บท 255: CHAPTER 251(Arsenal's Legacy Pt.II)
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CHAPTER START---
---USA, Los Angeles, January 11th...
Angel's Park is a massive area in the middle of Los Angeles, a city that has expanded in the centuries since the advent of Quirks.
Its size is slightly larger than New York's more famous central park, but its origin is drowned in blood and tragedy.
Now, nearing noon, tens of thousands of people swarm to the festival being held in the park, enjoying the food stalls that area already setup and waiting for even more to arrive.
Children are playing games, families are having picnics at the many ponds.
All while stages are setup all across the park and the scheduled performances take place.
In the middle of the park is a labyrinth of massive stone obelisks that could be seen from the surrounding cities. Standing out in the greenery as almost unsightly, but demanding reverence.
Many people were walking by, taking moments to gaze in awe at all the names carved into it, and some stopped at the memorial stone for the tens of thousands of people who could not even be identified of found to be etched into the stones.
And a few families were placing flowers at the stone memorials, for the people who were lost during that night.
But the faces of all the people looked strangely happy, considering what they were doing.
As if they were finally at peace.
As if they knew their lost loved ones could finally rest.
As if they could finally believe in justice again.
---Elsewhere...
While all of this is going on, surrounding the park there are streets of impressive skyscrapers, even by 2315 standards, and on top of one of the tallest is a woman, standing on the helipad.
At 150 stories in the air she looked down, barely able to hear herself think over the howling winds.
She wore a pair of grey sweatpants and a matching hoodie, with the hood currently on.
She stands at only 5ft2 -157cm-. Her loose, short, brown hair swayed slightly in the wind but was mostly tucked away.
A pair of thick black rimmed glasses helped her dull brown eyes to see even on the clearest day.
And on her feet were a pair of blue boots that looked a few sized too big.
She looks down at the park, and sees all the people like ants swarming about, celebrating justice and vengeance in one festival.
But her heart is still gripped by fear, the kind of fear that many of those people recently overcame and a few could let go of.
But to her, who had more power than anyone else in the world.
Power she flexed and used to threaten entire nations to exact that justice and vengeance on her behalf, fear still grips her heart.
As if deep down she knew, that the monster was still coming after her.
She looks down at her phone, and sees the timer.
'Only 11 seconds, and I feel like my heart is already about to explode,' she wipes her forehead, and the sleeve of her hoodie is covered in sweat.
Even in the cold wind at this height, the fear was affecting her this severely.
'Still scared of a ghost, as if that monster can ever hurt you now, as if she could hurt me from in the grave...' she berates herself.
But even thinking about the object of her fear that much had her stumbling back away from the edge, breathing heavily and slowly succumbing to a panic attack.
Luckily absolute focus is needed to activate her Quirk, or else an even worse tragedy would have befallen this city...
---Angel's Park...
Down below as all the people are enjoying the festivities, closer to the memorial stones a few camera crews were setup in front of a small stage and podium.
On it was a older white man in a fine suit, ready to answer their questions.
"Mr. Major," one reporter raises her hand. "As the mayor of Los Angeles do you really thinks its appropriate to throw a festival on such a... tragic anniversary."
The man takes a moment to think, as if he didn't have this answer rehearsed before coming here.
"This isn't a festival to celebrate tragedy," he says. "As the announcement and ads explained, this is about celebrating justice. A horrific monster was put down for what she did to us and a uncountable number of other people. That, is cause for celebration.
Because I know that the families of all these wonderful people," he gestures to the carved stone behind him. "Were beginning to wonder how many decades it would take before justice caught up to that monster, and now they can rest easy knowing the worst of humanity has been put down, for good."
The crowd seems pleased with his response and take a few notes, before another set of hands is raised.
"Yes, you," he points to a lady in the back rows who quickly stands up.
"And what do you have to say on the questions regarding the motive behind this attack. Some people still find it hard to believe that all of this," she gestures at the park. "Which used to be busy city streets, would be cleared out for the sake of killing one person alone."
The mayor nods, "yes, I understand that understanding such true and vile evil is impossible for our good intentioned American citizens, but believe me, it exists. And she's among the worst villains."
The murmurs stop as the lady sits back down, noting the serious expression on the man's face.
"I, much like some of the people here, was living just a few blocks from this very park when that attack happened. Granted it wasn't a park at the time.
It was just me, my brothers, and my mom. Us against the world, when suddenly there was a loud noise, our ears were ringing, all the windows were blown out.
All the glass from windows shatters and blew into the apartment, hell, if not for my brother jumping on top of me I would be a lot uglier than I am today," a few reporters laugh.
"But as the hours went on, it just got worse. Suddenly we heard noises all around, mom was getting my younger brothers under the bed when I looked through the window and it looked like a meteor was falling from the sky.
But it was just the biggest plane I'd ever see, crashed only a few blocks away into the spot we stand on now. We thought that was it, 'this is the end of the world', couldn't get any worse, right?
Well, when the gas mains started exploding, when buildings started falling all around us, things just kept getting worse.
And every minute of the 39 hours we were buried in rubble waiting for someone to rescue us, we couldn't even breathe properly because we were terrified of it getting worse at any minute.
Now my brothers, my mom, and myself, we all lived and only had minor injuries, we got lucky. But the almost 100,000 people who didn't get out, well they didn't get lucky. And their families probably felt like the unlucky ones for being left with a pile of rubble and graves to dig.
Now keep in mind one person caused that kind of destruction and death.
One person was that vile and evil, to do all of that, for money. To kill one person, now I personally think that person being put down like the filthy animal she is certainly deserved a celebration, and I wanted it on the anniversary of that day so that they could celebrate with us," he gestures back to the memorial stones.
The reporters nod along.
"Now I'm not claiming to be a saint, but I like to think some people have a god given purpose, and I'm still looking for mine. But some people find theirs early in life, for some its their Quirk.
For others its their heart. Some realize their purpose is upholding and representing freedom and liberty while protecting the people of America, and they become Star and Stripe.
Others look into their own hearts and find peace and justice for all, and they become All Might.
Heck some people are lucky enough to be born and raised to heal the impossible as if it were easy, and that's how miracles like Horizon exist...who I did send an invitation to this event by the way."
He gets a laugh from the crowd, because they all know Horizon can't leave Japan so easily.
"But others, they're just born evil, and unlike most people, they don't try to change. They embrace the evil, and sadly for us good people of the world, some of them are too damn good at it.
Good enough to become arguable the most brutal, excessive, and bloodthirsty villain in the history of Quirks, and that's how Arsenal was born.
Now we're here to celebrate her being put down like the filthy animal she is, after every member of the United Nations hunted her for decades, she was caught in Japan just over a year ago.
So how about we make the next few questions quick and join the others in celebrating the good work of our friends in Japan for helping us rest easy at night..."
---Elsewhere...
Back on the roof, the young woman was on the floor gripping her chest, breathing heavily and sweating as if she ran a marathon.
No matter how deeply or quickly she breathed, it was never enough.
It still felt as if the entire world was resting on her chest.
Her eyes were already watering as she tried to focus her thought, trying to use her Quirk to make the fear go away.
BEEP BEEP BEEP!
The emergency alert on her phone suddenly snaps her out of her panicked state and draws her attention.
That familiar beeping triggers her Pro Hero instincts and focuses her mind.
"Hello?" she immediately answers in a very high pitched voice, then slaps a hand over her mouth.
"Huh, why do sound like that?" the nab on the other side of the call ask.
"Uh...what did you need?" she deepens her voice slightly and tries to dodge the question.
"Why are you in LA? When you said you were stepping out of you agency for lunch, I thought you meant down the street not to the other side of the country."
"I just felt like going for a fly."
"2500 miles?" the man sighs. "First time since that night you've been back to LA, and this is the day you choose, when what stupid festival is going on, really Cathy?"
She frowns, "I thought I could handle it alright."
"But?"
She rolls her eyes, "but...I still need time. Every time I think about her, I feel as if there is part of her out there that'll still be coming after me. And I saw what she did to my family, I can't just ignore that."
The man is silent for a moment before speaking, "Arsenal isn't sending some kind of ghost to haunt you Cathy, you just need to trust that she's really gone for good. I mean you pretty much threatened to attack Japan yourself to get to her if they didn't do it, no country is dumb enough to risk that."
"Yeah, especially since now we know All Might was already sick back then," she says. "But still, doesn't feel right unless I did it with my own bare hands."
"That doesn't sound very heroic of you."
"I don't care," she says.
"She's dead Cathy, she can't come back for you from in the grave, and even if she did, you're the most powerful being in the world, you'd crush her."
She smiles at that, "yeah, you're right. Ok, I'm coming back now, I'll be there in an hour or two..."
The man hangs up and she sees the timer on her phone, paused at 20 seconds.
'I couldn't even last 20 seconds without falling apart, how pathetic,' she thinks while holding the phone very gently.
She begins walking to the middle of the helipad and focuses on herself.
'NEW ORDER: I will be just like All Might!'
Her mental image of a prime All Might is fed into her Quirk yet again, and she begins growing.
As she grows her casual clothes is torn apart to reveal the Hero Costume beneath.
The red white and blue, striped costume like the American Flag takes full effect as the cape expands out from the back of it.
All her hair shifts from brown to blonde and her eyes become shining bright blue. And as he eyes shift her vision becomes better than perfect, allowing her to put her glasses away and put on the thin domino mask similar to Ms. Midnights, but red.
Her boots now fit as she grows to 6ft4 -193cm-, just an inch shorter than Horizon and Endeavor, but not close to All Might's 7ft2 -218cm- in his muscular form.
Because even her Mystery Class Quirk has , and pushing her own physical body to the point of matching One For All is certainly a limit of it.
But she is roughly 90% there, most impressive considering this effect has no exact time limit. In fact, all the time she's spent out of this form across her life since receiving her Quirk, can be added up to less than ten minutes.
This, was her first command of New Order, to make her into the man she saw as invincible.
And among her new few commands was...
'NEW ORDER: I can move freely through the atmosphere!'
Star and Stripe immediately begins hovering off the floor, suddenly gaining flight.
Over her career Star and Stripe has used her Quirk to create hundreds of effects, most of which are listed online by the media and fans.
But this is her most common combination, and its almost always more than she needs.
Without any more hesitation she rockets into the air, clearing the city skyline and soaring into the clouds.
And with one last look below at the gathering crowd, her eyes zoom in to see the faces of the happy crowd, then lock onto the horizon toward New York.
BOOM!
A small sonic boom is left in her wake as she goes from floating in place to hypersonic instantly, heading back to her Hero Agency in Manhattan.
Still feeling as if Arsenal would still come after her one day, in some unknown form.
Luckily, she is still the most powerful being in the world, but that would change in the coming months...
END CHAPTER---
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