Discord: https://discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
"You said you needed to see me, what's wrong?" David Shield asks as he approaches Power Loader.
Power Loader was working on some simulations toward the middle of the lab where Horizon was hovering above, still assembling tens of thousands of components with absolute precision.
"Yeah," Power Loader takes a sip of his coffee. "I just got done designing the power conduits, and we ran into some issues with the power source itself."
"What kind of issue? We already knew Genesis wouldn't be able to make something containing much energy, so just add it to the list and we'll get it."
"That's the problem," Power Loader taps a few buttons to bring up the numbers he estimated their device to need.
"Heh, you're kidding, right?" David Shield asks, feeling his hope wax and wane. "900 Terawatt Hours, that's enough to power all of New York City for just over a decade."
"See the problem now?" Power Loader asks as he gestures to the empty seat beside him.
"Ok, well, I have some ideas," David Shield says as he takes a seat, and they both begin working to solve the problem. "The most obvious is nuclear power, but—"
"We can't fit a nuclear reactor on the jet," Power Loader says. "Then we need a battery."
"The size would still be the issue," David Shield mulls it over briefly, then facepalms. "We were so focused on solving the problem by using technology, that we failed to remember that a Quirk is the basis of this entire problem, so a Quirk can solve it."
"Ahhh, you're right," Power Loader says as they look at Horizon. "Hey, Horizon, we need you for a moment!"
Horizon looks down at them, keeping all the components moving like a controlled storm around him as he hovers down to them.
"What's wrong?" he asks.
"900 Terawatt Hours to stay operational," David Shield says.
"Shit, that's exhausting," Horizon says. "But I can power it, the problem is the power fluctuations, since I am a living being, as much as people doubt it, if my power output changes it could fry some of these components," he gestures to the parts moving behind him.
"Then we'll work extra hard on the capacitors," Power Loader says. "But…are you sure this is doable for you?"
"I should be able to keep it going for about…3 hours. But any more than that and I'll be in trouble."
"That fact that you have that much energy is already crazy enough," David Shield says. "And I thought All Might was absurd, but you Mystery Class people are on a whole other level."
"Not us," A voice says from behind them. "Just him, I'm still human."
David Shield and Power Loader turn around to see Star and Stripe in her black ops outfit.
"Star', how was it?" Horizon asks.
"Cold," she hands David Shield a small device. "I attached the other end to the international space station, and relays the satellites you requested."
"Incredible," David Shield says. "I was worried Tech would detect us asking NASA to launch rockets to get this done, but you did it so easily."
"I wouldn't call it easy," Star' says. "Now, Horizon, we need to go to the Whitehouse."
"Ah, it's that time," Horizon says as he lands on the floor. Give me a minute to set these down safely, and I'll meet you upstairs."
"What's going on?" Power Loader asks.
"Nothing to worry about, we just have some planning to do for the implementation of the device," Star' lies. "We'll be back soon."
"Ah, alright, we'll keep working and hopefully have an input station that's compatible with the absurd energy requirement by the time you're back," Power Loader says.
---10 Minutes Later…
SHAMBLES!
Horizon and Star and Stripe appear in her bedroom within Lone Star Base, where they last entered before warping to the Think Tank.
"Great, now Tech thinks we're fucking," Star' grumbles as she begins undressing while walking into the bathroom.
"Hey you're the genius who wanted to get there as quickly as possible, I said we should have just warped from The Pentagon."
"We didn't have time for that!" Star' yells as she gets into the shower, while Horizon sits on her bed and checks his updates from his team.
"Well rest assured, nobody would believe it," Horizon says. "Logistics aside, I'm not interested in fucking what's basically 'All Might with tits'."
"HEY!"
"Phenomenal tits!" Horizon corrects himself.
"That's not the point!"
"Hey you're the one who chose that form, what does regular you even look like?" Horizon asks as she steps out of the bathroom wrapped in a tower, dripping wet.
"If I showed you, I'd have to kill you," she says, seriously.
Horizon looks her up and down, blatantly, then chuckles, "As if you could."
"Whatever, now get out I need to get—"
SHAMBLES!
Star and Stripe warps a few inches to the side, now completely dry and wearing her Hero Costume.
"---Change," She looks down at herself, annoyed. "I told you not to do that, it's creepy."
"It's efficient, besides, I'm a doctor, not a pervert."
"Are you like this with the girls in your class?" Star' asks. "I spoke to Genesis, she has…mixed feelings about you."
"Good for her," Horizon says as he puts his phone away, satisfied with the update he got from his team. "But I have more important things to worry about than the feelings of some teenage girl, like…anything else."
SHAMBLES!
"You know she'd probably go out with you, if you weren't such a dick," Star' says as they appear in a part at the eastern edge of Texas.
"Then I guess it's impossible," Horizon shrugs.
SHAMBLES!
They appear farther east, now in the middle of a highway, with people evacuating toward more rural areas.
"She's gorgeous, I saw her without her mask once, you should ask her out," Star' says.
SHAMBLES!
"I don't have time for romance, there are too many people in the world that need me."
"But don't you want a family sometime?"
SHAMBLES!
"Eventually, but, I have a lot of lifetimes to figure that out, so no need to rush," Horizon says. "Besides, I can't start a family in a world this chaotic, right?"
"What about that other girl, Uravity?"
SHAMBLES!
"What about her?"
"Didn't she call you last week, or was it two weeks ago? Maybe she likes you."
SHAMBLES!
"She was asking me for advice about her boyfriend's birthday gift," Horizon says. "Not sure why she asked me, I don't know what losers like."
"That's kind of mean, don't you think?"
SHAMBLES!
"I've said much worse things to his face, so it's fine. And why are you so interested in my dating life all of a sudden?"
Star' shrugs. "I've just been thinking a lot about…if we fail, no. If, we weren't us, if we were normal people, we'd probably have families to hold as the bombs drop, right?"
SHAMBLES!
"I'd hope so," Horizon says as they begin walking through the corridors of The Pentagon. "But what are you getting at?"
"I don't even know, I guess I'm just a little jealous," Star' admits, softly. "If we weren't us, the world would end, but because we are who we are, we've given up that chance at all the things the helpless people experience."
"It's the most efficient way, it lets us save more people," Horizon says, only for Star' to rest a hand on his shoulder. "What?"
Star' looks at his visor, seeing her own sad and lonely reflection, then lets go. "Sorry, I got distracted, we can talk when this crisis is over," she says as they continue walking toward the meeting.
"Yeah, save your love confession for after, we can celebrate then," Horizon says jokingly, and Star' jabs him in the shoulder, numbing it. "Ah!"
"Save it for your fangirls," she chuckles. "I've actually met you, so I know better."
They make it to the end of the hallway and enter a room with all the highest-ranking military generals and advisors the United States has to offer, sitting around a massive table with President Skyline and the United Nations Secretary-General.
"A thousand years of military experience in one room," Horizon says as he and Star' stand above, leaning on the railing and looking at the meeting taking place below.
"Yeah, and yet, without us, they're helpless," Star' says. "So, whenever you're ready."
"You sure you can handle this?" Horizon asks.
Star' gives him a strange look, "Why? What do you plan to do?"
"Something that is very, very, not heroic," Horizon says.
CLAP!
Horizon gets everyone's attention as he hovers over the railing and down to the massive round table, with a map of the world in the middle.
"Sorry I'm late everyone, but I was needed elsewhere?" Horizon says as he stands in the middle of the table.
"Working on something you can't tell us about, right?" one of the generals asks. "It's one thing if we don't know, but keeping the President in the dark is too much."
"Yes well, President Skyline has more people around him and is an extremely high-value target for Tech to monitor, so yes, he is being kept in the dark, just like all of you."
"This doesn't feel like a partnership," one of the other generals says.
"That's because it's not," Horizon says as he walks over to look down at the woman. "You are the greatest military minds on the planet, but, we don't need you to fight a war. The war is over, we lost before we could throw a single punch.
This, is the resistance, and like it or not, not all of us will live to see freedom."
Star' narrows her eyes at him.
"Which is why you're all here early, because you're going to surrender."
There is an immediate uproar from the generals while President Skyline and the UN Secretary-General sit silently.
"We don't surrender to terrorists!" One of them yells, silencing all the others. "We don't even negotiate with those animals!"
"Well, Tech has nukes over your heads, and I'm here holding a sword to your throat, it's a lose-lose, unless you listen to me," Horizon says.
They all glance over to President Skyline, and he subtly nods, signaling them to be quiet and listen.
"The plan is very simple, Tech has to organize the entire world into whatever systems he wants us to use. That process will take a few days, which we need for the project we're working on to be ready.
Local and global communications have been cut, so just like you can't call your families, governments can't talk to each other. Now, in one hour Tech will bring select communications back online so he can talk to all the world leaders.
Because nobody's been able to talk to each other, share information, or strategize, America, China, Russia, Japan, and other big nations will be looked at as leaders. America is easily first in the group, so what you say sets the tone for the entire meeting.
Now, the part all of you play is that you bend the knee, and all the other nations will follow."
"No, they won't," One of the generals says, an older woman in full military combat gear.
"Exactly what I'm counting on," Horizon says as he walks atop the table to look down at her. "You all know war can't be won without sacrifice, just like some rebels always die for the movement."
"Fucking animal," the UN Secretary-General mutters under her breath.
Horizon immediately looks at her and walks over, crouching in front of her so he can get close enough.
"Remember what I told you, stick to the script," Horizon says. "You don't talk unless my hand is up your ass moving your lips like a puppet…"
The woman looks up at Horizon for a moment, before she averts her gaze and stares down into her lap.
"This is the part where you nod," Horizon says, and she obeys.
"Great," Horizon claps his hands together as he gets back up, walking to the middle of the table. "Now, as I was saying. We can count Moscow, Beijing, London, and the capital of anywhere else that doesn't get the hint and actually tries to resist the villain with every nuke on the planet over our heads."
"You're talking about millions!" Star yells from above.
"Tens of millions," Horizon corrects her, not looking away. "But compared to ten billion, worthless."
Star and Stripe narrows her eyes at him.
"I told you, you should wait outside…"
Star' takes a deep breath, then leans against the railing, "No, show me what you really are…"
END CHAPTER---
Discord: https://discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
---London, Wembley Stadium…
"Did you have any problems?" a Pro Hero wearing a skin-tight blue costume, carrying a large shipping container asks as he uses his Wind Quirk to keep it and himself in the air.
He slowly descends into Webley Stadium, toward the sea of tents on the field and around the stadium. Terrified people rushed to the city as infrastructure all around the country fell apart in an instant.
With Tech's initial takeover, trains, planes, and countless other systems crashed and burned, and now Londer was one of the few major cities in the UK with running water and operational hospitals.
"Everything went as good as I could expect," a woman in a matching costume says as she flies over to him, using an identical Quirk.
Both heroes take a few steps away as doctors and other emergency personnel rush over to the shipping container to sort through the medicine inside.
Seeing this both Pro Heroes rise up, over the stadium to look down at the city below.
"And what does that mean exactly?" the man asks.
"I got them to Haverhill, I would have taken them to Cambridge but…I figured taking them to Dad's place was better, more open space—"
"Less chance of a nuke falling on it," her brother says. "God, how did it get to this?"
The woman uses her wind to turn to him, resting a hand on his shoulder, "Hey, they'll be fine. They know their dad is here helping people, saving the world, and their awesome aunt is here helping him."
Looking out at the large city all around them, with the swarms of people helplessly trudging along or setting up tents now that most of the buildings were filled and barricaded, the man felt helpless.
"This is the first time I've ever wished we were born with better Quirks," he says.
"Well, this Quirk was enough to fly our family away from here, so I'd say it's more than enough," she says. "Besides, we've got a lot of people coming down from Oxford that I saw on the way back here."
"What were you doing over there?"
"I took a small detour on the way back," she says. "The situation up there is…worse."
"Worse than this?" He gestures to the city below, and some of the collapsed buildings in the distance that fell during riots hours ago.
"Yeah, way worse," she says. "They're smaller, less stocks, and people are passing through there to either get to bigger cities where there are supplies, or to farmlands where they'll feel safer."
"So they got ravaged and are dealing with desperate and scared people now."
"Yeah, and if this keeps up…" she looks over at her brother. "Controlling the wind can only do so much."
"What are you saying?" He asks. "That we should abandon these people and run?"
"Not 'We'," she says.
"No."
"Hey you've got a wife and kids, I've just got…It's just me. I can stay and help, you should go be with them."
"Great idea," he says sarcastically. "I'll just head up to the farm and tell Dad I left you here to help millions of people along, genius plan there."
"Yeah," She laughs bitterly. "He'd kick your ass for doing that."
They both laugh before returning to reality, looking down at the people below and the other Pro Heroes soaring through the sky helping where they can.
"How much longer do you think it'll be?" he asks.
"I'd like to imagine people a lot more qualified than us are handling it as we speak."
"Yeah, and—" the man stops talking as their phones begin beeping.
They share a concerned look before noticing everyone below, and the electronic billboards around the city are also online once more.
They take out their phones to see a few different flags flashing across the screen.
And their heart sinks as England's flag is shown for a moment.
"Your leaders have decided their paths," a mechanical voice resonates through the city from all the speakers.
"Is that, Tech?"
"I don't like this," he tells his sister as they watch the broadcast.
"Most of the unruly children of this world have accepted the new world order, the guidance I have so kindly offered," Tech says. "But, some of you…need the stick, not the carrot. You see my power, my ability to unify this world. To stop all conflicts, all suffering, to mold the world in my image, and you spit in my face."
A few flags flash across the screen, and hearts across the world sink as Japan nor the USA are shown.
Meaning the two most powerful beings in the world, from the two most technologically advanced nations, did not resist Tech.
"And examples must be made," Tech says. "After this, education, another meeting with your world's leaders will be held. You have 24 hours to prepare for that meeting…"
The screens go black for a moment before showing a 24-hour timer counting down.
"That can't be good," the woman says, and seconds later the city becomes a cacophony of noise and chaos as a satellite view of London appears.
"We're the target, the example," the man says. "What do we do?"
As they consider their options, below them, the people and many Pro Heroes rush to flee the city.
In the chaos and panic, hundreds of people are trampled and countless scuffles between untrained civilians using their Quirks erupts.
But the Pro Heroes make no attempt to intervene, they were too busy running, trying to desperately save their own lives.
Above it all, standing atop Wembley Stadium, the Tornado Siblings see this, and consider their options.
"25 Million people," the woman says. "Maybe I can divert the nuke somewhere else, like the ocean?"
"Those things must weigh 30 Tonnes -30 Tons-, that's beyond our lifting capabilities, especially if we want to try to carry it to the ocean."
"Tch, not to mention the problems of that detonating in the sea, the coasts would be wiped out too," She says. "But, we can't just run, maybe we can…stall it?"
The man sighs and rubs the back of his neck, "Together we can make a tornado, assuming we see it from far enough away. We also have to stay far enough away that the automatic systems don't detonate when we get close."
"But Tech will see us, so he can detonate it anyway," she says. "If we don't run now, we won't make it out of this…"
"I know," the man says, bitterly, cursing his own weakness. "I just don't know how I'll look them in the face after leaving millions to die, without even trying to help."
"Me neither," she says. "So, I guess it's decided, right?"
The man looks at the clock, seeing that fifteen minutes have passed, "Yeah, I guess so."
Both Pro Heroes work in perfect unison, as they've done since childhood, and soar into the sky.
They rush past the London skyline, past the clouds, far above the chaos and panic of the city as they look around at the clear sky.
Then, far in the distance, they see an Intercontinental Thermonuclear Missile curving down from orbit directly toward the city.
They look at each other and nod, then focus on their Quirk to build a powerful tornado, aiming it to push against the heavy missile that's being aided by gravity.
Their combined efforts only lasted for fifteen seconds, fighting against the powerful thrusters and barely slowing the missile.
But those seconds were all they seemingly needed.
8 km above London, hidden above the clouds, the missile rips through their wind and reaches close enough that a detonation would easily destroy the city below.
And thus, a blinding light erupts, causing both Pro Heroes to instinctively look away and shield their faces.
But a moment, later, they're both still alive.
"What?" they both exclaim at once.
Then their eyes widen, seeing hope.
Star and Stripe was holding the explosion in her hand, condensed to the size of a basketball as she focused on holding it while falling through the air.
Both Pro Heroes rush down toward her and catch her with their wind.
"Take me up, as high as possible!" Star and Stripe orders while cradling the sphere of nuclear destruction in her hands.
They follow her commands and take her as high as they can, where the air is thin and difficult to control, where it takes all of their focus just to breathe.
"This will do," Star and Stripe says as she throws the sphere above, out of the atmosphere and into space.
NEW ORDER: I can freely move through the atmosphere!
Star and Stripe then regains her ability to fly through the atmosphere, allowing both Pro Heroes to relax for a moment as she looks down at them, with a grateful smile.
"That was incredible," the woman says to Star and Stripe. "Thank you so—"
Before she can finish speaking, Star and Stripe shatters the sound barrier while flying between them, leaving their ears ringing as she rushes toward the earth below.
They both hold their ears for a moment as they look down, to see Star and Stripe racing toward London, while five identical missiles descend onto the city from different angles.
"Oh god," the man says as he's frozen, mortified by inevitable death on such a grand scale.
Acting quicker, his sister grabs him and begins flying beyond her top speed north-east, toward their family.
The man snaps out of his stupor a moment later and works together with her, using their wind to rip through the sky and flee from the blast.
And moments later, a blinding light and a cacophony of heartbreaking booms rattle the region.
They dear not look back at the mushroom cloud that breaches the heavens which Star and Stripe is somewhere within.
---Minutes Later…
"New Order: The ash and dust in the air from this mushroom cloud will form a solid sphere in front of my hand," Star and Strip says from within the epicenter of the blast zone.
And as she said, the entire mushroom crowd rushes to her and gathers in front of her palm, creating a building-sized ball of black debris against her palm as she's standing deep in the crater, completely naked with bruises and intense burns all across her body.
Not wanting to look around at the destruction she couldn't prevent, she rests her forehead against the sphere as she bawls her eyes out, feeling more helpless than all but one time in her life.
"Why! Why! Why! Why!" she screams, stomping on the floor hard enough to shake the multiple-mile-wide crater. "I'm still so useless! I can't save anyone!"
"I'm sorry I couldn't save you, but…nobody listened. They—" Star and Stripe steps away, fists clenched and teeth grinding as she remembers the meeting, where all of this was planned. "Horizon, he sacrificed you. And they, they supported him, they told me to go along with it!"
Star and Stripe remembers how much she hated this plan, how much her gut told her to stop them, and how for the first time in her life she didn't listen to her gut.
"Never again!" Star and Stripe yells as she rockets into the sky, soaring back to America to have a chat with Horizon…
END CHAPTER---
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