strong quirks when he first made his stance known, the ease with which he turned them to a bloody mess on the side of the road before restoring them just so he could take their quirk.
She watched in horror as he took that glove off before touching her cheek with a light touch.
The pain was gone.
"There, no harm no foul. Now let's go make sure your father is properly motivated."
"You monster."
"Oh dear me Melissa." He gave a cold smile. "You flatter me."
XXXX
There were times where All Might was like a force of nature. A storm of fury that swept the streets clean of villains and provided peace in its passing. Now that raw force of nature was being contained with no outlet, eager and ready to lash out at the nearest thing for even the slightest error. It was a bit sad, seeing the will to act combined with the power to act being unable to act.
"Please Uncle Might." Melissa Shield's voice played from over the speaker, the video feed showed her in a dark room, her tear stained eyes reflecting the light of her computer. "Save us. Please."
Nighteye glanced towards All Might one last time. This was Mirai's third time watching it, and he could only guess how many times All Might had watched it. But each time that storm grew darker and darker. It was only a matter of time before All Might decided to act on his own and take off to I-Island.
They needed to act before then.
They needed to act with All Might.
They needed to have a plan.
Mirai pinched his nose, pushing his glasses up while the rest of the heroes marinated in the knowledge that I-Island was no longer safe. And he heavily considered the timing of it all. He had no doubt now, this was the Doom Foretold countdown that was present within Izuku's quirk. Or, rather, the quirk's ability to sense when the conflict between One for All and All for One would occur.
And that countdown was quickly reaching zero.
What would happen if he tried to keep this a secret from Izuku? To whisk Itsuka away and prevent her from being anywhere near All for One. Would that save them? Would that doom them all? There were so many options to consider, and a lack of information. If he could use his quirk to gain just a bit more information about the situation, even if Izuku's quirk often worked in open defiance of Mirai's own quirk, it was worth a chance, wasn't it?
But they didn't have the time for that.
This wasn't just a meeting.
This was a war council.
Izuku, Itsuka, Momo, Nejire, Shoko, and even Menu were all powerful weapons that could turn the tides of the coming war in their favor.
Nezu tapped on his tablet, the screen shifting from the video to a picture of I-Island taken by a plane.
"This was a year ago."
The image shifted again, showing the island once again, but now with large weapons mounted on its walls. The image buffered and then started playing. A bright light came from one of the weapons and the video showed a man jumping out of the helicopter, just in time to catch the aircraft being exploded by a powerful beam and then turning back towards the island. Another bright light.
Then, the end.
"This was less than eight hours ago." Nezu let out a sigh. "I-Island has indeed become under the control of a villain, communication has been cut off from the outside world and it has begun to weaponize its defense systems."
"That's going to be a tough nut to crack." Miruko, the rabbit hero, tapped her fingers on the desk, eyes locked on the screen. "I've been to I-Island before, I even tried to break some stuff, but that place is built solid, and I couldn't even get out of their villain binding tech."
"Is that why you're not allowed there anymore?" Ryukyu the dragoon hero asked, her quick quip bringing several much-needed smiles to the group.
Miruko blushed, and then glared at Ryukyu. "You're lucky you're cute."
All Might was the only one that didn't smile at the joke. He sat there at the end of the table, the storm's wrath growing darker and darker as it fed into itself.
"What about the other nations?" Gang Orca asked, "We're not the only ones that benefit from I-Island."
"America's scrambling to form a response right now, but because of the Island's position, we're in a better position than them to make an attempt." Nezu replied calmly. "The EU will also be providing support where they can, but for right now this falls on us."
"What about the villains?" Shota Aizawa leaned forward, elbows on the table and hands folded to brace his forehead. "Do we know who they are?"
All Might stood like thunder, hands on the table as every breath he took fed the storm. Nothing could command a room like an angry All Might. After a few fulminous moments, All might spoke. "His name is All for One, and he and his quirk are one in the same. He has the ability to steal and give quirks. I thought I had stopped him once before. So, this is a failure on my part."
Mirai stood up as well. He was not going to let All Might fight this battle alone. "All for One is incredibly dangerous, as I'm sure many of you may have guessed. Not only is his quirk alone incredibly dangerous, but there's no telling how many other quirks he has at his disposal. The last time All Might fought him, he was nearly killed. And currently we're aware of one quirk he has that makes him even more dangerous."
Nighteye tapped on his tablet and brought up Chisaki's mugshot. "The Yakuza boss known as Overhaul had his quirk stolen by All for One on his way to Tartarus. His quirk allows him to remake anything he touches with even the slightest touch, the most potent thing he can do is turn someone into a blood smear, but he can also use it to enhance the strengths of others and himself. In addition, he can use it to completely heal any injury he has taken. This alone would make him unstoppable, but we don't know what else he might have under his belt."
"Why are we just now finding out about someone this dangerous!" Endeavour roared, standing up as well with a mean snarl on his face as he pointed towards All Might. "This is your fault, isn't it?"
"I KNOW THAT!" All Might's voice shook the room and caused the lights to flicker for a moment. "I'm keenly aware of my own failures, Endeavour! And I will make this right!"
"Woah woah woah," the youngest hero in the room and the number three on the charts sent one red wing between All Might and Endeavour. "The blame game isn't going to help anyone. Right now we need to think of a way to deal with this."
A feather tapped on Nezu's tablet once again, and the video of the defense systems played again. "I'm probably the only thing flying that can dodge those lasers, but I'd be slowed down carrying a large load. I might be able to disable a few of those turrets long enough to allow us enough room to invade, but that might put a lot of innocent people in danger."
"Might?" Aizawa asked. "A lot of innocent people are already in danger."
Mirai blinked. Another piece of the puzzle.
"Can you carry a person with you?" He asked, trying not to smile in the face of the situation.
Hawks pointed towards All Might. "If I'm carrying him, it'd slow me down way too much. Eraserhead on the other hand…"
"Good. That's more than enough." Mirai pulled up a picture of Izuku.
"Are you serious, him?" Aizawa slouched in his chair.
"Yes, I'm serious." Mirai adjusted his glasses once again. "This is Izuku Midoriya, and as you might have guessed from Eraserhead's reaction, he has something of an unusual quirk."
Nezu snorted.
"Many of you are aware of the special foods he's able to cook, but that's largely just the cover for his quirk to make things simple for him." Mirai waved his hand at a few hands that rose up. "But, the most important ability that he has for this mission is the ability to teleport members of his party to his location."
"Party?" Hawks asked, raising an eyebrow. "Like, a video game thing?"
"Actually yes," Mirai nodded gratefully that someone would understand half of what he was going to be saying. "Currently Izuku has five members in his party."
He started to add images of each member next to Izuku.
"Itsuka Kendo may well be All Might's equal in all but experience, her own massive strength and incredible endurance makes her a safe bet for any fight against a hard point. Additionally, she's equally skilled at planning things out."
"Momo Yaoyorozu may be the most important member for this mission. Her natural quirk allows her to create any item she needs; this could easily include bombs powerful enough to disable those weapons. Additionally, she's been training in stealth and sabotage, and with Izuku's quirk enhancing every part of her, she's not someone that can be underestimated."
Edgeshot gave a quick nod. "Indeed, I was impressed by what I saw in the sports festival."
Mirai nodded and continued, bringing up Nejire Hado's image and making Aizawa groan, his head hitting the table at record speed.
"Next up is Nejire Hado. One of the top students at U.A. and well on her way towards graduation. Even before being involved with Izuku, she was a top student and her abilities have only improved after joining Izuku's party, though, most of them are rather unconventional."
"Yo, is that the chick that beat a dude by shoving him into her tits?" Miruko asked, looking towards Ryukyu, who had the grace to blush.
Ryukyu let out a sigh. "Yes, that would be Nejire, I assume that ability comes from Izuku's quirk?"
Mirai nodded, though he wasn't quite aware that she could store people in her, uhh, cleavage.
"Up next is Shoko Todoroki, Endeavour's own daughter and another powerhouse that Izuku can summon to himself. Originally she was Shoto, but asked that Izuku's quirk changed her into a fox girl."
"She's cute." Miruko added.
"Indeed, however while she matches Endeavour's raw power, she also has greater control over her fire and ice, allowing her to sculpt a wide variety of structures and even make them mildly autonomous."
Endeavour beamed with a mixture of pride and fury.
Mirai debated bringing up Menu's photo to discuss her, but that may well be an invasion of privacy for Izuku. Besides, there was already a lot of info being provided. "In addition, Izuku has access to a wide variety of items, one of which is a clipboard that allows him to enter places as though he were allowed there, though the actions he can take are limited."
"A clipboard?" Hawks asked. "How does—"
"His quirk, they call it a magic item."
Hawks let out a breath and laughed. "Magic Items, party system, enhancements, sex changes, teleportation, Food buffs. What exactly is this kid's quirk?"
"Bullshit." Aizawa groaned and sat back up. "His quirk is bullshit. It's also sentient, and goes by the name Menu-chan. So far she's demonstrated the ability to resist my own quirk like it was nothing, she might even be able to resist this All for One's quirk as well."
Mirai nodded; she had been able to fight off a quirk erasing drug with some help, and even became stronger because of the ordeal. So there was a good chance.
"So his quirk is bullshit, sounds great. Though Menu-chan is a bit of a strange name."
Mirai adjusted his glasses one last time. "Actually, the official name we're going to give his quirk is Deus Ex Machina."
"God in the machine?" Ryukyu sat back in her chair crossing her arms. "Sounds about right."
"Still," Endeavour crossed his arms. "Is there some way for him to transport all of us there? Like by joining his party?"
"When I spoke to Menu you said an additional party member likely won't be possible given the rules that she functions under. So we'll just have to—" Mirai blinked. And then smiled. "Actually, there might be a way to transport all of you to I-Island the moment Izuku makes landfall. Though it might be a bit unorthodox."
"What part about this has been orthadox?"
"Fair."
AN: This chapter was a lot of fun.