Chapter 103: Reformation and Cleanup
Summary: A new enemy, dealing with terroist nutjobs, sneaky edition!
Chapter 103: Reformation and Cleanup
It was only a day later that the new additions to their team began filtering in. Some of them weren't properly 'new,' instead being previous members returned from needing extended healing. Specifically, Bakugo, Hado and Fuwa had all three returned from among the students. With Gunhead and Present Mic both back as well. Present Mic was a surprise, given he was still missing an eye. But, apparently, he'd been cleared and was in surprisingly good spirits despite the injury he'd taken. The man's irrepressible nature was obviously more than a persona he donned for the public, and he'd taken to making everyone groan with pirate jokes on a regular basis. Not that they weren't glad to see him bouncing back, but puns at high-volume were even worse than normal puns. Double the pain for the same questionable groaners.
Of course, even aside from the dead, not all of those who had been injured would be returning. Some had taken career-ending injuries beyond current medical ability to repair. Though, in that respect, there was some hope for many of them in the form of Eri's previous success with All Might. That particular gamble had been something of a desperation move in the early days of the Invasion, and had been far less of a risk than in most cases precisely because All Might's injuries had been fairly old. The fact the man himself was also old enough that a few extra years having been accidentally shaved off in the risky procedure had only been a boon…was also a factor.
A rather important one, in point of fact, as it wasn't true for the younger injured heroes. Eri would need quite a bit more control before they could risk most of the truly grievously injured to her Quirk. Thankfully, rather than being pressured by others, the little girl herself had become extremely determined as a result of her success with All Might. With a little luck, she might gain enough control in a year or so to be able to return many or most of those with crippling injuries to the field. They could hope so, anyway. Just as they could hope that they might eventually learn enough from their enemies to figure out how to duplicate and manipulate healing Quirks. Some of the Invaders were able to heal better than pretty much anything anyone short of Eri could manage, and numerous Think-Tanks were pouring over everything Izumi had been able to provide about QE/MASO theory in an attempt to duplicate such those feats of healing.
That was in the future, however, if it happened at all. For now, they had to draw on the still able-bodied pool of Heroes and Heroines to get their reinforcements. Given the nature of the threat, they'd gotten first call on that pool, save for critical individuals needed for Greater Gate containment. So no All Might or Endeavor, but a broad availability of others to choose from. Given that their assigned city to secure against Trigger bombs was Tokyo, with it's massive urban sprawl, they had to pick and choose carefully. Mount Lady, for example, despite having been a major help at the Bristol Gate and on Nabu Island, would be a poor choice for operation in such dense urban areas.
Thus, the most well-known names they'd added to their number for this operation were Edgeshot and Hawks. Pulled from the Yokohama and Osaka Gate Containment Zones respectively. Ectoplasm and Hound Dog from UA, Ragdoll from the Wild Wild Pussycats, and a normally rescue-focused hero named Searchlight had all been recruited for their specific abilities to help canvas areas and track enemies. X-less, Burnin, and Kamui Woods had filled in some additional missing firepower. Lastly, Utsushimi Camie, now going by Mist Me, was joined by an older pro named Illusionist to provide them some additional stealth and ambush options.
Showcasing just how serious the operation was, there were a total of 25 Heroes that were tagged as part of the operation. Including no less than four of the most recent Top 10 Heroes prior to the Invasion. Despite the theoretical seniority of those four, it was actually Gang Orca that was acting in overall charge of the group this time. It had been discovered early on during Clean Slate that his experience leading a relatively large agency, one with numerous sidekicks, had given him a better ability to hold the complex tactical picture of multiple teams in mind during an operation. Only Izumi was better at that, due to her multi-threading and Hypercognition abilities, and as a student she wasn't nearly senior enough to be put in a leadership position.
The entire group, who had been briefed individually as they trickled in, was now in a large conference room, nearly a small auditorium really, with Gang Orca standing in the presenter's position. As the last person took their seat, he began the presentation that the remaining original Clean Slate crew had worked out while awaiting the arrival of their reinforcements.
"Alright, everyone. You've all been briefed on the basic situation. Our target is the Humarise cell based in Tokyo. Due to infighting and defectors, we do have the locations of two of their facilities, along with a tentative timetable for their plan. What we don't have, yet, is the location of the Trigger Bombs. In light of that, our mission is actually divided into two segments. The first will consist of two search teams, each of which will be stealthily infiltrating the two known bases. The goal will be to both search the bases and, potentially just as importantly, tagging the occupants."
Gang Orca triggered a slide on the projector behind him, showing two teams listed. The first consisted of Mist Me, Edgeshot, Hound Dog, and Searchlight. The second team consisted of Illusionist, Ragdoll, Jirou, and Izumi.
"These two teams are built around the abilities of Mist Me and Illusionist. Both of whom are capable of hiding the rest of their teams under illusions, enabling them to somewhat brazenly search the facilities in question. Hound Dog, Searchlight, SonicWave, and Resolution all have some form of enhanced senses they will be using to guide the two teams around any enemy patrols of both bases, as well as singling out enemies to tag via their team's respective means. Meanwhile Searchlight, Edgeshot and Izumi have farther abilities that will help you bypass internal security systems, electronic or physical."
In Izumi's case, of course, that was her cyberpathy. There was virtually no chance any electronic system Humarise could come up with could defeat her ability to spoof it. It pretty much required another cyberpath to even detect her and 2B, let alone stop them from accessing anything even vaguely digital. Searchlight, meanwhile, had an interesting ability to move himself and others through light beams. Between himself and Edgeshot, there shouldn't be any physical security in their team's target base that they couldn't avoid, disable or bypass.
"Hopefully, they will find the bombs. In which case, they will secure them and call in the remaining teams for a full assault. In the event they do not, however, Ragdoll and Hound Dog will be the next link in our chain. Ragdoll possesses the ability to 'tag' up to one hundred individuals, and will tag every member of Humarise she can so they can be tracked to other locations. Locations that might reveal the whereabouts of the bombs, assuming they aren't in either base we know about. Meanwhile, Hound Dog will be performing a similar role. His Quirk allows him to track scents for dozens of kilometers, and his team will have special scent markers they can and will apply to every individual in their base. In this way, we will be able to map the movements of Humarise and identify other members or locations of interest."
A listing of other teams replaced the scout teams, letting everyone see who they'll be working with. Bakugo and Burnin in particular looked like a potentially vicious combination, and all of them look solid as heavy assault teams.
"We have one additional bit of good news, which is going to make all of this work. A remaining member of Humarise who doesn't want to burn the world down like an idiot managed to contact some of the defectors. Because of how tight security has gotten since the Invasion, and in light of the defectors, Humarise has cut all contact between its cells. The entire operation is now on a synchronized countdown timer set for 5 days, 12 hours, and 32 minutes from now."
He stopped to let that sink in for a moment, much of the room tensing at the news they were on a tight deadline for certain.
"While that puts pressure on us, it's honestly mostly advantageous. It means that individual groups in each of the 25 cities that are under threat can execute their own operations without Humarise knowing that their cells are being eliminated one by one. Of course, if anyone fucks up and they see on the news that a Trigger Bomb goes off, they could still set off their own. Which makes it absolutely imperative that we don't fuck up. Got it?"
Sober nods and 'yes sirs' came from all corners. Gang Orca nodded gravely right back.
"Right. We don't have a lot of time, but we'd be stupid to rush into this without the various teams getting some time to work out a system together. For the next two days, we do just that. The scout teams go in at midnight two days from now. Which will give us three and a half to find and secure the bombs in Tokyo. Gather into your teams and head out to Urban Simulation Ground Beta. All of your teams have at least one UA staff or student on your teams, so they can show you the way."
There was quiet shuffling and murmurs as each group gathered to get moving…
... ...
Nedzu, Eraserhead and Grand Torino exchanged speaking glances as the room fell silent. Across from them sat a devastated looking Aoyama Yuga and his parents. The telepathic interrogation of Doctor Garaki had, at last, finally revealed who the mole at UA was. Given the potential effects on morale if it became known, Nedzu had decided to take only his favorite minion and the extremely experienced veteran Hero with him as he sorted out what to do with the resulting mess. Eraserhead was mostly useless against a terrorist group with very few Quirk users anyway, and Grand Torino simply wasn't a frontline fighter these days. He'd been helping, quietly, with the retraining of response teams still being cycled through UA. But he just flat out didn't have the physical stamina for more than that any longer, despite his incredible skills.
It was thus relatively easy to arrange for the two not to be missed for the time being, while they made a pointed visit to figure out what to do with the particularly ticklish problem that this represented. A visit they'd deliberately timed to coincide with the initial meeting of the Clean Slate teams going after Humarise. Izumi and 2B were, by far, the most likely individuals to not-so-accidentally stumble upon what they were attempting to keep quiet. Given the careful timing, even those two would be too heavily focused on the Humarise issue and their new teams to spot Nedzu, Torino, and Eraserhead sneaking off at this exact moment.
The Aoyama parents had attempted to bluff and lie.
Aoyama Yuga had not.
To the young man's credit, he'd done his best to unflinchingly pour out every detail he knew about the affair. How he'd been born Quirkless, the deal his parents had made with All for One, and every action since All for One had returned to threaten them. He had, so far as they could tell, left absolutely nothing out. He'd described the information he'd leaked that had led to the USJ attack, along with revealing that he'd been able to pass along to All for One which of the Terrain Training Camps Yaoyorozu and Midoriya had chosen to attend. He'd even freely admitted that he'd been recently reactivated by Garaki and passed on information about UA's weakened defenses.
The problem was that he'd also lied in the information he'd passed on.
Since the death of All for One, Yuga had been carefully editing what he gave the League. He'd hoped that, without their boss, they wouldn't be able to verify the information. His efforts a fumbling attempt toward luring the League into making a mistake based on the faulty information. His parents had been completely shocked when he'd explained that, proving that the young man must have been doing it entirely on his own initiative. As a way to attempt to limit the damage he was doing. It might even have worked to destroy the League faster, if they'd executed their attack on UA while the Jaku raid team was still readily at hand.
Adding to that was the lack of actual, effective, harm he'd done. The worst that could be laid partially at his feet was the death of a number of Coast Guard and JMSDF sailors during the Nomu attacks related to the Water Terrain Training Camp. Even there, Aoyama hadn't had a clue where that training was taking place, due to the compartmentalization that UA had put into place precisely to limit exposure from a possible traitor. Meaning that All for One had gained the information about where the training was happening all on his own, from entirely different sources. Yuga was still partially to blame in that instance, as he'd allowed the villain to narrow his scope. But that partial blame was also essentially the only effective action he'd taken. The USJ had failed, and the League had been unable to make use of his information about UA.
All of which had to be weighed against two other factors. One, that he'd been coerced via direct threat to his family's lives in the first place. Two, that after the Invasion started he'd thrown himself into frontline action at every chance. Both to limit how much useful information he could provide about the Heroes, and as an attempt to assuage his own guilt for the actions he'd taken. He'd been injured, more than once, throwing himself between civilians and Invaders, and done a great deal of good in the roles he'd volunteered for since the fighting against them began.
His actions since the Invasion began were legitimately Heroic.
Morale, riding high among his classmates right now with the League's defeat, would nosedive if his status as a spy was outed at this time.
Silently, all three men acknowledged that they were going to have to come up with an alternative solution. These three couldn't be allowed to get off scot-free. Yet, they couldn't afford to out this publicly. It would take an effective combatant off the field, while doing nothing but damage morale. Nedzu thought very carefully through a dozen different possible options, before arriving at one that he felt would satisfy everyone enough. Not fully. He doubted that was possible. But enough.
"I think, that the three of you are about to become volunteers in a new program. The military is looking to form as many people as they can into trained militias. I do believe that you two," Nedzu stabbed a finger at the parents, "are about to make a sizable donation, much of your family fortune in fact, to that effort. As well as volunteer your time to help with their logistics setup, since both of you have experience with such things."
Nedzu's gaze shifted to Yuga, even as his parents slumped in a mix of relief and despair. They were not precisely good people, but they weren't horrible ones either. For them, loss of their considerable wealth and the constant fear they'd already been living under would be punishment enough.
"You, young man, are going to also volunteer. You have enough combat experience and training at this point to help teach civilian volunteers' basics of defending their homes. It will not be glamorous. You will not receive the accolades and prestige of a Hero. But you will be able to repay the damage you have done by protecting others."
Unlike his parents, Yuga didn't flinch or slump at the idea. Instead, he only bowed his head.
"I do not deserve even that much, Dean. Thank you for the mercy of at least allowing me to do something to help."
Nedzu nodded. Despite everything, the young man legitimately had a Heroic core to him. He had simply been forced to choose between family and the right thing. Not a decision easily made, and one Nedzu wasn't equipped to be the judge of the right or wrong of. His morality wasn't exactly aligned with humanity, after all. Though the fact that Eraserhead and Tornio both looked grimly satisfied with the option he'd selected assured him he'd gotten it more or less right this time. It wasn't quite satisfying, given that it had been his territory this trio had threatened. But Nedzu could live with it. So long as he got the traitor out of that territory.
He would see this done, then wash his hands of the matter. Whether the young man would ever feel he had absolved himself? Nedzu neither knew, nor cared. Perhaps the knowledge that it would likely haunt the traitor to his dying day would be punishment enough, in a way. Perhaps it would not. But at least it was one loose end tied up without costing them more resources at a time where they had entirely too few resources to waste…
... ... ... ... ...
A/N 1: One thing I've alluded to a couple of times is that...the Heroes don't really have a chain of command. Currently, their working on a very fly-by-the-seat-of-their pants approach, which is going to cause problems in the long run if they don't do something about it. Just a bit of foreshadowing you might want to pay attention to ;-)...
A/N 2: So...I really considered, repeatedly, just letting the UA traitor thing go unresolved. Ultimately, that just didn't feel right now. So it gets a small bit piece here. As you should have read in the chapter, Yuga was pretty...ineffective, as a mole. Given the circumstances, I think Nedzu's approach was rational. Even if not perfect.