Chapter 100: Here We Come

Summary: Hyper beams and meteor impacts...

Warning! Chapters 98-100 were all posted back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Chapter 100: Here We Come

Izumi dodged a fucking hyper beam by only a narrow margin.

"What the fuck! Since when is Chimera a pokémon!"

She also did her best to ignore Mount Lady's commentary on the fight. Though, she admitted, the giant woman who had been forced to take the blast instead of dodging had a valid point. Their intel had said that Chimera could take on the characteristics of a wide variety of animals. Izumi was very unsure that animals were supposed to be able to spit energy beams! Maybe in Australia? But those were Quirked animals, surely? She might need to do a little reading on pre-Quirk Australia…she'd heard some crazy things in the past.

Forcing the errant thought from her mind again, she dove under another shot of Chimera's totally bullshit hyper beam, and delivered another punch towards his midsection. She'd made the mistake, the first pass, of underestimating him and she'd held back. This time, she was going close to full throttle…but he still managed to get his hand up in time to block. Impressive as that was, it wasn't enough for him. She felt the bones in his forearm snap and he went flying back to slam through a nearby warehouse. Before Izumi could follow through, she was beset by more of the infernal dolls Mummy used, various items being wrapped and warped into golems of a sort. They weren't much of a threat to her, but he'd almost immediately taken to pulling people out of nearby homes and wrapping them up as golems so she couldn't be too violent with them.

She cut the most recent set of golems with clean precision, but doing so forced her to slow down just enough that Chimera reentered the fight. He was looking fucked up, with one arm a wreck and oozing blood from a few shallow gashes he'd gotten on this way through the building. Sadly, those didn't keep him from firing his knock-off hyper beam again, forcing Izumi to launch into the sky to avoid it. Luckily, it seemed Slice was down, as Momo entered from stage right an instant later and cold cocked Chimera. He'd become too fixated on Izumi and the blow took him totally by surprise. His head snapped around…and then he slumped. Izumi's instruments said he was still alive, but unconscious, and she unloaded several dozen gallons of her strongest capture foam in his direction. Hopefully, that would actually hold the bastard.

With Slice, Chimera, and Nine down, Mummy didn't have a chance. He'd realized that and tried to flee, only to end up stepped on by an irritated Mount Lady. Well, maybe he was the sort that was into that and wouldn't be too upset. Just as Izumi was about to launch more foam toward him, the collars around all three of their necks started beeping. Eyes widening, Izumi jumped back…and barely cleared the explosion as all three of the villains were abruptly rendered headless by bombs embedded in those collars. Mount Lady had been sent stumbling and cursing by the blast but was still the first to speak.

"Fuck! All that effort and the bastards suicided! Or were murdered, or something! Fuck!"

Izumi forced down the temptation to curse viciously herself. The bombs virtually proved the trio probably hadn't been doing this voluntarily. Forcing down the gorge that wanted to rise at the way they'd been executed, she tried to focus on the positive.

"The storm is clearing and there's no more villains topside that we know of. Selkie, Mount Lady, secure the town. Momo and I will join the main raid team, along with the incoming reinforcements."

Two acknowledgments came across the comms, even as she and Momo raced off toward the only entrance point they knew of. Hopefully, the rest of the team was okay…

... ...

"Fuck! Just die you fucking Psycho!"

Said psycho was another of the Nomu High Ends, and it was completely unhinged. It showed higher thought and the ability to speak, but the shit it said was like a bad slasher flick! The fact that it fought with its own ribcage warping as an attack and defense didn't help, and Miruko was being hard pressed to keep up with the damn thing. The other high-ends present were tied up with other heroes, and two of them had been defeated…before Eraserhead had been warped away by their bloody teleporter! Thankfully, the distraction of trying to make even short-range teleportation work through the jamming had cost the warp-gate user, who'd been taken down rather permanently by Crust.

The problem was she was pretty sure they were out of time.

Mad scientists cackling like that were near-universally a bad sign.

The fact that the pod he was standing over was hissing and billowing fog didn't help either.

Ghost Ember appeared from her incorporeal state an instant later, putting a flaming sword through her target's head. It didn't get up, and Miruko tried to rush the mad doctor…only to hit some sort of barrier that reflected her blow back on herself painfully, as a new voice spoke through the fighting. It was rough, like it had just woken up, but she sadly recognized it at the voice of the 'leader' of the LoV after All for One's death.

"Garaki. Why are there heroes interrupting my awakening?"

The mad scientist had the gall to look apologetic, even as Crust and Gang Orc finished off the last Nomu High End and both tried to assail the barrier. It didn't work, and red eyes glared back at them as the fog started to clear.

"Apologies, Shigaraki, but they tracked us after we were forced to flee Jaku. This is the backup site you ordered Nine to secure before going under for the procedure."

There was an irritated scowl on the face of the pale looking Shigaraki that was followed by Miruko's instincts screaming. She lept away from the barrier, only barely avoiding getting stabbed through the heart by a black tendril. Crust managed to intercept a series aimed at him with his shields, but three of them shattered before the fourth stopped them cold. Gang Orca blocked most of those headed to him with a sound wave…but X-less and Fourth Kind were less lucky. Only Ghost Ember reappearing from her incorporeality turned the stab against X-less from lethal to merely serious, causing it to miss anything immediately vital as the Heroine pulled X-less partially out of the way. Fourth Kind survived by sacrificing two of his arms, which were now riddled with holes. Worse, two hits had gotten through and he had a pair of deep stab wounds through his abdomen as well.

"Annoying. Just die like you're supposed to."

Visible muscle coiled on Tomura's arm, even as he lashed out toward all of them with more tendrils. None of these hit, now that they'd had warning…but he practically vanished and reappeared with his fist embedded in Gang Orca's gut. The hit threw the large Hero into the ceiling…which cracked and a bit of light spilled through. Sunlight. It had been just before dawn when they kicked everything off, it having taken time to work everyone into position via stealth. If that was sunlight, then their winding passage through the caves must have taken them closer to the surface than they'd realized.

Shigaraki must have thought the same thing, as he blinked at the light for a moment before smirking maliciously…and blasting Gang Orca's falling body with some sort of Air Cannon attack. The second hit against the ceiling truly shattered it, bringing it down on the Heroes, even as Shigaraki simply rose through the air into the light. Garaki had taken the chance to scamper, leaving only Heroes and dead Nomu behind. All of them saw the black lightning building in the LoV leader's hands, Crust throwing up shields and Miruko racing upward on falling rubble to try and reach him before the attack back down into the now open chamber went off. She knew she wouldn't reach him in time, but they were sitting ducks if they just let him fire down into the room!

Just as her life flashed before her eyes, Shigaraki flinched and shifted to one side, causing the black lighting to miss and rake the hillside beyond the ceiling instead of firing into the chamber. The flinch also allowed him to dodge the streak of black-and-blue armor, sparking golden, that had nearly hit him. Miruko knew who that had to be, and shifted her attack to launch rubble with a kick, forcing Shigaraki to reflect the attack with that barrier of his. Growling, he launched himself upward to avoid a glowing spear a second later, Izumi appearing where he'd just vanished from.

Miruko hated that she was glad for the help. But one thing was clear. This bastard was their worst fear come to life. A copy of the All for One Quirk and an unknown number of Quirks with it. They were going to need all the help they could get…

... ...

Izumi gritted her teeth as Shigaraki repelled another wave of missiles. She and Momo were dancing around him, trying to find a weakness in his defenses with ranged attacks. Beyond their opening attempts to blindside him, getting in close was just too damn risky with that decay Quirk of his. Unfortunately, it was obvious that either he or someone else had thought through his Quirk combination.

He obviously had a basic physical and sensory package, to have even sensed them coming and reacted in time. Then there was that reflection barrier that nullified physical attacks, and at least three separate ranged Quirks she'd identified so far. Rivet Stab and Air Cannon were known favorites of All for One they'd been told about by All Might. The third one was some sort of shotgun projectile effect that was seriously annoying to dodge or block. Actually, that Black Lightning he'd used on arrival technically counted as fourth ranged ability, she supposed. Though she was guessing it had a charge up time, as he hadn't tried to use it against either her or Momo since then.

Dangerous at a distance, utterly deadly at close quarters. Extremely good defenses, high mobility. Izumi was beginning to understand just how utterly aggravating it was to fight someone like her or Momo. Oh, sure, she'd known that on some level from her frequent spars with her girlfriend. But those were friendly spars, ones which generally were limited so they didn't get too out of hand. This was not that. Shigaraki was going for the kill whenever he thought he had a shot. Not just on them, but on the Heroes stuck on the ground, forced to resort to their own ranged attacks in an attempt to contribute.

Frankly, if not for Crust being able to provide them with mobile cover, their allies would have been more of a liability than anything. As it was, they were mostly contributing by forcing Shigaraki to split his attention as many ways as possible. That was the one way in which he clearly wasn't able to match them. She had carved a line in his side, and Momo broke one of his arms, early on, as he couldn't quite force his situational awareness to keep up with all the vectors of threat. Unfortunately, those wounds had healed almost instantly, proving he also had a copy of Hyper Regeneration. Joy.

"Word on Eraserhead?"

She clipped out the question in a brief moment of exchanging weapon types, switching for the massive Quad-Barrel gun she'd used again Miruko in the Final Exams. It worked for a few moments, forcing Shigaraki to use that barrier only on her while others got their licks in. Despite his dodging and return fire, he got clipped several times…before apparently figuring out how to split the barrier so that he could use more than one. Fuck. He was still learning. Miruko's voice came back, annoyed sounding but with information.

"No joy on Eraser. They found him, but he was dropped into a group of Nomu. Good news, he won and seems to have taken out their cloner in the process. Along with figuring out how they were pulling mind control shit. Some kid with a hate on for heroes. Bad news, he's injured badly enough he can't join the fight until the healer gets to him, and the fight is making it hard to get close to the base."

Well…fuck. Eraserhead's Quirk normally didn't completely shut down every Quirk a Nomu had, but it would have suppressed at least some of Shigaraki's Quirks. Regardless of which ones it shut down, it would have given them an opening. Without that, they were stuck in a pounding match, hoping his stamina gave out before theirs did. Which, lacking full knowledge of what Quirks he had, they couldn't really count on. Momo could probably go the distance with him on stamina. Izumi, on the other hand, might not be able to. She still hadn't perfected the transfer from QE batteries well enough to get flawless extension of her stamina the way she wanted. Not even with the CFU as an intermediary.

No, a pounding match was a poor idea. They needed something to change the equation and, even as she switched weapons again, coordinating a hit-and-fade with Momo's use of Blackwhip, Izumi racked her brain for ideas. She was almost completely enmeshed with 2B at this point, her partner working with her to simulate possibilities, even as they traded off between piloting varying types of Pods and Izumi's body. They couldn't maintain a link this deep for long without consequences. But if Shigaraki escaped, it would be much worse than a few weeks spent untangling their thoughts from each other again. They both tsked as their attempt to use a second Pod, something they almost never did because of the strain of maintaining more than one of them, failed. The beam of energy it fired did clip their enemy, but he healed it almost immediately. They dismissed the second Pod and dug deeper into their experimental projects library.

Oh, that could work. Maybe.

Especially if they combined it with that.

It was risky. Draining. They'd never tried using it in combat specifically because of how much it took out of Izumi for even a single activation. And adding the second factor was equally risky, as it would overclock her current body and leave her frozen in place for several seconds after it ended. So, how did they make it count?

Involve Momo, obviously. If they could just pin Shigaraki in place, Momo could finish it. Making a decision, 2zumi flickered an aerial position and orientation to their girlfriend, along with a time. There was a brief moment of consternation as the two of them both realized they had enmeshed too deeply again. Then they pushed it aside. They could deal with it once Handjob was dead. Wait, did 2B really tag Shigaraki in her system with Katuski's name for…not the time!

Trusting their girl to have their back, they created a support Pod of a type that they'd never used in combat before. They split themselves, digging deep to keep two Pods online in order to not give away the game, the original Pod continuing to fire rockets and energy beams to herd Handjob as best it could. At the same time, one of the 'chips' they'd been developing as Super Moves was activated.

... ... ... ... ... ... ...

System Override: Programming Initiated

…

…

…

Evasion Mode Alpha v0.92 Activated

... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Much like the current iteration of A2's Berserk Mode, the 'chip' they'd programmed to tweak their systems wasn't complete. They hadn't solved the heat issue that overclocking caused, meaning it was only good for twenty seconds and then they had to stop and vent heat. Not doing so risked brain damage they weren't sure the auto-repair functions of her Quirk could heal. Still, as she summoned up her personal copy of Spear of the Usurper, a particularly nasty spear that did it's best to scramble the electrical systems of anything it was impaled into…including human nervous systems. On most humans, it was very lethal, so Izumi had never used it outside training. But 2B certainly had. And if it helped pin Handjob in place even a microsecond longer, it was justified.

Waiting until Shiggijob was in just the right place, 2zumi activated the support Pod that had, until that moment, simply hung there. Whatever senses Shggijob had clearly included a danger sense of some sort, as his eye widened the instant before the pod charged him and activated. But it didn't matter. The Slow Time Pod emitted a Field, and despite his attempt to dodge, he'd been caught in the edges of it. Since neither Izumi nor the Pod were affected, he wasn't escaping it until it ran out of juice. It moved to keep him in its field, even as he tried to fry it with black lightning, moving at 1/10 speed.

Too slow. Much too slow.

2zumi, boosted by the Evasion Mode Chip that accelerated everything about her to four times their normal maximum, lept into the Slow Time field, utterly untouched by it. Despite any boosts or warning he had, he couldn't block. If 2zumi had aimed for his head, he might have been able to shift it out of the way. But they hadn't done anything of the sort. No, they'd aimed center mass…and punched the Spear of the Usurper right through his body, just below his ribcage. Despite obviously having durability Quirks, they weren't enough, and the spear went in one side and out the other, even as Izumi's pure power and speed drug them both out of the time slowing field.

They plowed into the side of the hill, the Spear of the Usurper pinning Shiggijob to the hillside and sending vicious currents of electricity through his body, locking him up. Somehow, despite most of his body spasming, he managed to force one hand to the Spear, and 2zumi felt him try to decay it. But their energy constructs were just that. Energy. He was draining them as they fed it more energy to keep the spear intact. But that was okay. 2zumi had already pushed back, leaping clear as the overheating began to shut down their body. They'd already done what they needed to.

Momo flashed out of the sky in a bolt of pure gold, armor rapidly shredding under the pure, unrestrained power of a full-body One Hundred Percent - One for All Strike. The entirety of Nabu Island shook as a 300-meter-deep crater appeared, epicenter where Keystone had just delivered the mother of all smashes. A smash that had impacted directly with Shigaraki's head. 2zumi, almost completely locked up as their body vented heat, hovering only by grace of automated systems in their Combat Flight Unit, grinned fiercely.

"Shrug that one off, bitch…"

... ... ... ...

A/N 1: First thing is first. YES, Shiggy is dead. He's kicked the bucket, shuffled off the mortal coil, turned into so much strawberry jam by what was essentially a meteor impact level hit straight to the face. Momo didn't get out of that entirely uninjured, but nothing a quick fix by recovery girl can't take care of. But Shiggy they are done with. He's gone. If you thought the fight too easy, there are reasons he wasn't quite the end-game monster he became in canon:

1) The fight between him and the MLA never happened. As a result, Decay never awakened. Which was honestly one of the truly dangerous things he could do, erasing whole city blocks. They didn't need to deal with that particular bit of bullshit as a result of butterfly effects.

2) They caught him before he could get used to all his new power. He WAS at full power. But he only had his initial Quirk Load. I did, in fact, check what Quirks he had straight out of the pod and made sure he used pretty much all of them in the fighting in this chapter.

3) They caught him with TWO near All Might level powerhouses, in the form of Izumi and Momo working together. Honestly, Momo is pretty much ACTUALLY All Might level at this point. She just doesn't have his raw experience. Izumi has less pure power, but a hell of a deep bag of tricks to pull from. Deeper even than Momo's in some ways. Less that Momo couldn't duplicate them (Creation is a heck of a drug), but because she doesn't have the additional processing power and multi-threaded thought that is 2B working in Tandem with Izumi.

Even with all of their advantages, I did my best to depict this as not an easy fight. They ultimately won because Izumi pulled an ace from her back pocket that she'd been working on. One that I myself had to be told existed at one point :-p. It's a Pod ability that actually does exist in Nier: Automata. The Slow Time field is a little too powerful for casual use, though, so it's going to remain an extreme measure for Izumi pretty much indefinitely. Something that costs so much QE that she can't rely on it without major risk. Evasion, on the other hand, might see a bit more use as she perfects it. Much like the Berserk ability she's also still refining. The 'chip' moves from Automata are essentially Izumi's Super Moves in a lot of ways.

Also of note...ding dong, the demon lord is dead. All for One's vestige went bye-bye with Shiggy. So, yep, he's legit just flat dead and not coming back now. No more backups or take backsies. That said, they've still got plenty of large scale enemies who are honestly more interesting. Such as the still running-wild MLA and, of course, their extra-dimensional alien invaders. Seriously, I've always felt All for One ended up being super underwhelming as a main villain, and treated him as such.

Author's Note 2: I only put this out there once per update...but this fic (and my others) does have Early Access chapters over on my  Page. ALL fanfiction content is eventually released here and elsewhere as well, just at a delay. Currently, chapters 101-106 are available over on , adding another 15,000ish words to the fic! Right alongside those chapters are 45,000+ words of other Early Access content for my other fics!