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---
Discord: https://discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
"Honestly I was expecting him to hit Beijing," Horizon says as he watches the screen, showing the fallout of an annihilated London after having three nukes launched into it.
He was sitting in the Pentagon's war room with the President, Generals, and other advisors, but his feet were up on the table as he wrote something on paper.
"I would have just flattened Beijing, Paris, Moscow, and London, all at once," Horizon says. "But I suppose he didn't want to be too heavy-handed."
As he's speaking rather casually about over 15 million people dying, due to a plan he made, to sacrifice those people at that.
Everyone else is staring at the screen, horrified, as a small timer at the bottom of the screen counts down to the next meeting.
"I…I honestly don't know who's worse," One of the advisors mutters as he glances between the screen and the seemingly relaxed Horizon.
"I'm worse," Horizon clarifies. "And now we also know that our enemy, is better at controlling technology than he is at understanding people. He hit one city while having the entire world held hostage, if anything that will cause silent plans for rebellion.
And if the entire world rebels, he's forced to either drop more bombs, which will only compound the effect and destroy the world he wants to control, or give in to some demands which would show weakness and also compound the effect."
"You told us he wouldn't do this," President Skyline says. "You said the intel you had showed that he'd bluff."
"I lied," Horizon says. "You're a former Pro Hero, you'd never sacrifice people to collect information or add hours to the clock."
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" President Skyline slams his fist on the table, breaking the surface.
"It's called, cold logic," Horizon says as he continues writing. "Governments often elect retired Pro Heroes, like you because politics is a circus and a popularity contest, not an arena of competency, no offense.
And because for centuries there has rarely ever been anything as bad as even a small border conflict, the military and government forces are almost entirely focused on internal stability.
Because of that, you're all a bit too…nice. And maybe you haven't noticed, but our enemy is not nice," he points to the screen, causing all of them to frown. "Nobody wants to be the person who potentially pushes his buttons and kicks off the nuclear apocalypse, so everyone is playing it safe with super conservative plans."
"Except you," one of the generals says.
"Except me," Horizon says. "I have always been, and will always be, held apart from humanity. It makes this type of decision easy. 20 million versus 10 billion, hardly a thought before I shove those 20 million off the table."
"Are you really human?" The United Nations Secretary-General asks. "I mean, what did we even gain from this, another day?"
"And all the information I need," Horizon says. "Now I know everything I need to know about Tech. He's incompetent and soft, too much so for their ambition and desires.
The Prime Minister spoke up so he destroyed London, to make an example of a city. But the fact that there were discussions in the first place was a sign of weakness. Never negotiate when you hold all the cards, that proves that we have something he values, which means he has a gap in the armor.
If it were me, I'd consider the most rapid and logical option and pursue it ruthlessly. Crater major cities, leave the world confused, let armies and Pro Heroes gear up for a third world war, then crater the military bases everyone uses to prepare.
After that, you crush the breadbasket nations and states, use hunger as your messenger to lord your absolute power over the world. Let it break the people for you, and show them that it is only by their will that you allow them to eat, to exist.
This would cost, what, half a billion lives? A small cost for holding the entire world in your hand and being the only thing supporting the logistical chains needed to keep billions alive."
They all look more and more horrified as he speaks, casually, while still writing his reports.
"After that, you re-establish logistical supply chains by smashing them all together, negating the preconceived borders and territories of the past, further solidifying the idea that this is a new world, and untangling the web you've made will take decades of bureaucratic nonsense.
A complete takeover that would only take a few months to have the world at your feet groveling for a few grains of rice, and yet, with all that power, he's so concerned with ruling the current state of the world that he can't truly commit to burning it all down and restructuring the board."
"Because he's still human," President Skyline mutters, deep in thought.
"Which is why he's weak," Horizon says. "Don't worry about the few million that died today, I'll easily save a thousand times that amount with my Panacea, now, I need to get back to work. The next meeting should be fine just stick to this if I can't make it."
With that, he slides some of the papers over to President Skyline before warping away with the others.
The moment he leaves they all breathe a sigh of relief, no longer feeling a blade to their hearts as President Skyline reads the new plan.
"He lied to us," one of the generals says. "He lied to us and led us to sacrifice 20 million people, are we seriously going to trust him after that?"
Hearing this President Skyline slides one of the pages to the Secretary General, causing the woman to look at it in surprise.
"He's allowing me to speak in the next meeting?" she asks.
"You'll be taking the lead," President Skyline says while reading his own script. "And as for trusting him, unfortunately, we aren't in a position to stop. 20 million people died according to his predictions, if we break away from his plan now and begin our own, we may have to sacrifice even more."
"I can't do this," the woman says as she reads her script. "He wants me to begin negotiations for logistics by…if I divert these resources, I'll never be able to live with myself."
"We can pray for forgiveness together, when all is done," President Skyline says, frowning at his own script. "Besides, it will be over in another day or two so there won't even be time to get anything into position, just another empty stalling tactic."
"Do we still intend to move him to America after he graduates from UA?" one of the advisors asks. "This changes our relationship with him drastically."
"Sadly, his plan, as cold and logical as it may be," President Skyline puts down his papers and leans back, closing his eyes. "Has the best plan of working, especially since we're already this committed. And after this is done, and all the details are revealed, the American people will still want him here, so we won't have much of a choice unless we want riots."
"May god forgive us all…"
—Minutes Later…
Hovering high above Manhattan Horizon waits patiently above the clouds, sword floating beside him as he waits for the inevitable confrontation to begin.
As he stands in the air, Horizon hears a pop in the distance, and senses her rapidly approaching him.
Like a missile Star and Stripe rockets over to him and comes to a stop directly in front of him, causing the clouds around them to scatter and Horizon to be pushed back by the air for a few dozen meters.
"So, I'm guessing you just came from The Pentagon?" Horizon asks, looking at the fuming woman who's glaring at him, a bulging vein on her forehead just showing how pissed off she is.
"You lied to us!" she yells while rushing forward, only for him to warp away before her punch can connect.
More clouds burst apart from the air pressure of her fist.
"Because Heroes are no good at choosing who to sacrifice," Horizon says as he avoids another punch.
"Hold still!"
"No," he says while warping away to avoid her third hit. "Just listen, and if I'm wrong you can break my jaw after."
Star' moves to punch him again, but this time she stops before launching her attack, staring into his visor with tears in her eyes.
"You weren't there, you didn't see what I saw," she says, sadness in her voice. "I couldn't save anyone…"
"I know, and I won't try to tell you what I did was the right thing to do," Horizon says. "Maybe history will name me a Villain, maybe not, but regardless, the world will be alive to decide that."
"You lied," She says.
"Because you're all so…heroic. It was the only path I saw going forward, even Nezu and David Shield don't know what happened, and they won't until it's all over," Horizon says.
Star and Stripe looks disgusted at that, "There are people in the think tank from that country, their families are gone, and you won't even tell them?"
"They need to focus on their work, and believe that everything they're doing is to save their family," Horizon says. "Telling them the truth will only distract them, and we need them to be efficient."
Star' floats closer to him, close enough that her chest is almost touching his as she stares into his visor, as if trying to find a drop of humanity behind it.
"Be honest with me, are you human?" she asks. "Because this, this is beyond evil, having people work after you sacrificed everything they love for your plan, sacrificing 20 million people, and expecting it to be a dozen times that number.
All so you can collect information on our enemy…that's…I don't even have words for it."
"Because you're a True Hero, and I'm just someone who always wins," Horizon says. "No matter the cost."
"I actually thought you were my friend," Star' admits, looking away from him. She then sighs and turns away, "Be honest with me, is there any humanity left in you?"
"I haven't considered myself even once this past decade," Horizon admits. "Even before I became…this."
"Then, what are you?"
Horizon thinks about it for a moment, about everything his parents taught him, after everything he's accomplished, and the impossible decisions he's made.
He can only come to one conclusion.
"Better…"
END CHAPTER---
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