Discord: https://discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
"There it is, shouldn't be long now," Star' says.
Standing atop the air traffic control tower at the airport, she and Horizon watch as the massive military cargo plane lands with most of its engines smoking.
"See, told you it could make it," Horizon says. "Those things can glide for a while with minimum lift."
"Yes, but you could have at least stayed on the plane, you know, in case it starts falling from the sky," Star' says.
"Busy," Horizon taps his visor. "The satellites tracked two things matching the material composition we needed, but...still difficult to pick them out of the crowd."
"How is that possible, I thought you could find anything within like, a thousand miles."
"Not that far, and not that simple," Horizon says. "Detecting energy is hard, light is tougher, and telling them apart is a nightmare, and this guy just blends in with everything."
Horizon taps the side of his visor a few more times, flipping through security cameras in the airport.
"Well, this is his chance, so he'll show himself soon enough," Star' says as Birch and the soldiers escorting him begin moving from the plane to the convoy parked on the runway.
"And I got him, there," Horizon points to the middle of the building, an observation deck overlooking the runway.
"Alright, warp him to a safe place so I can talk to him."
"On it," Horizon says, then goes silent for a few seconds. "Fuck..."
"What do you mean 'fuck'?"
"Can't warp him."
"What do you mean you can't warp him?"
"I mean, I've never had to move anything this complex before," Horizon says. "He and his...containment suit, it's like the energy between the material stretches them into individual particles and the energy holds them together."
"So warping him is like having to move the Sahara grain by grain, at least before it became a forest," Star' grumbles. "You know if your Quirk was actually warping and not transposing we wouldn't be having this problem."
"Mine is better, just, never experienced something like this before," Horizon says. "Oh, but I found something else, there," he points to the other side of the airport.
"Be specific."
"Car park, truck, in the trailer, unstable material like his suit loaded in the back, but a lot more dense than his suit."
"You deal with that and I'll---" Star and Stripe's words stop as Kelvin rockets through the airport window and flies toward the convoy.
Star' immediately jumps off the rooftop.
NEW ORDER: I can freely move through the atmosphere!
She leaves a sonic boom in her wake that causes Horizon to take a few steps back, and by the time he steadies himself, she's already intercepting Kelvin.
"BIRCH!" Kelvin's voice echoes through the area, hitting almost every frequency, disrupting all signals, and breaking every window in the airport.
"He's here!" Birch yells as he covers his ears, seeing Kelvin flying toward him before raising a fist. "Help!"
Kelvin fires a blast of purple energy, and as he does so, his entire containment suit glows for just a moment.
Before the blast could hit its target, Star' intercepts it, grabbing it with her right hand.
NEW ORDER: I can contain any thermodynamic energy I make contact with!
She holds the energy blast in her hand like a glowing baseball, while landing on the runway, since she had to deactivate her flight command.
'I need to be careful with this guy, he can fly which gives him the advantage,' Star' thinks. 'My main command keeps my transformation up, so I'll just alternate between mobility and being able to contain his energy with the other one.'
While in theory, this situation should happen often, considering she's always had the limit of two commands, because of how powerful New Order is, she rarely even needs more than just her transformation command.
"Move!" Kelvin demands as the soldiers rush Birch to the convoy, but Star' stays planted in his path.
"Kelvin, you don't have to do this," Star' says as she throws the captured energy blast into the air.
It easily clears the atmosphere and dissipates harmlessly.
"Are you here to kill me?" Kelvin asks. "They sent you, to hide their mistake!"
"No, I'm not even here to fight you," Star' says, raising her hands in surrender. "I'm here to help you."
"Help...me?" Kelvin relaxes, descending to stand on the runway. "Why?"
"Because that's what heroes do, they help people," Star' says. "Alteast, that's what they should do, especially people like you."
"Like me?"
"You're a good man, do you remember who you are?"
"I...am..." he looks down at his hands and stumbles back, confused. "Kelvin, from, lab #32, energy division."
Star's gaze softens at that, "Well, Kelvin, you helped the entire world, and it's not fair what happened to you, I'm here to help."
"Birch," Kelvin shakes his head. "Birch said, I could help, he, left me, in a box, so dark."
"And now I'm here to help you," Star' says. "And I have a friend who can help you, we can figure out a way to restore your body, but we need time, we need you to let us help you."
"A friend?"
"A miracle," Star' says. "His name is Horizon, you were already locked away before he became public, but he---"
"The doctor, from the news," Kelvin says.
"Yes!" Star' smiles, seeing some progress. "We can help you, if you let us."
Kelvin nods eagerly, "Yes, after I kill Birch," he immediately turns to fly after the convoy, but by the time he turns star is already in his way again.
"Sorry but, I can't let you kill anyone, that's not how we do things."
"Birch, the liar, must die."
Star' sighs, "I know he broke your trust, and you didn't deserve this, but we don't kill in cold blood, revenge isn't justice."
Kelvin stumbles back, as if trying to process this was painful for him, "No, Birch dies, he must, killing Birch, is everything."
Star' frowns and lowers her hands, "I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that."
"Fine," Kelvin seemingly takes one step forward, and as his foot touches the ground, energy surges through his suit once more.
But this time, it spreads through the runway beneath them, a purple ripple effect carrying massive thermodynamic energy, affecting all the matter it touches.
The earth beneath them becomes energy-rich glowing purple lava, bubbling on the surface.
Star' immediately realizes what's going on and rushes forward, grabbing him with blinding speeding and jumping into the air.
She leaves a sonic boom in her wake, and after clearing the lowest cloud level glances back to see the attack only spread for a few dozen meters.
"Horizon?"
"I see it," Horizon says as she sees the chunk of energy-rich earth free itself from the planet and rockets into the sky before exploding. "Everything he touches becomes a bomb, careful."
"Yeah, I noticed," Star' says while turning her focus back to the man in her arms, arms that had rivers of purple energy flowing through them, trying to do the same thing to her.
Fortunately, her transformation is comparable to the physical stats of prime All Might, short of it by just a hair, but capable of surpassing even his power if she doesn't split her focus between two commands.
"I don't want to fight you!" Star' tosses him away as she shrugs off the energy trying to destroy her, then activates her flight command once again.
"Then don't fight me, just move," Kelvin says. "Revenge, is everything."
Star' glares at him, "I really thought you would have listened to reason, I'm sorry it came to this."
Before her words can even register, she's already behind Kelvin with a strong right.
"Don't break his suit!" Horizon yells through her communicator.
Star' pulls her punch and instead palms the back of his head, and shakes him like a rattle while flying higher, into the overcast sky.
"No brain to rattle!" Kelvin inhumanly twists his body and punches her in the face with his entire right arm glowing.
The entire sky, along with the surrounding regions on the ground, shakes, as a blinding purple light outshines the sun sun above.
As the purple light fades, all the clouds are gone, along with Star and Stripe.
Kelvin begins falling for a moment before steadying himself in the air, "too much, power," he says, realizing over half of his remaining lifespan was in that one attack.
"Birch," he turns toward the earth, toward the military base in the distance where his target is going, then flies off.
As he's flying, high above, just outside of Earth's orbit, Star and Stipe floats unconsciously.
A few seconds later she startles awake.
"Guh!" she immediately shuts her mouth, feeling extremely cold as the moisture on her is flash-frozen in space, then looks around.
'Wow, it's beautiful up here,' she thinks while observing the earth, then touches her face, feeling a sore bruise on her cheek. 'That's a first, now to get back in the fight.'
She wills herself to move forward, only to continue drifting in place.
'Oh, right, no atmosphere to move through, so...'
NEW ORDER: I can freely move through three-dimensional space!
She feels her energy taxed slightly more than usual as her body isn't used to this command, this would decrease with familiarity.
But she realizes this commands, as suspected, even after mastery would constantly drain more energy than her previous flight command.
But casting those thoughts aside she races back into the fight, truly flying.
She closes in at 10,000km/h, just slightly over Mach 8, which is her maximum allowed in-atmosphere, legal travel speed.
"Don't kill him," Horizon says through her communicator, "ask him about the bomb."
"What bomb?" she immediately slows down after reaching within a few miles of Kelvin, just outside of the airport.
"The one I'm working on, just be quick, the timer only has a few minutes left."
"Kelvin!" Star' screams as she collides with him, careful not to crack his suit as she spins and throws him back toward the sky. "How do we disable the bomb?!"
"Argh!" Kelvin doesn't even bother to answer, simply turning to the earth below and firing another blast.
Star' looks at where it's going, and sees he's aiming at an empty bridge.
'He wants to destroy the convoy's route, fine, he'll have to get past me anyway and that's not happening,' she rushes toward him and holds his hands together.
"The bomb, how do we disable it?"
"You don't!" Kelvin begins overloading his suit causing cracks to appear in the entire thing.
"No!" Star' rushes toward the edge of space with him as the suit shatters and explodes.
Another purple light outshines everything in the sky, but before the energy can ripple out and disturb the people below, Star' changes her command and captures it.
Trapping it like a sentient baseball in her hands.
"NOOOOOO!" Kelvin screams from his new prison as she raises her hand, holding him close to her face.
'I can still see him in there, maybe we can still save him,' she thinks before flying back to the airport.
---Moments later...
Star' lands in the airport parking area to see a crowd gathered at the gate, but she simply goes to where Horizon is, standing behind a truck.
"Did you disarm it?" Star' asks.
"Nope, take a look," Horizon says as he opens the back, where she sees a 5ft wide glowing purple cube.
"We should have everyone evacuate," Star' says.
"Can't you just disable it with your Quirk?" Horizon asks.
"Not while I'm holding him," she shakes Kelvin for him to see, then looks at him in her grasp. "How do we disable it?"
"..."
"The silent treatment, very helpful," Horizon grumbles. "Just drop your transformation and disable the bomb."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because I just can't, alright!"
"Fine fine," Horizon raises his hands in surrender. "Well if we try to move it the GPS lock on it will set it off, but the longer it stays put the stronger the blast."
"Why didn't you warp everyone away?" Star' asks.
"I figured you'd snap your fingers and get rid of it, like you're refusing to do right now, that's why."
"It's complicated, so drop it," she grows out.
"Fine, fine, I'll deal with it, just don't ask any questions," Horizon walks over to the bomb and cups his hands together.
Star' feels his Quirk deactivate, the tingly sensation of Hand Of God no longer moving across her body.
'What the hell is he doing deactivating his Qui---'
Her mind goes black as she instinctively takes a few steps back, almost falling out of the trailer as Horizon gathers energy toward his hands.
Then between his cupped hands, a small translucent blue sphere forms and grows.
He stretches his arms out, over the bomb, and it seamlessly seems to phase through the bomb and continue expanding, and when the entire bomb is in the middle of it.
The sphere becomes a slightly darker blue, glowing bright, and instantly hardens, cutting through the trailer and the ground below to completely seal itself.
"That's new..." Star' mutters as Horizon stumbles back, only for her to steady him.
"Yeah, which is why it's not efficient, and is so damn draining," Horizon struggles to speak, leaning against the wall of the trailer.
As she's about to ask another question, the bomb detonates, with enough power to make a crater the size of Manhattan Island, yet they can't feel it.
They couldn't even hear it, the only way they could tell it went off was the bright purple light shining from within the barrier.
As the light dims and fades away, Star' shakes the surprise away to collect her thoughts.
"And I thought you were scary before," Star' says. "Was that your awakening?"
"Part of it, still needs a lot of work, this barrier won't hold for much longer," Horizon says as they walk to the back of the trailer, to see the oblivious masses taking pictures of them. "What happened to Kelvin?"
Star and Stripe raises her hand to show her prisoner, or what was left of him, "when the bomb failed he stopped holding himself together, seems revenge is all that was fueling him..."
"I can't imagine what a miserable life that was..." Horizon says as he sits in the back of the trailer, trying to catch his breath.
Star' sits beside him, gently waving to the adoring public as she whispers, "Will you be alright?"
"Yeah, I'm just so hungry."
"I know a great seafood place not too far from here, how about it?"
"Yeah, lets go eat..."
END CHAPTER---
Discord: https://discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
---June 30th, Horizon's Penthouse, New York City...
"Are you sure we aren't missing anything?" Nezu asks as he's typing away on the other side of the screen as Horizon paces through the living room of his penthouse.
"I combed over everything that fits their usual style and this is it," Horizon says.
"So they stole that device from David Shield, which we recovered before it could leave Japan."
"And they sacrificed a android that's beyond anything even you've built until now to do it, which means they don't value that tech as much as the rest of the world."
"An android that I couldn't hack into before the computers inside melted," Nezu reminds him. "Then what else, they created the Faux Nuclear Football for Sentinel, which luckily didn't get used."
"But again, nobody could hack into it before it self-destructed, so another dead end."
"Until recently, right, a few weeks ago."
"Yeah, the same day we dealt with Kelvin an energy efficiency research lab in Argentina was hit, along with a data uplink center in India, hacked like it was nothing and the manpower was handled by local villains given advanced tech in response."
"All of these things point to a big antenna of some kind."
"Yes but, if they broke Kelvin out for the reason I'm guessing, to get access to their own Thermodynamic Reactors, they're probably trying to build more than just an antenna," Horizon says. "Especially since Russia's DED system was compromised a few months ago."
"Well, the Direct Energy Defense system powered by one of Kelvin's reactors could create a weapon of immense power, but that power signature would be impossible to hide."
"Which means either they figured out how to hide it or they haven't built it yet," Horizon says. "What would they even need the antenna for, it feels like they're already in damn near every computer in the world."
"True, and an antenna of all things would make the signals flowing through the air easier to track via certain systems or Quirks," Nezu says. "If they want to reach the entire world like we believe there wouldn't be anything else projecting and absorbing that much data at once."
"Not to mention the device they build, even with modern tech, would be massive, that won't be easy to hide," Horizon says.
"They also need a fast uplink point, that's mandatory if we're right about them wanting to control the entire global web."
"Yes but people have swept every data nexus around the world, and we've got people stationed there more than usual, they didn't find anything."
"Which Nexu has the most security?"
"Technically the one here in America, just outside Houston," Horizon says. "I've reviewed the security on all of them, and not only is that one deep under a massive Airforce base, it's also the headquarters for Star and Stripe, attacking it would be suicide."
"True, especially while you're in America," Nezu says. "And the weakest?"
"India, the city is too close and has too many people, attacking it would be easiest," Horizon says. "What about UA?"
"The UA Nexus is secure and safe, I've been keeping a careful eye on this access point since David left last year, having him around made maintaining the UA systems so much easier."
"Right, well this still leaves us in a position where all we can do is wait and respond to whatever they do," Horizon sighs. "They're either building a massive cannon, a computer of some kind, or both."
"Or a giant robot," Nezu says.
"Nah, that's not their style, they never do direct confrontations like that. Whatever Tech wants, it's probably something like threatening to take down every global network if we don't pay a few billion or something."
"That would be in line with what previous hacker groups were aiming for," Nezu says. "The only difference is this one may be capable of pulling it off."
"Yeah, but we need more data."
"Any ideas?"
"Yeah, I think I have one that will work, I'll call you back if I get any leads."
"Alright, good luck," Nezu ends the call.
Horizon quickly finds another number and begins calling, "it's just past midnight in Japan but, he's probably up still," he says as the call connects to his TV.
"HIYA!!!" Mina Ashido appears on the screen.
"What the hell," Horizon looks down at his phone, seeing Juzo's number on the call. "Why do you have Juzo's phone, I thought you were dating the Brick."
"Ew, gross," Mina scrunched her face. "Kirishima is like a brother to me."
"Yikes," Horizon says as he takes in the background behind her. "Are you in my kitchen, in Horizon Tower?"
"Yeah everyone is here, Juzo's phone is charging in the kitchen, I came to get more snacks before heading back to the pool," Mina says as she leans the phone against something so he can see her searching the cabinets.
"Right, whatever, take the phone to Juzo."
"Gotcha, just giving me one second," Mina says as she bends over, giving him a view of her bikini-clad body.
"This is important Mina," Horizon says.
"So are my snacks...I could have sworn I saw chips down here somewhere," Mina says.
"Well, at least you're giving me a nice view to pass the time," Horizon chuckles. "Is everyone in the tower?"
"Just all the Hero Course students from our year," Mina says as she finds the chips. "And I hope you appreciated the view, you're the only one that's gotten to see me from that angle," she winks playfully before grabbing the phone.
"Awe, someone has a crush on me."
"Ew."
"Ouch."
"I just figured you've already seen all of us naked," Mina says as she moves about the kitchen. "Sero says you keep a stash of foreign snacks here, where?"
"Top cabinet, near the fridge," Horizon says.
"Thanks."
"And why the hell do you think I've seen all of you naked?"
"Your Quirk, can't you see everything all the time?"
"Well you'd just appear as outlines in black and white, and I chose how specific I want to be, people's anatomy is usually a blur unless I'm studying them."
"Well, you studied me."
"Your DNA, not your assets."
"Awe, and here I thought I was getting some sexy, rich, superhero, doctor, boyfriend," she feigns sadness before gathering all the snacks and the phone, and marching through the hallway.
"I'm not your type."
"And that'd be totally not cool since I'm friends with Jiro and Momo," Mina says. "But mostly, you're kind of a jerk."
"Says the girl in my house raiding my kitchen."
"You're supposed to be polite to guests."
"Oh please, you've met me," Horizon says as she enters the elevator.
"How has America been treating you? You don't respond to us in the group chat when we ask, but we look out for you in the news, even if you don't show up much in it."
"Most of the criminals and villains know better than to do anything in New York, or this side of America, so it's more like a vacation if anything, what about you?"
"Personally, I'm actually kind of scared," Mina admits. "We're having this party because after this week we have to spend summer at our different mentor's agencies, well, your team will be staying here. But now with villains getting extra excited since you and All Might are gone, at least until September, things are a lot more dangerous for us..."
"You're scared that more classmates will die."
"Scared that...maybe I won't be good enough to save someone."
"Being a Hero isn't about saving everyone, you just have to save one person," Horizon says. "Get one more person out alive than there would have been if you didn't become a hero, and that's enough, everything else is just extra."
"Easy for you to say, you always save everyone," Mina says.
"Not everyone," Horizon says. "The day I lost my parents, I panicked, I lost focus, I'd never seen anyone I care about hurt before. If I kept my focus, they'd be here with me right now."
"But then you never would have become a Pro Hero, right?" Mina asks as she exits the elevator. "You said you only chose this life because you have nothing for villains to take from you, but, you've saved so many people already, if you could have them back, but all those people you saved would die---"
"I'd make that trade in a heartbeat," Horizon says, and sees his words hit her like a punch to the face.
"What? Really?" she looks at him through the screen with wide eyes.
"Mina, I've always said I'm good at this Pro Hero game, I have skills that allow me to help millions of people, but I've never claimed to be a good person."
"Yeah, well we knew that from the first day of UA," Mina chuckles as she continues walking through the building.
"When you're Horizon, you can make whatever kind of first impression you want."
"Yeah we saw that, you did get away with mass murder after all," Mina says as she enters the pool area, and Horizon hears the music.
"The world needs me, that's all."
"Hey, Horizon," Mina sets down the snacks and looks at Horizon through the phone. "Thanks, for what you said earlier...about saving one person. It means a lot you know, since you're all the way at the other end of the scoreboard in our class."
"Don't worry about it Mina, just do your best, you'll be enough..."
"Awe, be careful, or I might just fall for you," she teases him.
"And I'd watch you hit the floor."
"Tch, jerk," she hands the phone to Juzo, who takes one look at it and begins getting out of the pool, entirely tuning out whatever Tokage was talking to him about.
Horizon waits until Juzo walks away from the other students, to where he can't hear the music anymore.
"Ok, we can talk now," Juzo says. "What's up?"
"I'll send you some data in a few minutes, I need you to go handle something for me tomorrow night."
"What kind of situation is this."
"You won't be going as Pro Heroes, just, wear some masks and pretend to be generic criminals, if you get caught."
"So full stealth, and the target?"
"Take one of the black data drives from my office in the tower, you need to get to the mainframe at the address I'm sending and plug it in. The drive will do the rest."
"Alright, so I'm guessing you're copying all their files and making a virtual clone on Nezu's system to track future transfers, what are they moving?"
"Data, a lot of it," Horizon says. "The guy you're targeting is a data broker, he runs everything between Japan, China, Russia, India, and Australia, I'll go collect data from his counterparts stateside."
"That's a lot of data, what kind?"
"Black market technology, if somebody managed to steal even one of the UA robots they'd have to go through him to sell it, so the tech I'm looking for must have used him as the middleman to sell it."
"Right, this guy sounds dangerous, how the hell hasn't he been caught yet?"
"Every time someone sells things like weapons-grade plutonium to build some nuclear bomb, he tags it then gives the tracking data to Interpol."
"So governments look the other way because he gives them what they need," Juzo says. "Makes sense, so why not just ask him nicely?"
"The less people know I'm connecting the pieces, the fewer computers this will be in, so don't log any of this outside of UA servers."
"Computers, so this is about Tech?"
"Yeah, we got a few more concerning puzzle pieces since I've been stateside, it'll all be included in the files I send you."
"Got it, anything else?"
"Hmm, yeah," Horizon nods. "Take Mina with you."
"Mina? Mina Ashido?" Juzo. "Look you know I don't question you unless I have a good reason, but she's not exactly stealth trained, or trained to work with our team, plus if we have to do some...less than ideal things, like some creative questioning, she could get squeamish."
"If you do your job well it won't come to that," Horizon says. "In fact, you shouldn't encounter anyone at the site at all, just a simple infiltration."
"Then why Mina?"
"She needs a win," Horizon says. "Plus, it'll be nice when the press questions the girls about me, at least one of them won't hate me and want me to rot in prison."
"I have a feeling after this summer that won't be a problem," Juzo says. "Gang Orca has been getting some troubling updates from the HPSC lately, we think the League Of Villains may be vetting new ways to smuggle Nomu in and out of Japan."
"I see, well I can't help from over here so it makes sense they wouldn't bother me with this," Horizon says. "Just keep yourself alive, when I get back we'll go hunt them all down."
"Can't wait."
Horizon immediately hangs up and begins compiling files to send Juzo.
A few minutes later Juzo is sitting at the opposite side of the pool area on a lounge chair, enjoying a soda and some chips.
In his lap is Setsuna Tokage, who was scrolling through social media on her phone.
"You alright?" Setsuna asks, noticing he hasn't spoken in the past few minutes, and is still intensely watching his phone.
"Yeah, Horizon just made a strange suggestion in this briefing," Juzo says as his gaze passes over the pool area.
He sees most of the students still enjoying the heated pool, most of the other girls are in the hot tub, while at the swim-up bar, Bakugo, was manning the grill while playing cards with some of the other students.
"Well, I guess on paper it makes sense, and if the security is as good as Horizon thinks it is, we could use them," Juzo set his phone down and wrapped his arms around Setsuna. "I'll tell them in the morning, no need to ruin the fun mood."
Juzo's gaze falls onto Deku, who is playing cards with Bakugo and a few others at the bar, then to Mina, who is in the hot tub eating some snacks, and lastly, Yanagi, asleep on a large pool float drifting between everyone.
END CHAPTER---
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