Chapter 111: Not Quite Sidelined

Summary: Next target, the MLA!

Warning! Chapters 109-111 were all published back-to-back! Don't miss any of them!

Chapter 111: Not Quite Sidelined

Just two days after Operation Missile Storm, Izumi was annoyed. Not greatly annoyed, but annoyed nevertheless. Specifically, she was annoyed as she found herself restricted from rejoining the front lines while her QE pathways fully healed. It wasn't, unfortunately, something that a Quirk could meaningfully speed up. Well, possibly Eri's, but even that was honestly a little questionable. Generally, introducing more QE into the burned pathways was just a way to aggravate them, rather than heal them, which meant she was stuck waiting the natural healing process out. At least the burns had been mild enough that she wasn't completely restricted from Quirk use. She just hadn't been cleared for full combat loads of QE, which meant she wasn't being allowed to participate in the initial strike against the MLA and their Greater Gate.

That said, the reason she wasn't greatly annoyed was that Nedzu had found something else for her to do, beyond simply sticking her in a lab and telling her to make the magic rocks that the enemy used for their shield system do magic rock things. That might have been okay, really, except that she would have hated being stuck doing that while Momo was going into combat. She'd already experienced that once with the Bristol Gate breach, and even there she'd had some combat involvement. It had also been enough of a rushed worldwide crisis still, at that point, that her lab work had been just as critical as the ongoing combat. The shields, while interesting, weren't nearly so important to reverse engineer. Nor was there a shortage of people to work on them at this point. A lot of scientists the world over had been put through a brutal crash course in Quirk Energy Theory and had a solid idea what they were doing.

Mind you, Izumi had written a lot of the material they were studying to get the basics. But that was beside the point.

Thankfully, Nedzu had her covered, sort of. He'd proposed something which would allow Izumi to be more directly involved with the MLA raid, while also helping her polish a skillset that he'd pointed out she was going to need. That is, if she intended to get involved in her own proposed long-term solution. She actually had slightly mixed feelings about that. Getting involved, that is. She knew she should get involved, given that she'd thought up and pitched the solution in the first place, but it also wasn't exactly a match for the life trajectory she'd been aiming for. Still, having the skills wouldn't hurt, even if she didn't end up walking that path. Not to mention, of course, that she was extremely aware of the truth in the saying that 'Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.'

Regardless, today Izumi was the proverbial 'woman in the chair.'

More specifically, she was acting as tactical-level command and control for the Heroes involved in the MLA Greater Gate raid. She wasn't the only person doing that job, of course. The JSDF had an entire dedicated tactical command and control unit up and running their own side of the operation. Even on the Heroes side, there were two others working with her, fresh off of performing similar roles for the Yokohama Greater Gate containment zone. Such zones were one of the few places enough Heroic assets had been concentrated so as to need a dedicated command team, and Ragdoll and Mandalay had been a formidable pair in the role.

The fact that Pixie Bob and Tiger had both been part of the defenses there, whenever Pixie Bob hadn't been needed elsewhere, had a little bit to do with their taking up the role. There was also no question, though, that both their Quirks and their experience managing both teams and rescue/disaster relief efforts had been a huge help. Indeed, a few other Rescue Heroes like Thirteen had found themselves shunted into similar roles on account of being a rare breed of Heroes or Heroines with serious experience in coordination of Heroes at scale.

Ironically, it was also why no one had protested slotting Izumi into the position. Izumi and 2B had actually possessed a legitimate reputation among Rescue Heroes. One developed prior to ever attending UA, gained due to their habit of taking over and streamlining disaster relief efforts whenever they showed up as first responders. It wasn't something they'd even really done intentionally, so much as just a side effect of applying their extreme processing power, combined with high level access to the HSN.

They'd always handed the effort off to proper Heroes or Disaster Relief workers once a suitable individual arrived, but usually by the time someone did there was already a stupidly well organized working plan already in operation. Which wasn't exactly the normal situation for Rescue Heroes to step into. The result had been building a reputation among such heroes that they hadn't even known they had.

Added in was the fact that Izumi had, out of necessity and the habit of rising to challenges, ended up leading numerous teams since the Invasion started. Combat teams for Rift suppression, scientific teams for critical research efforts, training teams for hashing out and teaching new tactics. She had become, entirely without meaning to, one of the most experienced team leaders and organizers on the Heroics side of the Invasion defense. All while having earned the respect of many Heroes decades senior to her. Just for good measure and to seal her fate for the day, she'd even worked with Ragdoll during the Humarise crisis, when the woman had been pulled away from Gate defense coordination to make use of her tracking Quirk against the Humarise terrorists.

Simply put, Izumi was a near perfect fit to slot into a position running tactical command for the Heroes. That command was a heck of a lot looser than the military equivalent, but it was still a critical role. It was also a role which, thankfully, allowed her a level of active participation in the attack. Even if she couldn't be there exploding anyone looking at Momo the wrong way, she could at least act as Overwatch to help manage the Heroes' coordination during the assault. She'd even worked with the JSDF closely enough since the start of the Invasion to know most of the JSDF communication protocol, allowing her to handle the needed interlink with the JSDF's people as well.

It still irked her not to be out in the thick of things. But this would do…

... ...

"Keystone, redeploy to E-17. Empire forces there are about to breach our containment attempt. Two Girallon Elites supported by Formian Centurian Unit. The Formians need to be broken."

Momo followed through on her strike with Blackwhip. A half dozen thin tendrils accelerated with Gearshift slicing through the last of the Gargoyles that had been troubling a JSDF attachment as they set up in support of Mount Lady, who was herself blowing through a pair of giant-sized…somethings. Looked kind of like trunkless Elephants standing on two legs and throwing hands with fire covered fists. Putting aside any attempt to categorize the two monsters that were rapidly losing anyway, she keyed her HSN comm even as she poured power into Float, rocketing off toward the new area of the containment zone that her HUD was steering her towards.

"On it Central. C-13 should be clear for secondary deployment."

Her girlfriend's clipped voice came back a moment later, confirming that update, before going silent. It was a little weird to hear Izumi directing her, but not a bad sort of weird. Unlike Izumi herself, who was essentially her own overwatch and generally so aware of the overall battlefield that the powers-that-be just let her pinball to where she was needed on her own, Momo had dealt with being part of a joint command net like this before.

Most notably had been at the Bristol Gate, where there had been so much going on that there was no way she could track it all despite One for All accelerating her thoughts. She'd fallen into the groove of responding to the clipped military callouts there, but their directions had been very imperfect. They had trouble handling Heroes, not quite understanding just how devastating someone like Momo could be, and had struggled to fully utilize her abilities as a result.

Izumi had been busy proving just how much that was true from the start of the battle. Instead of treating mobile 'heavies' like Momo as tanks there to completely crush a front line, she'd been moving them about in rapid deployments and redeployments. People like Momo, Ryukuku, or Nejire-chan, capable of high mobility along with high hitting power, were being bounced around to briefly hammer any Empire unit that got too organized. Only rarely was Izumi bothering to commit them against Elites. Instead, she was using them to disrupt any momentum, then following up with teams of ranged emitters or JSDF anti-material units that could easily gang up to bring down any two or three elites. Usually bringing the isolated elites down without needing one of the heavy hitters to step in.

It had proven stupidly effective in the opening moments, as they'd taken the attack to the MLA. Then it had proven even more effective against the Empire forces that were trying to take advantage of the fighting between the MLA and the Heroes/JSDF to break out of the Greater Gate's containment zone. So effective was Izumi and 2B's combined management of the captured containment zone, that it and the forces assigned to it had been quickly handed over entirely to them. Ragdoll and Mandalay had shifted entirely to helping manage the Heroes side of the fight against the MLA, their own seamless experience at working together helping turn that fight into far more of a rout than had been expected.

Seeing the Formian Unit in front of her, the ant-like centauriods always a serious nuisance due to their ability to fight in tight formations, Momo focused her thoughts and used Creation. The slightly unholy result of the brief glow was a 'minigun' that was almost the size of Momo herself, and which fired rocket-propelled gyrojet smart munitions that would track on the multi-select she was rapidly applying to the Formians. She used the neuro-link in her armor to individually highlight several dozen Formians and then squeezed the trigger, pouring more power into Float to deal with the massive recoil as hundreds of rounds a second spit out of the massive gun.

The HE rounds the gun fired wouldn't have done a whole lot to the two Girallons in their enchanted heavy plate. They didn't have enough penetration power for that. But they darted around the shield wall the Formians attempted to point her way, the smart munitions weaving through gaps and turning the more lightly-armored Fromians into chunks. Ten seconds was all she felt she could spare from her reserves, reabsorbing the gun afterward to preserve lipids. Even with One for All amplifying Creation it still took at least some of her lipids to get the process started, which could still be a problem over prolonged battles. Still, even after only ten seconds of that sort of fire, half the Formians were dead, their formation in tatters, and Momo knew the message was coming before it arrived.

"Good job, Keystone. Move to K-13. They aren't in trouble yet, but there's a group of Gorgons being herded into a charge formation. You'll need to shatter that charge when it happens, or we'll lose half the forces there under their stampede. You should have a minute or two for a breather before they act. Keep safe, love."

Momo smiled at Izumi almost absentmindedly adding the last three words, even as she sent a quick acknowledgement back. It was a little odd to keep getting words of endearment or wishes for safety from her Overwatch, but she couldn't say she hated it. Mostly because it was Izumi, of course…

... ...

Commander Hinako felt her evil smirk grow malicious enough to make her poor lieutenant nervous. Poor thing had always been a bit jumpy around her. She suspected he'd heard one too many stories about her enlisted days. Back before she'd proven too good at her job and practically been marched at gun point onto the officer's track. Well, maybe not quite at gun point. But there had been a few hints that maybe some of her more radical actions might come up for questions before a board if she didn't give in and go to proverbial and literal school.

Honestly, considering where it put her now, she wasn't too mad about the amount of torture she'd had to suffer in a classroom to get here. She'd never been able to kill so many extremely deserving motherfuckers at once, after all! Not even when she'd pulled that 'unscheduled bridge demolition' that had wiped out a nasty group of 'insurgents' in the pre-All Might era. This time, she even had actual orders to demolish critical infrastructure! A fun new experience that she liked the irony of.

Thankfully, Pixie Bob was apparently used to crazy and hadn't shied away from her the same way that poor Lieutenant Kenta had. Which meant she was right there and on the ball when Commander Hinako barked her orders.

"Drop the ridge!"

Pixie Bob was prompt to obey, her Quirk firmly pulling out the earthen supports that were holding up the nearby ridge of rocks. A ridge she'd increased significantly in size over the last few days, and which overlooked the Oyabe Bypass where it crossed just next to Shiroyama Park. The Park was on the edge of mountainous terrain, and they'd picked an area where the Bypass cut through an existing ridgeline. Now, pre-rigged by Pixie Bob's Quirk and mountain terrain expertise, the massive weight of rock she'd added, plus much of the original ridge, came loose with a roar.

Something that most people that had, to their own great and lucky fortune, never been near a land or rockslide didn't realize is that they are fast. The ponderous appearance captured on cameras was very much a lie. A trick of scale that made it seem like something one might escape. Nothing could be farther from the truth. At rough average, a rockslide could hit 124 kmh (77 mph), and it could build up to that speed fast. Gravity was a bitch, and if you were in the way of what it was bringing toward you? Well, you were gravity's bitch too. That was made all the more brutally true here, where Pixie Bob had prepared the ground to produce something far faster and nastier than any natural landslide. Between her preparations and actively using her Quirk to speed it along, this combined rock/landslide rapidly built to closer to 177 kmh (110 mph). A devastating force of nature from which there was no escape.

It was all aimed right at the center of the massive MLA convoy that was using the bypass to head for an assault on Kanazawa. Two thirds of that convoy was wiped away in an instant as the tide of rock and earth swept into it, crushing even the armored vehicles like so many soda cans. Only the head and tail of the convoy escaped immediate destruction, and that wasn't destined to last as Commander Hinako barked another order into her comm.

"Hammer 1, Hammer 2, open fire!"

The not-so-distant roar of self-propelled MLRS systems unleashing their ordinance was followed by the deeper thumps of Type 127 Howitzers unleashing 155mm artillery shells. The fire-for-effect order that blanketed the pre-chosen areas destroyed the remainders of the convey. A few particularly powerful Quirk holders somehow lived…but were so deafened and disoriented by the explosions that they were put down or captured with virtually no effort by the shell-shocked Heroes that had just witnessed a massacre.

Commander Hinako's smile was cold and hungry as she sent her thoughts the direction of the rest of the MLA. It was time the stupid bastards learned there was a massive difference between playing Heroes and Villains and being labeled a terrorist group. The old villain groups had understood, which is why they'd kept themselves carefully within the rules of the system. Commander Hinako suspected that what happened today would be a potent reminder for the few groups that remained…

... ...

"Holy tits on a cactus!"

That, Hawks thought, wasn't quite the way he would have expressed his own shock at what he'd just witnessed. But he could certainly relate to the general sentiment. He was the senior Hero assigned to the Expressway ambush, and he'd thought he had some idea of what was going to go down. The JSDF hadn't exactly been holding back as they'd helped Heroes close Rifts and contain the Greater Gates. Or so he'd thought. Given that he'd been assigned almost from the start to the Osaka Gate, being one of the few 'high-ranking' heroes that could work well with Endeavor, he'd thought he had an idea what the military was like when they were serious.

He'd been wrong.

Very, very wrong.

What he hadn't stopped to consider was that the JSDF hadn't written off the city of Osaka. Meaning that their truly heavy ordinance hadn't been deployed. The junction of two of the major expressways through central Japan though? The city here was entirely abandoned. Caught between the MLA's bullshit and the Invasion, it was an evacuated no-man's-land that was entirely open to the air. The result was the Military saying 'fuck this set of roads in particular' and directing missile fire from naval destroyers just off the coast. A lot of missile fire. Combined with the mines they'd gotten Cementoss to rig over the expressway Junction, the MLA Convoy that had attempted to move via the expressways toward Kanazawa had…not really survived long enough to fight back.

Frankly, there was really just a burning hole in the ground where there used to be a rather large pair of roads.

Hawks had intellectually been aware that non-nuclear explosions could have mushroom clouds.

He really hadn't expected to ever actually see that in practice, though…

"Well. I think Cementoss has his work cut out for him. When he said he could restore the road afterward, I don't think he was quite picturing this level of destruction."

Hawk's sidekick snorted at that, shaking his head.

"Maybe they can get Pixie Bob over here first to fill in the crater? And I guess he can get plenty of concrete from the buildings that just sort of fell over from the shockwaves."

Nodding a bit numbly, Hawks sort of wondered why he was even here. Apparently, 'there's no kill like overkill' was still alive and well within the military mind. Ah well, he supposed it was like a bit like a mini-vacation. Complete with some pretty spectacular fireworks…

... ...

As he smashed through the defenses of the Cryokinetic leading the MLA defense, shattering the man's ribcage in a way that would virtually certainly kill him before he could get healing, All Might was glad that there were alien invaders for his protégé to fight. Not, of course, because he wanted there to be an alien invasion going on in general. That was something he'd never expected to see and would have gladly remained weak and slowly dying, if only that would have prevented the untold amounts of death that had come for his world as a whole.

But if the Invasion was here anyway, at least it served to give young Yaoyorozu and young Midoriya targets to fight that weren't their fellow man. He knew both had been forced to fight lethally against other humans during Operation Clean Slate. But the scale between that and what was happening all around him was a very different thing. Despite not going out of his way to kill, he hadn't been going out of his way only to disable, either. He was virtually certain that his own body count was at least in the double digits already, and would likely hit triple digits before they stopped.

For all that they were insane terrorists, the MLA had somehow created enough of a cult following for their foot soldiers to number in the thousands. All of them had been declared terrorists, not villains, and even those that survived stood a high chance of taking a long drop from a short rope in the current climate. The world was in a darker, grimmer humor than he'd seen it since the Era of Chaos. Bloodthirst and pragmatism was in the air in equal measures. A bad mix for anyone caught on the wrong side of treason.

The worst part was that he couldn't even blame those that thought in such ways. Not this time.

After all, these treasonous scum hadn't just betrayed their homeland, they'd betrayed the entirety of the human race to launch a war of asinine ideals in the middle of a fucking alien invasion. An existential threat to humanity, and these psychotic scumbags were waging war over politics. Countless innocents had already died because of their actions, and countless more that could have been saved wouldn't be because they were forced to expend the effort in putting the rebels down. All Might was uncomfortably aware that one of his American friends had a saying for times like this. The man had worked in one of the most gang-ridden cities in America, and All Might had barely been willing to call the man a Hero, even if he had been effective. He wasn't much of a fan of the saying, given their differences, but it was painfully appropriate at the moment.

'Sometimes you just have to shoot enough motherfuckers to make your point stick. The world can and will always produce more to replace them anyway.'

As he treated a semi-cab like it was a volleyball, spiking it down into a group of emitters that were taking two other heroes under fire, All Might was forced to admit that the man might have been right. This isn't exactly how he'd hoped the Era of Peace would end…

... ...

"No, no! This isn't right! What the fuck do you mean the assault forces are gone?! We need them back to reinforce Deika City! The Gate is keeping the fools occupied for now, but they'll be on us as soon as they have it fully contained!"

The remaining senior members of the MLA looked around at each other. Bits of their Grand Commander's body were warping and turning black, expanding in chunks and bits, only to revert as he tried to keep his stress and anger contained. Eventually, Skeptic shrugged and bit the bullet.

"The JSDF hammered both assault forces flat, Commander. They weren't fighting fair, they just launched massive artillery strikes from miles away. We don't know how they knew what routes we were using. Probably spies. However they did it, there's barely anyone left alive. They only arrested a handful at the Bypass, and no one at all survived the Expressway ambush."

Re-Destro lost control of his rage, one arm shifting entirely as he lashed out. Despite the armored nature of the room they were in, such was the power of this Meta ability that he put a hole right through the wall as he struck out in rage. Bleeding off that little bit of stress seemed to help center him, or at least helped him get himself under some semblance of control. His arm slowly reverted as he took deep breaths.

"Fine. We have to hold Deika City. Our most loyal are here. Trigger the failsafes in Toyama and pull the troops back from there."

Curious spoke up, very tentatively.

"If we do that, we lose our only semi-reliable link to the outside world, boss. We've still been sneaking messages out through the port, which we can't do from Hamamatsu."

Re-Destro spun and glared at her, causing her to flinch.

"You don't think I know that, Curious? Of fucking course it's a problem. But our only real manufacturing base is here and the Heroes are virtually on top of us!"

Sanctum cleared his throat, risking his Commander's obvious ire as he spoke.

"We might not be able to stop them from wiping out that manufacturing base, even if we hold Deika, Grand Commander. They are clearly willing to simply flatten anything we hold as important. The air defenses might not be enough."

Re-Destro, surprisingly, only gritted his teeth rather than lashing out.

"I know. That's why we need the troops back here. We're going to need some of their Meta abilities to create a smokescreen they can't target us through. They won't be willing to kill the entire city's population, even if the city is loyal to us. So we need to make sure they can't target our infrastructure without risking hitting civilian centers. Most of them were built inside the city anyway, and the ones that aren't are underground. We need to make them come in and fight us Meta ability to Meta ability, as nature intended. Once we defeat the Heroes, the JSDF component alone can't hold up to concentrated strikes by our remaining heavy hitters."

The rest of the remaining leadership mulled that over, then started nodding slowly. It was only the military that had given the enemy the edge. They still outnumbered the 'Heroes' greatly. If they could drag the fools into fighting them within the city, where they'd be limited by need to prevent civilian casualties, they could defeat the Heroes and then deal with the military afterwards. This could still be turned around, particularly as the enemy had weakened themselves again by taking over the Deika Gate, which they now had to maintain the defenses of.

"I'll see it done, boss. We're likely to see some protests about the traps, though. We have a lot of converts from Toyama."

Re-Destro snorted.

"Kill the dissenters. They aren't committed enough to the cause if they won't sacrifice that much."

That statement got a few uneasy looks from those that hadn't spoke, but no one actually protested. Though one person among their number also failed to nod in agreement. Not that any of the others noticed…

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

A/N: Yep, you're probably already expecting this bit. Once per release, I remind people that there is Early Access content available On My Page.  Note that NONE of my works are paywalled permanently. If you don't feel like supporting me, that's just fine, it will end up here eventually :-). If you DO feel like supporting me, currently chapters 112-117 are available over on , adding another 16,000ish words to the fic! As well as similar amount of early access content for my other fics. All for just a single dollar a month! I'm not trying to be super greedy here, just trying to support the writing time I need to maintain several ongoing fics ;-).