Izuku sat in an armored transport truck that was parked in a dirty alley, crammed into the back with the rest of his fully armed and armored squad. Everyone wore the same night-vision gas masks, obscuring their faces and making them all look like featureless automatons. The only sources of light were the small strips of glow-tape wrapped around various hatch and door handles. Nobody talked, as there was really nothing to say. All that was left was the waiting.
Izuku hated the waiting.
Letting the back of his helmet clunk against the armor plating of the vehicle, Izuku decided to pass the time by turning on his earpiece and tuning the frequency to the closest channels. Closing his eyes, Izuku cradled his gun in his arms as the static-laced radio chatter soothed him into a calm meditative state.
"Stalker two-four is in overwatch position, over."
"Copy Stalker two-four, maintain position, over."
"Command this is Thunder Two-Two I have your birds in orbit above target location, over."
"Copy Thunder Two-Two, switch to encrypted channel eight for spotting and designating targets, over."
"Command this is Badger Three-One, I have a civvie vehicle approaching on the connecting hardball. Moving to intercept and redirect, over."
"Roger Badger Three-One, perimeter team four is en route to assist, over."
"Command this Archer One-Five, I have meat wagons on standby in case things get kinetic, over."
"Acknowledged Archer One-Five, switch to encrypted channel three to coordinate with dustoff birds, over."
After about half an hour of listening to the radio chatter, Izuku felt the large engine of the transport vehicle rumble to life.
"All callsigns this is command. Operation Moonlight is a go. Report to your assigned positions and await further instructions, over."
Looking down the row of people sitting next to him, Izuku watched as everyone loaded their weapons and readied their gear.
Satisfied that everyone was ready, Izuku silently gave them a thumbs-up and waited until each person had returned the gesture.
Since Izuku was the squad leader it was his job to stay connected to the command frequency and relay any orders to his subordinates via their own encrypted squad voice channel. Tuning his communication gear to filter out all the unnecessary extra information and chatter, Izuku waited for the operation to begin.
After another ten minutes of silence, Izuku's earpiece crackled to life as the bulky armored transport truck lurched into motion.
"Command to Bravo One, exterior guards and alarms have been neutralized. Prepare for entry, how copy?"
"Copy Command." Izuku muttered into the whisper microphone under his mask. "Bravo team is in transit, over."
It was a short ride to the warehouse from where the transport truck had been hidden, and eventually Izuku felt the truck come to a stop. A small green light over the armored rear doors began blinking, signalling that the driver was ready for the squad to exit the vehicle.
The two agents nearest to the doors quickly and quietly pushed them open, jumping out into the inky darkness and motioning for the rest of the squad to follow.
The transport truck had parked on the sidewalk directly next to the rear entrance of the large warehouse building. As Izuku disembarked he was slightly surprised to find that the night darkness was now accompanied by a steady rain. The electricity for the entire block of warehouses had been cut off just as planned, the only sources of light being the city skyscrapers way off in the distance.
Sneaking over to the wall of the warehouse, Izuku watched with satisfaction as his squad professionally stacked up against the wall nearest to the door in a textbook breaching formation.
Getting into place at the end of the stack, Izuku lightly patted the shoulder of the person in front of him twice, signalling he was ready. The action was repeated down the line of agents to show that everyone was now ready to begin.
As he waited for the signal to start, Izuku glanced around at the nearby street.
To those without night-vision, it would be almost impossible to see what was outside due to the darkness and rain.
But that was exactly the way the Ministry of Defense wanted it.
Thanks to his night vision, Izuku watched as the limp bodies of the exterior criminal guards were dragged out of the way and dozens of agents clad in body armor and gas masks took up positions around the warehouse.
Suddenly his earpiece crackled to life once more.
"Command to Bravo One, you are cleared for entry, over"
"Copy." Izuku replied softly as he switched to his squad's frequency.
"Time to get to work Bravo team." Izuku said. "Remember to check your corners. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. I want this done by the books."
Izuku could see each of his subordinates nod as they readied themselves. For simplicity's sake they were all talking to each other under their callsigns. Izuku was Bravo One, and the rest of his squad were referred to as Bravo Two through Eight.
Bravo Eight, who was at the front of the stack, pulled out a handheld lock-breaking drill and quickly made a hole in the lock of the steel entrance door. Quickly pulling the door open, Bravo Eight stepped inside the dark warehouse and was swiftly followed by the rest of his squad.
Now inside the warehouse, Izuku watched as his squad split up into pairs and slowly began creeping down their assigned routes.
Normally a squad would stay together and clear the building as a single unit, but because of the size of the warehouse and the need to search it quickly it was agreed for the squad to pair up and spread out.
Izuku nodded to Bravo Two, a tall and lean woman with an extra set of shark teeth, and took the lead.
Slowly and silently walking down a nearby hallway, Izuku and Bravo Two began searching rooms.
The first three doors in the hallway only revealed storage rooms stacked full of boxes, but upon approaching the fourth door Izuku heard panicked whispers emanating from inside. Holding up a fist to signal Bravo Two to stop, Izuku crept up to the office door and listened.
"What the fuck is going on?!" A male voice whispered with a hint of fear. "First the power went out and now I can't get a hold of any of the guys outside!"
"I dunno man." A slightly rougher male voice replied quietly. "First I thought it was the cops, but they don't pull sneaky shit like this. It ain't any heroes either, cuz they would just bust in during the day."
Reaching out, Izuku gently grabbed the door handle and slowly pushed the door open.
Peeking inside, Izuku could see two men huddled behind an overturned desk wielding small handguns.
"Who's there?!" One of the men called out quietly, squinting as he tried to peer into the darkness.
Leaning against the door frame, Izuku aimed his gun and pulled the trigger four times. With a sound barely louder than a quiet cough, the bullets tore through the goons' heads and sent their brain matter splattering against the wall behind them.
As the bodies fell limply to the floor, Izuku motioned for his partner to follow as he moved to the next door.
"Room clear. Moving." He said quietly.
Checking the next four empty rooms, Izuku listened to the other pairs of his squad report what they were doing.
Bravo Three and Four discovered a terrified woman begging for her life and quickly detained her.
Bravo Five and Six broke open a locked set of doors and found several crates packed with hard drugs and other paraphernalia.
Bravo Seven and Eight quietly killed three men who had barricaded themselves in a bathroom with handguns.
Nearing the end of the hallway, Izuku heard frantic whispers behind a slightly ajar office door. Peeking inside, he was met with the sight of a chubby man backed into a corner, a pistol in his hand and his other hand wrapped around a crying woman's neck.
"Stay back!" The man screamed as he jammed the barrel of the gun against the whimpering woman's jaw.
Stepping into the room, Izuku and Bravo Two slowly spread out to get an angle on the hostage taker.
The chubby man obviously could barely see in the darkness, as he reacted mostly to sounds instead of movement.
"Imma kill her if you ge-" The chubby criminal was cut off as Bravo Two's bullets punctured his eye socket and and painted the wall with gore.
"Good shot." Izuku said as the woman screamed in terror and fell to her knees, the lifeless body tumbling against her ankles.
As he was about to reach into one of his pouches for some zip-ties, Izuku watched as the woman began blindly feeling around the floor.
Finally, she found what she was looking for. Her captor's gun.
"Don't do it.." Izuku said, loudly enough for the panicked woman to hear.
Why could it never end cleanly?
Raising his own gun, Izuku watched as the woman fumbled with the bloody pistol.
He gave her as much time as she could, but Izuku already knew what was going to happen.
As the woman finally raised the pistol and blindly aimed, Izuku and Bravo Two both fired a burst of bullets into her chest.
With a pathetic gurgle, the woman fell to the carpeted floor as the holes in her chest steadily leaked rivulets of blood.
Sighing sadly, Izuku motioned for his partner to follow him.
"Room clear. Moving."
As Izuku and his partner neared the end of the hallway, the booming sound of a shotgun blast echoed from the second floor.
It seemed Oscar had gotten tired of being quiet.
Almost immediately the clattering sound of small arms fire erupted from the second floor, only to be answered by measured bursts of gunfire from Oscar's squad.
"Squad be advised targets are now on alert." Izuku radioed to his subordinates with a hint of irritation. "You are clear to make tactical decisions on an as needed basis. Respond with force if you are engaged, over."
There was a chorus of affirmatives from his squad as Izuku continued to clear rooms with Bravo Two.
Finished with the first hallway, Izuku turned the corner and squared his jaw as he approached a room with a locked door. Behind the door, he could hear the sound of heavy furniture being moved around along with stressed yelling.
"Get that desk against the door dipshits!" A woman screeched. "I dunno who is trying to take us out, but i'm not gonna die just because of you dumbfucks!"
Well it seems at least one criminal in here had a brain.
But that was not going to stop Izuku from carrying out his mission.
Pointing at the drywall next to the office door, Izuku spoke to his partner. "Bravo Two, put a breaching charge on the wall next to the door. On my signal we are going in hard and fast."
Nodding silently, Bravo Two reached into one of her tactical pouches and pulled out what looked like a rolled-up black plastic dinner placemat. Ripping off a thin layer of wax paper, Bravo Two pressed the square piece of plastic against the wall and pulled out a small remote from a pocket on her thigh.
A breaching charge is an explosive designed to blow open barricades or create new entrances. They have been in use since the early days of counterterrorism and have been used by military and police units all over the world. Simple but effective, a breaching charge is used when you don't have time for subtlety and need to make an entrance in a hurry.
Muttering a quick thank-you to whoever invented plastic explosives, Izuku unclipped a flashbang grenade from his belt and stood to the side of the breaching charge.
Ready for the assault, Izuku nodded to his subordinate. "Blow it."
With a boom the breaching charge exploded, showering Izuku and Bravo Two with a cloud of pulverized drywall and wood. A split-second later Izuku tossed the flashbang grenade through the door sized hole and waited for the grenade to detonate. With a blinding flash and deafening bang the grenade exploded and Izuku rushed into the large office.
With adrenaline pumping through his veins, Izuku quickly analyzed the scene before him and took action.
A faint cloud of smoke left over from the breaching charge hung in the air as a woman and two men rolled on the floor clutching their ears and eyes. Both men had shotguns in hand while the woman appeared to be unarmed.
Well that certainly made things easy.
With practiced speed and precision that would make a sharpshooter blush, Izuku put a burst of bullets through each of the thugs' skulls and kicked the woman hard in the chest with a steel-toed boot.
"Stay down or I put you down." Izuku growled to the wheezing woman laying on the floor in front of him.
As Izuku reached into a pocket for some zip-ties the sound of gunfire erupted from somewhere down the hallway.
"Heavy contact!" Bravo Two shouted as she crouched down and began firing back at the unseen assailants.
In the few seconds that Izuku had turned his head to look at his partner, he had not noticed the woman underneath him ignite a ball of fire in her free hand. In slow-motion he turned his head back to look at the woman below him and saw a flare of light out of the corner of his eye. His brain working like an overclocked computer, Izuku made a split-second analysis.
Either the woman had a hidden weapon, or she was using her quirk.
Either way, Izuku had been caught off guard.
Throwing himself to the side, Izuku barely escaped having his face melted by the jet of white hot fire that erupted from the woman's hand.
However, that was where the fire-wielding woman's luck ran out.
In a single smooth motion born from years of practice and training, Izuku pulled his pistol out from his thigh holster and fired the entire magazine into the woman's torso as he lay on his side.
"Fuck!" Izuku yelled angrily.
Okay, no more mister nice guy.
Quickly standing up, Izuku retrieved his submachine gun and rushed out into the hallway as he activated his squad radio.
"Bravo team weapons free! I repeat weapons free! Put these fuckers in the ground!" Izuku roared as he pulled Bravo Two behind an overturned steel janitor's cart.
Looking over at his partner, Izuku grimaced as he saw her clutching her abdomen.
"You hit?" Izuku asked tersely as bullets snapped by overhead.
Bravo Two shook her head as she growled and reloaded her assault rifle. "Nah, plates caught it. Just got the wind knocked out of me."
Nodding in understanding, Izuku got into a crouch and readied his weapon. "Good, help me clear the way."
Bravo Two nodded, and Izuku could swear he could hear her grinning fiendishly with her jagged shark teeth.
A few seconds later the gunfire at the far end of the hallway stopped.
It seems nobody told the criminals about how to conserve ammo.
Without a word needed between them, Izuku and Bravo Two leaped up and charged the reloading thugs.
Three girls wearing disheveled street clothes stood at the end of the hallway and were in the process of reloading their pistols as Izuku and his squadmate opened fire. The hailstorm of precise shots from the two field agents punching gaping holes in their bodies and sending blood splattering all over the linoleum floor.
As Izuku and Bravo two ducked into a storage room to reload their weapons Izuku's earpiece came to life with an incoming transmission.
"Command to Bravo One, what is your status?"
Keying his mic, Izuku peeked out the door at the dark warehouse hallway. "Bravo One to command, my squad has engaged and eliminated multiple tangos. No injuries to report, proceeding as planned."
"Good to hear Bravo One." The male communications agent responded. "Alpha team has obtained intel that Miruko is being held in the main packaging room. Be warned, there is expected to be heavy resistance. Gather your team and proceed to the main objective, Alpha team will handle clearing the rest of the building."
"Roger Command." Izuku said as he gestured for Bravo Two to follow him towards a broken elevator. "Bravo team is en route to secure the package, over."
Coming to a halt and gesturing for his female partner to stand guard, Izuku switched his communication channel back to his squad. "Bravo team this is Bravo One. Package has been located. Meet at the main elevator ASAP."
Less than a minute later the rest of Bravo team arrived. However some of them were a little worse for wear.
Bravo Three was limping slightly as a hole in his right boot leaked blood, and Bravo Seven had a hastily wrapped bandage around her left elbow.
"What happened?" Izuku asked worriedly as he inspected his subordinates' wounds.
"Ricochet." Bravo Three said with a grimace as he tried not to put any pressure on his leaking foot.
"Lucky shot got through my armor." Bravo Seven said with more annoyance than pain as she tugged her sloppy bandage tighter.
"Alright time for you guys to get out of here." Izuku said evenly. "Stick with your partners and get to the medics outside. Be careful. I am not going to let any of you die because I let you fight while injured."
Bravo Three and Four immediately turned around and left, the uninjured one helping support his wounded comrade as they walked.
Bravo Seven however, did not make any move to leave.
"I can still fight." She said with a slight wince. "You are gonna need all the help you can get."
Izuku shook his head as he walked over to the short but stubborn woman and towered over her. "Request denied. You are injured and my word is final. How would I explain to your wife that you got killed because I let you fight while injured?"
The short woman was silent for a few moments before muttering unhappily and turning around to leave.
Nodding in satisfaction, Izuku watched as Bravo Eight escorted his injured partner out of sight.
Turning to face Bravo Two, Five, and Six, Izuku made sure all of his weapons were reloaded.
"Get ready team, my gut is telling me we are in for one hell of a fight." He paused before talking with a slight grin. "As long as we cover each other's asses we will be fine. Let's go save a pro-hero."
The three Bravo team agents chuckled as they readied themselves and waited for Izuku to take the lead.
Giving them all a confident nod, Izuku adjusted his grip on his gun then set off to find Miruko.
It was eerily quiet, which did not bode well. It seemed as though the goons had retreated into the main packaging room and were preparing to make their last stand.
Arriving at the steel double doors guarding the entrance to the packaging room, Izuku and his team took positions on either side and readied their weapons.
Kicking open the doors with a clang, Izuku charged in as a storm of gunfire erupted from deeper inside the large hangar-like room.
Conveyor belts crisscrossed the floor of the room while massive shelves full of packages and shipping boxes provided ample cover, allowing for combatants on both sides to move quickly while dodging bullets.
Sliding behind a metal conveyor belt, Izuku felt the adrenaline pumping in his veins as he began taking down targets.
First was a young man dressed in garish street clothes blindly firing a pistol in each hand. Popping out of cover, Izuku sent a trail of bullets tearing through the man's torso before putting a final bullet double tap through his brain.
Suddenly a stocky thug wielding a shotgun stepped out from his hiding place directly in front of the charging Izuku and tried to bring his weapon up to fire.
Not slowing down, Izuku roughly tackled the thug to the ground and knocked the shotgun out of his hands. Slamming an armored elbow into the thug's nose with a wet pop, Izuku jammed the barrel of his submachine-gun into the thug's sternum and pulled the trigger, making the thug's body convulse as a burst of bullets tore through his lungs.
Jumping up, Izuku ducked behind an abandoned forklift and looked around to see how his team was doing.
Bravo Five and Six moved with perfectly coordinated precision, each agent covering their partner's blind spots and dropping goons with deadly accuracy as they moved from cover to cover.
Bravo Two was not far behind Izuku, tearing through criminals like an armored blender as she gunned down assailants with controlled fury.
A burst of bullets pinging off the metal bars of the forklift got Izuku's attention, and he popped out of cover long enough to decapitate a foolhardy thug with a long burst of bullets.
As Izuku fought it felt like the battle was lasting for ages, but in reality the gunfight had only been going for no more than a few minutes. Adrenaline brought Izuku's reflexes up to an almost inhuman level and spurred the senior agent to carve a bloody swath through the panicked criminals.
Izuku was not sure where exactly Miruko was being held, but the way the criminals were fighting it had to be close.
In the middle of gunning down a charging assailant, Izuku spotted a pair of metal basement-type doors sticking out of a dark corner.
That had to be it!
Vaulting over a barrel and smashing in a thug's face with the stock of his gun, Izuku motioned for Bravo Two to cover him as he investigated.
With bullets flying through the air and the screams of the dying bouncing off the walls, Izuku ripped open the metal doors and peered down into the darkness.
--------------------------------------------
Rumi gasped in pain as she desperately tried to wiggle out of her restraints.
At first Rumi had not been sure if she was having auditory hallucinations, but as the sound of gunfire and combat got closer a spark of hope had ignited in her chest.
Had somebody come to save her?
As she listened Rumi was sure she had never heard such a fierce gun battle in all of her life. Sure she had gone up against gangs of thugs with automatic weapons, but she had never been witness to a battle where both sides fought with absurd amounts of firepower.
Suddenly the doors to her improvised prison were thrown open, and as Rumi looked upwards the spark of hope died in her chest.
For some reason it seemed that every light in the building had gone out, and it was only by the intermittent flashes of gunfire did Rumi see what could only be described as a monster.
The only thing she could clearly see were two circular eyes glowing a hellish dull red, the rest of the figure was wrapped in shadows and darkness.
As the nightmare creature jumped down Rumi desperately pulled at her shackles and yelled defiantly at the thing getting closer to her.
"Get the fuck away from me!" She said with a mix of fear and hysteria. "You touch me and I will bite your fucking hands off!"
The nightmarish figure approached quickly, and as it reached out to her Rumi closed her eyes and braced herself for some kind of attack.
However, she was pleasantly surprised to feel her hands being unshackled from the ceiling.
Hesitantly opening one eye, Rumi was confused (but also relieved) as the shadowy figure slung one of her arms over its shoulder and began to drag her out of the cold and dark room.
--------------------------------------------
Izuku had not held it against Rumi when she started freaking out at the sight of him. The whole design of his armor and mask was to inspire fear, so Izuku was not surprised when the rabbit hero began screaming like she was about to get eaten.
As he cut off Rumi's shackles with a pocket bolt-cutter, Izuku could not help but grin slightly at the bewildered look on the disheveled woman's face.
Slinging one of her arms over his shoulder, Izuku dragged Rumi out of the basement and up towards freedom.
"Command this is Bravo One." Izuku said into his radio. "Package has been secured."
"Good work Bravo One." The communications officer said with a sigh of relief. "Extraction teams are on their way, sit tight."
Suddenly the lights of the warehouse blazed to life as dozens of agents rushed in and began arresting the remaining criminals that had been smart enough to surrender.
Looking down at the pro-hero in his arms, Izuku huffed in amusement as he realized she had passed out. Probably from a mix of exhaustion and pain.
Using his free hand, Izuku peeled off his gas mask and took in a deep breath of fresh air. Looking around at the bloody aftermath of the battle, Izuku grinned as Bravo Two, Four, and Five approached and took off their masks as well.
Before he could congratulate his team, Izuku was nearly run over by a team of medics carrying a stretcher and various portable medical devices.
Letting the medics take Miruko out of his hands, Izuku watched as the disheveled and bruised woman was whisked away towards the waiting ambulances outside.
Looking back at his team, Izuku could not help but smile proudly at them. "Excellent work guys. I wouldn't be surprised if you all receive some awards or promotions. Either way, it was great working with you all."
The two stocky men known as Bravo Four and Five enthusiastically shook Izuku's hand before walking away, leaving Izuku with a surprisingly demure Bravo Two.
Looking at his squadmate curiously, Izuku was surprised to see a slight blush on the tall woman's cheeks as she smiled shyly.
"You were amazing Midoriya." She said softly. "I can see why you are said to be one of the best field agents in the entire department."
Chuckling in amusement, Izuku waved off the compliment as he walked with his female squadmate out of the warehouse. "People only say that because I know how important teamwork is. Trust me, there was no way I could have done any of this without you guys backing me up."
Emerging out of the warehouse and into the early morning darkness, Izuku yawned as Bravo Two awkwardly fiddled with her gloves and looked at everything but him.
"Umm...I know this is kind of out of nowhere." The shark-toothed woman said softly. "But umm...would you...want to go out for drinks later?"
Izuku glanced over at his squadmate and paused. After a moment of thought, he smiled and patted her on the back.
"How about this." He said compromisingly. "After the debriefing lets go have a celebratory drink with the rest of the squad. Trust me, doing things in the heat of the moment can backfire in a bad way. Lets just enjoy the victory right now."
Bravo Two nodded as she sighed with slight disappointment. "You are a really nice guy Midoriya, thanks for letting me down easy."
--------------------------------------------
-A/N-
- chapter was inspired by the "Clean House" mission from MW2019 and Rainbow 6 siege